Er... no thanks.

From my local paper today:

Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group is teaming up with a Silicon Valley start-up to reward smartphone-equipped shoppers for walking into Simon's shopping malls.

The partnership with technology company Shopkick Inc. is a big step in realizing retailers' long-held dream of using cell phones to beam ads and coupons to people passing by to convert them into buyers.

I think someone needs to look up the definition of "reward". I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean the same thing as "annoy".

Good Idea, Bad Idea

Leaving your 6-year-old kid in the car while you run into a store for a few minutes, tops? Probably fine.

Leaving your 6-year-old kid in the car in winter while you shop for several hours and then lose track of the car and have to ask the cops to help you find it and him? Stupid on many, many levels.

End result? Kid in hospital for hypothermia; parent arrested for neglect; CPS taking custody of child after treatment.

Okay, let me get this straight

The right-wing positions are as follows:

"Socialized medicine" is bad. The government should make sure Medicare stays viable.

Government-run anything is not as good as privatized anything. The government is handing the Moon to Russia and China by leaving space exploration to private companies.

More government spending is always bad. The two wars we're fighting need more funding and staffing.

I mean... seriously. Why haven't any of them had their heads explode yet?

Um... WHAT?

So, I'm over at Passive-Aggressive Notes, when I come across this entry regarding a note put on the artificial sweetener drawer at some office. The note reads "HOW ABOUT GOING TO THE GYM INSTEAD" [ALL-CAPS and lack of punctuation preserved from original].

My initial reaction was: But... what? I mean, you... Do you... Ummmmmm.

Or, translated: Seriously, what the hell? Did non-overweight people stop using artificial sweeteners? Was there a memo? I wouldn't have gotten it, being overweight, but... was there?

Because, I mean, even leaving aside diabetics (and contrary to popular opinion, it's possible to be skinny and diabetic), what about someone who is generally in reasonable shape who just is trying to keep their unnecessary calorie intake to a minimum? I mean, sure, unless you're a serious coffee fiend or drink a lot of tea you probably aren't using a lot of calories of sugar, but even a moderate coffee-and-or-tea drinker could easily be adding 100, maybe 150 calories a day that way. Even if you aren't "dieting", that's not a bad reduction. Or if you don't care about that, it's not a bad way to reduce calories in one area that you can use to have a bigger piece of pie or a couple ounces of pretzels without increasing your overall intake.

Seriously. Do people ever stop to think... about anything?

It's like people who mock someone ordering a diet coke with their fast food. It doesn't matter how many calories the food has, you still are consuming fewer calories if you skip the sugared soda. That's how math works: when you subtract a number from a starting value, your result is a smaller value than the one you started with. (Unless you subtract a negative number, but food typically doesn't have negative calories.)

Some Statistics

Average height of women in the U.S.: Approximately 5'4"[1]
Average dress size of women in the U.S.: 14^[1,2]
Size "plus size" begins at: 12-18, depending on the store.

Typical height for models: 5'8" and above
Typical dress size for "normal" size models in the U.S.: 0-4^[2,3]
Typical dress size for "plus" size models in the U.S.: 8-12^[2,4]

[1] Height based on 2002 CDC report, the latest available. Dress size is from fashion media reports; CDC reports 36" average waist, which depending on source may be anything from 14-20.
[2] Standard U.S. dress sizes. Where "standard" means "not really".
[3] Some firms and designers may go slightly higher.
[4] Some firms and designers start or go higher.