Tuesday, April 13, 2010
This is why healthcare costs so much ....
Because insurance companies are being run by IDIOTS!!!!
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 4:31 PM
Comments:
I just received mine today as well... same thing exactly. Does this benefit plan cover imploding brains?
Friday, January 08, 2010
Values and Health Care Reform .....
Got lucky recently ... caught a podcast on NPR TALK of the NATION - SCIENCE FRIDAY which tackled the topic of our American Values and how that relates to health care ....
The Hastings Center has set up a website to track essays in how health care relates to or values such as: Justice, Fairness, Liberty, Freedom ... just to mention a few.
I read a few ... but one stood out the most .... an essay by Michael F. Cannon from The Cato Institute.
Mr. Cannon argues that is the LOSS of freedom in health care choices that has got us into the predicament we're in as a nation. While absolute freedom to some my sound like utopia ... but the sad truth is we live in a nation where the under-educated, uninformed, inexperienced and ignorant would rather spend their money on a bigger flat screen TV and blue-ray player rather than purchase health insurance ... it sounds like a race to the bottom. I felt compelled to leave this comment:
The problem with your argument is you assume everyone in our country is as educated, informed and as practical as yourself. In a country obsessed with reality TV, video games and junk food that has led to obesity becoming an national epidemic do you really think the majority of Americans are responsible enough to make all of these health care choices themselves? For example we have known for decades the effects of smoking, yet with government regulation, education and exorbitant taxes people still choose to harm their bodies by smoking. How can we expect people as such to make sane health care choices? Your utopia of absolute freedom sounds like a race to the bottom. Comprehensive health care in our country should be a basic right just the way primary education is. If you don't like the basics, you always have the freedom to use your disposable income to purchase more.
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 10:15 AM
Saturday, August 01, 2009
I survived 14 roller coasters !!!
Just got back from Mystery Trip '09 ....
Cedar Point Amusement Park, The Roller Coaster Capital of the World on the shore of Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio. Cedar point boasts of 17 roller coasters of which I had the ... err .. pleasure of riding 14 of them. Nick and Lisa did 15 ... Sam and I sat out on one. The most intense was probably Top Thrill Dragster .. a ride that only lasts 17 seconds ... however you are launched from zero to 120 MPH and then shot up 420 feet to an arc where you then fall face down 420 feet. My first comment upon seeing it up close was: "It's a frikkin rocket sled!!"
Other coasters include:
Maverick <- Sam and I sat out.
Millennium Force
Raptor
Magnum XL-200
Disaster Transport
Mantis
Blue Streak
Mean Streak
Gemini
Iron Dragon
Corkscrew
Wicked Twister
WildCat
Mine Ride
Picasa Photo Album
 |
| Mystery Trip '09 |
The things we do for our kids ......
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 12:40 PM
Comments:
VERY cool! Hope you've recovered.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Chrysler Refused Government Loan Over Limits on Executive Pay
According to the Washington Post officials at Chrysler turned down a $750 million loan from the federal government because it came with limits on executive pay. Chrysler instead opted for more expensive private financing instead.
So it appears the executives would rather ride the company into the ground rather than give up their lucrative salary. So the next time they come to Capitol Hill looking for a bailout on the basis of "all the jobs that will be lost" don't believe them.
I would think the shareholders would have a case against the board and the CEO for abandoning their fiduciary responsibility for their own personal gain.
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 4:52 PM
Friday, April 17, 2009
Wha??? Comcast wants to be your phone company?
Couple of weeks ago Comcast's email servers were out ... down ... kaput ... for most of the day. I joked with Lisa .... "if I was responsible for a service like this that was down for this long I'd probably be fired"
Comcast recently sent out an apology email: We owe you a big apology. On Saturday, April 4, 2009 we experienced a significant disruption of our email service. While you may or may not have been affected, we want to explain what happened.
The problem was caused by a power disruption at one of our datacenters that affected some of our email servers.
Here is the link to the detailed explanation.
