A Mere Detour

Rain Garden

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 13:29:00 +0000

Pardon the dust

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:55:00 +0000

On Hiatus for a ~~little~~ long while...

Rainfall totals: June 2007 = 2.78 inches; June 2008 = over 10 inches

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:08:00 +0000

What a difference a year makes.

Last year: "So damn dry"

This year: "Wettest June on Record for Columbus"

Phoenix Opens Its Eyes...

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:25:00 +0000

Science/Technology is Frickin' Awesome

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Mon, 26 May 2008 14:45:00 +0000

100 million miles away. NASA is about to analyze the chemical composition of soil from another planet that is 100 million miles away. Utterly amazing. From time to time I just have to marvel at the scope of our species' technological advancement. A short time ago we were running naked through the African savanna chasing our food - now this:

Irrelevant Update: If we can send machines to Mars why can't HP make a decent monitor? Anyone have a clue as to why the image on my HP w2207 monitor keeps getting worse? Everything 'smears' a couple of centimeters to the right. Get a pencil; write something down on a piece of paper. Now get an eraser and rub it, one time, across your writing. That is what the images and text look like on my monitor. It is subtle but very annoying.

After

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:44:00 +0000

Before:

Dear Miracle-Gro Co.,

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:15:00 +0000

What's wrong with your chemicals?

'Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. was ordered yesterday to stop selling and using products that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said contain two "illegal and unregistered" herbicides.'

-Columbus Dispatch

Worst. Sales Pitch. Ever.

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 16:41:00 +0000

I received this in the mail a couple of days ago:

Scotts advertising model:
Step #1: Insult prospective customers
Step #2: Profit?

Can you imagine if other companies used this approach?

Jane Doe, why is your face so ugly? Maybelline cosmetics has a new product that....

or

Mr. and Mrs. Doe, why are your children so stupid? Sullivant Learning Centers can help your kids with their...

etc etc etc

Total Snow Accumulation of 20.4 Inches

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:46:00 +0000

Wow!

Robinson's Apollo II Proposal

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:42:00 +0000

It is refreshing to see a politician offer forth a bold vision for dealing with our nation's systemic oil dependency problem.

More Summer Colors

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:09:00 +0000

Re

Moonflower

How not to store a gourd

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 21:28:00 +0000

Remember those birdhouse gourds that I was going to turn into functioning birdhouses? Well, I may have to try again next year. I made the mistake of storing the gourds in my (apparently) damp basement. They were attacked by mold. I sprayed some Lysol on them and tried to clean them up as much as possible. Time will tell if they can be saved.

Ha!

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:14:00 +0000

CIGNA's new logo

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 13:10:00 +0000

BTW... The CEO of CIGNA, Edward Hanway, raked in $38.79 million this past year.

Murder by Spreadsheet claims another life

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 12:40:00 +0000

Doctors: This young woman needs a liver transplant to live.

CIGNA: Sorry, we won't cover it. It is an experimental procedure.

Doctors: No, it isn't an experimental procedure. We are the doctors, not you. If we say that it isn't experimental then it isn't experimental. We have a liver available to give to her and we need to do this operation NOW.

CIGNA: No.

Time passes...

CIGNA: OK, we've changed our mind. We'll cover the operation.

Doctors: She's dead now you dipshits.

See:

Following Massive Protest, Insurer Authorizes Transplant for 17-year-old

Girl dies while awaiting transplant

Opie, it ain't right to torture people.

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:58:00 +0000

I wish that the Andy Griffith Show had produced an entire series of episodes in which Andy lectures Opie for violating someone's constitutional rights.

The straightforward dialog between Andy and Opie could enlighten elected officials, such as Pat Tiberi, on the basics of human and constitutional rights.

Opie: Hey Paw! I just waterboarded old man Blake down at the jail. You wouldn't believe what he confessed to! Just listen to this.

Andy: I can't listen to that. Now I told you about torturing people.

Opie: But Paw, this is different.

Andy: Yes, it's worse. Not only did you have to overcome your basic human decency to torture Mr. Blake, the information he provided is likely false. You see Opie, when people are tortured they'll say anything to make the pain stop. Not only did you violate Mr. Blake's human rights, you hurt our nation's intelligence gathering by providing false information to our analysts.

Video H/T Plunderbund

Res ipsa loquitur

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 20:11:00 +0000

This past week the U.S. House, following the advice of 30 retired generals and admirals, passed a bill that would prohibit the CIA from waterboarding detainees. Waterboarding, of course, is widely considered to be a form of torture:

"In the media, waterboarding is called "simulated drowning," but that's a misnomer. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning.
Unless you have been strapped down to the board, have endured the agonizing feeling of the water overpowering your gag reflex, and then feel your throat open and allow pint after pint of water to involuntarily fill your lungs, you will not know the meaning of the word.
How much of this the victim is to endure depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim's face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs that show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the final death spiral.
Waterboarding is slow-motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of blackout and expiration. Usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch. If it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia - meaning, the loss of all oxygen to the cells.
The lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threatened with its use again and again. Call it "Chinese water torture," "the barrel," or "the waterfall." It is all the same.
One has to overcome basic human decency to endure causing the effects. The brutality would force you into a personal moral dilemma between humanity and hatred. It would leave you questioning the meaning of what it is to be an American."

Having overcome his basic human decency, my congressman, Pat Tiberi, voted against the bill, thereby condoning the use of torture by our government.

A note to blogging parents

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 03:43:00 +0000

Recently, the media has focused a great deal on the issue of young people posting photos of themselves on their blogs which may prove to be very embarrassing in later years.

