Link Log for August 3

Grandma Bonnie Peters was supposed to have got a new laptop last month. Well, it's not exactly new, it's reconditioned, but it's finally here and running. Can it do a Link Log? Well, it had enough memory to open the CNN web page. GBP was told that it can do everything but wash the dishes. So for a start let's see how well it does with a Link Log. Categories: Computers (Messing Things Up), Crafts, Drugs (Another Reason Not to Use), Funny, Phenology (which I'm too lazy to do this week, but some people are not), Politics, Seniors, Sports, Vaccines.

Computers Messing Things Up 

When I was growing up we had a cliche: "To err is human, but to mess things up big-time you need a computer." It went out of style around the time Windows came in, because Windows really has been idiot-proof enough to generate few obviously computer-generated errors. Nevertheless...I took a Yougov survey this morning. After users complete the official survey of the day and bank their points toward the gift card (or charitable donation), the system usually tries to lure users into taking an unofficial unpaid survey. This morning's had to do with homosexual Boy Scouts. Personally, I don't care what other people do in their own homes and don't support the kind of witch-hunting that went on when I was growing up ("If you have ever had, or thought about, or been suspected of having a relationship that was homosexual in any way, you can't do any job that involves contact with children!!! And most companies won't want to hire you for a mail clerk, either! And we personally don't want to talk to you, so just take a long walk off a short dock, now!"). I also think Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and similar organizations should discourage kids from talking about their sexual preferences, since the whole point is supposed to be doing wholesome things that keep their minds off sex anyway. But I didn't get a chance to answer the survey in ways that made this clear. The screen blinked and scrolled--I'm wondering whether this happened to other people or had something to do with the new laptop?--and, when it cleared, the survey had apparently added me to the alleged majority of Yougov users who think youth clubs should promote active homosexuality (or any other kind of sexuality) among twelve-year-olds. I don't believe there is any such majority. I believe this is an invalid survey. Click to see it for yourselves...and please be sure to notify Yougov if this survey logs false replies for you too.

https://today.yougov.com/opi/?uua#/

(Another thing this computer's done is "downgraded" my e-mail back to "Yahoo Basic." I miss one-click filing, but...no bells and whistles messing things up? I like "Yahoo Basic.")

Crafts 

Handmade greeting cards, the nicest kind...

http://personapaper.com/article/36139-creativity-and-play-using-art-class-this-past-week-with-photos

Drugs, Another Reason Not to Use 

Yet another reason not to use illegal drugs: you feed monsters like this one. About a year ago this web site discussed the sentencing of Jason Byrns, who tried to kill a Virginia police officer (and threatened many other people) with a car, rather than be arrested on a minor drug charge. Tramaine Wilbourne doesn't look much like Byrns but neither of them looks likely to be missed.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/02/suspect-idd-in-killing-of-memphis-police-officer-is-on-supervised-release-after-serving-time-for-bank-robbery/?

+Allen West Republic looks on the brighter side...I think this link came in the e-mail even before I saw the Blaze page in the blog feed. Going viral! And jolly high time.

http://www.bb4sp.com/lol-%E2%9E%A0-georgia-sheriff-offers-free-service-to-help-drug-dealers/

Economic Indicators 

Those who subscribe to the official White House e-mail saw that "birthday celebration of Medicare and Medicaid" header...this morning, if not earlier (the actual "birthday" of these funds was July 30). It caught my eye because "celebration" seemed an odd word to use in connection with relief funds for poor people, which one might have hoped would have shrunk, if not withered away entirely, after fifty years. No such thing. For those who hope to achieve permanent employment without personal productivity, poverty-in-America is a bigger industry than General Motors, and they want to keep it roaring steadily along. Out of this morning's e-mails on this topic, this one seems the most levelheaded, in the sense of neither cheerleading for welfare programs nor howling that they're destroying the nation...

http://www.freedomworks.org/content/clock-ticking-entitlement-programs

Funny 

From Dave Barry:

http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article29658292.html#emlnl=Dave_Barry_Newsletter

From Dan Lewis:

http://nowiknow.com/columbia-universitys-hazelnut-problems/

What's it like actually living with the sort of long, lush, fabulous thick hair most people think or have been told we ought to have? This slideshow is a sort of companion to the one this web site linked to last winter, about the not-so-enviable aspects of having a top-heavy figure.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/thick-hair-dont-care#.yuMjwe2d6

Harmless political prank? The more we chortle, the more harmless it will be...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/03/scott-walker-agreed-to-take-picture-with-guy-holding-walker-4-president-sign-then-he-flipped-the-sign-over/?

