u235

That's right they came back after I'd missed their delivery. Not only did they come back, they came back in an hour or so. Amazing, and completely unexpected, although appreciated.

I'd been tracking a package, and mind you their tracking is pretty damn nifty. You can sign up for email updates (to multiple addresses) on a number of conditions, including any change in package location/status at all. I saw that they were on their way to deliver and I dashed home... only to miss the delivery van by 10 minutes.

I called DHL and the lady said "Oh would you like him to return?" I was just speechless. Return? You mean today? Because I missed it? Well heck yeah!

I hardly see DHL, compared to UPS and Fedex, but they have my vote as the best commercial package delivery service. Next time I see their delivery as an option I won't hesitate to select it.

I've had a Visa card with Chase for twenty years. That's a long time to be with any one credit company. Personally I don't like having a huge fanfold of cards. I know plenty of people that do - they have one for Paypal and one for Amazon, one for Ebay and one for Shell, an American Express and maybe a department store or two... who knows? I don't know if many people realize it, but the more cards you hold, the less actual credit you can draw. Thus if you make, lets say 40k per year, and have lets say seven credit cards with a $5000 limit, that means you only have 5k worth of borrowing power (add in rent and other things like car insurance means you actually have less). So when you go to buy that new car chances are you won't get a great rate (not to mention if you want a mortgage).

I know people are fascinated by getting the nth of a percent back here and there but I don't see the value. Oh wow - so Discover gives you 5% back for gas purchases... up to the first $100. Well considering the cost of gas these days is the five bucks really worth it? Actually, if you don't e-pay them, and you extract the cost of postage then you're only getting a whole 8 cents (since a year's worth of postage is $4.92). Eh.

Back to Chase however, some of the highlights of the positive experiences I've had with them includes:

• Calls when they suspect fraudulent activities (hasn't ever happened, but I appreciate their concern)
• A one day replacement of my card when I had to take a flight and had left my card at a mall
• Copies of actual receipts when a transaction was in question
• Excellent customer service - all well spoken, intelligent individuals who were willing and able to help me
• Being amenable to changing my credit limit down (or up) as I liked

My one and only beef with them is that I have called repeatedly to have the extra crappola and advertisements that come with my bill removed. Typically this lasts for about six months and then I start getting the junk in my bill again. I've decided to put up with it because I do appreciate their service and plan on being their customer for a decent long while.

It amuses me when people come up to a cashier and then have to pick and choose amongst their cards... how much on this or that they have left. Sounds like a disaster to me, if you have only one it's much easier to be aware what you've spent and what you owe.

It's one of those times of the year when it becomes a necessity to grocery shop in volume. The supermarket I generally visit seems to hire a better quality of teenager to check and bag my goods. They're also 5% to 7% more expensive than the grocers at the other end of town. Thus, for volume days, I go to the cheaper store. While smaller, and more tightly packed, the kids there are reasonably fast on checkout. The baggers, however, are markedly different.

I usually ask for plastic bags. When I'm done I ball them all up and put the bags into recycling. Seems ok to me. Sure they're less durable but for the 12' walk from the car to the house it's not really a big deal. Well, that is when things are bagged with some sort of logic. There's variants on the theme of bagging, and some of them really make me wonder:

Burgeoning Bagging: Let's see just how MUCH stuff one bag can hold shall we? Chances are it won't...

Military Bagging: Only items of like size and shape can be placed in the same bag. If you only have one item of a size and shape it gets to wallow in the bag alone.

BioHazard Bagging: Meats with meats. Dairy with dairy. Frozen with frozen. (I'm actually ok with this since I prefer to keep the meats in the bag even when I stuff it in the fridge. It keeps leaks from becoming catastrophic.)

Demonstration of Entropy Bagging: This usually happens with the fastest baggers. Anything and everything goes into a bag until it reaches capacity. When you get home you'll need to go through 75% of the bags to find that last strawberry yogurt...

Criminally Insane Bagging: This was what I was a victim of last night. Honest to gods the kid put every single item, regardless of size, shape, color, texture, temperature, into its own separate bag. Loading it into the car I just reached into the cart and grabbed fist fulls of plastic and hoped the right end was up. When I got home the volume of plastic was roughly the dimension of the giant bubble that chased Patrick McGoohan down the beach in the opening scene of 'The Prisoner'.

