observations-2005 – Observations Along the Road

Observations on the News

Posted onWednesday, November 30, 2005Authorcahwyguy

Some observations from news I’ve read at lunch:

From the So What Happens to the Babies? Department: According to Reuters, Limbo is being deprecated (going away). No, not the dance. The place where, according to Catholics, unbaptized babies that die go. According to Italian media reports on Tuesday, an international theological commission will advise Pope Benedict to eliminate the teaching about limbo from the Catholic catechism. Three questions come to mind: (1) So what happens to all the babies already there? (2) Do we now need to change the name of the dance? (3) What will George Carlin do?
From the Put a Nickle In The Slot Department: According to CNN, a school district in St. Paul MN is starting to charge teachers an annual $25 fee to cover the cost of electricity for the teacher’s microwaves, coffee pots, pencil sharpeners, and other personal electrical devices. This is due to the district’s over $6 Million annual energy bill. This doesn’t make the teachers happy at all, given all the other sacrifices we make. It’s not just folks in MN. The Daily News is reporting that California has failed to meet many of the basic health and education needs for its 10.5 million children with education spending ranking 44th in the nation, obesity soaring and economic and food security faltering. One wonders where our priorities are?
From the You Wrote What as a Headline? Department: Headline seen on CNN: Bush: ‘America will not run’. I don’t know about running, but certain parts don’t seem to work very well.
From the One Food To Serve Them All Department: The Daily News is reporting on a new product from Dick Van Patten‘s company, Natural Balance Pet Foods. This product, called Eatables, a line of human-quality meals adjusted for doggie digestive tracts. Sold in independent shops and at Petco, the $2.49 cans come in flavors normally reserved for human palates – spaghetti and meatballs, hobo chili and Chinese takeout. It doesn’t taste any different from what you might enjoy for dinner or your dog might pick out of your trash can, but it has none of the small bones to injurious to dogs, no rich ingredients to upset doggies stomachs and no preservatives. According to the President of Natural Balance, Joey Herrick, he keeps cans on hand at home in case of an earthquake. When the big one comes, he’ll be supping on the same stuff as his 19-year-old poodle mix, Mingo. They are talking about expanding into cat food.

Observations on the News: November 14, 2005

Posted onMonday, November 14, 2005Authorcahwyguy

Today’s perusal of the headlines has some interesting tidbits:

From the Your Mother Was Right Department: CNN is reporting that your mother was right when she said you could catch a cold from being chilled. Researchers in Cardiff, Wales say they can prove drops in temperature to the body really can cause a cold to develop. They discovered that when colds are circulating in the community many people are mildly infected but show no symptoms. When a person become chilled, there is pronounced constriction of the blood vessels in the nose, which shuts off the warm blood that supplies the white cells that fight infection. These defenses allow the virus to get stronger and common cold symptoms develop. Scientists have previously discovered that chicken soup really does help when you have a cold.
From the I Yam What I Yam Department: According to CNN, identity theft is being over hyped. Statistics floating around in the ether note that 10 million people fall victim every year. But is it really so bad? CNN thinks it isn’t, and that the overhype is resulting in overzealous anti-fraud activities, and consumers being overly concerned about internet commerce. The article notes that much “identity theft” is savvy “synthetic” fraud schemes that frequently don’t directly victimize individual consumers; instead, criminals invent fictitious identities and use them to ring up phony charges. This is estimated to account for three-quarters of the money stolen by identity crooks. What this really shows is that the average public doesn’t understand risk assessment. I always like to point out when folks are scared of using the internet that their position is odd, given they have no difficulty in giving their credit card to a restaurant where a server takes it to an unknown location for five minutes.
More interesting is something else noted in the article: “Some 38 percent of identity theft victims said they hadn’t bothered to notify anyone — not the police, not their credit card company, not a credit bureau. Even when fraud losses purportedly exceeded $5,000, the kept-it-to-myself rate was 19 percent.” In other words: just like many people don’t bother to balance their checking accounts, folks don’t audit their credit card statements, and dispute mischarges. That’s really scary. I’ll note that I know many folks who are completely knowledgable and smart who simply just trust the statements they receive.
From the Uncle. I call Uncle Department: According to CNN, Sony has recently announced that they will temporarily suspend making music CDs with antipiracy technology that can leave computers vulnerable to hackers. Of course, this came after the major computer security companies indicated they considered Sony music to be spyware. I am worried, however, about the “temporarily suspend”. This implies that in the future they want to leave computers vulnerable to hackers.
From the Easy Rider Department: Yesterday, driving back from our dim sum run along the I-5, we were surrounded by [Carl Sagan Voice]billyons and billyons[/Carl Sagan Voice] of motorcycles. We were unsure. Now we know: we were in the middle of the Annual Love Ride for charity. This was a run of over 22,000 motorcycle buffs between Glendale and Castaic Lake, where they were entertained by B.B. King. The ride raised nearly $1.5 million, with the money going towards Hurricane Katrina relief, a literacy program for children, groups that help victims of muscular dystrophy, autism and Down syndrome, and other charities. Riders included Jay Leno and Peter Fonda.
Still, it is an odd feeling to be in your car, suddenly surrounded by lots and lots of motorcycles.

