Obesity rates in U.S. leveling off.

In other words, we can’t get any fatter…

I’ve been a big fan of Norton Utilities and so on (now Symantec); I’ve used the products since my 286 days.

Like MS Word, each new cut of the product has had more features but way more bloat, most of which I will never use. And finding the stuff you need to find is, today, almost impossible.

A couple of days ago, I renewed by subscription to Norton Internet Security (virus, spam, ad blocking etc – the suite), and the email confirming it took two days to arrive.

And that email ended up in the (irony alert!) [Norton] spam folder.

Next time I think I’m going to look for a different solution…

Just take a look that new, opaque government we’ve been governed by the last half dozen years or so, and counting…

Bush Admin: What You Don’t Know Can’t Hurt Us, 2007 Version (Via Josh Marshall/TalkingPointsMemo.com.)

This is an effort to compile all the programs cancelled/classifications added and so on over the past year or so.

While the title is deliberately paranoid, I think we all realize that there will be changes to programs, to the classifications of programs and so on. That’s a given. And we (taxpayers) won’t always be given a reason for these changes, and we’ll often think something is fishy where it really isn’t

But still.

Take a look at the list, the volume of such, and the strangeness of some – closing EPA libraries for budgetary reasons, when a recent study showed these programs produced a surplus of funds, for example. Can’t have it both ways.

Just doesn’t pass the smell test.

And when you lump them all together, well, paging George Orwell…The Ministry of Truth is alive and well.

And when President Bush – and others in the administration – talk about bringing democracy to Iraq and the rest of the tinderbox that is the Mideast, is this the type of democracy they envision? One of disdain for judicial oversight, for classification of potentially embarrassing/damaging reports, for a more imperial presidency?

Or the one of our founders, based on the lively exchange of dissenting view, of checks and balances, of “advise and consent”?

Something I noticed recently – on both my home and work computers – is that CNN.com is pegging my CPU.

I noticed this at work today. I usually have at least two Firefox instances open, each with 5-10 tabs open.

Firefox was consuming my CPU.

OK, I closed and restarted Firefox (some memory leak?).

Still bad.

So I began the “scientific process” – close a tab at a time; see what appears to be the culprit.

It’s CNN.

Same here at home tonight.

I’m guessing it’s a Flash issue, but I’m not certain. But all I have to do is close CNN and my CPU use goes from 98-100% to 10% or so.

I’ll monitor, but it’s not much of a loss. CNN used to be my fav site for news online, but it has gone downhill dramatically recently.

Just not news.

Doubt me? (As you should.)

View screenshot from now (11/01/2007 9:10pm CDT), below. Look at all the yellow that is NOT news. This is CNN’s TOP page. A sweepstakes? Oprah cutting hair?

I thought there were a bunch of wars going on…