Category: World o’ Biz

Tuesday’s terrific tracks through the intarwebs

The thing about higher chordates is how we can look similar.

Jesus!  Potentially toxic extremophile fungus in the dishwasher?

Playing with our food.

Not finding any food at all.

I keep finding reasons to want to go to Chicago.

I didn’t much like the article, but I enjoyed the illustration of proto writing.

Jesus! That’s a big statue.

Up at 2:45 this morning

This early rising business MUST stop.  So I guess it’s time for a roundup.

Adult onset diabetes foreshadowing in rising level of 5 proteins.  Link here.

Lots of lawsuits won’t necessarily help your case.  Righthaven screwed up, but fair use rights have been protected.

A very commonly used contemporary chart about radiation exposure, which I only link to on the off chance one of my readers hasn’t seen it yet.  Here.

The “serpent storm” on Saturn.  via Nasa/Cassini.

The assault of the Repulsigans on women’s rights continues.  Honestly, though, the “Harper Government” would do the same thing if they thought they could get away with it; fortunately the Bloc Québecois would have a collective seizure if they tried to pass something like this.

The assault of the Repulsigans against anybody who dislikes factory farming continues.  In what universe is it illegal to take a picture of a farm? (link removed for security reasons).

From chipper, an ad for what she termed a ‘proofreader’s delight’.

Also from chipper, some lovely ‘supermoon’ pix from England.

I have no idea how church went yesterday, I was in the kitchen helping Peggy with coffee. Gave Carol a ride home and picked up some frozen fruit so I can make fruit toppings for pancakes a bit at a time.

 

Heavy sigh, happy sigh

So the heavy sigh is for missing posting yesterday, but I got called into work.  The great thing about temping is that you get to see what other places to work really look like.

This place had:

  • decent coffee
  • an infestation of mechanical engineers about six deep
  • it’s own ERP
  • a decent fast restaurant in the basement
  • one bus ride from here
  • less than twenty minutes from here
  • walking distance from here in a pinch or bad weather
  • interesting, worthwhile work
  • and the job is currently available

The heavy sigh is because I won’t get it, but gosh it was pleasant working there and I would have had loads of fun teasing elderly engineers.  I would have also got to watch the Skytrain go by all day long, which doesn’t hurt my feelings.

BEST LINE OF THE DAY.  One of the engineers, responding to something a contractor was saying in a conference call, and sounding, how shall I put it, mildly exasperated, said, “You are confusing expediency with practicality“, which caused me to SWOON.

Then I came home after a satisfying day, smiling in the rain and clutching my signed sheet, which I still haven’t faxed, and found my brother had just got home.  He said, “I got ya a present, I hope you like it.”

Well, it was from that batch of slides that Loki processed from 35 millimeter to digital, the slides from when we were, like, 9 months old and 2 and a half, respectively, and Jeff’d had it blown up to half poster size (with Blossom Su of course, the framing magician of pictures, art and media, she wot did the Inuit hunters).  Of all of the pictures in that batch, it was the one I wanted.  Both of us look incredibly goofy, and nothing much has changed.  I could hardly be more pleased.

A thoroughly satisfactory day.

Today, dentition maintenance at noon.  Dafter Katie (that’s daughter written US Revolutionary War style) is going to Victoria to be a prop and stay to her grandmother (and, if I may be so bold as to say it, to get the hell out of Dodge the week before her -hopefully- last legal encounter with her ex boyfriend.)

Also today I have to phone my old employer and work some contacts.  I am so ready to go back to work it’s ridiculous.  And to think, a couple of weeks ago, I thought I had forgotten how.  I am anticipating work – but things are, apparently, not very rosy at the old place and I have had two different engineers tell me not to come back, although I suspect both of them have ulterior motives.  Maybe it IS time for me to move on, can’t step in the same stream twice, harrumph harrumph.

I know we’re all too smart to fall for this

But here’s a reminder from TELUS anyway:

 

TELUS is warning customers to be aware of these frauds, and to just hang up when scammers call.

The scams are:

  • Fraudulent email to telus.net email customers. The email falsely states TELUS is sending this email to all customers for ‘safety/maintenance from spam mails.’ It asks users to reply to the email with account information including name and password, saying they will be disconnected if they do not reply.
  • Credit card limit increase phone scam. The fraudster claim to be with your credit card company and offers to increase your credit limit. He/she asks for information to verify who you are. If the caller was actually from your credit card company they wouldn’t have to ask for basic information.
  • Vehicle warranty. There are several variants of this scheme and in most cases the caller is attempting to sell a warranty extension for your vehicle. Several of the organizations behind these schemes have been banned from soliciting in some provinces and states due to misrepresentation of their products and failure to comply with local insurance laws.
  • 809 Caribbean scam. The fraudster will try to convince the customer to call a number starting with 809 about winning a prize or a lawsuit or for information about an injured or ill family member. 809 is the country area code for the Dominican Republic, which lacks the robust phone laws Canadians are accustomed to. When victims call back, they are often put on hold for an extended period of time, racking up large phone bills.
  • The 90# scam. This phone scam affects businesses with a commercial switchboard called a PBX. These systems have a feature that allows switchboard operators to give callers an outside line by dialing 9, 0, #. Fraudsters take advantage of this feature by posing as technicians or other legitimate callers, and convincing operators to give them an outside line which they then use for an expensive overseas call. While residential phone customers cannot be directly affected by this scam they do get calls, which can often be frightening.