FraudWasteAbuse

Jul

Bread, Water, and Michael Moore

By JSwan 6 Comments

Categories: Democrats, civil rights and constitution

I think it’s funny that people try to dispute the facts in Michael Moore’s films. Why? Because the facts are correct and easily verifiable. Then again, so are the facts on the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide: A substance that kills millions and devestates entire economies each year. On the streets, this substance is commonly known as “water.”

It is also a fact that virtually 100% of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours after injesting… bread.

What should be disputed is the perspective which Michael Moore presents. For example, in SiCKO it is stated that “there are nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance.” This is a verifiable fact. However, this fact alone fails to give viewers a complete picture.

Allow me to explain: The population of the United States is just over 300 million. That means that roughly 17% of Americans are uninsured. That’s a pretty big chunk - about one in six people - so let’s break it down further to make sure we are not being mislead.

About 11 million of the 50 million uninsured Americans are elegible for government healthcare plans that already exist. That leaves about 39 million, or about 13% of the population that may be involintarily without insurance. That’s not quite as bad, but can we do better? Yes.

Of the 39 million people that do not have insurance and are not eligible for existing government healthcare plans, about 7.8 million of them can afford their own health insurance.

Given these additional facts, the number of people truely in need is actually about 31.2 million, or about 10% of the US population.

So how much did Michael Moore misrepresent the numbers? By about 70%.

May

Advice for young teens

By JSwan 3 Comments

Categories: life, school, education, children, teachers, kids, abuse, parenting, child and teacher

My best friend’s 13 year old sister and I sometimes talk on MySpace. Generally she asks my advice because I like to give her real strategies that she can use immediately.

This advice typically comes in the form of “what I wish I would have said” when I was her age and experiencing similar predicaments. At age 13, it is easy to get frustrated by the inability to articulate what you feel; so I try to give her the words she is lacking.

This is proving surprisingly effective, enabling her to develop her own set of surprisingly effective strategies completely on her own. Over time her emails have shifted to requests for advice to stories of how she has gracefully handled a situation. I’m proud of her.

The following text is by far my single favorite example of our exchanges:

Her: im bored i have like nothing to do cuz i got in trouble and now im grounded!!! lol oops

Me: What’d you do?

Her: i got in trouble at skool from my 1st period teacher cause i had my cell phone out! the teacher said bring ur cell phone over here and give it to me. i said why and shes like dont question me bring it here now!!! so i brang it over there and i layed it in her hand and then she said owww you hurt me im gonna press charges!

she’s always lyng on me!! i went back to my seat and i was talking to my friend and i was telling her how the teacher always lies on me and she must hate me and she wrote a referal saying that i used the f*** word whitch i didnt and she put down that i said that “she f***in hates me” and she saying bad stuff about me,and she wrote a referal that i slamed the phone in her hand and i didnt!!!!

wat do you think about it????? what am I supposed to do if the teachers just gonna lie??? yo my brother doesnt even kno yet!!!! lol but the skool took away my cell phone and the principal said we r allowed to hav a cell at skool if its turned off…… and it was off!!! but they still took it away and they havent gave it back yet!!!………..do you think thats fair?lol

Me: I hope you are not too young for this. Today, I will give you a secret weapon. It is really DANGEROUS if you use it incorrectly - so be careful, and be MATURE about it. Do NOT say these things unless your teacher REALLY is lying; otherwise she will make your life a living hell.

If you do not understand why this secret weapon works: DO NOT USE IT. Just keep this message and re-read it every few months until you do understand why it will work. ONLY THEN should you use it.

Understand?

OK, here’s the secret:

Next time you get into trouble (with a teacher, the police, or anyone in authority) for something you didn’t do, say things like this to them and to their superior (like the principal) when you’re all together and talking about what you’re in trouble for.

You must NOT say these things as if you are angry, or vengeful, or proving a point. You MUST say them as if you are very disappointed, sad, and depressed - as if someone close to you has just died. The key is to be quiet and reserved - never raise your voice, not even a little bit, no matter how angry you are.

