IF YOU SEE FLOOD WATERS... REMEMBER TO TURN AROUND AND DO NOT DROWN.

Best weather warning ever.

-janelane

Local Weather Alert for Atlanta, GA - weather.com

Given this unexpected amount, I'm very excited to tell you that 800 buses – instead of the 30 we were initially aiming for – are now rolling out across the UK with the slogan, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life", in locations all over England, Scotland and Wales

Ariane Sherine: We did it! The atheist bus campaign is bigger and better then ever | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

The Way We Process Makes the Difference

That's right...get your upright polyethylene tanks from Assmann.

-janelane

Assmann Manufactures Polyethylene / Plastic Storage Tanks and Containers up to 12,000 Gallon Capacities in One-Piece Construction

When Jenny Lawhorn and Weiman Seid moved into an apartment with three others at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in 1990, they found a framed photo left behind by previous tenants. It showed a young man with a winged haircut. No one knew him. He was named Steve and put on display.

“After graduation one of the roommates took Steve home, and come Christmas he gave a nicely wrapped gift to Weiman,” Ms. Lawhorn recalled. “Weiman thought he was getting a real gift and was giggle-licious when he opened the gift to find Steve.”

The next Christmas, Mr. Seid gave the photo to another ex-roommate, who was stunned to see Steve when she tore off the wrapping.

It was never stated explicitly that the regifting of Steve would continue forever. It has just happened that nearly every year, one of the former roommates unwraps a present and finds Steve.

Ha! That's awesome.

-janelane

Gag Gifts Give More Than You Bargained For - NYTimes.com

ROD BLAGOJEVICH is the perfect holiday treat for a country fighting off depression. He gift-wraps the ugliness of corruption in the mirthful garb of farce. From a safe distance outside Illinois, it’s hard not to laugh at the “culture of Chicago,” where even the president-elect’s Senate seat is just another commodity to be bought and sold.

But the entertainment is escapist only up to a point. What went down in the Land of Lincoln is just the reductio ad absurdum of an American era where both entitlement and corruption have been the calling cards of power. Blagojevich’s alleged crimes pale next to the larger scandals of Washington and Wall Street. Yet those who promoted and condoned the twin national catastrophes of reckless war in Iraq and reckless gambling in our markets have largely escaped the accountability that now seems to await the Chicago punk nabbed by the United States attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald.

If you're not yet angry at everything the Administration has stood for over the last 8 years, GET A GRIP.

At this point, I've just about lost faith in Obama...one of his biggest promises was to eliminate conflicts of interest which he has utterly failed to accomplish yet with his cabinet. This is the same shit that's gotten us where we are now. And, no, I don't believe the bullshit that the only qualified people come from lobbying outfits or the industries they previously represented. There are plenty of smart people in the world. Plenty of talented people. And at least a decent share of those people are also ethical. I've included a handy diagram.

-janelane

Op-Ed Columnist - Two Cheers for Rod Blagojevich - Editorial - NYTimes.com

# 1 oz Vodka
# 1 oz Amaretto
# 1 oz Grand Marnier
# Fill highball with Pineapple juice

My no-drinking-on-a-school-night rule just got canned. This drink is awesome! One's all you need for the entire night as it turns out. :-)

-janelane

57 T-Bird with Hawaiian License Plates (The Webtender)

I don't know much
I don't know too much
But I know this
Shit is fucked up
La, La, La La, La
I guess it's all about the dream
La, La, La La, La
The ends justify the means
La, La, La La, La La La
I'm telling you
Shit is fucked up

La, La, La La, La
You know it's all about the dream
La, La, La La, La
The ends justify the means
La, La, La La, La La La

Now thank God for the media
For saving the day
Puting it all into perspective in a responsible way
With more celebrity news Typical bullshit views
I think we're losing this fight sponsored by Bud Light

I *heart* Offspring.

-janelane

THE OFFSPRING - STUFF IS MESSED UP LYRICS

The calculations show, accurately enough, that for every hour a unionized worker puts in, one of the Big Three really does spend about $73 on compensation. So the number isn’t made up. But it is the combination of three very different categories.

The first category is simply cash payments, which is what many people imagine when they hear the word “compensation.” It includes wages, overtime and vacation pay, and comes to about $40 an hour. (The numbers vary a bit by company and year. That’s why $73 is sometimes $70 or $77.)

The second category is fringe benefits, like health insurance and pensions. These benefits have real value, even if they don’t show up on a weekly paycheck. At the Big Three, the benefits amount to $15 an hour or so.

Add the two together, and you get the true hourly compensation of Detroit’s unionized work force: roughly $55 an hour. It’s a little more than twice as much as the typical American worker makes, benefits included. The more relevant comparison, though, is probably to Honda’s or Toyota’s (nonunionized) workers. They make in the neighborhood of $45 an hour, and most of the gap stems from their less generous benefits.

The third category is the cost of benefits for retirees. These are essentially fixed costs that have no relation to how many vehicles the companies make. But they are a real cost, so the companies add them into the mix — dividing those costs by the total hours of the current work force, to get a figure of $15 or so — and end up at roughly $70 an hour.

A little background on those hourly wage figures for UAW members. The article goes on to say that if the bailout paid for $10/hr of these retiree costs, Detroit only saves $800 per car. Not enough to diminish their overriding aversion to quality, innovation, and safety.

-janelane, opposed to rewarding incompetence

Economic Scene - Figure Skews Debate of a Bailout for Detroit - NYTimes.com

CNN, the Cable News Network, announced yesterday that it will cut its entire science, technology, and environment news staff, including Miles O’Brien, its chief technology and environment correspondent, as well as six executive producers. Mediabistro’s TVNewser broke the story.

They should be cutting their entertainment staff. It is infuriating watching CNN Headline News at the airport, and there's a story on Britney-fucking-Spears every 10 minutes. And watching Anderson 360 is like an hour-long personal interest story, not to mention the time he spends talking about pop culture.

This is just another reason not to get my news from CNN. I haven't in a while and instead rely on NYT, the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and science journals almost exclusively.

Maybe they are the new Fox News...turn all the smart people off from watching and you're half-way there.

-janelane

CNN Cuts Entire Science, Tech Team : CJR:

Click daily to give free food.

-janelane

Click to Give @ The Hunger Site