Coverage by blogs of this year’s WSOP has been pretty bad.  I’d say something profane, rather than just pretty bad, but if I stop and think about, I try not to cuss out loud.  I don’t stop often, you may have noticed.  Still, to the point, blog coverage of the WSOP has been, as I say, pretty bad.

I think that’s because some big-shot bought up the media rights.  As a certified Citizen Journalist, that just sucks.  Harrah’s owns the WSOP lock, stock and ginormous bags’o'cash, so that’s their right, of course.  I don’t think it does the game any good at all, though.

FWIW, I’ve loved Pauly’s coverage, as always, the little bit that I guess he’s allowed to post.  Dan and his crew have been good, but seems to be playing catch-up all the time.  Embargo?  Who knows?  Maybe someone will tell us.  Maybe they already have, and I’m too slow to pick up on it.  Probably, though, it doesn’t matter, since it’ll all be Flash-embedded video someday, and everybody can forget how to read, finally, and throw away all their parent’s books.

It’ll be interesting to see if I get any comments here, since there aren’t any links.  I’m convinced nobody reads anything that’s not on their favorite aggregator anymore.

This is interesting:

They’re not selling, just providing the hook-up ‘twixt interested parties. I’m thinking I’m gonna put in a request on a Dan Wesson 1911, and see what happens.

In other news, .308 ammo isstill very spendy, and genuine M1A mags from Springfield are hard to find. I’ve got no beef with that Russki Silver Bear ammo, though…runs just fine through my M1A, with no hideous side-effects I’ve been able to observe.

Business: Cigarmakers in a panic

Eric Newman punches the numbers on his calculator and gapes at the results one more time.It’s no mathematical error: The federal government has proposed raising taxes on premium cigars, the kind Newman’s family has been rolling for decades in Ybor City, by as much as 20,000 percent.

As part of an increase in tobacco taxes designed to pay for children’s health insurance, the nickel-per-cigar tax that has ruled the industry could rise to as much as $10 per cigar.

Aren’t we getting close to a mutiny here somewhere? Does a cigar maker throw up barricades, arm themselves to the teeth, and tell the revenuers to come and get the fooking tax? Black market, perhaps?

Or is America just a land of sheep, content with their lot? Extremely healthy sheep, with no vices. But then — sheep don’t have vices, do they? Neither are their parents expected to be responsible for keeping the kids healthy - that’s someone else’s job. That guy that keeps shearing them, that’s whose job.  Who’s that, these days?

Here’s the source of the controversy: The Democrat controlled Congress has sought an extra $35-billion to $50-billion for the state children’s health insurance program. The program distributes payments to the states to help buy coverage for kids not poor enough for Medicaid.

If that last sentence doesn’t compute for you, like it doesn’t for me — well, you’re a heartless bastard to question why the federal government is helping kids not poor enough for Medicaid.  Which seems to me, if you do the math, that now the Federales are responsible for every kid, every where, all the time.  Either you’re poor enough for Medicaid, or…you’re not, right?

Well, this is what you get, America — a good, hard screwing.  Shut up and take it like a sheep.

IPhones flooding wireless LAN at Duke University - Network World

That’s because the misbehaving iPhones flood the access points with up to 18,000 address requests per second, nearly 10Mbps of bandwidth, and monopolizing the AP’s airtime.The access points show up as “out of service.” For 10-15 minutes, there’s no way to communicate with them, Miller says. “When the problem occurs, we see dozens of access points in that condition,” Miller says. The network team began capturing wireless traffic for analysis and that’s when they discovered that the offending devices were iPhones. Right now, Miller says, there are about 150 of the Apple devices registered on the campus WLAN.

Silver lining: That’s one powerful processor from Genius Steve Jobs, cranking out eighteen thousands ARP requests per minute and killing access points for 15 minutes at a time! Frankly, I can’t believe the WiFi dudes didn’t anticipate correctly and understand the power of the brilliance of the iPhone.  Idiots.

Dark cloud: I’m probably going to have to buy an iPhone — Palm is circling the drain, the Helio Ocean doesn’t support Outlook sync, Windows CE Mobile Smartphone Xbox Zune-a-rooni can’t decide what it wants to be and it’s a hideous interface, to boot.  At least with Apple, I’d be in the cozy confines of Brother Job’s velvety glove and I’d never have to decide what I want and just buy whatever he tells me to.