Like I said, be careful. Only do this when you know you’re right.

Here is what you can say:

“I come to school to learn. But I feel like what my teacher is really teaching me is that it’s ok to lie if you know that no one will believe the truth. I guess I just have to accept that.”

“I’m telling the truth and she’s not - and I know you will believe her and not me - and I don’t understand why she would do that ’cause I always thought the truth was better. Now I don’t know what to believe… or even who to believe in.”

“I won’t argue. I didn’t do it, my teacher is lying but I know you won’t believe me. Go ahead and punish me. I know I must have done something wrong, but I don’t know what it really was. I wish I did though. I wish someone would tell me. There’s got to be a reason for this.”

“I just feel so sad about this. If I did something wrong, I would apologize for it. But I’m in trouble for something I didn’t do, and you won’t believe me. I don’t know why you won’t believe me, but whatever I’ve done to lose your trust: I apologize. I’m really sorry and I hope you will forgive me.”

“I know kids my age lie, and it’s hard to believe us. I understand that. It’s just… how are we supposed to know any better when our teachers lie too? Aren’t we here to learn from our teachers? I don’t expect you to believe me - but I know my teacher is lying. Go ahead and punish me, I don’t care because I know you believe her and not me. Just PLEASE tell me; what am I supposed to learn from this?”

Feel free to ask questions.

A few weeks went by before she got into trouble again. This time, however, she was prepared. When she went to the Principal’s office with her teacher, she expressed her disillusionment with precision and clarity. When she was finished speaking, she said that her teacher and the principal were quiet for a long time. The principal then asked her to leave the room. Five minutes later, they called her back in. Her teacher admitted to lying and offered her a full, written apology.

She hasn’t been in trouble since.

May

Holidays and the military

By FraudWasteAbuse 19 Comments

Categories: politics

That which I wish to relay to you today concerns, not surprisingly, the military. Specifically, I would like to bring up my annoyance at the constant reminders that we need to “thank those who have fought and are fighting for our freedoms.” (The other annoying and no less dumb line about the military being, “If it wasn’t for the troops we would all be speaking German/Japanese right now.”) I won’t even get into the fact that it is difficult to point to a specific instance in the last 200 years when any military action by the United States government involved defending us from an enemy that actually threatened our traditional freedoms.

The issue I would like to bring forward is the fact that every holiday is now being turned into a thank-the-troops marathon. Memorial Day, Veterans Day, I suppose I can handle those. But Christmas? Independence Day? Please. I’m still waiting for Halloween to be taken over with the constant barrage of “remember those have allowed us to celebrate this pagan holiday of free-loading candy grubbers and vandalism.”

I suppose I am a traitor now. Someone better lock me up.

May

I think I need a new grill

By FraudWasteAbuse 2 Comments

Categories: food

Our house has one of those old built-in natural gas grills. I think they were fairly popular 30 years ago. Well, the other day I came home from work and discovered the grill lying on its side. Apparently decades of corrosion had gotten the best of the thing and the stand had rusted away from the foundation. it was a real bummer because we really like grilling and I really didn’t like the prospect of installing a new one. For some reason, those built in grills are a bit pricey.

Anyway, we decided to go to a grill store and brought home a new built in grill which, I am proud to say, I installed myself. It was actually pretty easy once I figured out how to disconnect the gas line.

May

What is democracy?

By FraudWasteAbuse 3 Comments

Categories: politics

The opposite of despotism. Subjugation of the minority by the majority.

The belief that if the majority of people wants something to get done, then in a good democracy, the government will either recognize this, or be replaced by one that will, and it will be done.

Of course it gets a bit fuzzy from there. Some people associate democracy with freedom, yet freedom is not inherent in any form of government. If 51 percent of the population wanted to enslave the other 49 percent, would that be a good democracy?

