Let's Read The News

Tam has a post about the attack on "construction workers" / "known terrorists" in Syria that was reported Monday on CNN. The CNN article was full of blather from some Syrian maroon. Then I thought let's see just how bad it is, so I made a copy of the text, went through it and sorted the sentences based on where they originated. Hmmm, I don't like these results. The U.S., Syria and Iraq each provided about eleven lines of text.

But then I went through and highlighted the actual quotes from each source and then cut out all the non-quoted material. And what do we have left?

• 2 (two) lines from the U.S.,
  
• 4 (four) lines from Syria, and
  
• 8 (eight!) lines from Iraq.

The two lines from the U.S. do not say much. The four lines from Syria are all bombast accusing the U.S. of being the devil. These were the ones that irritated me. The eight lines from Iraq were from someone who is caught in the middle and is just making soothing noises.

Sarah Palin

I try and avoid the news and political commentary. So much of it focuses on superficial stuff:

"Did you hear what he/she said? That's just awful! He/She isn't fit to pick up my garbage, much less stand for office."

Mr. McCain's selection of Ms. Palin as his running mate sure caused an uproar. I think it was a brilliant political move on his part that may just get him elected. Naturally one side erupted in cheering, and the opposition, once they got over their shock, started attacking.

As to whether Ms. Palin is qualified for the office of Vice President is of little consequence. The office is Vice President, not President. She is not going to be in charge unless something bad happens to Mr. McCain. That might happen, then again it might not. I am not going to worry about it.

And what if she does become President? Can she really do any worse than those that have come before her for the last 60 years? (60 years is my limit because before that is ancient history, those guys are all dead, and winning WWII was the best thing America ever did.)

Look at the convoluted thinking that went into the cold war, the nuclear arms race, the CIA's involvement in foreign operations. I'm thinking the last 60 years could not have been more screwed up if we had tried. I am thinking that perhaps a little common sense from an independent woman might do us all a lot of good. But that won't happen unless McCain gets elected, and then something bad happens to him. I'll give 50-50 odds on either one, which means there's only a 25% chance Ms. Palin will get a chance to try and direct the behemoth that is America.

Stump Grinding

My brother has been tasked with taking out a tree, including the stump. He asks for advice and I tell him:

Had a small stump taken out when I lived in Beaverton. Or maybe I just saw a guy using a stump grinder. Typical American power tool response to a non-problem. I mean all you have to do is dig a trench 12 feet deep, four feet wide, with a mean radius from the stump of about eight feet. From there it's simple matter of chopping out the bits of root and dirt that are left. Don't forget to install the cave-in prevention barriers.

Then I go looking for a video of a stump grinder in action. Here's a light weight one


But I'm looking for one like the one I saw in action. As I recall it was built like an oversized roto-tiller, balanced on two wheels with a toothed wheel spinning on a horizontal axis out in front. The wheel was about a foot in diameter and a foot wide. This one is pretty close.


MR Stump. - how to remove a tree stump with stump grinder. - MR STUMP
Here's a BIG one:


Red Roo: Hurricane Remote controlled stumpgrinder on tracks
Watching this in action reminded me of an old video of a shredder working on a car:



Update December 2016 replaced missing videos with similar ones.

Good Customer Service

I recently dealt with customer support at three different companies. I was amazed when all three problems were resolved quickly and efficently. It was such an unusual occurence I thought I should at least mention them in my blog.

Canon PowerShot SD110

My wife's digital camera went on the fritz. No picture on the screen in camera mode. Screen works fine for viewing old pictures. Try taking a picture with the optical viewfinder. Camera takes a picture, but viewing it only gives you a black screen. Look on the net, see if we can get it fixed. What's this? Canon has a recall out on this particular camera. Something about humidity or a shock causing a solder joint to fail. Email exchange with Canon produces a UPS mailing label that I print and tape to the box. Carry it to downtown Hillsboro to drop it in the UPS drop box, but the UPS driver stops at the corner and I just hand it to him. A week or two later the camera reappears, fixed, and no charge. Good job Canon!

Delta Debonair Pull-out Kitchen Faucet

Our kitchen sink is leaking. It has a single handle control typical of kitchen faucets. The handle swings side to side for temperature control and up and down for volume. The handle is loose. I have tightened the screw a couple of times, but it keeps coming loose. Makes it difficult to figure out if it is really in the turned off position, which is why it leaks. At least that's my theory. Fooling with the handle can make it stop leaking. Email Delta, ask for help. I am thinking that a new handle might just be enough to solve the problem. They say they will send me a new part. They don't specify just what part they are sending. A week or two go by and a big box shows up on my door step. They sent me an entire new faucet! Massive overkill, but hey, I should be able to fix it with this. Good job Delta!

A Cuisinart Blender, similar to, but not, the model 100

Drive wheel on the Cuisinart blender broke. This is the part that sticks out of the top of the base and engages its' mate on the bottom of the blending jug. Write to Cuisinart. No reply. (Well, I did get a phone call but only after the problem was resolved.) Call Cuisinart expecting a miserable experience. Surprise, no noticeable delay before I am talking to someone. However, they do not stock the part anymore. They claim the blender is nine (9!) years old. That's a little hard to believe, seems like we've only had it a couple of years, but who knows? Maybe it is nine years old. Maybe it sat on a warehouse shelf for five years. Maybe it's counterfeit. Maybe it has been hiding in our pantry for nine years. Whatever. Cuisinart has no parts for it. Back to the web, and presto! More web sites selling parts for Cuisinart blenders than you can shake a stick at. Found one site that made it very easy to find and order the part. It was like one click for each step: Cuisinart, Blender, Model, Clutch, Estimate Shipping, Order, fill in form with Google AutoFill, pay $16 with PayPal. Done. Kind of expensive for such a dinky little part, but it might enable us to get another nine years out of the blender. Good work doesn't come cheap. Somebody put in some serious effort on that web site. Good job SmallAppliance.com!

Update February 2016. Replaced missing pictures.

It's a small thing really

From a comment left on Steve Sailer's iSteve Blog:

Steve, I'm all in favor of engaging in fantastic reveries about what sort of "Conservativism" will emerge in the post-election period but I think we'd be way overestimating the American populace's ability to reason were we to take such daydreaming seriously.

People are f***ing fools. Even smart people.
...

The average person doesn't reason the way that you do Steve. You see positions and principles that have been tried and that have failed and you figure that something ELSE must fill the void left by such failures.

Nonsense. Human reasoning may or may not exist but if it does it's so small a thing that only the historian can spot it.

mnuez

10/28/2008

Conspiracy Theories 'R' Us, Part Deux

Nathan Brindle has left a new comment on the post "What color is the sky in his world?":

"All these conspiracy theories.

Somebody oughta write a book."

It's this kind of thinking that makes me happy.

Proof of Funds

There was an ad in the sidebar on Google email for Seasoned Funds. They will deposit money in your bank account temporarily to provide "Proof of Funds" so you can get a loan. I don't know which is worse: the 4 to 10% interest they charge for the 30 days, or helping people get loans that they would not ordinarily be able to get. I mean isn't that why we are all in hot water now? Assuming we really are all in hot water. Personally, I detect no difference between not having a job before the "crash" and not having a job after the "crash".

Update December 2016 replaced missing image. Seasoned Funds seems to have gone bye-bye. The link now goes to a placeholder.