Friday, September 25, 2009

Quote of the day

It's comforting to imagine that violence and paranoia belong only to the far left and right, and that we can protect ourselves from their effects by quarantining the extremists and vigilantly expelling anyone who seems to be bringing their ideas into the mainstream. But the center has its own varieties of violence and paranoia. And it's far more dangerous than anyone on the fringe,even the armed fringe, will ever be.
- Jesse Walker, Reason magazine

Fearing That Hideous Strength

Chicago Boyz has David Foster analyzing an interesting response from C.S.Lewis to Haldane's criticism of his non-marxist ways.

It contains bits which I've often seen quoted:
I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of
men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over
others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more
dangerous I think it both to the rulers and to the subjects. Hence
Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a
tyrant a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron’s
cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point be sated;
and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly
repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of
power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely
because he torments us with the approval of his own conscience
and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.
And since
Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to
Theocracy the worse it will be. A metaphysic, held by the rulers
with the force of a religion, is a bad sign. It forbids them, like the
inquisitor, to admit any grain of truth or good in their opponents,
it abrogates the ordinary rules of morality, and it gives a seemingly
high, super-personal sanction to all the very ordinary human
passions by which, like other men, the rulers will frequently be
actuated. In a word, it forbids wholesome doubt. A political
programme can never in reality be more than probably right. We
never know all the facts about the present and we can only guess
the future. To attach to a party programme -— whose highest real
claim is to reasonable prudence -— the sort of assent which we
should reserve for demonstrable theorems, is a kind of
intoxication.

The scientific approach: a classification system for girls

Apparently, there are supposed to be only three. One wonders whether the author had limited exposure or whether things are really that simple. None of the types actually seem suited for him.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Frying the Holy Grail

is too goofy NOT to link.

You might want to look up "British push bottles up the German rear" in the comments as well.

Everybody should do well...

...at the science quiz linked by the Bad Astronomer.

Of course I got them all right, none of the questions are obscure, although I did have some doubts about one of the questions. But it's interesting how many people miss quite a few, taking it will let you see the statistics.

Hopefully none of my Scrabble opponents read my blog....

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Annals of Unfortunate Surnames

I was reading Shakespeare's "King John", and came across a rather strangely named character: Bigot. Immediately I wondered whether maybe bigotry was named after a Frenchman the way Chauvinism was!

Well, it's not. The French surname Bigot, while unfortunate, does not appear directly related to the term "bigot", which is thought to be related to either the Germanic "Bei Gott!" (by God) or "visigoth" (there is an attested case of "Bigoth" used for "Visigoth").

Monday, September 21, 2009

This could have been from The Onion....

....but it is from the Volokh Conspiracy, a respected law blog.

The headline says it all.

Founder of Jedi Religion Claims to be Victim of Religious Discrimination

(for those lacking all nerd cred, Jedi is the religion featured in Star Wars, now the fourth most common religion in the UK, if you believe their census - and they just might be taking the mickey)

A couple of links from MR

A couple of compelling links, offered without comment from MR today:

1) A New York Times op-ed listing the last words of people about to be executed.

A couple of samples:
Kick the tires and light the fire. I am going home.
I have come here today to die, not make speeches.
I wish I could die more than once to tell you how sorry I am.
I appreciate the hospitality that you guys have shown me and the respect, and the last meal was really good.

2) The dangers involved in killing all the pigs. (yes, they did this in Egypt in a brain-damaged effort to avoid swine flu)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Quote of the Day

“All of life’s problems can be solved with two things — duct tape and WD40. If it moves and it shouldn’t, you need duct tape. And if it doesn’t move and it should, you need WD40.”
-- Any man

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Quote of the day

Another says, “And then they floated away on what I can only refer to as a cloud of bizarre midair sex.” I assume that, at this point, I was no longer talking about the ducks.
- From Woo in Review

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Frank Lloyd Wright

Today we traveled to Buffalo to see the Martin complex. It included the Barton house (sort of a beta test for Wright design, the first house he built in Buffalo - and satisfied the customer even though it went well more than 100% over budget), the Martin house, the Gardener's house, and the carriage house (yes, even the glorified garage was part of the tour).

