The forum went down on me, too.

Now I need a nap.

I lost connection with The Fogbow, but I was also unable to connect to anything else, even Microsoft. When the computer came back up after a reboot, everything was fine. Could this have been a larger problem?

It was down for me, but we had a verizon guy out earlier and I just assumed there were general glitches.

Maybe I should apologize for ranting at him? (j/k. I didn't really.)

Hardy har har.

Another case of a fake degree? Scott Thompson was hired in January, 2012, to be the CEO of Yahoo! upon the advice of a search firm. He had been President of the PayPal subsidiary of eBay. In bios related to his former jobs, he had claimed to hold a BA degree in Accounting from Stonehill College in Easton, MA.

When Yahoo! hired Thompson, it said that he held degrees in Accounting and Computer Science. Unfortunately, when Thompson graduated, Stonehill did not award a degree in Computer Science. Stonehill acknowledged that he did hold a degree in Accounting from the college.

This was discovered by an activist shareholder in the Third Point investment firm, Dan Loeb. Third Point notified Yahoo! of the discrepancy, and Yahoo! acknowledged an "inadvertent error." That was not enough for Third Point, which is now demanding access to the records of the search firm.



Some shareholders, possibly including the hedge firm Third Point, want Thompson ousted.

An interesting thing about this is that a computer science degree from years ago probably mattered a great deal less to investors than does honesty.

Wall Street Journal May 7, 2007 Yahoo’s CEO Among Many Notable Résumé Flaps

This is quite an interesting situation. The hedge fund guy (Third Point) has been trying to get several spots on the board, which other board members (and apparently the CEO) have made clear that he isn't entitled to.

Third Point has found a wedge and has created a flap, and it will be interesting to see if Thompson survives as CEO -- and if the search firm who placed him suffers any consequences. But even if Third Point collects his scalp, they're not necessarily good guys and may not end up with anything more than a scalp and a lot of ill will while Yahoo hunts for a new CEO.

I know a BUNCH of people in the venture-funded company field who have seriously inflated resumes -- don't know about educational aspects, but certainly in their work histories. When one of them gets hired, those of us who know their past shake our heads and say "nobody ever checks references."

As we saw in the collapse of the Michael Hogan Presidency at the University of Illinois, references from past jobs don't always matter in academia either.

Nah, don't apologize. Even if Verizon didn't do anything to you this time, it was only an accident. Trust me, they deserve it.

(Since when has Verizon listened to a complaint? And, no, I don't count routing your call to Mumbai as "listening".)

Oh, you're one of THOSE customerz. Tch, tch!

Hate to disappoint everyone, but there's this thing called the "business judgment rule" which means corporations can commit whatever crimes they feel like and get away with it.

I expect this defense to be raised in this case and succeed.

Stock up on your Twinkies, Wonder Bread, Ding Dongs, and other Hostess Brands products now! The company declared bankruptcy in Jan. 2012 and has been embroiled in a labor dispute ever since.

Wall Street Journal May 7, 2012 Hostess Sends Layoff Notices to All [18,400] Workers

This is the WARN Act required two-month notice. Hostess Brands needs more capital, which means that it needs new investors. It is also seeking to break its contracts with its two largest unions. One of them, the Teamsters, is threatening a strike. This could cause the company to cease operations.

Although what Hostess Brands did is required by law, I wonder whether this is another attempt at union-busting? Will workers in fear for their jobs accept changes in working conditions, wages, and benefits?

The more such actions are successful at union-busting, the more successful future efforts will be. I think we are seeing a concerted effort to weaken and destroy unions in the U.S.

There is an increasing trend of corrupt U.S. corporations abusing bankruptcy law to bust unions. I think they should be criminally prosecuted.

It appears, after all, that there indeed exist people more stupid than birthers:

Walked by a fur store today. 3 coats in the window -- all three were hoodies. Everybody wears hoodies.

Groupon pulls offer for "porn studio" tour after a boycott is threatened.

From one of Orly's favorite sites for news...

Before It's News

FEMA Coffins' Being Moved Northbound On Georgia Highway 5-8-2012; Are They Being Transferred To Chicago?

In line with the finding of snakes, bees, and mice disturbing one's peace, I just had a little shock of a similar sort. Where in your kitchen would you least expect to find a living, breathing scary monster-looking creature? How about in a tightly closed container of salt?

I just opened a container ( a recycled spice jar) where I had transferred some sea salt form a large box more than a year ago. Salt never goes bad, right? When I looked in, I saw what I thought was a dead spider or something similar and was wondering how it got into a tightly capped jar. When I took a small plastic knife to remove it, it started moving! It was alive!

I haven't taken a good look with a magnifying glass yet, but what else could it be but these creatures:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brine_shrimp

I guess they could have been in there doing their thing even though there salt was dry.

I had looked them up back when there was a discussion of things you can order from comic books and one was sea monkeys, aka brine shrimp. Still, when you are not expecting it.....in your salt....of all places....moving around.

Did they look like this?

Adult female brine shrimp ovulate approximately every 140 hours . In favourable conditions, the female brine shrimp can produce eggs that almost immediately hatch. While in extreme conditions, such as low oxygen level or salinity above 150‰, female brine shrimp produce eggs with a chorion coating which has a brown colour. These eggs, also known as cysts, are metabolically inactive and can remain in total stasis for two years while in dry oxygen-free conditions, even at temperatures below freezing. This characteristic is called cryptobiosis, meaning "hidden life". While in cryptobiosis, brine shrimp eggs can survive temperatures of liquid air (−190 °C or −310 °F) and a small percentage can survive above boiling temperature (105 °C or 221 °F) for up to two hours.[7] Once placed in briny (salt) water (> 5‰), the eggs hatch within a few hours. The nauplii, or larvae, are less than 0.4 mm in length when they first hatch. Brine shrimp have a biological life cycle of one year.

Not exactly. I went back after I got over the initial shock and dumped the top layers of the salt into a large jar and added water to see what would happen. All kinds of stuff appeared including a mother ship of sorts. It looks like a miniature milky colored version of the kelp with air bulbs that you find washed up on the beach. There seem to be many stages of these creatures floating around. Obviously they have been engaged in much more than cryptobios and anhydrobiosis.

It was a big box of salt and it was supposed to be kosher!

Look at it this way: you got your sea monkeys and didn't have to send away for them.

So these are Jewish sea monkeys?

esseff44, spread the rest of the salt out on a cookie sheet and bake it in the oven for awhile. Then you won't have to throw it out. All those critters will just add flavor.

Shellfish and crustaceans are generally not kosher.

Incidentally, there has been an issue with New York City tap water because of tiny creatures called copepods. While generally harmless, some rabbinical authorities consider them not kosher. Others view their incidental presence as not important.

These creatures are somewhat similar to brine shrimp. I am rather surprised that brine shrimp could be moving around in pure, dry salt.