Don't Tase Me Bro!

In case you've been living under a rock, the Eagles have signed Michael Vick. According to the article, the Bengals had offered a deal to him first (fitting for the Bengals). He turned down their $2.3 million/2 year offer for the Eagles $1.6 million/1 year with an option for a second year deal. It seems like a good situation for him as far as staying out of trouble is concerned. He said all the right things at the press conference, saying he realizes he only has one chance and has to get it right. Tony Dungy has always been a role model throughout his time associated with the NFL, and him having Vick's back says a lot. As far as where he fits in with the team, obviously McNabb is entrenched as the starting quarterback. I see Vick coming in as a running back type, with the Eagles running some direct snap plays for him, as well as lining him up in the slot. With Vick and Westbrook in the same backfield, and DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin at wideout, they could also run a pretty formidable Wildcat if they chose to. All in all, if Vick cleans up his act, I think this can be a good thing for the Eagles. Adding a player with a skill set like Vicks can only help a team. With that said, the Patriots still won, with Tom Brady coming back to go 10-15 with 100 yards, 2 touchdowns and a pick. Brady's backkkkk!!!! There's also audio of him talking about cuddling up with the ball, and wishing for someone to come and blast him. Here's the audio, the fun begins about 30 seconds in. I gotta figure out how to isolate that, it's hilarious.

In other football news, the Washington Redskins got running back Ladell Betts' name wrong on his jersey. Sad, considering he's spent his entire career with the 'Skins, even rushing for 1,000 yards one year.

Michael Phelps was involved in a car crash Thursday night. Police have said alcohol was not a factor, and no citations were issued. Interesting life this guy lives. With all that money, why does he not have a personal chauffeur? You would think that people in his position wouldn't risk even suspicion of drunk driving. He already has a driving while impaired on his record, too. I feel bad that all his normal growing up mistakes get so much coverage, but still, he has the means to be driven around, so why not do it?

A mom was tasered in front of her kids and is now suing the Onondaga Sheriffs Department. She was pulled over for talking on her cell when an officer saw her driving with her head resting on her cheek. He also claimed he paced her car at 50 in a 45, and was pulling her over for that. She got out of her car to check the tape (bad idea), and he told her to get back in the car. She hesitated and didn't get back in her car, so he tasered her. She should have never gotten out of the car, but really, a taser wasn't necessary. It is a great reason to show this video though, and who doesn't love that? Don't tase me bro!



A new study shows some people are genetically able to function with less sleep. I wish I were one of those people.

Peace peace.

Wasting Time

So apparently today is left handers day, and there is even a site dedicated to this fact. Do we really need a day to celebrate everything in today's society? At a time when everyone wants to be treated the same, do we really need a day to celebrate every little trait? I can't tell if the people running the site are serious or not with the way they talk about the day. According to them, this day has been going on for 18 years now. It is meant to break free from the right handers world (which, admittedly, it is.) A quote, if you may, from the site:

All year round, we fit in with home and office layouts designed for right-handers’ comfort – put up with doors, cookers, sinks, computer mice, keyboards and desks that are efficient for right-handers to work at, and hundreds of times every day we contort ourselves using back-to-front tools and gadgets that make us look clumsy and awkward in our efforts to make them to work…But NOT TODAY!

They go on to encourage lefties to make their work space a "Lefty Zone" where everything must be done left handed. They also have posters designating spaces as a "Lefty Zone." Good for them, fighting the right handed maaaahhhhn, but I sincerely hope that this whole day and their complaints are a joke.

Lefty Fun(?) Facts:
4 of the past 5 presidents, have been left handed (G.W. was the only righty)
Half of the Beatles were left handed (Ringo and Paul McCartney)
I'm boring myself, here are more famous lefties

A Cubs fan threw beer on Victorino as he made a catch by the wall. It took forever to find a video that hadn't been taken down. MLB really needs to change their policy on fans posting video to YouTube. It's getting ridiculous. I would understand their frustration if people were posting whole games to the internet, but that's not the case. Let people put up minutes long video to promote your league. It's free and you're getting the MLB brand out there, showing you connect to fans. By taking down videos, you disconnect yourself. No wonder the league struggles with image issues.

A mermaid has been spotted in Kiryat Yam, Israel, and officials are offering up a $1 million prize to the first person to produce a picture. They're hoping it draws tourists to the town, pulling in more than the million needed to give the prize away. That's exactly what I'd want to do. Travel to a war torn area because a non-existing creature could be there.

The PGA Championship opens up today, and the big story is Tiger still looking for his first major. He's won 5 times this year and the experts are calling it a down year. Rough. Speaking of lefies, everyone's favorite lefty golfer is in the field. Good luck, Phil.

Extremely fun graph here about how American's spend their day Sadly, reading this didn't make the cut.

I need an I'm finished phrase.

