Working hard on making schmengie become a soccer fan.


see more Epic Fails

If he gets desperate enough over the exerted pressure, he might move to Minnesota and vote Al Franken.

Here's one for schmengie, since he likes the sport so much.
Raids Expose Soccer Fixing Across Europe
German law enforcement officials arrested 17 on Friday in connection with what was described as the biggest match-fixing scandal yet uncovered in European soccer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/sports/soccer/21fix.html

Since everybody's doing it, here's my leet table selection fro WRGPT. I have seen swedish sounding names in this tournament, and I do know a Bob or two.

+-+----------------------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+
|#|   Name                     |Bankroll| Action |Status|Pot#|Pot Size|
+-+----------------------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+
 1|D  Heckler                  |  29700 |    300 |folded|    |        |
 2|>  Alan Gopin               |  19950 |  10050 |      |    |        |
 3|   night owl                |  29900 |    100 |folded|    |        |
 4|   Jupiler                  |  30000 |      0 |folded|    |        |
 5|   Per Landberger           |  30000 |      0 |folded|    |        |
 6|   LVglenn                  |  30000 |      0 |folded|    |        |
 7|   Capitalist Swine Flu     |  29700 |    300 |folded|    |        |
 8|   Joesr                    |  29700 |    300 |folded|    |        |
 9|   Bob                      |  29700 |    300 |folded|    |        |
10|V  Late Entry 7             |  30000 |      0 | NoSho|    |        |
+-+----------------------------+--------+--------+------+----+--------+

And I know how to use the html "pre" tag.

Don't know where I got the reference from, perhaps some LJ user, but here's a

mathematical model to survive a zombie attack


“Only sufficiently frequent attacks, with increasing force, will result in eradication, assuming the available resources can be mustered in time,” they concluded.

3 times

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/business/economy/23leonhardt.html

Very factual article about:
* the minuscule amounts of actual malpractice awards compared to total healthcare cost
* huge amounts of unrecognized malpractice
* lots of money spend on defensive medicine

Many claim that a huge part of health care cost comes from patients and their lawyers suing the pants off the health care providers. Here's my suggestion: Why not take that out of the equation by following the example of the car insurance companies: "No fault". Damages caused by accidents during medical treatment, poor workmanship, and even malpractice are paid up for by the insurance companies through a simple assessment, without looking for guilt or punishment. Awarded damages can be reviewed periodically and adjusted accordingly. You can only sue over the most egregious misconduct, criminal intent and similar categories.

Wouldn't that make things a lot cheaper? Insurance companies are certainly able to assess the risk of accidents and put a proper price tag on it. A price certainly lower than having to pay lawyers and experts on both sides of a lawsuit. There is certainly a chance of abuse, misjudgement and other bad decisions, but with a system to appeal decisions many problems can be eliminated or limited. Also, I believe many victims would be just fine with some kind of lower compensation, when compared to long drawn out and risky processes.

Here's a little piece talking about poll numbers juggling which ties in with jpmassar's post: http://jpmassar.livejournal.com/195027.html

It says that polls are misleading because they often are to broad. A 50% disapproval rating of Obama on health care includes the disapproval of people further left who want to have a public option and lumps them together with Tea Baggers. Also, a larger number of disapproval comes from the left, unhappy about how much is given up in order to make the right happy. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019592.php

schmengie sent me to http://newsbuster.org the other day. Let me send you to the Huffington post for balance. It makes you ask for more people like Al Franken in the house and senate Franken Calms Down Health Care Opponents (VIDEO)

Does anyone have any experience with "laptop calling home" software. Software that sends email to your own address or to a web server with information of the whereabouts of your laptop? This way a lost or stolen laptop can be retrieved easier.

I've looked at http://adeona.cs.washington.edu/ This one currently doesn't work since they don't have a server.
I am also trying to get this one to work: http://preyproject.com, but a sever lack of documentation keeps me from getting it to run

see more Political Pictures

It also moves Mexico's political opinion a good deal to the right.

We've been out all day yesterday to find an apartment for my stepson. We've made a list of apartment complexes to check out and started before noon. There are a good number of complexes who aren't open for visitors on Sunday and the rest have only shortened office hours.

The first complex was near the city limits of Plano, but still within a 20-30 minute commute. This one was already a pretty nice looking gated community next to a golf course and a good distance away from the freeway. The 2nd floor room was facing an open field, behind a U-Haul station and then finally the freeway. The stairs to the apartment are inside, which gave it a very spacious feeling. The complex itself made a nice impression, (10 years old) and they promised us a move in by Monday.

The second complex was my stepsons favorite as far he could tell from the internet. It was in a nice setting with a huge city park in the back, but 25 years old and showing it. The apartments offered were only available if somebody else was making up their minds if they either take model A or B or wanted to switch around within the complex. One of them was ground floor which my stepson didn't want and the other was occupied for 10+ years by a smoker, and it smelled that way still.