Wow .... a power disruption took down their email complex. Yup ... I definitely would have been fired. The mantra of anyone providing a 24X7 service is redundancy. Redundant servers, redundant networking, redundant disks ... oh and yes ... redundant power. Redundant power means two feeds to each system .... and those feeds are first protected by a UPS and then backup generators. In fact ... power might be the easiest and least technical element to make redundant. Some of the better data centers I've worked in are strategically located on the border of TWO electric grids so that even the commercial power could be redundant.
The point I'm getting at ..... Comcast wants to be in the phone business as well as being a TV / Internet provider .... that's fine ... but they need consider that telephone service ... is a "life line" not "entertainment" like TV and Internet. If they can't get the small stuff right .... how can they expect to provide a critical service??
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 12:41 PM
Comments:
As long as they're not forced to pay customers back for the outage, there's no reason for them to provide a redundant stable service.
I don't know about you, but I've never received a reduced charge from my cable company for any outages.
I did get a free month when I threatened to leave and go to Verizon FIOS because of them. That's customer retention, not remuneration for loss of service.
Comments:
Good feedback, Rob -- you should forward it to them!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Full Circle
Back in college professors would always request term papers be typed .... never an issue for me .... being a geek in the early 80s I was one of the few who had a home computer with a printer and a word processor.
Fast forward to 2009 .... I found a website that will create custom fonts .... so I created one using my handwriting. It looks hauntingly realistic ... except it's too straight ... I don't tend to write in straight lines ... or in-between the lines for that matter .... a product I assume of my non-conformist attitude bolstered by 8 years of Catholic school.
But I digress ..... can you imagine handing in a typed term paper that looked like this .....
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 9:04 AM
Comments:
I gotta belive that God is up there laughing at us. Makes me think of the time a family was looking all over for the lost portable phone and the child said "They should make a phome attached to he wall so it doesn't get lost!"
Comments:
Thursday, January 08, 2009
NYT: What You Don’t Know About Gaza
Great OP-ED in the NY Times by RASHID KHALIDI giving a different perspective on the crisis in Gaza .... actually surprised the Times had the balls to publish it. (Thanks Lee!)
The whole situation aggravates and frustrates me .... there are innocent people dying all because of the sins of a few ..... and please don't tell me they should "rise up" and do something about it ... as history has shown that worked well for all sorts of evil regimes in the past ... NOT.
How can Israel expect to live peacefully if they insist on breeding more hatred with these unbalanced retaliations.
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 9:40 AM
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Someone else who's off my list ....
I was reading a Newsweek column by Anna Quindlan ... where I picked up a little known fact: While the media made a big deal about all the money the Mormon church piled into the anti Proposition 8 movement ... there was little mention of the money the Catholic organization the Knights of Columbus poured into the anti prop 8 effort. Several news sources (LA Times, Catholic News Agency) confirm that the Knights contributed at least $1 million to the anti-prop 8 effort.
While I've never been a financial supporter of the the Knights .... I thought their "charitable" goals were admirable. Now I wonder how many people who thought they were contributing to charity were actually making a donation to nothing more than a political PAC!
$1 million could have feed a lot of children, bought them clothes for school, or supported a few mothers who chose to have their baby rather than terminate their pregnancy. (Right to life is another big Knights initiative) Instead they elected to spend that money to spread bigotry in the name of God.
Maybe someone should be looking into their 501(c)8 tax status.
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 7:37 PM
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Gettin old ... skippin a beat ....
Alas the ol' plant earth ain't what she used to be .... 2008 will be a second longer. A leap second will be added to the worls atomic clocks at 23:59:60 to make up for the earths slowing rotation. This will be the 25th leap second added since the practice began in 1972. So at this rate ... average about 0.69 seconds a year ... the earth will stand still in about 97,000 years 
Happy New Year!!! May 2009 be Healthy and Peacful.
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 11:16 AM
Comments:
huh .... was looking at the log on one of my servers and saw this:
Dec 31 23:59:59 oxygen kernel: Clock: inserting leap second 23:59:60 UTC
Pretty cool .....
# posted by 
Rob Roschewsk @ 9:14 PM
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Top Ten ....
Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan accepts the first ever YouTube Visionary Award.
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 7:53 PM