Matt Meade » Random

Insurance B.S.

Matt Meade — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:07:00 +0000

So my insurance is going to be twice as much as expected because I did not have insurance for a full 6 months before signing up now. The exact nature of the extra charge seemed a little sketchy and unexplained. Was it a penalty for not having it before, or a discount you get for having it before?

“Its a discount you don’t qualify for, since you didn’t have insurance for a full 6 months prior” he clarified.

That seemed fair, they can give discounts t whoever they want as long as I’m not being penalized arbitrarily.

“What if the person hasn’t been driving? Or is a new 16 year old driver, or is moving here from a state where insurance is not required?” I asked.

Of course they somehow get the discount, the discount that’s supposed to be “for having insurance for a full 6 months prior”

“How do you know if I’ve been driving?” I asked.

It turns out I would need to provide proof I hadn’t been driving.

Bullshit semantics. It isn’t a discount for having insurance for 6 months, its a penalty they are charging me for driving around without insurance.

Instead of giving me a discount, which would encourage me to comply with the law, their company has chosen to use the threat of the law to make money.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind, nor have I ever minded, paying when I break a law. Its just that I normally don’t pay a corporation, without a trial, where the burden of proof is on the accused.

Stay classy Triple A…

That makes about as much sense as the “drivers responsibility fee” the state charges drivers with tickets they have already taken care of, and how that’s somehow not double-jeopardy.

Hybrid shark has scientists and reporters acting like assholes!

Matt Meade — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:09:12 +0000

This is one of the most awful articles I have ever read. It’s about the discovery that 2 very similar types of sharks have been cross-breeding.

They are clearly trying to punch up the article and make it more interesting by adding bullshit conjecture.

First off, they keep calling it “evolution” when it’s just 2 different animals mating and getting traits from each parent. That’s not evolution. Horses and donkey’s don’t get together and “evolve” a mule. It’s just crossbreeding.

“This is evolution in action.”

Secondly, why throw global warming into this? I could see it maybe being relevant if a species of shark truly did evolve to survive in different temperatures, but that’s not what happened. It just had sex with another shark. Do you really think the shark was studying global warming and decided it would be wise to mate with a species that likes different temperatures?

“It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.”

Why don’t you try to connect it to terrorism while you’re at it, since you’re just making up shit based on whatever is topical?

At one point they even babel a sentence that makes absolutely no sense:

“If the hybrid was found to be stronger than its parent species — a literal survival of the fittest – Simpfendorfer said it may eventually outlast its so-called pure-bred predecessors.”

So now survival of the fittest is “literally” when a hybrid is stronger than it’s parent and MAY outlast them? Thanks for redefining that term to whatever works in your article…

World-first hybrid shark found off Australia – Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/world-first-hybrid-shark-found-off-australia-070347608.html

January 12, 2012

Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world’s first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.

The mating of the local Australian black-tip shark with its global counterpart, the common black-tip, was an unprecedented discovery with implications for the entire shark world, said lead researcher Jess Morgan.

“It’s very surprising because no one’s ever seen shark hybrids before, this is not a common occurrence by any stretch of the imagination,” Morgan, from the University of Queensland, told AFP.

“This is evolution in action.”

Colin Simpfendorfer, a partner in Morgan’s research from James Cook University, said initial studies suggested thehybrid species was relatively robust, with a number of generations discovered across 57 specimens.

The find was made during cataloguing work off Australia’s east coast when Morgan said genetic testing showed certain sharks to be one species when physically they looked to be another.

The Australian black-tip is slightly smaller than its common cousin and can only live in tropical waters, but its hybrid offspring have been found 2,000 kilometres down the coast, in cooler seas.

It means the Australian black-tip could be adapting to ensure its survival as sea temperatures change because of global warming.

“If it hybridises with the common species it can effectively shift its range further south into cooler waters, so the effect of this hybridising is a range expansion,” Morgan said.

“It’s enabled a species restricted to the tropics to move into temperate waters.”

Climate change and human fishing are some of the potential triggers being investigated by the team, with further genetic mapping also planned to examine whether it was an ancient process just discovered or a more recent phenomenon.

If the hybrid was found to be stronger than its parent species — a literal survival of the fittest – Simpfendorfer said it may eventually outlast its so-called pure-bred predecessors.

“We don’t know whether that’s the case here, but certainly we know that they are viable, they reproduce and that there are multiple generations of hybrids now that we can see from the genetic roadmap that we’ve generated from these animals,” he said.

“Certainly it appears that they are fairly fit individuals.”

The hybrids were extraorindarily abundant, accounting for up to 20 percent of black-tip populations in some areas, but Morgan said that didn’t appear to be at the expense of their single-breed parents, adding to the mystery.

Simpfendorfer said the study, published late last month in Conservation Genetics, could challenge traditional ideas of how sharks had and were continuing to evolve.

“We thought we understood how species of sharks have separated, but what this is telling us is that in reality we probably don’t fully understand the mechanisms that keep species of shark separate,” he said.

“And in fact, this may be happening in more species than these two.”

Happy New Year!

Matt Meade — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:20:00 +0000

So this year, for the first time, I did the whle public, downtown, crowd thing for New Year’s Eve.

Not bad, I’ll probably do it again.

I even had some sauerkraut for good luck (by way of a reuben dog @ The Dog Pit)

So I haven’t updated in a while…

Matt Meade — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:30:40 +0000

Did some rearranging, figured there’s no sense having blogs on the front page if I only update every 500 years… I have been extremely busy lately, which will come to a head in the week to come as a struggle … Continue reading →

Father’s Day

Matt Meade — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:13:32 +0000

Had a great Father’s Day with Stephanie’s family. Got to go swimming in their pond and trampolining, and ate the biggest steak anyone has ever seen.

R.I.P. Louise Martin

Matt Meade — Thu, 19 May 2011 21:22:31 +0000

My grandmother died today…

Some pics

Matt Meade — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:30:27 +0000

A couple random pics: a flower from my yard, a statue downtown, proof that my friend Octopus loves Justin Bieber…

Bad Drivers

Matt Meade — Thu, 12 May 2011 08:20:34 +0000

Bad drivers are especially hilarious when they think YOU are the bad driver, and THEY are in the right.

Every day I take 96 home and there’s a lane that just ends. Important news-flash to people who are in a lane that is ending: MERGE!

I guess the alternative is to honk angrily at the people next to you in the lane that doesn’t end (You know, just for legally driving down the road) and looking like a huge douchebag.

You know what, keep doing it either way really. Just don’t crash into me please.

ROOS!

Matt Meade — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:46:44 +0000

Oh my god. Thanks to an episode of Psyche I just realized that the greatest and best thing in the world DIDN’T dissapear off the face of the planet just because of their utter stupidity…

That’s right, they still manufacture and sell ROOS people… I have missed out on like 30 years of ROOS…

Well I’m gonna make up that lost time by wearing them 24/7. I’m getting a pair and that’s final!

ROOS

Happy Birthday Houdini

Matt Meade — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:46:55 +0000

Though we have never met, you have inspired me.

“my brain is the key that sets me free” – HH

“The greatest escape I ever made was when I left Appleton, Wisconsin.” – HH