Monday Open Thread
Welcome to your Monday open thread. It’s a short week for me at work this week, plus I have a four-day weekend coming up! Hooray for me. So, what’s on your mind today.
All weekend I kept seeing a rumor that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez was either dying or dead. Business Insider takes a look at the rumors:
Twitter is buzzing on the matter, but it’s all apparently due to a Twitter account called Wikileaks Argentina, which has nothing to do with the actual Wikileaks, but has been tweeting the same Chavez death rumor since yesterday morning. And since it has Wikileaks in its handle, and since it uses the same icon as the actual Wikileaks account, it’s suckering in a few people.
All that being said, by multiple accounts Hugo Chavez is quite sick, having gone to Cuba for surgery. Some reports have him in critical condition.
For what it’s worth, the Venezuelan government has denied that he’s in critical condition.
I don’t think that really cleared it up. The only thing people seem to agree on is that Chavez went to Cuba for treatment of an undisclosed illness.
One high-definition DVR and one high-definition cable box use an average of 446 kilowatt hours a year, about 10 percent more than a 21-cubic-foot energy-efficient refrigerator, a recent study found.
These set-top boxes are energy hogs mostly because their drives, tuners and other components are generally running full tilt, or nearly so, 24 hours a day, even when not in active use. The recent study, by the Natural Resources Defense Council, concluded that the boxes consumed $3 billion in electricity per year in the United States — and that 66 percent of that power is wasted when no one is watching and shows are not being recorded. That is more power than the state of Maryland uses over 12 months.
This excess energy use is costing us $10/mo on our electricity bills. Remember how CRI was freaking out about a $1/month charge for the Bloom Energy deal in Delaware? Hey, CRI, perhaps you could take a look at this.
Cable providers and box manufacturers like Cisco Systems, Samsung and Motorola currently do not feel consumer pressure to improve box efficiency. Customers are generally unaware of the problem — they do not know to blame the unobtrusive little device for the rise in their electricity bills, and do not choose their boxes anyway.
Those devices may cause an increase of as little as a few dollars a month or well over $10 for a home with many devices. In Europe, electricity rates are often double those in the United States, providing greater financial motivation to conserve.
Stories like this are so incredibly frustrating. There’s an easy fix to the problem but no one is doing anything about it. This will be one of the things that future generations dealing with the effects of climate change will look at and say WTF!?
Tags: Open Thread
There are verdicts in the Blago re-trial that should be announced this afternoon….
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8211629
Let’s all sing a rainbow in honor of the dear Mrs. Noah, who died last week along with Columbo and a large chunk of my childhood.
More of the GOP Presidential clown show — avowed anti-socialist Michelle Bachmann takes government farm subsidy money.
Then goes on the Sunday yak shows to lie about it.
Aw shucks V….I can sing a rainbow too……
BTW–named one of my boys Noah too!
There’s an interesting Michele Bachmann article in the current Rolling Stone issue by Matt Taibbi. I didn’t realize how big of a Bible Thumper she really is. But I don’t know if the GOP can elect a woman candidate. It’ll be an interesting primary.
You can take my HD DVR from my cold dead hands, hippies!
I recently looked at my Series Manager (Fios) and I have 28 shows set to record at any given moment. I watch way too much television.
Caught myself explaining the intricate differences between geeky, Baltimore based Ace of Cakes and the loud, Jersey based Cake Boss. It was almost a dissertation.
Still single, ladies.
Blago found guilty on 17 of 18 counts. Just breaking.
Here’s the Sun Times article — guilty on 17 counts, not-guilty on one and could not reach a verdict on two.
Send him to the Big House, pronto.
😆
Michelle Bachmann announces for President (again) today and invokes the ghost of John Wayne, who was also born and raised in Iowa. Unfortunately for her, Bachmann was in Waterloo where she was born and talking as if John Wayne the actor was born there too. Except that isn’t true — John Wayne Gacy was born there.
I’m stipulating that Gacy (an infamous serial killer) is a better symbolic reference for the teajadi wing of the wingnuts, but hey.
Delaware from Dan Meth on Vimeo.