The third place wasn't far away, the apartment looked great, would have been available by the end of the week, but was 15% higher in rent then the other places.

The fourth complex was much closer to Justin's future office, but didn't have anything available before October.

Number 5 was managed by the same company as #2, but 10 years older and it showed. They had availability, but it never became a real candidate.

The last place on our list was in a great setting with lots of trees, buildings with brown stone sides and lots of covered parking. The lady in the office gave us the keys to look at the model, which looked great. I wasn't really happy when she had handed us the keys to the model. I would have preferred to see the apartment that was available right away without being influenced by the looks of the model. The obvious thing happened, the real apartment wasn't as nice, the appliances looked much more used, the counter tops kind of cheap. Some windows were dirty and there were some small stains in the carpet. We hemmed and hawed for a bit and finally decided to go back to square #1.

My stepsons agonizing during the drive back to the first complex was caused by the fact that this was going to be his first home, far away from family and friends. But once there, all was fine and it took us about an hour to get the paperwork done. They didn't fuzz much over the fact that he didn't have a rental history, and were impressed by the numbers on his offer letter. One of the luxury apartment complexes had us a little bit scared about their requirements which would have us going through hoops to satisfy them.

We went back to the hotel, browsing the newspaper for mattress sales. This was followed by a diner at Love&War, a Plano staple for Texas food. They had a big menu ordered by regional foods, which included "New Braunfels Bratwurst" which made me feel right at home. Justin had some Buffalo fajitas. It was a huge serving which made him asking for a box after eating about one third of it. My Bratwurst was served with corn on the cob (which no upright German would do) in a huge bed of Sauerkraut with lots of red onions mixed in, which of course is strange for this German as well. But it was a good meal as well which was rounded out by a 34oz serving of Shiner Bock. Looked like a liter to me. I love Texas.

Today we are off to get the keys for the apartment, unload the car and buy a mattress and some more basic stuff for the apartment. I am yet undecided if I want to visit Ze Bavarian Grill (http://www.bavariangrill.com), ze best german food zis side of Munich.

As I've told some of you during BARGE, my stepson graduated in May from UMass Dartmouth with a Bachelors degree in Management Information Systems and a minor in Marketing. He's got good grades and a decent resume and it didn't take long for him to get an offer from Perot Systems in Plano, Texas. They will pay part of his move to the Dallas area, but it still required a 3 day drive with a car loaded with a students household. On his way from Massachusetts he stopped at our house for a day and I accompanied for the remaining 2 days.

The trip was pretty uneventful, which of course is good. He had bought a roof top carrier and filled it with books. It was pretty stable and didn't even cause any major decline in gas mileage. His car was a 99 Chevrolet Cavalier who usually get 36+ mpg on the freeway. We left Cary, NC on Friday, 7:30 am and went I-85S to Atlanta and had to follow I-20W the rest of the way. We checked into a hotel in Meridian, MS, just past the Alabama state line.

Diner accompanied by 2 beer saw us falling asleep sometime between 9-10pm. We had gotten up early and had spent all day in the car. It was hot and very tiring. The trip continued after a light breakfast this morning again at 7:30. Another 500 miles on I-20 brought us to Dallas where we checked into another hotel.

I am glad I can help him on this trip and I am proud that he found this great job. My assumption is that a company who is hiring college graduates during these times must have something in mind for these youngsters. His Information Systems/Marketing combination is especially looked for, since most of us with the geek gene aren't born for sales. What he's been telling about his interview supports this as well.

We will be looking for an apartment for him the next couple of days and try to get him situated. I'll fly back home on Tuesday. Despite the long drive, I am glad I could join him on this trip and see him stepping into real life (tm)

Since there are cat people among my LJ friends:

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/in-scorn-and-praise-of-cats/?hp

Summary: Cats were not domesticated by men, they just moved in with us since human settlements are a great breeding ground for their prey (rats, mice, etc)

Switching off a considerable amount of lights for one hour has multiple effects, not many of them good ones:

* We use less energy
* The power grid has to deal with the sudden lowered demand by switching of generators. They rarely deal with this massive drop in demand. This may result in fluctuations in voltage and frequency, to what extend remains to be seen.
* It also has to deal with the sudden increase in demand once the hour is up. This also will result in voltage and frequency fluctuations, but at a slower pace. It usually is easier and faster to switch something off than to bring it back online. Recovery from a widespread power outage is usually pretty tough, since generator after generator starts feeding into the system, but they hardly can satisfy the demand and are overloaded fast. All the power switches are still on and the grid operators will have a hard time bringing more areas online/
* It is said that during earth hour less CO2 is produced. However, the worst CO2 producers, coal plants most likely will be online through the entire time, since they are in place to satisfy base demand, similar to nuclear plants. Gas, wind or water (Hoover dam) powered plants are way easier to switch on and off than coal. Wind or water don't produce any CO2.

