Cory Doctorow wrote:

The single most pernicious threat to liberty today is humanity’s natural
tendency to misunderstand the statistics of rare events. We’re just not wired to have good intuition about things that happen with extreme infrequency.

I’ll prove it. If we were good at understanding statistics, then here’s what would happen when you flew to Las Vegas. You’d step out of McCarran airport, stare down the Strip at all those glittering, palatial casinos and say to yourself, “Holy crap – think of all the suckers who must have lost everything to finance this place!” Instead, our foolish minds are filled with thoughts like, “Man, look at all the money in this town – I’m going to win big!” And another casino is built.

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0639 Pay-Day Loan Sharks Out of Buisness in Ohio

It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman, Peter Sayles and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.

KIDS AND PETS ARE RECESSION PROOF…? While the gnomes and Wal-Mart”s share holders are doing Snoopy happy dances over the boost in profits from the rising misery of recession in America, but now Wal-Mart has chosen this moment to boost it”s sales of pet food because kids and pets are recession proof? Keep reading…

AND IN THE OTHER GAZILLION STORES…? According to the Financial Times: Wal-Mart says it will be pursuing a “passion for fresh and delicious food” and “the highest level of customer service” in small neighbourhood grocery stores – its first new format for a decade. And in it”s other stores? Keep reading…

JUST WHO WILL BE THE CUSTOMER…? Has Wal-Mart waited too long to roll out its upscale boutique food market model? I mentioned yesterday that public relations gaffe of tagging the Marketside stores as the place for fresh and delicious food and the highest level of customer service. Keep reading…

AT THE WALLY PLEX… There are sound stages on Hollywood”s back lots smaller than Bentonvile”s behemoth”s, so it”s no surprise that budding video talent has been sneaking cameras in at odd hours. And now for the midnight show at the Wally Plex featuring Powertotheslaves. Keep reading…

DIGGING THE HOLE DEEPER… I came across this head in Kansas City Star this morning: Wal-Mart offers advice on personal finances. There was no direct link in the newspaper”s online edition (bad newspaper, bad!) and I had to go searching. Keep reading…

MORE ON STRETCHING THOSE DOLLARS… The gnomes have taken notice of Wal-Mart”s latest web presence: Make Your Dollar Stretch. I took a look at the website yesterday and frankly didn”t seen a lot there. But I agree with Brian White, this is not about teaching consumers how to consume (and spend) less. Keep reading…

LOWER TAXES…? WAL-MART…? BWAHAHAHAH… !People who love Wal-Mart do so for a variety of reasons. We”ve fisked all of them at one time or another, but I have to say that the closing line on a WRTV story gave me a great morning chuckle. Supporters think a Wal-Mart will lower their taxes. Keep reading…

I WONDER HOW THE CHINESE ARE TAKING THIS…? Natural disasters do their worst where poor people live in inadequate housing without basic services and access to appropriate infrastructure. We only have to examine those who lost the most in Hurricane Katrina, Cyclone Nargis and the earthquake in China. Keep reading…

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Tech support: What’s on your monitor now, ma’am?
Customer: A teddy bear my boyfriend bought for me at the 7-11.

Britain’s rudest places…

Hat tip to Olivia for the tweet.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

Procrastination: recent evidence suggests that although people may feel they work better with deadlines, in fact deadlines hinder creativity. p. 117

From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty.

Do you remember the photos of the unburied dead in New Orleans? Do you remember the sadness you felt when you saw those images? Can you imagine that horrible vision multiplied a hundred fold and rendered even more tragic by a people who lack even the most basic tools to bury or cremate their dead?

This is Myanmar, where they must live with their dead.

From The Los Angeles Times:

More than two weeks after Tropical Cyclone Nargis wiped away all but one of this village’s houses, decomposing corpses still lie on muddy pathways, or are trapped in eddies along the shore of the broad Pyamaia River nearby.

The stench overpowers every corner of U Thon Tun’s badly damaged home, where 25 survivors have taken refuge beneath a leaky roof patched with tarp. The wind and the rain, which pours down on them every day, cannot erase the sickly smell.

The villagers, all tenant farmers, want to get past their loss, go back to work and earn money again before another rice crop is lost. But their paddies are ruined, they have no seeds to plant, and there are no tools to work soil flooded by the sea.

Without any tools, the villagers say, they can’t solve another pressing problem: the corpses that are fouling the river where they wash themselves each day. Continue Reading »

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is 10 Essential Tools for Practical Travelers.

Sherry Chandler wrote:

Former Governor Martha Layne Collins did the warm up speech. She was governor of Kentucky when Bill was governor of Arkansas. Martha Layne is still a beloved figure in Kentucky, one of our most popular former governors. She”s 72 now, but she looks great, and she talked about the barriers she had had to break to become Kentucky”s first and only woman governor.

Five Kentucky governors have endorsed Hillary Clinton, as has Terry McBrayer, a superdelegate.

Then Jerry Lundergan, head of the Kentucky Democratic Party, who told how – when a Republican had won the governorship for the first time in decades and the Kentucky party was broke – both Hillary and Bill donated time to come to the state for fund-raisers that helped put the party back in the money.

Then Bill! Oh the crowd was on its feet yelling and stomping and waving banners. This was Bill Clinton.

We were never quiet after that. We were intensely involved in this event. (Added: My friend tells me Obama [The link is mine, not Sherry’s. JH] said it”s no wonder Kentucky is for Clinton, we”re so close to Arkansas. Maybe he was talking about a spiritual closeness. We sure loved us some Arkansans last night.)

