Tonya and PQBON's WebLog
To help explain its deep slump, General Motors Corp. often cites "legacy costs," including pensions for its giant U.S. work force. In its latest annual report, GM wrote: "Our extensive pension and [post-employment] obligations to retirees are a competitive disadvantage for us." Early this year, GM announced it was ending pensions for 42,000 workers.
But there's a twist to the auto maker's pension situation: The pension plans for its rank-and-file U.S. workers are overstuffed with cash, containing about $9 billion more than is needed to meet their obligations for years to come.
Another of GM's pension programs, however, saddles the company with a liability of $1.4 billion. These pensions are for its executives.
This is the pension squeeze companies aren't talking about: Even as many reduce, freeze or eliminate pensions for workers -- complaining of the costs -- their executives are building up ever-bigger pensions, causing the companies' financial obligations for them to balloon.
Companies disclose little about any of this. But a Wall Street Journal analysis of corporate filings reveals that executive benefits are playing a large and hidden role in the declining health of America's pensions. Among the findings:
One reason executive pensions have grown so large is that they are linked to ballooning overall executive compensation. Companies often design retirement payouts to replace a percentage of what a person earns while active.
This rings pretty true with my view on both Fords and GMs problems.
Both companies whine about the legacy costs, however, they aren't loosing market share because their cars/trucks are prices higher to cover their legacy costs. They are losing market share because people will pay MORE for imports (from Japan, Germany, England...) that don't suck. Or for vehicles built in this country that aren't bland homogenized junk (a lot of SUVs and trucks offered by "foreign" companies are built and in some cases actually designed in the US).
SignOnSanDiego.com > Sports -- Padres continue to treat fallen LaChappa as one of their own
Matt LaChappa hasn't thrown a pitch professionally in 10 years. He is confined to a wheelchair, and constrained by the physical fallout from back-to-back heart attacks.
Yet the Padres continue to pay him as if he were an active player. It might be the noblest thing they do.
This is one of the coolest things I've ever heard of coming out of profesional sports.
"Futurama" gets new life on Comedy Central - Yahoo! News
"Futurama" has a future.
Comedy Central has resurrected the former Fox animated series from "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. At least 13 new episodes will be produced -- the first since the series' original run from 1999-2003.
WOOOHOOO!!! Futurama is coming back!
MiamiHerald.com | 06/22/2006 | Condoms lower cancer-causing virus infections
For the first time, scientists have proof that condoms offer women impressive protection against the virus that causes cervical cancer.
A three-year study of female college students -- all virgins at the start -- found that women whose partners always wore a condom during sex were 70 percent less likely to become infected with the human papilloma virus, or HPV, than those whose partners used protection less than 5 percent of the time.
''That's pretty awesome. There aren't too many times when you can have an intervention that would offer so much protection,'' said Dr. Patricia Kloser, an infectious disease specialist at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey who was not part of the study.
OLD ARGUMENT
Condoms have been shown convincingly to prevent pregnancy and AIDS. But conservatives who want to see abstinence taught in schools have long argued that condoms do not protect well against diseases such as HPV, because men can spread the virus from sores on their genital area not covered by a condom.
So lets summarize: Abstinence only (lack of-)education: 1) creates a higher chance of not using any STD protection or birth control during sexual contact, 2) doesn't work; it hasn't meaning fully changed the average age of sexual activity, and 3) uses, now documented, lies to discourage the uses of any form of std or pregnancy protection. But hey, lets put MORE money into abstinence only education because it works so well.
A demo of a new 3d desktop metaphor for use with pen computing:
BumpTop Desktop
Apparently they presented at CHI this year. Anyone see it? Anyone get to actually try the demo?
User interface specialists (I'm looking at you meta) what do you think about this concept?
People have been positing 3d interactivity for ages. The advent of the long dead vrml of the late 90s promised total virtual worlds in the web, complete 3d for all websites. I was taken in. I even did some VRML websites in an attempt to be on the bandwagon as it left the station. It never really did leave the station. Will this? Or will this be much like the SGI 3d desktop featured in the original Jurassic Park movie?
AP: Police got phone data from brokers - Yahoo! News
Is there any part of the Constitution that current government hasn't used as toilet paper? This is not rhetorical, is there?
My new job... OK, 1 year old job. So I've been at Intel for a year. My job is very different from what my old job at Netapp was. At Intel my job is to enable to other peoples products and to understand them and suggest enhancements to enable Intel architectures.
