Month: June 2005

Hosed at the gas pump

MSN Money – Hosed at the gas pump — by your debit card

Via MeFi.

The terminology in this article is confusing. There are 3 different kinds of cards in question: (a) uses credit-card processing and goes against a credit limit, (b) uses credit-card processing (Visa, MC, Discover) but goes against your checking account, and (c) uses ATM processing (a PIN) and goes against your checking account. Types (b) and (c) are called “debit cards,” but when they ask you “credit or debit” for a given debit card they are differentiating between (b) and (c).

The article seems to be warning against the use of type (b) (debit cards that use credit card processing) and advises one to use type (a) or (c) if possible (credit cards which are really credit cards, or debit cards which use ATM processing).

But it sure could have been more clear. The first time I read it, I understood it as arguing against type (c).

Pity there isn’t better terminology for this sort of thing.

Pykrete

I read about this in the latest Fortean Times: During WWII, eccentric genius Geoffrey Pyke invented a form of ice that melted so slowly you could use it as a building material. It was as strong as concrete and floated, just like regular ice. So you could build a literally unsinkable ship out of it: a ship whose hull was made of a material that floated. And if you wanted you could make that ship with a forty foot thick hull that would just slowly chip away bit by bit even under the force of an artillery barrage, with no real damage to the ship. There were plans underway to build aircraft carriers out of Pykrete. A relatively small test ship was built on a Canadian lake. It took over a year to melt even after it was abandoned completely.

I was like, there has to be something about Pykrete on the internet!

And what do you know — this experimenter created and shot at some Pykrete, Amateur Scientist (of course!) has an article on it, and of course Metafilter got there before me, with a lame headline.

Pyke was a fascinating character. Grab the current issue of Fortean Times and read up on him.

UPDATE: some are skeptical of many of the details of the Pykrete stories.

U.S. Soldier Beaten at Guantanamo

Pummeled MP sues Pentagon / Soldier was impersonating unruly Guantanamo detainee in training

A U.S. military policeman who was beaten by fellow MPs during a botched training drill at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for detainees has sued the Pentagon for $15 million, alleging that the incident violated his constitutional rights.

Spec. Sean Baker, 38, was assaulted in January 2003 after he volunteered to wear an orange jumpsuit and portray an uncooperative detainee. Baker said the MPs, who were told that he was an unruly detainee who had assaulted an American sergeant, inflicted a beating that resulted in a traumatic brain injury.

Note to self: if they ever get desperate enough to draft people my age, do not ever believe anything a superior offer tells me under any circumstances.

That’s Good News

“I finally hit my bullshit threshold this morning following the most insanely dumb bullshit ‘news’ week ever, so I set my inter net to block everything from CNN and Fox News. I decided the way I’m going to get my news from now on is by walking out front and looking down the street. If everything isn’t on fire, that’s good news.”

—Jeffrey Rowland