08 April 2008

Telemarketing Troubles (And My Fix)

I had been getting a lot of telephone calls from telemarketers for Medicare supplemental insurance, mortgage insurance, magazine subscriptions, and other things.  They frequently started off by saying that this "is not a sales call" and they just want to "verify some information".  They'll have some bit of real information like, "Do you still live at...?", then follow up with questions about how much insurance I have or somesuch, trying to get me to give up information that they don't really have before going into the full pitch.

I am on the Do-Not-Call list and have made sure my listing was updated.  Apparently it's not working so well anymore, at least not for me.  I've tried many things in the past that ended up being more aggravating than satisfying... prank responses, hanging up, breaking in and saying "Please remove my name from your list", trying to explain that continuing to call someone on the Do-Not-Call list might get them in trouble, all to no avail.  Now, I don't feel like taking anyone to court very often, much less over something like this.  Maybe going through all the hassle of reporting offenders, documenting calls and times, and whatever other nonsense is "recommended" is worth it to some people.  I'm not one of them.

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07 April 2008

More Terrorists Escape From Prison *UPDATE*

What is so hard about keeping terrorists locked up?  In this story , about nine convicted terrorists who bombed several targets in Casablanca escaped from the prison in Morocco.

The Moroccan Justice Ministry said in a statement that officials discovered Monday morning that the nine had escaped from a prison in Kenitra, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of the capital Rabat, MAP reported.

The ministry said all measures have been taken to find the escapees.

How about some measures to keep these guys from escaping in the first place?  I'm liking the idea of a GPS harness more and more (but no explosives kishnevi and Mac, sorry). 

*UPDATE* kishnevi was the one who originally suggested explosives.

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dpud's Links Around The Moronosphere

There's a ton of good links as usual at dpud's place.  Take a look around and see what some of the regulars at Ace's have posted.  Steamboat McGoo has some fine Aurora pics if you like that sort of thing (I do) and his daily pr0n at the end of the post (no, I didn't click it.... yet.).


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Hillary Calls For Olympic Boycott

I never thought I would see this day come.  I agree with Hillary Clinton and disagree with President Bush.  This alone was cause to reconsider my thinking, but I can't get around it... I think Hillary is right on this one.

Clinton, in a statement, cited violent clashes in Tibet and the lack of pressure by China on Sudan to stop "the genocide in Darfur."

"At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government," the New York senator said.

I'm seriously disturbed by this.  Fortunately, she'll "qualify" her statements very soon I'm sure, if only to reassure my faith in her dishonesty.  Next, Barack Obama will argue the exact opposite, then "qualify" his statements to say we should have a boycott.  That way, they can both point to the statement that benefits them most and "tut-tut" any attempt to point out any conflicting statements they've made before or since.  'Cause that's how they roll.

John McCain will promise to hold a "virtual" Olympics... but only if the athletes are all given medals, whether they actually compete or not.

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Harper is BANNED!!

The Plague Fairy is officially banned until such time as she earns her bannage at Teh Squeaky Wheel, which is richly deserved (she's worked hard for it).  This banlessness state cannot be tolerated by right-thinking folks anywhere.  The Plague Fairy  (aka Harper, aka The Gentle Lady) means so much, to so many people, that failing to ban her when she specifically requests it is indefensible (aka "poo-poo reasoning").

I'm sure Harper will leave a comment here confirming her pleasure at finally being banned somewhere.  Please congratulate her and offer your support for further bannings.

*NOTE*  This ban does not pertain to her IP address, screen name, any sock puppets she may employ, or prevent her commenting here or elsewhere.  In other words, the nicest possible ban you will ever see, anywhere.

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06 April 2008

Taliban Commander Captured

This is good news from Afghanistan.

Police arrested Taliban commander Abdul Jabar on Saturday in the most significant capture of a militant for some time, the Interior Ministry said.

Jabar, who the government said organized attacks in the south, was captured while on his way towards Pakistan. He was a deputy of Mullah Mansour Dadullah, a prominent Taliban commander captured in Pakistan in February, it said.

My advice:  Don't let him go to the bathroom.  Wonder if they'll listen?  Heh.

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05 April 2008

Superfast Internet

This is incredible stuff, although not available to domestic internet users, it's already in use by academic researchers in several fields.

Ian Bird, project leader for Cern’s high-speed computing project, said grid technology could make the internet so fast that people would stop using desktop computers to store information and entrust it all to the internet.

“It will lead to what’s known as cloud computing, where people keep all their information online and access it from anywhere,” he said.

Me want now. 

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Blog Maintenance / Open Thread

I've made a lot of aesthetic changes and am going to be cleaning up some of the posts, especially the earlier ones.  I won't change any of the content, just put some content in the longer entries below a fold, clean up the categories... stuff like that.

Consider this an open thread for feedback on the style changes, suggestions for more, pointing out things needing cleanup that I might have missed, or whatever you'd  like to comment on.  Thanks to everyone who has been coming, welcome to anyone here for the first time (feel free to look around some), and everyone who takes the time to leave a comment.  That's the best.


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IOC Doubles-Down On Olympic Choice

The International Olympic Committee just announced that it still considers China a "wise choice" for the upcoming Olympic Games.

Rogge said the opportunity to bring the Games to the world's most populous nation meant the IOC had made the right choice.

"IOC considers that it made a wise choice in awarding the games to Beijing and we have no regrets," Rogge told a news conference in response to a question about China's human rights record.

"We have the tremendous added value of bringing sports and the Olympics to one fifth of mankind."

This of course means that China should get to host the Olympics every time until some other country surpasses China in population.  Here are two more examples of extreme denial in the same article... this:

"We are definitely not happy with protests but we respect them as long as they are not violent," he said.

Firing into crowds of protesters and killing 8 of them isn't violent?  That's just the most recent example of the Chinese government's brand of "non-violence".  And then there is this about the smog and pollution surrounding the Games:

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Guess He Didn't Get The Memo *UPDATE*

Senator Biden says the troop buildup was a failure.

"The purpose of the surge was to bring violence in Iraq down so that its leaders could come together politically," said Biden, D-Del., in this week's Democratic radio address. "Violence has come down, but the Iraqis have not come together."

Isn't that a failure by the Iraqi leaders and not the troop buildup?  I thought the current talking point wasn't about the surge, but that we should focus on Afghanistan.  Wasn't it pretty much accepted, even by the Dems, that the surge did what it was supposed to do?

They said their focus will be on restoring the strength of the Army and Marines and refocusing the nation's resources on fighting terrorists in  Afghanistan.

See?  Don't worry Joe, the Associated Press has got your back.

*UPDATE* Tarnation!! DRJ over at Patterico's beat me to this one, but I missed it before writing this.  I try to avoid stories that other people have done already (hint:  if you check the timestamps on any of my posts that you see covered elsewhere, mine are almost always first.  Heh.)  Nice work DRJ.

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