May 212013
May 192013
Grim. Very grim. And they all probably have student loans as well.
Just 56 percent of college students complete four-year degrees within six years, according to a 2011 Harvard Graduate School of Education study. Among the 18 developed countries in the OECD, the U.S. was dead last for the percentage of students who completed college once they started it ― even behind Slovakia.
May 182013
NC is endorsing Rob Ford for mayor. Wait! He already is mayor. Well we endorse him anyway. All politicians should be this interesting and hang with Somali drug dealers.
Many Americans awoke this morning to discover that (a) the mayor of Toronto is a guy named Rob Ford, and (b) Rob Ford smokes crack. Gawker reported last night that a cell-phone video clearly showing Ford lighting up a crack pipe — which was supposedly filmed within the last six months, while he was mayor — was being shopped around for six figures. Gawker’s John Cook saw the video in person with his own two eyes, as did two reporters from the Toronto Star. Ford’s lawyer calls the video “false and defamatory” and asks, hilariously, “How can you indicate what the person is actually doing or smoking?”
via 20 Things Worth Knowing About Rob Ford — Daily Intelligencer.
May 132013
At the beginning of American history, there was a slave class, not African-born but English, Scottish or Irish indentured servants who either sold themselves or had themselves sold for debt. They were called indentured servants.
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, almost 13 percent of student-loan borrowers of all ages owe more than $50,000, and nearly 4 percent owe more than $100,000. These debts are beyond students’ ability to repay, (especially in our nearly jobless recovery); this is demonstrated by the fact that delinquency and default rates are soaring. Some 17 percent of student-loan borrowers were 90 days or more behind in payments at the end of 2012.
via Student Debt and the Crushing of the American Dream – NYTimes.com.
May 102013
The nation’s largest cardiovascular health organization has a new message for Americans: Owning a dog may protect you from heart disease.
May 092013
And then whatever happens after that is an accident?
CORSICANA, Texas (AP) — Police say a 2-year-old boy has died after accidentally shooting himself in the head at a North Texas home while his father was nearby.
via Boy, 2, dies after shooting self at Corsicana home – San Antonio Express-News.
May 082013
You know maybe we could start with something easy. Forget background checks and keeping guns away from criminals, psychopaths and gerbils. Let’s start with keeping guns away from kids under the age of, say, six.
I know many of you probably think that’s an infringement of the child’s constitutional right to bear arms.
At the bottom of this article (click the link) is a list of recent child shootings, more than I had come across in my casual reading.
TAMPA — A 3-year-old boy who found a gun in a backpack and shot himself died Tuesday night, authorities said, a local addition to this month’s spate of child shootings nationwide.
The boy, identified by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office as Jadarrius Speights, was with his mother, father and uncle in Apartment 109 of the Avesta apartments at 13144 N 22nd St., just west of the University of South Florida.
The uncle, Jeffrey D. Walker, 29, had bought the 9mm gun at a gun shop and had left it in a backpack in a bedroom he shared with the boy, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter.
Carter said investigators believe the child found the gun and accidentally shot himself.
via 3-year-old boy fatally shoots self with uncle’s gun | Tampa Bay Times.
May 082013
The tip-off to trouble was a March inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., which earned the equivalent of a “D” grade when tested on its mastery of Minuteman III missile launch operations. In other areas, the officers tested much better, but the group’s overall fitness was deemed so tenuous that senior officers at Minot decided, after probing further, that an immediate crackdown was called for.
The Air Force publicly called the inspection a “success.”
But in April it quietly removed 17 officers at Minot from the highly sensitive duty of standing 24-hour watch over the Air Force’s most powerful nuclear missiles, the intercontinental ballistic missiles that can strike targets across the globe. Inside each underground launch control capsule, two officers stand “alert” at all times, ready to launch an ICBM upon presidential order.
via Air Force Stripped 17 Officers Of Ability To Launch Nuclear Missiles Due To Internal ‘Rot’.
May 072013
I applied under 293 different names — anything to leave this rat’s nest behind.
dg
“With 78,000 applications in two weeks, this is turning out to be the most desired job in history,” Mars One Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Bas Lansdorp said in a statement. “These numbers put us right on track for our goal of half a million applicants.” [Mars One's Red Planet Colony Project (Gallery)]
via 78,000 apply to leave Earth forever to live on Mars – Science.
May 072013
The 2013 Save the Children Children’s Mother Index is just out. Read the stats. U.S. #30; Canada #22. Good old Finland is #1. I think what we have here is a clear argument that socialized medicine is contributing to world over-population by protecting babies and mothers.
Finland is the best place to be a mother, with the risk of death through pregnancy one in 12,200 and Finnish children getting almost 17 years of formal education.
Sweden, Norway, Iceland and The Netherlands were also in the top 10, with the US trailing at 30.
Surprisingly, the report found that the US has the highest death rate in newborns in the industrialised world, with 11,300 babies dying on the day they are born each year.
via BBC News – DR Congo toughest place for mothers – Save the Children.
May 062013
May 062013
This is awful, sure enough, but the WOODEN INSISTENCE in the media that such events are “accidental” is hilarious. If you leave two children alone with a loaded gun, the result just doesn’t seem accidental (as in “unexpected”).
Accident: An unexpected and undesirable event, especially one resulting in damage or harm: car accidents on icy roads.
This is an example of serious language degradation (or loss of brain function).
A 13-year-old boy shot his 6-year-old sister with a handgun at their Oakland Park, Fl. home on Saturday, where they appeared to be unsupervised.
“The siblings had been home alone when the teen found the handgun,” Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Dani Moschella said, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The girl was taken to Broward Health Medical Center where she is listed in critical but stable condition. The incident appeared to be an accidental shooting, according to Moschella.
via 13-Year-Old Boy Shoots 6-Year-Old Sister In Florida | TPM LiveWire.
May 062013
At its convention in Houston, over the weekend, the National Rifle Association asked a vendor to take down a mannequin target that looked like President Barack Obama, Buzzfeed reported on Sunday.
The vendor, Zombie Industries, produces “life-sized tactical mannequin” targets that “bleed” when shot. Photographs of the company’s booth at the convention taken by Buzzfeed show that the company had several sample mannequins displayed for sale, including a clown, a “terrorist,” and a Nazi.
via Vendor Pulls ‘Obama’ Target From Booth At NRA Convention | TPM LiveWire.