Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Yup, that’s the number of consecutive nights I’ve been in my office past 2 AM. Today and tomorrow should make it 7.

You might say that I’m gettin’ a little tired.

I was amused and/or irritated by 3 things while buying groceries today.

While entering the store, an older gentleman was pushing a cart from the lot into the store, moving very slowly and taking baby steps. About 30 feet ahead, his wife was just standing there waiting for him to catch up. Why he was moving in this way I don’t know, but he had a big ol’ grin on his face like just being ambulatory was one of the greatest joys in life; I realized he was right.

About 5/8 of the way through my shopping experience, I encountered two small children who had camped out in front of the magazines. Well Mom showed up at the same time I did to corral the little hellions toward the check-out lanes. This isn’t noteworthy by itself. But after I had picked out some Swiss-style cheese, I passed them again. At that moment, one of the kids holding some kind of publication in his hand — with all the seriousness he possessed — looked his mother straight in the eye and said “but I NEED this!” And I believed him. Almost. After his exclamation, he broke eye contact in order to remember just exactly what he was holding and why he needed it.

At that point I completely forgot what I was looking for. I was caught pondering how many times I had pulled that shit when I was a kid, and how often I can expect to hear that when I’m a dad.

But the good times came to an end when I checked out. Now, fortune was on my side as there was no line for the check-out lane. Typically I am very much able to place in the lane that, despite its length, will result in being the biggest waste of my time. Otherwise, I like to be efficient in times like this. Part of this effort is to place the heavy, hard-to-break items on the conveyor first. The idea is that those items can then be put in the bottom of the cart, because putting the beer on top of the bread and light bulbs is usually a bad idea. Well wouldn’t you know that the bagger (at least there was one) was oblivious to this concept. After having filled all the bags and putting them in the cart, she was stuck pondering how to best put the cases of soda in there, too. I believe this was not so much an effort to prevent crushing the more delicate items; rather she just didn’t know what to do once the bottom of the cart was covered. At this point the cashier jumped to the rescue — until she realized the little bottom shelf of the cart was missing. Obviously a 9th grade education was necessary to solve this problem, and despite being the youngest of the small group, I was the only one with the required qualifications.

It is times like this that I wish there was a significantly higher minimum wage. Why? Because these incompetents will be priced out of the market and replaced — with machines and my own effort.

Someone needs to brush up on their hippy-insignia knowledge:

“No one understands how this man is alive,” quoth the mindless TV reporter. I mean, that wreck did look pretty bad.

(see video of the crash, it’s pretty cool. Or you can read more about it.)

“So why did he survive? There’s no good explanation. But Brian credits his faith and his Audi TT. He’s an Audi dealer.”

Well, you brainless whore for public attention, there is a good explanation. You may say he just got lucky. There are numerous ways to crash an overloaded, undermaintained truck, a bus, and an Audi that will result in the Audi driver dying a very gruesome death. There are just as many that involve no harm to anyone.

But that isn’t really a good explanation either. First, the Audi gets side-swiped by the truck. That’s always bad for your paint job, but it isn’t going to kill you. Also he wasn’t going all that fast, so his collision with the concrete barrier really wasn’t all that bad. From an engineering standpoint, I’ll estimate that he was doing 40 mph and hit the barrier at a 30º angle. That’s the equivalent of hitting something at 20 mph — as an extra safety benfit, it was 20 mph to be absorbed the corner of the car — probably the best place. (Although I think it was probably closer to 30 mph and 20º, which makes it more like a 10 mph impact). And I doubt that he was hit squarely from behind by the bus. Since all the vehicles were still moving forward, the relative velocities were probably 30 - 40 mph. A large part of the impact of the bus was also absorbed by the truck, which served as a protector for the car in this regard.

In short, the little Audi got smacked around, absorbing 3 moderate impacts. None was severe enough to really injure the driver or cause catastrophic structural damage, but enough to send it the junk yard.

But good explanations don’t sell commercials or miracles — something the allegedly “liberal” media sells, with good profits, every day.

At this point last week I was driving back from Ohio after having spent several days doing a lot of nothing noteworthy.

Right now I’m taking a small break after having just finished a lengthy homework assignment (the 2nd one I’ve finished this week). I still need to grade papers and do some lab work today, while doing a lot of lab work Sunday and Monday — and start a project due Monday. On the upside I’m about a half-day ahead of where I thought I would be on Thursday (although I’m a half-day behind where I thought I would be on Tuesday).

And in another week I’ll be recovering from a bacehlor party and either be golfing in Charleston or moving between there and Columbia.

Or in other words: last weekend = fun. this weekend = not fun. next weekend = fun.

Thru Thursday, I expect to remain pretty daggum busy, so that I may best enjoy my weekend o’ fun. Wish me luck.

New Documents from Saddam Hussein’s Archives Discuss Bin Laden, WMDs

So reads the headline from ABC News. Our government recently released Iraqi documents about the items in the title. I was initially impressed with this report from ABC because it very quickly gives a link to the actual documents — a habit worth developing.

It goes on to summarize 4 of the 9 documents. After each summary, however, I was surprised to see an Editor’s Note, each seemingly meant to minimize the weight each document carries.

While the assertions contained in this document clearly support the claim, the sourcing is questionable…

How often do editors go out of their way to emphasize that “the sourcing is questionable?” in their own reports, or even repeated reports from other media outlets? Apparently, documents from “unnamed” “informants” are usually of “limited evidentiary value.” I agree, but this standard should be applied more thoroughly and evenly.