Passing the Baton

There comes a point in every man's life when you simply have to pass the baton on to the next generation and retire. Apparently, two days ago Alexander Solzhenitsyn did just that, accepting a well deserved humanitarian achievement award from Russia's latest tyrant. Some might feel mad that he didn't say anything in protest against Putin, but he really did deserve the award, and at 88 years old, I think he deserves the rest.

Geeks Only

Professor Peter Bird, a plate techtonics specialist, has an alternate map of Tolkien's Middle Earth that he's posited in the "Dessert" section of his web-page. Click for the larger version.

Things that Suck: Reliant Energy

I've never lived anywhere before where I thought about getting a "No Solicitors" sign before, but here in Irving there's some knucklehead trying to sell you something every week or so, and if you're a work-from-home type, it's kinda vexing. Not a lot vexing, just the "please don't waste my time" vexing.

So some idiot wearing a white Reliant Energy polo shirt and two different kinds of officious looking ID cards comes up to my door, introduces himself, shakes hands and says....

(drumroll, please)

I'm here in the area because the energy market has been deregulated; do you know what that means?

Needless to say, I wasn't interested in the rest of his spiel. Never take an offer from a company (Reliant Energy, in this case) that believes its customers are stupid.

RFC on Teen Employment

From The Mess That Greenspan Made (see linkbar), the following graph:



Now, I have just as much loathing of Gen-Y as does the average Gen-X loathing Gen-X'er, but even I don't have a good explanation. Is it really possible that teenagers are really this spoiled nowadays, or with so many illegal immigrants working low-end jobs is there some new "those jobs are for poor people" meme out there, or ... ?

Please speculate, or, even better, opine.

Nuff Said Dept: Inflation and the "Record" Stock Market