Saturday Stuff: Thank God for the BBC

Not much going on outside the BBC's Twitter feed.  But thankfully, @BBCWorld has saved me

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V.A.’s Acting Chief: West Point Graduate and Ex-Leader of U.S.O. (NYT)
"The man who is tem­porar­i­ly re­plac­ing Er­ic Shin­se­ki as sec­re­tary of vet­er­ans af­fairs is a West Point grad­u­ate, a one­time banker and a for­mer chief ex­ec­u­tive of the Unit­ed Ser­vice Or­ga­ni­za­tions (known to most Amer­i­cans as the U.S.O.) who joined the De­part­ment of Vet­er­ans Af­fairs just three months ago...

Dur­ing his five years at the U.S.O., Mr. Gib­son over­saw “dra­mat­ic growth,” ac­cord­ing to his of­fi­cial bi­og­ra­phy on the Vet­er­ans Af­fairs web­site, which notes that “net fund-rais­ing grew 90 per­cent.” Be­fore his time there, Mr. Gib­son spent more than two decades in bank­ing in cities in­clud­ing Char­lotte, N.C., At­lanta, Nashville and Birm­ing­ham, Ala.

The son of a mem­ber of the Army Air Corps who served as a B-17 tail gun­ner dur­ing World War II, Mr. Gib­son  grad­u­at­ed from West Point in 1975 and lat­er ob­tained a mas­ter’s de­gree in eco­nom­ics from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mis­souri, Kansas City, and a mas­ter’s in pub­lic ad­min­is­tra­tion from Har­vard."

So.  Very smart guy with a wealth of finance/public policy experience but not much background in large scale medical service.  He's got a tough job in front of him without more resources.

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I didn't read the article, but this picture is too funny:

Also sprach Zarathustra http://t.co/szY39RnJBd How a fat cat with a big name is gatecrashing beloved artworks pic.twitter.com/uHcfy6Vrkk
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 31, 2014

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WOAH TOKYO THIS AIRPORT SITUATION !!!!! pic.twitter.com/5HLxaZmKdi
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) May 31, 2014

 That looks terrifying.

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Meet the Celebrities Who Hate the Internet (ABC News)
Argh.  This article should've been titled, "Meet the women who don't understand their own job descriptions."

Here's a hint: Fire your publicist, change your name, and move to Nebraska.  Trust me, no one will ever think of you again.

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Go Figure: The week in numbers http://t.co/XCJM6A29zm #BBCGoFigure pic.twitter.com/1fOBd3a4JI
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 31, 2014

It's sad.  I want to do what I can to help, but unfortunately, I feel like most people are looking for a solution that requires no time, no effort, and no dedication.  They won't change their diets, they won't exercise on a schedule, and they don't listen when you try to talk to them about healthy and fitness and what it takes to achieve both.  Adults especially either can't make a commitment or are too afraid to admit that they need to learn a few things to make any progress.

*sigh*

Every year, we have a bunch of new hopefuls join the Triathlon Club, and every year, they make it to less than a half-dozen practices before falling out of the routine.  I guess it's the early Saturdays, but it might also be the fact that the work is difficult, that I don't offer a panacea and can't run the miles or swim the laps for them.  Or maybe we've just become too tightly-knit as a group by now, and new folks don't feel welcome, although I hope that's not the case.  Regardless, I find it frustrating to see so many people give up on their dreams without even putting forth what would appear to be even a modest effort to achieve them.  I don't get that.

And... now I feel like I need to go workout.

Have a nice Saturday!