Yesterday was unseasonably warm again. 55 degrees out in mid-afternoon, breaking another record, and the big chill didn't get here as quickly as predicted. When the cold weather does hit this weekend, it's going to seem all the more cruel for the couple days of late spring we had in the middle of January.
Has anyone else out there noticed that weblogs.com doesn't always respond to pings? This morning at 7:50 CST I updated. Weblogs.com fetched my page to see if it had changed, and then apparently decided it hadn't. And since there are a ton of other services that depend on that information, none of them noticed that I'd updated for the day. So here it is almost two hours later, and I'm adding this gripe and going to update again, in hopes that it'll notice I've updated. Services like weblogs are good things for the community. When they start being flaky, that's not so good. Is there a good alternative out there? I'd like to know.
- Wake Up is a blog that's mostly anti-corporate, with a left lean to it. I might have to add it to the reading-list, though. Jim almost certainly wants to give it a look.
- Whistle Stop, from the City Pages talks about how a whistleblower at Northwest Airlines was treated. No help from his union (at the time - but Northwest mechanics picked a new union, partly because of him), no help from the FAA, and no help from the courts, because Minnesota's whistleblower protection law doesn't cover airline mechanics, due to the Airline Deregulation Act, which prohibits such suits at the state level.
The real problem isn't that the airlines have been deregulated, it's that their workers are still regulated and aren't allowed to strike in most cases. The balance of power has tipped too far. - The shame of Minneapolis -- 100 years ago. Doc Ames was mayor, and the town was corrupt. [strib]
- Which has no connection at all to FTC Hits Funding Snag in Effort To Restrict Telemarketing Calls. Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-La.) is blocking any funding for the plan until after the reps have a chance to discuss the merits of the plan. It wouldn't have anything to do with fishing for campaign donations from telemarketers. Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) also wants to delay the program, having our best interests in mind. Aren't they swell representatives? [some guy]
- Prosecutor drops charges in shooting of 4 officers by a man who shot them when they busted in his front door. There was no proof that the police had identified themselves as police and he thought it was a robbery, so it was ruled that he fired in self-defense. [endwar]
- The Minnesota Department of Public "Safety" has developed a form for local governments to report possible "terrorism" risks. Apparently, the greater the "risk" the more money will be available to "fight terrrorism."
On the first version (unfortunately no longer available) a "sample group" was listed. "Anti-tobacco". Their risk factor was 3 of 10. The unnamed environmental group was more dangerous, with chemical, explosive and incendiary weapons of mass destruction at hand. I got a screen capture of the original form somehow.
Are you scared yet? Just wait until the reports start flowing in.... [Jim]
