This may be one of the craziest shipping routes ever.

Date                    Time            Location             Event Details
November 11, 2010       05:48:00 PM     White Plains NY      Departure Scan
November 10, 2010       07:30:00 PM     Shrewsbury MA        Departure Scan
November 6, 2010        09:03:00 AM     Somerville MA        Arrival Scan
November 5, 2010        06:39:00 PM     Boston MA            Shipment received by carrier
November 5, 2010        ---     ---     Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit

They seem to be going to wrong way.

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We got married, and there were Penguins!

Dennis: Loving family and dear friends, I am honored to welcome you on behalf of Adria and Mattison and invite you to join with them in the celebration of their wedding.

Although the setting for this special occasion is merely window dressing for the love and commitment that we will be solemnizing here today, it is a setting that we cannot easily ignore. As we watch the wedding of this lovely couple, more than 600 pairs of aquatic eyes are watching us.

( rest of ceremony )

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Texas Republicans Admit They Hate Gays
The Republican Party of Texas wants to make it illegal to be gay.

We [Republican Party of Texas] oppose the legalization of sodomy. We demand that Congress exercise its authority granted by the U.S. Constitution to withhold jurisdiction from the federal courts from cases involving sodomy.

At lots of other crazy shit too.

Further, we urge Congress to withhold Supreme Court jurisdiction in cases involving abortion, religious freedom, and the Bill of Rights.

. . .

We oppose the Census Bureau's obtaining data beyond the number of people residing in a dwelling, and we oppose statistical sampling adjustments in the "mid-decade" census. We urge that U.S. citizens who, because of religion or conscience, are compelled to withhold their full response to any census question, be held guiltless. We support the actual counting of people and oppose any type of estimation or manipulation of data.

. . .

We support an immediate and orderly transition to a system of private pensions based on the concept of individual retirement accounts, and gradually phasing out the Social Security tax.

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What health Reform Does
Good afternoon,

Since the House of Representatives voted to pass health reform legislation on Sunday night, the legislative process and its political impact have been the focus of all the newspapers and cable TV pundits.

Outside of DC, however, many Americans are trying to cut through the chatter and get to the substance of reform with a simple question: "What does health insurance reform actually mean for me?" To help, we've put together some of the key benefits from health insurance reform.

Let's start with how health insurance reform will expand and strengthen coverage:

• This year, children with pre-existing conditions can no longer be denied health insurance coverage. Once the new health insurance exchanges begin in the coming years, pre-existing condition discrimination will become a thing of the past for everyone.
• This year, health care plans will allow young people to remain on their parents' insurance policy up until their 26th birthday. This year, insurance companies will be banned from dropping people from coverage when they get sick, and they will be banned from implementing lifetime caps on coverage. This year, restrictive annual limits on coverage will be banned for certain plans. Under health insurance reform, Americans will be ensured access to the care they need.
• This year, adults who are uninsured because of pre-existing conditions will have access to affordable insurance through a temporary subsidized high-risk pool. In the next fiscal year, the bill increases funding for community health centers, so they can treat nearly double the number of patients over the next five years.
• This year, we'll also establish an independent commission to advise on how best to build the health care workforce and increase the number of nurses, doctors and other professionals to meet our country's needs. Going forward, we will provide $1.5 billion in funding to support the next generation of doctors, nurses and other primary care practitioners -- on top of a $500 million investment from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Health insurance reform will also curb some of the worst insurance industry practices and strengthen consumer protections:

• This year, this bill creates a new, independent appeals process that ensures consumers in new private plans have access to an effective process to appeal decisions made by their insurer. This year, discrimination based on salary will be outlawed. New group health plans will be prohibited from establishing any eligibility rules for health care coverage that discriminate in favor of higher-wage employees.
• Beginning this fiscal year, this bill provides funding to states to help establish offices of health insurance consumer assistance in order to help individuals in the process of filing complaints or appeals against insurance companies.
• Starting January 1, 2011, insurers in the individual and small group market will be required to spend 80 percent of their premium dollars on medical services. Insurers in the large group market will be required to spend 85 percent of their premium dollars on medical services. Any insurers who don't meet those thresholds will be required to provide rebates to their policyholders.
• Starting in 2011, this bill helps states require insurance companies to submit justification for requested premium increases. Any company with excessive or unjustified premium increases may not be able to participate in the new health insurance exchanges.