Koalas, Chlamydia and Health Care

Okay, it's been awhile, not that anyone reads this anyway. I'm going to try to promote this more and post a little more regularly. Anyways, here are some thoughts.

Apparently koalas need a sex education class. According to a passing statement in this article, 50% of the koala population is effected by chlamydia. Sam, apparently an internet sensation for living through the Australian brush fire, died of the disease. The headline of the article really overshadows the experience of this koala, but thats the sensationalist media for ya.

Yayyyy Obama!

Okay that was a little sarcastic. However, the White House is encouraging people to rat out others for stating thier opinion on whats going on, mainly with health care. In the original official White House blog post , people are encouraged to send an email to a certain address "if you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy." The reason given on the blog (not made up by me) is that the White House can't keep track of all the "disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care."

To me, this is a clear a violation of freedom of speech. Look, the bill is over 1,000 pages and is worded in a language not used by the common man. People are going to get what it says wrong, and, after looking at the actual bill, you really can't blame the every day person for distorting what it says. But to actually come out and essentially say, "Hey, could you let us know if anyone is badmouthing the health care bill? We appreciate it and we'll handle it from there, thanks" just seems against what this country supposedly stands for. I realize its now a felony to shed a negative light on our savior president, but to want people to rat out their fellow citizen to the White House is in no way acceptable.

Let's take a look at the main issue that seems to be causing a hang up, page 58. Here it is, copied from the bill link I just posted:

‘‘The goals for standards under paragraph (1) are that such standards shall—...enable the real-time (or near real time) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service and, to the extent possible, prior to service, including whether the individual is eligible for a specific service with a specific physician at a specific facility, which may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card..."

and on the following page:

"The standards under this section shall be developed, adopted and enforced so as to—...enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation with the related health care payment and remittance advice"

Well, then. I don't know about you, but this is a bit confusing. It took me a couple reads to understand it in bill format just so I could whittle it down into paragraph form. To me, it would sound as though this bill, if enacted, would give every citizen utilizing national health care a card. On that card would be information saying whether or not that person was eligible to receive a specific treatment from a specific doctor at a specific place. Now, this isn't really revolutionary. Having your medical records on a chip is something that has been discussed (possibly tried, I've done enough research though) in the past. To me, it makes sense to have all your information with you in case of emergency. If you're travelling in a different city and something happens, it would seem to me that it would be a hassle to contact your doctor at home to make sure you can have certain medications or what not. By this time, if something serious happened, you could be dead. Having all of your medical info on you is logical. Opponents of the bill are just sensationalizing it by taking that one sentence of a 33 line section of the bill, and circulating that.

Now, the part that does worry me is the second quote I posted. This would appear that in some way, the government would have access to a designated bank account of yours, as to ensure you had the funds to pay for your procedure. I know the government can pretty much get access to your account anyway, but that's only if you give them a reason to get a warrant to go into your account. This would seem give the government the ability to freely access your account. I realize the government has little, if any, interest in randomly going through ordinary people's personal bank accounts, but the possibility is a bit frightening.

A logo has also been developed, and the design incorporates the Obama logo. Is this about him or attempting to improve health care? We get it, Obama, you won. Now drop the branding and focus on the country, not yourself. Of course, as I say this, I'm including the logo. I hate myself sometimes.

Overall, I don't think the bill will get passed, since to implement and follow every part of a 1,000+ page bill would be near impossible. However, the discussion it generates is definately an interesting one.

Also, if either of my readers hasn't seen the Obama joker poster that plastered LA, here it is.

On a non-Obama, slightly biased note, earlier today Bing, Microsofts answer to Google, was called out on a little game their engine was playing. If you go to their site and enter "Why is Windows so expensive?" into the search bar, one would assume that something would come up about Windows' OS. Instead, here is what was at one point the first result. As of 4:30 pm, that link has dropped to the seventh result. Still, even if this is the equivalent of a GoogleBomb, it doesn't look good on Microsoft's part to have an Mac result come up as the first hit under the news for that particular question.

George Sodini is a real creep. He really hated women due to his own inability to hang on to one, and decided the best way to go about handling this would be to go to his gym, turn the lights off and fire bullets into the darkness before finally killing himself. I read the online diary he posted before it was taken down, and apparently this guy had less hits to his blog than even I do. He has been planning this attack since last year, but I guess no one read what he wrote because he was able to finally carry out his plan. At one point in January I believe it was, he said that he was going to do it, even giving a time, but then chickened out. Just a weird, weird story.

Today was the day of the social media fail, as Twitter was the target of a Denial of Service attack, Facebook encountered regular errors, and something happened to LiveJournal (I just didn't read about it because I dont care.) Here's the info.

One last thing, there's a pretty cool article about whats living in the depths of the ocean. It's a lot of words to skim, but the pictures of "Earth's Own Aliens" are pretty sweet.