Reinke Faces Life

http://www.economnomnomics.com/index.html

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Nom nom nom” is said to have originated with the Cookie Monster. *nom nom nom* It has become a preferred way to express voracious eating. Today the meme has spread to everyday conversation.

  Jen – “How’s that sandwhich?”   

  Mark – “Nom nom nom!”

  Jen – “I need to get some more noms.”

It is almost certain that the word economics was coined without *nom nom nom* in mind. But if it was not intentional, it was prophetic to put NOM right in the tummy of “economics,” as the concept of noming is so central to economics.

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Even politicians and bureaucrats?

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Heard, or read, that WOR was dropping the Glen Beck radio show as of 1/17.

The reason sited was “low ratings”. Is this a statement more about New York City, than the value of the Glen Beck show.

(I’m not a Beck fan boy. He’s a “conservative”; I’m a little L libertarian. So we disagree on aggression and “law”. But we do agree on fiscal issues. I listen from time to time and find him “interesting”.)

Frau Reinke said maybe they couldn’t get sponsors. That’s probably also true. To sponsor Beck, or in any way to be associated with him, is, in NYC, the kiss of death.

Sigh!

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http://munchkinwrangler.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/the-snow-gestapo/

the snow gestapo.
By Marko Kloos

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In Germany, they have a derogatory name for people with such a mentality: Blockwart. The blockwart was the Nazi party member politically responsible for the city block, and usually also the local Gestapo denouncer, ratting out the people in his neighborhood if they were overheard talking critically about the regime. A Blockwart is the type of unpleasant fellow who will call the cops on neighbors whose hedges are untrimmed, or who park their car half an inch too far away from the curb.

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I just like having a word for such folks. Now you do too.

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http://www.careerhubblog.com/main/2010/12/youre-never-too-old.html

You’re Never Too Old

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Over the weekend, I read the inspirational story of a 100 year old man in India who recently started a PhD. Bholaram Das marked his 100 year birthday a few weeks ago by announcing his plans to go to university and begin his PhD.

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1. What’s *that thing* you’ve wanted to do “one day?” The thing you convinced yourself you’re ‘too old’ to consider?

2. What could you do at the beginning of 2011 to get it off the ground in some small way? To test drive it in a really low risk fashion?

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Age really is just a number; you’re never too old to do anything you truly put your mind to. What are you putting your mind to this coming year?

By Sital Ruparelia

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So what’s YOUR one thing?

Remember the movie “The Bucket List”?

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http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/12/obama-reads-to-kids-including-his-own-book/1

Dec 17, 2010
Obama reads to kids, including his own book

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Another asked for an autograph.

POTUS: “If I sign autographs, then I’d have to sign for everybody.”

“Yay,” the students responded.

POTUS said he signed his book for the whole school and it’s in the library.

Another student asked how he wrote the book, since he’s so busy.

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Ahh, using children as props!

I think I’d have “found” time to sign an autograph personally for every child in that room. It’d have made them feel “special”. Who knows maybe saved a suicide, prevented an alcoholic, or even just inspired that one kid!

A missed opportunity.

And, you have to love how the kid went for the jugular. Writing is hard time-consuming work. Think maybe it was ghost written? Like all the “Presidential” books?

Argh!

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http://www.impactlab.net/2010/12/05/babies-are-immune-to-catching-yawns/

December 5th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Babies Are Immune to Catching Yawns

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There is now growing evidence, however, that yawning may be a social cue that communicates a message. Anthropologists have suggested it might have evolved as a way of signifying that it is time to go to bed. There are even suggestions that it might have developed a sign of sexual attraction rather than the desire to sleep. Dr Anderson said: “I don’t think there is one primary function, but as adults we have a natural tendency to inhibit yawning because it is seen as being impolite. The contagious yawning might just that our brains see someone else doing it and so it becomes acceptable.”

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Who ever even heard of “contagious yawning”?

And, attaching it to “sexual attraction”?

Was that what all those girls were “signaling” when they yawned while I was pitching them? If I had only known …

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http://www.lewrockwell.com/murphy/murphy170.html

The TSA’s False Tradeoff
by Bob Murphy

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The market economy solves this problem effortlessly through market prices and the profit-and-loss test. If a car factory is using up resources that consumers would prefer go into alternate sectors, this fact manifests itself objectively when the accountant announces that the car factory is “losing money.” After all, to be unprofitable simply means that the car factory cannot earn enough revenues from its customers in order to pay the prices for resources that other entrepreneurs are able to afford. That is the sense in which consumers are “voting” (through their spending decisions) that the car factory either reform or shut down.

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We need to emphasize more these micro elections and de-emphasize the Gooferment.

We can control corporations with the very fine razor of individual buying decisions. No bureaucrats needed.

The Gooferment on the other hand is immune to our intentions. Completely.

Like some wag said, “if elections changed anything, they’d be outlawed”!

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http://www.smh.com.au/business/millions-cashless-in-bank-glitch-20101126-18akf.html

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ONE of Australia’s biggest banks is scrambling to process payments to millions of customers, who potentially face days of uncertainty about when they will be able to access their money.