Reform immediately begins to lower health care costs for American families and small businesses:

• This year, small businesses that choose to offer coverage will begin to receive tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums to help make employee coverage more affordable.
• This year, new private plans will be required to provide free preventive care: no co-payments and no deductibles for preventive services. And beginning January 1, 2011, Medicare will do the same. This year, this bill will provide help for early retirees by creating a temporary re-insurance program to help offset the costs of expensive premiums for employers and retirees age 55-64.
• This year, this bill starts to close the Medicare Part D 'donut hole' by providing a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries who hit the gap in prescription drug coverage. And beginning in 2011, the bill institutes a 50% discount on prescription drugs in the 'donut hole.'

Thank you,

Nancy-Ann DeParle
Director, White House Office of Health Reform

Current Mood: happy

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I need your phone number!
My cell phone just died. My simcard was so old the can't put it in a new phone and have thus lost all my contacts. If you'd like me to call you sometime, please respond with your phone number and the correct spelling of your real name. (Comments are screened.) Thanks!

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I take this as good news
Email I received at work:

The expiration date for the following user has been updated to: 2010-07-15.

Mattison Narramore [XXXXXXX]

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Vote Martha Coakley
Election Tuesday. It is up to you. Go vote for Martha Coakley for US Senate.

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Orphan's Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is only a two weeks away (Thursday, Nov 26th). Adria and I are thinking of hosting an orphan's Thanksgiving for our friends who don't have family in the area, or those that prefer to avoid theirs. If you are interested in joining us please drop me a line. It will be a pot luck dinner. I'll be making my ham with cranberry and Burgundy sauce. There will probably be a turkey for poultry eaters and if we have vegetarians I suspect there will be some Tofurkey.

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The Glenn Beck Appendix Connection


This is hilarious!!

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Battlestar Galactica - The Plan
Adria is going to be out of town this weekend and I'm going to watch Battlestar Galactica - The Plan on Saturday evening around 7pm. If anyone would like to join me please drop me a line. With sufficient interest there could be pot luck or at the very least ordering sushi or pizza.

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Local Elections
Senate: Flip a coin between Attorney General Martha Coakley and Congressman Mike Capuano. I think I'll choose Capuano, but it either would be good.
Update: The special election Senate primary is not today.


PDS's endorsements for local races.
* Ward 4 School Committee - Christine Rafal
* Ward 5 School Committee - Mark Niedergang
* Ward 6 Alderman - Rebekah Gewirtz
* Alderman at Large - Luis Morales
* Alderman at Large - Dennis Sullivan
* Alderman at Large - Bill White

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Flu Vaccines
For the benefit of my readers who live do believe in germ theory, don't see socialist hiding under your bed, and also live in Massachusetts.

• Oct. 16: 109,854 doses for children under age 18, contacts of infants younger than 6 months, pregnant women, health-care workers, people with contact with pregnant women in their third trimester.
• Oct. 23: 165,137 doses for children under 18, contacts of infants younger than 6 months, pregnant women, health-care workers, people with contact with pregnant women in their third trimester.
• Nov. 13 to Nov. 20: 389,578 doses for public clinics. The doses will be available for all children and adults under age 24, contacts of children under 6 months, pregnant women, contacts of pregnant women in their third trimester, health-care workers, adults age 25 to 64 with high risk conditions.
• Nov. 27 to Dec. 11: 612,555 doses for public clinics.
• Dec. 18 to Jan. 8: 1.7 million doses for public clinics for all individuals.

