The space shuttle era brought triumph and tragedy and a sense of the mundane to space travel. NASA’s budget was cut, and cut, and cut again. America lost its fascination with space travel. There were no more Russians to beat, and people forgot about the amazing science and benefits that accrued to us as a result of the space effort.
Every now and then, however, there was a glimmer of excitement.
The Cassini probe and others sent back breathtaking images of our outer planets, adding immensely to our knowledge of the nature of our solar system. Saturn was not the only ringed system: Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune had them too.
Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause and entered interstellar space on August 25, 2012. V’ger continues to provide the information.
On July 14 of next year, New Horizons will encounter Pluto[1], an event for which I wait with extreme anticipation.
And yesterday, the Rosetta space probe made its approach and inserted itself into orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. I had insomnia anyway, so I watched some of the live feeds.
What an astonishing accomplishment. The mathematics and engineering required to achieve this are exquisite and beyond my ken, but I admire and applaud all those who had a hand in bringing this miracle to pass (along with all the other milestones along the way.) I know someone personally who is intimately involved with the JPL, and she’s smart. So smart. My admiration for scientists knows no bounds.
Next month, if all goes well, a lander will anchor itself to the surface of the comet, and do amazing science as it rounds the sun. If it doesn’t get blown off. I’m on tenterhooks.
Mockup of the Philæ lander.
I go on record as saying that money expended on the science of space exploration is money well spent. The benefits are real and tangible as well as potential.
Just a few of the many, many things that have developed out of our space exploration effort over the years:
Cell Phone Camera
Clean Energy Technology
Scratch-Resistant Lenses
Water Filtration and Purification
CAT Scans
And of course, Velcro™.
I’m not sure if technology will ever get us as a species to a new home. Terraforming Mars is still a dream, and escaping the Solar System to find another habitable planet among the stars is still the stuff of science fiction. But I’m open to surprises, for the benefit of generations yet unseen. In the meantime, I will rejoice in each new step toward the unknown that science can grace us with.
An inspiring work from a daughter of a calligrapher for the United States Treasury Department. Louise E. Jefferson is a fascinating figure that was a key part of the Harlem Artist Guild, author and mapmaker. Here her map for the many peoples that made the nation in the 1940’s
Our nation was built on the back of so many people, I find it surprising that a very small group of people are claiming this country as “theirs” and doing all they can to keep others out. This map is intriguing and historically revealing.
So here’s the email that showed up in my inbox today:
From: Ultimate.Cure.17690762 <your.miracle.cure@highly-wondercure.com> Subject: Doctor Jailed for CURING Cancer (see why), Article No. 10754166 To: <redacted>
Today, you have a 95% chance of eventually dying from a disease or condition for which there is already a known cure right at your fingertips.
Well-respected doctors have been attacked, threatened with losing their licenses and even JAILED for sharing the information you are about to discover…
If you or a your loved one is suffering from ANY, and we mean ANY illness, chronic or acute, especially if you’ve been told it is incurable, then this is the most important message you will hear today.
View This SHOCKING Health Alert in your Browser: http://learnmore.highly-wondercure.com
(they don’t want you to know about this)
Article No. 10754166
We see this kind of thing all the time, but this particular scam infuriates me because it doesn’t just say you’re going to lose weight (açaí berries or garcinia cambogia) – it claims to cure any and all diseases, including cancer and HIV. This is cruel and dangerous – weak-minded or uneducated people will fall for this rubbish and spend their valuable money on a worthless system instead of seeking competent medical assistance. This fraud will kill people.
Have a look at some of the garbage this maddening presentation says:
Learn how to oxygenate your cells in a way that makes it IMPOSSIBLE for bacteria, cancer, or any virus to live, and create a miraculous recovery and immunity to any disease – much less the diseases that are killing us in record numbers today.
Disease and oxygen cannot be in the same space in your body.
Oxygen needs to get inside your cells in order to get rid of disease. (Solution: take a deep breath.)
Remember the oxygen therapies you will have access to have been PROVEN to CURE the most incurable illnesses to date like the HIV virus and practically all forms of cancer.
Documentation and proof of oxygen therapy curing virtually every disease we know of goes back to the late 1800s.
When you use these techniques properly, you’ll be shocked as you see physical reactions that prove the virus, bacteria or toxin is leaving the body – even if you’ve tried every therapy out there.
Use your “maintenance routine” once your illness has vaporized out of your body.