I just lol’ed my ass off at Bachmann confusing John Wayne and John Wayne Gacy.
is the rest of DL on summer vacation? UI carrying the load again I see
Not at all, DV. Some of us have been having fun taking swings at the illogic over at Delusional David’s “blog.”
@Jason330 — I know, right? She tries to associate herself with a big piece of American mythology but ended up comparing herself to a serial killer.
All of the journalists busily trying to level the playing field for her ought to feel really stupid right about now.
I didn’t think anybody could top Sarah Palin’s Paul Revere gaffe. There really is no floor to the stupidity of these people.
And just when the press was getting busy laundering the crazy out of Bachmann based on her debate. I guess they will keep doing it anyway.
There’s a poll up at Leftaction…whose crazier Palin or Bachman! Bachman 70% Palin 30%…
I have a self described “proud conservative” coworker who is a Bill Colley Zombie and a dittohead.
He swears up and down that people only make fun of Palin and Bachmann because their women. He flipped his lid when I said “No, that play is in the Republican playbook.. they just say stupid crap.”
Then I told him to get back to work. It’s good to be the boss, lol.
*They’re. Ugh.
colley is awful, but the girl on after him is too boring to even be considered bad.
“I didn’t think anybody could top Sarah Palin’s Paul Revere gaffe.”
Wrong. My president wins the gaffe award with his “57 states”.
10 of the Craziest Things Michelle Bachmann Has Ever Said
My favorite crazy thing she said isn’t even here — But we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States,” Bachmann added, claiming “men like John Quincy Adams… would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country.
Oy. That isn’t even a misstatement — like most of her bullshit, she made that up on the fly to suit her tale.
@MJ – saw that – LOL
you are “mean and Nasty” – that intelligent salvo coming from the crazy queen herself with her profanity laden posts – Pat Fish
and
Don Ayotte does NOT want to even sit down and discuss anything with you – WOW – wonderful quality of leadership from a man who ran for state GOP leadership…wont even sit down to discuss issues
where do they thing they are going?? and who do they think will support them??
Run Christine!! Run – we need another win – no negotiations!! never compromise,,,,, Our way or the highway.
I seem to remember from ancient history another group like this – the Spartans – while great fighters and proud people they died out due to their arrogance and uncompromising stance.
the DP group screams “Christianity, get your Christianity here” – if so, isnt pride a sin!! and goeth before a fall??
Uh oh!
Hermain Cain is catching whatever Newtie’s got: 2 top campaign staffers quit.
Waterloo you say? So history does repeat itself :)!!!
for those that choose not to study it – it does
Not at all, DV. Some of us have been having fun taking swings at the illogic over at Delusional David’s “blog.”
not sure why you even bother with that idiot. But what ever you get a rise out of, go for it. Speaks volumes about you though that you consistently entertain the guy.
“My president wins the gaffe award with his “57 states”.
That wasn’t a “gaffe.” A gaffe is when you say something mistaken on purpose, because you think your version is the truth. Obama stumbled in a speech, something that most people do every day. He doesn’t actually believe there are 57 states. Nobody would have even noticed it except that Republicans couldn’t stand the fact that they had a fountain of misinformation running for vice president and so had to find an instance of the Democrat doing it too.
This Bachmann flub is interesting:
WASHINGTON – Michele Bachmann’s claim that she has “never gotten a penny” from a family farm that’s been subsidized by the government is at odds with her financial disclosure statements. They show tens of thousands in personal income from the operation.
Is it really smart to tell Dept of Ag. welfare queens that welfare is bad?
More on “gaffes”
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2011/06/important-things.html
Thanks for that link:
“The press feels empowered to jump all over these trivial things while not empowered to point out facts when two sides disagree or to explain the horrible consequences of certain policies. Aside from failing to educate the public, this has an additional pernicious effect. It helps to convince the vast majority of people who only kinda sorta pay attention to politics that Maureen Dowd is right, that this trivial bullshit is what really matters in politics.”
Shame objectivity. He said/she said. Unwillingness to appear “political” These are all fruits of the Republican’s 30 year campaign to cow the media.
The campaign has worked like gangbusters, and my contempt for the media that allowed it to happen is only exceeded for my contempt for Republicans who don;t see the damage that this is doing to the country.