A corrupted file in the National Australia Bank’s computers on Wednesday jammed its payment system, hitting customers from a range of banks who rely on the NAB to process payments.

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As an IT guy, I assume they are talking about a corrupted database, where the the software develops the IT equivalent of Alzheimer’s. (“Let’s see Joe Jones’ record please.” “Don’t have Joe’s in that slot have Sam’s.” “Tilt. Summon programmer.” To which the programmer says: “<synonym for excrement>” and schedules rebuilding the index. That’s like a Doctor’s secretary having to go through every file folder recreating an index into the filing cabinet. Long and cumbersome for people. Same for computers.) The fact that there’s a “holiday” around when the problem occurs makes me suspect that there was a change or testing going on. When I had a Dister Recovery Group, Tday Weekend was a great time for testing. Basically four days with minimal requirement from “real people”. It’s one of the most highly sought weekends by IT people to do “stuff”. So, when ANY holiday comes, think of the herds of nerds globally changing stuff. If that doesn’t inspire you to take a little extra cash and make a few preps for at least a little outage, then you are truly clueless. :-)

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http://tinyurl.com/25vmyb5

Survey: One in 10 US children has ADHD
Associated Press

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“A government survey says 1 in 10 US children has ADHD, a sizable increase from a few years earlier that researchers think might be explained by growing awareness and better screening. ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, makes it hard for children to pay attention and control impulsive behavior. It’s often treated with drugs, behavioral therapy, or both. The new study found that about two-thirds of the children who have ADHD are on medication.” [editor’s note: So now they have done it; they’ve turned a legitimate ailment, affecting a very small number of children with severe learning disabilities, into an epidemic-level crisis that almost everyone has, and now can beg billions from the Feds to fund their game – SAT] (11/11/10)

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How can one out of every ten children be “broken”?

Stupid!

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http://community.advanceweb.com/blogs/nurses_11/archive/2009/07/01/how-do-i-chart-that.aspx

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• DO NOT mention medication errors in a patient’s chart. In the patient chart, document only what was given.

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Yeah, we wouldn’t want the truth in a medical record.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/elderly-woman-caught-on-video-driving-in-wrong-direction-on-i-95/

Elderly Woman Drives ‘Wrong Way’ On I-95
October 29, 2010 11:27 PM

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DELAWARE COUNTY, Pa. (CBS) — Pennsylvania State Police questioned an 84-year-old female from Wilmington in connection with a wrong-way driving incident on I-95 Thursday afternoon.

Witnesses say she was travelling east in the westbound lanes of Route 322, and then she got on the southbound lanes of I-95 travelling northbound, causing a number of crashes along the way.

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Amazing. The skill for everyone to get out of granny’s way! Isn’t there a saying about God protecting the idiots and fools. Where were her family members who didn’t yank her license? I’ve had to do it to an elderly relative who acted like replacing the side mirrors was normal maintenance. We’re all just fortunate it wasn’t a bigger disaster. We have enough of those when everyone is going in the SAME direction. Now watch some politician save us from older drivers. Oh yea, right, that won’t happen because old folks vote. I guess a politician will award her a safe driving certificate because SHE didn’t hit anything?

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http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/61231

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Compared with meals and snacks prepared at home, food prepared away from home increases caloric intake of children, especially older children. Each food-away-from-home meal adds 108 more calories to daily total intake among children ages 13-18 than a snack or meal from home; all food from school is estimated to add 145 more calories.

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I guess the implication is that “do it at home” will make you skinny?

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http://www.vtcommons.org/blog/2010/10/13/code-purple-student-article-possibility-independent-vermont

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From 1777 to 1791, Vermont was its own Republic. Now, in 2010, a group of Vermonters is fighting to secede from the United States. Their goal is to save the Green Mountain State from centralized control and establish the Vermont Second Republic. The secessionists believe that the United States of America, which they refer to as the United States of Empire, isn’t the pinnacle of democracy it once was and that Vermont would do better as an independent republic.

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Too bad Aunt Marion sold her farm to the developers instead of my Mom. Imagine how life would have been different? I could be in the thick of an active secessionist movement. Vermont may be the first out. Vermont was the promised land in my novel “CHURCH 10●19●62”. So those of you, who slogged through it, know how Vermont could use its advantages to lead in the future. Wish I was there to help. Argh!

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Read this in a twitter feed:

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I drink soo much water. At least 8 glasses per day. I’m always so thirsty. Idk why!

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And, I tweeted back:

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Excessive thirst is a classic sign of diabetes. It’s killing my wife Frau Reinke. Not today, but soon. Suggest ASAP test!

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I hope my fellow Jasper takes immediate action. The life she save may be her own.

http://diabetes.about.com/od/symptomsdiagnosis/p/Symptoms.htm

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Unquenchable Thirst

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Hope she will.