The guy in front was our tour guide (docent), who did a great job and was well informed.



It gave me a chance to try the panoramic setting on my cellphone:

Not bad for a cellphone photo.

As good a job as they did at the Martin complex, our overall experience was marred because we also had tickets to see the Graycliff buildings, which we had booked online - but were informed that we wouldn't be able to make it there unless we cut short our tour at the Martin - apparently the two are unrelated except by being booked through the same interface. We can return some other week, Buffalo is not a long trip, but this would have been VERY upsetting for somebody who came from, say, Taiwan!

Last week there was also an example of BAD architecture:

The way that extension protrudes from its main building like a tumor (right in Rochester, near Park Avenue) struck as as preposterous.

Quote of the day

"Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake whole relationships."
--Sharon Stone

Friday, September 04, 2009

Here's a topic on which I DEFINITELY agree with Paul McCartney

There have been proposals in various countries (and I believe a successful one in Australia) to cut off people's internet access if there is even an (or at least several) accusation that they have been downloading illegally. No conviction, no trial, enough to just say so. Various artists, including McCartney, are speaking out against these efforts by the record companies.

Down by law

Coyote points at a rather extreme case of a town run only for the benefit of its lawmen....leading not only to the town moving toward being a ghost town ("saw its last business close its doors a few weeks ago", although perhaps things went the other way, with the "law" feeding on the remnants after the economy went south), but to an unarmed man shot for protesting a traffic ticket.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Making Love, or Current Reading

This was another pick from economist Tyler Cowen, who said:
My god this book is sick and I feel bad even telling you about it. It's exactly what the title promises and it has no business being discussed on a family-oriented economics blog. The language is explicit and the content is disgusting. It's also brilliant, funny, and unique. How often do I see a new approach to what a book can be? Once you get past the language and topic, it's actually about narcissism, why empathy is scarce, how we form self-images, how men classify and remember their pasts, and why management fad books are absurd.

Another rather cute review is Susie Bright's, who asks "Who is Adrian Colesberry and Why Do I Want to Make Love To Him?"

Definition of the week - Pulfrich Effect

OK, we haven't had one of these in ages. The only reason we do now is that it is just so deliciously obscure. This is an optical illusion that simulates back and forth movement based on side to side movement, with the appropriate goofy glasses.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Quote of the day

"Never be afraid to try something new. Remember amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic."

- Frank Pepper

Saturday, August 29, 2009

This is sad....

It looks like a man might have been executed for a crime that never really was....

The guy has a point....

... and I do believe the government should stay out of religions issues.

But it seems to me he is not quite honest when he says
"Muslims are allowed to marry a lot of times while Hindus aren't allowed to do so....

Why do we have such a law present here?

I didn't force them to have sex with me nor did I ever dupe them. I have married only thrice till now."


Maybe there shouldn't be a law against bi(or poly)gamy....but the wives are certainly entitled to know there are others in any society that respects at least contract law....and if he did not ever "dupe them", I would have thought each would have known about the others.

Oh, and ONLY thrice :-)

"Utopia is not an option"

Cute little catchphrase, and it captures the gist of our thinking about health care. Whatever we do, it doesn't look like we'll live forever. McArdle expands a bit on that theme, her point being that "rationing" happens one way or the other....it just seems we are a bit uncomfortable about admitting it.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Quote of the day

“It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”
-Murray N. Rothbard

Monday, August 24, 2009

Great jobs for atheists!

Ok, it's only a parody, but the parody makes sense....if you are a Christian that is taken away in rapture, who is going to care for your pets?

As MR points out, this is a competitive market, with some merchants willing to promise not only to care for your pets, but not to have sex with them either....

