Thanks! I appreciate the compliment, even though I did write, "this fuckers are rude." ;-)

Weird. Maybe I live somewhere unique - the Pacific northwest is pretty into the whole "buy local" thing - but we have like 6 different credit unions I can think of off the top of my head that are free. One requires that you be loosely affiliated with the county ("live, work, shop, go to school or praise"), the others…

It's funny, I almost never hear anyone refer to the period of laissez faire economics that exists in US history. You'd think free market capitalists would be all over it - we've tried it! We know how well it works! ... except it led to child labor, horrendous work conditions, low wages, long hours, and no protection…

Obviously without prescience it's impossible to know what your banking institution will do in the future, but a lot of credit unions are member-owned and non-profit. That tends to make them less agreeable to trying to nickel and dime you. I'm sure there are plenty of credit unions that charge fees, some of them may…

Right, so I'd been a Washington Mutual customer since I was 18. They got bought out by Chase (may you die in a fire) and I thought, "Man, I should switch to a credit union, but I might be moving away next year and it would be more convenient to have a national bank." So I didn't switch.

These are way better than adult male pull-ups, which was my first thought.

That's a great tribute. Thanks, Blam.

I'm only marginally impressed by press videos. Maybe it will live up to the hype, but few things are as good as their press make them out to be, so I'll withhold judgement until I see some hands on reviews.

Yeah, I figured... it seems kind of like a song meme. You either chuckle whenever someone says, "Rock me Amadeus!" or you have no idea. Now you know!

... but saying, "Play 'Rock Me, Amadeus,'" doesn't let you do it in the Falco voice from the song. You have to be able to say, "Rock me Amadeus, rock rock rock rock me Amadeus," or it just doesn't feel natural.

The real difference is that Siri is supposed to be "natural," where Android requires you to use specific commands (like, "send text to [name] [content]"). How natural? Who knows? If I can say, "Send Laura a text that says I'm running late," which is how it would pop up inside my head, then I'll be impressed. If I can…

Hey, your jewplaint worked! How come that never works when I complain? "Post more articles about blueberries," I say, "They're full of antioxidants." Nothing!

Email... client? That seems vaguely familiar. It brings back memories of slap bracelets and oversized sweaters and high tops... wait, I think it's the 90s!

Yeah, unfortunately tracking production is part of the FDA/DEA war on drugs. Being able to track production allows them to ensure manufactured drugs are being sold, at least by the manufacturers, to legitimate parties. Also, it allows the FDA to ensure the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are sourced from…

Heheh... I'm not sure if I feel bad I caught the use of the simple past tense instead of the past participle or not. Generally speaking, I'm with Stephen Fry in that the purpose of language is to convey meaning (rather than to be correct), and thus it's successful as long as it does that... but then I wonder if…

I'm not even sure how to respond to that. Is your position that we should let people die, even if their deaths are preventable, because it somehow improves the species? I'm not sure how survival of the fittest fits into a discussion of drug manufacturing - a business which is predicated on helping people to defy…

I've no doubt that some level of regulatory intervention is involved, although I'm less willing than most to put much stock in it as a major contributor. Contrary to the tone of the article you linked, the FDA expedites approval for drugs during a shortage, and can approve even an increase in the number of production…

I have no idea if you're being facetious (I think it's sad when you can't assume someone calling someone else a commie isn't joking)... but drug shortages have been an issue in healthcare for the better part of a decade (probably longer, I've just only been in health care a decade to notice).

Another issue is the good old free market. As drug manufacturers merge and get bought out we end up with single manufacturers for a lot of drugs. If that manufacturer then experiences production issues (either simply supply chain restrictions or quality control/recall issues) there is no alternative supply chain, and…

I love the smell of spent cartridges as the eject from a shotgun. Smells like grandma's perfume. (seriously, you'd be inhaling your relatives)