More Spiders!

So, I missed a good picture opportunity Tuesday night when I hobbled out of my car at home. There was a huge spider on the wall of my "garage" and I didn't snap a picture of it. Today, however, I finally watched my cousin's video, titled (in a different uncle's font)

Uncle Tommy and the Jaguar in the Corn Field

The video's high point, for me, was the shot of a GIANT SPIDER near the end. This is shot in Wisconsin, in Septemeber. I can only assume that the white stuff on the ground is fertilizer, maybe the audio on the video explains this, but I couldn't hear the audio well. Click on the image to go to the video.

 

People are Stupid, Part 1

Last night, I learned that a woman who HAD CANCER that was detected by a mammogram at the age of 42 went and canceled her surgery to remove the cancer because of the new guidelines. At 42, this woman may have already had children, so when she dies, she won't be able to get a Darwin award, but she certainly deserves one. This is the concern - that stupid people will be stupid and do shit like this. Frankly, I could not care less about stupid people who ignore diagnosed problems. I think a lot of energy is lost trying to help people who are demonstrating no desire to help themselves (the cost issue has been ignored in this case, on my part, but the fact that cost is a factor in having life saving procedures is the fault of our shitty system anyway).

Then there are the emotional outbursts from people who think that the guidelines would work as restrictions and no woman under 50 would be able to get a mammogram. These people are idiots. The guidelines clearly state that this is ONLY the case for women who are not otherwise deemed to be at high risk for breast cancer. I understand the concern that this may mean that health insurance providers may stop paying for these screenings, which, when done correctly, save lives. Republicans are using this as a political football too, even though they have demonstrated that they have no problems with cutting off funding for procedures that save women's lives. But the problem with that argument is that the fault there lies with the ruthless tactics of the health insurance industry, not with well reasoned guidelines.

I can't emphasize that word enough - guidelines. Furthermore, these are guidelines for women who are not otherwise at high risk. Paranoid women and women with an ancestral history of breast cancer can get their damn mammograms every year, every 6 months if they really want it. However, had nobody ever come out and said that women under 50 need to have this done, we wouldn't be in this situation. I'm just glad that the paranoia didn't reach a point where they started proclaiming that women get mammograms in their 30's. After all, I do know women who have had breast cancer that early too.

[sarcasm]And lets not even try to think of better cancer screening procedures while we continue to post x-rays of women's breasts on the nightly news all the time, we're saving lives by barbarically smashing body parts and then posting them to the public![/sarcasm]

No Indication of Terrorism at Fort Hood

You know, if that was a true statement - as I saw posted on CNN tonight while at the gym - that would mean that this is an ordinary week at Fort Hood. Soldiers getting ready to deploy, processing physicals, and watching the tearful families separate. That would mean no "terrorism" occurred. Instead, someone shot at people without noticeable provocation, injured a bunch, and killed about a dozen of them. However, it seems like terrorism got re-defined in the last decade to the acts of people working for organizations. If the OKC bombing happened now, would we breathe a sigh of relief that this wasn't "terrorism"?

E-mail written by [Bananaman]

Dictated to E*** Z****

I got this feelin' - R** C****** is near. Yes, November 19, 2009, on college campuses near you, the R** C****** Posse of Idiots will come knocking to tell you how great God is, how baaaad Hitler is, and how somehow, he was Darwins' gay lover? I read some of the piece - well, I skimmed part of it when we looked at at SANE - I would read it, but I've already had one brain injury, and they say that the next one will be worse.

Alternet had a post about R**'s celebrities, Kirk Cameron and Ben Stein, passing out this 50 page fairy-tale piece. I didn't read the article, but I saw some comments, including this one.

The real story here is the big cash behind making stuff up. We live in a world where all the scientists believe in man-made climate change but half the population doesn't. In general, if the science doesn't suit a big company we get a science-washing campaign. This goes back to the 1920s when doctors endorsed cigarettes to make women slim. Then Exxon/Mobil bought a climate change campaign, the nuclear industry bought a radiation is good for you campaign, coal became clean coal (use it like soap!). This evolution serves Jesus deal is just one more schtick.

50,000 copies, for free, and lots of money put into the product. Of course the public will buy it!

-Source

I find the highest moral offense of Martin Luther to be valuing faith over works, but how else to sell a lie?

More Like Project Funway

This year's season on Lifetime is much more melodramatic than the Bravo seasons. I don't root for any of the designers to win, and things seem less "real". Maybe it is their location in LA, maybe it is the new network. In the middle of the season it became clear that the design skill was split by gender, which is not normal for this show. Christopher needed to go, as did Logan. Nicholas was annoying sometimes, but he was more talented and creative than Logan and Christopher. Chris was one of my Minnesota boys, so I enjoyed watching him, but his dresses were all "play on volume" crap, emphasis on the crap. Logan was boring and no, I did not find him to be attractive, I don't know what everyone is so excited about. I was so happy to see him go, yet Christopher is still here. Here is how I think it should shake out.

Winner: Irena, but I will not be surprised if Carol Hannah wins.

Bryant Park, no win: Althea, possibly Gordiana (but unlikely), and Carol Hannah

Next off: Chris (retroactively enforced five episodes ago) and Gordiana

Spider Time

So, I pledged a whole blog section about spiders, but apparently, there is only ONE post tagged with spiders. This is wrong. I have seen some good ones lately, including this one on a stop sign near my place.



I saw another big one a month ago or so. A couple was looking at it. Can you see it?

Late Night BART

I just got home around 4 or so after riding the BART from Powell. My friend and I got to Powell, camped out on the floor, then consumed ourselves untangling his Mardi Gras beads. Some girls near us caught his attention too and one was dressed as the raisin lady. He only noticed that after staring at the raisin box she gave him for a while. At 4 minutes to the train for Con-cord, people stood up. My friend got up when it about one minute. The group convened near the black tabs and I worried that someone might fall off into the train. When the train neared, we cheered and then we began to pack the train. I was wedged around a bunch of guys, one bald-headed white guy was drunk and also seemed to have wandering hands twice. He also accidentally slapped me on the tunnel, which I found pretty amusing.

We stopped at Embarcadero, but we had been packed at Powell. The conductor was not very patient with us, but at the same time, the people in the middle of the cars could have gotten closer. I looked around and saw nothing but passed out heads with arms clinging to the bars. Halloween zombies hanging from the handrails on the train who were not moving. I made room where I could, and the conductor threatened to take the train out of service if the doors could not close. We started, stopped instantly, then started again. And we were on our way under the bay. That tunnel took forever this time, and we had to wait until 12th Oakland to stop.

People, including me and my friend, poured out of the Con-cord bound train and I followed my friend onto an almost empty car going up through Berkeley to Richmond. We had to wait for a second train from San Francisco, but then we were off on the Richmond bound train - well, El Cerrito del Norte bound. We were to stop at MacArthur, Downtown Berkeley and El Cerrito del Norte. I guess the BART thought, "screw Richmond."

A couple of times during the night I got to note on our being a part of SF history with our BART ride. The Halloween Party Commute, 2009.