There is one more type of bagging - and that's the Guilt Complex bagging you get when visiting the natural grocers. "WHAT?!?! you didn't bring handmade, earth-supporting, eco-friendly, hemp and cat-gut, Birkenstock-certified bags of your own? Oh the SHAME! We will grudgingly give you paper ones, but keep in mind we shall glare at you with pure contempt for your wastefulness in the process."

Yeah I don't shop there often, but they are open on Thanksgiving.

I resent having to deal with the 'Great Unwashed Masses' for almost anything. Supermarkets, theaters, malls. I just am not keen to deal with humans when they are not bent on a specific errand. Train stations, bus terminals, airports, not a problem. People rush hither and yon, with the occasional bump and "Oops, Pardon me." The difference is in the dawdling. I can't stand people who stand, oblivious to all the traffic they're causing about them, as they ponder this item or that thought.

I was at Costco which is, to me, a mix of train station and shopping. Most people are there for a specific reason and there isn't a lot of choices to be made. Do you want 50 rolls of Bounty or the generic brand? The price difference is a buck. Really not many people need to think about this. The only clots of humanity are clustered around the sample vendors who are giving away tidbits to taste. Usually those people are located in an area with ample room to support the ravenous hordes.

The exit, however, is a nightmarish hell. People with their carts loaded to the gunnels will actually stand stock still and read their receipt while people pile up behind them. With little or no concern they now need to check the price of this or that item, rather than having paid attention while being checked out.

I see the same idiotic behavior in malls - someone will suddenly stop at random, causing a multi-person pileup behind them. And unlike hubs of transportation, if you bump someone the "Oops, Pardon me" generates virulent hostility rather than a humorous look of understanding.

And people wonder why brick and mortar establishments are going the way of the dinosaur...

Most teenage girls are stressed. Between school, boys, hormones, parents, all the emotions being heaped on them or self-inflicted there's not much of a break. Megan was 13 who, in addition to all the things a new-teen has to cope with, was also ADHD and struggling with depression. She killed herself because the boy she'd falled in love with online turned out to be a cruel joke played on her by a former friend's Mom. One that was even a neighbor.

This Mom said she wanted only to win the girl's confidence to learn about her own daughter, but instead teamed up with a few other people to build a romance and then smash it to pieces. "Josh", the puppet boyfriend, turned on her suddenly - posting mean messages - calling her "fat" and "a slut".

Of course Megan never found out this was all a sham posted by someone she knew. She killed herself instead.

Eventually her parents found out when another girl, a schoolmate, told them about it.

The adults who did this haven't been charged with a crime because it doesn't "fit" within the existing laws.

It doesn't take much to decide if it a crime to drive a thirteen year old to her death after breaking her heart... Not to mention destroying her parents lives. They now plan to divorce. And the Mother who started it? Well she says she doesn't feel all that guilty, since Megan had tried to commit suicide once before.

Gj Lori Drew.

"So this is the kind of management we have to deal with: Nobody is calm, nobody is objective... Everyone is just freekin' Nuts."

-Roger

Do you want to know a sure-fire way to ruin Thanksgiving? Serve up a "new" and "exotic" recipe instead of a "classic". Just about any and all newspapers are carrying guaranteed ways to make your family go "WTF were you thinking?"

Take mashed potatoes for example. Pretty simple stuff really. Get potatoes. Boil potatoes. Add salt, pepper, milk and butter. Voila - done. I promise you adding blue cheese or fresh lavender will probably make most people wrinkle their nose and wonder why you decided to deviate from the traditional.

Thanksgiving is all about tradition really. Making the same, fatty, yummy dishes your great-grandparents made and throwing all health concerns to the four winds. Screw the nouvelle, it's the tried-and-true, Better Homes, Fanny Farmer, Joy of Cooking time of year. Chances are if you decide to substitute wheat-germ for flour and tofu for cheddar you will get a reaction, only probably not a good one. During Thanksgiving you can't get too Americana or too gauche.

Yes, marshmallows are just fine on sweet potatoes, no one cares - Grandma used to make it that way and she'd have smacked you with an iron pan if you dissed her cooking anyway...

I've never understood why traffic lights, the ones that are triggered by pressure or magnetic sensors, need to be programmed to be so fucking retarded. There's no reason in the world that a traffic light needs to be triggered when someone is making a right turn.

