American People Hire High-Powered Lobbyist To Push Interests In Congress | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

I’ve never been so angry and amused.

“
The absence of authentic conservatives in our politics serves to ensure that our national debates are largely carried out in the realm of fiction; pseudo-conservatives take on pseudo-liberals in symbolic battle over cultural ephemera when what is really at stake is which of the two corrupt parties will win the privilege of representing the interests of the superrich.
Roger D. Hodge (via syntheticpubes)
(this post was reblogged from syntheticpubes)

A better way to measure effectiveness of drugs

jayparkinsonmd:

I’ve written in the past about the Number Needed to Treat (NNT). I think it’s one of the most important metrics we have in medicine to determine the efficacy of a modern medical intervention at the population level. I would even suggest that drugs should be approved by the…

(this post was reblogged from ericmortensen)
“
…a team charged with coming up with ideas for a DVD-burning program that Apple planned to release on high-end Macs — an app that would later become iDVD.
“We had about three weeks to prepare,” Evangelist says. He and another employee went to work creating beautiful mock-ups depicting the perfect interface for the new program. On the appointed day, Evangelist and the rest of the team gathered in the boardroom. They’d brought page after page of prototype screen shots showing the new program’s various windows and menu options, along with paragraphs of documentation describing how the app would work.
“Then Steve comes in,” Evangelist recalls. “He doesn’t look at any of our work. He picks up a marker and goes over to the whiteboard. He draws a rectangle. ‘Here’s the new application,’ he says. ‘It’s got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says BURN. That’s it. That’s what we’re going to make.’

This is how healthcare needs to be run. It needs to be orders of magnitude simpler. I’ve gotten all kinds of random letters for months about the Vermont state health insurance I’ve signed up for. It’s rather confusing. When I finally talk to someone, I have to wait 3 months to get a regular checkup.

Apple Nation | Page 2 | Fast Company

“
90% of all sheep’s wool generated in the U.S. is too coarse to use in the textile industry, so it’s sent to landfills instead. That may not be the case for long, though—Bellwether Materials, a San Francisco-based startup, has figured out that waste wool makes for high-quality home insulation.
We caught up with founder Priscilla Burgess at last week’s West Coast Green conference, where Bellwether had sample insulation on display. Burgess encouraged us to touch it. “It’s just as effective as fiberglass, but you don’t need a respirator and it’s cheaper to install,” she says.

Fantastic. We could certainly use this in Vermont.

Bellwether Materials Turns Sheep’s Wool Into High-Quality Insulation | Fast Company

xn—7xa: early-onset-of-night: Say hello to mechanically separated chicken. It’s what all fast-food chicken is made from—things like chicken nuggets and patties. Also, the processed frozen chicken in the stores is made from it. Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve—bones, eyes, guts, and all. it comes out looking like this. There’s more: because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color. But, hey, at least it tastes good, right? High five, America! *smack*

xn—7xa:

early-onset-of-night:

Say hello to mechanically separated chicken. It’s what all fast-food chicken is made from—things like chicken nuggets and patties. Also, the processed frozen chicken in the stores is made from it.

Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve—bones, eyes, guts, and all. it comes out looking like this.

There’s more: because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color.

But, hey, at least it tastes good, right?

High five, America!

*smack*

(this post was reblogged from emergentseas)

updates

Various tweaks. Check the who is trav, links and issues pages.

“It was recently announced by the US Air Force that Burlington International Airport is now a top choice for the basing of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter despite the fact the an Environmental Impact Study has yet to be completed. BIA is the preferred location for the F-35 in part because our pristine air quality will allow the USAF (via the VTANG) to produce a large amount of pollution without requiring any mitigation. Given that the F-35 burns Benzene (a class A carcinogen) at a much higher rate than the F-16, this is a very important factor. The F-35 is nearly twice as loud on take-off as the current F-16’s and up to 4 times as loud on landing. The noise level of this weapon will render large areas of the surrounding neighborhood uninhabitable allowing BIA to use FAA funds (our federal tax dollars) to purchase and demolish more homes and rezone the area industrial. The noise levels will lead to serious home depreciation, a de-facto asset seizure from all homeowners in the area as each 1 decibel increase in noise results in a 1% decrease in home value.The F-35 program is the most expensive military project in history, projected to cost US taxpayers $500 billion. It is behind schedule, 90% over budget, facing significant technical challenges and is ever increasingly siphoning funds away from other weapons systems necessary for the proper functioning of US aerial forces, potentially putting our soldiers in danger.” What a menace

“It was recently announced by the US Air Force that Burlington International Airport is now a top choice for the basing of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter despite the fact the an Environmental Impact Study has yet to be completed. BIA is the preferred location for the F-35 in part because our pristine air quality will allow the USAF (via the VTANG) to produce a large amount of pollution without requiring any mitigation. Given that the F-35 burns Benzene (a class A carcinogen) at a much higher rate than the F-16, this is a very important factor.


