Midspot

“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931

via There is no such thing as “Government money”.

“For the first time, a 3GB memory laptop from a well-known brand has ventured below $300,” Wal-Mart said in a statement Thursday.Starting July 26 this coming Sunday, Wal-Mart will begin selling a $298 Compaq Presario notebook CQ60-419WM with the following specifications: a 15.6-inch display, 3GB of memory, a 160GB hard-disk drive, a CD-DVD drive, and Windows Vista pre-loaded. The laptop will use a 2.10 GHz AMD Sempron SI-42 processor and Nvidia GeForce 8200M graphics.

via Wal-Mart beats Best Buy with $298 laptop | Nanotech – The Circuits Blog – CNET News.

Denver police are suing the city saying they should be paid extra for the time it takes to dress before work, undress after work, and for the time it takes them to dry clean or wash and press their uniforms. If the 843 officers who are plaintiffs in the suit prevail on all of their claims, the city says it could cost taxpayers about $200 million.

“I can’t imagine the day when it would be okay for any city worker to get paid to get dressed and undressed,” said Eric Brown, a spokesman for Mayor John Hickenlooper.

Lawsuits like this — known as “Donning and Doffing” lawsuits — have been popping up around the country for the last four years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of workers at a meat-packing plant who claimed they should have been paid for the extra time it took outside of work to put on and take off protective gear.

The Denver police union — the Denver Police Protective Association — refused to discuss its donning and doffing lawsuit with CBS4. But PPA board members pointed out that the donning and doffing claim is just one of ten claims in their lawsuit. Read the entire federal complaint here

Among the other claims, the police department has not been compensating officers for the time it takes them to clean and maintain their “take home” department vehicles. But the donning and doffing claim may be the most controversial.

“I don’t believe anyone should be compensated for the responsibility of preparing themselves for work,” said Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson.

Robinson, who still regularly wears a uniform, said it was his personal and professional opinion that “it’s absolutely inappropriate” for police to ask for extra money to get dressed and undressed. “It’s an honor to put on a uniform, it’s an honor to serve the community,” said the Sheriff. He said law enforcement personnel asking for extra money to get dressed and undressed appeared to be “elitism.”

via Denver Police Officers Want Dollars To Dress – cbs4denver.com.

This large map of Sable Island shows its many shipwrecks.

Only sealers, shipwrecked sailors and salvagers made their homes on Sable Island, impermanent ones at best. The salvagers must have had some pretty good times — over the last few centuries, more than 350 vessels were shipwrecked on what became known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic”. Located in shallow, often stormy and foggy waters, the elongated Sable Island (44 km long but never more than 2 km wide) might have been predestined as a catchment area for ships treading these Atlantic latitudes — a self-fulfilling curse for captains ignorant or oblivious of this huge, constantly shifting sandbar.

via The Graveyard of the Atlantic.

This sculpture is a machine that advances two full sized automobiles slowly into one another over a period of 6 days, simulating a head on automobile collision. Each car moves about three feet into the other. The movement is so slow as to be invisible.

It is almost impossible to watch a modern action film without at least one automobile wreck. Why do we find interest and excitement it new versions of the same event? Why are we not satisfied? Cars are extensions of our body and our ego. We buy or modify cars that reflect our personalities and egos. When we see an automobile destroyed, in a way we are looking at our own inevitable death. This moment is, because of it’s inherent speed, almost invisible. We have slowed the event via film and video but only from a cameras perspective. We never get to see the transformation of living breathing car too wreck in its entirety, in detail. This piece offers the viewer the ability to examine in three dimensions the collision of these cars. A moment that might take a fraction of a second in an actual collision will be expanded to take days.

Car wrecks are spectacular moments. This piece by changing one of the key variables removes and changes the nature of the event. What was life threatening is now rendered safe. What was supremely spectacular is now almost static. The wreck has been broken down to its Newtonian components. We are left to contemplate our own mortality our own Newtonian components.

via Jonathan schipper Slow motion car crash.

