A little-noticed provision in the health care bill in the Senate would require that insurers put Christian Science prayer treatments on the same level as clinical medicine and at least consider covering it. The measure would apply only to the proposed exchange program that would allow consumers to shop among insurance plans that meet certain standards set by the government. And it has some powerful supporters. Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah inserted the measure and got the support of Democratic Sens. John Kerry and the late Edward Kennedy from Massachusetts, where the Church of Christ, Scientist is based. The provision wouldn't be particularly expensive, but critics say it could give new credibility to the unproven treatment and might even be considered an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by the government, although some legal experts dispute that notion.

Proof that we'd be worse off had Kerry gotten elected.

Am I the only one that wishes to God that fucking Orrin Hatch would die, and soon?

All of which is to say, this little girl died in vain.

-janelane

Health Care Overhaul Would Embrace Prayer as Treatment

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Residential customers are paying higher electric bills than they were a year ago, and critics say it's because of a Michigan law that limited competition in the power market.

Opponents of the law say Detroit Edison households are paying about $11 more a month than last October, a 20 percent hike. Consumers Energy households are paying about $5, or 9 percent more.

The Customer Choice Coalition held a Capitol press conference Tuesday to urge eliminating or changing the law's 10 percent cap on competition.

Utility officials have said the law is working as intended. Regulated utilities pushed the law so they could have a guaranteed customer base before building more power plants. But demand for electricity is falling, not rising.

So the article sucks -- it ends too early and doesn't make any valuable points. However, taken in the context of carbon footprint legislation, limited resources, and the falling dollar, rising prices are certainly not anticipated. Did the customers think their bills wouldn't rise with increased plant construction? Did the utilities think demand wouldn't fall (especially in recession-strapped Detroit) with even a seemingly modest rise in rates?

Most importantly, though, this article insinuates that, like the Republicans insist, we should let the market do the work when it comes to conserving energy. Restricted competition? Higher bills? Less consumption, less carbon output, happier polar bears (not to mention drier Georgia residents).

-janelane

Critics Blame Higher Power Bills on Michigan Law - NYTimes.com

Don't miss XKCD's temporary redesign to commemorate the end of GeoCities. Such fond memories of the mid-90's...

Holy shit, that takes me back. Good times, good times.

-janelane

xkcd - A Webcomic - Nachos - HOSTED BY GEOCITIES

KB writes: Three days after my boyfriend started working, he finds this is his inbox. Where did Bob get his email address? Who knows. Oddly enough, this email isn’t surprising when you understand Bob.

Bob's manifesto is a work of genius.

-janelane

Emails From Crazy People » At Least They’re Not On The Internet

In our continuing series, "You Know You Feel Old When...":

Monday, Nov. 9, is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which signaled the beginning of the end of Communism in Europe. The Times wants to publish your photographs documenting that day. Send us your photos and describe your memories of your experience.

-janelane

Where Were You When the Wall Fell? - The New York Times

Everybody has been praising Windows 7. It's supposed to make us all forget about how bad Windows Vista is and make us fall in love with Microsoft all over again. But before you throw your Vista laptop out the window, remember that the much-maligned operating system also got great reviews before its release. It wasn't until later that problems began to creep in and hating Vista became the new black. Those who wrote the positive reviews of Vista have nothing else to do but put their tails between their legs and admit they were wrong. "If I could go back and do it over, I would be more negative," said the Businessweek reviewer who called Vista "a big step forward."

Eager To Get Windows 7? Remember, Vista Got Good Reviews, Too

A search in Bing:

The same search in Google:

'Nuff said.

Update: So, it turns out that the problem is in the IE search tool bar, not with Bing. When you put in "a phrase" in the top right bar, it converts it to "a+phrase" and won't return anything for the latter term. However, if you put in the original "a phrase" on the Bing homepage, it will return search results.

Regardless, it's a pain in the ass to use Bing since I exclusively use either the location or search bar to do searches, not the search engine homepage.

-janelane, smartly

I was at the Air and Waste Management Association luncheon today and Dr. Carol Couch, the director of the GA Environmental Protection Division (GAEPD), gave the keynote. Below are excerpts from her speech and my comments:

She says crux of the recent Lake Lanier (GA) water ruling is that Army Corp of Engineers (COE) hasn't been operating properly for last 50 years. Ruling was in response to lawsuits against the Corp. There are 40 Corp projects in 28 other states also not in compliance according to ruling.

comment: These projects will likely be [adversely] affected by the precedent set by the ruling.

She states that all lawsuits are against the Corp, not Atlanta or GA, due to their misappropriation of the lake.

comment: This is of course in direct contradiction to EVERYTHING we've seen in the press about the water wars.

Most criticism leveled at GA in the wars is focused on Atlanta's water waste; however, less than 1% of water from the Chattahoochee is diverted for water use in Atlanta. Also, water use in Atlanta is comparatively low. Per capita water use is 151 gal/person/day; in Macon, it's 250. Only 5 metropolitan areas per capita water use is less than Atlanta's.

comment: She says these figures are obtained from simply dividing water use by population. It sounds like bullshit to me; installed capacity divided by City population gives you 390 gallons per person per day. EPD doesn't grant water permits willy nilly (as she would know), so how can she logically disassociate installed capacity from consumed amount?

Governor Purdue has a four prong strategy to deal with the ruling:
> Appeal
> Negotiate with AL and FL governors
> Form private industry-led task force to study how to deal with loss of Lake Lanier drinking water capacity; however, she says they don't realistically think they can replace the lake. Reservoirs are too environmentally destructive with too much legislation. She notes that 1/3 cost of a recent reservoir was environmental mitigation.

comment: I didn't hear the one she named, but I think she means this one in Marietta.

> Greater progress on water conservation and efficiency

She says GA is currently implementing 2007 statewide water mgt plan. Under this plan, all areas have mandate to develop a regional watershed mgt plan.

comment: The idea is to develop cooperative water management plans that take it account the needs of neighboring towns and neighboring ecologies.

She says that conservation is a priority but we still need more reservoirs. Conservation is not the silver bullet; it will be weighed against economic evaluations of other ideas.

Paraphrase: "Education and collective conscience are more impactful than regulation."
Quote: "What's in our hearts cannot be regulated."

comment: WTF?! She basically concluded a pretty fact-driven, unbiased speech with anti-regulation propaganda.

But whereas when I used to hear things like "global warming is leading to crazy weather," I would cringe and dismiss it as balderdash, now I am now convinced there is validity to that, and what I'm describing here is a mechanism by which it is occurring.

A succinct meteorological explanation for the warming behind global warming.

-janelane

A Connection Between Global Warming and Weather: Forecast Earth

The sad truth is that when we reduce something so complex as writing to a standardized scoring tool, we send the clear message that we value connect-the-dots thinking, conformity and mediocrity.

More fodder for the "standardized test scores are worth squat" category.

-janelane

Letters - Assessing Those Who Grade the Tests - NYTimes.com