FCC gets 317,450 calls the day analog signals are cut off

LOS ANGELES - The Federal Communications Commission received about 317,450 calls to its help line, 888-CALL-FCC, on Friday, the day analog signals were cut off.

In all, almost 700,000 calls came into the federal hotline last week, the FCC said, from people confused about the nationwide move to drop analog TV signals and broadcast only in digital.

The move to digital-only TV was delayed from Feb. 17, and ramped-up efforts at spreading the word is credited with roughly halving the number of unprepared households since then. Nielsen Co. put the number of unready homes at 2.8 million (2.5 percent of the total television market) as of last Sunday.

HELLLLLLO!!!???? They've been telling the public for 3 years this was coming. How freakin' clueless do you have to be?

Further research by DDDN studios has determined most of the calls were from people who look a lot like this...



And these fine folk from Arkansas...


The good folk from Louisiana...


And these fine folk...


Maybe the FCC could have told these fine people that, "NO the crappy TV you bought at OTASCO in 1974 will not work when the signals are converted to digital." No doubt there was some confusion about whether or not the RCA console TV your grandpa left you back in 1986 would work or not. I guess it wasn't enough to offer FREE COUPONS to purchase converter boxes for two years prior to the switch over. And perhaps the notice they gave in February that extended the cut off date an additional 4 months so their dumbasses would have yet another chance to buy a converter box for their TV was not enough notice. The offspring of these rocket surgeons are swimming in the same gene pool your kids swim in. May God help us all.

Umpire ejects entire crowd during baseball game

WEST BURLINGTON, Iowa – An umpire has emptied the stands at a high school baseball game, ejecting the entire crowd of more than 100 fans for being unruly.

Umpire Don Briggs said he had no problem with any of the student athletes during Thursday's game between Winfield-Mount Union and West Burlington.
Freakin' awesome. Napoleon complex anyone? There is no way it was as rowdy as any game I've seen. And I've seen basketball games where the police escorted the referees to their cars.






Yeah he dropped the ball.

We need more people like her in the world.

Manicurist sells house and car to build school.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- When Washington manicurist Lidia Schaefer returned to her native village in Ethiopia, she was troubled by what she saw: children walking three hours each way to attend classes held not in a school, but under a tree.

When she learned in 1998 that one of the girls she'd met -- Medhine -- had been attacked and killed by a hyena after falling behind other children during the long trek home from school, Schaefer knew she had to act.

She began setting aside a third of her salary and all of her tips, and later sold her house and car, to raise enough money to build a school for the village.

"She's definitely not your average manicurist," says Denise Abrahams, a longtime client.

"This is the kind of thing that you hear about Oprah Winfrey doing."

For Schaefer, it was simply a matter of doing what felt right. "I don't work with my head," she says. "I really work with my heart."
Born in Feres Mai, a large village in northern Ethiopia, Schaefer moved to the United States in the mid-1970s when civil war broke out at home.

At first I was like who cares, what about the millions of kids in the USA that have no school close to home etc...but it's her home land, so I'm cool with it. She's an awesome person and the karma she receives from this act will be great. Good on ya!

Barry Switzer...is there anything he can't do?

Finally some legislation that matters

WASHINGTON — Congress soon might mute screaming TV-ad announcers who press viewers to "buy now!" — if broadcasters don't beat the lawmakers to the volume button.

Under a proposal to be taken up Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission would squelch ad volumes to the average decibels of the TV show during which they appear.

Currently, TV ads can't be louder than the loudest peak in a show, said David Perry , the chairman of the broadcast production committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies in New York . Ads often seem louder to viewers, he added, because a program's volume peak rarely comes just before an ad.

"Every time the ads came on they blew me out of my seat," said Rep. Anna Eshoo , D- Calif. , who introduced the bill last June. "It really turns you off, makes you think, 'I'll be damned if I give them any of my money.' "
My wife makes us mute the TV during commercials. She can't stand the loudness. I don't watch live TV unless its a sporting match of some kind. SO I've been able to avoid most of the commercials (unless they are Victoria's Secret or those funny Sonic commercials).

AP IMPACT: $2.5B spent, no alternative med cures

BETHESDA, Md. – Ten years ago the government set out to test herbal and other alternative health remedies to find the ones that work. After spending $2.5 billion, the disappointing answer seems to be that almost none of them do.

Echinacea for colds. Ginkgo biloba for memory. Glucosamine and chondroitin for arthritis. Black cohosh for menopausal hot flashes. Saw palmetto for prostate problems. Shark cartilage for cancer. All proved no better than dummy pills in big studies funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The lone exception: ginger capsules may help chemotherapy nausea.

2.5 billion dollars of research? Holy crap! I know my colleague will disagree with the findings. And I'm sure he will be snorting some dried toad stool root and drinking some ground Mediterranean Fruit Bat feces tea followed by a nice rub down with striped leaf hopper stomach oil extract later to help calm his nerves that none of that stuff actually works. Enjoy.

Israeli woman mistakenly junks $1 million mattress

JERUSALEM – An Israeli woman mistakenly threw out a mattress she said had almost $1 million inside, setting off a frantic search through tons of garbage at a number of landfill sites on Wednesday.

The woman said the money had been stashed in a mattress because she had had "traumatic experiences with banks" in the past. She would not elaborate.

That's pretty funny. I thought people only kidded about hiding money in mattresses. I'm guessing she will learn to trust banks again.

The question begs to be asked, "How do you sleep on a mattress with that much money stuffed inside it?

Sources: House Democrats consider taxing benefits

WASHINGTON – Despite a less-than-rousing reaction from the Obama administration, House Democrats are considering a new tax on employer-provided health benefits to help pay for expanding coverage to the uninsured.

Several officials also said an outline of emerging legislation envisions a requirement for all individuals to purchase affordable coverage, with an unspecified penalty for those who refuse and a waiver for those who cannot cover the cost.

The president attacked the idea lustily last year when campaign rival John McCain proposed it. Instead, White House officials say Obama prefers his own suggestions: cuts in projected Medicare spending and tax increases on the wealthy that thus far have gained little favor among Democrats in Congress.

So if I understand this correctly. They will tax the money my company uses to pay for my insurance making the insurance EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE to provide to me. I would expect companies that can't or won't afford this increase, to drop the insurance coverage adding more uncovered people to the mix. With their logic they are taxing the insured to pay for the uninsured's coverage. How long will it be before the taxes don't cover the benefits? Rhetorical question Woodcock! They won't cover them now. By some estimates the can raise 150 billion dollars in new taxes. The coverage they want to provide according to this article is 1 trillion dollars. Ummmm that don't add up.

They are trying to shove universal health care down our throats.

Pakistani army backs up citizens fighting Taliban

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's military has dispatched helicopter gunships to the volatile northwest in support of thousands of angry tribesmen who have laid siege to a group of Taliban fighters, police said Tuesday.

The citizens' militia sprang up over the weekend to avenge a deadly suicide bombing at a mosque in Upper Dir district and appeared unwilling to stop pursuing the Islamist fighters, underscoring the rising anti-Taliban sentiment in much of Pakistan.

Good for you! Take back your country. Kill them with the same prejudice as they would kill you, show them no quarter.