Many would say no, that a good democracy is also about fairness and equality. Some go further, and say that good democracy is about elimination of discrimination, affirmative action and ecological harmony. But a democratic government is not a prerequisite to achieving these.

When asked ‘What is democracy?’ most people just list a bunch of political policies which they happen to agree with. Usually also it includes a list of things the government should do for them or give them.

Instead of making decisions ourselves, most democracies elect representatives who make decisions on our behalf. Unfortunately, the people end up electing politicians, who just happen to be the worst people for the job.

May

Aloe vera blueberry drink

By FraudWasteAbuse 6 Comments

Categories: food

Another drink I happened to pick up at the international grocery store was this strange aloe vera juice drink in a can. I didn’t actually think people drank aloe vera juice so I decided to buy a can. I have a odd desire to try strange and things that might turn out to be disgusting and this was too good to pass up.

Anyway, after about two weeks of sitting in the fridge, I decide to drink it. Now not only is this aloe vera juice. It’s blueberry flavored aloe vera juice with aloe vera chunks floating around inside. I found the aloe chunks to be a little interesting. Remember those capsules that you could put in water and they would turn into some sort of sponge animal? Well the chunks look like a cat got a hold of that sponge and then chewed it up and spit it into my glass.

The drink had this sort of smell that reminded me of a lollipop. As for the taste, it was good for about two or three sips and then it was just too sweet. I’m not sure how to describe the flavor but it barely passed for blueberry. Maybe it would have helped a little if the drink was blue. Instead it was this unappetizing orangish yellow color. Since I’ve never eaten/drank aloe before, I have nothing to compare this too. If you like aloe I’d give it a try. I’m sure not going to buy it again.

May

Blackjack: How to count cards

By JSwan 62 Comments

Categories: games, travel, entertainment, vacation and income

Plans are still tentative, however it looks as though some of the characters from FraudWasteAbuse are going to Las Vegas next month. I happen to be an avid blackjack player, so I thought I’d share some the technique I use for counting cards.

Blackjack is one of the few casino games with a memory. A slot machine, for example, does not have a memory - previous plays on a slot machine do not affect future outcomes. In blackjack, on the other hand, once a card is played it cannot be played again for the remainder of the shoe/deck (whichever is being used). This adds a level of predictability to the game.

Of course, remembering every card that gets played is impossible, even on a single deck game. You could use a computer to do the tracking, but that would be cheating (and it’s illegal). Aside from it being impossible, even if you could track the cards in such a way you still couldn’t predict the order of the remaining cards.

The key is identifying the overall favorability of the remaining cards for the player vs. the casino. Generally speaking, high cards (10, Queen, King, and Ace) are good for the player and low cards (2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) are bad for the player. The reason for this is that the dealer must play until 17 is reached, but the player can stay with any value even if it’s less than 17. So if a dealer has a hand valued at 15, and there are more high valued cards than low valued in the shoe, then they are more likely to draw a 10 and bust (so any players still in the game win). On the other hand, if there are a lot of small cards the dealer is more likely to “make” the hand and not bust.

So how can you know if there are more high or low cards in the shoe? You count them. There are several counting methods, but the easiest one is called the “high low” method. The method is simple: Each card has a count value of -1, 0, or +1. For each card dealt, you add the card’s count value to a running total in your head. High cards (10, Queen, King, Ace) have a count value of -1, low cards (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) have a count value of +1, and all the other cards (7, 8, 9) have a count value of 0. If you count all the cards in a deck or shoe this way, the count will be zero.

A deck with a count of zero is considered neutral; the house has a very slight advantage over the player. A deck with a negative count is bad; the house has a more definite advantage over the player. A deck with a positive count is good; the player actually has an edge over the house.

To thwart counters, casinos often use six-deck shoes. This greatly reduces the significance of the count, however it can still be counted. This is where the true count comes in. The true count can be determined by taking the current count and dividing it by the number of decks left in the shoe. For example, a count of 5 with five decks left in the shoe means that there is only a true count of one (5/5=1).

