Items to be Noted

The following are items to be noted. Feel free to comment, I am not sure whether I have the time or the energy to do so myself, but I need a break (see last item):

• I have (finally) updated my blogroll to include new web-friends like Anomie and Andrew. I say finally, because this was part of my plan to "modernize" the feel of ye old blog.


• As I typed out the urls to each of their websites, I now realize that Anomie and Andrew both have exactly the same number of characters in their urls (25) - a trait which they also share with Jeremy. That's weird.


• I have not yet finished my blogroll (yes, I know what I just said...but, just because I improved it doesn't mean that it is done). It is not immediately obvious that if you click on each of the subjects under "Blogroll", then you can see the list. The fact that this is not immediately obvious is why it is not done yet.


• The UAW initiated a nation-wide strike against General Motors yesterday, the first nationwide strike in 37 years. The strike is seventeen hours old and I am already tired of hearing or reading quotes from David Cole from the Center for Automotive Research, or C.A.R. (haha! isn't that funny...). He seems to be the "go-to" quote for this thing. His analysis that everyone wants to find out about? He says , "This is a fragile situation right now. If this thing got out of hand, it could be a serious issue for some union suppliers." That's right, it's all on the workers to go back to work without a guarantee that a) GM has to pay previously negotiated and guaranteed benefits and b) that management can, if they so decide, fire those very same workers they are claiming desperately need to come back to work now.


• In other union news, the employees of the GAO filed for and won a union election this week. Stephen Barr noted the "online picket line" created on YouTube (I couldn't find that, but I could find this infomercial). They won by a 2-1 margin with 74% of eligible employees voting.


• I am perpetually perplexed by one characteristic of the English language. When does one use the "-ical" ending as in "geographical" or "analytical" as opposed to the "-ic" ending as in "geographic" or "analytic" ending. I've seen people do it both ways, but I don't know if there is one way more appropriate than another... Any help would be much appreciated as I write a codebook for the project I work on. Talk about the most boring of boring things to write (and now you know why I am doing things like counting the number of characters in web addresses...)!

Happy Tuesday!