White Male Appreciation Week: Electricity

Via the Captain:

For the final day of White Male Appreciation Week we celebrate electricity.  Now many people will insist on either Edison or Franklin, but we're going to go with Tesla.

Try to be half as good a person as they think you are

Owning a dog is a double edged sword. Every day in the pleasure of their company sharpens the blade that cuts you when you lose them.  The pleasure is spread out over years and years, but the pain of their loss is sharp and terrible.

Goodbye Chaser, I will miss you.

Time for some pi!

Happy Pi Day! :)

 

Single mom wants Microsoft to parent her child

It's an old story, but it fits right into the narrative of irresponsibility.  Single mother buys her 11 year old son an Xbox membership through the console, but doesn't notice when he starts buying things for his games.  The boy racks up over £1,000 in charges, and of course, she blames Microsoft.

A desperate mother has condemned Microsoft after her 11-year-old son racked up a £1,000 debt on her debit card - through his Xbox. 

Brendan Jordan racked up a bill of £1,082.52 on his Xbox without realising all the purchases were being charged to his mum Dawn Matthews' card. 

The schoolboy made the payments to buy accessories and new games on his console after it saved the details of a previously registered card.

 

Single mum-of-two Dawn, 37, from Strood, Kent, has now complained to Microsoft but claims the computer giant is ignoring her. 

She said: 'When I put my card details in 18 months ago I thought it was just for his membership to play online with his friends.

... 

'It is ridiculous to allow someone of his age to make payments without any checks being done.

'When he is in gaming mode he can't be thinking about the money. You can't put all that responsibility on a young boy.

'It is impossible to monitor everything your children do. These companies should take some responsibility. They take advantage of vulnerable people.'  

A spokesman for Microsoft claimed that a parental control setting would have prevented Brendan from spending Dawn's money. 

No checks being done? Do you hand your child a remote control and not care what television show he watches? Not if you are serious about being a parent. I think it is fair to say that most children lack judgment, which is why you have to exercise that judgment ahead of time. You're not being distracted by "gaming mode," right? You already knew ahead of time that you would be leaving your child alone while you are working, etc.. When you bought the game system, did you not ask any questions? Did you not pause and think, hey, this thing is going to connect to the internet, what risks does that pose for my children? Guess what?  Microsoft did think of those questions, which is exactly why they have created tools for you to make it easier. The tools are called Parental Settings.

Let me give you a bit of advice now. Your son is 14 at the time of my blog entry, and he'll be getting online every day. You have those same parent tools on the computer he will use, and probably on your network router. Go down to your electronics store and ask some questions about these settings, and stop pushing responsibility for your lack of parenting onto others.

Affirmative action hire? Gunman arrives, female "security" guard runs, male bouncer bounces!

Outstanding job Mr. Eric Wasson!  You saved several lives that night, and have proven yourself a shining example of courage.  As for your partner, I am going to guess the gal is an affirmative action hire, based on her behavior.  Good thing you were hired for your skill and courage.

When a man holding a gun came to the door of the St. Paul bar where Eric Wasson is a security guard, Wasson was determined not to let the man get past him.

Wasson tried to defuse the situation by smiling at the man and saying, "Hey, what's going on?" He also told the man to calm down.  

The man told Wasson to move and raised his gun, Wasson recalled.  

Wasson worried about the more than 150 people inside Johnny Baby's on University  

Avenue, and he rushed the man, whose gun went off twice as they struggled. No one was struck.

Update:

The original video has been removed from Youtube, but here is a LiveLeak link. I have uploaded the video here as well.

 

 

This GIF shows the hero, Eric Wasson, but not the security chick running away and pushing past the customers - it starts just after she ran away.

 

 

Mr. Wasson has been interviewed several times.

When a man with a gun walked into the St. Paul bar where Eric Wasson was working as a security guard, it flashed through Wasson's mind that his mother shouldn't lose a second son.  

Wasson's brother was fatally shot in 2009.  

"If I got killed out here, if I got hurt, what about my mama?" Wasson said. "When it boils down, my mama don't deserve that."  

Wasson took action. When talking to the gunman didn't work, the former high school and college football player rushed him. The gun went off twice as they struggled and Wasson disarmed him. No one was injured.

It's clear to me that Putin has been working hard

To establish a cult of personality.  From hunting and horseback riding, to judo, fishing, and motorcycles, he's taken quite a different track than Obama, but I think soon enough he'll have all of Russia worshipping him and demanding he wear a crown.

Borepatch: So if Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize ...

 

On progressive taxation

Just a simple scenario for you to think about.  Feel free to share it around.

If you took a second full time job doing the same work for the same wage, and thus worked twice as many hours in the week (80), you would earn twice as much money.  Are you "benefiting more from the economy" or "contributing more to the economy"?  Should you get hit with a higher tax rate because you put in twice as many hours?

Image via borepatch