Don’t go running off to Vegas yet, though. Learning to count is only the beginning; you also need to know - and be able to appropriately modify - basic strategy.

Good luck!

May

Soviet cartoons

By FraudWasteAbuse 0 Comments

Categories: television

Nu, Pogodi is likely the most popular cartoon ever made by the Soviet film studio Soyuzmultfilm. The cartoon is sort of a cross between Tom and Jerry and the Coyote/Road Runner series. There isn’t much dialog, but there are a lot of visual representations of life in the Soviet Union, which makes these cartoons especially interesting.

There are two main characters: the wolf and the bunny. The wolf is the more developed character. He spends his time trying to catch the bunny. He rides a motorcycle, smokes, litters, has unkempt hair, and routinely breaks laws. The wolf was supposed to be a caricature of what was considered negative in Soviet life. The bunny is less developed, and is usually portrayed as simply avoiding the wolf’s schemes. Unfortunately, due to the nature of communism, only 20 episodes were produced over a span of around 30 years.

Because there is hardly any spoken dialog, the cartoons are easy to follow. “Nu, Pogodi” means “I’ll get you yet”, or, “just you wait,” and is usually uttered by the wolf at the end of each episode.

Continue reading ‘Soviet cartoons’

May

Hello Boss, Goodbye Starbucks

By FraudWasteAbuse 20 Comments

Categories: food

I love iced coffee. Especially Starbucks Frappuccinos. If it weren’t for the prohibitive price I’d buy them all the time. For an individual 9.5 ounce bottle I’ve seen the price range from $1.50 to $2.99. That’s a bit much to pay for coffee, even if it happens to be delicious. Sorry, Starbucks, but your coffee is way overpriced.

The other day I happened to be browsing through the Japanese section of a local international grocery store. While looking at the various oddities, I noticed some cans of chilled coffee. This struck me as odd, since I usually don’t associate Japan with coffee. I was admittedly intrigued, but what really drew me in was the oddly shaped can and the amusing name of the coffee. “Hello Boss” isn’t exactly a phrase that makes me think “coffee,” but it was exactly the sort of goofy name one would expect to adorn a Japanese product (although I believe the coffee actually comes from Taiwan). I was curious so I decided to buy a can. Each can was only around 70 cents so if I totally hated it I wouldn’t be out too much money.

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After letting it sit in the fridge for a day, I decided to have a drink. The can was surprisingly hard to open. I had to get out a knife and wedge it under the tab. I think the can may be made out of steel instead of aluminum since I couldn’t crush it like I could a soda can ( or maybe I’m just pathetically weak). As for the drink itself, it was quite good. I’d say it was as good as anything Starbucks sells in a bottle or can.

I only regret that I didn’t buy more of this stuff. There were several other flavors of Hello Boss coffee that I’ll have to try next time I stop by the store. I’m not sure if Hello Boss comes in six packs or twelve packs or whatever, but for 70 cents does it really matter? Not only is Hello Boss cheaper than Starbucks Frappuccino, the cans are 11.5 ounces compared to the 9.5 ounce bottles Starbucks sells.

Just FYI, Hello Boss happens to have a competitor called Mr. Brown. Both brands have almost identical pictures of cartoon bearded men on their cans, and from what I’ve read from people who have tried both, they taste virtually the same. I think that Hello Boss may actually be the ripoff brand, but Hello Boss’s cans are bigger and cost the same as Mr. Brown.

Continue reading ‘Hello Boss, Goodbye Starbucks’

Apr

Graffiti in Krog Street Tunnel

By FraudWasteAbuse 10 Comments

Categories: graffiti and Atlanta

I hit up another graffiti spot recently. This time it was in Atlanta’s Cabbagetown neighborhood. These particular photos were taken in and around Krog Street Tunnel, which I had heard was a top spot in Atlanta for graffiti. The tunnel was definately covered in graffiti, however most of the graffiti was tags instead of murals. Walking through the tunnel was a little creepy. It was dimly lit and we almost expected someone to be sleeping in the place but it was empty when we walked through it. Being an amateur photographer, it was hard for me to get a lot of pictures in the tunnel itself because the lighting was so bad. Near the tunnel there was a lot of other graffiti around. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pictures.

