144 thoughts on “April 17, 2014: Negativity”

  1. Right there with you, Milkman. I used Google+ with some very good but long distance friends for a couple years, but left the service when it became clear how Google intended to leverage our presence and the conversations we were having. I'd do the same with Facebook in a heartbeat were it not the only way I have to stay in touch with some Marine buddies.

    I'll add that I never think of this place as a social media site, even though a society has developed around it.

    1. My use of Facebook is almost strictly for keeping up with long distance relationships and relatives, so my friends list is pretty limited. I also don't see the point in "liking" everything as well. My overall FB experience hasn't been that bad.

      WGOM is a social anti-media site, btw

      2. My use of Facebook is almost strictly for starting long-distance political fights. Those are The Best.

        1. *shockedface* It's hard for me to imagine you starting a long-distance political fight.

    2. I'd be much more apt to get rid of Facebook if I lived in closer physical proximity to my family and friends. Right now, my closest family member is a 17 hour drive, and I have friends in far away places such as Prague, Australia, and South Korea. I've definitely been more selective about how I use it in terms of information shared. My hometown, jobs, contact info are all not there anymore.

  2. I'm taking a good friend to see Red Vreen tonight. He was really excited to hear Red was coming through town when I found out last autumn, so I bought the tickets as his Christmas present (his wife was less than interested in joining us). He's one of those guys who never gives any indication of things that he'd like as gifts, so I have no idea how I'll ever match this one, much less top it.

    1. I liked this line:

      The policy is so broadly written, lawyers say, that it is likely to raise interesting legal questions.

      I fail to see anything interesting about any legal questions, ever.

      1. I suppose they're more interesting when finding the answer involves billing a client.

          2. Q: How does an attorney sleep?
            A: First he lies on one side, then he lies on the other.

            Q: How many lawyer jokes are there?
            A: Only three. The rest are true stories.

    2. He said he did not think a court would agree to enforce the policy if a consumer merely visited a General Mills website, “but we really don’t know.”

      Ug. Thank goodness I've never like-d anything.

    3. In language added on Tuesday after The New York Times contacted it about the changes, General Mills seemed to go even further, suggesting that buying its products would bind consumers to those terms.

      “We’ve updated our Privacy Policy,” the company wrote in a thin, gray bar across the top of its home page. “Please note we also have new Legal Terms which require all disputes related to the purchase or use of any General Mills product or service to be resolved through binding arbitration.”

      Later on in the article we learn that General Mills has encountered some litigation from customers upset about blatantly false labeling on packaging related to ingredients or health claims. So essentially the company wants to be able to make whatever claims it wants about a consumer-oriented product without ever being challenged in court on the validity of its claims by the same consumers it seeks to dupe. Lovely.

      1. I am not a lawyer, but I doubt that liking something on facebook is enough to waive legal rights.

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        1. General Mills gets well-deserved kudos for their workplace policies but as a food company, it's really a knuckle-dragger. Besides the issue above, they've gotten all pissy because consumers noted that strawberry fruit roll-ups contained no actual strawberries. Also their CEO has been on record as not really embracing the whole "let's reduce the amount of processing out of our foods" movement. They are really on the cutting edge of companies looking to manipulate the amount of sugar and fat in their products so that you buy more of their processed crap. If interested in this last topic I highly suggest the book Salt, Sugar, and Fat.

            1. From the Amazon blurb:

              Every year, the average American eats thirty-three pounds of cheese (triple what we ate in 1970)...

              This jives with the Top Gear crew always mocking Americans for putting cheese on everything.

                1. Don't get too far ahead of yourself, they didn't say how much of the 33 pounds was cheese and how much of it was cheese product.

      4. Haven't courts already stated that waiving legal rights via purchasing a ticket to a sporting event isn't legit? I recall the family of that girl who died when an errant puck struck her was able to sue.

