Author: Robert Zimmerman

How to self-destruct your company with just a few measly emails

10:21 am

How to self-destruct your PR company with just a few measly emails.

The reason this story has gone viral is that everyone has had to deal with rude and uninformed customer service people who not only don’t answer questions accurately, often downright lie to get you off the phone. And sadly, they can get away with it because companies allow them to. With this story, however, justice triumphed. Thank you Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade.

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Want to see an asteroid eclipse a star?

9:50 am

transit of Betelgeuse

On January 2, 2012, an asteroid is going to transit across the face of Betelgeuse. And if you live in Europe, own a very sensitive telescope, look close and don’t blink, you might be able to see it!

This is all according to a preprint paper published today on the Los Alamos astro-ph preprint website, written by scientist Costantino Sigismondi of the Galileo Ferraris Institute and International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics in Rome. You can download the paper here [pdf].

The transit itself will only last 3.6 seconds, and will only be visible along a narrow swath crossing southern India and moving across the Middle East, through parts of Italy, France, and the southwestern most tips of England and Ireland. A map of this path is below the fold.
» Read more

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Six tired arguments the energy sector needs to stop using

7:45 pm

In other energy news: Six tired arguments the energy sector needs to stop using.

I like the last best:

Social good alone does not make for a viable business, even if it makes for a darn good trading strategy. For investors, if you’ve been burned, try to remember that feeling good about green energy can still make you feel very nauseous when monitoring your portfolio.

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Egypt raids the offices of seventeen human rights organizations

5:34 pm

How’s that Arab spring working out for you? Egypt today raided the offices of seventeen human rights organizations.

Egyptian soldiers and black-clad police officers swept into offices, interrogated workers and seized computers across the country. Those targeted included U.S. groups the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and Freedom House, which are funded by Congress to monitor elections and promote democracy overseas.

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New Rasmussen poll shows Romney beating Obama 45%-39%

10:49 am

A new Rasmussen poll shows Romney beating Obama 45%-39%.

What is more significant about the poll is how poorly Obama stacks up against every other possible candidate. Though he leads all the others, in no case does he get more than 48% of the vote. Even against a non-entity like Gary Johnson Obama only leads 42% to 27%. These numbers suggest that no matter who runs against Obama, the man is toast.

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Top 10 Worst Federal Rules of 2011

10:19 am

The top ten worst federal rules of 2011.

All are crippling, but this one is plain stupid:

4. The Equine Equality Rule. As of March 15 (the Ides of March, no less), hotels, restaurants, airlines, and the like became obliged to modify “policies, practices, or procedures” to accommodate miniature horses as service animals. According to the Department of Justice, which administers the rule, miniature horses are a “viable alternative” to dogs for individuals with allergies or for observant Muslims and others whose religious beliefs preclude canine accompaniment.

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China issues a white paper on space, outlining its future goals

9:46 am

China today issued a white paper on space, outlining its future goals. In addition to additional launches of its manned Shenzhou manned capsule,

China also plans to launch space laboratories, manned spaceship and space freighters, and will start a research on the preliminary plan for a human landing on the moon, the document said.

As an important part of deep-space exploration, the country’s lunar probe projects follow the idea of “three steps” — orbiting, landing and returning. In next five years, the country plans to launch orbiters for lunar soft landing, roving and surveying to implement the second stage of lunar exploration, then it will start the third-stage project of sampling the moon’s surface matters and get those samples back to Earth, the white paper said.

You can download the full white paper here [pdf]. Hat tip to Spaceref.com.

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