Bush Considering Tinkering with Mortgage Interest Deduction

Posted onWednesday, October 12, 2005Authorcahwyguy

According to the Los Angeles Times (but I also saw something similar in yesterday’s Las Vegas Review Journal, and here’s the mention in the New York Times):

President Bush’s tax reform commission tentatively agreed Tuesday to recommend a substantial reduction in the limit on mortgage interest that homeowners can deduct from their taxes. If a uniform nationwide cap was chosen to replace the current $1-million limit on mortgage debt eligible for deduction, it could be widely felt in California, which has some of the nation’s highest home prices. But to account for the wide disparity in home values nationally, the panel considered recommending a ceiling based on local housing prices but left the issue open, to be decided later. Some panel members suggested basing the limit on the Federal Housing Administration’s maximum on mortgages it will insure — currently $312,895 in Southern California.

I’m not quite understanding this. Is this the amount of interest you can deduct, or the house price (total mortgage). If the latter, that lower amount will really screw Southern California, where the median house price is near $600,000. Even a $1M limit (if it is the mortgage amount) could screw many homeowners in SoCal, for $1M houses are all too common out here, even in the plebian areas.

According to the New York Times article:

For mortgage loans up to $1 million, taxpayers can now deduct all the interest. One proposal discussed on Tuesday would cap the deduction at the maximum mortgage the Federal Housing Administration will insure.

That level changes each year and varies depending on housing costs in each county, with a maximum loan limit now of $312,895 in communities where housing is most expensive and a national average of $244,000, according to the housing administration.

If this is true, it would really screw Southern California.

The article continues:

The panel did not discuss Tuesday whether to recommend limiting the interest deduction on home equity loans or second homes, as had been previously suggested by some panel members. The issue still could be discussed later.

This latter issue was the concern of the Las Vegas article, where most homes are vacation or second homes. Of more interest to many folks reading this is the line “limiting the interest deduction on home equity loans”. This could affect many folks taking advantage of these.

Lastly, according to the New York Times article, they are exploring getting rid of the tax deductions for Health Insurance. Specifically, in the case of employer-paid health insurance, the main proposal the panel discussed would limit tax-free premium payments to the average cost of the premium the government pays for federal workers. That is now about $11,000 a year for family coverage. The proposal the panel discussed would allow taxpayers whose employers did not provide health insurance to deduct the amount of the premiums they paid for themselves.

I think it is time to write my congress critters to let them know that if this ever comes out, they shouldn’t support the notion. Unfortunately, I live in Democratic districts, so my congresscritters don’t have that much of a voice. Still, I think I’ll need to do this.