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Quote of the Day

"A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know
that thing you just did?' Don't do that.'"
- unknown (If you know the source, please tell me - I got it unattributed in an email)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

The ligher side of health care...

From Language Log:

It is truly almost beyond belief that the Investor's Business Daily could say in an editorial (which after much ribald mockery they have now fixed):

"People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."



I'm sure you can spot WHY this would lead to ribald mockery!

Monday, August 03, 2009

Panem et circenses - funny in a different desperate way

We've had bread subsidies for quite awhile (at least CORN bread), but now they are taking care of the circuses.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Funny in a desperate way....

There are some odd reminiscences in the health care professions....

My favorites:
#5: Stay away from people named "Some Guy" or "This One Dude", because they for whatever reason, just punch someone in the face or hit them with a crowbar and run off. If I see them on the street, I cross the street to get away from them.

#6 Never, ever leave flashlights, shampoo bottles, beer bottles or any long, circular object on the floor because someday you will fall on it and it will somehow, work its way up your rectum.

If you have taken 7 home pregnancy tests that are all positive, and you come into the emergency department...chances are that test too will come back positive.

Fat and stuck with it?

McArdle is pretty sure you can lose weight...but not much....

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Interesting......

Partially in response to their libel suite, chiropractors are under major pressure against false claims in the UK.

Only on the web....

... does a layman like me get to discuss such matters in a semi-serious way with real linguistics professors.

I even got noticed by one of the professors (and an author of a book I bought) in a sort-of approving way:
Jens is quite right: ever since fuck became a human-denoting noun (You've killed my Burmese python, you stupid fuck!), it has been possible for the fuck to occur in NP slots on a fairly broad basis. But not as a semantically inert pleonastic epithet with the affective function of conveying personal irritation. —GKP

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

National Health Care - Bad idea or big mistake?

Megan McArdle weighs in, well worth reading.

My apologies to Dave Barry.

Health update.....

Quick update on yesterday, my first colonoscopy.
I declined sedation (benzodiazepine, the stuff that makes you forget most of the procedure ever happened). They did, however, give me an analgesic (just a little bit to relieve discomfort).....Fentanyl, a drug 100 times as potent as morphine. Apparently, some people find this opiate enjoyable, but after the initial hit (which was sort of a dizzy wave) I felt completely normal.

Fully, or almost fully, alert I was able to enjoy the roller coaster ride through my large intestine on the video screen. He took out two small polyps on the way out (they go in quite rapidly, most of the inspection is done during the slow extraction). Very minor discomfort, the USA is one of fairly few countries where sedation is the norm.

Afterwards, a broccoli, onion, and cheddar cheese omelet!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Sherborne Lane sounds quite classy....

...but apparently it was originally "Shitteborwelane, later Shite-burn lane and Shite-buruelane (possibly due to nearby cess pits)".

I suppose local real estate agents insisted on the change.

But I find the older street names refreshingly honest.

'Skip' Gates - not much to say....

But I agree with Andrew Sullivan that if we are concerned about police abuses, there are other cases with higher priority.

Finally, a truly FAIR tax....

A tax on tallness.

My only reason for objecting to this one is that it is a bad precedent. What next, a tax on intelligence?

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Medical Rant....

It's the 21st century. Truly and indisputably. Don't try to tell the doctors that.

They still give me multiple forms to fill out that require me to enter my name and address. Even better than that, they ask me to tell them who they are.

Then they ask broad questions with only the most tenuous relationship to the case that are particularly burdensome on those of us who feel compelled (I have no idea why) to answer honestly. "Are there steps in your house?" OK, I can see why that might matter when it comes to counseling me about my behavior after a procedure that might leave me woozy. "How many?"

WTF????!!!

Maybe they are trying to catch the person that has just a single step down into the kitchen or something, but how useful can that count really be? (There are 26 steps, by the way, including the stairs to the second floor, the stairs to the basement, and single steps down to the family room from both the breakfast room and the dining room) It must make a pretty big difference whether I live in a tiny 4-story house with ladders or a sprawling mansion that has twelve places with shallow single steps....

