..based on conservative principles.
Category Archives: Business
Columbia’s Lessons
Jeff Foust has an article at today’s issue of The Space Review on the recent meeting to remember the failure on the tenth anniversary, with a lot of discussion of the topics of my book.
ObamaCare Versus The Unions
The Democrats’ lies are eventually going to catch up with them, and probably before the next election.
A Whistle-Blowing Scientist
The lawsuit filing provides a troubling description of how fraud was used to impose draconian environmental regulations on California enterprises, which is one of the many reasons why California is deemed by CEOs nationwide as the “worst place to do business”.
As he notes, “liberals” only like whistleblowers when they blow the whistle on conservatives.
Europe
Late last night, after markets closed for the weekend, following an extended discussion the European finance ministers announced their “bailout” solution for Russian oligarch depositor-haven Cyprus: a €13 billion bailout (Europe’s fifth) with a huge twist: the implementation of what has been the biggest taboo in European bailouts to date – the impairment of depositors, and a fresh, full blown escalation in the status quo’s war against savers everywhere.
This is not going to end well.
[Update late Saturday evening]
Glenn Reynolds has a lot of updates. Monday may be bloody. And Monday starts late Sunday evening on the Left Coast…
Order Now
The book is up at Amazon
[Late afternoon update]
OK, they’ve got the cover up now, and the reviews look good. I just told them to take them off the web site.
Dear Paul Krugman
…”I’ll see you in Hell.”
Amazon Advantage
So, I’ve been trying to set up a page for my book at Amazon. So far, color me very unimpressed.
The Advantage site has a form to fill out with book description, author bio, and three reviews. It very clearly states:
You don’t need to use HTML to fill out the edit boxes below – just type normally. However, if you’d like to use advanced formatting, you may use HTML to indicate breaks, boldface or italics.
<P> = a paragraph break <BR> = a line break
<b> </b> = boldface <i> </i> = italics.
Example: The <b>quick</b> brown fox <i>jumped over</i> the lazy dog.<BR>
Well, I kind of like paragraphs. Call me crazy, but that’s just how I roll. So I put in some <p>s, and bolded the names of the reviewers.
When I saved my work, it didn’t display the HTML properly, instead showing the code. Moreover, it had removed the second two reviews, and attributed the first one to the second reviewer.
I scratched my head, and went back int to edit, reinserting the other two reviews, and straightening out the reviewer names. I hit “View” and got exactly the same thing. HTML still in the code, no graf breaks, and the second two reviews disappeared, with the wrong reviewer name on the first.
I send a complaint to Amazon (via a web form, so I have no record of it, unless I had the foresight to copy it somewhere, which I didn’t). Here is the response:
Dear Vendor,
I apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Please be informed that when you update any information using update item content and then click submit button, everything will get disappear. However please be informed that the same will appear on the website in 5-7 days.
I request you to update the information without using HTML tags.
As you have the limit to add only 3 reviews, I request you to write back to us with the reviews that you wish to add and we will do the needful.
Thank you for selling with Amazon,
Sowjanya Reddy T.
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage
So, they can’t show me what the page is actually going to look like until it goes live, and despite the fact that they clearly invite me to use HTML, they then request that I not do so. Which means that I can’t do so much as break paragraphs.
I’m kind of gobsmacked. I mean, this is fricking’ Amazon.
Auto Insurance Spam
Every day my inbox (or rather, my spam box) is flooded with spam telling me about how “auto rates” are going down (presumably it means insurance, though the word is often not mentioned). Usually, the subject is something like “The president has passed a new law reducing your rates,” or “Washington has passed a new law…”
Well, today, I got my first Pope auto-rate spam:
Subject: New Pope Equals Lower Auto Rates? Yes – See Why.
– – – – New Pope Announcement Has Major Impact On Your Auto Rates – – – –
The new pontiff – Francis The 1st is already having a dramatic impact on auto rates. Did you know the month a new pope is elected is always the safest month to drive of the year? This is why major auto insurers have come together to lower auto rates to $3.75/month for drivers who sign up during the month of March who reside in low-risk driving zip codes
See if your area qualifies for the new rates by visiting the link below and entering your zip code. Should you qualify, expect your rates to drop and budget accordingly.
Needless to say, I didn’t click on the link below, but you have to give them marks for creativity in coming up with idiot bait.
“Greedy Lying Bastards”
Bombs at the box office.
I am overwhelmed with schadenfreude.