Why I don’t eat at Chick-fil-A

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Michael

This would be one good reason.

Chicken sandwich giant Chick-fil-A has come under fire over the past week for sponsoring anti-gay marriage seminars. The New York Times reports a local restaurant in Pennsylvania donated some lunch baskets to a program called “The Art of Marriage” in Harrisburg, Pa. The seminar is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Family Institute, a conservative Christian group which sponsors programs and promotes policies regarding Christian values such as right to life and anti-gay marriage.

Yeah, one good reason is the blatant promotion of irrational hatred. Or just the fact that I generally avoid fast food because it’s unhealthy. Or it could simply be that the chain isn’t common to my area. But I think there’s one reason that stands heads and shoulders above all this – above the endorsement of bigotry, above the unhealthy nature of fast food, above the sheer distance:

Chick-fil-A just tastes like shit.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

The cost of tough-on-crime horseshit

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Michael

It’s steep.

When Harry Coates campaigned for the Oklahoma state Senate in 2002, he had one approach to crime: “Lock ’em up and throw away the key.”

Now, Coates is looking for that key. He and other tough-on-crime lawmakers across the country, faced with steep budget shortfalls, are searching anxiously for ways to let inmates out of prison faster and keep more offenders on the street.

Oklahoma’s preferred answer for crime has collided head-on with a budget deficit estimated at $600 million, and prison costs that have increased more than 30 percent in the last decade.

And this is common all across the country. As a result, prisoners are being released early, others are only being put on probation, and still others are receiving treatment for drug addiction. This is helping the problem somewhat. No, no. Not the money. I mean, yes, that is being helped, but the real problem – the one where non-violent offenders go to prison to lose years of their lives, where they lose any real chance at becoming better, where they go to learn how to be better criminals – that is being helped.

It’s just for all the wrong reasons.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: , , | 7 Comments »

Thought of the day

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Michael

Thank you, President Obama, for nearly tripling my federal tax return with education credits and the like.

P.S. TurboTax gave me nearly double what TaxSlayer would have given me for my federal return. However, for my state return, TaxSlayer improved my refund by 50% over TurboTax (plus it costs less).

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , | 4 Comments »

Is Maine the dumbest state in the Union?

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Michael

It would seem so based upon this map (via Jerry Coyne).

The dubious honor is based upon 2010 SAT scores by state (including Washington D.C.). Maine ranks dead last with a combined mean score of 1389. In contrast, the top performing state, Iowa, has a combined mean score of 1798. In fact, the traditionally dumbest state, Mississippi, comes in at number 18 with a score of 1666. It would seem Maine has really gone down the tubes over the past few years.

Or not.

Maine, as far as I know, is the only state which requires students to take the SATs. Other states may require ACT tests, though I’m not sure. However, many other states do trend towards those tests as an alternative to the SATs. As a result, Iowa’s participation rate is a paltry 3% (the same as Mississippi). In fact, 19 of the top 20 states are 10% or under in participation (Colorado, ranked number 13, is at 18%). Maine, by contrast, has a 92% participation rate. (For the remaining 8% I suspect the ACT tests are allowed as an alternative, some students just don’t bother, exceptions are made for certain circumstances, etc, etc; in 2007, the participation rate in the state was 100%.) The result is that over 15,000 Maine students took the test whether they cared or not; Only 1,100 students took it in Iowa – and I bet most of them cared. In fact, take a look at the reports by state. Of the students in Maine taking the test (who responded), 32% were in the highest tenth of their class. In Iowa, it was 64%. In Maine, 24% of the students taking the test made up the bottom three fifths of their class. In Iowa? 4%.

So in short, no, Maine is not the dumbest state. All students in Maine are considered college-bound by these SAT statistics, so that makes state-by-state comparison pointless. Iowa and most of the other states suffer from sample bias. In fact, Massachusetts is the closest state to Maine in participation and still only reaches 86%. Besides, in other various rankings, Maine students consistently rank well above average. By these rankings, the state is 5th overall.

Filed under: Local | Tagged: , , , , | 15 Comments »

New Facebook setting

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Michael

I guess this is why Facebook was down all last night.

Facebook finally provided a way to keep any random jerk in the café from hijacking your account. But you have to go out of your way to enable this protection, and you might have to wait. Still: Jump on this.

Facebook has at long last offered an option to use the encrypted “HTTPS” protocol, a feature it will begin rolling out today but won’t finish for a “few weeks.” You should check now if it’s available, and sign up as soon as it is enabled for your account. The performance overhead is minor—zippy Gmail, for example, uses HTTPS for everything—and it’s an important step to keep your Facebook account safe from being hijacked on an open or poorly secured wireless network.