At Netapp I was a product enabler. I was pulled from project to project to ensure the product would ship and ship on time with complete functionality. When I think back I can count 11 distinct products that I contributed substantively. I was the antithesis of two other engineers (who I won't name) who worked on everything that didn't ship or worked on experiments that were confined to the lab, or some bug fixes for shipping products.
All in all it is very different at Intel where I don't have products on the shelf or web that I can point to an say that is what I work on.
Netapp products that I worked on:
LIers turn out for last look at F-14 -- Newsday.com
Hundreds of former Grumman employees and aviation buffs paid their last respects yesterday to a soon-to-retire jet that, for decades, defined Long Island industry.
"Pound for pound, it is the best aircraft that the United States ever had," said John Lampasone, who worked at Grumman for 24 years. "And it's a shame that they're taking it out of service."
I was 8 when Top Gun came out, but even before that time I wanted to be an F-14 pilot. After top gun I REALLY wanted to be an F-14 pilot or a blackbird (SR17) pilot or maybe a scientist who flew an F-14 on the weekends...
I've come a long way since then; crushed when I learned a kid with glasses and asthma could never join the military much less be a pilot in either the Navy or Airforce and that people can't buy F-14s or blackbirds for private use. I moved on with my life goals but the F-14 has always held a place in my heart (as had the blackbird). For a plane that was started at the end of the 60s it is simply amazing: 24 target tracking, mach 2.5+ cruising, carrier landing and take off, swingwings, and packing the long range advanced (for the time) phoenix missle.
Of note the F14 is flown by one other airforce... the Iranian airforce. We sold them a some planes, took the money delivered some planes (not all) and no support. It is unclear if they have been able to keep the planes in the air by scavenging and making parts on their own.
Tomcat Alley has tracked all produced Tomcats.
wcco.com - 3-Year-Old's Birthday Party Theme: 'NewsHour'
When a young St. Paul boy got to pick the theme for his third birthday party, he didn't pick Nemo or the Wiggles or Dora the Explorer. He didn't even pick his favorite sports team.
Henry Schally picked "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer".
The video that accompanies this story won't be around for that long but it is worth watching. It demonstrates that the kid really does watch the show. He can name most if not all of the top US government figures. Also it is interesting to see the rawness of the video cut in smaller market news. At one point the interviewer asks that parents if the kid is going to grow up to be a dork.
CANOE -- CNEWS - Weird News: World’s largest photo planned
Walk into the massive air hangar and the first thing you notice is an oppressive darkness broken only by a tiny beam of light from a gumball-sized hole in the wall.
Then, slowly, an upside-down image emerges on the opposite wall that is startling in its clarity — a dilapidated air traffic control tower, an overgrown runway and palm trees clustered amid rolling hills.
Once home to roaring fighter jets, this decommissioned Marine Corps hangar is now the world's largest camera poised to take the world's largest picture.
If all goes well, within days the hangar-turned-camera will record a panoramic image of what's on the other side of the door using the centuries-old principle of camera obscura.
An image of the former El Toro Marine Air Corps Station will appear upside down and flipped left-to-right on a sheath of light-sensitive fabric after being projected through the tiny hole in the hangar's metal door. The fabric is the length of one-third of a football field and about 3 stories tall.
This is pretty awesome... the camera not the reclaimation and destruction of El Toro.
So the U.S. government is starting a campaign against bottle-feeding. Calling it as risky as smoking during pregnancy. I find this completely insulting. I agree that breast-feeding should be encouraged and that the benefits should be promoted, but to lump non-breastfeeding mothers in with women who choose to put their children at risk by smoking is disgusting.
More in extended
I tried for a month to breastfeed Katie but it just didn't work. After 2 weeks, she was still losing weight (by then she was supposed to be up to her birth weight, 7lb 7 ounces and she was only 6lbs 10 ounces) plus she was on the verge of dehydration. So supplementing with formula was required. For the next 3 weeks, I tried herbal supplements, an herbal tea, and pumping to increase my supply. Nothing helped. I was so sad that I couldn't breastfeed. It really bothered me. We had taken the breastfeeding class before she was born so I'd be prepared and they had made me feel so guilty about even feeding her breast milk in a bottle. Now to not breastfeed at all made me feel horrible.
When questioning my family it seems that a lot of women had problems breastfeeding. My mother had to stop with me for the same reason and with my brothers she had to be on anti-seizure meds so she wasn't allowed to breastfeed.
