Intriguing...

So, it turns out that greenhouse gases are bad for people, therefore the EPA gets to regulate them.

Got to love this, though:

In reaction to the EPA ruling, U.S. industries renewed calls for "responsible" climate change legislation in Congress, as opposed to letting the EPA regulate greenhouse gases.

Translation: Oh shit, please Congress, pass specific legislation neutering any effect that the EPA could have on us polluting.

Also from the article:

The EPA signaled last April that it was inclined to view heat-trapping pollution as a threat to public health and welfare and began to take public comments under a formal rulemaking. The action marked a reversal from the Bush administration, which had refused to issue such a finding, despite a conclusion by EPA scientists that it was warranted.

And yet Bush was an honorable man. So are they all; all honorable men.

Base building

One thing that I've liked since they added it, but that I've never really been able to get involved with is building a Supergroup Base in City of Heroes (the MMO I'm currently playing).

You see, to do pretty much anything in a base, you need a lot of Prestige. (It's the 'currency' you earn while fighting bad guys/completing missions while in Supergroup Mode). A lot.

I have, in my little one-man Supergroup, about 17,000 Prestige. I need..... a million?

Why, you may ask (if you even care), do I need that much?



It's an artist's rendition of a steampunk reactor.

I want to try and build something like that. I may not, in fact, probably not be able to get that exactly, but I want to try it.

It's going to require a pretty big room to put it in (which costs Prestige), and quite a few base items (scenery) to create it (which requires more Prestige... although the room itself will be the most expensive part).

I plan on gaming the system a little and putting some of my alt characters in the Supergroup for a decent Prestige boost.

Aetna says suck it

In order to meet profit goals, Aetna will be raising prices which they believe will result in 600,000 to 650,000 of their current customers having to drop Aetna.

You would think that the smart thing to do would be to not have this plan announced right in the middle of the health care reform debate. So I can only imagine that the other major health insurance providers are looking at Aetna and thinking, "YOU DUMB MOTHERFUCKERS!"

Unfortunately, this sort of tactic isn't even original for Aetna. Earlier this decade, they went from 21 million customers to 13 million which took their profit margin from 4% to 7%.

On another front, Blue Cross might be looking to play the "states rights" card in an effort to have health care reform declared unconstitutional.