Archive for the ‘Lasers’ Category

Quote of the day.

Wednesday, August 30th, 2017

We have sort of a trifecta today, because we can’t choose. All three by way of the Hacker News Twitter, the first two from the same source:

“Blindly trusting authority to make our ethical decisions for us is the best way to separate ourselves from the Nazis!”

The IRB listened patiently to all this, then said that it had to be in pen. You know who else had people sign consent forms in pencil…?

The third one really isn’t a quote of the day. You should just read the whole thing: “Laser Products I Hate”. Including why you shouldn’t give money to Kickstarter for that Cubiio piece of crap.

Hair Club for Mayors.

Friday, November 8th, 2013

Perhaps one of the worst things about committing a crime, or even being charged with one, is all the background stuff that tends to leak out about you. Your tastes in porn, booze, interior decoration…all of those things come out at trial.

You may beat the rap, but you can’t beat the embarrassment of everyone knowing that you scammed money to pay for cheap vodka or lap dances from low-end strippers or Michael Jackson memorablia.

Or, in today’s example…

The city of Bell paid $10,000 for former councilman George Cole to go to a weight-loss camp and also paid for Mayor Oscar Hernandez to get hair plugs, prosecutors said Thursday.

Here’s a photo of former Mayor Hernandez from earlier this year, if you want to judge the value Bell got for their money. Former Mayor Hernandez, by the way, was making “just under” $100,000 a year for what was a part-time job. WebMD says that hair transplants run between $4,000 and $15,000. Or you could buy lasers for $549.

And as for George Cole…

Cole’s top annual salary was $67,000, his attorney said. At the time, he was earning nearly $95,000 a year as chief executive of the Steelworkers Old Timers Foundation.
In 2004, the city paid the state pension system $36,648 to buy Cole an additional five years of service time. Cole was one of 11 Bell administrators for whom the city bought service time.

The Biggest Loser Resort in Malibu charges about $3,000 a week (though the longer you stay, the more of a break you get on the weekly rate).

Surely you would think that these folks could afford to pay for their own weight loss and baldness treatments. But they didn’t, and now everyone knows.

(And to be clear, I don’t throw stones at people who get hair plugs or go to weight loss resorts. I throw stones at people who scam money from the taxpayers to do those things. “Tax-fattened hyena”, indeed.)

Lasers, eight o’clock, day 1!

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Last year, Los Angeles International Airport recorded the highest number of incidents in the country involving laser beams that were pointed at aircraft, a potentially dangerous activity that can distract or temporarily blind pilots, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday.

(Sorry.)