Steve Fischer's Random Blog

Category: Crazy

  • Full Stop

    This headline is three words too long…

  • Judgmental NYC

    Via Judgmental Maps. Click to biggify. I live in the Strollers and Bars part of Brooklyn and work in the Artsy Folks section.

  • Don’t Waste My Time

    From Doonesbury. “I reject that model”…

    (click to enlarge).

  • Vaccines Rock

    From the Incidental Economist (which you should read) reporting on CDC findings:

    Among 78.6 million children born during 1994–2013, routine childhood immunization was estimated to prevent 322 million illnesses (averaging 4.1 illnesses per child) and 21 million hospitalizations (0.27 per child) over the course of their lifetimes and avert 732,000 premature deaths from vaccine-preventable illnesses

    Averted 732,000 premature deaths. Not trivial.

    Vaccination will potentially avert $402 billion in direct costs and $1.5 trillion in societal costs because of illnesses prevented in these birth cohorts.

    $402 billion dollars. Again, not so trivial.

    Or feel free to listen to Jenny McCarthy. She is, after all, attractive…

  • Net Neutrality RIP

    This is one of those obscure tech topics but it really isn’t that complicated. Imagine you have a startup company making cool ties. You create a nice web site. Your ties are cool and business picks up.

    Then Comcast says that they will reduce the speed they serve up your website unless you pay them 10K a month.

    If that sounds crazy to you, realize that Netflix just did this (not that they wanted to). They paid Comcast extra to get good speeds. Only it wasn’t 10K. Sure, they can afford it. But can your custom tie site?

    The Verge has a bunch of articles on this:

    Some NSFW language, but a good one.

    The original, (with the original NSFW headline).

    Today’s article about the FCC proposal.

    And Mother Jones’s RIP article.

    This is a big deal. Imagine if Walmart’s trucks could drive 75 mph but everyone else had to drive 55. Would we stand for that?

  • Understanding Social Media

    This is a really important thing. If you use your Twitter feed to try to promote your brand with a hashtag, you really need to consider how popular your brand is in the first place. Because there’s no rule that a hashtag has to be used the way you intended.

    This should be obvious.

    Jenny McCarthy asked a fairly innocuous question, “What is the most important personality trait you look for in a mate?”,  on Twitter and asked people to respond with the #JennyAsks hashtag. But she’s a notorious anti-vaccine person so most of the responses were like this:

     

     

    I guess the NYPD is equally clueless. They asked this:

     

    I’m generally a fan of the NYPD, but it’s not clear why they couldn’t see this coming

     

     

    Honestly folks, find someone in their 20s and ask them what could go wrong with your proposed hashtag. I’m old and I could see these coming…

  • Formulaic Linkbait

    This post from Seth Godin amused me because it is so true. All linkbait headlines:

    ([Integer between 5 and 10] WAYS to [action verb like avoid or stumble or demolish] [juicy adjective like stupid or embarrassing or proven] [noun].)

  • How is this Legal?

    Imagine what would happen if Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft set a rule that they would not hire anyone over 50? Do you think the media would explode? Would people go ballistic over age discrimination?

    Of course they would, and rightly so.

    So why can’t an 18 year old play in the NBA? And now apparently the league wants to bump it so 19 year olds can’t either.

    How is this legal?

    A large number of employers colluding to prohibit employment of a certain class of people. Age discrimination is illegal in most states, (though not federally, except for older workers).

    It’s the most ridiculous thing ever. There’s no argument that they aren’t capable. Hello, Kobe? LeBron? Yeah, they were lame. Who’d want them?

    Again, how is this legal?

    Yes, the Players’ Union has agreed to it. Does that make it legal?

    I frankly don’t understand why the NBA wants this, unless the NCAA is bribing them. I get the NCAA’s interest. They have a total gravy train exploiting “student athletes”. Don’t rock that boat.

    But all the NBA is doing is risking injury to the next Kobe/LeBron before they join the league. I guess they get publicity from March Madness, but it’s hard to argue that LeBron had no publicity when he entered the league.

    Let’s look at the MVP awards recently. Say, since the 2007-8 season. Let’s assume that Kevin Durant wins this year. The list of winners would be:

    • Kobe (violates current rule)
    • LeBron (violates current rule)
    • Derrick Rose (would violate new rule)
    • Kevin Durant (would violate new rule)

    So the NBA is trying to exclude their ultimate best players.

    Again, how is this legal? Or smart?

    I guess it’s just that a kid out of high school is afraid of risking his potential career by biting the hand that will ultimately feed him. Kobe and LeBron are the exceptions and we haven’t had another one since the rule changed.

    So who cares if it’s legal? It’s convenient.

    I’m not a lawyer, so if anyone knows, please explain.

  • Morals

    This is an interesting set of charts. The one below surprised me in that:

    1) More Democrats think alcohol is morally unacceptable than Republicans. I do not know know any of these Democrats.

    2) I get the Muslim part of the world, but what’s up with Latin America? Over half consider alcohol morally unacceptable.

  • Structural Integrity

    Holy crap, this post is amazing and frightening. A skyscraper in Manhattan saved by an undergrad thesis.