Day: March 20, 2015

Spring 2015 Starts Now

Spring 2015 Starts Now
The last winter morning, March 20, 2015, in the Philadelphia region.

Forget that white stuff this morning that was predicted by Tornado Tom. It is  6:45 p.m.. EDT and that means the vernal equinox has occurred.

That means spring has sprung.

It is porch weather as some might say. Or soon to be anyway.

Regarding the science stuff, the word equinox is Latin words for “equal night.” Days and nights are approximately equal everywhere and the Sun rises and sets due east and west, explains The Old Farmers Almanac. At the equinoxes, the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun.

 Spring 2015 Starts Now

Google Evil Capitalist Or Just Avoid Google

Google evil capitalist and you won’t find Google. Google Evil Capitalist Or Just Avoid Google

But that should be no surprise as Google has apparently been skewing its searches for some time at the expense of its competitors.

The company that gives off a hip, anti-capitalist “Don’t Be Evil” vibe is unhip, capitalist and pretty evil, according to an investigation by  the Federal Trade Commission in 2012 that was  made public yesterday, March 19, by the Wall Street Journal.

The  FTC’s Bureau of Competition found evidence that Google deliberately demoted rivals and boosted its own services at the expense of local businesses (that would be the little guys), shopping websites, and travel websites by changing ranking criteria and  removing content from those sites.

The FTC bigwigs, however, decided not to sue Google saying that  while it posed  “real harm to consumers and to innovation” it “doesn’t violate the American antitrust laws.”

CNN Money speculates that the feds just thought it was  going to be a tough case.

We, however, will note without comment that the company’s billionaire principles Larry Page, Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt are all huge donors to the Democrat Party and Barack Obama, with Schmidt actually being involved in the Obama administration.

We would suggest that one use for seraches DuckDuckGo, a scrappy Paoli-based company reputed for its respect of privacy, and Firefox in lieu of Chrome as one’s browser.

Google Evil Capitalist Or Just Avoid Google

PSSA Opt Out Map

Joanne Yurchak has informed us that Alison McDowell has has prepared an online form for parents to register their intent to opt out of the PSSAs, Keystones, and/or Benchmark Testing.  It goes to a Google spreadsheet. PSSA Opt Out Map

The link is here.

Mrs. Yurchak notes that there  is an option to provide an email She says the email will not be public, but can be used to connect with other opt out parents in your immediate vicinity upon request.

She says the map will help show where there is momentum and to build those local connections

PSSA Opt Out Map