I see it all the fucking time. Driving along, the light is green. Way up ahead someone on a cross-street makes a right turn. As I approach the light it turns red for me, because the right-turn triggered the light for the cross street only now there's no one there.

It's fucking simple, just put in a timeout. If the car isn't there after, oh say three seconds, don't trigger the damn light.

It's not even rocket science...

It's funny in a sad way that probably every sick-o on campus (any campus, pick one) is probably trying to get their hands on the Aqua-Dots toy since it was publicized as being coated with a substance that decomposes into the Date-Rape drug

I can understand the need to announce the fact that the toy is harmful in the wrong hands, but wouldn't it have been smarter to just say the content was toxic rather than going into the details? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the demand for this item will skyrocket with freaks.

Of course the toy was never meant to be toxic(although I'm a little perplexed as to why the toy is listed for 4+ years, since just about any kid under 6 will still be shoving stuff into their mouth). Instead some dickhead at the factory in China that manufacturers the product substituted the toxic chemical for the non-toxic substance that had been approved. Why? Well because the actual chemical is four times more expensive.

Deja-news.

Chinese manufacturer substitutes cheap, lethal ingredients for legitimate ones and pockets the leftovers. People (or pets) die. Chinese government shrugs and it's business as usual.

So... who's ready for a little Olympics?

Oh and for those looking? While Ebay and Amazon have yanked it, the "toy" is still available online for around $30.

SOUTHWORTH, Wash. (AP) -- A man trying to loosen a stubborn lug nut blasted the wheel with a 12-gauge shotgun, injuring himself badly in both legs, sheriff's deputies said.

How exactly *do* you come up with the idea to loosen a lug nut with a shotgun? When I first read this I thought the individual had used the shotgun as a lever. But no, he actually shot at the wheel. With a gun.

Honestly I think this was the better possible ending, considering that there was probably a 50% chance he'd have held the gun by the barrel instead of the stock.

**Note** This is not my work, but I'm reproducing this here because of the relevance of the content. I have copied it here as it was forwarded to me, as such I have no ability to credit the original author but to whomever... props.

-u235

The Dunning-Kruger effect is the phenomenon wherein people who have little knowledge think that they know more than others who have much more knowledge.

The phenomenon was demonstrated in a series of experiments performed by Justin Kruger and David Dunning, then both of Cornell University. Their results were published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in December 1999.

Kruger and Dunning noted a number of previous studies which tend to suggest that in skills as diverse as reading comprehension, operating a motor vehicle, and playing chess or tennis, "ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" (as Charles Darwin put it). They hypothesized that with a typical skill which humans may possess in greater or lesser degree,

1. Incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill.

2. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others.

3. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy.

4. If they can be trained to substantially improve their own skill level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill.

They set out to test these hypotheses on human subjects consisting of Cornell undergraduates who were registered in various psychology courses.

In a series of studies, Kruger and Dunning examined self-assessment of logical reasoning skills, grammatical skills, and humor. After being shown their test scores, the subjects were again asked to estimate their own rank, whereupon the competent group accurately estimated their rank, while the incompetent group still overestimated their own rank. As Dunning and Kruger noted,

“Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd.”

Meanwhile, people with true knowledge tended to underestimate their competence.

A follow-up study suggests that grossly incompetent students improve both their skill level and their ability to estimate their class rank only after extensive tutoring in the skills they had previously lacked.

Daniel Ames and Lara Kammrath extended this work to sensitivity to others, and the subjects' perception of how sensitive they were.

Some more work by Burson Larrick and Joshua Klayman has suggested that the effect is not so obvious and may be due to noise and bias levels.

Dunning and Kruger won the 2000 Ig Nobel prize for their work.

So remember Kiddies! Next time you meet a Prime Example of the DKE don't forget... there's a scientific foundation for your annoyance. Letting others know that there's a DKE around -before- they encounter them is a boon to all! Help your peers and they'll help you.

I find it more than a little odd that a teacher would try and make a school, no actually their school, the target of the gun lobby. It seems that Ms. Katz is demanding the right to carry a semiautomatic on school grounds. Because she's afraid for her life. In 2004 she claims her ex-husband made threats during their divorce. Uh hello? That was almost four years ago... so why do you need a gun now?

