Category: Personal Page 35 of 59

This has nothing to do with anything I regularly write about, but it’s just so cool that you’re reading it anyway:

Scientists have dramatically revised population estimates for gorillas after massive numbers of the animals were found in an area of central Africa the size of Switzerland.

More than 125,000 western lowland gorillas – one of four sub-species – are estimated to be living in two swampland areas in the north of the Republic of Congo, according to a census by the Wildlife Conservation Society published yesterday.

Scientists had previously estimated that the entire population of western lowland gorillas was between 50,000 and 100,000, but the discovery points towards a figure of about 200,000.

Times must be hard for the SCLC:

At the end of June, as the subprime mortgage crisis was driving the economy into a tailspin, Charles Steele Jr., the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), took to the op-ed page of the Washington Post to decry the devastating effect the meltdown was having on minority homeowners. But rather than support currently pending measures to better regulate the credit markets, the leader of one of the nation’s oldest civil rights groups instead attacked them. Steele was particularly upset about a Federal Reserve proposal that would crack down on subprime credit cards—high-interest cards marketed to people with bad credit.

Steele rose to the card issuers’ defense, invoking his group’s founder, Martin Luther King Jr., and claiming that any move to regulate the cards would deny minorities access to much-needed credit. [ . . .] The argument was an odd one coming from a civil rights group. Most consumer groups believe that the subprime industry is largely predatory, and rife with abuses that disproportionately affect minorities. But Steele’s op-ed makes a lot more sense when you consider a detail the Post at first left out: In August 2007, the SCLC formed a partnership with CompuCredit, a subprime credit card issuer and payday lending company.

[ . . . ]

While the civil rights group has been lauding its corporate partner, the federal government has taken a slightly different view of CompuCredit’s contributions to economic empowerment. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission sued the company for unfair and deceptive trade practices, as well as violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The FTC alleged that CompuCredit bilked consumers out of at least $217 million through a scheme in which consumers paid so much in fees that they rarely had any credit available on the company’s Visa cards. The CompuCredit cards are better known as “fee harvesting” cards—that is, credit cards sold to people in dire financial straits that have high interest rates, low credit balances, and lots and lots of fees for people who generally can’t afford them.

Nice job, Mr. Steele.

I have a confession.  I hate buses.  I know, they are an integral component of any complete and efficient public transportation system.  I don’t mind shared space, I appreciate not driving, etc.   So you’d think I would like buses.  Nuh uh.  Can’t stand them.  I would rather take three different trains than one direct bus.  I would rather pay $150 and suffer TSA than take the $20 dragon express to NYC.  Hate hate hate.

Maybe it was an early imprint thing.  As a (very small) kid, my mother and I took a bus from Phoenix to Tuscon to see my father (temporarily working at Ft. Huachuca).   In the summer.  With no air conditioning.  I think I am still probably a little melted around the edges, from that.  Or maybe it was the school bus in Germany.  Super-luxe buses (tv’s, bathrooms, etc.), but the bus driver was drunk.every.day.  As in closing the doors on kids, stopping short, etc.  Not really a fun way home.

Anyway, you might think I’m kidding, or trying to be funny.  I’m not.  Here’s just another reason to not ride the bus:

A man was stabbed to death then beheaded on a Greyhound bus in an apparent random act of violence, according to an eyewitness.

[ . . .]

“He calmly walked up to the front (of the bus) with (the victim’s) head in his hand and the knife and then dropped the head in front of us,” Caton said, adding he believes the suspect later returned to the back of the bus and was seen later “taunting police with the head in his hand out the window.”

Caton said the suspect appeared calm.

“What struck me, it was like he was at the beach or something,” he said.

Stay away from the buses.

Sorry for the ease up in content, of late. I’m trying to make progress on another project (which I hope to be sharing here, as soon as I’m done), and that’s taking up quite a bit of time. Also? I managed to rip open a good portion of one of my palms on – of course – a rusty nail. It’s one of those stupid little injuries whose effect on your general disposition is outsized to its actual import.

Back to the regularly scheduled programming soon, I hope.

(Photo of the scaffolding going up on the north side of the National Archives)