Then I am supposed to give my height, in feet/inches and in centimeters, and my weight, in pounds and kilograms. They can't do their own effing conversions?

Don't even get me started on the "recreational" questions. Do I smoke cigarettes? Yes, approximately one puff every decade or so.

I write software forms that allows users to enter information using the fewest steps possible. User friendliness is the first thing we think about. If I decided to make a hobby out of doing tonsillectomies on my friends without bothering to get a medical degree first they would have the law down on my butt so fast my head (or tail) would spin. But they haven't the slightest compunction about having rank amateurs designing their user interfaces.

Get with the program.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Some advertisements are a bit hard to swallow....

This one for Gaviscon must have been a bit embarrassing.

The video here does not have the badly phrased tag line, but the coloring is still a bit out there.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

XKCD

always has insight.

And my wife always complains....

...that we only have a toilet on the ground floor and the basement. For four (or right now, three) people. It could be worse.

Change....

It's not easy moving from Germany to the United States. When I grew up in Germany, World War II was occasionally mentioned -- as a really bad time -- but nobody really dwelled on it. In America, on the other hand, popular comics still included the World War II comics like Sergeant Rock. Even Captain America was still battling mostly Nazi villains. It was considered very humorous to make gestures in my direction ("A German! Let us machine gun him!") Popular culture had Germans always ready to kill and torture innocent people. I so did not want to be a villain - there weren't, to my knowledge, even S&M clubs around where that sort of rep would make us popular.

Imagine my dismay when America came out in favor of torture - or at least winking at it. As long as our side was doing it, it was just "enhanced interrogation techniques." Orwell really knew his stuff.

One of the things that made me prefer Obama to Bush was that he didn't seem to want us to be the villains. Greenwald points out nothing has changed.

American Dream

Guy: That's the new American dream--fuck up your life so much that you get your own tv show.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Spotlight personality

Not only was Carl Michael Bellman a great composer of drinking songs, he had a whole genre of jokes named after him. One from my youth, before I knew it was a Bellman joke:
An Englishman, a Frenchman, and a German all died in the war and were sent to hell. The devil greeted them and said that he admired them for their bravery and wished to give each of them a chance to escape damnation. If any one of them could set him a task he could not perform, that one would be sent up to heaven.

The Englishman made the first attempt: one of His Majesty's greatest warships was sunk at Scapa Flow....can you restore it to its former glory? A hundred demons were set to the task, and it took them only 5 minutes to raise and repair the ship.

The Frenchman tried next: in the bombing of our cities, ten of our finest artworks were destroyed - can you bring them back and enrich our culture? A thousand efreets were dispatched, and the art was resurrected in 15 minutes.

As the Englishman and the Frenchman toddled off to eternal damnation, still pleased they had done something for their fatherlands, the German made his request: I'm going to fart now - can you paint it green?

Satan was baffled and the German was saved.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Flynn effect....

This not only has some interesting information about IQ, and how it seems to keep getting better (The Flynn Effect) - how do the curmudgeons who think the world keeps dumbing down deal with that? - it has one of the funniest corrections ever.

Of course.....

some of my friends are already doing this.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Word of the week

Hypergamy

A good quote goes with this one, too:

Consult, for example, Ring Lardner’s humorous story “I Can’t Breathe”—the private journal of an eighteen year old girl who wants to marry a different young man every week. If surveyed on her preferred number of “sex partners,” she would presumably respond one; this does not mean she has any idea who it is.

F.Roger Devlin

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Ain't technology wonderful....

The headline pretty much says is all:

Pea shooter traditionalists decry use of laser sights at annual competition

A record NOT to break....

OK, Guinness Book of World Record made a completely understandable faux pas... and then compounded it by doing what seemed like trying to sweep it under the rug with bullying.

To be honest, I wouldn't be very surprised if it was just an ordinary trademark defense without consideration of content, but it still looks embarrassing.

