So, I’ve temporarily reverted to the old-style comments.
Here’s my question: Should I just stick with the old-style and call it a day? Or stick with IntenseDebate and try to squash the bugs?
Let me know, ‘cause it’s you guys that feel the pain or the joy, one way or the other.
Here are just a few of mine.
According to a winter storm warning issued this afternoon for central and southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, the mess is expected to begin Wednesday afternoon — and go on and on.
…
The heaviest snowfall, 12 to 20 inches, likely will fall in a swath from Minneapolis to the Iowa border and west to the South Dakota border, said National Weather Service forecaster Jim Taggart.
That’s some spectacularly crummy timing for a winter storm. Stay safe!
Wow. Last night’s Twins victory in 12 innings was incredible, to say the least. After overcoming huge odds, the Twins have scrapped their way into the playoffs, which begin today.
Now comes the tough part. The Twins will go up against the star-studded, free-spending Yankees, whose top three players combined make more than the entire Twins’ payroll. I kid you not — look at the numbers for yourself here.
While the Twins are a long shot, they’ve been defying the odds for over a month now. And I think the entire baseball-watching public — outside of New York, of course — is rooting for them to continue their improbable run and put the Yankees in their place.
If zombies actually existed, an attack by them would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively.
That is the conclusion of a mathematical exercise carried out by researchers in Canada.
…
In their scientific paper, the authors conclude that humanity’s only hope is to “hit them [the undead] hard and hit them often”.
They added: “It’s imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly or else… we are all in a great deal of trouble.”
According to the researchers, the key difference between the zombies and the spread of real infections is that “zombies can come back to life”.
Our government should start putting contingency plans in place immediately. Most importantly, I think we should put Will Smith on retainer immediately. He seems to be quite used to these sorts of fights.
These messages are outrageous for two reasons. First, they waste your time. Good heavens: it’s 2009. WE KNOW WHAT TO DO AT THE BEEP.
Do we really need to be told to hang up when we’re finished!? Would anyone, ever, want to “send a numeric page?” Who still carries a pager, for heaven’s sake? Or what about “leave a callback number?” We can SEE the callback number right on our phones!
Second, we’re PAYING for these messages. These little 15-second waits add up–bigtime. If Verizon’s 70 million customers leave or check messages twice a weekday, Verizon rakes in about $620 million a year. That’s your money. And your time: three hours of your time a year, just sitting there listening to the same message over and over again every year.
If you leave two voicemail messages a day, these mandatory messages add up to three hours of waiting time every year you don’t need, and three hours of extra time you’re billed for.
There are two things you can do about it, and neither takes much time. First, in your outgoing message, leave instructions for how to bypass this message: press * for Verizon, 1 for Sprint, # for AT&T, and # for T-Mobile. Second, Pogue sends instructions on how to send a complaint to the major carriers:
I’ve told each of the four major carriers that they’ll be hearing from us. They’ve told us where to send the messages:
* Verizon: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/FJncH.
* AT&T: Send e-mail to: customerissues@attnews.us.
* Sprint: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/9CmrZ
* T-Mobile: Post a complaint here: http://bit.ly/2rKy0u.
In just about every major contaminated food scare, Minnesotans become sick by the dozens while few people in Kentucky and other states are counted among the ill.
Contaminated peanuts? Forty-two Minnesotans were reported sick compared with three Kentuckians. Jalapeño peppers last year? Thirty-one in Minnesota and two in Kentucky became ill. The different numbers arise because health officials in Kentucky and many other states fail to investigate many complaints of food-related sickness while those in Minnesota do so diligently, safeguarding not only Minnesotans but much of the rest of the country, as well…
…If not for the Minnesota Department of Health, the Peanut Corporation of America might still be selling salmonella-laced peanuts, Dole might still be selling contaminated lettuce, and ConAgra might still be selling dangerous Banquet brand pot pies — sickening hundreds or thousands more people.
In these and other cases, epidemiologists from Minnesota pinpointed the causes of food scares while officials in other states were barely aware that their residents were getting sick. From 1990 to 2006, Minnesota health officials uncovered 548 food-related illness outbreaks, while those in Kentucky found 18, according to an analysis of health records.
Kudos to the Department of Health.
In other Aaron Brown news, the Pioneer Press wrote up his book this week:
Made up of original essays on topics from Range culture to work ethics, politics to history, “Overburden” reflects Brown’s interest in the region where he is “the first in my paternal line to never work in a mine.”
Now a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune, Brown served as that daily newspaper’s editor for two years. He’s an essayist and contributing producer for a KAXE radio program and founder/editor of the Iron Range’s news and politics blog, Minnesota Brown.com. His book, which combines humor, history, personal stories and original observations, is published by Red Step Press of Duluth, one of the state’s newest small publishers.
Bart Sutter, former Duluth poet laureate, says, “The Iron Range has found its voice in Aaron Brown.”
I haven’t had a chance to read it yet (damn law school) but Overburden is definitely on my reading list.
My friend’s cousin’s husband died in the tragedy, leaving behind his wife and two children. Most all of us have connections and memories and different ways we were impacted.
The Franken campaign released a statement this morning saying that Franken will not be campaigning today and they are airing no advertisements. In Franken’s words:
This anniversary is more than a sad reminder of the lives lost and irrevocably altered one year ago, it’s also a reminder of how strong our community really is. We will never forget the stories of Minnesotans rushing towards the danger - into the water to save their neighbors. In the days following the tragedy, we made a firm commitment to rebuild. And forming over the Mississippi River every day, we see the results of that commitment. For Franni and me, this day will always be marked with solemn remembrance of what we have lost, and also a deep appreciation for what we retain and what we can build together.
Coleman and Klobuchar commemorate the bridge collapse. The Star Tribune lists information on the memorial events today, MetroTransit is offering free rides to the memorial event and WCCO has a fantastic retrospective on the bridge collapse.
Our dads taken some stick
He’s still voting Tory though
By God he must be thick
This is a bit of a non-story, but it’s Friday so just relax. I’m not as big of a Facebook adherent as some, but I do check it with a frequency that frightens even myself. At any rate, I logged in this morning to find the note in the above picture in my news feed. I have absolutely no political analysis angle here, I just thought it was funny to log into Facebook and see that Al Franken and Rebecca Otto are now friends. When this thing has it’s IPO, I want in.
People Are Shouting
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