Ever wonder what happens to a society which overspends its way to self-indulgence and luxury? It is very simple, they go bust. The best examples of this today are countries such as Japan, France, Italy, England, and Germany, which are all decaying and rotting cesspools of filth.

The problem with these countries is that it has become so expensive to live there that people cannot afford to have children, so they don’t. Well, this is a big problem for the future of a society. The irony is that these countries don’t care at all. The only reason this is of concern to them is not because the future of their people & culture is threatened, but only because of the impact it will have on their government pension programs

If you look at birth rates of all countries, the lowest birth rates on the planet are Hong Kong, Japan, Germany which is possibly the single most fucked country on the planet, and Italy, which reads like a stroll through a who’s who list of bloated societies whose members lead lifestyles of uncontrollable extravagance and material excess. You can look at the snooty Frenchman, the elegant Italian woman, the Japanese businessman – these people are all endangered species.

Most of the countries which are growing are poor countries – practically all of the top 50 growing countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. The reason is very simple, because it is cheap to live there. Having children is more an investment than a money sink. You don’t put them into school, or day care, you just let them play with the chickens all day long. In Africa, there is no babyGap, little kids are naked until they grow up. By the time they’re about 6, you start putting them to work. If you brought up your children in America the way children are brought up in Africa, you would be called a dirt bag and probably the government would take them away from you. By the time the kids are 15, they’ll move to the city and work in factory, and send most of their earnings back home. This is the future of humanity.

via Frugal Bachelor: The Frugal Shall Inherit the Earth.

Over my lunch hour today I went and looked at a couple of utility trailers that someone had listed on bismanonline (local version of Craigslist). I spoke with him on the phone and asked questions about the shape of the tires and wood, etc. He assured me that all was well and it was in “better than average” shape.

Until I arrived. If I owned these two trailers I would just take them to the landfill rather than try to sell them. That’s how bad of shape they were in. The better than average tires where threadbare and the wood was clearly rotten through in many places.

So, since I was rather torqued about wasting my lunch hour, I decided that karma can be a bitch. I proceded to ask a dozen questions about the trailers and after wasting about 15-20 minutes of his time. I simply turned and walked away, got in my truck and left.

I realize one man’s junk is another man’s treasure, but classifying this as junk would have been the overstatement of the year.

A popular comedian could face charges in Bismarck for a regular part of his routine.

Ron White, the Scotch-swilling, cigar-smoking Blue Collar Comedy Tour comedian, performed at the Belle Mehus Auditorium on April 30. But prior to that, a Bismarck citizen tipped off police that part of White’s routine might run afoul of a Bismarck city ordinance prohibiting smoking in public places.

Gary Semmel, 55, wrote a letter dated April 17 to the Bismarck Police Department, letting them know White smokes a cigar during his act, which seems to be at odds with the city ordinance prohibiting smoking in public places, Sgt. Dwight Offerman said.

Semmel did not have a listed phone number.

Management for White declined to comment, publicist Kathe Nelson said.

Because of the letter, police placed a plainclothes officer at the first of White’s two performances to document his smoking, Offerman said. The officer reported back that White lit up a cigar to start the show, took one puff, then let the cigar burn out. He lit up again and took another puff later in the show, again let it run out, then didn’t light it up again until the end of the show, Offerman said.

Smoking in public places is an infraction, punishable by fines of up to $500. Offerman said the report will be sent to the city attorney.

White, whose nickname “Tater Salad” was listed as his alias on the police report, is best know for his performances on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour with Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy. The Texas Legislature declared April 27 “Ron White Day” to honor the Texas native.

White is no stranger to run-ins with the law, having been arrested in Vero Beach, Fla., for marijuana and paraphernalia possession in September. He pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal and was sentenced to probation.

via Comedian may be charged for smoking at Bismarck show.