Many people the world over have been helped and yes even “cured” by these simple therapies. (Note the use of scare quotes.)
The lies and false claims continue unabated for around half an hour – cure eczema, psoriasis, regain youthful skin, whatever, you name it. As I mentioned in a previous post, with thanks to the creators of Lucky Luke:
Buzzwords, vague and oblique references to un-cited scientific studies, dropping names like Atkins, I have never seen a more evil conglomeration of mumbo-jumbo in my life.
Search Google for “Kevin Richardson Miracle Cure Scam,” and most of what you get is shill pages and affiliate recommendations. Yes, they pay people to become affiliates using another multi-level fraud:
… and I’m sure the email that started all of this is from one of their suckers. Notice that they promise up to $118.00 and change commission per sale, but they’re selling their product for less than $40.00. I’d like to see the math on that one.
Original price $97.00, but for YOU, because YOU”RE SPECIAL, and because you’re going to ACT NOW, only $37.00.
One other thing to be aware of is that if you do order, you’re giving your credit card number to extremely unethical people, and you stand a good chance of having unauthorized and/or recurring charges applied to your card, with little or no hope of getting a refund if you complain.
Attorney General offices are constantly trying to bring down such fraudsters – click through for an Iowa report on one action against a company promoting the miracle benefits of “marine phytoplankton.” The problem with scams like this is that they are like a hydra – cut off one head, and two more spring up in its place.
I write this post largely to combat all of the fraudulent information out there, in the hopes that a few people might encounter it and save their money. Please, be smart. Stay away from all such snake oil.
Last week we got a postcard in the mail (I should have thought to scan it, but didn’t realize I’d be writing about it until after the fact.) It had a big picture on the front of a Southwest Airlines jet, and the name “Southwest Airlines” emblazoned across it.
The back indicated that we had “been selected” to receive two round-trip airfare tickets to anywhere in the continental USA and two nights’ accomodation at the selected destination. A number to call was provided. In tiny print on the back was the disclaimer that all promotions were offered and redeemed by a third-party and were not endorsed by Southwest.
I’ve done this before, so we said “what the heck.” I called the number, and was a few qualifying questions:
Was I married?
Was I between the ages of 28 and 72?
Was our combined annual income over $60,000 per year?
Obviously, they’re pitching to stable, wealthy individuals. The last one of these I got I told them that my income was not quite high enough, just to see what happened, and they told me that they were so sorry, I didn’t qualify for this promotion, but sent me off on a wild goose chase to claim another booby prize which – in the end – was worth precisely squat.
So we set up an appointment, and yesterday my wife and I spent three hours listening to the pitch. We had both experienced timeshare presentations before (the telephone receptionist swore up and down that “this is in no way a timeshare presentation”) and were used to high-pressure tactics, so we thought it might be entertaining. We had lunch at a great Thai restaurant before going down, so the day would not be a total loss whatever the outcome.
The room was set up for four couples. Everyone was friendly and courteous. The slideshow lasted about an hour. The essence of the pitch was as follows:
Platinum Unlimited Membership
Resorts, houses, Condo’s (sic)
Hotels, B&B’s
All-inclusive (whatever that means)
Packages/Cruises
All Inclusive’ (sic)
Tours/Excursions, Tickets
Reward credits (Something about bonuses being refunded to us)
Restaurant Discounts
Airfare/Car Rental
Family Plan (other family members can use our plan, like at Costco)
Guest policy
20 year product $2,999
Lifetime product $4,999
$149.00 “processing fee”
$199.00/year annual dues (payable only during years one uses the product)
Special bonus for “retired people”: $1,999 for the 20 year Platinum plan, but valid only now, Now, NOW! If you want to think about it, the price will be $4,999.00.
“You’re going to be traveling “anyway,” so you might as well be saving money with this plan.” The concept of “anyway money” is a big part of timeshare pitches, based on the ones I’ve attended. The trouble is, the numbers never add up. What they’re selling you a timeshare for will usually be significantly more than the average family will spend over twenty years “anyway.”
So, assuming you’re not retired and spring for the 20 year plan, which comes close to $7,000 including the annual dues, and assuming Save On Resorts doesn’t fold during that time (they proudly trumpet an A+ rating with the BBB), what do you get for your seven grand?
Basically the services of a wholesale travel aggregator. During the pitch they dragged out four or five hypothetical destinations and showed the difference between a single scenario of pricing and their own website’s results. Usually the pitched savings were at about the 50% level. Nothing was ever said about ancillary fees or taxes or all the myriad costs that crop up during the average pleasure trip.
