Saturday, September 17, 2011
The Death Star: Example Of Bad Defense Contracting
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, another military superpower spent way too much money on massive planet-busting weapons that didn’t work well. Maybe the Defense Department could learn something from this before it finds an X-wing crammed up its thermal-exhaust port.
The EPA’s Most-Wanted List
At The Corner: "(The EPA) has its own FBI-type list of 18 most-wanted environmental fugitives. Their menacing violations include “multiple counts for the blending of motor fuel” (oh my!), selling “R-12 Freon, an ozone depleting substance” (gadzooks!), importing “automobiles that did not meet” U.S. emissions standards (horrors!), giving “indications that the oil-content monitor downstream of the [freighter] vessel’s oily-water separator had been bypassed” (heavens to Betsy!) and aiding and abetting “false entries into an Oil Record Book” (bring out the guillotine!).
The EPA website presents the entire list of these wily, dangerous criminals, complete with downloadable “Wanted Posters.” (I kid you not.) And the EPA website warns: “Do not attempt to apprehend any of these individuals.” My goodness — one of them might spray you with Freon or put a false entry in the maintenance records you keep for your car on how often you change the oil.
The EPA website presents the entire list of these wily, dangerous criminals, complete with downloadable “Wanted Posters.” (I kid you not.) And the EPA website warns: “Do not attempt to apprehend any of these individuals.” My goodness — one of them might spray you with Freon or put a false entry in the maintenance records you keep for your car on how often you change the oil.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Friday links
BBC Video: How to artificially inseminate a rhino.
World’s funniest analogies. Also, Everyday sayings explained.
Raising Teenagers is Hard — Regardless of Your Species.
Would You Drink Recycled Sewage?
Taxidermy TV commercial of the year.
Medical billing codes go from 18K to 140K
Today, hospitals and doctors use a system of about 18,000 codes to describe medical services in bills they send to insurers. Apparently, that doesn't allow for quite enough nuance. A new federally mandated version will expand the number to around 140,000.
Nine codes for macaw mishaps, twelve for alligators, one for crocheting.
Here are the waterski related codes:
Nine codes for macaw mishaps, twelve for alligators, one for crocheting.
Here are the waterski related codes:
| V9027XA | Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from burning water-skis, initial encounter |
| V9027XD | Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from burning water-skis, subsequent encounter |
| V9027XS | Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from burning water-skis, sequela |
| V9037XA | Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from crushed water-skis, initial encounter |
| V9037XD | Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from crushed water-skis, subsequent encounter |
| V9037XS | Drowning and submersion due to falling or jumping from crushed water-skis, sequela |
| V9087XA | Drowning and submersion due to other accident to water-skis, initial encounter |
| V9087XD | Drowning and submersion due to other accident to water-skis, subsequent encounter |
| V9087XS | Drowning and submersion due to other accident to water-skis, sequela |
| V9107XA | Burn due to water-skis on fire, initial encounter |
| V9107XD | Burn due to water-skis on fire, subsequent encounter |
| V9107XS | Burn due to water-skis on fire, sequela |
| V9137XA | Hit or struck by falling object due to accident to water-skis, initial encounter |
| V9137XD | Hit or struck by falling object due to accident to water-skis, subsequent encounter |
| V9137XS | Hit or struck by falling object due to accident to water-skis, sequela |
| V9187XA | Other injury due to other accident to water-skis, initial encounter |
| V9187XD | Other injury due to other accident to water-skis, subsequent encounter |
| V9187XS | Other injury due to other accident to water-skis, sequela |
| V9207XA | Drowning and submersion due to fall off water-skis, initial encounter |
| V9207XD | Drowning and submersion due to fall off water-skis, subsequent encounter |
| V9207XS | Drowning and submersion due to fall off water-skis, sequela |
| V9227XA | Drowning and submersion due to being washed overboard from water-skis, initial encounter |
| V9227XD | Drowning and submersion due to being washed overboard from water-skis, subsequent encounter |
| V9227XS | Drowning and submersion due to being washed overboard from water-skis, sequela |
| V9387XA | Other injury due to other accident on board water-skis, initial encounter |
| V9387XD | Other injury due to other accident on board water-skis, subsequent encounter |
| V9387XS | Other injury due to other accident on board water-skis, sequela |
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Vladamir Putin, action hero
I am not, of course, actually a fan. This is a heck of a set of pictures, though.
He must be a Heinlein admirer (from Time Enough for Love):
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
He must be a Heinlein admirer (from Time Enough for Love):
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
What Terrifies Dems re: NY-9 Loss
Kaus: It’s the possibility that the Democrats favorite issue–Social Security–didn’t work to save them because Obama, too, has embraced cutting Social Security and Medicare in “some undefined ‘everything on the table’ entitlement reform,” as Weigel puts it. Could it be that the differences between Obama’s Medicare cuts and GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare cuts–differences that seem so significant to policy analysts in Washington (and to me)–don’t have much salience in the crude argumentation of direct-mail electioneering? Now that’s scary for a Dem.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Headline of the week
Gordon Ramsey Sex Dwarf Found Dead in Badger Sett.
Um, what?
An itty-bitty porn star who hit the big time as a Gordon Ramsay lookalike has been found dead in a BADGER’S SETT!
His tiny corpse was found deep in an underground chamber by Ministry of Agriculture experts ahead of a planned badger-gassing programme near Tregaron, west Wales.
Um, what?
An itty-bitty porn star who hit the big time as a Gordon Ramsay lookalike has been found dead in a BADGER’S SETT!
His tiny corpse was found deep in an underground chamber by Ministry of Agriculture experts ahead of a planned badger-gassing programme near Tregaron, west Wales.