What's the dumbest thing you heard said today?

[Danjanou]

Here in N.S. they purposely did not make plates that had the letters F-A-G even though they were the next letters to come out. So there was some forward thinking here by some one.

Judging from the looks of things they would have sold like hot cakes around my office this week. ;D

 

[OldSolduer]

kim kardashian and kanye west naming their daughter North setting the poor kid up for a life time of name jokes.
Comedians already started joking about her "North West Passage".
Morons.

Two very famous losers and morons. He is incredibly rude and she is self obssessed.

 

[George Wallace]

Two very famous losers and morons. He is incredibly rude and she is self obssessed.

Two very good reasons to use a condom.  Too bad their parents weren't doing so.

 

[Tank Troll]

Judging from the looks of things they would have sold like hot cakes around my office this week. ;D

There were complaints that they weren't made, just can't please everyone.  :

 

[NL_engineer]

This is defiantly a good one:

On parade practice, this was called for a Right dress. "elbow dressing, eyes right move"

 

[Dissident]

This is defiantly a good one:

On parade practice, this was called for a Right dress. "elbow dressing, eyes right move"

I dare you to get this right.

 

[MeanJean]

Just Us coffee shop employees in Halifax Unionize at Spring Garden location.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1138570-halifax-just-us-cafe-site-to-be-unionized

Really, who plans to make a viable career out of being a barista?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Just Us coffee shop employees in Halifax Unionize at Spring Garden location.

http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1138570-halifax-just-us-cafe-site-to-be-unionized

Really, who plans to make a viable career out of being a barista?

Here's what happened when the union got hold of the Tim Hortons at Hotel Dieu hospital in Windsor

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/31/taxpayers-picking-up-the-tab-as-windsor-tim-hortons-drains-hospital-of-265k-a-year/

 

[kevincanada]

Here's what happened when the union got hold of the Tim Hortons at Hotel Dieu hospital in Windsor

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/31/taxpayers-picking-up-the-tab-as-windsor-tim-hortons-drains-hospital-of-265k-a-year/

I have to point out the obvious here.  Why are they running 3 unprofitable kiosks when they could possibly be running 1 or 2 profitable kiosks.
From Article: "Taxpayers are subsidizing the shortfall at the hospital’s three kiosks featuring Tim Hortons"

Where's my coffee! 

 

[MeanJean]

I wonder how profitable the Tim Horton's is at Stadacona?  They probably have the best working hours for a Tim's.  No evening or weekend shifts and I would think that Mil folk wouldn't be too stingy on the tips.

 

[CougarKing]

Riiiiiiiight. :

Having a bigger desk can make you more dishonest

link

Body language experts sometimes advise those working in the world of business to appear more confident by adjusting their posture. (Don’t cross your arms; try to take up as much space as possible without looking awkward.) But a new study suggests that people who are able to spread out because they have a large desk or wide car seat, for example, are also more likely to cheat, steal money, or break traffic rules.

Now, of course, people with larger desks and bigger cars are also likely to have more power, and the question of whether power corrupts comes with its own slew of research and debate. But for the purposes of this study, the authors argue, having a larger space leads to expansive posture, which has a subtle but powerful effect on our psychology. “Environments that expand the body can inadvertently lead us to feel more powerful, and these feelings of power can cause dishonest behavior,” the paper, “The Ergonomics of Dishonesty” (pdf) by a team of academics from US universities, concludes.

In an experiment, subjects were told they would be paid $4 for their services but were given $8 seemingly accidentally. The researchers found that 78% of those who were told to hold an expansive pose—standing with hands on their hips, legs spread slightly—kept the extra money. Only 38% of participants who were told hold contractive positions, like crossing one’s legs and arms, did so. Other experiments found that those with bigger car seats in a racing game were more likely to break a game rule, and those with bigger desks were more likely to cheat on a test.

Still, this doesn’t mean that squeezing into a smaller desk or car seat will help your moral integrity. One possible explanation, according to the study, is that expansive posture makes people more assertive and more likely to carry out any act, whether dishonest or honest. And given that slumped, contorted poses have been linked to a sense of helplessness and feelings of stress and expansive postures to resilience against stress, you’re still better off with a bigger desk at work. And better still, standing up from it from time to time.

 

[BernDawg]

What's the dumbest thing I've heard today?
My daughter just said "The bachelorette is on in 20 mins!! Yay!!"
I try so F'n hard..........