What can I say about Bill Clinton? He looked distinguished, he was charming.
He told us that Hillary has done things to change people”s lives, to make life better for people. He was in his element. He spoke briefly. He can do that in support of his wife.

And finally, Hillary.

1159 DEMOCRATS WANT HIGH GAS PRICES
1010 Le Monde cites to Writes Like She Talks re: Clinton and Obama

We all get spammed weekly (daily? Hourly?) by variations of the Nigerian/419 Scheme. This morning I got one that was particularly pathetic.

I am contacting you to help me out in this situation I found myself.I am Nabaz Hammad Williams a christian convert from Iraq, I presently live in london where I am studing engineering in the university.I have been persuaded by A TERRORIST ORGANISATION to join them and donate my (WILL) $100,000,000 (One Hundred Million Dollars) to support their organisation for TERRORIST ACTIVITIES.

This (WILL) was left behind by my late father Hammad Williams from his lawyer after his dead to help me take care of myself and my only sister Nina.I am afraid and do not want to sponsor any TERRORISM because my mother died in a suicide bomb attack last year making me have so much Hatred on them.

I have contacted you to help me in confidence transfer the money to your bank account in your country so that I will come over and meet with you to continue my education under your care and to stay away from this terrorist Union who want my life if I fail to comply with them as they have sworn to trace and kill my only sister who is in IRAQ studying.

I have stoped attending school because I am now into hiding under the roof of a poor steward in a church to save my life from danger because I am been monitored before coming to this hide-out.I need you to contact the bank where the funds is deposited on my behalf so that the bank will transfer the funds into your bank account.Do send personal data for identification and trust because I do not know you in person.I have the necessary documents to back you up upon your contact with the bank:

(1)Your full name (2),Age and Occupation (3)International passport page/drivers Licence (4) Telephone number. Upon the receipt of these, I will send you the contact of the bank so that you will contact them yourself.I will compensate you handsomely for your help and effort upon the transfer of this funds.

Waitging to hear from you.

Nabaz Hammad Williams

I can just see the cash rolling in, can’t you?

Robert Reich wrote:

So what are the odds that McCain and Obama will make an historic break with this sordid tradition and take the high road instead? Each man may sincerely wish to do so. Both have based their candidacies, to some extent, on creating a new politics that rejects the gutter-ball tactics of the old. Each has enough ammunition against the other (for every Reverend Wright, a Reverend Haggee; for every “we’ll be in Iraq for a hundred years gaffe, a “bitter” one) to suggest the wisdom of mutual arms control. Each is distancing himself from his party”s mud-slinging — the Republican Party is already airing ads linking Obama to Wright, which McCain is disavowing but not shutting down – thereby putting the candidate on a high road even as the party takes the low. Mostly, though, the public is fed up with the rancor — isn’t it?

I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist the Trekker (never trekkie) reference. In the happy aftermath of last week’s decision from the all-Republican California Supreme Court, George Takei and his partner of 21 years Brad Altman are planning their wedding.

From the BBC:

Takei, 71, best known for playing Mr Sulu in Star Trek, said he and Brad Altman were going through the “delicious dilemma” of where to marry.

The actor and 54-year-old Mr Altman have been together for 21 years.

“We can have the dignity, as well as all the responsibilities, of marriage. We embrace it all heartily,” Takei wrote on his website.

Takei, who recently appeared in the popular US TV series Heroes, added: “We’ve worked in partnership; he manages the business side of my career and I do the performing.

“We’ve travelled the world together from Europe to Asia to Australia. We’ve shared the good times as well as struggled through the bad.

“He helped me care for my ailing mother who lived with us for the last years of her life. He is my love and I can’t imagine life without him.”

Mazel Tov!

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.

Customer: I have problems printing in red…
Tech support: Do you have a color printer?
Customer: Aaaah… thank you.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

Writer”s cramp: put a wax pencil in the shower stall for wall writing, so that you do not forget your insights. [I do this. You can buy kid’s crayons just for this purpose. Dry erase markers work great on bathroom mirrors too.] p. 114

From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty.

As the people that they purport to protect continue to suffer and die for lack of access to abundant foreign aid following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis, the military dictators of Myanmar have decided to follow up the bogus vote on their sham Constitution with an even more shameful declaration of three days of morning for the victims of their neglect.

From the Associated Press:

Myanmar began three days of mourning for some 78,000 cyclone victims Tuesday, but some residents frustrated with the junta’s response to the disaster called it a symbolic gesture that lacked sincerity.

Despite the government’s apparent acquiescence to accept more outside help, most foreign aid workers were still banned from the storm-devastated area and the United Nations said only 20 percent of the survivors had received some form of international assistance.

Flags at government offices, schools and large hotels were lowered to half-staff, but there was no period of silence. Shops were open as usual and many people in Yangon said they had little idea of what the government-announced mourning entailed. Others were angry.

“I don’t think flying flags at half-mast is going to help. If they are sincere, they should welcome help from everyone,” said Zin Moe, 32, who sells clothes. “They are not letting in aid quickly enough and people are angry.” Continue Reading »

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Steampunk Moves Between 2 Worlds.

Professor X wrote:

Remarkably few of my students can do well in these classes. Students routinely fail; some fail multiple times, and some will never pass, because they cannot write a coherent sentence.