INTERESTING: Near Bottom In Life Expectancy

Friday, January 18, 2013

US Near Bottom In Life Expectancy In Developed World
via Slashdot by Soulskill on 1/11/13

Hugh Pickens writes “Louise Radnofsky reports that a study by the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine has found U.S. life expectancy ranks near the bottom of 17 affluent countries. The U.S. is at or near the bottom in nine key areas of health: infant mortality and low birth weight; injuries and homicides; teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections; prevalence of HIV and AIDS; drug-related deaths; obesity and diabetes; heart disease; chronic lung disease; and disability. Americans fare worse than people in other countries even when the analysis is limited to non-Hispanic whites and people with relatively high incomes and health insurance, nonsmokers, or people who are not obese. The report notes that average life expectancy for American men, at 75.6 years, was the lowest among the 17 countries and almost four years shorter than for Switzerland, the best-performing nation. American women’s average life expectancy is 80.8 years, the second-lowest among the countries and five years shorter than Japan’s, which had the highest expectancy. ‘The [U.S.] health disadvantage is pervasive — it affects all age groups up to age 75 and is observed for multiple diseases, biological and behavioral risk factors, and injuries,’ say the report’s authors.

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While we argue about trivialities, “we” are killing ourselves.

Maybe the King of Bhutan has the right idea — establishing “happiness” as a national priority?

“We” certainly don’t have any priorities.

Abortions killing innocents for convenience. Mental patients dumped on the city streets. And, politicians turning future generations into slaves of an unpayable national debt.

Argh! 

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POLITICAL: What’s a little Constitution between friends?

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Wait, Didn’t the Fiscal Cliff Deal Originate in the Senate?
via Cato @ Liberty by Ilya Shapiro on 1/10/13

*** begin quote ***

If you thought the policy side of the “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012” is bad, did you notice that there’s a constitutional problem too? I’m sure there’s more than one, actually, but this one was easy to spot without even digging into the gory details.

Recall that the fiscal cliff bill was first passed by the Senate in the wee hours of New Year’s Day, and then seconded by a vote of the House some 20 hours later. And yet, Article I, Section 7, Clause 1—known as the Origination Clause—states: “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.”

*** and ***

And so too with the “American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012,” which was a true tax-relief bill of the same name that House Republicans (and 19 Democrats) passed on August 1, 2012. That bill was naturally DOA in Harry Reid’s Senate, but it did become a useful shell for last week’s shenanigans.

So there you have it: What’s a little Constitution between friends?

Oh, and a langiappe about our favorite new law: given that it was passed on January 1—but alas has not gone away with that day’s hangovers —even the year in the title is wrong. To be fair, however, it was both American and an act of Congress.

*** end quote ***

The Constitution has truly been rendered as defined by Lysander Spooner “No Treason No. VI: The Constitution of No Authority.”

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GUNS: Why the Japanese didn’t invade the USA?

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

LUDDITE sends in some blog fodder.

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Thanks for the blog fodder. So have you gotten your “urban yute dioscouragement device” yet? I getting my concealed carry here in VA in March. Classes are full until then! fj
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Luddite
Date: Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 9:24 PM
Subject: Fw: Guns

Someone sent this to me…thought you might find it interesting if you hadn’t seen it.

 

*You’re sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom.
Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear,you hear muffled whispers.*

*At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way.

With your heart pumping, you reach for your shotgun.

You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it.

In the darkness, you make out two shadows.

One holds something that looks like a crowbar.

When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire.

The blast knocks both thugs to the floor.

One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and
lurches outside.

As you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you’re in trouble.

In most guns were outlawed years before, and the few that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make them useless..

Yours was never registered.

Police arrive and inform you that the second burglar has died.

They arrest you for First Degree Murder and Illegal Possession of a Firearm.

When you talk to your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities will probably plea the case down to manslaughter.

“What kind of sentence will I get?” you ask.

“Only ten-to-twelve years,” he replies, as if that’s nothing. *

*”Behave yourself, and you’ll be out in seven.”

The next day, the shooting is the lead story in the* *local newspaper.
You’re portrayed as an eccentric vigilante while the two men you shot are represented as choirboys.

Their friends and relatives can’t find an unkind word to say about them..

Buried deep down in the article, authorities acknowledge that both
“victims” have been arrested numerous times.

But the next day’s **headline** says it all:
“Lovable Rogue Son Didn’t Deserve to Die.”

The thieves have been transformed from career criminals into Robin Hood-type pranksters..

As the days wear on, the story takes wings.

The **national media** picks it up, then the **international media**.

The surviving burglar has become a folk hero.

Your attorney says the thief is preparing to sue you, and he’ll probably win.

The **media** publishes reports that your home has been burglarized several times in the past and that you’ve been critical of local police for their
lack of effort in apprehending the suspects.

After the last break-in, you told your neighbor that you would be prepared next time.

The District Attorney uses this to allege that you were lying in wait for the burglars.

A few months later, you go to trial.

The charges haven’t been reduced, as your lawyer had so confidently predicted.

