Category: Random Stuff

California Cosmetics Company Fined $1 Million for Importing North Korean Made Fake Eyelashes

| February 4, 2019

Just another reason why companies should not source products from China:

California firm E.L.F. cosmetics has agreed to pay a nearly $1 million fine for importing fake eyelashes containing materials from UN-sanctioned North Korea, according to the US Treasury Department.

Between 2012 and 2017, the company imported “156 shipments of false eyelash kits from two suppliers located in the People’s Republic of China that contained materials sourced by these suppliers” from North Korea, the Treasury said in a statement.

“E.L.F.’s compliance program and its supplier audits failed to discover that approximately 80 percent of the false eyelash kits supplied by two of E.L.F.’s China-based suppliers contained materials” from North Korea, it added.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Yokota Based Coast Guard Personnel Not Getting Paid Due to Partial Government Shutdown

| January 25, 2019

This is pretty jacked up that Coast Guard personnel serving in Japan have to get food from a pantry. Regardless it is good to see servicemembers helping other servicemembers in need:

Information Systems Technician 1 Joseph Bruce takes donated items from the food pantry at Yokota Air Base, Japan, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019.

Servicemembers working without pay due to the government shutdown picked up donated groceries from a food pantry Thursday at the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo.
Twenty-two Coast Guardsmen, including 15 at Yokota and seven in Singapore, aren’t being paid during the shutdown, which started more than a month ago. The impasse stems from House Democrats’ refusal to provide President Donald Trump with the billions he demands to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico.
Other military branches have continued to receive paychecks, but the Coast Guard, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, not the Defense Department, has gone unfunded.
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz on Wednesday publicly criticized the lack of pay.
“Ultimately, I find it unacceptable that Coast Guard men and women have to rely on food pantries and donations to get through day-to-day life as servicemembers,” he said in a video posted to his Twitter account.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Tweet of the Day: So Called Experts Don’t Understand Korean Names

| January 18, 2019

Tweet of the Day: Did Everyone Have A Happy Korean-American Day?

| January 16, 2019

Tweet of the Day: At the Tank Bar

| January 15, 2019

France Implements a Mandatory Service Law for All 16-Year Olds

| November 21, 2018

So what do people think of France’s new mandatory service law?:

The mandatory part of national service will last a month, while the second, longer phase will be more closely focused on defence and security

The French government has introduced a plan to bring back national service for all 16-year-olds.

It was an idea put forward by Emmanuel Macron in his presidential campaign, to promote a sense of civic duty and national unity among French youth.

But some remain unconvinced of the benefits.

The new national service will cover all 16-year-olds, girls as well as boys, and will be divided into two distinct phases.

National service in two parts

The first phase is a mandatory one-month placement with a focus on civic culture, which the government says will “enable young people to create new relationships and develop their role in society”.

Voluntary teaching and working with charities are among the options being looked at, alongside traditional military preparation with the police, fire service or army.

The second phase is a voluntary placement of at least three months and up to a year, in which young people will be encouraged to serve “in an area linked to defence and security” – but again, they could opt to carry out volunteer work linked to heritage, the environment or social care.  [BBC]

You can read more at the link, but it seems this more like a long summer camp than national service.  I guess it is better than nothing.  It will be interesting to see how this turns out because I assume there will be legal challenges to it.

We’re Going to Do Something…..

| September 12, 2018

In honor of the 17th anniversary of 9/11, below is the best article I have read to commemorate the day from the always insightful Mike Rowe:

You’ve been very quiet about the Kaepernick PR disaster at Nike. Any thoughts? – Sam Wilder

Hi Sam. Nike’s free to celebrate whomever they wish, and Kaepernick is entitled to his opinion – kneeling, standing, or lying down. But if I was going to put someone’s face on a billboard – someone who epitomized bravery and sacrifice – I might have gone another way, especially this time of year. I might have gone with this guy – Tom Burnett.

Tom’s last act on earth was one of the most courageous things imaginable. And his last words to his wife, Deena, are among the most inspiring I’ve ever heard. Those exact words are at the top of this page, and the bottom. They were spoken seventeen years ago, under conditions I hope to never experience. I’ll never forget Tom’s last words. I hope you won’t either.  [Mike Rowe]

You can read the whole transcript from Tom Burnett’s phone call at the link.

Tweet of the Day: Crying in H-Mart

| August 24, 2018

Tweet of the Day: Freedom of Speech Overrated?

| August 10, 2018

Tweet of the Day: Pushup World Record?

| July 20, 2018