Walking from here to there on the Samford campus. Specifically from my office to the pool, which is inside this building. It looks a bit like autumn in this shot, doesn’t it? It still has had that slight coolness in the air, too.
It has felt cook like that for some time, at least until this week, which is a late arrival here. It finally feels as if spring has arrived. And that’ll just be a brief pause before summer weather, I’m sure.
Anyway, swam 2,000 yards this evening, which is 1.14 miles. I’m a bit pleased with how the swimming has come along. I’m still not going to go anywhere fast, but I’m becoming perhaps a slightly more technical proficient swimmer and my cardio is improving.
I do not know what is happening.
Things to read … because some things you do need to know about in life.
Caught a rare mid-week baseball game. Auburn hosted and defeated South Alabama 6-1.
That reminded me I haven’t shared these pictures yet. Last weekend they gave championship rings to the 2013 team. A guy we now in the stands at baseball works as an equipment manager (I think) for the football team, so he got a ring too. He showed it off:
I just happened to walk outside the office this morning as the sun hit it just right. The little errand I was running was minor, in the scheme of things, but it worked out nicely, don’t you agree?
Had a five mile run this evening. I find it interesting how this is sometimes easier than others. I am bemused when I am not sure which is which.
I do not know what is happening.
Things to read … and the headlines should do the trick.
Feeling a bit better. This will make no sense, really, but, in the ear, nose, throat area I feel like almost a new man. This is a relief since last night I was beginning to wonder if this was something more serious than allergies.
I still have a nice, powerful cough that can’t seem to clear the problem, but only irritates the throat. It is about to get to the point of having that handsome congested resonance to it. I think, perhaps, the tiny/mild fever has subsided. I’m still sniffly, but there is progress. I sound sick when I talk, but that’s not unusual.
I am exhausted. Not tired so much, though I haven’t slept well in the better part of a week, but I did have a decent night’s sleep last night and yesterday I took a blessedly amazing 20 minute nap. I just feel physically tired. And to think I was going to try to go run or ride today. Hah. So there are no grand stories or adventures about the day.
Things to read … because sometimes reading is the grandest adventure of them all.
This is one of those things that popped up ages ago. I read it, kept it, thought about it and never passed it along. (Because how would you find it on this Internet without my help, dear reader?) Since there is never going to be the right time, one supposes, here it is now: The Top 5 Regrets of The Dying
I came to the conclusion pretty quickly, and haven’t been able to change my mind since, that the biggest regrets I have are fairly small in the scheme of things, but they almost always center on something I didn’t do.
For the next several months, WBHM joins al.com and the Center for Investigative Reporting as part of the Alabama Media Group’s Investigative Journalism Lab. We’re taking a closer look at Alabama’s prison problems.
As part of this project, al.com reporter Kelsey Stein has interviewed many former inmates of the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women. The prison gained national attention earlier this year after a Department of Justice report detailed cases of rape and sexual abuse at the prison.
Surging prices for food staples from coffee to meat to vegetables are driving up the cost of groceries in the U.S., pinching consumers and companies that are still grappling with a sluggish economic recovery.
Federal forecasters estimate retail food prices will rise as much as 3.5% this year, the biggest annual increase in three years, as drought in parts of the U.S. and other producing regions drives up prices for many agricultural goods.
During the past 30 years, administrations have spent more than $100 million trying to automate the old-fashioned process in the mine and make it run at the speed of computers.
They couldn’t.
So now the mine continues to run at the speed of human fingers and feet. That failure imposes costs on federal retirees, who have to wait months for their full benefit checks. And it has imposed costs on the taxpayer: The Obama administration has now made the mine run faster, but mainly by paying for more fingers and feet.
The staff working in the mine has increased by at least 200 people in the past five years. And the cost of processing each claim has increased from $82 to $108, as total spending on the retirement system reached $55.8 million.
U.S. officials think that Russia may have recently obtained the ability to evade U.S. eavesdropping equipment while commandeering Crimea and amassing troops near Ukraine’s border.
The revelation reportedly has the White House “very nervous,” especially because it’s unclear how the Kremlin hid its plans from the National Security Agency’s snooping on digital and electronic communications.
One interesting parallel is the presence of Edward Snowden in Russia, where he has been living since flying to Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23.
As you might expect, the story concentrates on that one interesting parallel.
President Barack Obama is seeking to abolish two highly successful missile programs that experts say have helped the U.S. Navy maintain military superiority for the past several decades.
The Tomahawk missile program—known as “the world’s most advanced cruise missile”—is set to be cut by $128 million under Obama’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal and completely eliminated by fiscal year 2016, according to budget documents released by the Navy.
