Pentagon Paid $998,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers

I read this in the Oregonian today, but I can't believe it.

A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said.

The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.

I mean, they bilked the Pentagon out of $20 million over 10 years. Who was writing the checks?

Did the accountant at the Pentagon see an invoice for "Priority: Toroidal Spacer Component Delivery" and say "Oh, sure, one million bucks is a fair amount for that sort of service?"

C'mon, now. Let's cut the Pentagon's funding in half immediately. Then, take the excess and distribute it among the nation's primary and secondary public schools.

JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank

Only two left in stock.

Build your own home coffee roaster

Here, and here are two places that explain how to build your own coffee roaster.
In order to roast your own coffee, you have to start with green beans. Green coffee beans of course... not haricots verts. I guess that Sweet Maria's is a good place to get those.

I might try the lo-tech method of roasting the beans in a wok. That's worked for nuts that I've toasted. Or, maybe just go to Stumptown annex.

Flying Focus gets Willamette Week's attention

The video group that I work with, Flying Focus Video Collective, got a mention in Willamette Week's "Murmurs" section.

Call it the fluff tax. The Flying Focus Video Collective , a small Portland nonprofit that produces social-justicey fare for cable-access TV, launched an interesting fundraising pitch last week. The Flying Focus folks are demanding (their word, not ours) that local TV stations donate $10 anytime they lead the news with 10 minutes of “information citizens can’t do anything about” —i.e., weather, sports or “relatively trivial” fare like the live festival broadcasts that gave the world “Turtle Boy.” (Thanks, KGW.) Celebrity news would incur an additional $1 penalty , which is, by the way, tax-deductible. Murmurs bets OPB wishes it had thought of this first. Beats a pledge drive.

Here's the complete "Mainstream TV Challenge Fund-raiser."

No Fatties?

In late June, Clarian Health, an Indianapolis-based hospital system

announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index (BMI, a ratio of height to weight that measures body fat) is over 30. If their cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels are too high, they'll be charged $5 for each standard they don't meet. Ditto if they smoke: Starting next year, they'll be charged another $5 in each check.

Is this fair? Is this a good idea? Would it even make a difference to some people? Would you pay $10 a month to be fat?

They don't mention what the company will do with the fines, but I'd suggest taking that, adding some matching funds, and putting them toward health benefits for the employees, like a free stop smoking program, or discounts toward a health club.

Dow 14,000

Dow tops 14,000 on 07/19/07.

"I think it's only a number and it's not really material," said Rob Lutts, chief investment officer of Cabot Money Management. "What's much more important is the fundamental factors in our economy and what those trends are."

Dow tops 13,000 on 04/25/07.

"In and of itself, [Dow 13,000] is not very important for the market," said Jay Suskind, director of trading at Ryan, Beck & Co.
"Psychologically, it shows the market has been doing well and draws retail-type investors," he said. "But this may not be such a good thing, as retail investors often show up late to the party."

Dow tops 12,000 on 10/18/06

12,000 is just a number--just as 11,000 was when the Dow crossed that level six-and-a-half years ago. We surveyed Wall Street prognosticators to see if investors should begin to party like it was 1999 (again). The consensus seems to be that conditions for equity investors are good, but not great.

Dow tops 11,000 for the first time since 2001.

Dow tops 10,000 on 03/30/99 .

When it hit 1000 for the first time, which was back in the 60's, I believe, it backed off immediately and took a long, long time for it to get back there, I mean more than ten years, I think. So in that case, it was a high water mark that was not returned to for quite a while. But when you have seen it at other levels, such as say 5000, which was less than four years ago, it just really kept on going. So you can't really make generalizations about what it will do from here. There is, of course, the initial reaction which is, well it's going to go almost -- it's always going to go higher because there is so much euphoria around. But you can't guarantee that, either. It's really a toss up.

But, when the Dow topped 9,000 in June of 1998! Watch out!
We got multiple warnings of World War III!

Good use of google maps?

This guy is working on a google map to help track stolen bikes in Portland.

The city of Portland has 341 bikes reported with valid addresses.

It's sad that so many bikes are stolen.