Phenology 

Have you ever actually seen a white tornado? (Aren't you glad?) Liz Klimas has found photos...No, I don't know whether Dave Barry deliberately shared that Iowa nostalgia story to get us all in the mood to reach out to tornado survivors.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/03/family-witnesses-humongous-ghost-white-tornado-tearing-across-iowa-field-there-goes-the-barn/?

+Coral Levang caught a photo of the blue moon this weekend. (Fair disclosure: Persona Paper fouled up the computer...but possibly that was because I opened all the new posts on my "activity" page at once. And because PP uses the "Shock Wave Flash" plug-in thingie, the function of which, so far as I've ever been able to determine, is to crash. I mean, it makes computers slow down, and then I see a message that "Shock Wave Flash has crashed," and then the computer stops trying to run the stupid thing and works better without it.)

http://personapaper.com/article/36009-once-in-a-blue-moon

Toxic plants of California...remind me of the "Benge Trail," formerly "Chief Benge's Scalp Trail," in the Jefferson National Forest. Beautiful place, but not a good place to forage for wild plants.

http://paso-robles-daily-photos.blogspot.com/2015/02/poison-in-park.html

Nicer plants in California:

http://paso-robles-daily-photos.blogspot.com/2015/02/surprised-by-fragrance.html

Calendulas grow here, too...they're a nice touch to add to a vegetable garden, because their fragrance repels some pests.

http://barbrad.hubpages.com/hub/colorful-calendula-brightens-my-gardens

Fires in California:

http://butterflyof4.blogspot.com/2015/07/second-fire-in-my-daughters-town.html

Politics 

For U.S. readers: although the Sickly Snail wasn't able to handle the new, souped-up, photo-friendly Freedomworks, that's still the social network for fiscal conservatives (in all parties). It's free of charge; it's easy to navigate; it leaves you the choice of whether to identify your real name and business, use the screen name you use at writing sites, or choose a new screen name; you'll receive updates on news items and discussions, but, so far as I know, no spam or junkmail; your Members of Congress already have pages, for whatever use they may make of them; and it's where most of the political content I used to post at this web site now goes. (That's because it's supposed to be U.S.-specific.)

Freedomworks is going through a transition this summer, and needs support. Glenn Beck (an early supporter who backed off the site for a while) has been e-mailing FW users about this. The site is nonprofit, not heavily funded by corporations that might want to hush up (f'rinstance) True Green news, and it could use money if you have any to spare. But it really is a free site. We don't pay to use it; we don't get paid to use it; we all signed a contract not to use it to advertise. It's strictly for hanging out with other fiscal conservatives.

So what do you get if you donate money? The satisfaction of helping maintain a hard-hitting news site and free, user-friendly, feeble-old-computer-friendly, social site...and I'm sure Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, and other celebrity writers who use FW would feel more sincerely "pally" toward you than they do toward those of us who can't afford to help maintain the site, deserving though it is.

www.freedomworks.org

If anyone out there wants to hang out with me at FW, here's my page:

http://connect.freedomworks.org/node/195382

Publius Huldah's new post may be familiar to regular readers:

https://publiushuldah.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/beware-of-the-trickery-behind-a-balanced-budget-amendment/

Seniors 

If you e-meet Dancing Dave...

http://www.itsjustlife.me/dancin-dave-a-legend-in-the-wiregrass/

you can raise "free" money for homeless entrepreneurs:

http://www.itsjustlife.me/from-gardens-to-songs-and-bus-passes-comments-for-a-cause-moves-on/

If you e-meet Faith, apparently you just get to read an interesting blog:

http://yourblogconnection.blogspot.com/2015/08/travel-with-faith.html

Sports 

Teenager swims a mile in fifteen minutes...TV watchers have seen the video, but we linked to Serena Williams' not exactly unexpected smashing success, so let's link to this one, too, to be fair.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/03/u-s-teen-swims-nearly-a-mile-faster-than-many-people-could-walk-it/

Vaccines 

Google finally showed traffic coming here from a site, other than search sites, that contains content that relates to something here. Let's return the favor. Here, thanks to retired blogger Chris Irby from Texas, is Relevant Content from someone who believes that more vaccines, given at an earlier stage of childhood, are more likely to cause fevers, allergies, and all related complications. (Which seems reasonable.)

http://irbslice.blogspot.com/2009/04/rest-assured-we-are-not-anti-vaccine.html