Odds and Ends I Forgot to Post

Rolling Stone - Matt Taibbi - For David Brooks, the Rich Are People, the Poor Are Numbers. First a  comment. Matt Taibbi is one of very few people, authors of stories that I link to whose name appears with the link. Usually I post the name of the source, where they got the story from if it came from a news service and the story headline with the link below it. I post Matt's name because I think he is worthy of it and I enjoy most of his articles. He is one of the last true investigative and contemplative journalists left.

Forbes - Employees Forgo Wellness Cash Incentives Worth Millions. The article is from a magazine for the rich. The author is either ignorant or just really naïve. Wellness programs are started by companies to improve their bottom line by decreasing health risks. She fails to point out any details of what these people would have to do for the $30 gift card or other such nonsense.

CNN - New Ford car automatically obeys speed limits. How nice, a car that will make sure that you are driving at the right speed so you don't get a speeding ticket. How long before they become mandatory. Bye, bye Highway Patrol, you are being replaced with technology.

Yahoo - The Fiscal Times - Outrageous public pensions could bankrupt these states. The article complains that people who have already retired based upon contractual promises made for them while they were working should be lowered if it is convenient for the municipality or state. Lets say you went into government under the promise that you would get $15 an hour and an extra dollar a year would be put into a savings account for you that you could live on once you retire. Once earned, that money is no longer your employers, it is yours. Using the article, why couldn't the state or municipality come back to you, years later, and tell you that they couldn't afford to pay you that $15 an hour that they did and now want $2 back for every hour you ever worked for them. These two things are the same thing.

Wooly Mammoths and Stupid Scientists

The Telegraph - Woolly mammoth could roam again as extinct DNA merged with elephant. Scientists at Harvard claim to have spliced the genes from the extinct wooly mammoth with elephant dna. The belief is that they can bring back the wooly mammoth; but, in reality it is more like Frankenstein and unnecessary. The world has survived just fine for the last 30,000 years without the wooly mammoth and the elephants that do exist are now going extinct. So, what is the real purpose of the work?

All the money that is going into this project is NOT about bringing back the wooly mammoth. That will happen; but, there is another purpose to the project. Currently it is illegal to combine human dna with that from other animals; but, it is being done in China and North Korea. Investigate who is funding the wooly mammoth experiment and I bet there is U.S. government money somewhere or money from the defense industry. If you cannot experiment on humans, you experiment on animals. That is what is going on in my opinion.