Archive for June 29th, 2008
Germany 0 – 1 Spain – victors in Euro 2008
Fernando Torres of Spain and Liverpool got the winning goal in the 33rd minute.
For my wife and me, it was a lovely tournament to watch. Every match in High Definition TV via ESPN and their junior partners at ABC. Great sports photography and really capable announcers.
The “regulars” in American soccer telecasts – with the exception of HDNet, of course – Setanta Sports and Fox Soccer Channel, GOL-TV had better look to their laurels and beg, borrow or steal the geedus to get themselves up to the HDTV standard.
We saw 16 teams play better matches overall than any tourney I can remember. They battled it out in thrilling fashion for most of the matches.
The best of the summer!
Don’t buy a digital converter box from this man!
Polls have consistently shown that many people are confused by the upcoming digital TV transition — the government-mandated switch by most broadcast TV stations to all digital signals starting Feb. 18….People aren’t sure if they need a new TV to continue receiving over-the-air signals, or if they should apply for the two $40 coupons available to any U.S. household to purchase a converter box so an old analog set can pick up the new digital broadcasts.
The friendly folks at Universal TechTronics say they are here to help.
In newspaper ads, the Ohio-based company has been offering two free analog-to-digital converter boxes, without the hassle of applying for those government coupons. All you need to do is buy a five-year warranty at $59 for each of the Miracle ClearView TV boxes, which according to the ad is, “a real steal.”
Including shipping and handling, each box ends up costing significantly more than if you used a $40 government coupon for any of several converter box models that sell for from $49 to $59. If ordered within 72 hours of the ad’s publication, the box costs $68.30 (including shipping), according to the company. After 72 hours, the total goes up to $97.30.
How many newspapers and TV stations will pass along this scam without the slightest hesitation? They’re righteous about the politics of advertisers; but, crooks are always welcome.
Product(s) of the Day
Shopping, this morning, we actually bought one of these!
How widespread is corruption in Asia: 1 in 3 poor Indians pay bribes for essential services
One out of every three families living below the poverty level in India paid a bribe last year for basic public services, like admitting a family member into a hospital.
The report by Transparency International India and the Center for Media Studies said poor people in India paid about $210 million in bribes last year to the police, schools, hospitals and power companies.
The bribes were for basic services, the report said: to file a police report, to enroll a child in school, to admit a family member into a hospital or to get electricity turned on.
“This kind of corruption that denies people their entitlement to basic and need based services, many of which may be ‘free’ by law, results in the poor finding themselves at the losing end of the corruption chain,” said R. H. Tahiliani of Transparency International India.
One of the most critical reforms for any society trying to climb out of a feudal and colonial past.
No doubt.
Children’s rights were violated when they weren’t invited to birthday party
An eight-year-old boy has sparked an unlikely outcry in Sweden after failing to invite two of his classmates to his birthday party.
The boy’s school says he has violated the children’s rights and has complained to the Swedish Parliament.
The school, in Lund, southern Sweden, argues that if invitations are handed out on school premises then it must ensure there is no discrimination…
The boy handed out his birthday invitations during class-time and when the teacher spotted that two children had not received one the invitations were confiscated…
A verdict on the matter is likely to be reached in September, in time for the next school year.
We’ll all be waiting in anticipation for this next giant step forward in juvenile jurisprudence.
US-EU learn to work together, spy together – on each other’s citizens
The United States and European Union are close to an agreement to share private data of their citizens, including credit card information, travel history and internet browsing information.
Negotiations that begun in February 2007 however have to yet address whether Europeans can sue the US government for mishandling information, according to an internal report on the potential agreement obtained by the New York TIMES…
One of the unresolved issues is the EU’s privacy rights claims that would allow its citizens to sue the US government for any mishandling of their information, under the US Privacy Act of 1974.
Officials consulted by the Times said Bush would like to sign the agreement before he leaves office in January and while EU members nations can still approve it individually, before they hand ratification power over to the European Parliament.
Is there any limit to the sum of corruption these thugs are capable of?
Suicide deaths linked to cellphones – and other equally silly deductions
It’s the big stories I enjoy the most. “Suicides linked to phone masts” roared the Sunday Express front-page headline this week. “The spate of deaths among young people in Britain’s suicide capital could be linked to radio waves from dozens of mobile phone transmitter masts near the victims’ homes.”
Who is raising these concerns? “Dr Roger Coghill, who sits on a government advisory committee on mobile radiation, has discovered that all 22 youngsters who have killed themselves in Bridgend, South Wales, over the past 18 months lived far closer than average to a mast…
I contacted Dr Coghill, since his work is now a matter of great public concern.
He was unable to give me the data. No paper has been published. He himself would not describe the work as a “study”. There are no statistics presented on it, and I cannot see the raw figures. In fact Dr Coghill tells me he has lost the figures. Dr Coghill is sadly unable to make his material assessable…
Who is Dr Coghill? He says he doesn’t have a doctorate and that the Express made a mistake. Does he “sit on a government advisory committee on mobile radiation”? Sort of. Mr Coghill participates in something called Sage, a “stakeholder” group which discusses power cables (not mobile phones) and is run at the request of the Department of Health by RK Partnerships Ltd, who specialise in mediation, facilitation, and conflict resolution.
Readers worried by the front-page story on Mr Coghill’s inaccessible research may have visited his website for more information. There they could buy his electromagnetic field protection equipment, and a £149 device called the Acousticom for “finding out if your home is being exposed to microwaves from cellphone masts”.
There are also other interesting products, including a magnet that makes wine taste nicer, and the “Mood Maker” treatment for impotence at just £22.32 including VAT (“the small unit discreetly attaches to your underwear … [and] will gently and gradually increase circulation in the pelvic area”). It gets better.
His next headline will probably be his discovery that cellphones are the real cause of global warming. There will be a crowd of Know-Nothings ready to join in, proclaiming “we knew our corporate masters had no responsibility whatsoever”.
