This and That

Yesterday. In Woodburn, Oregon. With a clear conscience. Aware of the vitriol and/or complaints directed toward the company.

In Woodburn, in my estimation, WalMart drove out KMart. Naughty WalMart. Except, in my estimation, KMart had already driven out PayLess/RiteAid. Oh. Well, then, naughty KMart. Except, in my estimation, PayLess/RiteAid had already driven out Ben Franklin. OK, then — naughty PayLess/RiteAid. But I wonder what business(es) Ben Franklin had already driven out. Probably some mom-and/or-pop operations. Fine — naughty Ben Franklin. Except it’s likely those smaller operations competed against others, driving them away.

Sounds like Darwinian Capitalism — dog eats puppy (ie, survival of the fittest).

Am I saying the fittest is always the most fit to survive? I’m not that silly or deluded.

So, what did I buy at WalMart yesterday? A box of envelopes of a type available nowhere else in town that I’m aware of. And prints of several photos I’d uploaded from home via the Internet.

I suppose I could have gone to Salem (20+ miles one way) to find those envelopes. But it would have cost me way more than the envelopes. Besides, I would have gone on a road and used an automobile which “drove out” horses and wagons and trails from business.

And I likely would have gone to another big business to get the envelopes anyway.

Ditto for the option of ordering online instead of at WalMart.

I could say more, but what’s the use. I don’t have time nor interest.

So I shop at WalMart.

No problem.

Yeah, I know — awful headline pun.

But the news is awfully buggy this morning, as I read at Yahoo! News:

Bedbugs, the houseguests nobody wants, are back in growing numbers across the USA, and booting them from your bunk can be a lengthy, costly process.

Sixty years after near-eradication, the little bloodsuckers are infesting homes and hotels from New York to San Diego. Why the outbreak? Increased world travel and changing pest-control practices.

“The bugs had become a myth,” says Richard Cooper, an entomologist who runs a family pest control firm in Lawrenceville, N.J. “They were the monster in the closet. People don’t believe they’re real.”

So carry your bug spray and bug bombs and bug repellent and Gold Bond Medicated Anti-Itch Cream if you’re planning to stay in a motel.

Oh well.

Here’s the story:

Surgeons will attempt early next year to mend the severed nerves of young people who have suffered motorbike accidents in the first trial of a simple but potentially revolutionary technology that could one day allow the paralysed to walk again.

At least ten operations will be carried out to test in humans a technique pioneered in animals by the neuroscientist Geoffrey Raisman, who heads the spinal repair unit of University College, London. He discovered 20 years ago that cells from the lining of the __________ constantly regenerate themselves. Professor Raisman’s team believes that if those cells were implanted at the site of the damage they would build a bridge across the break, allowing the nerve fibres to knit back together.

What’s the missing word?

No fair searching for the correct answer till after you post your answer (ie, guess) here. 🙂

Last night Nance was executed. This morning it was Hicks:

Ohio executed the nation’s 999th person Tuesday, putting to death a man who was high on cocaine when he . . . .

There are several more executions scheduled for this week here in the States.

But my question reflects my frustration at being unable to track down any online photograph of either of Hicks’ victims: Brandy Green and Maxine Armstrong.

By the way, if Hicks was the nation’s 999th person as the AP reported, what’s your number?