 

[cupper]

Can't blame the girls for reacting the way they did.

Felony Arrest Of Student Who Bought Water Riles Many In Virginia

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/02/198047492/felony-arrest-of-student-who-bought-water-riles-many-in-virginia?utm_source=npr&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130702

"We're the police."

"This is bottled water."

If an encounter between several young women and Virginia's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control agents had gone that smoothly, the participants might be looking back on a chance encounter as merely odd, perhaps even funny. Instead, they're coping with the aftermath of a brief flight from authorities that resulted in spending a night in jail and felony charges, now dropped, of hitting agents with a car. The state agency says it's reviewing the case.

The April 11 incident rose to prominence last week, after news spread that a University of Virginia student had been arrested by plainclothes ABC agents who tried to detain her and two fellow members of a sorority after they bought supplies for a charity event to benefit the Alzheimer's Association.

Their purchases, made at a Harris Teeter grocery store around 10 p.m. that night, included a box of LaCroix bottled water, cookie dough and ice cream, reports The Daily Progress of Charlottesville, Va.

Last week, prosecutors declined to pursue felony charges against Elizabeth Daly, 20, and she began to tell her side of the story publicly.

"They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform," the vehicle's driver Daly told the Progress last week.

"I couldn't put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car. They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were ... terrified," Daly stated.

As the story has gained attention, the Virginia ABC says it is conducting a second review of the incident, after an earlier review of the agents' actions found no problems.

Giving its version of events in a statement released Friday, Virginia's ABC says the first agent to approach Daly's car was a woman who raised her badge to investigate what she suspected to be an underage purchase of beer. When the car's occupants didn't comply with her instructions, the agency says, other officers joined in.

The group of agents reportedly numbered about six; the Progress reports that one of them drew their weapon and held it in a "ready" position.

"Rather than comply with the officers' requests, the subject drove off, striking two officers," the ABC said Friday. "She was not arrested for possessing bottled water, but for running from police and striking two of them with a vehicle."

"Another [agent] jumped onto the hood of the car as Daly and her friends dialed 911 to report the incident, according to the records," the Progress says. "The women apologized repeatedly minutes later when they stopped for a car with lights and sirens on, prosecutors said."

Daly admits that she and her friends panicked after being approached in the parking lot at night. Citing Daly's lawyer, The Progress notes that earlier that night, the women had listened to survivors of sexual assaults tell their stories, as part of a Take Back the Night event.

A passenger of the car spoke to the Progress as well, saying that the young women didn't know who the agents were until a Charlottesville police officer came to the scene. By that time, the women had been handcuffed.

"He helped me to the curb so that I could sit and calm down," said the woman, who did not want her name published. "He said to us that ABC officers have all the rights of regular officers, and then finally it became clear that these were ABC officers."

The case has prompted outrage in Virginia, where people have contacted the governor and other state officials to complain.

"They're calling the governor's office, they're calling our public affairs office, they're calling every office," ABC spokeswoman Maureen Haney tells the Progress. "We're hearing about it on Twitter, they're using our website's email form, they're commenting on our Facebook."

On Facebook, some users commented on a recent photo of plastic gallon jugs of clear liquid — part of a Moonshine bust posted by the agency — to say, "Might want to check if that's water or not. Could be embarrassing."

The matter has been jarring for Daly, who spent two months with felony charges hanging over her. She wrote a summary of her experience that has been posted online:

"This has been an extremely trying experience and one that has called into question what I value most: my integrity, honor and character. ... Cookie dough and ice cream for a fundraiser should not put you through an extremely degrading night and afternoon in jail, appearing in court, posting bond, having to pay an attorney ... not allowed to leave the state, causing you endless nights of no sleep, [a]ffecting your school work and final exams, wondering if you would be dismissed from school, wondering how this would damage your reputation and ability to get a job, all while waiting on pins and needles to see what the Commonwealth is going to offer you."

She concluded her statement by thanking her school, the dean, and others who have helped her and her family since the April incident.

 

[cupper]

Another one of those conspiracy theories that just won't die a quiet death.

NTSB: No evidence of missile strike in TWA 800 probe

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/ntsb-missile-strike-twa-probe-93680.html?hp=l4

ASHBURN, Va. — Federal safety investigators still won’t say whether they’ll reopen their investigation into the explosion that took down TWA Flight 800 in July 1996. But they want reporters to get the message: It wasn’t a missile.

