jlet.org — Jack Letourneau

Delicious

• Computer problems delay United flights at O’Hare

  United Airlines’ ticketing systems go down at O’Hare Airport and everything grinds to a halt heading into the holiday weekend. This is why I’ve stopped ever booking flights with connections at ORD. One way or another, you will regret it.

  July 2

• Maine Sen. Snowe seeks health care compromise

  You know, I try to maintain at least cordial respect for the moderate wing of the Republican party, but it’s sometimes hard. Senator Snowe thinks that a public health insurance plan would have “significant price advantages” over private insurance, and so she wants to put the public option on hold to give the private companies a chance to cut costs. So since a public plan would give Americans such cheap health coverage, we mustn’t set it up right away. Excellent compromise.

  June 30

• Doubt cast on Chinese bid for Hummer

  Chinese government and industry officials may be backing off from their bid to acquire Hummer because the behemoth vehicles are too ecologically unsound. Being told by the Chinese that you are too rough on the environment must be like being told you party too hard by Keith Richards.

  June 29

• Health-Care Market Characterized by Consolidation, Not Competition

  Opponents of Obama’s proposed public health insurance option claim it would destroy the robust free market for insurance that benefits Americans so well. Trouble is, according to the AMA, 94% of Americans live in “highly concentrated markets” for insurance, meaning there is little or no competition among insurers. Could that be why insurance premiums have climbed 87% in the last six years?

  June 29

• Hi-tech helps Iranian monitoring

  Well obviously, it’s OK when U.S. spy agencies secretly monitor telephone communications between U.S. citizens, but where on earth did Iran get the idea that it’s allowed to do the same thing to its citizens?

  June 23

• Health Care Showdown

  Krugman op-ed from the New York Times, assailing “centrist” Democratic opposition to the cornerstone of President Obama’s proposed health care reform package, a publicly-operated insurance plan available to all Americans. Of course, such a thing might hurt the business of private insurers, and so therefore it can’t be allowed to happen. Whom are we trying to keep healthy, Americans or insurance companies?

  June 22

• Getting Up to Speed

  New York Times article on the slow, painful progress of California’s SF-LA high-speed rail project. With the possible exception of Russia, I think the US has the most outdated, inefficient transportation infrastructure of any G8 nation (this actually goes for health care too, but that’s another topic).

  June 14

• The Freedom Fighter’s Manual

  Some fine CIA-published literature distributed to our Central American friends during the Cold War instructing them on how to be complete bastards and sow societal discord to help bring down their left-wing governments.

  June 14

• Sugawara vs. PepsiCo Inc. [PDF]

  I love reading snarky court rulings. “[Sugawara] was allegedly misled by the packaging and marketing, which she argues convey the message that [Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries breakfast cereal] contains real, nutritious fruit.” Hmm, an interesting claim, but “there is no reference to fruit on the [Crunchberries box] unless one believes that a ‘Crunchberry’ is some form of produce.” Motion to dismiss granted.

  June 4

• Credit-Card Issuers to Market to “Deadbeats”

  The shoe is on the other foot now. The credit card companies might not have been making money in interest from people who pay off their balance every month, but at least they weren’t writing off losses from those accounts going unpaid. They’re going to get their merchant transaction fees either way, so we “deadbeats” are looking like a good deal after all.

  June 4

• “Cell Phone Elbow”: New Sign of Times

  Apparently you can get a pinched nerve in your elbow from constantly holding your cell phone up to your ear. You know what, if you are on your cell phone so much that you’re getting nerve damage in your arm, I think your elbow is one of the least significant things wrong with your life.

  June 4

• Demo of 45-year-old modem

  A 300-baud acoustic-coupled modem from 1964 is brought back to life and connected up to the modern-day Internet. Very nifty. I think the slowest modem I’ve ever used personally was 2400-baud back in the late 80s or early 90s (though it wasn’t in a lovely wooden case like this one).

  May 27

• Another Side of Kerouac: The Dharma Bum as Sports Nut

  Turns out cool cat Jack Kerouac was a sub rosa fantasy baseball dork. Although it wasn’t fantasy baseball the way it’s played today, more like building a narrative of imaginary baseball teams. Either way, geeky, but more power to you, Jack.

  May 16

• Schumer Urges Inquiry of Companies Behind Bogus Auto Warranty Calls

  On May 10, the car warranty scammers did an even stupider thing than ticking off Reddit: they ticked off a U.S. Senator, who is now calling for a federal-level investigation of their fraudulent business practices.

  May 11

• Reddit thread on car warranty scammers

  On May 6, a Reddit user fed up with “Your car’s warranty is about to expire” unsolicited robocalls started a thread which resulted in premium Internet detective work uncovering the company’s real phone number and address, and much hilarity ensued as other Reddit users turned the tables on them.

  May 11