Category: Random Ramblings

Anything that catches my fancy as a topic I want to cover. Truly random crap.

Is this sleazy, or am I imagining that?

I know there is great profit to be made from exploiting those with the least financial resources. I understand that financial transactions with this class of consumers can be risky. I understand that high-risk endeavors can lead to high reward results. None of that helps me overcome my initial reaction that this is a sleazy financial tactic that abuses lower-income families and individuals.

Walmarts Tries To Become Your Bank With The “Walmart MoneyCard”

. . .

Check our Walmart’s awesomely evil deal: Cashing your check costs $3.00, but if you put the money on a Walmart MoneyCard, they’ll waive the $4.64 “loading” fee. Neat! After that it’s only $4.94 a month to keep your money on the card.

Want to know how much is left? That’ll be $0.70 to check your balance .This card, in essence, takes people who don’t have access to the banking system in this country and makes Walmart their “bank.” Except it’s a “bank” where it costs $1.95 to get money from an ATM, but getting “cash back” from Walmart’s POS is free! If you deposit more then $1,000, Walmart will generously waive the monthly maintenance fee on the card. Want to speak to a teller? That’ll be $3.50. Your paper statement? $2.00. What a deal!

My wife decided we were to boycott Wal-Mart several years ago. This just feels like another reason to pass on passing my money to the corporation. My understanding is that Sam Walton never would have abused the country like this, but I could be way off base.

[tags]Wal-Mart money card for robbing from the poor, Rob from the poor to give to the rich[/tags]

Terrorism database

Right up front, I’ll point out that this could be very useful in political discussions about the current state of American. However, until I’ve had time to view more of the data and get an idea of what’s in there, I’ll avoid any actual discussion of political implications. That out of the way, now is a good time to read up on the global terrorism database put together with funding from the Department of Homeland Security.

The majority of terrorist attacks result in no fatalities, with just 1 percent of such attacks causing the deaths of 25 or more people.

And terror incidents began rising some in 1998, and that level remained relatively constant through 2004.

These and other myth-busting facts about global terrorism are now available on a new online database open to the public.

The database itself is accessible through a University of Maryland web site.

Continue reading “Terrorism database”

RIP Mr. Wizard

Sad news for the sci-geek world – Mr. Wizard has died.

Don Herbert, better known to generations of TV viewers as Mr. Wizard, died yesterday at the age of 89. The cause was multiple myeloma. From the 1950s through to the 80s, Herbert brought science to the small screen in a way that captured imaginations and sent many children down the path towards a scientific career. His ability to make his material approachable to the public makes his passing a great loss for the scientific community.

. . .

Herbert’s work occupied a key place in science education. It helped demonstrate how science could provide an explanation when common sense failed, and it was able to do so in a way that was both exciting and approachable. Science was not only fun, but useful, and something everyone could do. He didn’t make the big, complicated findings of modern science any easier for the public to understand, but he sent children down the path to understanding them by making it seem worth the effort. His efforts targeted kids at the ages we are increasingly realizing are essential for establishing a scientific understanding.

Mr. Wizard, you’ll be missed. I remember watching so many shows.

[tags]Mr. Wizard passes on, RIP Mr. Wizard[/tags]

Another how to draw site

Long ago, I posted a link to a “How to draw” site that I thought was really cool. This week, I’ve found another such site. This new site takes a different approach to drawing lessons than the first, using a blog format, but it still looks to be a helpful and informative How to Draw site. Here’s a sample of the lessons on the site at the time I’m posting:

howtodrawblog.png

There are a lot of videos of the owner doing drawings, which may be a more useful way for some people to learn. I do laugh a bit at that 7th article in the recently written list – Inking the Monkey. I suppose that’s what all the cool kids are calling it these days.

