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Best Buy Optimization Is A Big Stupid Annoying Waste Of Money — Meg Marco, The Consumerist

Based on the results of the tech team’s tests, we believe that optimization is not a good deal for most consumers. Our tests show that the service did not improve performance, and there are a number of free ways to do many of the same tasks (though you may be out of luck if you just have to have those exclusive “100 system tweaks”). We’ve listed a few of them below.

Yes, having Geek Squad download your Windows updates can save you time, but the tech team found that the service was inconsistent. Best Buy hadn’t finished installing all the updates, and of course, a power cable was missing from one of the computers. The computers we received still had the trialware installed – only the shortcuts were removed from the desktop…

Read the rest here.

Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go — Thomas H. Benton, The Chronicle of Higher Education

“Just to be clear: There is work for humanities doctorates (though perhaps not as many as are currently being produced), but there are fewer and fewer real jobs because of conscious policy decisions by colleges and universities. As a result, the handful of real jobs that remain are being pursued by thousands of qualified people — so many that the minority of candidates who get tenure-track positions might as well be considered the winners of a lottery…”
Read the rest here.

Quirky

Individually-sparked, collectively developed innovation.

Why the Mythbusters won’t do RFID — Adam Savage on Youtube

White House boasts: We ‘control’ news media — Aaron Klein, World Net Daily

READY TO REVOLT: Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States — Alan Maimon, Las Vegas Review-Journal

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Doctors Will be ‘Drafted’ Under Public Option — Jim Meyers, Newsmax

The government is going to suck the life out of the greatest healthcare system on earth, unless this initiative is checked. All the more reason to pass the Scientific Freedom Amendment as soon as possible.

Faith-healing parents charged in death of infant son — Mensah M. Dean, Philadelphia Daily News

Clunkers in Practice — Wall Street Journal

“…Burton Abrams and George Parsons of the University of Delaware added up the total benefits from reduced gas consumption, environmental improvements and the benefit to car buyers and companies, minus the overall cost of cash for clunkers, and found a net cost of roughly $2,000 per vehicle. Rather than stimulating the economy, the program made the nation as a whole $1.4 billion poorer….”

Supermarket bans Jedi Knight — AOL News

Presidential Control Freaks Ruin Democracies — Alexandre Marinis, Bloomberg.com

Feral Houses — jdg, Sweet Juniper!

Designer Chair Transform from Arm to Rocking — Lisa Katayama, Boing Boing Gadgets

Dirty Secret No. 1 in Obamacare — Chuck Norris, Townhall.com

Obama is Hiding His Budget Update from Congress and the American People — Kim Priestap, Wizbang

In West Wing: Grueling Schedules, Bleary Eyes — Michael D. Shear, Washington Post

Adrenaline-junkie behavior is rampant in the current occupant of the White House and his staff:

“…Behind the scenes, it was even worse. The night before Obama announced the administration’s housing plan on Feb. 18 in Arizona, Sperling e-mailed the final documents at 3 a.m. and asked for comments. Five people responded immediately.

Martin Moore-Ede, a former Harvard University professor, calls it the “iron man” syndrome and says the American political workplace is one of the few that still resists a mechanism for ensuring people get rest.

One study conducted for the British Parliament found that “mental fatigue affects cognitive performance, leading to errors of judgement, microsleeps (lasting for seconds or minutes), mood swings and poor motivation.” The effect, it found, is equal to a blood alcohol level of .10 percent — above the legal limit to drive in the United States.

Obama administration officials, and their predecessors, shrug off such warnings, citing the adrenaline rush. They insist that their bodies have grown strangely accustomed to the rhythms of the job. But they acknowledge that the routine in the White House is more grueling than most had anticipated.

The staff is beginning to take a few breaks. One deputy press secretary found time to get away to Hawaii for a few days. Gibbs went to his high school reunion in Alabama, the first weekend away that he can remember.

But, he says, it is not enough.

“You go down to the mess. You have your coffee at five in the afternoon, and it just doesn’t do anything,” Gibbs lamented. “Because you realize you’re so far behind [in sleep] that a jolt — you don’t even feel it.”

The thing with Junkies is that they either hit bottom and seek help, or they continue to spiral down to the point of self-destruction. Not being able to acknowledge any power higher than themselves will doom them to the latter. When that happens, they will not be able to believe how lightning-fast everything for which they are working will come crashing down on their heads.

Honduras Defends Its Democracy — Mary Anastasia O’Grady, WSJ

“Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton object.”

The Case for Commissioning (Not Ordaining) Deaconesses — Tim Keller, byFaith Magazine

It Has Begun… Pastor Told His Bible Study Meetings Are Illegal (Video) — Gateway Pundit