via NY Times and The Onion:

Prague's Franz Kafka International Named World's Most Alienating Airport

When I arrive at the Beau Rivage last night, there are about 15 minutes to go until their deep stack tournament starts. $100+20 buyin and an automatic $10 for the dealers and more chips for a total of T10000. Blinds increase by 50% every 20 minutes, estimated duration until 11pm. 43 people start, 9 players paid between $170 and $1200. I sign up and stay around 10k until the 2nd break. After that I catch up to be average and even twice the average until we are down to 4 players. I make a knucklehead fold where I should have all in to begin with or not have played at all. I end up 4th for a $430 payout.

1 remarkable hand: blinds are 50-100, 2 or 3 player call, I look at AK and make it 600. 1 player behind me call and the folks flat calling 100 call the additional 500 cold. I sigh, miss the flop and fold to a bet and a caller. I blame the call 100 and call 500 to deep stack syndrome and shrug it off.

Today, I was looking around for the old Biloxi card rooms, but get depressed checking things out. The Imperial Palace has one table going. I didn't check the Isle of Capri, but went to the Grand to check it out. Where the old Grand used to be, there is a huge construction site and nothing to see of the old structure. The local BARGERs said it ended up one mile down the road after Katrina. It looks like the Grand turned a part of their parking garage into a casino and the result is just depressing. No poker there.

I went back to the Beau Rivage for some soft 1-2 NL and make another $300.

Stats:
Ticket ($1500)
Tournament $300
live $300
total ($900)

This isn't observation strictly from my current trip, but actually the past 3 years. All over North Carolina and elsewhere I've seen all those malls being built. Hundreds of them and I kept wondering who is going to shop there? Not only along the freeway, but also in my own hometown suburbia. Supermarket here, Walmart there, BestBuy left, Target right, Kohl's somewhere else.

And now many of them are still unfinished, or barely established in a community which is unlikely to grow. They will stay unfinished, or get finished and stay unused. Somehow I am thinking that just like the bailouts, we will all end up paying for them. The companies building them want to recover their losses and will drive up their price, maybe not today, but 3 years down the road.

Which makes me think, isn't filing for Chapter 11 or 7 not a socialization of losses as well? Not only by paying the creditors cents on the dollar, but also by those creditos trying to recover their losses eventually?

Checking one off this list: http://adbjupe.livejournal.com/1108.html South Carolina !

I have an appointment at the German Embassy in Atlanta tomorrow to get a new passport. Due to the new requirements for biometric passports I had to make a 6 hour trip to here. I have to be there in person at least once. So I spent my afternoon and night on I-85 staring east^Wwest and southeast^Wsouthwest into the sun for 4 hours. Add 2 hours of night time driving. With shining lights of a WAFFLE HOUSE and Bojangle's towering over the hills of South Carolina. WAFFLE HOUSE and Bojangle's, the pinnacle of southern cooking and hospitality.

And since I am halfway there and my wife will be in Chicago over the weekend for a jobfair, I'll head further south to Biloxi to spend the extended weekend there. Another 6 hour drive. The fun starts on Monday for a 12 hour drive back. I am mentally prepared to make a stopover somewhere on my way back in case I am getting tired of it.

Edit: some changes for the directionally challenged.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/us/politics/06web-health.html?_r=1&hp

In the blinds, the tax payer and the patient. On the button the pharma industry, one off the insurance industry, under the gun the family practice, the workers and the industry, in middle position hospitals and larger health care providers. Acting out of turn: the media.


I was listening earlier today to NPRs coverage of todays event and was appalled over all the back and forth. All the positioning games, the pure self interest, everybody's pushing their agenda. And many provide complete solutions, of course tweaked in their direction. But solutions don't help if nobody is able to analyze the problem. Or at least nobody is describing it to the public.
Has anyone seen a problem description?

What I see are healthcare cost. Because of them, so many are with out proper medical care. Which makes cost the primary problem. And the healthcare market is pretty much dysfunctional. Pharma companies who are able to charge 20 times the price in the US for the same medicine as somewhere in Africa. Insurance companies who waste 30% of their budget to take on patients and perhaps another 30% to approve and disapprove coverage. Patients who ask for a second and a third opinion. And doctors who have to pay off the brand new multimillion dollar diagnostic apparatus putting it to use for the common cold and paper cuts. We can afford college graduates counting out 30 pills for your prescription and on the other hand Walmart can undercut them at $4. And don't forget that your bill for a hospital procedure with a one night stay carries about 4-5 other non-paying emergency room patients.

How do you get the market back to functioning again? If I knew. I know, some will call for deregulation, but the main players have big stacks already and I feel like we are limited to a $100 buyin only.

(Trying to balance Jaeger)