        1. That's what I was getting at. If situations like that don't apply, certainly a facebook "like" won't.

  4. Wild Playoff Watch : Watching the Wild in the Playoffs Edition

    Wild - Avalanche @ 8:30 Central tonight (on CNBC)

    The Wild have not done well in games 1 in the past. They are 1-5 overall, and have lost the last 5 playoff series openers. BUT! Their only game 1 win came in Denver against an Avalanche team that won the division that year. In fact, they're 1-0 in games 1 in Colorado in the entire history of the NHL. I feel comfortable extrapolating a win tonight from that.

      2. Can I just mention how much I don't like the NBC LiveExtra website? First, I have to degrade my Flash player to make it work. And it's unstable and crashes way too often for my liking when I do that. Flash only crashes normally when I have about eleventy billion tabs open. And secondly, clicking on a game in the scoreboard doesn't take you to that stream. Is there somewhere I'm missing to switch between games directly, without having to go to the Live Extra homepage?

        That said, even on my borrowed WiFi, the picture is pretty good.

        1. And the Wild-Avs game is showing something called "American Greed" instead of the game.

          1. Judging from my experience and the replies, the Wild viewing area includes Texas, Florida, and DC.

            1. They fixed it after about 13 minutes of game time. I dunno who messed it up, but it can't have been that hard to fix. And if it was, they need a better backend. I'm sure it was just standard NBC incompetence.

          1. Agreed.
            Can't really say much since Yeo worked it out eventually, but Haula on the bench or scratched to watch Heatley do absolutely nothing for Feb/Mar drove me nuts.

        2. 4-2 3 MN!!!
          Snake-bit no more! Brodziak from Nino at 18:12!

          terrible turnover...gah!

    4. The Chicago-St. Louis game is in OT during the Wild* intermission. Very convenient.

      *Since the Sabres were nowhere near the playoffs, I'm claiming the Wild so as to be able to ride the wave with y'all.

      1. Colorado got one back, but St. Louis are in 2OT. Do I switch back to the Wild game, or trust them to hang on?

    6. I just gotta say I hate that the CBC feed (which has been carried on CNBC) is blacked out and I am forced to watch the FSN feed.

    7. I don't think I've ever seen a goalie pulled this early in a game, let alone a NHL game...let alone a NHL PLAYOFF GAME!

          1. On the bright side, Johnson will always be the dumbass who went to HS with my sister and brother and tore his ACL while falling off a golf cart drunk while underage. So at least there's that.

            1. There's always that. Someone on local sports talk radio was interviewing him the other day and he sounded like a douche...now I know that's not just how he sounds.

        1. What the hell was that? It was like he teed up a clearance and then just pushed it towards the blue line.

          1. It was a terrible idea of a pass to Parise. Parise wasn't looking for it because no one should make that pass and it just floated past him right back to Colorado. Dumb.

      1. Agreed.
        STL decided they didn't want to play a third OT. Steen wins it 23 seconds in. I can't stay up for 3 OT's.

    11. Paul Stastny...crap.
      They want to move on, they're going to have to win one in that building. Probably shoulda just taken care of that tonight.

  5. Justin Morneau hit another home run yesterday. For the year his slash line is .354 /.396 /.542 /.938 .
    This makes me happy.

  7. Just snagged three more of this player in a couple eBay lots won yesterday...

    ID the AU -- which Twins player (current or former) endorses his AAA paychecks with this signature?
    AU

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      3. Credit to Sheenie for the original joke. I just took the time to put the image together.

  8. I know I'm a day late and all the spots are full, but I'd like to ask for an opportunity to write a FKB column. My (much) younger sister is a high school junior, and with Pops gone I'm finding myself taking on more and more of a Big Brother/Faux Uncle/Older Male Mentor role as she tries to figure out her path to college. Because of the large difference between our ages, I was away for most of the time she was growing up, first in the Marines and then working toward a degree of my own. We have about as good a relationship as we can have, but I'd like to help her and build on that relationship as enters adulthood.