Observations on the News

Posted onTuesday, October 11, 2005Authorcahwyguy

I haven’t done “Observations on the News” in a while, so here goes…

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Leasure World has chosen its new name: Laguna Woods Village. For those unfamiliar with the story, the name change occured because the owners of the Leasure World trademark objected to the Orange County facility using the term in advertising without paying. Two notes from the article worthy of comment: (1) some residents were hoping for “Laguna Woods Estates”, because they felt “Village” made them sound like a trailer park. (2) Other residents, however, were happy with the name change, for it got rid of the moniker “Seizure World”. Couldn’t they compromise on Seizure World Estates?
The Los Angeles Times is also reporting that Barbie is really getting beaten up. No, this isn’t kinky. The iconic Barbie doll–she of the non-realistic figure–has declining sales against MGA’s Bratz line of dolls. This has resulted in Mattel combining the management of Barbie into the Fisher-Price line. I do note that my daughter has no interest in Barbie; she lost it about two years ago. Thus, it may be appropriate they are skewing Barbie younger. For those into different sort of dolls (again, not kinky), we discovered over at the Yaldah website a set of dolls (Gali Girls) designed with modesty in mind for traditional Jewish girls. Yaldah itself is interesting: it is a magazine developed by Jewish teens for Jewish girls.
The Los Angeles Times is lastly reporting that Paypal is buying the payment processing unit of Verisign. EBay (owner of PayPal) has also agreed to deploy VeriSign technology to increase the security of transactions on the auction site. What is most interesting is the tidbit:

“As part of its deployment of VeriSign technology, EBay said it would buy as many as 1 million “authentication tokens” to give to EBay and PayPal customers next year. Each of the devices displays a six-digit code that a user must type, along with a password, to gain access to a network. The code changes every minute as determined by an algorithm unique to each token. PayPal spokeswoman Amanda Pires said the company had not determined whether it would charge for the tokens, which could help deter identity theft.”

The translation of this is that they will be giving out secure ID tokens. This will go a long way, I feel, towards stopping Paypal and Ebay phishing.
A while back, folks were concerned when Google introduced blog searching. Well, Yahoo has joined the frey. The Daily Breeze is reporting that Yahoo has added blogs to its news searching capability. Why is this significant? First, it treats bloggers equal to traditional news sources. Secondly, it may be of concern to those worried about blog privacy. Going to their search page, I don’t get any hits on cahwyguy, but I don’t know what blogs they consider blogs.
Just a week ago, the Good Guys chain abruptly closed all their retail stores. I discovered this when I tried to hit the Northridge Store. The Ventura County Star has a story on the impact of these closings. Of more interest, however, is the note that the loss in Ventura is being offset by the opening of a new Frys in Oxnard. Alas, the theme hasn’t yet been revealed. Still, this now adds Oxnard to the folks that have to deal with opened and resealed packages, quitely refurbished products, surly return clerks, and a large selection.
The SJ Mercury News is reporting that Google has caved. In particular, whereas previous versions of Google Maps showed Taiwan as “Taiwan, Province of China”, the latest version simply refers to it as “Taiwan”.
Lastly, the Orange County Register is conducting a contest to find a song to represent Southern California. They want a song that “creates an image in your mind of Southern California”. What do you bet they get lots of Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, together with “Hotel California”. Me? I still will support my favorite: I Love LA! by Randy Newman:
Read More …

Observations On The News: Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Posted onTuesday, July 26, 2005Authorcahwyguy

If this is Tuesday, it must be Observations on the News:

Just Imagine: Micky D Servers in Low-Rise Jeans. According to the Orange County Register, McDonalds is looking to revamp its uniforms into something hipper for its teen employees. The article notes that Micky D is courting teen brands such as Sean Jean, Phat Farm and Abercrombie & Fitch to create a more fashionable look for its employees. The article provides the written image of Micky’s Girls in an Abercrombie tank, hoodie and low-slung jeans. This is all fine and good, but can someone please do something about the Hot Dog On A Stick uniforms?
McMansions and McAnnoyances. The LA Daily News is reporting that a number of people are starting to fight back against the McMansionization (how’s that for a word) of the Valley. For those unfamiliar with the term, this is when you buy a property, scrape it, and build a lot-line-to-lot-line multistory monstrosity. In many areas, this destroys the nature of the community, especially in the valley, which was originally designed with single-story ranch houses in mind. It is a side-effect of the high housing prices: with real estate prices at an all-time high and little vacant property left to develop, builders buy up older houses simply for the land, demolish the old structure and build larger homes with the square footage and amenities that command top dollar. Personally, I hate the trend.
But Our Chocolate is Safe. The McTrend today is companies swallowing other companies. McDonalds, for example, owns Boston Market; Whirpool is trying to buy Maytag. So, is it any surprise that Hersheys is buying Scharfenberger. This means that the maker of such gourmet confections as Kit Kat and Twizzers will be slumming with the Berkeley-based manufacturer of of drek chocolate that uses use only cacao beans that undergo thorough fermentation, and whole vanilla beans from Madagascar and Tahiti. What’s next, Microsoft buying Apple?
Speaking of Microsoft and Apple… Yesterday, I noted that Microsoft’s new product, Virtual Earth, shows the Apple campus as non-existant (actually, it is using a 1991 picture). Actually, Virtual Earth is a new Microsoft-Beta product that uses USGS imagery (old), vs. Google’s satellite imagery. The reason I mention this is that it has prompted a change to Google Maps: the addition of a HYBRID button that overlays street information on the satellite maps. For example, this is a map of our old house. Here is the satellite image. Here (and this is neat) is the hybrid image. Cool.

