What’s Hurting the Middle Class takes a look at the assumptions underlying the recent backruptcy “reform” that Sen. Orrin Hatch championed in Congress and Dubya gleefully signed into law.
If you voted for either of them, ask yourself if they really represent you and whether your concerns are being addressed by their actions.
Tags: debt bankruptcy [...]

From the Chock Full O’ Chutzpah Department: The appraiser at the center of a $14 million fraud plot involving a local town and the Eastman Kodak Company is claiming that he’s owed $4.6 million for appraisals that he did as part of the scheme. Wow.
Tags: Rochester crime

Only the Germans would invent a smart beer mat that orders refills. It still allows ads to be printed on it, of course.
Tags: beer

Photo_092905_001
Originally uploaded by tommasz.
Following the wild weather this morning it’s blue skies and quickly moving clouds. I can see the lake, the usual haze having moved along with the clouds.
Tags: Rochester downtown

If you’re interested in electronic paper, the E Ink prototype development kit is for you. $3K gets you the hardware, Linux OS and SDK.
Tags: electronic paper Linux

Michael Singer of ZDNet has Five reasons for Palm’s slide.
I like my Zire 72, but not as much as my Palm V, the loss of which still pains me. I don’t know what I’ll get to replace it, but it’s not likely to be a Palm.
Tags: Palm demise

Michael Griffin, the current head of NASA, has admitted the ISS and the Space Shuttle were mistakes. NASA just announced that they want to go back to the Moon but using technology more like the single-use Apollo program than the “reusable” Shuttle.
More and more it looks like the future of space will be in [...]

All I can say is, Brownie, you’re a scumbag.
Tags: FEMA Brown

Simply putting an arsonist in jail isn’t enough if you don’t deal with the behavior. Case in point: a convicted arsonist was arrested while on parole for setting a fire in an abandoned house. The first fire was in an elementary school and ended up causing over $1 million in damages. At least he was [...]

Calvin and Hobbes fans, as part of the release of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, fans from around the world interview Bill Watterson.
There are a lot of great comics these days, in print and on the web, but none of them have the magic Calvin and Hobbes did. Watterson was wise to get out [...]

Tonight’s specials include hot spiced rocks and Blue Happy (additional charge for blowholes). The chef suggests two or three cocktails, and so do I.
Tags: restaurant menu funny

The preparations for Rita have resulted in no direct storm-related deaths, despite it being a bigger storm than Katrina. Not that things were perfect, the incredible traffic and strange delay in opening the southbound lanes to northbound traffic attest to that. But they helped dramatize how hard it is to evacuate major metropolitan areas. Imagine [...]