The agency has no radar evidence for any kind of target “intercepting” the plane before the fatal blast, the NTSB’s Joseph Kolly said during a Tuesday media briefing meant as refresher on a disaster that has inspired years of persistent conspiracy theories.

Witness testimony was not consistent with any kind of missile strike, he said. Neither were the patterns of burns and pitting among the passengers or seats. “Ultimately, we wound up ruling out a bomb or missile strike,” Kolly said.

Throughout the session, NTSB officials chided reporters for trying to ask about a controversial petition urging the agency to reconsider its investigation into the tragedy, which killed 230 people on a New York-to-Paris flight. The case has been getting newfound media attention driven by a documentary coming out this month that alleges a cover-up.

The NTSB says it’s still reviewing the petition, which was filed by a retired NTSB investigator and a physicist who were involved in the documentary. To meet the test for revisiting the investigation, the petitioners would have to show they have information that was unavailable during the original investigation or evidence that the board reached an erroneous conclusion.

Until then, NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said, it would be “very inappropriate” for the bureau to comment specifically on the petition.

“In all sincerity, I am upset about bringing this back up for the sake of people who lost folks in the accident,” said Kolly, director of the NTSB’s Office of Research and Engineering who was the fire and explosives investigator for the TWA 800 crash. “It’s just not a good thing.”

Still, the NTSB speakers took virtually every opportunity Tuesday to highlight portions of the agency’s final report that rebut allegations brought up by the petition.

They stressed the length and depth of the investigation, the agency’s most extensive to date. They ran through the news context of the time, showing how even in 1996, the agency and public were aware of terrorism as a potential cause. They held up metal plates showing typical bomb and missile damage, which they said were not reflected in the wreckage. They herded reporters out to a full-scale mock-up of the plane’s fuselage, its body charred and ripped, yet recognizable enough to twist the gut.

The tension is this: The NTSB found that the probable cause of the accident was a fuel tank explosion sparked by faulty wiring. But the petitioners insist the cause was something more nefarious, such as a bomb or shoulder-launched missile.

Kolly said the agency’s four-year investigation ruled that out.

“We did conduct an analysis of a [surface-to-air] missile intercept for both a direct intercept and proximity intercept. And we concluded that it was extremely unlikely that the position and the timing were favorable for that type of intercept,” he said.

Another portion of the petition alleges that newly uncovered chemical trace evidence suggests explosives. Kolly acknowledged that NTSB investigators discovered chemical residue in three places, and “it’s not definitively clear why.”

He said that at the time, possible explanations were believed to include residue left over from bomb-sniffing canine training, which he said was less likely than accidental contamination.

“Probably a more likely scenario is the fact that [the wreckage] was contaminated after retrieval from the ocean,” Kolly said. FBI and military personnel involved with the investigation could easily have left traces of explosives from their shoes or hands, or residue could have rubbed off from active duty military vessels transporting the material.

Robert Swaim, NTSB’s systems group chairman for TWA 800, complained that those who take a contrary view of the explosion have “misused” some of his comments related to the agency’s inability to find a definitive root cause.

“In the board meeting, I said, ‘Mr. Chairman, I wish I could come in with the exact wire’” that sparked the explosion, Swaim said. But he noted that the investigation pinpointed four or five fault indicators all pointing to one wire, related to fuel levels.

“We got it down to a few feet of wire bundle,” he said. “We had four or five, I think it was five, different electrical indications that came right back to that same short, couple few feet of wiring harness. But to have that specific short-circuit in the wiring, no we didn’t have it.”

Kolly also dismissed suggestions from the documentary that any evidence was misplaced or lost, answering a flat “no” when a reporter asked.

He acknowledged, though, that tension existed between the NTSB and FBI, which was conducting a separate investigation into whether there were any criminal activities related to the crash.

“There was a parallel investigation and there was friction, OK, and we recognize that,” Kolly said. “But it didn’t ultimately harm the investigation,” and since that time the two agencies’ relationship has improved.

Kolly said that on the NTSB’s end, the frustration was that the FBI was pursuing a certain set of information and sometimes asked leading questions.

“They were conducting criminal-type interviews,” he said. He pointed to a portion of the report that recounted some of the typical questions the FBI used, which he said included “How long did the missile fly?” and “What does the terrain around the launch site look like?”