For those of you who don't click through, they had a "break this record" link - understandable in most categories, but not a good idea in most deaths caused by an act of terrorism.

HT Overlawyered

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Quote of the day

Never will man penetrate deeper into error than when he is continuing down a road that has led him to great sucess." - F.A. Hayek

Synecdoche update....

A while ago, that was our featured word.

Interesting take from Overheard:
Professor: An example of synecdoche would be, "get your ass over here." You want all of them, not just their ass. But sometimes, you do just want their ass. And we all know how that goes. But that sort of thing doesn't happen in a classroom... usually.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Quote of the Day

"It's not that everything he says is wrong, but the bits that are true aren't interesting, and the bits that are interesting aren't true. "

- Megan McArdle

Sunday, July 05, 2009

For the man who wants everything - at once?

We have a review of the splayd here. The idea is familiar from that of the "spork" - a combination spoon/fork with a bit of knife thrown in as well.

HT to Megan, who got me there indirectly via the Venn diagram of combination cutlery.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Quote of the day

As I wrote at the time, the Times confused what people were emailing each other with what they would be willing to pay for. If those things were the same, poems about Jesus and pictures of kittens wearing hats would have replaced gambling and porn as the internet's most profitable content.
- Megan McArdle

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Meet the new boss, same as the old was....

Obama moves to reaffirm one of Bush's most blatant attacks on our civil rights.

If he thinks you need to be locked up, who even needs a court. The fact that it won't be in Cuba won't make it any better.

HT Coyote, who also links to an explanation of the missing frog legs.

Most informative retrospective on Michael Jackson....

This one at Language Log actually explains Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa.

That practically BEGS an explanation of "chamone"!

Friday, June 26, 2009

How it works

Another good post from Coyote....

It really shows how politics and individual freedom are generally at odds. I suppose it is only natural, since politics is about controlling people and individual freedom...not. Nevertheless, the less you trust government, the more power you grant it, at least according to the guys cited here. Every day, the bucket goes to the well, but one day the bottom will drop out. Or so Bob Marley said.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Quote of the day

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

- Voltaire, rationalist & satirist (1694 - 1778)

From Samizdata

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Quote of the day

"Microeconomics concerns things that economists are specifically wrong about, while macroeconomics concerns things that they are wrong about generally." -P.J. O'Rourke

Wonder dog from hell....

Apparently, the dog in this Balko post got several people imprisoned for over a decade because juries are gullible. A scary thought.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Beer and Mother Teresa's sex life....

A lot of people would find the relationship tenuous at best....but this item shows how "I am not fucking Mother Teresa" can be interpreted the wrong way.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Kama Sutra and Chess

A rather attractive grandmaster of chess is coming out with a new book relating chess and sex. Her name is Natalia Pogonina and she is also a model and a lawyer. Sorry, she's married to another chess player already in case you boys are salivating (HT MR, by the way). Quote:
We will be reviewing the most interesting openings and middlegame positions, and relating them to positions from Kamasutra. We surprise our readers by introducing the “love theory”, which is extremely effective for developing your chess skills and becoming happy in personal life. We will share unique training methods in “sexchess”, approbated by ourselves.

Yes, I feel like playing chess again all of a sudden myself.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Quote of the day

"A killer breaks a shop window, admits it, goes to prison, and gets away with a murder. But you don't accuse yourself of murder in order to cover up a broken window."
-- Andrei Makine, "The Crime of Olga Arbyelina"

Sunday, June 07, 2009

White Bride in a Goth Wedding....

In case you've been irritated by music videos that just don't seem to match the words, here is your relief.

There's actually a set of these (music videos with sound and subtitles replaced by new lyrics to match the actions), brought to my attention by the blog of the enticingly geeky Jacqueline.

Oh - I challenge you to watch my favorite without giggling at least a little.

Capturing MILF island....

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Strutting my stuff in San Antone....

One of my missions on my San Antonio trip was....