The F-35 is nearly twice as loud on take-off as the current F-16’s and up to 4 times as loud on landing. The noise level of this weapon will render large areas of the surrounding neighborhood uninhabitable allowing BIA to use FAA funds (our federal tax dollars) to purchase and demolish more homes and rezone the area industrial. The noise levels will lead to serious home depreciation, a de-facto asset seizure from all homeowners in the area as each 1 decibel increase in noise results in a 1% decrease in home value.

The F-35 program is the most expensive military project in history, projected to cost US taxpayers $500 billion. It is behind schedule, 90% over budget, facing significant technical challenges and is ever increasingly siphoning funds away from other weapons systems necessary for the proper functioning of US aerial forces, potentially putting our soldiers in danger.”

What a menace

awesome. We need to build into space. xn—7xa: Curious as to what 2 gentlemen holding picket signs of President Obama with a Hitler mustache at the corner of a busy intersection would have to say, I was handed several articles from the “LaRouche” Committee. Unexpectedly, there was little hate or irrationality in what they were pushing for.. Generally explaining how the “North American Water And Power Alliance” would resolve many issues of present day economic turmoils. ”..The initial NAWAPA plan is a series of projects designed to take large amounts of fresh water from Alaska and the Canadian Yukon, divert it before its runoff into the Pacific Ocean, Channel it through Canada, into the United States, and all the way to northern Mexico. This would be achieved by a series of dams, canals, tunnels, lakes, and pump lifts, guiding the water down the continent, allowing for the potential irrigation of an estimated 86,000 square miles, transforming the arid landscape along the way.” “…The NAWAPA program places our nation on the direct path to more ambitious development programs which will carry our nation, and the world into prosperity through the coming generations. From NAWAPA we can see the Bering Strait rail tunnel project, connecting Alaska to Russia, linking the two great landmasses of the globe with high speed rail transit. There are many other projects which can be successively brought into operation, all of which will be necessary, but the pinnacle guiding mission will be the commitment for colonization of space. The prospect for the industrialization of the Moon, and the development of permanent cities on Mars will be the lawful, prosperous continuation of the ‘NAWAPA economic program’, that is, man attaining conscious mastery of the science of his own economic development. However, the start reality of our present situation currently stands before you, and your being able to create this future which your posterity deserves. The funding and implementation of this program can not occur until we implement a Glass-Steagall based reorganization of the US economy. As long as our nation is forced to remain committed to the hyper-inflationary debts of Wall Street, there can be no NAWAPA, and there can be no recovery..” - www.larouchepac.com Click for high-res photo

awesome. We need to build into space.

xn—7xa:

Curious as to what 2 gentlemen holding picket signs of President Obama with a Hitler mustache at the corner of a busy intersection would have to say, I was handed several articles from the “LaRouche” Committee.

Unexpectedly, there was little hate or irrationality in what they were pushing for.. Generally explaining how the “North American Water And Power Alliance” would resolve many issues of present day economic turmoils.

”..The initial NAWAPA plan is a series of projects designed to take large amounts of fresh water from Alaska and the Canadian Yukon, divert it before its runoff into the Pacific Ocean, Channel it through Canada, into the United States, and all the way to northern Mexico. This would be achieved by a series of dams, canals, tunnels, lakes, and pump lifts, guiding the water down the continent, allowing for the potential irrigation of an estimated 86,000 square miles, transforming the arid landscape along the way.”

“…The NAWAPA program places our nation on the direct path to more ambitious development programs which will carry our nation, and the world into prosperity through the coming generations. From NAWAPA we can see the Bering Strait rail tunnel project, connecting Alaska to Russia, linking the two great landmasses of the globe with high speed rail transit. There are many other projects which can be successively brought into operation, all of which will be necessary, but the pinnacle guiding mission will be the commitment for colonization of space. The prospect for the industrialization of the Moon, and the development of permanent cities on Mars will be the lawful, prosperous continuation of the ‘NAWAPA economic program’, that is, man attaining conscious mastery of the science of his own economic development.

However, the start reality of our present situation currently stands before you, and your being able to create this future which your posterity deserves.

The funding and implementation of this program can not occur until we implement a Glass-Steagall based reorganization of the US economy. As long as our nation is forced to remain committed to the hyper-inflationary debts of Wall Street, there can be no NAWAPA, and there can be no recovery..”

- www.larouchepac.com

(Source: )

(this post was reblogged from emergentseas)

(Source: emergentseas)

(this post was reblogged from emergentseas)