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Canadian Health Care Myths
I think it’s quite obvious that the US needs some major health care reform. Many countries much poorer than ours do much better jobs at taking care of their people. You always here the horror stories of how bad the health care systems are in the UK and Canada. I have always questioned those stories. I have talked with Canadians, and none of them have any complaints about their health care. They actually think our health care is crazy. I just ran across this article debunking Canadian health care myths. I love articles debunking myths. I am sometimes over obsessed at finding the real truths. It’s always hard to tell who you should believe, but a little critical thinking goes a long way.
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Space Station Tour
How awesome would it be to be in space? I’m not sure how much I would enjoy the takeoffs and landings, but being on the space station would be frickin’ cool.
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Cost of Living
I am always curious what the cost of living is like in other cities. The cost of living is relativity low in Fargo, so the pay in Fargo also tends to be lower than in other cities. CNNMoney has a nice little calculator to compare the cost of living in different cities. It’s fun to see what a comparable salary would be in other cities. Our housing costs here are relativity cheap. I searched a few cities and couldn’t find one with higher housing costs. Utilities on the other hand seem higher here than most places. Probably due to our awesome winters. (Link via Lifehacker) -
The Baloney Detection Kit
I am a big Michael Shermer fan and have read many of his books. This video is a nice little introduction to skepticism, something I have been passionate about for some time now.
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This Week’s Tinkr Lnks
- It’s something called the Internet (video)
- How To Do Squats With Your Dog (video)
- Super Mario Bros. Meets Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat (video)
- Porn (comic)
- Super Mario Theremin control (video)
- What Does your Tattoo Location Say About You?
- ‘Less Plastic’ Label On Mega-Plasticked Thumb Drives Makes Us Wonder What ‘More Plastic’ Looks Like
- Adam Savage of Mythbusters Talks About Colossal Failures at Maker Faire 2009 (video)
- Wizard Time (comic)
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Conan’s joke about North Dakota
I thought this was pretty funny.
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Dinosaur Jr. “Over It”
I was a huge Dinosaur Jr. fan in the early 90s, but wasn’t much of a fan of their last album they released in 2007. I just watched the video for their new song, “Over It”, that is off their new album coming out next Tuesday. I really liked the new song. It sounds like the old Dinosaur Jr. that I use to know and love, just with more gray hairs now. Here’s the video. It brought me right back in 1993.
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“Weird Al” Yankovic “Craigslist”
I have been a “Weird Al” Yankovic fan since first hearing “Eat It” in forth grade. I have pretty much liked everything he had done since. I’m not a big fan of his latest song “Craigslist” though, but it’s not his fault. It’s a parody of the Doors, and I can’t stand the Doors. I can’t get over the crappy sound of the Doors to like the song. It’s a pretty cool video directed by Liam Lynch though.
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Tinkr Lnks from the Weekend
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10th Anniversary of Napster
I first experienced downloading MP3s back in 1994. Back then it was easy to find copyright infringing MP3s right on the web. The problem was they took forever to download, and took up so much space. Back then a 1 GB hard drive was huge, so 3 and 4 MB files started to add up. I didn’t download too many MP3s back then. CD burners were way to costly, so you pretty much had to sit at your computer to listen to them.
Eventually the RIAA and record companies discovered MP3 and started cracking down on them. When that happened I starting download music from FTP sites. I would sit in IRC rooms that would announce different FTP sites, and I would check to see what they had. It was a long and tedious process to find anything I wanted. That’s when I really started to download music though. It’s not that I wanted to steal it, I just wanted to hear it before I bought it. I discovered many bands that way, which lead me too more CD, concert ticket, and t-shirt purchases.
Then in 1999 Napster came around and changed everything. Suddenly anybody could download music, not just geeks. This month is the 10 year anniversary of Napster. Once Napster came out it was much easier to search for anything you want and find it. It was at that time also that I first got broadband, and a CD burner. It was becoming too easy to steal anything you wanted. I admit I download my fare share. There was no way to purchase song online, so we really had no choice.
Napster was shut down, but many other similar file sharing networks popped up. It was still easier to steal music online than to buy it. iTunes would eventually start selling music, but it contained DRM, so I refused to buy any of it. I don’t want my digital music to be locked down to anything. Once Amazon launched their MP3 store I finally had a place to buy music online, and now that iTunes is DRM free I even buy from there too.
Now days you can check out bands on Myspace, and then buy their music on Amazon or iTunes with just a few clicks. I can finally preview the music before I buy it, and I can buy it in my underwear in the comfort of my own home. Things have sure changed, and I am glad it’s getting easier and easier to support the bands I love. I never wanted to steal, I just wanted the convenience, and now I am getting it.