Throughout the session, NTSB officials chided reporters for trying to ask about a controversial petition urging the agency to reconsider its investigation into the tragedy, which killed 230 people on a New York-to-Paris flight. The case has been getting newfound media attention driven by a documentary coming out this month that alleges a cover-up.

The NTSB says it’s still reviewing the petition, which was filed by a retired NTSB investigator and a physicist who were involved in the documentary. To meet the test for revisiting the investigation, the petitioners would have to show they have information that was unavailable during the original investigation or evidence that the board reached an erroneous conclusion.

Until then, NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said, it would be “very inappropriate” for the bureau to comment specifically on the petition.

“In all sincerity, I am upset about bringing this back up for the sake of people who lost folks in the accident,” said Kolly, director of the NTSB’s Office of Research and Engineering who was the fire and explosives investigator for the TWA 800 crash. “It’s just not a good thing.”

Still, the NTSB speakers took virtually every opportunity Tuesday to highlight portions of the agency’s final report that rebut allegations brought up by the petition.

They stressed the length and depth of the investigation, the agency’s most extensive to date. They ran through the news context of the time, showing how even in 1996, the agency and public were aware of terrorism as a potential cause. They held up metal plates showing typical bomb and missile damage, which they said were not reflected in the wreckage. They herded reporters out to a full-scale mock-up of the plane’s fuselage, its body charred and ripped, yet recognizable enough to twist the gut.

The tension is this: The NTSB found that the probable cause of the accident was a fuel tank explosion sparked by faulty wiring. But the petitioners insist the cause was something more nefarious, such as a bomb or shoulder-launched missile.

Kolly said the agency’s four-year investigation ruled that out.

“We did conduct an analysis of a [surface-to-air] missile intercept for both a direct intercept and proximity intercept. And we concluded that it was extremely unlikely that the position and the timing were favorable for that type of intercept,” he said.

Another portion of the petition alleges that newly uncovered chemical trace evidence suggests explosives. Kolly acknowledged that NTSB investigators discovered chemical residue in three places, and “it’s not definitively clear why.”

He said that at the time, possible explanations were believed to include residue left over from bomb-sniffing canine training, which he said was less likely than accidental contamination.

“Probably a more likely scenario is the fact that [the wreckage] was contaminated after retrieval from the ocean,” Kolly said. FBI and military personnel involved with the investigation could easily have left traces of explosives from their shoes or hands, or residue could have rubbed off from active duty military vessels transporting the material.

Robert Swaim, NTSB’s systems group chairman for TWA 800, complained that those who take a contrary view of the explosion have “misused” some of his comments related to the agency’s inability to find a definitive root cause.

“In the board meeting, I said, ‘Mr. Chairman, I wish I could come in with the exact wire’” that sparked the explosion, Swaim said. But he noted that the investigation pinpointed four or five fault indicators all pointing to one wire, related to fuel levels.

“We got it down to a few feet of wire bundle,” he said. “We had four or five, I think it was five, different electrical indications that came right back to that same short, couple few feet of wiring harness. But to have that specific short-circuit in the wiring, no we didn’t have it.”

Kolly also dismissed suggestions from the documentary that any evidence was misplaced or lost, answering a flat “no” when a reporter asked.

He acknowledged, though, that tension existed between the NTSB and FBI, which was conducting a separate investigation into whether there were any criminal activities related to the crash.

“There was a parallel investigation and there was friction, OK, and we recognize that,” Kolly said. “But it didn’t ultimately harm the investigation,” and since that time the two agencies’ relationship has improved.

Kolly said that on the NTSB’s end, the frustration was that the FBI was pursuing a certain set of information and sometimes asked leading questions.

“They were conducting criminal-type interviews,” he said. He pointed to a portion of the report that recounted some of the typical questions the FBI used, which he said included “How long did the missile fly?” and “What does the terrain around the launch site look like?”

 

[cupper]

If you are going to have someone testify via SKYPE during a televised high profile trial, it would be a smart move to conceal usernames of the two parties from the viewing public.

Zimmerman trial disrupted by contemptuous Skype-callers

As a professor gives evidence to the Zimmerman trial via Skype, he gets bombarded by those who think it's funny to call him and block the screen.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57592239-71/zimmerman-trial-disrupted-by-contemptuous-skype-callers/

When a murder trial is televised, it becomes a form of entertainment.