I think people assume that just because its a natural process, breastfeeding just happens. If someone doesn't breastfeed its because they made a decision not to. Thats not always true. While talking to other women, you find that a lot of us have problems with supply. We want to breastfeed but we just don't have enough. Then there are other women who can't because of complications like meds they have to be on or babies that are unable to feed normally. I think the fact that they have classes and books and groups and websites, ect........dedicated to breastfeeding should tell you that it's not all that easy. And to tell these women, who try but fail at breastfeeding, that they are putting their child at risk like a women who smokes during pregnancy is offensive and sad. Do we really need to make women feel more guilty about a decision they didn't even get to make? Believe me I feel guilty enough that Katie wasn't breastfed. I know all the benefits, not only to her, but for me also. I really don't need the government to tell me I'm a bad mother because my body doesn't seem to know how to produce milk.
OK, I'll admit I was late to the Google search game. It was the in search engine when I was still using yahoo. Actually, for a long time I was a yahoo boy. I was a my-yahoo beta tester some time around 1995. I had a yahoo email account as soon as they offered it. I preferred Friendster to Orkut and I've been using flickr for over a year (although since getting married I just haven't had time to take and process many pictures nor had a good computer to do it on!). However, recently Google has introduced things that have done a great job speaking to me. Google maps has always been cool. Things like the combined satellite view has always put it to the head of my list. But recently Google labs has released some great tools.
I've been using the google tool bar for Firefox for a while now. It has many great features, including a good spell checker! But it has some cool features that I use but less often (I suck as spelling!) like malware site warnings, extra info on sites (cache copy, similar pages, links to the page), active page data mining (phone numbers, addresses, etc.). My biggest complaint is the fact that it doesn't play nice with the built in search abilities of firefox. I would rather it work with it rather then replace it awkwardly. Rating: XXX (the feature I use most is just an incidental feature)
Speaking of Firefox - I've been using Google firefox browser sync. I now have my desktop at Microsoft, my Intel laptop and my home laptop syncing some of the browser configuration. I had problems with installing it on one computer. I had to delete my entire browser profile and start over, but lucky for me, that browser config was copied from a different computer (that may have been the problem). Now, all three computers have consistent bookmarks, and cookies. I've chosen not to sync history since I'm not sure I want my work system to log my personal web browsing on my work computer, nor do I want my work histories at home where someone could use them to map intranets that I have access to. Rating: XXXX
I have fought and resisted RSS for years now. Yes, I know everyone is doing it. I know every site has an RSS feed these days, even sites that don't need them. However, I have been unable to find one that really met my needs. I tried Flock, I tried aggreg8, Pluck, and a bunch of others that didn't work for me. I've finally found google reader. It allows me to use n (where n is currently about 3) computers and still not reread things I've seen before. It also allows me to filter if I want to. I'm at the point where I use it for every site other then Fark. The problem with fark is that the RSS feed still requires you to go to the fark item to open the external link. This makes reading fark with an RSS reader useless in my book. Google reader is much like an Apple application. It does what it does well, but don't try to customize it because you can't. However, there are some interesting features. Google reader re-syndicates your RSS as an aggregator. It lets you tag your threads and filter on tags so you can read specific site groups. There aren't too many other features. However, the golden feature for me is a global read unread list. Rating: XXX
Over all Google is doing a good job in inserting itself into my life. Hopefully they will continue to promote applications from the lab to full supported permanent apps. Their firefox extensions are usefull and so far well written and stable. Hopefully they will continue to provide more.
Cervical cancer vaccine approved / Sexually transmitted disease treatment raises ethics debate
"It's naive to think that girls are not going to get into a situation where they might have sex before whatever age you want them to be," Tori said. "You may want to preach a particular family value, but whether or not that actually occurs is beyond your power. If you can protect your child from getting a life-threatening illness, absolutely, sign them up right now."
This is the most rational response to this I have seen. I can't believe there is anyone who wouldn't want there kids to have this. Then again, I can't believe that this day in age people argue that teaching kids that condoms prevent the sped of disease is considered controversial...
Local & State News - Tampa Bay's 10 - tampabays10.com
A man shot his next door neighbor Monday evening, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office reported. Under Florida law, he may never be charged.
This is exactly what opponents of the "stand your ground" laws said would happen.
Wired News: Genetic HIV Resistance Deciphered
Some people have a genetic predisposition to being immune to the HIV virus. We know this simply because there are people who live exceedingly risky lifestyles who have not contracted the disease. There are people who have multiple documented exposures yet are still not infected with the virus. Scientists are just now able to understand why. There are multiple genes that control a person's susceptibility to HIV. There is one identified mutation the makes a person immune to HIV. There are other mutations that simply make a person less prone to infection.
