2020 “FORESIGHT”
So Congress has passed a bill requiring the average car
manufactured in 2020 to get significantly less mileage (35 mpg versus about 45
mpg) than my neighbor’s big, comfy Prius gets
today. Wow! That’s showing ‘em! And all we had to give President Bush and the
Republicans to go along was a continuation of billions of dollars in annual oil
company tax breaks.
I’m sorry, but we need to do way better than this – and I hope
that with a Democratic President and wider margin in Congress – we will.
Department of odds
and ends . . .
CANCELING CHARGES
Charlie McChesney:
“After trying to cancel a recurring charge. have
you (or the others) called and/or written to your credit card company and told
them to stop paying and refund the past charges? I believe they will go to bat for you and should
refund at least three months worth of the charges that were paid after you
tried to cancel the charges. They have done this for me.”
F.T.C.: “As you can see by my e-mail address, I work
for the Federal Trade Commission. I have read some of your posts about
problems you and others have had with Symantec and other computer related services,
especially with cancellation. I
would like to encourage you and others to file your complaints with the FTC.
My agency maintains a consumer complaint database and it’s used extensively in
our case selection. Filing complaints on-line is quite easy. Here is
the link. If you post this information
for your readers, I’d appreciate it if you would not identify me.”
F It’s also
occurred to me to set up a web site called ClassActionIncubator. As you’ll see, I haven’t figured out yet how
to do more than claim the domain and insert a couple of lines of text. But one day you -- and an eager trial
attorney or two – might go there to post (or read) horror stories organized by perpetrator. (It occurs to me there must already be sites
like this? I have spent $10 registering the
domain for nothing? Please let me know if there are.)
KURZWEIL
Gabriel Kaplan: “My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer
a year ago at the age of 31,
which she beat by having a double mastectomy. My 16-month old daughter
has a 50% of having the same aggressive cancer gene, BRAC1. Kurzweil gives me
hope that in twenty years there will be much better alternatives to dealing
with the cancer risk. It was a
fascinating listen that gave me
added peace of mind.”
Fred Brosi: “The theme of personification of computers in some of the responses to Kurzweil's predictions remind me of an email tag
line I saw long ago: ‘Don’t anthropomorphize
computers. They hate that.’ ”
BEWARE THOSE WHO
HAVE FOUND THE TRUTH
Ted U.: “Your correspondent Randy Wolman may
well be correct in attributing the quotation ‘Keep the company of those who seek the truth, and run from those who
have found it’ to Vaclav Havel. But a very similar line (‘Trust those
who seek the truth. Beware of those who have found it’)
is often attributed to Andre Gide, who, if that attribution is
correct, would have priority, and another (‘Grant me the company of
those who seek the truth. And God deliver me from those who have found it’) has
been attributed to a much earlier personage, namely,
Isaac Newton. I have not done any checking on the accuracy of any of
these attributions, but it would be interesting to know just which one (or
ones) are correct.”