PETA says that Long Beach Aquarium should not serve fish

Posted onTuesday, June 28, 2005Authorcahwyguy

According to the LA Times, PETA has requested the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach to gut its cafeteria menu of fish and seafood, arguing that “serving fish at an aquarium is like serving poodle burgers at a dog show.” The head of the Fish Empathy Project for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said serving fish at an aquarium just isn’t right. “An institution with a mission that includes teaching people to respect and appreciate marine animals certainly shouldn’t serve fish in its cafeteria,” Karin Robertson wrote last week in a letter to Jerry Schabel, the aquarium’s chairman and chief executive. Robertson, who runs a website called fishinghurts.com, said recent studies have showed that fish are “intelligent, sensitive and interesting animals.” She wrote that “Fish are far more intelligent than previously thought, and in some respects their cognitive abilities surpass those of dogs and some nonhuman primates. The treatment of both commercially caught fish and fish from fish farms would warrant cruelty-to-animals charges in your state if animals we are more familiar with, like dogs and cats, were treated as badly.”

Poodle burgers at a dog show.

I’d rather have Schnauzer. I hear Pit Bull is rather tough. And I’m always hungry after Chihuahua, they just don’t serve enough. I find Sheepdog always leaves my mouth fuzzy afterwards. Greyhound just runs through me. After I eat Dalmation, I see spots.

My wife added: Boxer always fights back. Great Dane leaves me wanting Lutefisk.

From crumpeteer on metaquotes: I hear Doberman has a bite to it.

If it’s Tuesday, it must be Observations on the News

Posted onTuesday, June 21, 2005Authorcahwyguy

Some interesting articles from the news today:

From the “Your Pet Did What?” Department: According to the LA Times via AP, Viacom is buying Neopets. This is something my daughter enjoys playing (and hopefully she’ll be able to play again today), and I know that other LJers are out there as well. To me, I find this encouraging, as it helps me (as a parent) have confidence that the site is not doing anything nefarious. Neopets will be under the Nick banner, which has reputation to uphold.
From the “Hitting the Sauce” Department: Heinz is acquiring Groupe Donone, makers of Lea & Perrins sauce. Mmmm. Makes me want a stake (or should that be steak). But they’ll have to change all their bottles, as there are now more then 57.
From the “But Can They Paint Dogs Playing Poker?” Department: According to AP, paintings by Congo the Chimp netted more than $25,620 after going under the hammer alongside works by Renoir and Andy Warhol on Monday at Bonhams in London. You know, I could never appreciate modern art!

Note: This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by California Highway Guy. You may comment either here or there (where there are comment(s)).

If it’s Tuesday, it must be Observations on the News

Posted onTuesday, June 21, 2005Authorcahwyguy

Some interesting articles from the news today:

From the “Your Pet Did What?” Department: According to the LA Times via AP, Viacom is buying Neopets. This is something my daughter enjoys playing (and hopefully she’ll be able to play again today), and I know that other LJers are out there as well. To me, I find this encouraging, as it helps me (as a parent) have confidence that the site is not doing anything nefarious. Neopets will be under the Nick banner, which has reputation to uphold.
From the “Hitting the Sauce” Department: Heinz is acquiring Groupe Donone, makers of Lea & Perrins sauce. Mmmm. Makes me want a stake (or should that be steak). But they’ll have to change all their bottles, as there are now more then 57.
From the “But Can They Paint Dogs Playing Poker?” Department: According to AP, paintings by Congo the Chimp netted more than $25,620 after going under the hammer alongside works by Renoir and Andy Warhol on Monday at Bonhams in London. You know, I could never appreciate modern art!