This article does a good job summing up the details.
Before you go to the extend visit the link...
UPDATE: I guess the illusion doesn't actually work for me... I didn't read close enough to read that you are supposed to see color. I don't, I see it as black and white as soon as the image flips. My bad!
How many of you fell for it?
If you open the source of the webpage you will see:
MM_swapImage
And:
onMouseOver=MM_swapImage
Google Browser Sync
Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings - including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords - across your computers. It also allows you to restore open tabs and windows across different machines and browser sessions. For more info, please visit our FAQ.
I have been waiting for this since the web came to be. Not having all my browser settings every where has been a major PIMA (pain in my ass). Del.icio.us is close, as it lets me take bookmarks everywhere (except with Del.icio.us you can't really organize since it all comes back in one big RSS clump).
Yeah! Today is a good day to be a firefox user!
Vie Tiny Screenfuls
Via Wonkette
I have huge respect for Henry Rollins (first of Black Flag then of Rollins Band). This is a video of Henry Rollins writing and narrating a letter to Anne Coulter.
Henry Rollins: A Love Letter To Ann Coulter
WARNING: Video is NSFW!
I've taken steps to prevent comment SPAM. It may have broken the comment system (I don't think it did, I tested it and everything seems fine...)
If you have a problem try shift reload on the form that submits the comments as they have changed and you may be using a cached copy...
Details in extended...
I renamed the comment CGI script so that code that just grabs the default MT script and runs through the entry numbers doesn't work.
I also add a new hidden field to the comment submission form. This will break anyone submitting comments to the CGI forms that isn't using the forms on PQBON.com. I suspect this will stop most if not all of the comment spam.
My final solution will entail some active/reactive countermeasures.
I have some plans for active countermeasures but I haven't implemented them yet. I'll post more when I do.
Katie has been trying to roll from her back to her tummy for a little while now. She rolled from her tummy to her back at 2 months because she hated tummy time. So lately, she would get almost all the way over but couldn't figure out how to get her arm out from under her. Well today she figured it out. I managed to take a couple pictures before she realized that she really doesn't like being on her tummy and started crying.
The Million Dollar Homepage was attacked by a DDoS group demanding first $5,000 (before the attack) then $50,0000 (during the attack). Many people role over in this situation. More then a few small companies have been driven out of business trying to fight DDoS attacks and even large companies tend to just pay the demand as a cost of business issue. That has always bothered me. I've always felt that by paying these guys you are just enabling them to attack again and given them no reason not to.
However, where this story gets interesting is the kid that started The Million Dollar Homepage decided to fight back.
Regarding the attack on the site and the associated ransom demand, I'm happy to report that I did not pay a penny of the $50,000 that the perpetrators of this technological attack were after. I'm also happy to report the site is back online thanks to the great work of my hosting company, Sitelutions, and DDoS-prevention technology ProxyShield® provided courtesy of Gigeservers / DDoSprotection.com. Thanks guys, I appreciate your hard work in getting The Million Dollar Homepage back up and running again, after almost 6 days offline.The companies who fight this kind of attack should be lauded and well compensated. GigeSERVERS and DDoS Protection were the companies who traded with The Million Dollar Homepage. However, there are others.
Not every one has stood up to DDoS attacks. Recently an aggressive anti-SPAM technology company, Blue Security, was taken out and folded due to DDoS and other online attacks. I was saddened by this statement:
"It's clear to us that [quitting] would be the only thing to prevent a full-scale cyber-war that we just don't have the authority to start," Reshef said.Who has the authority? I don't see the US government actively or proactively engaging in stop this. At least this is clearly a threat to Americans and their well being.
Here is more info on the Blue Security issue.
For a good account of one of the first cases of standing up to the cyber-criminals: How a Bookmaker and a Whiz Kid Took On an Extortionist”and Won - CSOonline.com
Wired has a story on the Millon Pixel Homepage and Boing Boing was the first site that pointed me to the the Million Pixel DDoS story: Boing Boing: Million Dollar Homepage kid thwarts blackmailers
Pentagon to omit Geneva ban from new army manual: report - Yahoo! News
Omitting the Geneva provisions may make it harder for the administration to portray such incidents as aberrations, the paper noted, saying it would also undercut contentions that US forces follow the strictest, most broadly accepted standards when fighting wars.
