10 thoughts for November 11, 2013

I have a lot of thoughts going through my head, all the time.  Here's some of the minor ones.

1. Good for Facebook, being proactive and scanning the Adobe password list that was stolen and exposed on the internet.  According to Brian Krebs, Facebook is actively notifying its users who use the same password for Facebook as they did for Adobe.  When you get lazy, you use the same password, so even if you change your password for Adobe, someone can try that old password with all the popular services out there -- something to think about, considering that Adobe said that 38M accounts were compromised, but as Krebs noted, the number of both active and inactive accounts is 150M, and a lot of people who no longer use Adobe might be vulnerable.
2. Wow, USC Trojans football is surging back!  Did you see that shellacking of the Cal Bears on Saturday, up in Berkeley?  The Trojans returned three punts for touchdowns -- two by Agholor on returns, and one blocked, recovered and run into the end zone by Josh Shaw.  That was the most complete game this season, and perhaps in the last three years, coming off a great game up in Corvallis against Oregon State.  If Orgeron wins out, he'll be USC's permanent coach, for sure.
3. So I got my Nexus 5 last week and have been enjoying using it and all of its features.  Very cool stuff.  I'll post more about it later, especially photos using the Nexus 5's included camera software.
4. CBS News is being trashed for its inadequate apology regarding its false reporting on 60 Minutes two weeks ago, over Benghazi.  The report set off a firestorm among conservatives, but it was based entirely on a witness who lied about what happened.  Either he lied to Lara Logan, or he lied to his bosses and to the FBI.  The critique of the Right over MSM (mainstream media) is ironic: the bias, it turns out, is slanted towards conservatives, not against them.  Without a more comprehensive explanation about what went wrong, a lot of Americans will end up trusting MSM -- specifically CBS -- even less.
5. Amazon is going to offer geographically-limited deliveries on Sundays, in conjunction with the USPS.  Makes perfect sense if you ask me.  Why would you want to cut back service, rather than expand to create new market partners?  If the USPS cuts back, I would think that it would tend to incentivize Americans to scale back their usage of the USPS.
6. Last week Friday, the monthly BLS employment report came out: October was surprisingly stronger than expected.  If you look at the ADP employment report, there's a contrasting trend.  ADP shows declining hiring, while BLS shows increasing hiring.  Interesting.  I'll probably do a separate post on that later this week.
7. Turning down jobs is the ultimate sign that the economy is back.  That's where we're at.  And by "we", of course I mean "ME".  Really.
8. The Ritchie Incognito / Johnathan Martin / Miami Dolphins imbroglio just got weirder, by a mile.  I watched that Jay Glazer interview Sunday because I was watching the Seattle - Atlanta game, so I heard about this supposedly threatening text message Martin had sent to Incognito.  Except, it was a meme with a photo.  So, Incognito comes out looking like a half-truth asshole, now.
9. Typhoon Haiyan might be the strongest storm ever recorded (lowest pressure).  If so, the previous record was recorded in 1979.  If we get a cluster of these record-breakers, there can't be any doubt left that we're stuck with global warming for the foreseeable future.
10. The absolute dumbest argument against the ACA: Paying for services that one doesn't need or want.  Pooled money means that, even if your plan doesn't have maternity services covered, you're still paying for someone else to have it.  The reason why you're paying more, is because the risk of payout is higher is you want it.  And, the more important issue here, is that the US has one of the highest infant mortality rates among developed nations.  US has 5.9 deaths / 1000 births, Germany has 3.48 / 1000; Japan's is 2.17 / 1000.  Social conservatives often speak about the sanctity of life, so I say support mothers and their children by ensuring that they're covered by health insurance!