I believe this means I can get the vaccine in mid November, and Adria can get it next week.

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Nobel, Evolution, and Telomeres
The Nobel Prize in Physiology was awarded to Elizabeth Blackhorn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak for discovering the functions of telomeres. Telomeres are repetitive non-coding sections of DNA at the end of chromosomes. They protect the chromosome from damage like a plastic tip keeps shoe laces from fraying. They also play a crucial role in cell division.

Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes while all other great apes have 24 pairs. This means that the common ancestor of all great apes had 24 pairs. An ancestor in our linage however had a mutation that fused two of our chromosomes together reducing our number to 23. If this happens we should expect the remains of telomeres to be found in the middle of one of our chromosomes. We should also expect genes on either side of that chromosome to match up with 2 separate chromosomes in our closest relatives the chimpanzees.

When we sequenced the human genome, what do you think we found in the middle of human chromosome #2? When we sequenced the chimpanzee genome what genes do you think we found in chimp chromosome #12 and #13? (Hint: The International Chimpanzee Sequencing and Analysis Consortium has re-numbered the them to #2a and #2b.)

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Nobel Laureate President Obama
President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." This recognizes Obama's standing in the world and provides America with some extra political capital for accomplishing our nation's goals. As a bonus it is driving the Republicans bat shit.

Other than partisan jealousy the primary complaint from Republicans is that President Obama hasn't accomplished much yet. While he has made a major break through in negotiations with Iran and begun restoring America's reputation there is much more to do. However, if you look at past winners this doesn't make President Obama's award that unusual. Lech Wałęsa won in 1983 but Poland didn't break away from communism unil the 1990s. Desmod Tutu won in 1984 but apartheid wasn't dismantled until 1993. The Dalai Lama won in 1989, is Tibet free yet?

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I meet someone online once and tentacles were involved


Hat tip to Wil Wheaton

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Buffy Meets the Dweeb from Twighlight

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Aliens appologize for past mistakes

Extra-terrestrials have today conceded that a decades-long programme of abduction to gather detailed knowledge of human society and biology might have produced better results had they looked beyond suggestible loners with a history of mental health problems.

http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2009/09/01/aliens-regret-policy-of-only-abducting-lone-weirdos/

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If I were Obama's Chief Political Strategist
If I were Obama's Chief Political Strategist here is how I would respond to the town hall screamers. Grab a couple progressive policy wonks and a couple progressive Congresscritters put them in a room to write a simple health care policy. Something like providing the health insurance of the congress to all Americans at a sliding scale payable along with income tax. Also prohibit some of the hideous insurance practices such as pre-existing condition exclusions and dropping patients when they get diagnosed with a disease.

I'd present this fully formed, good, and simple proposal then I'd send Obama on a 50 state tour to use his star power and repeat the old Republican mantra "up or down vote."

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ISO TV Series
Adria and I just watched the 8th episode of True Blood. Now we have to wait a week between new episodes and our other TV series don't start until late September. Anyone want to recommend a new series to try out? Ideally we'd like one with a couple seasons that could be downloaded from amazon.com/unbox, but we can be flexible.

For context other series we like include: Buffy, House, Heroes, Jericho, Lost, The 4400, The Mentalist, Six Feet Under, Sopranos, and Survivors.

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Liar or Fool: Conservatives on Healthcare (again)
As continues to be come clear, honestly is not a conservative value. At this point it seems conservatives have no shame when it comes to health care lies.

“People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless,” the editorial claims.

Of course, that same Stephen Hawking who wouldn’t have a chance in the United Kingdom was in fact born in the United Kingdom, has lived his entire life in the United Kingdom and lives there still today, at the ripe old age of 67. (He was in fact hospitalized earlier this month.) Hawking is, you might say, living, breathing proof that these people are first-class fools.

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