Pacificapocalypse

Ok kids; here’s the final score.
The Guild has voted and ratified an agreement on contract changes, to take effect immediately. So what does that mean? First off, Hearst Corp. says 150 people will be let go, most likely starting April 1st. That’s when they file their WARN Act notice. We were informed today that most of the cuts will come from Editorial and Production, but we will be hit also. Management has been instructed to start filling out evaluation forms for all employees starting immediately.

So there you go. We get a little breather until the axe comes down.
Jeez it’s been like living in Warsaw in ‘38; you know it’s coming and you know it’ll be bad. But you really don’t know how bad… maybe they can get Adrian Brody to play me in the movie. I’d be okay with that.

A report hit on Monday, January 26, regarding High Fructose Corn Syrup and mercury.
Not cool.
I’ve been a nay-sayer and hatchet man against HFCS since reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma about two years ago. (An excellent read by the way, if you have any interest in where your food comes from.) Suffice to say I’ll take sugar or honey (though honey has it’s own set of problems) any day over HFCS. The funny thing is that right around the time people started becoming more aware of HFCS, how pervasive they are, and the potential health risks associated with it, the Corn Refiners Association (the trade association that represents the corn refining industry) who have a vested interest in the production of HFCS, apparently hired a PR firm and threw together a little site called The Truth About High Fructose Corn Syrup, to plead their case before the public. It’s filled with all sorts of fascinating information about Our Friend High Fructose Corn Syrup™. They play a little fast and lose with the details, but come on kids! It’s from CORN! So it has to be good right? It’s natural. Yeah. Right. Lead, arsenic and cancer are all naturally occurring, let’s slather some of that on your toast. Big tobacco plays this game too.
So of course they had to respond to this negative report ASAP, and here’s what they had to say:

“This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance. Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two re-agents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years.”

Hydrochloric acid and caustic soda?
Really, Corn Refiners Association? Is that what you wanted to say?

You’re not helping.

I knew that this feature in Firefox 3 just had to been in there somewhere.
I was killing myself trying to find it though, ever since I upgraded to FF3 I’ve been missing this: how the heck do I open a copy of an already open tab? There was a keyboard shortcut that I can’t remember (from me repeating the key combo ad infinitum, has fogged my memory.)  It’s one of those little frustrations that you run into on a daily basis that I just knew had to be in there; my Google-Fu was weak and I simply gave up on finding the right keyboard shortcut, and believe me I tried every combo of CTL+ALT+SHIFT+TAB+WTF!
Then while cruising Reddit today I came across this entry:
Firefox 3 features you may not know
And there it was, top of the list:

1. To duplicate tabs press Ctrl  while dragging a tab to create a duplicate of the dragged tab including its history.

So thank you very much Feel Firefox, Mozilla Links, that’s one (unfortunately of many) minor irritations that threaten to set me off on a daily basis.

UPDATE: Apparently FeelFireFox was lifting content from Mozilla Links – naughty naughty. Link fixed.

I’d never thought I’d say this, but, thank you Supreme Court.

Ok here’s the deal; the definition of the 2nd Amendment has been kicked back and forth for the last century (that’s 100 years kids). The main contention has been this – does the 2nd Amendment confer an individual right or a collective right? Lemme see if I can explain.
Some people view the 2nd Amendment (hereafter referred to as 2ndA) as referring to a collective, that is the militia referenced in the actual wording of the amendment. The Army, the National Guard. In this light the ownership and use of firearms is affirmed when on duty, in the performance of your duties as part of a collective group.
Then again the opposite opinion states that the 2ndA refers to the individual’s right to keep and bear arms, and that you do not need to be part of an organized militia, Army or National Guard, in order to legally own firearms.

That’s it. Pretty simply stuff but no court in this great country of ours has decided what exactly is the correct definition.
Until now.
Today the Supreme Court adopted the individual rights view, affirming District of Columbia v. Heller in a 5-4 decision.

This decision by the Supremes will have a ripple effect throughout the country for a very long time; individual cities bans against firearms ownership such as San Francisco’s ill-fated attempt, Chicago’s ban and the now reversed Washington DC ban are all out the window and any future bans, city, state or federal, are in serious question.

And to clear up a common misconception, the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, does not give the right to own firearms (whether collectively or individually) – it simply affirms an existing right. It says nothing about bestowing a right, it simply states that the existing right “shall not be infringed.”

Right on America.