Nurse vs State

OK, maybe it's just me, but I think if that nurse Kaci Hickox doesn't have Ebola, then some sneaky mofo is going to try to give it to her. Watch out for any kind of "accidental" needle prick or foreign substance smeared on your bike handle bars, Kaci. The state doesn't like it when someone makes a bold stand against it and it has the capacity to do some terrible evil. If the state will drop a nuke on innocent people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, then they won't bat an eye at infecting a single outspoken nurse with Ebola.

Political Retribution via the Media

Kaci Hickox is the nurse in Maine who is defying the politicians and standing up for her rights to move about freely. Now, it's my belief that politicians and bureaucrats (i.e. the government) just want to grab more and more power and when someone gets in their way, they will be dealt with severely.

Now, you can't just go out and have this sweet do-gooder from small-town USA taken out and disposed of behind the shed, so what is our benevolent government to do? Well, let's see... the government has a pretty good stranglehold on the media, so let's find the most unflattering picture of this girl we can find...

Nope, that won't do. What, is she some kind of model? Keep searching....

Better.... she looks scornful... But still no good. Keep searching....

THERE! That's it! She looks like Anthony Perkins' mother in Psycho! She looks like she's in the last stages of not only Ebola but the bubonic plague as well! People will be screaming to have the government protect them from this hideous zombie!

Sorry, Kaci. You ran afoul of some very powerful people. Now you will be forever remembered in the media as the emaciated pile of rotting virus in the plastic window.

The Many Killings of Usama

I'm looking forward to this interview with the Navy Seal who killed Usama Bin Laden. I wonder if he's the guy who killed Bin Laden in Tora Bora, or the guy who killed him in Abbottabad? Maybe there's even another killing of Bin Laden that I didn't know about?

The Effectiveness of Campaign Ads

But if the ads weren't effective in some way, I don't think we'd be seeing so many of them. I think they are just a way to divide us and get us to keep voting. People cheer for their team's ads, and boo the opposition's and they get all excited for game day - I mean election day. But no one changes their mind based on the ads. And those in power decide which politicians will be elected and which proposition will pass, and as long as they can say they have a "mandate" then the charade of government authority continues.

Interstellar the Science?

This looks like an entertaining film that I'll probably try to see regardless of what may be a ridiculous premise of humanity's demise on Earth. And it is fascinating that the director involved Kip Thorne, one of the great theoretical physicists of our time. But Kip makes an error here:

In the end, Nolan got elegant images that advance the story. [Kip] Thorne got a movie that teaches a mass audience some real, accurate science. But he also got something he didn't expect: a scientific discovery. “This is our observational data,” he says of the movie's visualizations. “That's the way nature behaves. Period.” Thorne says he can get at least two published articles out of it.

I'm sorry, but a computer simulation can never be an observation. In the same way I didn't just drive in the Grand Prix when I put two quarters into the video game at the arcade. It was kind-of like I did, but I didn't really.

Lava Closure

Government officials are trying to make themselves useful in Hawaii as the unstoppable forces of nature do what comes naturally. So, naturally the officials came up with this:

County officials are making arrangements for those living in the lava's path to be able to watch the lava destroy their homes as a means of closure.

I'm pretty sure the home owners will have closure when they find that their home has become a big black pile of steaming rock. But thanks for trying, County officials. What would we do without you?

Private Subways

Are those CUSHIONED SEATS?

How New York City's Subway System Looked Like Before the Government Took It Over

The Value of Burger Flipping

Here's just one of the many problems with "Living Wage" arguments that came to my mind after reading Living Wages, Rarity for U.S. Fast-Food Workers, Served Up in Denmark is that the enhanced wage sends a signal to this person who flips burgers that he is actually a significant productive member of society.

Now, don't get me wrong, he IS a productive member of society, but let's not pretend that he is as productive or as significant as an entrepreneur who creates something unique and wonderful that can make all our lives better, or as someone who shares a rare skill or highly desired expertise, or someone who employs 50, 100 or 1000 employees in non-coercive endeavor.

Hey, maybe the "Living Wage" is preventing this guy from finding his true calling and fulfilling the productive potential that may be ready to burst out of him when necessity calls!

If NEED BE, we could have a machine flip the burgers, or even flip them ourselves. But the "living wage" says: "Hey, we really VALUE your burger-flipping service", when I don't think we do, really.