The pitchmen stressed the fact that when you visit multiple sites to compare airline fares, your IP address is being tracked and fares tend to jump up the more often you visit a website. This is true, but there are ways to avoid this particular scummy trick used by places like Priceline, Orbitz, Travelocity, and the airlines themselves.
They admitted that they could not save any real money on airfares, other than to “guarantee” you the lowest possible available fare “without the hassle” by using their private website. Most of the savings would come through buying their aggregated wholesale property packages. But as everyone knows, they are not the only game in town.
After the pitch, I came home and did a little research. Click through for a blog post from a reporter who attended a similar pitch from a company called “Endless Access,” also a front for Save On Resorts. It doesn’t sound too savory. What’s more, if you have to make a decision on the spot to get the best price, there’s no way to go out there and find the myriad complaints about these firms on places like Ripoff Report or Complaintsboard.com. And there are many.
I’m curious to see what my “reward” for attending the presentation amounts to. I have a certificate to fill out and send in within 30 days (or the offer is void,) purportedly fulfilled by Travel Select Rewards and/or IIG Promotions (looking for complaints about this company is a horror show.) One consumer posted this after a similar experience with Save On:
You get a card in the mail that looks like it is from Southwest Airlines offering free flights. You find out it’s really not. but an offer of free airline tickets + hotel if you listen to a 90 minute presentation from SAVEON RESORTS. They aren’t too hard sell. You go home, submit paperwork for your freebie… a month later get the info on the freebie. Turns out you have to depart only Monday or Tuesday. Your “free” coach fare cannot exceed $200 and taxes and fees you have to pay are about $120 – $220.
The full Terms and Conditions on my redemption offer can be found below in a footnote.[1]
Others have reported that you have to pay all taxes and fees before you even find out what your travel choices are; so I will duly submit my information and return and report. It is interesting to note that IIG requires you to send them a SASE in order to get your certificate (this translates as cheap bastard company.)
The bottom line is that presentations like this are almost always a bad deal for the consumer and a good deal for the company running the pitch. The presentation by Save On was not overly high-pressure, but they employed a good number of sales tactics including cherry-picking data, scarcity (offer valid only today), reciprocity (we’re offering you this great vacation, so you should sign up for our program), and others.
No one needs to pay retail prices if they are willing to do a bit of footwork. When traveling, aggregators can save you money; but there are many available on the web, and you don’t have to pay between $2K and $5K plus a recurring annual fee to use their services.
Each of the individuals below was born, not in the previous century, but in the one before that.
Misao Okawa, F, Born 5 March 1898, Japanese
Gertrude Weaver, F, Born 4 July 1898, American
Jeralean Talley, F, Born 23 May 1899, American
Susannah Mushatt-Jones, F, Born 6 July 1899, American
Bernice Madigan, F, Born 24 July 1899, American
Emma Morano-Martinuzzi, F, Born 29 November 1899, Italian
These ladies were born before the modern flyswatter and thumbtack were patented, before the assembly line was introduced, before windowed envelopes and hearing aids and postage meters and (official) teddy bears. They have lived to see genetic engineering, 3D printing, the beginning and the end of space exploration (we’re still waiting for the rebirth), and all of the other wonders of our age. That’s an amazing lifespan.
Brazil is claiming a male contender to the throne, and given the world’s population and the many areas where record-keeping is not a priority, there may be others. But what is certain is that the human body currently has a finite limit – and even when you get older than dirt, things have pretty much worn out beyond repair.
I’m reminded of an old joke, one of my favorites:
A variety show host who was interviewing three very ancient people.
The first was a hale and hearty 98-year-old, who didn’t look a day over 75. When asked the secret to his long life, he responded, “I’ve always been a vegetarian, and drink nothing but water.”
The second was 103, and while frail, still had a twinkling eye and a robust mind. His secret? “I’ve never smoked, as long as I could I would walk three miles a day, and I always read my Bible.”
The last gentleman was a shattered wreck of a man, nodding in his wheelchair and looking older than Methuselah’s grandfather. The host asked him, “And to what do you attribute your great age?” The guy wheezed out, “I smoked fifteen cigars a day. I never drank nothin’ but whisky, and lots of it. I never exercised, unless you count trying to bed every woman that crossed my path.” “And just how old are you?” asked the interviewer. Came the response: “Twenty-three.”