When you take the stand, your anger at the injustice of it all works against you..

Prosecutors paint a picture of you as a mean, vengeful man.

It doesn’t take long for the jury to convict you of all charges.

The judge sentences you to life in prison.

This case really happened.

On August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk , England , killed one
burglar and wounded a second.

In April, 2000, he was convicted and is now serving a life term…

How did it become a crime to defend one’s own life in the once great British Empire ?

**It started with the Pistols Act of 1903. **

This seemingly reasonable law forbade selling pistols to minors or felons and established that handgun sales were to be made only to those who had a
license.

The **Firearms Act of 1920** expanded licensing to include not only handguns but all firearms except shotguns..

**Later laws passed in 1953 and 1967** outlawed the carrying of any weapon by private citizens and mandated the registration of all shotguns.

Momentum for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerfordmass shooting in 1987.

Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed man with a Kalashnikov rifle, walked down the streets shooting everyone he saw.

When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead.

The British public, already de-sensitized by eighty years of “gun control”, demanded even tougher restrictions.
(The **seizure of all privately owned handguns was the objective** even though Ryan used a rifle.)

Nine years later, at Dunblane , Scotland , Thomas Hamilton used a semi-automatic weapon to murder 16 children and a teacher at a public school.

For many years, the media had portrayed all gun owners as mentally unstable, or worse, criminals.
Now the **press** had a real kook with which to beat up law-abiding gun owners.
Day after day, week after week, the **media** gave up all pretense of objectivity and demanded a total ban on all handguns.

**The Dunblane Inquiry**, a few months later, sealed the fate of the few sidearms still owned by private citizens.

**During the years in which the British government incrementally took away most gun rights, the notion that a citizen had the right to armed
self-defense came to be seen as vigilantism.

Authorities refused to grant gun licenses to people who were threatened, claiming that self-defense was no longer considered a reason to own a gun.**
Citizens who shot burglars or robbers or rapists were charged while the real criminals were released.

Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police spokesman was quoted as saying, “We cannot have people take the law into their own hands.”

All of Martin’s neighbors had been robbed numerous times, and several elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who had no fear of the consequences.
Martin himself, a collector of antiques, had seen most of his collection trashed or stolen by burglars.

When the Dunblane Inquiry ended, citizens who owned handguns were given three months to turn them over to local authorities.

Being good British subjects, most people obeyed the law. The few who didn’t were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences if they didn’t comply.

Police later bragged that they’d taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens.

How did the authorities know who had handguns? The guns had been registered and licensed. Kind of like cars. Sound familiar?

WAKE UP AMERICA ; THIS IS WHY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS PUT THE SECOND AMENDMENT IN OUR CONSTITUTION.

“…It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds..”
–Samuel Adams

**If you think this is important, please forward to everyone you know.

You had better wake up, because Obama is doing this very same thing, over here, if he can get it done
And there are stupid people in congress and on the street that will go right along with him.
The UN Small Arms Treaty that Hilary is negotiating would take away our 2nd Amendment rights.
Remember the Japanese didn’t invade the USA is because they knew that Most of the citizens were armed.

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(1) I’d heard this story before as have most NRA and GOA members. What do you expect from England? huevos muchos pequeño

(2) It’s incomprehensible that the Japanese didn’t invade because Americans had guns. The multi-thousand supply line when they could barely get enough oil to fee themselves or their soldiers is the most plausible reason. Look at what happened to Patton in WW2 when the supply lines were stretched to far. Like the Nazi’s in Russia during the winter. 

(3) My question is: “Is this the issue that will get Luddite, a non-gun owner, off the couch into the streets?

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PRODUCTIVITY: Drainers

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

http://eblingroup.com/2013/01/how-to-get-rid-of-the-things-that-drain-you.html

A humorous exercise. For me it’s clutter, and birthday / holidays / anniversaries! Drains my battery to zero in nothing flat.

This recent Christmas, I screwed up sending money to the “children”. I had a budget, took out the requisite cash, filled envelopes, and sent them out in three waves. And, discovered I had an odd amount left over. So I took it and went to the American Legion to ponder what to do. That eliminated the problem. Bottom line: no one got an empty envelope, so in that sense, no reportable problem. Further, since it was “found money” for the receivers, no one knew I screwed up. Next year, I’m using Paytrust my bill payment service. Nice an impersonal and un screw up able. Everyone will be happy! And it won’t “drain my battery”.

I’m also scanning all loose paper into Evernote and / or Dropbox. By sometime next year, all my paper will be electrons somewhere in the cloud. No clutter to distract and drain me.

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FUN: Precise Mathematics

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

LUDDITE supplies some more (sort of adult) humor!

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I always did like math! ROFL

*** begin quote *** 

Subject: Precise Mathematics – BRILLIANT!

Mathematics:

This comes from 2 maths teachers with a combined total of 70 yrs. Experience.
It has an indisputable mathematical logic.
It also made me Laugh Out Loud.
This is a strictly mathematical viewpoint..
it goes like this:

What Makes 100%?

