Hey... Do You Still Have That Ointment? I Itch.

 

Your love is like  a date with Niki Manaj

Scientists identify rare lead compounds in Rembrandt’s The Night Watch

So don't let your kids eat it.

Today I identify as   certainly not Lisa Marie Presley, that's for sure.

Afghanistan: Freezing weather kills at least 124 people

Aid is hampered because of the Taliban edict banning women from working in aid agencies.

Brilliant! Way to cut off that nose to spite your face. 

Brendan Fraser: We need to stop bias against those with obesity

We need to stop the abuse against the majority of  people, who must listen to an unending glut of demands to stop the abuse against whatever group it is today. Seriously?

Pretty soon we won't be able to pick on anybody. Comedy clubs, already in danger, will shutter their doors. All speech will be monitored. Wrongthink will not be tolerated.  We have completely turned things upside down, from the concept of free speech, to having to look around to see who's listening or monitoring for speech infractions. Don't believe me? In the UK, you can be fined for saying something 'nasty or hurtful 'online. The police aren't too happy with you saying certain words in person either,

Do we want to be that kind of world? Once again, the 2% are pushing around the 98%. The squeaky wheel needs hydrocloric acid to be ignored-they have a right to free speech too. Let me clue Mr. Fraser in: it's human nature to point out differences and go from there. Is it nice? Hell no. Is it funny in comedy clubs and satire? Hell yes-that's where we make fun of society.  

Cut it out already.

My daily weather post: It's almost redundant to say it's gray. The other night, Mother Nature, who should be heading to celebrity rehab for more than a passing familiarity with crack, mixed things up and it sleeted instead of raining. Today we have 5 minutes of snow. I'm holding out for raining toads or small foreign cars. 

Speaking of doctors, I have a new doctor.

Things have not gone well since before my first visit, but it has nothing to do with the doctor - it's the staff and electronic portals. They want me to log in to their patient portal. I don't want to. Logging into anything becomes a huge rectal pain about 99.5% of the time. Plus I trust the security like I trust Congress.  I explained during my first visit and they were kind enough to give me a huge stack of papers to fill out. The joke was on them - my handwriting is only somewhat worse than a 90 year old man with Parkinsons. I type all the time - why write? Then they wanted a copy of my license. No. Why on Earth would they need that? It's obvious who I am. I wonder if I should ask for a copy of the doctor's drivers license and license to practice. And his ATM card.

On the day of my 2nd appointment, I got an email reminding me I had a virtual appointment. Ummmm.. no. I like sitting across from the doctor, looking around the office and getting distracted. Virtual appointments don't work well for me. I don't like them and the software always causes problems. I called the office and they told me the doc only does virtual appointments on Wednesdays. I'm thinking "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if he had told me this?"   They also demanded I set up the user portal. While speaking, I'm told my phone is low in volume and full of static. Of course it is - the wireless is literally 3 feet from the phone. But we all have to be patient with cell phones. It's only been a bit over 25 years - there are a few things to be worked out and we don't want to rush the phone companies. 

You know, of course, that this did not go well. And to say it didn't go well means that it took hours and an incredible amount of screaming and launching things. New patients log into the portal and are immediately told to change their password. Unless, of course, it's me. So I asked for the FORGOT Password option. It asked me for things like my name. Then it told me I was wrong. As far as I can remember, I've always had the same name and birthdate. Even after the FBI offered to put me into Witness Protection, I refused to change it. So... forgot password doesn't work, nor does the original. I'm already cursing, because I know this is going to continue ad nauseam. On the 11th try it agreed to let me in, but it was going to send me an email with a one time password. This is a more secure login, but mostly it's designed to piss customers off and make them wait longer. Only then does it allow me a new password. I love this because the requirements are usually weird, plus most only allow 8 or 12 characters and mine are long. I tried 4 browsers to get in and it errored on each one. I think I confused it. 

Then I made the mistake of reading the entire privacy policy. This shitty software wants to market to patients! If I have to use this crap, I don't have to be marketed to. Plus they can use all my information to buy a house in Cancun. If I put anything neat in the chat board, they own it. What kind of rinky dink software do we have here?

As if this weren't enough fun, the portal URGENTLY advised me that I had 2 forms to URGENTLY fill in. Strange - these were forms I already filled out in the office, in a slightly less URGENT manner. You know we're not even near done, right? They want all the same info I filled out manually so I just wrote SAME. I'm actually a decent, personable guy when I go to offices. I just seem like a real asshole because I care about safety and privacy. I know it's only a matter of time until the portal gets hacked. It's only as safe as the company hosting it, their friends, their friends' pets, and any other parts of someone else's software they used. 

But wait - there's more! After the Great Portal Nightmare of 2023, I get an email stating we're meeting over Zoom. Zoom is a piece of excrement, originally put together by a marketing company, trying to be a chat company. Customers were treated like information to be stolen, like in Windows. They got caught lying and being insecure a number of times. No one should use Zoom; not even your friends' pets. 'Wire" is at least encrypted. Signal can do a few people at once, and it's an encrypted text program for your phone.  I let the good doctor know about all of this via Portal Email (the single helpful feature). I'm waiting to hear that either we're going to just use phones or they recommend I see the doctor down the street. I'm going to ask the doctor for something for my nerves. It would seem the practice is generating its own patients.