In addition to the monetary cuts to the program, the number of actual Tomahawk missiles acquired by the United States would drop significantly—from 196 last year to just 100 in 2015. The number will then drop to zero in 2016.
The Navy will also be forced to cancel its acquisition of the well-regarded and highly effective Hellfire missiles in 2015, according to Obama’s proposal.
So you take two effective weapon systems with a finite inventory and shut down the supply. These are two successful force projection applications being removed from the table with no replacement in site. And if you look at subsonic-to-supersonic evolutionary trends that means your next gen weapon system needs new and more fuel and bigger engines which means larger missiles which means larger platforms and we aren’t upsizing the navy any time soon, either.
There’s never been a story that makes me long for elementary school again, but this one does. I would show up to school the next day with a shaved head myself. There is an update. The little girl is being allowed back into the school. It isn’t quite sanity that prevailed, since these educators still found themselves in a ridiculous position of voting (three to one!) on the issue, but widespread scorn and cynicism brought about part of the proper resolution. Funny how that works on “educators.”
Slowing traffic for several miles on the way home …
My first job after college was reporting traffic on the radio. College grad! It was originally supposed to be a job where I flew around as a passenger in a small plane and reported from the sky. Something happened, I forget the details, where the guy I was replacing stuck around. So I worked in the office.
The office was a big bullpen with miniature studio bays instead of cubicles. There was one guy who had the job of calling police stations, listening to scanners and taking the occasional phone call about traffic reports. He was inputting all of this data into the system so that people like me could read on various radio stations in the region. On any given day I was reporting on five or six stations. We all had stations and times and some people crafted miniature personalities behind it. This was, after all, something of a stepping stone job for some people.
One of those guys, an older gentleman, did this cantankerous bit, like the accidents, the minor ones at least, were an imposition to him, already at his office. It was probably funny in a sympathetic sort of way. One day he called a car fire a “Car-B-Q.” That seemed less funny to me, since these are more serious than a fender bender. I always think of that whenever I hear about or see a car fire.
You never hear what became of the people involved. Did they escape safely? How many of their things did they bother to reach for? How did it start? You only know it ruined more than their weekend plans.
Things to read … because that is almost always in the plans.
Some of America’s best cancer hospitals are off-limits to many of the people now signing up for coverage under the nation’s new health care program.
Doctors and administrators say they’re concerned. So are some state insurance regulators.
An Associated Press survey found examples coast to coast. Seattle Cancer Care Alliance is excluded by five out of eight insurers in Washington’s insurance exchange. MD Anderson Cancer Center says it’s in less than half of the plans in the Houston area. Memorial Sloan-Kettering is included by two of nine insurers in New York City and has out-of-network agreements with two more.
In all, only four of 19 nationally recognized comprehensive cancer centers that responded to AP’s survey said patients have access through all the insurance companies in their states’ exchanges.
If you haven’t come around to the reality that there is a difference between “coverage” and “health care” then you are well behind the curve.
The decline is small so far. Video subscribers across the entire pay-TV industry, which includes Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), DirecTV and Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), dropped by 251,000 last year to about 100 million, SNL Kagan said in a statement today.
The industry has seen this coming for a while; research firm IHS said in August that TV subscriptions would decline to 100.8 million from 100.9 million in 2013. And cable companies have been suffering declines for years as satellite and phone carriers wrested away market share. In fact, DirecTV (DTV), Verizon and their ilk still gained TV subscribers last year — just not enough to make up for 2 million lost cable subscribers.
Pay-TV carriers have been preparing for this inflection point by developing services for watching video on tablets and smartphones. They’re also investing to boost Internet speeds as broadband services become more popular, often at the expense of TV subscriptions.
On our Blu-ray player there is an option for all manner of non-television video platforms. Most of them you probably don’t even know are out there. Seems we won’t need a la carte cable, we’re going to get it in some other fashion.
Remember when CNN stood for something? Now they’ll fall for anything.
I like to tell people that I think we all have a superpower, no matter how lame. Mine, I say, is that I can always anticipate the size of plasticware needed to store the leftovers. It isn’t going to save the world from alien invaders, but at least it is helpful in the kitchen. Unlike the Incredible Hulk.
It is a fun joke. It usually gets a little laugh. It starts a little “What’s your superpower?” conversation. Tonight, though, in maybe the third such event in the history of my discovering my comic book destiny …
Take note for this this day in history: @kennysmith's super power failed him. He misjudged the Tupperware needed for leftovers. #offday
