Crabby Blogging Lady

Why do news media outlets think it is so important to throw up (pun intended) images for their news stories? Most of them are “from the archives” or “file” images and are meaningless space wasters. Like this terrible one I saw this morning.

That’s a terrible image. Cheesy, yes. But TERRIBLE. Do we really NEED to have such an image to depict this story?!

Sheesh! While they’re at it, why don’t they just have some blood stains, or blood dripping from the knife? Why not have a severed head for a REAL eye-popping effect, huh?

Note to news organizations: skip the cheesy images. We’re all adults here. And while you’re at it, please ditch the cheesy bad breath treatment ads for “morning breath” and the underarm deodorant ads with people sniffing their armpits. They’re kinda dumb, too.

“Whoopsie!” says Google. “OOpsie!” “We didn’t know!” “A mistake!”

Thus says the Mighty G. Google Says It Mistakenly Collected Data on Web Usage

Google Inc. said an internal investigation has discovered that the roving vans the company uses to create its online mapping services were mistakenly collecting data about websites people were visiting over wireless networks.

…Google had previously said it was collecting the location of Wi-Fi hot spots from its StreetView vehicles, but not the information being transmitted over those networks by users.

“It’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) Wi-Fi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products,” wrote Mr. Eustace. “We are profoundly sorry for this error and are determined to learn all the lessons we can from our mistake.”

Well, I got my laugh for the day! They are “profoundly sorry.” Uh huh.

So while Google was roaming your area, snapping photos of your property and neighborhood, they were also harvesting data about every wireless network (home AND corporate) and the MAC addresses (that’s the identification number of your computer) of them. … so if you were sending email, Google harvested the data. If you were watching videos or getting auto insurance reviews and sending out your personal data, Google knows.

Google says they didn’t pick up secured networks or encrypted websites (rrrright).

I can’t believe the crap in the news story, though. It’s “now clear” that Google has been “mistakenly collecting” data?! Uh HUH. They didn’t know! They were ignorant! They have an excuse!

But they’ve been doing this since 2007!!!!! And they weren’t harvesting USER data “previously”; but all of a sudden, they now “mistakenly” are.

Google said it has been collecting and keeping the data since around 2007. At that time, the team building the software to gather the location of Wi-Fi hot spots mistakenly included some experimental software that sampled all categories of publicly broadcast Wi-Fi data.

“It is another example of the how the company hasn’t effectively grappled with the massive amount of information it collects,” said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

“How the company hasn’t effectively grappled with the massive amount of information”?! I’d say the people haven’t effectively grappled with the massive amount of CONTROL these people are getting over our lives!

Oh, and the kicker? Google PROMISES that they haven’t used ANY of this information for ANY Google products. So… what DID they and what ARE they using the data for?

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrright……

Oh gee. And I thought the resemblance was only behavioral. But now that I think about it…

Neanderthals mated with some modern humans after all and left their imprint in the human genome, a team of biologists has reported in the first detailed analysis of the Neanderthal genetic sequence.

The biologists, led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have been slowly reconstructing the genome of Neanderthals, the stocky hunters that dominated Europe until 30,000 years ago, by extracting the fragments of DNA that still exist in their fossil bones. Just last year, when the biologists first announced that they had decoded the Neanderthal genome, they reported no significant evidence of interbreeding.

Scientists say they have recovered 60 percent of the genome so far and hope to complete it. By comparing that genome with those of various present day humans, the team concluded that about 1 percent to 4 percent of the genome of non-Africans today is derived from Neanderthals. But the Neanderthal DNA does not seem to have played a great role in human evolution, they said.

Yeah, bright guy. That’s because there WAS no evolution. It’s all a fairy tale. There’s no evidence for it. Period. The best thing they have is finch beaks, and there ain’t no new species popping out of those birds when the beaks get bigger or smaller during good times and bad– despite Steven Jay Gould’s ridiculous proposal of “spontaneous generation.” I found this great outline of what evolutionists believe:

According to the Darwinian religious beliefs, life began in this way:

(1) There was exactly the right atmosphere—and it was completely different from the one present today.

(2) The ground, water, or ocean where life began had exactly the right combination of chemicals—which are not present today.

(3) Using an unknown source of exactly the right amount of an unknown energy, rightward amino acids formed in sufficient quantities so that …

(4) … they could intelligently combine into enormous amounts of proteins and nucleotides (complex chemical compounds in exactly specific and highly intricate interdependent sequences).

(5) Then they intelligently reformed themselves into various tissues and organs inside a “simple” main organism.

(6) The organism found something to eat that didn’t kill it (this sounds silly, but this is important) and a way to intelligently transform those nutrients into sustainable and useful energy.

(7) The simple organism did some careful thinking and highly precise planning (as with all the other points, well beyond the collective intellectual abilities of even the finest human minds living or dead), and developed a nearly infinitely complex genetic code to cover hundreds of thousands of different factors.

(8) At this point, it found someone to marry, developed a perfectly functional reproductive system, and was ready to start reproducing offspring.

The last point reveals that all the previous points had to occur within the single lifetime of just one single celled organism. Since microbes and bacteria don’t live very long, this first living pioneer had to think and act lightning fast. So fast that, I’m afraid, the entire “theory” is just an impossible dream.

Nothing is said here about irreducible complexity, too, which is basically that ALL the systems of the evolved organism (digestive, cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, etc) had to suddenly spring into being and action together and concurrently, otherwise the organism could not live. Take away one of the systems (respiratory, for example) and you got no life there. The functioning organism (such as, YOU and ME) are so complex that we could not have possibly evolved from a one-celled organism into the extremely irreducibly complex being that we are. It’s IMPOSSIBLE. It’s IMPOSSIBLE mathematically, and logically. IMPOSSIBLE.