I'd bought my mother one of those electronic picture frames a few years ago. More recently, I bought her another one (having forgotten about the first). She gratefully commented that the second one would get an honored place right next to the first in a box in her closet. So I figured it was about time I helped her set these things up with pictures of her loved ones. OK, mission accomplished, and they seem nicer now that they work for her.

During the process, I found out that she often needed to re-scale pictures, and spent quite a bit of time doing so. OK, me too. Not the only one, either - once my friend Heather's mom needed to resize a couple of photos to submit to an art show, and I helped out with that. So I decided to do what I do best (no, not "Tubthumping") and write a little application for her: now she just clicks on her "scalepix" icon, fills her "c:\shrink" directory with copies of pictures she wants smaller, clicks "Go" (or optionally, sets the desired width first if she doesn't want them 400 bits wide) and everything in the "shrink" directory gets shrunk. I can use that one myself at home, and anybody that wants one is welcome to a copy.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Detroit City

Home folks think I'm big in Detroit city.
From the letters that I write, they think I'm fine.
But by day, I make the cars,
And by night I make the bars,
If only they could read between the lines...


Nope, not making cars or bars here (shades of Rapture!), and no need to read between the lines...not that anybody thinks I'm big here. They're beginning to load people to my flight here.....so that was hardly worth paying the wireless charge.

You really feel like a homeless person when you want to find electric power at an airport!

Waiting for boarding.....

Sitting on the floor at the airport (to score some AC for my laptop) while waiting to fly from Rochester to San Antonio (connection in Detroit).

Listening to Sonic Youth's Destroyed Room, the book next to my laptop is BMOC - a fun and satiric read (although it could have benefited by a copy editor, or at least a spellchecker).

In a few hours I see my mom, haven't done that for quite a while!

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Monday, June 01, 2009

22 years of marriage, many more of life!

Saturday was my 22nd wedding anniversary, tomorrow is my birthday. Jocelyn decided to make a combined gift for me....sort of a surprise. Yesterday I was to have some clothes packed away for mysterious purposes. Naturally surprises of this sort are bound to be a bit disappointing (how could they possibly live up to the odd things in your own imagination?), but it worked out fairly well.

Jocelyn had booked us a room at the Woodcliff. At 15:00 she had scheduled a couples massage at their spa(unlike the couples massage COURSE we had on the cruise almost 10 years ago, this was just us being massaged at adjacent tables, but it was still very pleasant and relaxing).

Then 17:45 she set up dinner at the restaurant there. I had lobster bisque and the thai spiced scallops, she had the pineapple marinated flank steak. 19:25 I took her to the Angels & Demons movie at Eastview Mall, less than a mile away (ok, but not great). Then back to the hotel bar for some jazz music and dancing....followed the next morning by a walk in Powdermill Park.

At trivia Sunday we got 13, not bad with Doug temporarily replaced by Sheila, and beating two of the other top teams, but far from the incredible winning score of 17. Then Jocelyn accompanied me to bring in my birthday with karaoke, doing "These Boots Are Made For Walking" (but not walking on me very hard) and accompanying me with Heather's help on "Tubthumping".

Celebrate, good times, come on!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Quote of the day

(he) thought, while he stroked the cat's black fur, that this contact was illusory, that he and the cat were separated as though by a pane of glass, because man lives in time, in successiveness, while the magical animal lives in the present, in the eternity of the instant.

- Jorge Luis Borges, "The South"

Thursday, May 21, 2009

If you didn't want to book the fright....

...how about a cruise?

Our guarantee

We guarantee adventure

We guarantee that you will experience at least two hijacking attempts by pirates or we will refund half your money back, including gun rental charges and any unused ammo (mini gun charges not included).


I'll stick with the frights....a flight to Texas on the fifth to see my mum!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Quote of the day

Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
-Isaac Asimov

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Waiting impatiently for that fress feeling? Stinks?

