Blood money Apr 7, 2010
I had been in the practice of giving blood on a regular basis, right up until I visited one of the countries on the "we don't want your blood" list.  So I'm out of the game for a year.  But shortly before I got disqualified, the blood collection center started a loyalty rewards program where the volume of blood you donated equated to a certain number of points which could be used to buy merchandise through an online store.  I wanted to use up some points before they expired, so I ended up buying a video game (which turned out to be terrible, but that's not the point).  I couldn't help but notice that I quite literally payed for that video game with my own blood.  It seems kind of macabre, but really it was just simple economics:  They need blood; I have blood.  I give blood; I get stuff in return. #health
Working for free Apr 7, 2010
Sometimes when a person has been working for quite a number of years, the money they could be collecting from their 401k, pension, and social security add up to more than their current income.  Thus, they're working for free.  Or more accurately, they're losing money by working.  This doesn't happen all that often, and it seems to only happen to people who aren't capable of appreciating the situation and finally retiring.  They could actually be making more money by doing less, yet they continue working because they have nothing else to do.  There's not a snowball's chance in hell I'll ever be in this "predicament." #business
Weather prediction assessment Apr 7, 2010
One of the things I do on a regular basis is check the weather forecast.  Will it be warm enough to leave my windows open today?  Do I need an umbrella?  Will the sky fall on my head?  Etc.  But checking the forecast means I'm relying on a prediction of future events, and unless you're Steve Jobs, your predictions are occasionally wrong.  It's ok to be wrong, but three pieces of information would help me understand things better: 
  1. Who was wrong?  Was it a specific meteorologist, or a certain atmospheric model?
  2. How often?  If Mike the Meteorologist is right 30% of the time, and Bob the Meteorologist is right 60% of the time, I'd probably put more faith in Bob.  Even though Bob has an annoying voice and can't hold his liquor.
  3. How wrong?  If the predicted temperature was 75°F but it's actually 70°F, that's better than a predicted temperature of 35°F versus an actual temperature of 30°F.  Yes, they're both 5° off, but the first prediction is 7% off, while the second is 17% off.  That's a fairly significant difference.
Ideally, you could combine all those assessments into a single number, so any prediction of future weather events would come with a percentage probability of it actually happening.  That way, when they say it's supposed to snow next week but it turns out to be sunny and hot, you can simply look at the probability and realize something like 5% isn't a very confident number. #nature
Osaka Binn Rogen Apr 7, 2010
Names for Osama Bin Laden used in this Onion article: 
  • Olala Win Robben
  • Osaka Binn Rogen
  • Orlama Win Roben
  • Owanda Bun Luvin
  • Paga Tin Stogen
  • Pajama On Llama
  • Okenny Ben Loggens
  • Oggie Ring Quabben
Pajama On Llama wins the prize. 

Update:  The Onion keeps intentionally changing the title of the article.  Perfect. #sociology