    My stepmom never went to college, effectively putting my sister in a first generation college student situation in terms of knowledge of institutions and processes. I received little support (and what support I received was poor) from my family the first time I made a run at college, and I'd like to do better by my little sister considering all that she's had to contend with at such a young age. If I can leverage the collective wisdom of the fathers of the nation to help her, that's something I'd really like to do. I'm not asking anyone to give up a spot, but instead asking if I can pen a special installment in the series sometime later this spring or early summer.

    1. By all means, take my spot. I've already had a bite at the apple this year. Or... whatever. I'm in the fall anyway.

      1. October is a bit late for "spring or early summer". My opinion is it's just fine if CH wants to do an extra FKB. It will be like a blue moon. Looking at the schedule, the week of June 2 seems like a good midpoint that fits in the time frame.

          1. Sounds like this could work well for scheduling and as set-up for Rhu_Ru. And Philos doesn't have to give up his spot. If everyone else is okay with this, I'll go ahead and put it on my calendar.

  10. I find this fascinating. It certainly calls into stark question the purpose of the criminal justice system - rehabilitation or punishment?

      1. I think that's there regardless of where you come down on the rehabilitation/punishment question.

      2. Protection of society probably falls under making sure to provide instructions to report to prison after you sentence someone to 13 years in prison. Had he served his sentence in a timely fashion, he'd most likely have been on the street by now, maybe earlier with good behavior and whatnot.

    4. Was the SWAT team bored that day? I could think of better things to do with a SWAT team than send them to someone's home 13 years after they were sentenced for a crime.

      1. Yeah, I've seen too many instances of SWAT teams being used in similar fashions to this. I think it's a case of the police department having a SWAT team, and justifying that by using them whenever possible.

        1. I think it's a case of the police department having a SWAT team, and justifying that by using them whenever possible.

          Definitely this.

    5. That headline could be clearer. Reads like after he was never incarcerated, he proceeded to commit an armed robbery.

  11. This has nothing to do with anything, but does anyone here have a Hello Kitty fan in his life? I was doing some spring cleaning and came across some goodies from a conference that very likely would make a 6-year-old (or a 16-year-old for that matter) very happy: pen and notebook with fuzzy cover, plush angel kitty key chain, shower curtain, barrettes, etc. I'll gladly pack them up and mail them to any taker. And if no one is interested, I'll send them all to confirmed cat lover DPWY.

    1. My sister is the biggest Hello Kitty fan I've ever come across. She actually has Hello Kitty's bow tattooed behind her ear. My BiL only drives my sister's car in the most dire of circumstances because of all the HK accouterments in it.

      1. This was her Christmas present one year. I found it in Prague in a little bodega. She still has the can. Best Christmas present I've ever gotten her.

      2. She actually has Hello Kitty's bow tattooed behind her ear.

        My wife adores HK, but she's not quite that hardcore.

      3. Perfect! Just let me know where you want me to send everything. Do you know my email address?

        'Spoiler' SelectShow

        1. Thanks so much. I'm getting my sister's address from her and will email you soon as I have it.

  12. Here's another interesting "what's wrong with the world we live in" kind of link! This time we're talking copyright and Aero and such.

    2. As soon as Aereo comes to my town (which is rather small), I will be getting this. I'm too cheap to pay for cable. Even the cheap basic cable that just gets us the network channels. Besides, with the power of the internet, anything can be streamed online. Heck, Iheartradio does it with radio stations (for free I might add). There's no reason that it cannot be done with television, it just isn't. And money is clearly the biggest factor.

      And what's the deal with MLB.tV blackout rules....

          1. yea, the Gardyizer seems to think that Nunez is Slavic or summat. That's not gonna work.

    1. That could have been better had they thrown in other names from the Indians.

      "When he doesn't want a feller, who pitches?"
      "Lemon."
      "He sends a lemon out there? Does he not care about the win?
      "He cares a lot about Wynn."
      "So why would he throw out a lemon?"
      "Feller can't pitch every day."

  15. Coldest ever Twins game time starting temperature today. I'd say it feels positively mid-Springish out here in the bit of sunshine we're getting in the latter innings.
    You'd hardly know I walked through snow drifts to my car this morning.

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