You're still asking yourself "Why doesn't he like filling out stuff online?"

ExxonMobil: Oil giant predicted climate change in 1970s - scientists

We had no idea that smoking causes cancer

ThermionicEmissions warns you about Bad Stuff 

• Hey, if you have one of those guaranteed, impenetrable Lifelock accounts, you may be one of 925,000 whose information was accessed. In theory, you'll receive notification. If not, get in touch with them.
• US authorities release asylum seekers after leaking their data online Where were the democrats that day?
• But wait!! Also accessed was the No-Fly list! It was left on an unprotected server.  Feel safe now? Do ya? 
• Samsung Galaxy store app found vulnerable to sneaky app installs and fraud
• Gonorrhea is becoming unstoppable; highly resistant cases found in US.  WARNING: Married people should avoid getting this. Spouses have a notoriously bad sense of humor

Microsoft is checking everyone's bags for unsupported Office installs

They will send you an update to check, whether you like it or not. They'll probably try to sell you Office 365. Don't do it.  Remember the good old days, when we owned our operating systems and they didn't monitor us, sell to us, or forward our info to the NSA?  Use linux.

Microsoft is also phasing out Windows 10 and stopping the sale of it at the end of the month. I was all excited when I heard Win 10 was going down, but then I heard you had to downgrade to Windows 11.  Use linux.

The partisan politics game is just rolling along, stampeding all common sense and your rights. In Wyoming, republicans want to ban electric cars. Now this would be ok if they're doing it because the planet of California is mandating them, but no.... they want production ramped down because of its gas and oil industry. Wyoming also has a state senator called Brian Boner. That must have been a rough childhood.

speaking of stupid....

Former Republican candidate held over shootings targeting Democrats' homes

School prepared me for very little, but I know for a fact that shooting up the 'opposition' was never mentioned. The republican fellow lost an election then took shots at the dems' houses. No matter what your political views, you are not allowed to shoot your opponents.

On the other hand, we might have the beginnings of Honesty Through Fear. It's worth studying. In fact, President Giveaway has forwarded $25 billion to the University of California, Uranus, for said study. UC Berkeley commented that they will let the study go forward so long as none of the politicians are Jewish.

There's a lot of noise about Section 230, and the government holding social media responsible. 

People are carrying pitchforks and torches, demanding the heads of social media. 

Before you light that torch for a day out, consider this: you're grocery shopping and on the bulletin board is a note for lawn mowing. You call Bob's lawn mowing and they come out. Hours later you notice Bob cut your grass strangely, with weird patches. Later, as you're flying over your house in your private jet, you notice that your lawn now reads "Welcome to Detroit - turn around!"  Bob won't answer your calls so you blame the store for having a bulletin board.

Huh?

That's Section 230. Social Media companies would be responsible for what their posters say.  Sorry - this is just silly. You can't hold the store or social media responsible. Anybody who has been on the cesspool that is social media knows how toxic it is. That's the fault of the radioactive sludge that posts there. It is not sane to expect the Word Police in social media or at the store. There may be more to 230, but this is the biggie. "But it's for the children" 

As I'm almost waking up, getting ready for the day, Wife is looking at me and laughing. This is not a strange event.  I just stand there, mutely, waiting for today's bomb to drop. 

"You should have seen it last night. In bed, the dog pops up out of nowhere, and starts to lick your forehead."

Nothing new about that. She does that before we go to sleep. I have to literally pry her off me.

"She did it 3 times. Blah..ack...ooh... disgusting."

You're just jealous your forehead isn't good enough to lick.

"It got better."

Uh-oh.

"We were downstairs by the fridge and a piece of salami fell. She swooped in, faster than a Stealth jet, and ran off with it. I followed her."

Uh-oh.

"She jumped right on the bed and sat on you, proceeding to eat her salami while you slept. You are now a table too."

I have a very active life while I sleep. It's a shame waking hours are so boring.

Alec Baldwin is being charged for the shooting on the set of his recent movie.

I think Alec Baldwin is a complete asshole, but he shouldn't be charged. The person in charge of props should have handed him a gun that was safe to use. Another question is why the sets would need live ammunition. Unless Standard Operating Procedure requires the actors to examine the props, I can't see why it's his fault. The irony is that Alec is an anti-gunner. I can't see why they should expect actors to know what live ammo looks like and how to check for it. Maybe before the actors get the part, they should prove their ability to disassemble a gun, clean it, and put it back together. 

That said, if Baldwin is found guilty, he should be shot.

70% of drugs advertised on TV are of “low therapeutic value,” study finds

Oh, that's an easy one. After a number of years (7?), the patents expire. When patents expire, any company at all can produce a generic version. The original patent holder will have none of this, so they move a single molecule around and rename the drug, guaranteeing income for another 7 years, protected by patent (and endless agonizing commercials). While we're exercising our skepticism, note that after the patent expires, the original patent holder also makes a generic version of its own drug. The difference in price between patent version and generic version can be staggering, hence some insurers' preference for generic.

And if you're not careful. you might learn something.

-Bill Cosby, back before his dates got fun, 20 minutes after the roofies