Friday, July 08, 2005

Redneck games

Tomorrow in East Dublin:

Bobbing for pig feet, the mud pit belly-flop, the armpit serenade - they are all part of the Redneck Games, a series of good ole’ympic events for the ain’t-so-athletic celebrating their 10th year in middle Georgia.

Started as a Southern-fried spoof of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, with a propane torch lighting a ceremonial barbecue grill, the gag games draw tourists like moths to a backyard bug zapper. Organizers estimate 95,000 attended the July event during its first decade in East Dublin, a rural pit stop of 2,500 residents between Macon and Savannah.

Bureau-babble

Email from HR to all employees today:

Please note that the new Health Insurance rates went into effect on 7/1/05.  This will cause a change in your paycheck deductions for coverage.

Thank you

Doug comments, “Hmm, let me guess--did the rates go UP or DOWN???”

Trackback troubles

I’ve noticed trackback troubles; I’ve tested trackback pings from a different blog and MT-Blacklist has blocked all pings for objectionable content, no matter what the content of the post.

I can’t know if all trackbacks are blocked, but if you get that message please let me know. I will try to learn more over the weekend.

My comment and trackback spam has increased exponentially. I tried heeding the advice of fellow RINO Andy at The World Wide Rant and managed only to break comments and trackbacks completely.

I’m hopeful that Movable Type 3.2 might resolve some of this.

Guns, Germs & Steel on PBS

I never read the book. But I just gave PBS’s Guns, Germs and Steel TiVo Season Pass Manager’s top priority. From a Wired News interview with the book’s author, Jared Diamond:

Wired News: What’s the big question you ask in the PBS series?

Jared Diamond: The series asks why, among the world’s many human populations, it was the human populations of the Eurasian continent and specifically Europe that expanded around the world and ended up conquering other people. Why didn’t other peoples expand and conquer them?

WN: What’s the answer?

Diamond: In one sentence, it all has to do with geography and environment. It has nothing to do with biological differences between the different populations.

Online sales taxes inevitable?

I never really believed that the Internet needed the exemption:

Thirteen years later, Internet retail is far removed from its fledgling beginnings. Online retail exceeded $65 billion last year. But success may exact its own cost. Because times have changed, there’s now a move to get rid of protective rules that critics condemn as outdated.

Some estimates reported by The Washington Post put the total lost state revenues from untaxed Internet sales in the neighborhood of $16 billion in 2003. With states under increasing pressure to make ends meet, governors are hard-pressed to understand why Internet retailing should any longer qualify as a special case.

It’s clear that states, suffering from federal cuts, need the revenue. Municipalities too. On the other hand, the sales tax is a regressive tax, more like a fee, so I wouldn’t mind seeing it go away.

Here’s the Washington Post story.