Truth is, we never know when the bus will come for us¹, but the more we do to take care of our corporeal chariots, the better our chances of having a higher quality of life.
Three cheers to these amazing ladies whose lives – for whatever reason – have spanned three centuries.
Saw this on Facebook today and it brought a collection of things to mind. In light of Weird Al’s recent “Word Crimes” video, I thought I’d share them, in no particular order.
Lastly, before you get your knickers in a twist, I know how to spell “grammar.” I’m just employing the conventional wisdom expressed above to increase my exposure for this post. I’ll be curious to see how many people don’t read this far and take me to task for misspelling it in the title.
You’ve probably heard the story in various incarnations. An old Navy chief, an engineer, an auto mechanic – you name it – he’s called in to diagnose a problem with some sort of engine or device. He puts a chalk mark on the machine showing where to make the repair, and sends a bill for $10,000, most of which was for knowing where to put the mark.
I always thought this was an urban legend, it appears that there may be some truth in it, if an article at the Smithsonian is to be believed; obviously no source is above scrutiny, but I know that the Smithsonian does its best to be accurate, factual, and scientific in its reporting, hence I thought it was worth sharing.
Charles Proteus Steinmetz circa 1915 – Wikipedia
From the Smithsonian Article:
Before long, the greatest scientific minds of the time were traveling to Schenectady to meet with the prolific “little giant”; anecdotal tales of these meetings are still told in engineering classes today. One appeared on the letters page of Life magazine in 1965, after the magazine had printed a story on Steinmetz. Jack B. Scott wrote in to tell of his father’s encounter with the Wizard of Schenectady at Henry Ford’s River Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
Ford, whose electrical engineers couldn’t solve some problems they were having with a gigantic generator, called Steinmetz in to the plant. Upon arriving, Steinmetz rejected all assistance and asked only for a notebook, pencil and cot. According to Scott, Steinmetz listened to the generator and scribbled computations on the notepad for two straight days and nights. On the second night, he asked for a ladder, climbed up the generator and made a chalk mark on its side. Then he told Ford’s skeptical engineers to remove a plate at the mark and replace sixteen windings from the field coil. They did, and the generator performed to perfection.
Henry Ford was thrilled until he got an invoice from General Electric in the amount of $10,000. Ford acknowledged Steinmetz’s success but balked at the figure. He asked for an itemized bill.
Steinmetz, Scott wrote, responded personally to Ford’s request with the following:
Making chalk mark on generator $1.
Knowing where to make mark $9,999.
Ford paid the bill.
The story fits well with what is known about Steinmetz, a mercurial genius of engineering. Unless we can get the plans for Professor Waxman’s time machine, there’s no way of verifying the story, but this iteration of it has a ring of truth.
Here’s my first phishing email in German, with headers:
Return-Path: majorapp@bronco.websitewelcome.com Received: from imta34.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net (LHLO
imta34.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net) (76.96.28.168) by
resmail-po-420v.sys.comcast.net with LMTP; Tue, 15 Jul 2014 13:17:57 +0000
(UTC) Received: from bronco.websitewelcome.com ([192.185.82.92])
by imta34.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net with comcast
id SdHw1o0041zWx2w0adHwbd; Tue, 15 Jul 2014 13:17:56 +0000 X-CAA-SPAM: 00000 X-Authority-Analysis: v=2.1 cv=P/wD2Ewu c=1 sm=1 tr=0
a=KztXjUqHRyz9kbsNwKbgzg==:117 a=8FReB3YSAAAA:8 a=C_IRinGWAAAA:8
a=GGcpBh7Jt_oA:10 a=trIDVAjzH2wA:10 a=rKpt8qlD2zIA:10 a=aYsrNlUn7DwA:10
a=IkcTkHD0fZMA:10 a=cc8bsT4k8mMA:10 a=srLljQ7VAAAA:8 a=QpSK2HJ8AAAA:8
a=QAZS5B4ip-KZLdxwkisA:9 a=8PHepCJaBy8WvsX-:21 a=QEXdDO2ut3YA:10
a=_W_S_7VecoQA:10 a=6xz8xM_uv-EA:10 Received: from majorapp by bronco.websitewelcome.com with local (Exim 4.82)
(envelope-from <majorapp@bronco.websitewelcome.com>)
id 1X72cF-0004OT-QT
