Saturday, December 10, 2011

Discoveries

The author of yesterday's quote was Edna St. Vincent Millay.

The first weekend in a long time that there hasn't been an Oregon Duck football game. What's a man to do? Christmas Shopping or a movie? Probably both.

Since I am trying to discover what to do without football most articles today will be about discoveries:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/05/kepler-22b-new-planet-discovered-habitable-zone_n_1129591.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-sb-nb%7Cdl8%7Csec1_lnk2%7C117945


Next up is a discovery about the C.I.A.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/romania-cia-prison_n_1135799.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-sb-nb%7Cdl8%7Csec1_lnk2%7C118718

The final article is discovery of stupidity and no heart.

http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2011/12/07/tennessee-home-burns-as-firefighters-watch/?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-nb%7Cdl4%7Csec1_lnk2%7C118179

Comment Away.

5 comments:

Lady DR said...

So, did you get your Christmas shopping done, before you went to the movie? (G)

Fascinating about the new planet. Fascinating and a bit unsettling. What will we do, if we find another inhabited planet? Can we immediately declare it neutral territory and forbid war?

Scary about the CIA thing. I suspect there's an awful lot of stuff like this we don't know about.

You're right about not heart. I can't imagine firefighters just standing around, watching a house burn down. OTOH, why not pay the $75 fee? Here, even though we're outside city limits, a portion of our taxes goes to fund fire departments county-wide. I'd say $75 is pretty cheap insurance, to be sure my house was saved, in the event of fire. I guess I really don't understand the logic on either side of the issue.

Pat said...

Er, Bill, that's "Millay", not "Malloy". Ordinarily I wouldn't have a clue, but she's a favorite of mine.

Kepler 22b sounds very pleasant, with 72 degree temps. Better than SoCA in the summer! Maybe we should stop all the silly talk about moving to the moon or Mars when we destroy Earth, and aim for Kepler 22b.

So we operated a prison in Romania. Where we could torture people with nobody looking over our shoulder. I wonder where-all else. And how on earth we can justify such doings. It doesn't seem like my country any more.

I think I heard a similar firefighter story last year. Maybe the one they mention. For $75, you'd think they'd pay up, but that may be an intolerable amount for some in this economy. I wonder if all the firefighters were okay with standing around watching. I doubt it.

In contrast, last night I heard sirens close by. Didn't think much of it, but when I moved into a room with an open window and smelled smoke, I went outside to look. There were two huge fire engines and various ancillary personnel gathered a few houses up the street. When I drove by today, I saw no evidence of anything from the street, but whatever the problem, you can bet all those fire personnel weren't waiting for somebody to grease their palm before taking care of it.

Anonymous said...

Very useful blog. Keep up the good work.

William J. said...

Hi DR

I got a lot of the shopping done on Friday and tubed the shopping for Saturday and went to a movie. I have an accounting seminar on Tuesday & Wednesday and there is a good sized mall near there so I will be sneaking out to do some thing.

New planets always fascinate me but I had never thought about the idea of battling over it. Scary.

I have no doubt the CIA is going things that would surprise us and disappointment.

The stupid part of the story for me was the couple not paying the $75 and the heartless part was letting the house burn. There were better solutions, I can think of two. Charge them for the call. Whatever it cost to save the house charge the homeowners for it. You don't have the insurance you pay the cost. The other is save the house and charge them the fee. I can of like the first idea the best.

Bill

William J. said...

Hi Pat

Damn typos. It has been dutifully corrected!

We can start a commune on Kebler 22B. I am all for it!

It certainly doesn't seem like my country either. The world has become more violent and less caring.

$75 is cheap it is really stupid that they didn't pay it. If there were firefighters not OK with it they should have stepped up. I wonder what they would have done is if the fire threatened a neighbor's house that had paid and in order to save the house that had paid they had to save the house that didn't to keep the fire from spreading.

I would rather live in your neighborhood than the one in the story!

Bill