Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

Holden

Monday, August 25

1:31 p.m. Suspicious person sleeping on side of Mason Rd.; OK, waiting to go to appointment

Tuesday, August 26

9:33 a.m. Several reports of male in vehicle yelling, Mason Rd.

5:12 p.m. Individual with items for sale taking up part of roadway, Mason Rd.

Paxton

Friday, August 29

12:15 p.m. Large swarm of bees, Holden Rd.

Sunday, August 31

6:17 p.m. Dog in fight with skunk, Indian Hill Rd

Sterling

Monday, August 25

5:50 p.m. Caller found carrier pigeon sitting under vehicle in yard, Birch Dr.

6:01 p.m. Puppy (Scruffy) ran off again, Beaman Rd.

Saturday, August 30

3:30 a.m. Report that someone put a scarecrow in road that looks like a person, Redemption Rock Trl.

Sunday, August 31

9:10 a.m. Caller has sick rabbit and wants to know where to bring it for proper care, Leominster Rd.

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More on modern pharmacies

I've written about the goofiness of adding a third national chain pharmacy to our fair town. The competition among these chains is fierce. It's even more intense because most health insurance plans strongly encourage clients to use mail-order pharmacies for prescriptions that treat chronic conditions. The cost of mail-order prescriptions is typically a third of the cost that you'd pay at the retail stores, even with insurance coverage. So, the pharmacies are having trouble making money on their primary business, selling prescription medications, and have to find new and different products and services to entice customers into their stores.
CVS, for example, has added Minute Clinics, allowing customer to come in and see a doctor or nurse practitioner about minor ailments - sore throat, rashes, and such.
Other chains, such as Rite Aid, offer new and different products at steep discounts:

These times have been good for some

The Wall Street Journal reports that the number of ultraweathly, those with a net worth of $20 million or more, grew by more than 50% between 1998 and 2004. The total wealth of this group grew by two-thirds.

There was a similar jump in the number of people worth between $10 million and $20 million during that same time.

Remember, these numbers reflect growth from a time starting with the Internet bubble and ending after the bubble burst. The biggest asset for these folks was in publicly-traded stock.

How'd you do during those years?

By the way, here are the results of a CBS?New York Times poll in which the delegates to the Republican 2008 convention describe themselves:

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Austin Human Society’s Reading-to-Cats Program

A few years ago, I wrote about Thompson, a friend's Yellow Lab who was part of a children's reading program at a town library. It turns out that Austin, Texas has a similar program, abeit for cats. I'll let you add your own cat jokes here.

RoasterBoy's playlist

September 3, 2008

iTunes shuffle playlist

I Hear A Rhapsody - Bill Evans
Bill Evans - "Montreux II"

Banquet Hall - Loreena McKennitt
To Drive The Cold Winter Away

Anu - Adrian Legg
Guitar For Mortals

Take My Hand, Precious Lord - Thomas A. Dorsey
Say Amen, Somebody

And - Grateful Dead
Terrapin Station (Capital Centre, Landover, MD 3/15/90) (Disc 3)

Treacherous Cretins - Frank Zappa
Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar (Disc 1)

Help Me - Elvis Presley
Amazing Grace: Elvis (Disc 2)

Buzzard Keep On Flyin' Over... - Simon Rattle cond.
Porgy And Bess Disk 2/3

Cousin Mary (Alternate Take) - John Coltrane
Giant Steps

Shango (Chant to the God of Thunder) - Babatunde Olatunji
Drums Of Passion 2 Minutes ago

September 2, 2008

YouTube - U2 BAD Live Aid 1985

There was so much great music at the Live Aid concert. No doubt, a lot of the energy came from the worthiness of the cause. Also, though, many bands were at the top of their games. Even the long vamp at the end of this one, while Bono dives into the crowd, adds to the haunting sharpness of the tune. 1 Day ago

Before the Republicans start chantng Country First, they might want to check their domain names.

Republicans have embraced the phrase Country First as a call to arms and a call to responsibility. It's an admirable sentiment, exhorting us set aside our parochial differences and think of solutions that are best for our nation, rather than those that might benefit our group, region, or selves.

As a strategy, however, the Country First campaign seems to have overlooked one of the basics of 21st marketing: register the domain before you utter a word.

CountryFirst.com is a parked domain, meaning that someone bought the name and is willing to sell it to you. In this case, the name is owned by a company in Australia.

It turns out that Country First is an Asian Indian movement that is championing "Respect and Dignity for all Indians," focusing on responsibility, anti-corruption, and  electoral reform in India. http://www.countryfirst.org/

Maybe, the Republicans meant America First. Oops, the domain name americafirst.org is owned by a credit union in Utah. They don't have have a web site, yet.

The America First party owns AmericanFirstParty.org:

AmericaFirstParty.com is also for sale.

Pillar Six - test links before deploying web site

Yesterday, friend C. sent me a pointer to a white paper entitled The Five Pillars of Engineering Document Management. While this topic might seem like an extra-strength dose of Nappien for most of you, it's closely related to the kind of work that I've done.
So, I followed the link to the company's site and filled out the request form. While waiting for the company to send me PDF file, I nosed around the web site a bit.
Imagine, then, what a potential customer might have to say when, after clicking on one of the links, this page shows up:


Nice, huh? And, when I click on the link that says Contact Us, I get the same error page.

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