for [redacted]; Tue, 15 Jul 2014 08:17:55 -0500 To: [redacted] Subject: Amazon.de Kundenservice X-PHP-Script: majorappliancesinfo.com/ for 93.93.69.158 From: accountcheck@amazon.de <accountcheck@amazon.de> Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Reply-To: accountcheck@amazon.de Message-Id: <E1X72cF-0004OT-QT@bronco.websitewelcome.com> Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 08:17:55 -0500 X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname – bronco.websitewelcome.com X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain – comcast.net X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID – [3638 32003] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain – bronco.websitewelcome.com X-BWhitelist: no X-Source-IP: X-Exim-ID: 1X72cF-0004OT-QT X-Source: /opt/php54/bin/php-cgi X-Source-Args: /opt/php54/bin/php-cgi /home/majorapp/public_html/wp-content/themes/twentyten/images/headers/sistems.php X-Source-Dir: majorappliancesinfo.com:/public_html/wp-content/themes/twentyten/images/headers X-Source-Sender: X-Source-Auth: majorapp X-Email-Count: 9 X-Source-Cap: bWFqb3JhcHA7emV2eW9zMjticm9uY28ud2Vic2l0ZXdlbGNvbWUuY29t
Wir brauchen Ihre Hilfeaufgrund der steigenden Zahlungsausfalle mittels Lastschrift- und Rechnungszahlung,
ist es in Zukunft leider nicht mehr moglich, eine Zahlung bei Amazon.de mit diesen Zahlungsarten ohne hinterlegte Kreditkarte zu tatigen. Daher ist es notwendig, dass alle Kunden eine Kreditkarte als Zahlungsmittel hinterlegen.
Sollten Sie bereits eine Kreditkarte hinterlegt haben, bitten wir Sie, die bereits hinterlegte Kreditkarte zu verifizieren. Sollten Sie noch keine Kreditkarte besitzen, legen wir Ihnen gerne die Amazon VISA-Kreditkarte ans Herz. Nutzen Sie zur Verifizierung bitte den folgenden Link: Zum Sicherheitsverfahren – http://amazon.acountingdatacheck.com (Notice that this is not a valid Amazon.de URL)
Bitte beachten Sie, dass Sie Ihr Amazon.de-Kundenkonto ohne hinterlegte Kreditkarte in Zukunft nicht mehr nutzen konnen.
Mit freundlichen Grußen,
Ihr Amazon.de Kundenservice
In short, they’re saying that I can no longer use my current credit card and need to add a couple more. The bogus link takes you to a bogus Amazon page
where you get to divulge all of your credit card and banking data.
Please be careful out there. So many evil and unprincipled drones want your money, and will stop at nothing to get it.
Recently a sound file has gone viral, in which a Comcast customer “service” rep brutally disallows a customer from disconnecting his service. It’s painful to listen to.
In the wake of this event, a redditor who used to work for Comcast explained pretty clearly why agents have a financial incentive to do this, and why Comcast has such a deservedly bad reputation. Read the post and judge for yourself:
edit: I think this thread (the OP) got removed/deleted from /r/television[1] … interesting.
I’ve been an employee of Comcast for almost the last 9 years, as an SBA in BI, NE&TO, Customer Service and Marketing. I worked for Comcast Corporate (meaning the headquarters in Philly) so I dealt with all of our divisions and regions for the US, because of my position I was frequently in budget/planning meetings and was handling data for subscribers for the same, I’ve seen down to the penny the monthly earnings for years, I know how much goes to tax, how much is pure profit, I know what the total payroll cost for the company is, etc – I wasn’t a high level executive or anything, I’m a data analyst, I analyze [things]. I left the company a few months ago, so I’m not really worried about saying anything here (I also never signed anything requiring me not to disclose anything I’ve said or am about to say.)
When you call into the IVR (the 1800 comcast that makes that annoying clicking noise) and you answer the prompts (1 for cable tv, 2 for high speed internet, etc and then 1 for new service or 2 for a problem etc etc) you get routed to a specific department.
When you call in to disconnect, you get routed to the Retention department, their job is to try to keep you. The guy on the phone is a Retention Specialist (which is just a Customer Account Executive who takes primarily calls from people disconnecting their service.)
If I was reviewing this guys calls I’d agree that this is an example of going a little too hard at it, but here’s the deal (and this is not saying they’re doing the right thing, this is just how it works). First of all these guys have a low hourly rate. In the states I’ve worked in they start at about 10.50-12$/hr. The actual money that they make comes from their metrics for the month which depends on the department they’re in. In sales this is obvious, the more sales you make the better you do.
