Nooo, crap!! Not Justice Ginsburg! Why not Scalia or somebody?? Dangit!

Invoice from hell and all the explinations are out to the 6 units. Ptui. done, for now.

Now to pile #2. Woohoo!

That fucktards on Facebook link cracked my shit up! Thanks for sharing!

I had assumed that Stevens would be the first Justice to retire on Obama's watch. Probably not the case anymore. Sad making.

I know it's trivial, but egad do I need a cup of coffee. I was going to try to wait it out until I had to go teach again, but I think I need it sooner rather than later.

I'm in the middle of a 1.5 hour federal training conference call + PPT. Awesome.

Ginsburg is a tough woman, and she's got a crack medical team. I'd give her better odds than most.

Reading the flight transcript (I am at work - no audio!) I was struck by how the poor air traffic controller loses the plane and then just has to go on directing other flights, not knowing what happened! Yikes that would be stressful, not knowing if they are okay but having to ignore that and keep at it (the planes just keep on coming...)

They played a clip of the recording on the radio this morning, and I was struck by how almost conversational the pilot was. The controller is telling him which runways are open, and he says, "We won't make it" and then what sounds like he was offhandedly saying "We'll be in the Hudson, [if you're wondering...]"

A web marketing consulting dude has a very in-depth analysis of deaths of red-shirted ensigns in ST:TOS: Analytics According to Captain Kirk

Q: What factors could increase/decrease the survival rate of red-shirted crewmen?

Besides not getting involved in fights, which usually proved fatal, the crewmen could avoid beaming down to the planet’s surface, which is inherent to their end. However, that could result in a court-martial for failure to obey orders.

Besides not beaming down, another factor that showed to increase the survival rate of the red-shirts was the nature of the relationship between the alien life and captain Kirk. When Captain Kirk meets an alien woman and “makes contact” the survival rate of the red-shirted crewmen increases by 84%. In fact, out of Captain Kirks’ 24 “relationships” there were only three instances of red-shirt vaporization.

The caveat to this is when Captain Kirk not only meets the local alien women, but also starts a fight among alien locals. The combination of these events has led to the elimination of 4 crewmembers (3 red-shirts).

The guy also goes into details about the evils of Powerpoint, and discusses the best way of presenting his data on red-shirt deaths. I love this chart: Crewmember deaths; by shirt color; by episode, in relation to fights and Captain Kirk's affairs.

I like this chart – eliminating the need for a legend is critical to allowing the information to flow. The data is the same color or object as the information we are trying to convey. Because there is no suitable color for Captain Kirk’s affairs, we substituted a very flattering picture. Fights are represented by tiny phasers, which are not the best representation because of the size, but can easily be determined by the process of elimination. This chart allows conclusions and observations that simple charts, numbers, and explanations may never bring to the surface. It allows for easy comparison, both to other shirt colors, and in relation to other episodes. It also looks as though Kirk was a very busy man.

In the first year of the series, red-shirt casualties were lower than other color-shirted crewmembers. The second and especially the third seasons were especially brutal. In the third season, only red-shirted crewmembers died; maybe because the other colors enacted better safety protocols, or maybe because they avoided the bridge when a new planet came into view, for fear of beaming down with Cpt. Kirk.

Impressive. I don't think Nate Silver himself could do much better.

A friend was telling me that when a wasp flew into her car on the highway, all that was going through her mind was the mantra she'd learned in flight training, which was "Whatever happens, KEEP FLYING THE PLANE."

I bet Sullenberger has it tattooed on his arm.

A friend was telling me that when a wasp flew into her car on the highway, all that was going through her mind was the mantra she'd learned in flight training, which was "Whatever happens, KEEP FLYING THE PLANE."

I think this is good advice for a lot of life situations.