And, as the clock winds down toward Independence Day, there are many independent spirits with idle time.

"Hey, let's mess with the Zimmerman trial! That should be entertaining!"

So it came to pass that, as CBS News reports, a professor's testimony became victim to somewhat smaller minds.

Gordon Scott Pleasants is a professor at Seminole State College, where George Zimmerman -- standing trial for the second-degree murder of Trayvon Martin -- studied.

As he gave evidence via Skype, several people who perhaps think themselves the apogee of wit decided to Skype-call the visible username (that of prosecutor Rich Mantei), so that Pleasants' face would be progressively blocked on the screen.

Defense attorney, Mark O'Mara, not slow to notice what was happening, offered: "There's now a really good chance that we're being toyed with."

Defense attorneys tend to be familiar with the concept of chance, so one can reasonably assume that most, if not all, of these callers -- self-identified with full (but not necessarily real) names in some cases -- were just cocking a tiny snook.

Pleasants himself seemed genial enough about the interruption. After a brief pause, he continued his testimony via cell phone.

Some might mount a high pony and declare that these fine people were merely trying to show up Skype's deficiencies -- though a pseudonymous account could have been created (and the name masked) for the express purpose of keeping interruptors out.

If the court had opted for a Google Hangout, for example, an intrusion would not have occurred. You can only hangout with those to whom you're already connected.

Still, some of these disruptors might just be the same sorts who merrily go online and exhort for justice and freedom of speech.

You might imagine that here they were making a mockery of both. This is a murder trial. Someone's life has been taken. Someone else's future is at stake.

Couldn't they just sit and watch? Oh, who does that these days?

 

[PMedMoe]

Washington state gets rid of sexist language

In Washington state, the word "freshman" is out. And "first-year student" is in. In total, 40,000 words have been changed as part of an effort to rid state statutes of gender-biased language.

The bill, signed into law earlier in the year by Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee, went into effect this week.

And it was no small task. "This was a much larger effort than I had envisioned. Mankind means man and woman," Democratic state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle told Reuters.

"Fisherman" is now a "fisher." "Penmanship" is called "handwriting." And "manhole cover" is, well, still "manhole cover." Some words don’t have an easy replacement.

Others do: "His" is now “his and hers.” "Clergyman" is now "clergy." "Journeyman plumber" is now “journey-level plumber,” according to the Daily Mail.

More at link

Some of the comments:

Menstruation will now be personstruation. Lady Finger candies will now be just the finger, so you can give someone the finger. Also will they outlaw ladies night at the local bar?

Conversation 10 years from now: "Check out the sky, son. It's so clear tonight, you can see all sorts of things!"
"Wow! You sure can, Dad!"
"What's your favorite heavenly object, son?"
"Well Dad, my favorite has always been the asexual-entity-face-on-the-moon".....

And.....

There is already a womanhole cover, it's called panties.

:rofl:

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I think I might have mentioned this before. I was the Projects guy in Kabul. We wanted CIDA to fund a project. I sent in the proposal and it got rejected a few times with provisions. They didn't mention what those provisions were though. Finally, off to Canada House I go to meet with the CIDA person. We had tea and a great conversation. Finally, back to Julien I went. Next day I resubmitted the identical proposal again and got immediate approval.

The only change I had to make was to change 'manhours' to 'personhours'.

It's nice to know that Canada hung it's hat on a project to fund a women only production operation on a word. 8)

 

[PMedMoe]

Students blame Facebook for flunking grades

Dozens of Dalhousie University students are unliking Facebook after failing their classes and landing in summer school.

As much as 15 per cent of engineering students are flunking out, said J. Pemberton Cyrus, the dean of the engineering department. He said many of them point the blame at Facebook and other forms of social media.

"It was one of the biggest issues for me," admits student Ibraheem Albayati, who spent too much of his first year online. He's now in a special summer program to bring him up to speed with his studies.

More at link

:facepalm:  :

 

[medicineman]

Couldn't possibly have been the fault of the users now could it... :

I thought you had to be smart to (A) get into Dalhousie and (B) get into Dalhousie Engineering...

MM

 

[PMedMoe]

Couldn't possibly have been the fault of the users now could it... :

I thought you had to be smart to (A) get into Dalhousie and (B) get into Dalhousie Engineering...

Never mind the time management classes, what they need is a class on taking responsibility and owning up to one's actions.  :