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http://www.debonosociety.com/profiles/blogs/2696260:BlogPost:2299

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The word is ‘ebne’ which means ‘Excellent But Not Enough’. If you want to change something you need to attack it. — Edward De Bono

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Interesting in that lateral thinking, you need to be able to get past a blocking idea to get to a better idea. You need to label the current stte “ebne”!

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http://www.extensor.co.uk/articles/new_words/new_words.html

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One new word that is badly needed is one that describes ‘a fully justified venture which for reasons beyond your control did not succeed’. The project’s lack of success is seen as a ‘failure’ or ‘mistake’. Because of this, people are unwilling to take risks.

— Edward De Bono

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A good bet gone bad?

So is “agoodbetgonebad” too long?

What word would you propose?

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My Most Exciting Day

http://www.flixxy.com/european-film-school-winner.htm

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An optimistic outlook and a little imagination can help to make the best out of a non-optimum situation.

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I’m not a “soft touch” for sob stories. But this should be an award winner. There has to be a better way to (a) deal with povtery; (b) prevent / mitigate it; and (c) help women, and men, make better choices. Argh! Human beings are dumb. It’s amazing the species survives. But, it’s a good!

And, in a smidgen over a minute? Wow!

This demonstrates the power of paradigms. We have to change our memes on a lot of things. “Poverty” is just one of them.

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Re: what’s to lose doing somewhere else

I’m just not sure X is a good idea, but Y’s becoming more open to the idea itself. Y’s frustrated. Which I think is EXACTLY the wrong motivation.

• This maybe imho a “below the waterline” decision. And, not I, nor you, nor any one, but Y “owns” the problem.

• When it’s above the WL, your bias should be to act. When below, the bias should be to carefully consider action. First, do no harm? Blundering about doing “stuff” ain’t a formula for success.

• It moved below the waterline when <something bad changes>. (And, you become aware of it!)

• Hence, I’ve changed my bias. When it wasn’t so severe, I was anxious to go somewhere else for “the answer”. Now, I’m scared

• Doing something just to do something maybe the case of jumping from pan to fire.

• You don’t know that you’re going to get better care; unimaginable, but it could be worse. Much worse?

• It’ll certainly be father away from our base, from supportive relatives.

• You have NO assurance that the next set of docs has an answer.

• You have NO assurance that there is an answer.

• And, chasing a “false hope” may distract you from being in the moment. And “paying attention”.

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http://www.keywestlou.com/2010/09/i-really-screwed-up-yesterday.html

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I suspect such is a major reason we are in the economic predicament of today.

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May I disagree with your “major reason”?

I’m just fat old white guy injineer, a decade younger than you, but I look further back in history. And it’s a multiple part answer.

❶ The Progressives pulled off a silent coup in several areas during the woman sufferage movement. Giving women the right to vote, giving universal suffrage, and detaching the right to vote form owning land — all set the wheels in motion.

❷ Prohibition was the direct result of the women’s vote. That started organizaed crime. That justified the FBI and the Gooferment getting into the policing business.

❸ The Progressives got the Gooferment into the school business. It’s was allowed to propagandize future voters. Remember the Prussian school model was to make cannon fodder for the Army, good workers for the factory, and pliable idiot voters to be led by the elite. (Where DO politicians send their kids to school?)

❹ The Progressives created the Federal Reserve System. That allowed the Gooferment to spend without raising taxes. That was key. Up to that point, prices always declined. After than, inflation was institutionalized. From 1913 to day, the dollar has lost 99% of its purchasing power.

❺ FDR took us OFF the gold standard, got social security, and created wage / price controls. The gold standard restrained the Gooferment’s ability to print money. Social Security destroyed the multi-generational family — Grandparents could afford to retire to Florida. Wage Controls set up the benefits trap that Obamacare will supposedly rescue us from.

❻ The Progressives passed the Sixteenth that allows the Gooferment to grow unchecked by taxation; Milton Freedman created withholding to fool folks into accepting it.

❼ Johnson’s welfare warfare state just destroyed the inner cities and made everyone dependent on the Gooferment dole.

So essentially there are SEVEN reasons we, future generations, and the soon to retire are so screwed. The ability to vote — with its subsequent social change, welfare, and warfare — was the reason.

Voters have to have a stake in paying for what they vote for.

Sigh!

We are SO screwed. I’m not sure we can avoid the fate of the USSR.

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http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/PGE-Investigating-Complaints-of-Gas-Smell-in-San-Bruno-102625569.html

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People who live in the in the Crestmoore neighborhood told reporters thay had complained to Pacific Gas and Electric about the smell of gas in the area and wondered why the utility had apparently not done anything about it.  Late Friday, the California Public Utilities Commission established a toll-free number and an email address for anyone who has information on a natural gas smell in the San Bruno area in the weeks before Sept. 9 explosion.

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How many of us, if we smelled gas, would activate our GOOD plan? Sounds like nine people have paid the ultimate price for complacency. Complain to the Gas Company, or other quasi-Gooferment bureaucrats doesn’t help those 9 people. Clearly, before every other skill, one must have situational awareness. imho!

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