Category Archives: Knowledge

Things You Don't Want To Know

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From the Wall Street Journal…..

The legislation, introduced late Thursday by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, would temporarily allow the FDIC to borrow $500 billion to replenish the fund it uses to guarantee bank deposits, if the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department concur. Those funds would be distinct from the contentious $700 billion financial-sector bailout, which lawmakers are loathe to expand.

It would also be distinct from the stimulus plan. But who really cares? What difference one way or another will another half trillion dollars make? It is only equal to the cost of another war in Iraq.

From The San Fransisco Chronicle…….

In a 2006 ruling, Henderson said the $1.1 billion medical care system was causing the unnecessary death of one inmate per week. He said the state was incapable of repairing the system and appointed a manager to run it under his supervision.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for a return to state control last month. He also has appealed Henderson’s order that the state pay the first $250 million of the manager’s $8 billion plan to rebuild prison hospitals.

The courts can appoint managers who are superior to the elected authorities? I can see giving people standing to sue or forcing pay outs to those deemed to have died “unnecessarily.” But it seems to me that under this reasoning the Supreme Court could decided that the Federal government was not allowing people to exercise all their constitutional rights and so they were going to appoint a new president.

From Life on the Line…..

I will make it semi-official on the recorded line. I tell my dispatcher that I will be more than happy to try to get airborne (that is what I get paid for…), but in my opinion, we should think about canceling the flight. He puts me on hold for a few minutes…

“We want you to try.”

I would really hate to be on a plane were the pilot said that “we should think about canceling” and was told “we want you to try.” But I imagine that it happens a lot.

Anything for a cigarette

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From Strategy Page…..

Since navigation was often uncertain when Zeppelins were flying above clouds, some were equipped with an observation basket that could be lowered through the cloud layers. In that way one or two men in the basket would have a good view of the earth’s surface. From this position, they could keep the ship informed by telephone of the landmarks below, helping it navigate to and from its target.

Of course this was particularly hazardous, as the men were without parachutes in a flimsy basket dangling at the end of a 750 meter tether, in freezing cold. Yet there never seems to have been a shortage of volunteers for this duty. In part this was due to the very high morale of the airshipmen. But volunteers also gained a privilege denied to everyone else on the ship; the little basket dangling at the end of nearly a half-mile of cable was the only place on the airship where a man was allowed to have a cigarette.

Always remember that it could be worse

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From Fox News…

The rock, estimated to be no more than 200 feet wide, zoomed past our planet at an altitude of 40,000 miles at 1:44 p.m. universal time — or 8:44 EST.

Dubbed 2009 DD45, it was discovered only on Friday by Australian astronomers.

Forty thousand miles may sound like a lot, but it’s only about one-seventh of the way to the moon, and less than twice as far out as many telecommunications satellites.

Had 2009 DD45 hit the Earth, it would have exploded on or near the surface with the force of a large nuclear blast — not very reassuring when you consider humanity had only about three days’ notice.

If that had hit in the wrong place, it could have made the falling stock market seem like a minor problem.