This has got to be the solution for YOU! (I don't know how GUYS manage to live without it)


Click here for Engrish.com

Booking that Fright....

Title is a reference to Engrish -- and of course, the fact that I'm flying to San Antonio June 5th to see my mom.

Just got back from running the 5k in the Lilac Festival...very chilly, my son teamed up with me, and his girlfriend teamed with her mom.

Last, but not least.....Leonard Cohen in concert Tuesday night - can't wait!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Saddest xkcd ever.....

I actually know people like this.....

Quote of the day

From Radley Balko:
Finally, the “crushing the testicles of children of suspected terrorists” viewpoint has a platform!


(regarding the fact that John Yoo, Bush's torture advisor, is now writing articles for the Philadelphia Inquirer)

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Funny to anybody that gets those annoying "prizes"

comic about winning a prize

(as always, you can click on the picture to get to the original site, and do a mouseover to enjoy the cute text)

KEEP the sex quiet, won't you?

Although don't you think locking somebody up for being excessively passionate in their own home is a bit much?

Well, I suppose if you're British....

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Wolverine...

Another good one. Some critics thought that they tried to cram too many characters into the movie at once, and they were probably right. The other just criticism was that we just HAD an origin story for the Wolverine in the FIRST X-Men movie, so why have another?

None the less, the story line was good, the performances were convincing, and the surfeit of characters mostly left you wanting more detail about the ones that were given short shrift.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Star Trek Zero.....

Saw it tonight. Verdict - enjoyable, touching, nostalgic.

I am especially impressed with the way they found young actors that really seemed like plausible younger version of "The Old Series."

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Sad life of a pig.....

Apparently, with swine flu pigs are even LESS popular in Muslim countries:
The pig is a curiosity in Muslim Afghanistan, where pork and pig products are illegal because they are considered irreligious, and has been in quarantine since Sunday after visitors expressed alarm it could spread the new flu strain.

"For now the pig is under quarantine, we built it a room because of swine influenza," Aziz Gul Saqib, director of Kabul Zoo, told Reuters. "We've done this because people are worried about getting the flu."

Sunday, May 03, 2009

One Hundred Days of...Obama

I listened to a good part of President Obama's speech on the radio while driving, and I must confess it sounded pretty good to me. On the whole, I've found his presidency somewhat disappointing so far - he presents himself very well, but hasn't made any of the difficult decisions that seem so necessary these days. On the other hand, Bush had the same problem with the decisions without even presenting himself well, so I guess much more would be too much to hope for.

This article goes into things a bit deeper, describing Obama as "an effective salesman of exhausted ideas".
On the economy, and specifically on the economic crisis, Obama came to office promising a sharp break from the past. Instead, he has added so much fuel to the fires that George W. Bush ignited—exploding already swollen deficits, using TARP monies (which were statutorily provided for banks) not just for auto companies but minor auto parts manufacturers, and giving the federal government more power to seize private companies than even Henry Paulson dreamed of wielding. Such has been the extent of Obama's me-tooism that he's taken to defending his record by pointing out that, hey, Bush started it!

The latter was actually a rare moment of transparency; Obama's typical M.O. is to proclaim a new era of responsibility while ushering in a new era of irresponsible debt, promise to close the revolving door of lobbyists and government while keeping it open, and vow to post all bills online for five days without doing anything of the sort. He says the bailout is "not about helping banks—it's about helping people," then gives more of the people's money to banks. He says he doesn't want to run General Motors, then fires its CEO, guarantees its warranties, and wags his finger about the company's surplus of brands. He says he's taking a battle-axe to the budget, then offers to shave $100 million off a $3.4 trillion tab. At his gee-whiz, interactive, online town hall meeting, he laughed off the most popular question asked by web viewers—should marijuana be legalized—with a lame joke before embracing the status quo like Jimmy Carter hugging a Third World dictator.