What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they
are giving more than 100%? We have all been
to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%.

How about achieving 103%?

What makes up 100% in life?

Here’s a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

Then:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

And

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But,

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And,

B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%

AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.

A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty, that whileHard work and Knowledge will get you close, andAttitudewill get you there, its the Bullshit and Ass Kissing that will put you over the top.

Now you know why some people are where they are!

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FUN: Car video teaches me a serious lesson!

Monday, January 14, 2013

http://www.geekosystem.com/sinkhole-eats-car/

Om Nom Nom: Watch As This Sinkhole Completely Devours A Car [Video]
via Geekosystem by Ian Chant on 1/11/13

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Certainly a lesson to anyone who drives into a water covered road. Also, makes the case for carrying a metal cable and rachet. That fellow probably could have saved his car with such equipment. If not save, delay the inevitable while he got his stuff out. Make one think that while this was slow, it could have been much faster; with more disasterous consequences.

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JOBFINDING: Boston IT

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Job Title: Developer/Programmer
Start Date: ASAP
Location: Boston
Duration: 6-12 months with potential opportunity to go permanent
Functional Area: Information Technology working with Tax Department
________________________________________

Prestigious, well-established, multi-billion dollar investment management firm seeking a software developer to develop, maintain, and enhance our investment operations systems, working closely with the operations team. The ideal candidate has experience in financial services/investment management industry and has the desire to expand his/her business knowledge.

Primary Job Responsibilities:

 Create, design, develop, document, and implement new software programs
 Develop SQL stored procedures and write reports to support multiple back office departments
 Maintain and enhance existing reports and software applications
 Develop technical specifications based on business requirements

Requirements:

 Must have 4-6 years in SQL development preferably in the investment industry.
 Experience working with C# or VB.
 Previous experience working with reporting tools, such as Crystal, MS Reporting Services, or DEV Express XTraReports is strongly preferred.
 Strong written and verbal communication skills, strong interpersonal skills
 Ability to gather and understand requirements in the financial sector
 Must be detail oriented, able to prioritize work and to effectively manage multiple concurrent projects while adapting to rapidly changing work demands
 Willingness to take initiative and see problems through to completion
 BS in Computer Science or equivalent
 Tax and Accounting knowledge a plus


FUN: Birthday wishes from my new “friends” at Social Security; probably want to kill me as cheaply as possible!

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Dear FERDINAND J REINKE,

Happy Birthday from Medicare! We wish you well in the upcoming year and want to remind you of the preventive services Medicare offers to help you stay healthy.

Our records show that you have not taken advantage of some of the preventive services which are available to you now or in the future and listed in the table below.

Month/Year Preventive Service Name and Due Date
January PROSTATE(01/12) PSA(01/12) COLORECTAL(01/12) PPV(01/12) PHYSICAL(01/12) CARDIOVASCULAR(01/12) DIABETES(01/12) ABDOMINAL AORTIC ANEURYSM(01/12) ANNUAL WELLNESS VISIT(01/13) CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE (BEHAVIORAL THERAPY)(01/12) DEPRESSION SCREENING(01/12) OBESITY COUNSELING(01/12) HIGH INTENSITY BEHAVIORAL COUNSELING(01/12)
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

To see more details of the services you are eligible for, visit www.MyMedicare.gov and select “Preventive Services” under the “My Health” tab. Or, talk to your doctor for more information.

Remember, Medicare is your partner in health.

Sincerely,
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Please do not reply to this email, as we are not able to respond to messages sent to this address.

This e-mail was sent by Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services based upon the request in your MyMedicare.gov profile. To stop receiving e-mails,please unsubscribe from our mailing list by signing in to www.mymedicare.gov and clicking on the “My Account” link in the banner.


INTERESTING: Discovery About Galaxy Distribution

Sunday, January 13, 2013

http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/01/06/2138243/teenager-makes-discovery-about-galaxy-distribution?utm_source=rss1.0mainlinkanon&utm_medium=feed

Teenager Makes Discovery About Galaxy Distribution
by samzenpus

*** begin quote ***

Janek Kozicki writes “It has been long thought that dwarf galaxies orbiting Andromeda galaxy (M31), or any other galaxy for that matter, are distributed more or less randomly around the host galaxy. It seemed so obvious in fact that nobody took time to check this assumption. Until a 15 year old student, Neil Ibata, working with his father at the astronomic observatory wanted to check it out. It turned out that dwarf galaxies tend to be placed on a plane around M31. The finding has been published in nature. Local press (especially in France) is ecstatic that a finding by a 15-year-old got published in Nature. However, there’s another more important point: what other obvious things didn’t we really bother to check?”

*** end quote ***

So we don’t know what we don’t know and we don’t bother to check either?

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INTERESTING: Luddite comes up with a good find

Saturday, January 12, 2013

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For all you tool freaks…..and then some!

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=E3mzhvMgrLE&NR=1

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I expect that we’ll see this in a lot of tools over the next century!

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