Omitting the Geneva bans also make it hard to stand on higher ground in a conventional war. It is hard to expect your opponent to follow rules you, yourself don't follow. By breaking from the conventions the DoD is putting future solders at risk.
Rocky Mountain News: Local
What's gone from Colorado:
4 Chinook helicopters, 3,000 gallons, and 7 Black Hawk helicopters, 660 gallons, all en route to Iraq.**Colorado National Guard Backup Is Nebraska National Guard. All But One Of Its Helicopters Is Also En Route To Iraq. Source: State, Federal Wildfi ...
The war on terror and illegal immigration has yet another non-obvious cost. With the national guard being used as a source of the "largest volunteer army" the various jobs they filed in their home states comes to light. In this case they were a big asset to the Colorado wilderness firefighters.
I wonder how California will fare with its guard units split between the Mexican border and the war in Iraq?
Its a good thing we don't live in a time of political and social tension... since the guard is often used to quell large riots and things...
Some high school criminology students in Fort Lauderdale got a taste of the real thing this morning.
To me, the news isn't that some student criminologist bumped into a dead homeless guy. To me the story is that there are highschool students studying criminology.
I find this kind of specialization in highschool classes appalling. I'm not even talking about that fact that most highschool students don't really know what they want to be when they grow up. I'm talking about something as specialized as criminology when the students don't have the basics down.
Students shouldn't be allowed to graduate with out algebra, geometry, 4 years of english, biology, chemistry, and physics. For science I'm not talking about life sciences or physical science, I'm talking about real physics and chemistry.
In this example, criminology, it is the combination of physics, chemistry, and psychology. First lets posit that the students have taken physics and chemistry and actually understand them. The next thing they should be doing is taking psychology... but I doubt everyone in the criminology class can explain HOW a lightbulb works or why thermite is one of the hottest reaction known to man or how to separate hydrogen from oxygen and what the final ratio of gasses you will wind up with, or how to know how much water you need to produce how much oxygen or hydrogen. All of these are basic science problems. I don't believe you can use and adapt complex chemistry and physics if you can't handle the basics.
Study: Police search minority drivers more often than whites - Boston.com
The crux of the story is that whites are statistically more likely to be carrying illegal substances with them, yet minorities are more likely to be searched. What I found more interesting was:
One study outlier was in Narragansett, where researchers didn't report a racial imbalance in vehicle searches. Narragansett police officers were also more likely to uncover illegal contraband when they did search cars than police officers elsewhere in the state.
Narragansett Police Chief J. David Smith said his officers must write a report every time they search a car, which forces officers to articulate their rationale for a search.
This told me two things: 1) forcing people to really think about their actions helps them make more effective decisions. 2) (this is mostly conjecture) forcing people to articulate their decisions can make them confront bias that they may not even realize they have. (I'm giving the cops the benefit of the doubt and hoping they aren't even always aware of racial bias they may have...)
montgomeryadvertiser.com :: Court OKs child's abortion suit
A state appeals court has ruled that a Birmingham abortion clinic can be sued over an unsuccessful abortion that a woman blames for damaging her child's health.
...
Circuit Judge Robert Vance Jr. issued summary judgment in favor of the abortion clinic. The appeals court agreed with him that the mother couldn't sue on her own behalf, but the five judges said she can sue on behalf of her child.
...
Johnston said the ruling opens a narrow window because other Alabama court cases have held a woman can't sue over a successful abortion and a child born healthy after an unsuccessful abortion can't sue over "wrongful birth."
I'm not sure how I feel about this. I do think that botching a procedure should open you up to liability however, I hate to see planned parenthood spending there money on defense like this. However, I also feel for the woman who had to go through having a child she didn't really want that now has major problems due to the failed procedure. I guess I feel she should have her day in court and the Dr. should be liable if they made a mistake even if the anti-choice brigade will see this as a victory.
Virginity pledgers often dishonest about past - Yahoo! News
Teenagers who take pledges to remain virgins until marriage are likely to deny having taken the pledge if they later become sexually active. Conversely, those who were sexual active before taking the pledge frequency deny their sexual history, according to new study findings.
These findings imply that virginity pledgers often provide unreliable data, making assessment of abstinence-based sex education programs unreliable. In addition, these teens may also underestimate their risk of exposure to sexually transmitted diseases.
"Teenagers do not report their past sexual activity accurately, with virginity pledgers giving more inaccurate reports of their past sexual activity," study author Janet Rosenbaum, of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told Reuters Health.
I don't know what to say... The wingnuts will ignore this data. Me, I just sigh and think about how the wingnuts short change today's youth.