I can’t access it yet, but if you can you’ll want to go Account>Account Settings>Account Security and then check off Secure Browsing.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

Wendy Pollack will hurt Tanzania

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Michael

As regular FTSOS readers know, I visited Tanzania last year. It was an amazing experience filled with amazing people, both in my hiking group up Kilimanjaro and in the citizens I met. I can have nothing but goodwill for everyone I was fortunate enough to encounter. That’s why I find a Maine-based homeopathy group so distressing.

Homeopathy for Health in Africa is affiliated with Homeopaths Without Borders. The Mission of Homeopathy for Health in Africa: To relieve the suffering of as many HIV/AIDS patients as possible using classical homeopathy.

The leader of the group is Wendy Pollack, holder of a quacking chiropractic license in Maine. The area she will specifically be visiting is the Kilimanjaro region. I’ve been all through it. It’s composed of rampant poverty. The medical “facilities” consist of small shacks of basic medicine, most of which can be found in the first half of aisle 14 at your local Rite-Aid. I made sure to purchase evacuation insurance before departing because I wasn’t about to find my way into a Tanzanian hospital if anything happened; I never needed it, but seeing that part of the country only confirmed that I had made a good purchase.

All Pollack and her gang of anti-science quacks are going to achieve is the raising of ignorant hopes. It’s deplorable and horribly saddening. A whole bunch of very poor, very needy people are about to get a false helping hand.

I’ve been considering making a post or two describing how best to save money, which company to use, etc, when going to Kilimanjaro. I think I’ll wait until Pollack has left.

Filed under: Pure bullshit | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

How much is Facebook worth?

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Michael

A lot.

Facebook Inc.’s valuation topped Amazon.com Inc., leaving the social-networking company behind only Google Inc. among U.S. Internet companies.

Facebook is valued at $82.9 billion on secondary exchange SharesPost Inc. and has jumped by more than 40 percent since mid-December. Amazon shares dropped 7.2 percent yesterday after a disappointing sales forecast, pushing its stock market value down to $77.2 billion.

With all that worth, you would think they would have completed their current maintenance about 6 hours ago.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

Cancer claims and reality

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Michael

Yahoo! Health has a short article up that I just love. It helps to demonstrate some of the points I’ve recently been making about how science works, and it makes a good example of how easily misinformation can spread among the lay population when there isn’t proper follow-up into the reality of the evidence.

Antiperspirant and Deodorant

The link: A decade ago, an E-mail warning women that using antiperspirant could cause breast cancer went viral. Since then, some research has suggested that aluminum in antiperspirants and preservatives called parabens in both antiperspirants and deodorants mimic the hormone estrogen, which in high amounts can increase a woman’s breast cancer risk.

The reality: There is no evidence that antiperspirants or deodorants cause cancer. Although a 2004 study heightened concern when researchers found parabens in breast cancer tissue samples, suggesting the chemicals may have caused the tumors, the investigators did not check for the presence of parabens in healthy tissue. Evidence suggests that 99 percent of us are exposed to parabens from numerous sources, including various cosmetics and foods, according to the American Cancer Society. Little evidence indicates they may be harmful. The organization says more study is needed to be certain that there is no risk. A 2002 study of hundreds of women with and without breast cancer, found no sign the antiperspirants or deodorants upped cancer risk.

Filed under: Science | Tagged: , , , , | 1 Comment »

Shai Warfield-Cross sings the national anthem

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Michael

This sounds like a fine version of The Star-Spangled Banner to me. The singer, a 16 year old Indiana high school student, has her own stamp on it, but that her style is unique can hardly be called offensive.

Unless you’re an idiot.

Principal Jeff Henderson told The Herald-Times in a statement that people had complained that while the words to the anthem were the same, the tune was unrecognizable. He declined to comment to The Associated Press.

Some who complained after the game in Martinsville – a predominantly white community about 30 miles southwest of Indianapolis – also said they felt the rendition was disrespectful to current and former members of the military, Henderson said.

I have no idea how Warfield-Cross’ rendition can possibly be considered offensive. It is certainly within the realm of traditional versions when one considers all the different renditions that are out there. Besides that, so what if it isn’t traditional? Uniqueness does not make something bad. If anything, I would rather hear a version like Warfield-Cross’ before a sporting event than some of the other versions I’ve heard – and I’m talking about some extremely well done versions I’ve heard at major sporting venues such as Fenway.

As for the race issue, I’m not willing to buy it. Maybe that was the motivation, but no news story has identified the chief whiner in all this. Surely that person has some illegitimate reason for the complaint, but it isn’t clear that race is at the heart of it.

And as for the school, an apology was issued.

The formal apology by Principal Jeff Henderson was made public Thursday after a nearly two-hour meeting with student Shai Warfield-Cross, 16, her family and other supporters.

Maybe next time the school and Jeff Henderson will know to stand up to the whiners out there.

Filed under: News | Tagged: , , , , , | 41 Comments »

This is why you’re fat

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Michael

Pake: A whole pie baked inside a cake.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

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