SuperMegaMonkey: Ummm... Other?: February 2009 Archives

Ummm... Other?

So, some school in New Mexico is implementing a new policy where kids (who aren't on the free lunch program) whose parents have not paid for more than 10 lunches get a cheese sandwich instead of the hot lunch of the day. Apparently, it's caused some parents to complain about the "singling out" of their children and about how awful it is to make them eat a cheese sandwich.

I'm no fan of cheese sandwiches. The concept sounds disgusting to me. But when i was in school, there was no 10 lunch limit. If you forgot your lunch money, you got a PB&J sandwich. Or nothing. At the time, PB&J sounded pretty much as disgusting as a cheese sandwich, so i think so far, it's equal.

Now, some people are saying it's not good because it's punishing the kids whose parents can't afford the lunch money. They even quote one kid who had to eat the cheese sandwiches while waiting for her free lunch paperwork to go through and now the idea of cheese sandwiches makes her gag. I don't know how long it takes for the paperwork to go through. 10 days is 2 school weeks. So, either the process of getting approved for free lunches is completely inefficient (wouldn't be surprising) or this girl's parent only bothered to file the paperwork because of the cheese sandwiches. Otherwise, she would have been more than happy to continue sending her kid to school with no money, banking on the school feeding her kid for free.

I get that mebbe they don't want to admit they can't afford the $1 lunch for their kid and that's why they don't rush out to apply for the free lunch program. But, you know, it's your kid. You need to swallow your pride and take advantage of anything that's there to help your kid. And the school providing anything at all is something i think the parents should appreciate rather than expect as a default.

That said, why can't they offer at least a choice of cheese or PB&J, just to give a little variety. I mean, eating cheese sandwiches 5 days a week can get pretty old pretty quick. Even if it's government cheese, rather than your Kraft singles variety. I love that government cheese. It's so much better than sliced.

Also, that 7-yr old is a whiner. She's lucky she's getting any food at all and doesn't work in some factory in South America making sweatshirts for Russell Athletics.

By min | February 25, 2009, 11:39 AM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (4)| Link

Do they *really* regret the error?

John Gibson Did Not Compare Eric Holder To Monkey With Bright Blue Scrotum:

UPDATE: The Huffington Post has learned that the below video has been doctored. We regret the error and apologize to Mr. Gibson. John Gibson never compared Eric Holder to a monkey with a bright blue scrotum.

By fnord12 | February 20, 2009, 1:36 PM | Ummm... Other? | Link

Submarines Collide While Carrying Nuclear Missiles

A potentially catastrophic incident involving two nuclear submarines, one French and the other British, was narrowly averted earlier this month when the two boats collided in mid-Atlantic, reports in the British and French news media said on Monday, quoting sources in the two defense ministries.
Both submarines were damaged extensively but have returned to their home ports since the collision on the night of Feb. 3, the reports said.
...
Defense experts said that one possible explanation for the collision was that the two submarines were involved in an exercise that involved the craft tracking each other at close quarters in the kind of war games that have played out in the Atlantic for decades between western and Soviet submarines, especially in the northern Atlantic between Scotland and Iceland.

Link

My question is, if it was exercises and war games, wtf were they doing loaded with actual missiles? If the exercise was not to test the missiles but to test maneuvering and avoidance techniques, there was no reason to risk having fully armed missiles on board in case just such an accident did occur during the exercise. It's either not a very good guess at the reasons, or people managing war games aren't very bright.

By min | February 16, 2009, 10:49 AM | Ummm... Other? | Link

Yeah, and you should hear the things T.G. Cid tells me late at night.

Stupid people.

Found via Penny Arcade.

By fnord12 | February 13, 2009, 10:59 AM | Ummm... Other? | Link

Like Money

fungible [fuhn-juh-buhl]

--adjective

Returnable or negotiable in kind or by substitution, as a quantity of grain for an equal amount of the same kind of grain.

Interchangeable.

--noun
Something that is exchangeable or substitutable. Often used in the plural.

Example
Regarding the bonuses Morgan Stanley gave out to its advisors while taking their share of the bailout money:

James Wiggins, a Morgan Stanley spokesman, said that such payments were necessary and would come out of operating revenue, not government bailout funds.

Dean Baker from the Center for Economic and Policy Research responds:

Since money is fungible, this comment doesn't make any sense.

By min | February 12, 2009, 11:32 AM | Liberal Outrage & Ummm... Other? | Comments (1)| Link

Are Children's Toys Coming to Life at Night?

I can't read the ticker at the bottom and watch the main story at the same time. It's one or the other. So then i end up watching it twice.

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

By min | February 11, 2009, 4:11 PM | Ummm... Other? | Link

Air Yakiniku

Click. Watch. Knowledge of the language not necessary.

By min | February 11, 2009, 4:05 PM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (1)| Link

They Can Explode??

You assholes never told me there was a danger of these things exploding!

A man has died after his mobile phone exploded, severing a major artery in his neck, according to reports.
The man, thought to be a shop assistant in his twenties at a computer shop in Guangzhou, China, died after he put a new battery in his phone. It was believed that he may have just finished charging the battery and had put the phone in his breast pocket when it exploded.

Christ! And the best advice they can offer is "keep it in a bag instead of your pocket"?

By min | February 3, 2009, 11:54 AM | Ummm... Other? | Comments (3)| Link

I Miss the Dennys

By min | February 3, 2009, 10:16 AM | Ummm... Other? | Link

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