It was always my thought that a teacher would put the lives of the children around them first, but I guess in this case Shirley doesn't give a crap. She wants to do her job and she wants to carry a gun in the process. Could she have an accident with the gun? Could she also be the target of someone in the school who wanted to take the gun from her? If her ex-husband did come after her, he would most certainly be carrying one, so that would make two guns in the school. Maybe probability and statistics aren't her thing but Shirl - the very fact that you have a gun with you increases the chances you (or someone around you) will be shot with one, trust me on this. Do you really want to be responsible for the death of a student?

I'm pretty sure most of the kids in her class probably don't give her too much grief, I know I wouldn't. On the other hand would I have my kids in her class?

Hell no.

Does everyone have a "right" to have fun? What if you're not capable of having a certain type of "fun" is it discrimination on the part of the provider? Let's take a hypothetical example of a tour service that offers climbs up Mount Everest. Is it discrimination that the service require that you be physically fit enough to climb? What about a scuba tour? Is it discrimination to require a person be able to swim?

I don't often side with Disney, but in this case they're being sued by people who "can stand but can't walk". These people prefer (note the word "prefer" here) to use a Segway rather than a wheelchair. They're suing Disney for this preference. Disney claims that since Segways can go up to 12 miles an hour that they're too dangerous in an environment filled with toddlers and little kids running amok. For once, I agree with Disney.

To the plaintiffs in this case: Mahala Ault, Dan Wallace, and Stacie Rhea - if you want to go to Disney so damn badly - do what other disabled persons do... use a wheelchair. No one is actually preventing you from visiting and enjoying the theme park. It's fucking greedy and self-centered to force the proprietors to accept the risk of your being able to safely operate your device in a crowded environment. Personally I wouldn't want you behind my children in a line.

Advil is not a snack food.

Are you a Cell-phone Sufferer? Do you grind your teeth as people in the restaurant, museum, or theater yak on obliviously less than two feet away? What about having to squelch the urge to reach in and snatch the phone from the jerk who suddenly realized he was passing his turnoff and yanks the car over three lanes?

The NY Times went over this topic just the other day in an article discussing the merits and implications of devices to squelch cell phone communications. Either handheld or building-wide, the "cure" to the common angst is available for purchase. Letter writers responded with three types of comments: 1) Outrage - "How dare anyone interfere with my ability to use the phone when and where I want to" 2) Approval - "Where do I buy one?" and 3) Wry amusement - "Just shout 'SHADDUP' in their face... it's more satisfying and costs less."

The Times being more politically astute didn't comment on gender or age in terms of who is more annoying in their use of cell phones. But of course none of that applies here...

Women. Honestly I see more women on the phone in their cars, and more men on the phone when walking in public. Women scare me more than men however, since a 90lb woman behind the wheel of a mammoth SUV is far more lethal than a 250lb guy not looking where he's walking. Nothing fucking frightens me more, than seeing some teased, blonde, business-suited bitch gabbing away while peering at herself in the rearview all the while tailgating me on the highway. I just begin my mantra of "SUV Rollver, SUV Rollover" but thus far the affirmation hasn't worked, well as far as I can tell. Everyone knows phones are a major source of distraction leading to accidents, plenty of them fatal for the people who weren't on the phone, but only a few states have gone so far as demanding hands-free operation.

People under the age of 35 and over the age of 20. It seems that a certain etiquette is being established by the newer generation. Perhaps having it drilled into them from an early age, they understand that specific areas such as schools, hospitals, libraries, theaters, and so on are not appropriate for loud conversations. It's the later adopters that seem to have a complete disdain for any sort of restraint.

In response to the rabid woman who went berserk over the idea that she might have the electronic umbilical cut for even an hour... gosh whatever would she have done twenty years ago? Sit there in school next to them? Follow the kids around from class to class in college? Get a grip bitch, your kids can survive being out of communication with you, and even if something does happen chances are a responsible person will manage it just fine. If it's such a freekin issue try home schooling instead.

About cell phone signal silencers, well I don't have an opinion one way or another. I do own and use a cell phone, but I don't think I annoy anyone with it because I like to have my conversations in private. Am I annoyed with other people and their lack of consideration? Often. However I would rather just silence specific offenders than catching bystanders accidentally. Now if they made a targeted device, well... yeah that would be tempting.

