Category Archives: Etc

Cute Beats Smart is an excellent curative to this horror.

My favorite part of WaitWait Don't Tell Me is “Bluff The Listener” in which the three panelists each tell us an absolutely ridiculous story…one of which is true. I get it wrong about half the time.

So here, today, are some stories from the news, the blogs, or nowhere, one or more of which might be made up. Guess which are true and which are false. Answers below.

1. “The International Space Station, once a place where astronauts would share food and facilities, is said to be embroiled in a Cold War-like stand-off after a Russian cosmonaut complained he is no longer allowed to use a US toilet or the US gym machine. Gennady Padalka, a veteran Russian cosmonaut, says that space officials from Russia, the United States and other countries now require cosmonauts and astronauts to eat their own food and follow stringent rules on access to other facilities, including lavatories. Padalka, who will be the station's next commander, says the arguments date back to 2003, when Russia started charging other space agencies for the resources used by their astronauts and other partners in space station responded in kind.”
2. Hours before the polls closed, Republican Jim Tedisco, candidate in the special Congressional election in upstate NY (NY-20, traditionally a heavily Republican district, but one where Obama did well) filed an ex parte motion, the effect of which would be to investigate and overturn the election results if he lost. He also asked for an injunction against the results being certified — even before knowing what they were.
3. My credit card company printed the following helpful message on my latest credit card statement.
   

   Helpful Tip to help prevent you from missing a Due Date. Pay your bill once you receive it. If it's paid then you can't miss the due date! Paying bills before the due date prevents the risk of late fees and extra finance charges.

   After insulting my intelligence in this way, it tried to sell me various financial products because I am a “valued cardmember”.

4. A law prof recently blogged the following bad job interview experience:
   

   Though I was only going to spend one night in a hotel, because I was flying in one morning and leaving the following night, I was given a confirmed reservation for three nights, and told just to “ignore this, it’s a billing issue.” When I checked in, I found myself housed in party suite outfitted with an enormous hot tub. It reeked of cigarette smoke, and the bed spreads were crusty with, uh, DNA.

5. Supporters of Norm Coleman, still behind in the ballot counts, suggested they could draw out legal challenges for months or years in order to keep Minnesota from having two Senators.
6. Wells Fargo Bank in California is now offering payday loans to customers whose paychecks are routinely direct-deposited. For $2 for each $20 advanced until the next payday, which equates to an Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of 120%.
7. A furious wife has called in divorce lawyers after spotting her husband's distinctively damaged car on Google Street View. It was parked outside another woman's house; he said he'd been out of town on business.
8. South Florida Daily Blog linked to this post.

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AFL-CIO NOW BLOG reports on another small first:

Last month, when first officer Stephanie Grant of Atlantic Southeast Airlines got the call to replace the co-pilot scheduled to crew Flight No. 5202 from Atlanta to Nashville, she didn't realize she and the rest of the crew were about to make history.

But Grant, along with Capt. Rachelle Jones, both members of the Airline Pilots (ALPA), and flight attendants Diana Galloway and Robin Rogers, both members of AFA-CWA, became the first all-female, all African American crew to operate a commercial flight.

Someday, perhaps, we'll run out of these.

Via Feminist Law Profs, a piece of Digitized History (mislabeled “digital history,” which to me would be a history of online activities).

As FLP says, “Wow.”

Now that the Boston Celtics have won the “world” championship, eyes are firmly set on the Euro soccer championship. The tournament has already moved to the quarter finals. It is hard to understate the impact of this event on life in most of Europe (and many other parts of the world).
Even if you are not interested in the game itself, perhaps you might enjoy my general observations on the meaning of the euro soccer championship:

• Law of supply and demand: International soccer championships are a special occasion. The European championship occurs only every 4 years. The World championship also takes place every four years. This means that there is always one year of “nothingness” in between each tournament. Artificial scarcity of supply => increase in demand.

• Global warming. Streets are empty during most games. Al Gore loves soccer championships (except victories for Turkey, see below).

• Numbers don’t add up:
o Some small countries (Croatia, Holland) perform really well on a consistent basis even though they have a small population. Most likely explanation: something in the faucet water.
o The distortion of money: one of the very richest soccer leagues in the world, England, has the best teams (see Champions league results) but underperforms on the world stage. One explanation: the money allows them to import foreign players, lowering the amount of national players in crucial positions in the league (beware MLS).

• Soccer & Steroptypes: Germany: it is not always pretty, but the outcome is always efficient. Gary Lineker famously described soccer as a game ” for 22 people that run around, play the ball, and one referee who makes a slew of mistakes, and in the end Germany always wins.”. The German soccer team always manages to beat some of the most stylish, talented teams and advance to the final stages. This years seems no different. In the first quarter final Germany beat an immensely talented Portuguese squad (3-2). The bookmakers (who are also very efficient) favor Germany as the final winner (1/4) of the tournament.

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Women More Likely Than Men To Surrender Security For Chocolate:

Women are four times more likely than men to surrender their computer passwords for chocolate, according to a survey of 576 office workers conducted outside Liverpool Street Station in London by Infosecurity Europe.

According to the survey, 45% of women revealed their passwords to strangers posing as market researchers for a chocolate bar, compared to 10% of men.

Apparently the overall percentage of password-yielding respondents this year (21%) represents an improvement over 2007, when 64% of respondents traded their security for a few moments of chocolaty goodness.

Infosecurity Europe made no mention of whether inducements tailored to men, such as sports tickets, free beer, or explicit pictures, were offered to test the possibility that the noted gender disparity might be reversed under different circumstances.

(via PogoWasRight.org)