Author Archives: scottsoapbox

GM Admits People Are Jealous Of WheelChairs

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embargogmsegway04_580op.jpgSince the Segway didn’t deliver on the hype to revolutionalize urban areas, the company has partnered with GM to create a “seqway built for two”.

Please hold a moment while we check our calendars. Nope, it’s definitely not April 1. That must mean a General Motors tie-up with Segway must be true. The Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility Project (P.U.M.A. for short) will seek to develop a self balancing two-wheeled vehicle capable of reaching speeds of 35 mph – well above the Segway’s 12 mph top speed — for 35 miles.

Instead of the more common single track of a motorcycle, this electric vehicle will borrow the side-by-side arrangement popularized on the original Segway Personal Transporter. A lithium battery will store enough charge to allow the vehicle to travel for up to 35 miles on a single charge. Another interesting feature is the expected ability for each machine to communicate with vehicles around it, reducing the risk of accidents and regulating the flow of traffic.

iKindle Review

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Well today I finished my first full length ebook, Ender in Exile, with the help of my Kindle iphone app.  In a word: I love it – ok that’s 3 words.  The iKindle is great because I can read in bed without the muss semi-direct lamp light.  I can also spend “dead time” reading a good book instead of “wasting” time with game or web site that I wouldn’t bother with if I wasn’t waiting in line (or whatever).  As I am now looking for my next read, I have discovered that you can now get free samples of Kindle books – a great way to try before you buy.

Problems with iphone ebooks? 1) Back light.  This can be handled by turning the brightness WAY down (or off in the case of late night reading).  Being able to select an off white color would help in this area. 2) Landscape.  Without landscape mode, you can’t set the font too large or you get a bunch of hypenated or excessively spaced words.  This should be an easy upgrade for Amazon.

eBook vs Real Books… You have to give up underlining/highlighting of text when you go iKindle.  The impact of this is largely based on if you are researching or not in your reading.  However, I would estimate that I will read about 2x as fast from start to finish on average books, because of the ability to capture all those dead moments in life and read something you want instead of what’s available.

Smart Phones Lead To Mistrials

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And you thought mixing cel phones and driving was bad… how about web enabled smart phones and sequestered juries?!

Last week, a juror in a big federal drug trial in Florida admitted to the judge that he had been doing research on the case on the Internet, directly violating the judge’s instructions and centuries of legal rules. But when the judge questioned the rest of the jury, he got an even bigger shock.

Eight other jurors had been doing the same thing. The federal judge, William J. Zloch, had no choice but to declare a mistrial, a waste of eight weeks of work by federal prosecutors and defense lawyers.

“We were stunned,” said a defense lawyer, Peter Raben, who was told by the jury that he had been on the verge of winning the case. “It’s the first time modern technology struck us in that fashion, and it hit us right over the head.”

Chris Dodd Attacks His Own Provision In 6 Month Old Law

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After inserting the provision into the bailout to allow AIG type bonuses into the bailout law – Chris Dodd now wants to tax them at 90% because Congress wasn’t aware about such bonuses!!!

Is anyone even paying attention any more???

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group bonus recipients so the government could recoup the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within hours, the idea spread to both houses of Congress, with lawmakers proposing an AIG bonus tax.

While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009,” which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are seeking to tax. The amendment is in the final version and is law.

Also, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.

College Grade Inflation

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Glen Beck brings light to a report on college GPA inflation.  Here’s the dets on the standard 4.0 scale:

Average College GPA 1991: 2.93

Average College GPA 2009: 3.11

U. Michigan Ave  Grades 1951: 2.57

U. Michigan Ave  Grades 2009: 3.29

To put Michigan’s rise into perspective consider this:  it is -or at least was – a significant honor to graduate “Cum Laude” from a University.  Cum Laude simply means that your GPA was above 3.5.  Which used to mean you were a full grade letter above the average student.  At Michigan apparently it means that you did the assigned extra credit assignment.

As standards continue to slide or be watered down, the accomplishment of meeting such standards becomes increasingly meaningless.  Which is why our children will probably need to get a Ph D just to work a non-minimum wage job…