[tags]How to draw, Video drawing lessons online, Drawing e-learning[/tags]

Wooden keyboards

The site is lacking details on the when and where of this, but I couldn’t pass up showing this beautiful wooden keyboard shown at COMPUTEX 2007 up for view at aving.net.

aving-wooden_keyboard-clip.jpg

Make that in a split keyboard style and I’ll have to get one. Of course, with how much time I spend on the computer, I suspect a wooden keyboard would wear down too quickly to be worth the price.

[tags]aving.net displays wooden keyboard, COMPUTEX 2007 show – wooden keyboard[/tags]

Turn your steps into storage

Really, wouldn’t you think this was a rather obvious idea, even if few places makes use of it?

lh-stepstorage.jpg

The Unclutterer weblog points out a really neat home design idea: a staircase that doubles as a set of storage drawers.

As the article at LifeHacker points out, this is something done on yachts and boats where space is at a premium. Still, it’s not something I can ever recall reading about before.

[tags]Turning steps into storage space[/tags]

The Mexi-cannon

A cow-orker shared this product idea with me, and I figured I needed to pass it on. I know this will offend someone (and likely many someones), but I laughed enough to risk that. Bear witness to the Mexi-Cannon. It does just what you’d think.

Illegal Mexicans got you down? You’d like to deport them, but think of all the paperwork and the long drive to toss them over the border.

But now, deporting Mexicans is as easy as saying “Go home, invader!” if you use…

mexi-cannon1.jpg

Continue reading “The Mexi-cannon”

Worst toys awards

Radar online has up the worst toys awards, featuring nearly a dozen bad toy ideas that still made it to market.

jarts.jpg

As soon as I saw the article title, I knew that one would make it. Reading on, I was quite astounded by this one:

Nothing says safety like an open hot plate. And nothing says fun like using that open hot plate to create molten, rubbery insects you can throw at your sister while narrowly avoiding setting the house ablaze. The 1964 Creepy Crawler Thingmaker from Mattel, a distant cousin of today’s Creepy Crawler toys, came with a series of molds, tubes of “plastigoop,” and an open-faced frier, which could heat up to a nerve-searing 310 degrees.

Heats up to 310 degrees? No wonder that got pulled. Guess that’s why I can’t find the old Hot Wheels car maker we had when I was a kid. Same premise, only the heated wax and car mold pouring bin were under a plastic shell.

[tags]Worst toys awards, Radar online covers the worst toy ideas[/tags]

Home Depot to America – Please steal from us

OK, so the actual story from Home Depot isn’t a “Please steal from us” letter. Rather, it is an article about three employees getting fired for violating company policy that says employees are not to stop shoplifters nor call police to report a shoplifter.

A former Home Depot employee said the company fired him and three other workers because they helped police catch several suspected shoplifters in May.

. . .

Midwest City police said the men helped officers catch suspected shoplifters as they tried to run from a store with lawn equipment.

An internal memo from Home Depot outlines that associates cannot accuse, detain, chase or call the police on any customer for shoplifting. However, one of the fired employees said the company is selective in enforcing that policy.

I’ll agree with Andrew Kantor, my source for this article – Home Depot cannot have intended to announce to the world that they prohibit employees from stopping shoplifters or calling police.

[tags]Home Depot to America – please steal from us[/tags]

Unintelligent filtering – Internet filtering is stupid, bad, dangerous, and worthless

Yesterday at work, I saw an article over at Ars Technica that I wanted to read. It was a news update on the substitute teacher who was convicted of showing porn to students after the spyware infected class PC started showing porn pop-up images. If you aren’t already familiar with the story, there are a large number of articles on the story’s beginning and evolution over at boingboing. I had already read some about the latest in the story – Ms. Amero has been granted a new trial in place of the sentencing she was supposed to receive today – but wanted to read the Ars Technica take on this simply because I respect the authors at Ars and value their views.

Rather than getting to read the full Ars story, however, I get the following block page (Click ‘More’ for image – click the image for a larger view).

Continue reading “Unintelligent filtering – Internet filtering is stupid, bad, dangerous, and worthless”