Bad Web Behavior Alert: FTD Florists... Back in early November, I used the FTD web site to order flowers for my mother-in-law. The flowers were great, no problems there. But what followed was not great at all: a veritable flood of emails, sometimes as many as three a day, urging me to buy more flowers for a variety of contrived reasons. That by itself wouldn't irritate me; this sort of thing happens all the time. That's why there's an “unsubscribe” feature on just about every legitimate commercial web site. So I unsubscribed from FTD.
And, as you've probably guessed, the emails continued unabated. So I tried unsubscribing again – and noticed, in a tiny font, a little sentence under the giant “Unsubscribe” button. This sentence said, basically, that if you really want to unsubscribe, click on this unreadably-small link. What the giant Unsubscribe button is for remains a mystery. So I clicked on the tiny link, and followed the on-screen directions, and still the emails continued. Fewer of them, but still an annoyingly large number. So I went through the rigamarole again, re-entering my email address (twice for verification!), only to be told that this email was already removed, but if I wanted to unsubscribe to everything from FTD, then click on yet another (also tiny) link. This morning, I did that – and I also added a filter to my gmail account to automatically delete any email that comes from ftd.com.
Folks from FTD, should you find your way here: your incredibly rude web behavior just cost you a customer. And don't bother emailing me; it will just be deleted by my quite reliable, and very easy to set up, gmail filter...
Friday, January 3, 2014
Escalante Staircase...
No bailout!
No bailout! Charles Krauthammer argues that Republicans should force a vote to repeal the parts of ObamaCare that allows the government to bail out insurance companies that lose money paying out ObamaCare claims. As he concludes:
Who can argue with no bailout? Let the Senate Democrats decide: Support the bailout and lose the Senate. Or oppose the bailout and bury Obamacare.I doubt it's quite that easy, as there are plenty of Democrats who understand full well that a bailout is going to be necessary to save ObamaCare. But easy or not, Krauthammer may well be right that the Republicans could leverage public antipathy – present even in uniformed voters – for bailouts of any kind. And this bailout will be ginormous, that's a virtual certainty at this point...
Happy New Year.
2013 was a banner year...
2013 was a banner year ... for science papers about the solar influence on the Earth's climate. Here's a collection of 71 such papers...
Eleven attorneys general say That One is a law-breaker...
Eleven attorneys general say That One is a law-breaker... They point out the obvious: it's a violation of our U.S. Constitution for the executive branch to arbitrarily decide which of our laws they're going to enforce. Nothing new about the observation, but it is news that top state law enforcers are taking action. They've taken the first step: writing a letter to HHS Secretary Sebelius demanding that the existing laws be enforced. I'm sure it will surprise nobody that all eleven of these attorneys general are Republicans...
New baby in the family?
New baby in the family? No ObamaCare coverage for the little one! Yet another “glitch” in the top-down redesign of our healthcare system by Barry's Bozos. It won't be the last, unfortunately...
ObamaCare causing people to forgo needed treatment...
ObamaCare causing people to forgo needed treatment... The first line of this article (from a U.K. newspaper!) says it all:
Hospital staff in Northern Virginia are turning away sick people on a frigid Thursday morning because they can't determine whether their Obamacare insurance plans are in effect.
Indistinguishable from magic...
I want one!
NSA is building a quantum computer to crack encryption...
NSA is building a quantum computer to crack encryption... This is all over the news today, because it's confirmed in the documents Snowden leaked – but I'm pretty sure that basically everyone in the cryptographic community has been assuming this was the case all along (Snowden leaks or not). Why? Because if a quantum computer could actually be made to work, then the NSA could use it to do one of its primary jobs: reading our adversaries' encrypted communications. So actually I'd be quite disappointed if the NSA wasn't working on a quantum computer – unless, that is, they'd proven it was impossible...
Oops! There goes another ObamaCare promise...
Oops! There goes another ObamaCare promise... One of the oft-repeated “selling points” for ObamaCare was that it would reduce the use of emergency rooms for non-emergency medical care. Oregon studied this notion, and the results are in. Emergency room use for non-emergency care goes up when ObamaCare's provisions are exercised. Oopsie! Megan McArdle has the facts and analysis...
The poor darling sustained some minor injuries...
OKLAHOMA CITY - Several victims fought back against a suspect armed with a gun, leaving the man naked and injured outside an Oklahoma City hair salon.
Employees told police due to the busy holiday, they were working late at "Head Honchos" near N.E. 36th Street and Lottie. Just after midnight on Christmas Eve, a woman said a suspect identified as 23-year-old Corneilyus Howeth jumped into her car and pointed a gun at her.
The victim managed to call her brother, who was inside the hair salon just a few feet away. He rushed outside to help, but said Howeth pointed the gun at him and pushed him back into the salon. The victims said Howeth demanded all their money and kept asking for someone who wasn't there.
A few moments later, someone else walked into the salon. Witnesses said Howeth turned to point the gun at the newcomer, and that's when one of the victims tackled the suspect.
According to the police report, the two struggled over the weapon. The victim hit Howeth with a table leg, and another person in the salon jumped into the fight to help subdue Howeth. The victims told police they managed to take the gun from Howeth. They then stripped off his clothes, pushed him outside, and locked the door before telling someone to call 911.
The victims were not seriously injured. Howeth did sustain some minor injuries and was taken to a hospital for treatment before being booked into the Oklahoma County jail for robbery with a firearm.
Zip. Nada. Zero. None. You get the idea...
Zip. Nada. Zero. None. You get the idea... That's how many small businesses have seen their healthcare costs go down because of Obamacare. Oh, and the number that saw their costs go up? All of them. Every one. Every. Single. One!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)