In retention, the more products you save per customer the better you do, and the more products you disconect the worst you do (if a customer with a triple play disconnects, you get hit as losing every one of those lines of business, not just losing one customer.) These guys fight tooth and nail to keep every customer because if they don’t meet their numbers they don’t get paid.
Comcast uses “gates” for their incentive pays, which means that if you fall below a certain threshold (which tend to be stretch goals in the first place) then instead of getting a reduced amount, you get 0$. Let’s say that if you retain 85% of your customers or more (this means 85% of the lines of businesses that customers have when they talk to you, they still have after they talk to you), you get 100% of your payout – which might be 5-10$ per line of business. At 80% you might only get 75% of your payout, and at 75% you get nothing.
The CAEs (customer service reps) watch these numbers daily, and will fight tooth and nail to stay above the “I get nothing” number. This guy went too far, you’re not supposed to flat out argue with them. But comcast literally provides an incentive for this kind of behavior. It’s the same reason peoples bills are always fucked up, people stuffing them with things they don’t need or in some cases don’t even agree to.
Comcast wasn’t always that bad, I watched the steady decline over the years I was there – and the attitude that is pervasive in customer service flowed over into the other departments like a cancer. There is a giant propaganda machine at Comcast focused on the employees, they send out emails and brochures and have the bigwigs come in to talk about things like why net neutrality is bad and encourage the company (via emails to every employee) to speak out against it.
I left because the culture there is disgusting, there is nothing redeemable about the behavior, and it’s just headed in a worse direction. The people who try to advocate for customers are liquidated.
I say it as a loyal Comcast employee for almost a decade, if you have Comcast – get out now, you’re just wasting your money. They’re going to increase your bill 3-5% twice a year, it’s part of the annual budgeting process even though our costs actually go down. The internet business (as in, high speed customers) is almost purely profit, and it’s turned down on purpose like everyone here already knows. Comcast has DOCSIS 3 capabilities and the infrastructure to support it in most major areas (this means gigabit speeds, by the way) – it can be activated simply by pushing the proper bootfiles out to the modems. This can be evidenced anywhere they have competition, they can respond overnight.
If there’s not a serious change in legislation or regulation, I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel.
(take this with a grain of salt, I’m not going to post anything personally identifiable, if you don’t believe me – you don’t have to. edit: Not that it’s really proof, but here’s a post[2] a year ago where I respond specifically mentioning that I’m a Comcast employee (at the time) )
edit: adding a TL;DR
TL;DR – Comcast provides heavy incentives for this kind of behavior, it’s been on a steady trend heavily towards this for years, the entire corporate culture is toxic and there is a pervasive ‘us against them’ attitude. Also the profit margin is insanely big. You shouldn’t do business with Comcast.
Of course, Comcast is publicly apologetic, but one would expect no different.
This is pretty scary. /u/txmadison’s comment about regular billing increases is spot-on; I’ve been a Comcast customer for over 15 years, and my bill has more than doubled since I first signed up. I also need to check my bill carefully to see if they’re stuffing spurious charges on there. I definitely need to make a change, but my disincentives are two:
My area has limited options; 20 miles to the north, Google Fiber is doing big business, but not in my town *weeps bitterly
I’m not that excited to change my email address, which I’ve had for over 15 years.
That said, I think the time has come. I don’t like the idea of being systematically abused by a corporation that has so little regard for its customers.
I make misteaks when I’m writing. But I try not to make big ones, and I do my best to correct them when they occasionally crop up.
These gigantic erasers have been around since I was a kid in the 50s; fortunately I have never needed one that big. Whilst typing, I can’t ever seem to spell “friend” right the first time; it’s just a quirk, I suppose.
That said, I am always gobsmacked when I see people confusing loose and lose, or their/there/they’re, or its/it’s. Maddening. I tend to be a descriptive linguist rather than a proscriptive one, knowing that languages flow like the mighty Mississippi river over time, and that usage is king – but there’s a difference between colloquialisms and ignorantisms (that last is a neologism.)
Now comes Weird Al, with his second music video in a stream of 8, released one each day. I’ve always loved his work, and this one immediately rose to the top of my favorites list because of the subject matter, near and dear to the heart of a linguist.
Playing in the World Game 
