http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/12/06/tgithursday-our-open-line Comments On: TGIThursday, our open line by Leslie Newell Peacock en-us Copyright 2013 Arkansas Times. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Arkansas Times readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Arkansas Times. robert@arktimes.com (Arkansas Times Webmaster) Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:01 -0500 Wed, 22 May 2013 09:30:00 -0500 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by MarcKyle1964]]> Fri, 07 Dec 2012 09:39:16 -0600 Arkansas Times http://tinyurl.com/axsk4bk ) that Rick Fahr of the "River Valley Leader" wanted his own news-in-the-sky drone.

Here's a few options:
A helicopter on a string:
http://cyphyworks.com/robots/
A description:
http://nbcnews.to/SRyeS4
----
A company is developing a $99 dragonfly to hover over news sites ... or your neighbor's hot tub.
http://www.indiegogo.com/robotdragonfly
----
Homemade helicopter parenting:
http://tinyurl.com/auqxs8n

The "paranoia" that privacy is extinct is no longer a sci-fi concoction. We've accepted all these intrusions as part of everyday life:
Automated license plate trackers, GPS locators on our phones and in our cars, full-body scanners at airports, infrared cameras to observe your home activity from outside, personal tracking chips embedded under the skin, credit card records, social network data mining, and the marketing cookies that plant themselves on our computers when logging onto the AT Blog.

An ancient (1990) article about privacy and technology is an interesting (but lengthy) read. Be sure to check the table of Techno-Fallacies at the end of the article:
http://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/privantt.htm…
Posted by YossarianMinderbinder]]> Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:25:39 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Silverback66]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 23:33:11 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Doc]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:56:53 -0600 Arkansas Times The factory made garments for Walmart and suddenly all Walmart officials didn't know anything about it.

"At a meeting convened in 2011 to boost safety at Bangladesh garment factories, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) made a call: paying suppliers more to help them upgrade their manufacturing facilities was too costly.

The comments from a Wal-Mart sourcing director appear in minutes of the meeting, which was attended by more than a dozen retailers including Gap Inc. (GPS), Target Corp. and JC Penney Co.

Details of the meeting have emerged after a fire at a Bangladesh factory that made clothes for Wal-Mart and Sears Holdings Corp. killed more than 100 people last month. The blaze has renewed pressure on companies to improve working conditions in Bangladesh, where more than 700 garment workers have died since 2005, according to the International Labor Rights Forum, a Washington-based advocacy group.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-05/w…
Posted by eLwood]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:30:08 -0600 Arkansas Times
eLwood, you're right, the Colbert bit was absolutely hilarious. Thanks for the link.

As a recently-retired pharmacist, That Androgel commercial drives me up the wall on several levels. It makes my eyes hurt causing them to roll so far back in my head, it takes a couple of hours to roll them back down enough to see.

The white coated actor proudly announces that what was once 1% is now 1.62% which is absolutely meaningless unless you know how much testosterone is absorbed into the blood stream from that particular gel formulation and how much is immediately eliminated from your body, etc. They purposely leave it to your imagination as to how exactly that's going to benefit you. Well you do know that you'll be 62% badder, bigger! and more manly overall than than you were when you were on the 1% not to mention all the wimps not using it all all. Ralph becomes Rambo. Just wait till the ESPN gel comes out, in the 110% strength!

The term "Low T" also irks me. Acronyms irk me in general but now they're down to one letter! Three-letter acronyms are bad enough with duplications and general confusion but now we're too dumb for 3 letters. A pharmaceutical company has hijacked the letter "T"! Of course all this acronymizing, this dumbing-down, is just an appeal to the LCD (lowest common denominator?, liquid crystal display?--you figure it out!).

Now I know that this acronym rant probably offends all you texters and tweeters out there. So be it. But don't come running to me when your useful vocabulary gets down to about 250 units due to your 1, 2 or 3 letter combos and nobody understands what the hell you're trying to say. I wish you LOL (lots of luck) with that while I'm LOL (laughing out loud) maybe even LMAO. Nah, forget that last one--that's 4 letters and way too complicated!

I had about 18 other complaints in mind when I started all this but now I've forgotten what they were, no doubt due to low-T. I need to go anyway, I hear some kids out on my front lawn. Damn that defective razor wire!
Posted by Olphart]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:18:45 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by eLwood]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:08:48 -0600 Arkansas Times
The companies were hiring non-union workers and literacy as well as ESL problems were the root of the troubles. Union guys were refusing to work with non-union people because of the dangers.

It is not just wages and benefits that unions strike for. In some jobs, it can be life or death.

On another topic, is anyone but me enjoying the spectacle of Turtle McConnell filibustering his own bill today?

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/12…
Posted by the outlier]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 21:35:06 -0600 Arkansas Times
But as I tried watching (couldn't make it to The End), I just kept having this hideous / sad, sad / hideous vision of Mike Huckabee and Chuck Norris grabbing hold and running with this concept in the near future.

Christmas is pretty much rurnt now.
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:49:07 -0600 Arkansas Times
http://www.buckys5thquarter.com/2012/12/6/…
Posted by Cato]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 20:29:54 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Self Appointed Arbiter]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:34:49 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by plainjim]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:30:27 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Doc]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:27:45 -0600 Arkansas Times
If you're over 55 and naturally losing your natural skepticism there's an app for that. However, you gotta wash out the sink and clean the sink handles when finished, unless you're a woman and then you just use the nasal spray version of the
Big T. Colbert explains and I promise you won't be disappointed:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-r…
Posted by eLwood]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:19:26 -0600 Arkansas Times
I get that it coordinates with their matching black ensembles and everything, but I'm done. Just done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGNIDXUaVts…
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:14:29 -0600 Arkansas Times
Right on top! "UPDATE: Church Cuts 'Charlie Brown' Play After Backlash."

In this case, the end of the whole Happy Caldwell / Agape Church / Charlie Brown Christmas mishigas.

Mazel tov!

http://www.drudgereport.com/
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:05:07 -0600 Arkansas Times as demonstrated in this short video wherein Bielema outfoxes the refs and Ol Joe with a better understanding of the new rules:

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/870…
Posted by eLwood]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:42:14 -0600 Arkansas Times
Hablos de englais? At the college level?

"CDC: Language barrier caused chlorine gas leak" [in Springdale]
...
"The worker who mixed the sodium hypochlorite with the leftover acidic solution told investigators he knew such a mixture was dangerous but did not recognize the drum and could not read the label to ascertain its contents," the CDC wrote of the June 2011 incident.
.....
(Tysons claim they got the story wrong..)

The CDC noted that while more than two-thirds of the plant's workers spoke Spanish as their primary language and 12 percent primarily spoke Marshallese, a language spoken in the Marshall Islands, material safety data sheets are written in English at a college reading level.

"To help overcome language and literacy obstacles,' employers should actively engage workers in hands-on training," the CDC said, citing a 1992 study that explored safety education for workers with limited English skills. It also supports the use of symbols and simple text to highlight chemical hazards.
...
http://ap.thecabin.net/pstories/state/ar/2…
Posted by eLwood]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:36:57 -0600 Arkansas Times