Continue reading ‘Graffiti in Krog Street Tunnel’

Apr

In God we trust, all others bring data

By JSwan 17 Comments

Categories: healthcare, War on Terror, government, war, stats, health care and universal healthcare

Since joining FraudWasteAbuse I’ve had several good article ideas, each of which was eventually tossed out for lack of data. (Sorry for the lame coffee article - it was all I had left!)

For example: a few months ago I read two unrelated articles - one that tallied the number of terrorism related deaths in the USA over the last ten years, the other that tallied the number of deaths caused by deer-vehicle crashes in the same time span. While reading the deer article I made a surprising connection: For nine of the last ten years, deer have killed more people on American soil than terrorists (2001 being the exception). For April 17th, I planed on writing an article about fear, death, and taxes based on this data.

Alas, I could not find the data needed to support the article and thus it was nixed. It was not due to a lack of effort.

And that made me wonder: Why is good data so hard to find? With the 2008 elections coming up and all the talk about universal health-care, the war on terror, illegal farm subsidies, and CO2 emissions; isn’t data - which provides us the ability to measure impact and effectiveness - of dire importance?

Without good data analysis to prove or disprove the merits of a particular policy, aren’t we destined to argue endlessly without truly comprehending the significance of our actions as a nation? Isn’t it likely that, without meaningful data, bad policies will continue and good policies will be eliminated simply because the policy fit or didn’t fit into some political ideal that can be proven wrong, but hasn’t been? Isn’t data the key to accountability?

So where is the data politicians keep spouting off about? I want it. Show it to me. I do not want ridiculously misleading statistics, true as they may be. I want raw data that I can analyze myself should I choose to do so. I want to see people like Hans Rosling analyzing the data and debunking myths caused by ignorance. I want to know the facts behind the facts, not perspectives on data designed to manipulate my opinion. Where is it?

Tiger got to hunt,
bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder,
“Why, why, why?”

Tiger got to sleep,
bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.

-Kurt Vonnegut

Apr

The internet thinks I’m a woman

By FraudWasteAbuse 14 Comments

Categories: humor

I was browsing reddit.com the other day and came across an interesting website. It’s called the Gender Genie and it uses an algorithm to predict the gender of the author of a piece of writing. I’m always curious as to how others perceive my writing, even if it is only a piece of software. I decided to take one of my blog entries and paste it into the Gender Genie. Considering that I’m male, the results were a little disconcerting.

According to this website, my article was written by a female. Just barely. I didn’t realize that my writing was so androgynous. It occurred to me that I should probably give the website a little hint to help it along. I decided to put in a little tidbit of information at the end of the text that would help it identify my true gender.

This time I received an even higher female to male score! It seemed more convinced than ever that I wasn’t male. The results made me wonder a little. If I don’t have a vagina and I’m not male, then what kind of freakish female does it think I am? Anyway, it was time to take a more direct route. I decided to feed it some information that, if the program worked as advertised, would in no way cause it to mistake me for a female.

Yet again it thinks I’m female, although my male score improved marginally. I suppose there’s no winning with this thing. Maybe I’m a girly writer after all. Or maybe this software is a piece of crap.

Apr

Sticker art and posters

By FraudWasteAbuse 0 Comments

Categories: graffiti and Atlanta

For those of you who have been reading my blog, you will remember that I paid a visit to Little Five Points near downtown Atlanta. While Little Five Points was a great place to find graffiti, it’s also a great place to find cool sticker art and posters. Stiocker art ranges from the seemingly pointless to advertising to political statements. Posters are usually just advertising a local event, but sometimes contain interesting pictures and wording. While I didn’t spend as much time as I would have liked taking pictures, here are a few that I really enjoyed.

