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Intricate Underground City for Homeless Uncovered In Kansas City, Mo. {AOL Real Estate}
Apr 10th 2013 1:31AM There's probably more to this story than just the poor homeless victims. I worked at a homeless shelter for 12 years, and there are other things to consider. Many people are homeless for a reason, for example, because of losing a job because of alcohol or drug addiction. We had one guy at the shelter who, according to his parole office, was 35 years old and had never worked a day in his life. But that's not the most important thing.
If there are children involved, is this a same place for them to live? Are the kids going to school? Are they getting medical care?
The bottom line is, when someone is homeless, you have to dig deeper. Some have lost a job, or have a disability, and really need help. But that is not always the case.
Jeffrey Mitchell of Miramar Beach, Fla., Displays 'Sex Offender' Sign in His Front Yard {AOL Real Estate}
Dec 9th 2012 2:35PM I worked in a rescue mission for many years. Some of the men were sex offenders, and they were great liars. One, who had me convinced that he was innocent, was unusually friendly when children were volunteeing at the mission.
That said, being a sex offender can mean a lot of different things. In some states, a high school senior having sex with his freshman girlfriend might be a sexual offense, depending on their ages. Public urination might also get you on the list.
When I worked at the mission, I would regularly get calls at the mission from women wanting to talk to a guy staying there. The problem was, the woman had taken out a Personal Protective Order, and the man wasn't supposed to have any contact with her, including by phone.
In my case, this hits pretty close to home. Someone very close to me is in jail, after taking a plea deal on a sexual assualt charge that he fought for a year. He pled to simple assualt to stay off the sex offender registry.
He was a solier, and the woman has a long history of ruining soldier's lives. Just a month or two ago, the woman's second husband (a soldier of course) got a 3 A.M. phone call from the MPs--they found his wife in a men's barracks.
There are always two sides to every story.
Self-Boarding Gates Debut At Las Vegas Airport {Gadling}
Aug 18th 2012 1:01PM In the comments, there has been concern expressed about job loss due to automation. Many are afraid when a new technology causes us to lose jobs. But that's what technology does, and it's what makes our economy more productive. For most businesses, labor is 40% of their cost. Reducing that cost is a very big deal.
Let's think about this, I live in Michigan. We used to take our pop bottles to the grocery store, the clerk would check and count them, and then give us cash, 10 cents for each pop bottle that we recycled.
Now, I just go to the supermarket feed the bottles into a machine, which automatically separates the bottles for the cans, counts them, and gives me a receipt which I take to the cash register.
Do we really want to go back to the time when we took our bottles to the corner store and waited in line for the clerk to count our bottles? I think not.
Growing economies is about creative destruction. We find new, cheaper, easier, less labor-intensive ways to do things. When I took college accounting courses, we wrote the numbers on green ledger paper and did the math with calculator, Now I just plug the numbers into a spreadsheet that does the math for me.
Do we want to go back to green ledger paper? I don't think so.
Also, keep in mind that creative descrution of capitalism, while eliminating some jobs, creates new ones. I don't need to hire someone to add up numbers on a spreadsheet. There is no longer a need for accounting clerks. Those jobs are lost. But new jobs are created for the people who design the spreadsheet program, and for the people that manufacture the computer that I use.
San Francisco: A Town Without Kiddies? {ParentDish}
Jun 21st 2011 7:22PM What?! said...
"I notice that many end~of~the~world movies tend to include San Francisco as the site of a natural destruction, or an alien invasion. Maybe that may have scared the kids away."
Maybe, but on the other hand, the United Ferderation of Planets will be have it's headquarters there.
Brian Foster Out of UFC 129 Due to Brain Hemorrhage {MMA Fighting}
Apr 13th 2011 10:57PM Great sterotyping there!
Many of the MMA fighters are also good at other things, and had, or have, other careers. Clay Guida was a finish carpenter. Rich Franklin taught third grade. Mirco Crocop is Croation, and when he is not fighting he is a special tactical forces member of the police in his country. And if I remember correctly, one of the contestants in The Ultimate Fighter a few years ago was an engineering student.
You have a right to your opinion, but having the facts correct is usually helpful.
Coolest international gambling destinations {Gadling}
Mar 25th 2011 5:17PM Interesting article, but this line was in very poor taste:
"While the Marina Bay Sands looks like something a tsunami with a sense of humor would create . . ."
Japan is running out of body bags and coffins, and you included a tsunami joke??
TV Prices Expected to Plunge This Holiday Season {Switched}
Nov 1st 2010 6:59PM Good luck watching the Super Bowl live on your computer.
Strip Club Goes to War Against Neighboring Church {Asylum}
Aug 11th 2010 2:04AM If you think that Jesus didn't care about sin, I'm not sure what Bible you're reading. When Jesus saved the aldulterous woman who was about to be stoned, he said, "Let he who is WITHOUT SIN cast the first stone." When the men put down the stones, he said to the woman, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and SIN NO MORE."
5 High-Tech Tricks My Mom Will Never Get {Lemondrop}
Jun 2nd 2010 4:07PM Wow, I can't even comprehend that kind of technological illiteracy.
I am 54 years old and play online poker for a living. When computers couldn't do much (early 1980s), I wrote a BASIC program at work so that the department computer could print lables.
My father (age 80) has 3 blogs, in fact, he had 2 blogs before there was such a thing. He called them "online newsletters".I grew up listening to BBC and Radio Moscow on my rather's short-wave radio. My father and I both got our amateur ("ham") radio licenses at the same time.
The idea of not being comfortable with technology is almost beyond my comprehension. Or, as some of my friends in high school might have put it, computers are groovy!
