A deaf group is suing Netflix over the lack of subtitles. This sounds ridiculous on the face of it. We shouldn’t but a barrier on every developing business to be able to serve everybody in exactly the right manner. Are movie theaters expected to make accommodations? If I put up a video on the Internet, can I be sued for not having a subtitling mechanism?
The FCC has strong-armed carriers into “bill shock” warnings. Basically, when you’re allotted whatever has run out and the meter is running, they have to actually tell you about it. Only the most ardent libertarian could really oppose this.
A woman is suing IMDB for revealing her age and refusing to un-reveal it.
The state senator minority leader in Oklahoma is resigning his post to support a career opportunity for his wife out of the state.
A disturbing story about the NYPD fabricating drug charges to meet arrest quotas. Remember when I said that I have a real problem with checkpoints and trusting the cops at checkpoints? I suspect a group of cops manning a hut out in southern Arizona have a lot less oversight than these NYPD cops.
To follow up on a discussion I recently had with Knight, is cooking cheaper than fast food? Only if you don’t factor in the labor costs. On top of that, when you cook, your ingredients can go bad if you really don’t have your act together. The article is from Mother Jones, though, and so it takes more of “only if you’re willing to assist McWendyKing’s exploitation of low-wage workers.” Because if they weren’t working at McDonald’s, they’d have union jobs somewhere else…
More mid-level providers are getting doctorates and want to be called Doctor. I have mixed feelings about it. Russell Saunders has no problem with the honorific, though questions how much value the extra education actually confers.
An update to a story I have been following: Retiring the Fighting Sioux nickname will cost the University of North Dakota $750,000.
An interesting new service for those who self-publish. I need to find out a lot more about how the ebook side of things works. Amazon is, itself, looking to sidestep publishers.
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It was one thing to call everyone with doctorate degrees “doctors” when it was pretty clear from context whether the doctor was an MD or English Prof. When someone comes into my hospital room and says “I’m Dr. Whatnot,” it’s pretty misleading if he doesn’t say “But not an MD/DO doctor, a PhD doctor.” In the context of a hospital, doctor means physician, and it isn’t a matter of MD-snobbery, it’s so patients have some idea what the F is going on. If I change my first name to Doctor and go around a hospital introducing myself as “Dr. Lastname” it’d be pretty obviously misleading, though technically accurate.
The article is from Mother Jones, though, and so it takes more of “only if you’re willing to assist McWendyKing’s exploitation of low-wage workers.” Because if they weren’t working at McDonald’s, they’d have union jobs somewhere else…
In trying economic times, workers tend to be exploited overall. Plus, there’s something to be said regarding the fact that income disparity has grown for 30 years straight, ever since Reagan was first elected.
Part 2 of this article has a great perspective on the wage gap as well.
It’s not necessarily about “union jobs” so much as it is that the minimum wage hasn’t remotely kept up with inflation, and the income disparity problem has made it so that what was a “low level, low income but livable” job years ago is now a “low level, low income, in fact you’re paid so little that you STILL have to try to qualify for food stamps to feed your family” income.
Another great example is Wal-Mart. More than half their workers are on food stamps, and they “make money” partly by ensuring the lowest level of “full time” employees they can.
That service for self published authors is a rip off. There’s a good financial breakdown of their service here.
. When someone comes into my hospital room and says “I’m Dr. Whatnot,” it’s pretty misleading if he doesn’t say “But not an MD/DO doctor, a PhD doctor.”
This is quite true. And that was one of the first thoughts I had when reading about it. At the same time, of course, they have earned the title. So what to do?
Web, my main point was that the people who work at fast food places tend not to have a whole lot of options. Depriving their employer of business is not helping them find a better job.
Abel, thanks for the heads up. I haven’t had the inclination yet to look into options. I will probably be picking your brain (if that’s okay) when the time comes.
If I change my first name to Doctor and go around a hospital introducing myself as “Dr. Lastname” it’d be pretty obviously misleading, though technically accurate.
When President Garfield was shot in 1881, the physician in charge of his medical care was named Doctor Bliss. Professionally known as Doctor Doctor Bliss. The double doctor completely bungled the case, repeatedly sticking his unwashed finger into the bullet hole, and despite sustaining a completely survivable injury Garfield suffered for two months and died.
Feel free to pick all you want. 🙂
Web, my main point was that the people who work at fast food places tend not to have a whole lot of options. Depriving their employer of business is not helping them find a better job.
Theoretically, the idea of driving the worst offenders out of business (Walmart, McDonalds, etc) is that it will drive enough business to firms that pay more and treat their employees better, such that these “not a lot of options” employees will be picked up by those firms. Whether true or not, that is the argument.
Fair enough.
At the same time, of course, they have earned the title.
Yes, but not to use in a medical setting. It is de facto fraud, if not de jure fraud.
How does your wife feel about PhDs using the title? To me, academic doctors should only use their title in academic settings. It is pretentious otherwise. I had no problem calling my professors doctor, but if I met one at the oil change place, I wouldn’t use it.
As for Mother Jones, that’s why I laugh when people refer to the MSM as liberal. That means they have never read MJ, or Rolling Stone for that matter. THEY have a liberal bias, and are proud of it.
How does your wife feel about PhDs using the title?
Her dad is a PhD (Engineering), as is her uncle (Agriculture). So she probably has a more nuanced view than most.
There was (and probably is, the guy is still there) a big to-do at Southern Tech wherein one of the bigwigs who has a Juris Doctorate (law degree) insists on being called “doctor.” It doesn’t go over well with the PhD’s.
As for Mother Jones, that’s why I laugh when people refer to the MSM as liberal.
Without getting too much into it, there is a difference between a tilt (Washington Times, to cite a conservative example) and advocacy (National Review).