Continue reading ‘Sticker art and posters’

Apr

Movie theater crap

By FraudWasteAbuse 1 Comment

Categories: movies

From when I was 16 until I was 18, I worked at a movie theater. I did just about everything. I tore tickets, sold tickets, cleaned theaters, worked behind the concession counter, ran the projectors, and even became an assistant manager. I earned minimum wage almost the entire time I worked there, but I didn’t care. The job was a blast.

The job came with several perks. The most important one of course was free movies. We also could drink as much soda and eat as much popcorn as we wanted. No free or discounted candy though. Although many times when we cleaned a theater after a showing we would amazingly find unopened candy boxes. I remember thinking that Starburst was an especially awesome find because even if the bag was opened, each candy was individually wrapped and was thus acceptable for consumption. I know, we were gross.

During my two and a half year employment, I collected a sizeable amount of what most people would call junk. Indeed, looking at it now I too consider most of it junk, but I’m a pack rat and I can’t bear to part with it because “I might need it one day.” Unfortunately my large collection has been whittled down to about a box’s worth of trinkets. I lost several posters and promo kits after a pipe in my parents’ basement burst. I wore through most of the t-shirts and hats long ago. I was forced to throw away a ton of movie trailers during a move. There are other items I know I still have but I just can’t seem to find them. These include several movie trailers, some Star Wars Pepsi cups, and even a reel from the movie Rush Hour.

One of the things I did get a lot of were buttons. I used to think the buttons were cool, but after pulling them out of the box it seems that most of them were from crap movies. I mean, how many people have seen Star Kid. How many people have even heard of Star Kid? I barely remember it myself. For myself and my fellow movie theater employees, these buttons served as a sort of “badge of honor.” We would collect the buttons and wear them on our vest as a sort of indicator as to how long each of us had been working there. For example, a Titanic button was better than an Armageddon button because Titanic came out first and thus made the wearer cooler. We would continue to wear the buttons long after the movie had stopped playing at the theater. Man, were we a bunch of retards or what?

I used to have stacks and stacks of these things. The theater would get shipped about five or six trailers for each movie. When the trailers were no longer being shown I was always sure to snatch a few for my collection. Unfortunately most of the trailers for the good movies disappeared quick, but I managed to get a few decent ones. A few people I worked with were lucky enough to snag a few of the Star Wars Episode I trailers. Sure the movie sucked, but they make nice collectors items.

Apr

Atlanta graffiti

By FraudWasteAbuse 2 Comments

Categories: graffiti and Atlanta

I’ve lived in Atlanta for most of my life, yet I don’t really know the city. Being a suburbanite, most of my recent experiences with the city itself consist of driving through it to get to the airport. Sad I know, but lately I’ve been determined to learn more about the city I call home. Now that my leg has healed and I can walk again, I decided to go to explore Little Five Points, not to be confused with Five Points, Five Points, 5 Pointz, or the Five Points.

The great thing about going to Little Five Points is that it’s a cool neighborhood, as well as a great spot to see some nice graffiti. So this past weekend, some friends and I decided to drive to Little Five Points and check things out. By the time we got there, we all happened to be starving.

We decided to eat at a burger place called The Vortex. On interesting thing about the restaurant (besides the giant skull that makes up the entrance) is that you have to be at least 18 years old to eat there. It has something to do with Georgia’s loony smoking ban in restaurants. Anyway, all of us decide to order a Coronary Bypass. It’s a burger with a half pound of beef, tomatoes lettuce, cheese, bacon, and a fried egg. It was quite good, although it was very hard to eat because it was so tall. Just trying to take a bite of the thing without the whole burger falling apart was an exact science. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend it.

After lunch we headed out with my camera to get some graffiti shots. We didn’t have to go far to find any. It was everywhere. This was somewhat unusual for me personally, since I live in a part of Atlanta where graffiti is nonexistent. I apologize for the angles on a few of these pictures. Some of the graffiti were in narrow alleys and it was hard to get a good shot.

Continue reading ‘Atlanta graffiti’