Presto’s Ramblings

From Reuters/Yahoo:
The price of a license to operate a New York taxi cab hit a record $600,000 in May, according to a lending company which financed the purchase.
Medallion Financial Corporation said it had financed the purchase of two medallions — the license to operate a yellow cab in New York — for a total of [...]

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This is a new instrument I haven’t heard of before called a Hang(pronounced ‘hung’ or ‘hong’). It sounds similar to a steel drum, but with a mellower tone. It’s an incredible instrument, and I’d love to get one, but I understand that it requires a trip to Europe to get one. The [...]

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This has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. Take a picture of french fries, and you are now suspected of being a terrorist? Some of these jackboot wanna be’s have got to get a clue. If these are type of the people that stand between us [...]

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base of crane, originally uploaded by Presto3.
The final report on the crane collapse in Bellevue last November has come out, and as expected, the design of the base is at fault. From [...]

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Story at BoingBoing.

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I’ve recently been looking around the Net for statements about anarchism, inspired by Claire Wolfe’s recent interest in writing a credo. While searching the net, I found this an incredibly eloquent summation of anarchism written by a writer who goes by the handle of Catfarmer. I found it so beautiful I asked for [...]

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Several days ago, I had trouble publishing a post, so I had to try several times. Now, five days later, the posts I tried to put up suddenly appeared, leaving me with three duplicate posts. Strange. I’ve fixed it now, but I think that it’s funny that posts took five days to [...]

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If you hate high gas prices, this one will make your blood boil. From Yahoo/AP:
MERRILL, Wis. - A service station that offered discounted gas to senior citizens and people supporting youth sports has been ordered by the state to raise its prices. Center City BP owner Raj Bhandari has been offering senior citizens a [...]

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Yahoo/AP gives us this bit of news that shows just how well things are going in Iraq:
LONDON - The chance that an Iraqi child will live beyond age 5 has plummeted faster than anywhere else in the world since 1990, according to a report released Tuesday, which placed the country last in its child survival [...]

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