What I haven't seen mentioned, and what ought to be addressed, is the issue of parents with blogs posting potentially embarrassing photos of their very young children who do not have the capacity to consent to the postings. What happens on the web stays on the web - forever. Parents owe it to their children to think twice before giving pictures of their kids taking a crap on the potty to their children's future employers and colleagues.

Just saying...

Is this a responsible use of 1.5 billion dollars?

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:29:00 +0000

Pursuant to the ironically titled "Deficit Reduction act of 2005" The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is prepared to spend upwards of 1.5 billion dollars of our tax dollars to help people buy television equipment. Specifically, starting next month, NTIA will begin to distribute 40 dollar coupons to help folks purchase digital-to-analog converter boxes so their antiquated TVs will still work when the country's television stations cease analog broadcasting in February of 2009.

~~Excuse me for sounding like a conservative for a moment, but,~~* I can't see how this is a responsible use of taxpayer dollars. Follow along and see if you don't agree:

This isn't an issue of fairness: Consumers have had years of prior notice that television broadcasting is going to leave the analog spectrum. If they were concerned about their TV becoming useless, they could have taken any one of a number of different steps to mitigate the possibility that they'd be stuck with an analog-only TV on the switchover date.

This isn't an issue of a 5th Amendment private property "taking" which requires compensation: I haven't looked into any case law, but I'm willing to bet that the property interest a person has in his TV is limited to the physical object itself - the TV. The purchase of a TV by an end user does not give rise to an expectation interest that the makeup of the broadcast spectrum will remain as it was at the time of the TV purchase. Therefore, the government is under no obligation to compensate the consumer because no property has been taken.

The isn't an issue of public safety: The most ridiculous argument I've heard in favor of the $1.5 billion expenditure is that it is necessary for the safety of the public, i.e., people need their televisions in order to receive critical information during an emergency. If the government was actually concerned about safety, it could distribute battery/AC AM/FM/TV/WB/SW radios for less than one fourth of the price of of the $40.00 coupons. Not only would the radios cost less, they would provide more information to more people during an emergency because they would be able to pick up a greater percentage of the broadcast spectrum than would a TV alone.

In short, this 1.5 billion dollar giveaway is nothing more than another example of politicians spending our tax dollars not for the common good; but rather, to increase their odds of being reelected. They are smart enough to know that it would be political suicide to be seen as interfering with the American People's perceived God Given Right to watch television.

*Actually, conservatives relinquished any claim they may have had to fiscal discipline when they helped to elect, and then reelect Mr. 'let's make our children pay for everything' Bush.

More summer colors

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 15:50:00 +0000

Ladies and Gentleman, the GOP wingnuts have found their man

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 14:50:00 +0000

Introducing Mr. Mike (Quarantine HIV patients; gays are analogous to thieves and liars) Huckabee.

"Homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."

"[Homosexuality is sinful] just as lying is sinful and stealing is sinful"

Only 16 shopping days 'till Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 19:23:00 +0000

h/t Eating Liberally

FWIW, her rant about computers is wrong on so many levels*. Otherwise, this is a fabulous video. The Story of Stuff's website is located here.

*I'd love to see her test her theory by placing a modern CPU in, oh, say, a Commodore PET. I bet she'd be unsatisfied with the results.

Frederick's Summer Colors

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 01:27:00 +0000

One of my favorite books as a child was Frederick, by Leo Lionni.

It is a story about a little field mouse who contributes to his community's winter preparatory efforts by 'collecting' images of vibrant summer colors in his mind. The other mice initially scoff at Frederick because, in their bland utilitarian world-view, the opportunity cost associated with creating and preserving art and beauty is too much to justify such frivolous pursuits. However, late into the winter when everything is gray and dreary, Frederick saves his fellow mice from their crippling seasonal affective disorder ennui by sharing with them, via poetry, his collection of beautiful summer colors.

In the spirit of Frederik, from time to time I am going to post colorful photos I've taken this past summer, for no other reason than that they are pleasant to look at when everything outside is gray and dreary.

The name if this yellow wildflower escapes me at the moment; however, here is one such flower, in my wildflower garden, that has turned to seed.

Ghosts of communities past...

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 16:00:00 +0000

During the past twenty years or so, the population of Powell, Ohio rose from less than 400 people to well over 6,000 people. Prior to becoming yet another central Ohio suburb, Powell was an agricultural haven. When visiting Powell, one can catch glimpses of what the area used to look like before the recent population explosion and terrain transformation. Scattered throughout Powell are ghosts of communities past. One of my favorite 'ghost communities' is located at the corner of Sawmill Parkway and state route 750, right in the middle of residential subdivisions and shopping centers.

Earlier this summer, I snapped some photos of this area before it could be bulldozed into the memory hole:

I'd love to know what once stood here. All that remains now are weathered fence posts and majestic shade trees.
Any local historians care to chime in?

Yet another reason why I avoid black Friday

noreply@blogger.com (nekervis) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:22:00 +0000

Peace on earth and goodwill to...

oh never mind.

What I wouldn't give to interview the people in that mob who self identify as Christian:

Dear stampeding asshat,
This 'Christmas season' you speak of, it commemorates the birth of your lord and savior? That nice fellow who implored us to treat each other with kindness? Really?! How does literally stomping on the heads of fellow shoppers in order to purchase cheap plastic crap at Wal-Mart fit in to your religious celebration?

Sincerely,
A very confused secular humanist

P.S. Next year, why don't you avoid the 'black Friday' nonsense and, instead, spend your money on something more befitting a dignified religious observance.