I don't like frozen food in general. Well, let me amend that, I think freezing is a fine way to preserve raw ingredients like peas and parsnips. I'll freeze some leftovers, like lasagna, from time to time or maybe leftover soup-stock, but in general I detest (with rare exception) pre-prepared meals and "entrees".

Ugh. "Entree"? Come on, that's just a nice way of saying - here's some almost edible content with the consistency of mushed styrofoam with a double helping of salt, and preservatives. Enjoy.

I do buy a few of these packaged and frozen meals for work expressly for times when I'm too rushed to go out, or am bereft of some tasty leftover from the previous nights dinner. I mentally call these "White-Collar MREs", a last ditch act of desperation to prevent foraging in the vending machine. And while I only buy meals that are preservative free, dairy free and all-natural it invariably comes down to a battle of the carrots.

I suppose carrots are the single most freezer-worthy vegetable. Pile that on top of, cheap, easy to handle and "colorful" there's always more frozen carrots in a meal than I'd ever want to consume. It's almost charming the way they take on the texture consistency of a 'Pink Pearl' eraser, melded with a bland and almost carrot-like taste (actually I think I imagine that last part, because if I were fed some blindfolded I would probably punch the person for trying to pass off silly-putty as food).

On the other hand, if you removed carrots as a fundamental freezer-food building block, what would be left? I imagine a desiccated wasteland of bland rice, dilapidated psudo-meat-like cubes and clots of gummy noodles in some sort of flavor (gravy, sauce, whatever). It would hardly be better or more palatable, and certainly less colorful so I guess, in the end, carrots have their place even if they don't retain their crunch.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. government has overcharged Americans by more than $100 million a year in its fee for new passports, according to cost figures uncovered by congressional investigators and analyzed by two senators and The Associated Press.

The two senators said Americans have been quietly gouged since 2002. The report they initiated showed the costs incurred by the State Department and the U.S. Postal Service, for accepting passport applications, were considerably less than the fee charged.

Yow. By how much have Americans been over charged you ask?

The $97 passport fee -- $82 for children under 16 -- dates back to 2005. The GAO studied whether a $30 portion of that fee was justified.

The $30 is intended to cover the cost of clerks examining and accepting passport applications at post offices, State Department passport offices, courthouses, libraries, municipal offices and universities.

The investigators' findings? The government's $30 fee was roughly double the actual cost when imposed in 2002. The Postal Service, which operates 5,382 locations where people can apply for passports, estimated its costs at $13.31 in 2002. The State Department, which operates 14 passport offices, said its costs were $16.20 at that time.

Apparently it's not just commercial big businesses that have profited grandly from the war on terror and the business-friendly administration. Considering how *many* people didn't get their passports on time, or had to pay twice when things were lost or delayed it's a genuine outrage. Also keep in mind that things are going to get worse really soon when a passport will be demanded for all air travelers visiting Canada, Mexico, Central American, South America, the Caribbean or Bermuda.

A little side note to ladies venturing forth on their honeymoon. If you book your tickets well in advance and plan on having your passport updated with your new last name - make certain you book your tickets with the same name. They won't let you on otherwise.

Well here's a big 'Fuck you' to USA Track and Field. They've decided that it's cheating to be listening to music when you run. Truth. So the fallout is that races are expected to ban, and enforce through confiscation, any and all iPods or MP3 players they can find. What's next? Will humming become an offense as well?

"I'm sorry but we're disqualifying you from the race because you were singing material from 'Annie the Musical'"?

True, I might be inclined to agree if the runner next to me started yodelling or doing a medley of Bette Middler songs, but dammit it might just inspire me to run faster just to get the hell away from them.

Still the point is, it's asinine to take away something that isn't a chemical or physical enhancement. Citing "safety" is bullshit. You're in a massive throng of people, more likely to be run over than miss some announcement. Besides there's tons of other noise as well. In addition, any runner without a headset does so by choice. No one is mandating that certain people use or don't use music as a motivational tool... until now.

So again, USA Track and Field, get off your fucking allmighty horses and get a grip instead. Runners aren't all that "aware" of their surroundings when they're in the zone. They're not on a fucking holiday jaunt, they're competing at the limit of their abilities. Focus on doping or physical forms of cheating, not on something as stupid and arbitrary as this, unless your point is to deliberately exclude the "average" runner.