So back to Bill Maher and his crappy show broadcasting across tv stands…. he can act like a Neanderthal all he wants… devolve as just another lusty Huxley moose… but the fact is we were CREATED. You guys want to live in a fairy tale? Go right ahead. But don’t censor our speech and force US to believe that drivel.

For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.” — Aldous Huxley, “Confessions of a Professed Atheist,” Report: Perspective on the News, Vol. 3, June, 1966, p.19.

In case you didn’t hear, the latest hoo-hah from the FTC is the suing of Lifelock, the much-heralded identity-theft protection company.

“While LifeLock promised consumers complete protection against all types of identity theft, in truth, the protection it actually provided left enough holes that you could drive a truck through it,” said Jon Leibowitz, the FTC chairman.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, one of the state attorneys general involved, was also highly critical of LifeLock.

“This agreement effectively prevents LifeLock from misrepresenting that its services offer absolute prevention against identity theft because there is unfortunately no foolproof way to avoid ID theft,” she said. [emphasis mine]

You’d better believe there isn’t any “foolproof way to avoid ID theft”! That’s because bureaucrats and businesses and banks go OUT OF THEIR WAY to invite it. Like plastered our Social Security numbers all over our tax forms?! Or allowing banks and even shoe stores and grocery stores to collect our identifying information for their reward card, which is then harvested in data banks, for any laptop-stealing thug to sift through! Hello?! How about forcing banks and cedit card companies to use better password encryption and etc for their online banking websites, huh? My online Photobucket account is more secure than my online credit card account!

Identity theft is completely avoidable!!! But the government has no intention of stopping it! Just like they have no intention of curing cancer, because that would put the medical industry out of business! Just like they have no intention of stopping the dumping of corn syrup into our foods, to stave the explosion of obesity and diabetes in this country since the 70s, because the corn industry is heavily regulated and pads a lot of pockets. Sheesh!

Oh, if only the FTC and other government bureaucrats would spend more time and energy fighting the battles that REALLY mattered, such as protecting our identity and cleaning their own houses full of corruption, lies, false advertising, and identity theft!

And how about they go after some of the real snake oil sellers out there– yeah, the companies who advertise that drinking their soda quenches your thirst, or that taking their diet pill makes you as skinny as an Ethiopian! How about dem apples?

Oh no! Everyone PANIC!

Potentially deadly fungus spreading in US, Canada

A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the northwestern United States and the Canadian province of British Columbia, researchers reported on Thursday.

The airborne fungus, called Cryptococcus gattii, usually only infects transplant and AIDS patients and people with otherwise compromised immune systems, but the new strain is genetically different, the researchers said.

“This novel fungus is worrisome because it appears to be a threat to otherwise healthy people,” said Edmond Byrnes of Duke University in North Carolina, who led the study.

It’s another evil disease! We’re alllll gonnnnnaaa DIIEEEEEE unless we get a vaccine!!!!!

Seriously: according to the news “story,” 21 people in the U.S. have died. TWENTY-ONE. Now, that’s 21 too many, of course, but this makes major news?

Moreover, the new “story” severely neglects to mention how this thing spreads. I looked it up, and it spreads through inhaling the spores, the evil spores. Here are the symptoms:

a cough that lasts for weeks, sharp chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, fever, nighttime sweats and weight loss.

Holy cow, that could be ANYTHING, even diet pills side effects. I feel that way after watching Bill Maher. Sheesh.

But I guarantee that I am NEVER seriously sick. I NEVER show signs of serious sickness, and ya wanna know why? Because symptoms ALWAYS list “weight loss” as a symptom. That just NEVER happens. I may be puking away for weeks on end, but by golly I NEVER lose that blasted weight. Healthy as a horse, I am. Two of ‘em, even. :-p

What’s going on with teachers today? Actually, not even teachers– I’ve been seeing news like this all too often. Basically, you’ve got a very well-paid government employee who steals stuff. I mean– they’re not poor. Maybe I’m so old-fashioned– I believe poor people steal because they are in want. It shocks me when rich people steal. They steal when they don’t have to steal! What the heck? Why would they do that?? Maybe they’re training for jobs as politicians, or jobs in sales??

Anyway, my remarks are due to this news story I saw today:

Auburn Police say a 3rd grade teacher at Genesee Elementary School would have students purchase lunch for him on their school lunch accounts, and he had no intention of paying them back.

Teacher ****** has been charged with three counts of petit larceny and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Auburn Police say a parent notified the Auburn School District officials last week after noticing unauthorized charges on their child’s school lunch account. School Resource Officers then conducted an investigation, and determined that [teacher] was having students purchase the lunches on their school accounts. “He would send them down to use their four digit identification code, get a lunch, punch that in and then bring that back to his class for his consumption knowing that he had no intention of paying anyone for the lunch, and in return he would allow the kids to stay in his class and use the computer,” said Auburn Police…

You know, I kinda feel for this teacher. I’m sure he didn’t “steal” because he couldn’t afford lunches. But maybe his wife has him on a diet and the poor guy is starved.

And the charge of “endangering the welfare of a child” is a little overbearing, wouldn’t you think?! Law enforcement just loves to throw “endangering the welfare of a child” around when they arrest people. Ridiculous. Kids not eating a lunch is NOT “endangering the welfare of a child”! Idjits. However, the teach did let kids on the computer. Maybe that’s what they mean. Or maybe it’s just because the children attend government schools. NOW THAT’S “endangering the welfare of a child”!