Author: Chris
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Create a Blog Ad…for PETA!
Opportunity knocks for all of you creative people out there! PETA is holding a blog advertisement contest! This could be fun. Perhaps we could have our own countercompetition in the comments? PETA is offering a $500 gift card to the winner. For our contest, I’d totally be willing to take you out for some hot…
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Who Needs Denialism When You Have Censorship & Sycophants to Enforce It?
Peter Baker of the Post reports on a White House policy manual (PDF) detailing how President Bush’s advance team should prevent anyone from saying or doing anything that might not be in total agreement with our President’s policies: The manual offers advance staffers and volunteers who help set up presidential events guidelines for assembling crowds.…
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Do We Care More for Animals than People?
Reading about the anger stoked by Karl Rove’s plan to go dove hunting reminded me of a recent oped by Vicki Haddock in the Chronicle, where she explores why animals sometimes receive more sympathy than people. A few anecdotes from the story are telling, and so totally California: …football star Michael Vick pleaded not guilty…
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Bring on that Army of Inspectors!
Our friends from the WSJ recently endowed us with this bit of wisdom: Unsafe products are a fact of life. The U.S. has created its own share of food- and product-safety scares over the years, from E. coli-tainted spinach to faulty Bridgestone Firestone tires. Even the best inspection regime, whether government or private, will miss…
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AMA and Prescription Data Mining
It’s a few weeks old, but I just came across this oped in the San Francisco Chronicle by Robert Restuccia and Lydia Vaias. They’ve painted a big target on the American Medical Association for its role in prescription data mining. It’s important to note exactly what AMA is doing here, because, from the oped, it…
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Please KQED, Stop it with the Bogusity
Where does one start with this? Some bald dude who lives in Maui and talks about ancient Chinese texts and gives advice on “The Power of Intention” belongs in a strip mall, not on PBS. Looks like the PBS Ombudsman has commented on objections to Dr. Wayne Dyer (PBS can’t say his name, not once,…
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Get a First Life!
Today’s WSJ has a profoundly sad article about the real life of some Second Lifers. It’s worth a read, especially the end of the article, where you find gems like this: Back in the world of Second Life, Mr. Hoogestraat’s avatar and Tenaj have gotten bored at the beach, so they teleport to his office,…
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Cap One Finally Stops Lowering Your Credit Score
For all the encomia made by banking industry lobbyists to the value of the “free flow of information,” one finds examples where the industry restricts information sharing when it benefits them. Capital One was one of the worst offenders. It’s complex, but the company was restricting information flow in such a way that it lowered…
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Wendy’s: CSPI’s Calorie Menu Misuses Wendy’s Trademark
In the bogus legal claims department, one finds this blub from Consumerist. What’s the deal here? A pretty aggressive consumer group, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, created model menu for Wendy’s that demonstrates how the “restaurant” can display calorie information. It’s pretty clear, and very useful. Of course, Wendy’s hates this stuff.…
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Numerology Defeated in 5-1 Vote by the SF Taxicab Commission
Jesse McKinley reports in the Times: It was a good day for the Devil in San Francisco on Tuesday, as the Taxicab Commission voted to keep the Dark Lord’s favorite number — 666 — affixed to an allegedly cursed cab. The vote, which came after an amused period of public comment and annoyed looks from…