Well, it's not as though we had much of an alternative...I don't for a moment believe McCain would have done any better. Nor is the country likely to vote my way in picking somebody of a libertarian bent, whether or not they are a member of the Libertarian party. But one change has been occurring: more and more people are describing themselves as independent rather than Democrat or Republican.

Friday, May 01, 2009

A bosom makes a VERY good pillow....

You've probably heard this song, it got a lot of radio play, but I'd bet you never made any sense of it....the name is Brimful of Asha (click on the link to get a much deeper explanation), but apparently it has been understood as many other possible words, including "Grim Poodle Basher". Pretty much the only part that made sense to me was the "Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow" interjection.

Anyway, I really enjoyed reading the explanation in my link!

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Mistresses are most expensive by the hour, wives by the year....

"girlfriends are cheapest all around"

From a comparison of sugar daddy economics highlighted in MR's "Business arrangements I would bet against".

Bonus: one of the commenters points to this arrest in a sex-for-security scam.

Quote of the day

"I am shy with women: therefore there is no God" is highly unconvincing metaphysics.
- Fernando Pessoa

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Journalism and Science - Peanutbutter and Chocolate fare much better...

The good professors at Language Log offer us another disgusted criticism of science reporting - this time the headlines pretty much promised us that Twitter would make us evil.

Yes, one more time a minor effect detected in a study is reinterpreted to yield headlines such as Facebook hurting moral values, says study and Facebook and Twitter 'make us bad people'. Not that the study actually involved Facebook or Twitter, read the article for a full description.

Professor Liberman offers credit where credit is due:
Kudos to Ben Goldacre, whose BS detector went off on cue, and who managed to get an early copy of the paper by some back-channel route ("Experts say new scientific evidence helpfully justifies massive pre-existing moral prejudice", Bad Science, 4/18/2009), and to Chris Matyszczyk at CNET, who was suitably skeptical on the basis of common sense ("Oh, so now Twitter is making us immoral", 4/15/2009). Chris also wins Best Line: "Your brain might, at this point, be scanning the thought that if all the subjects of this research were from Los Angeles, it might be surprising that the scientists found any moral compass at all."

And props to the 74% of respondents in that internet survey who weren't persuaded by this fake-scientific morality play.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Absolute zero might actually NOT be as cold as it can get....

At least that is my impression after reading this section of the tax topics.

Overcoming....

.... adversity is always inspirational. Sometimes it can be funny as well as inspirational, like when somebody has a successful life after being a boy named Sue or a girl named Marijuana Pepsi Jackson.

HT Freakonomics

Sunday, April 19, 2009

(Shaw) Quote of the day

You have been badly brought up, little darling. Would any lady or gentleman walk unannounced into a room without first looking through the keyhole?
(Potemkin in "Great Catherine")

Smart Slime Molds

Interesting experiment described HERE. (HT MR)

Accentchuate the positive...

As much fun as it is to bash Strunk&White, it leaves people who really want a guideline to good writing stranded. This post spackles that gap.

For my single friends, or those with VERY tolerant spouses...

Will somebody please try this pick-up strategy and report back how it worked?

Judge not lest ye be judged?

I'm generally not a big fan of vindictiveness...the entertainment value of stringing the rascals up on lampposts after you've thrown them out is probably outweighed by the additional evasions and maneuvers that sort of policy induces. But the case of Judge Bybee (HT Uncommon Priors) finds me just a little bit bloodthirsty.

It's not easy going out into the world as a German. Even if you were born well past all the atrocities, and even your parents were merely children at the time, you are still faced with the prototype of the sadistic villain being the sadistic German. This makes it especially painful when your new adopted country stakes out the position that (non-consensual - I have no beef with the consensual kind) torture is really OK when it seems necessary or useful.

I don't know if the man is merely a well-meaning fool, but when Ackerman writes
Under the Constitution, impeachment requires a finding of "high crimes and misdemeanors." This is a high standard. Although Bybee's opinion fails minimum tests of legal competence, he may have acted in good faith. This should protect him from conviction. But his legal distortions might also be evidence of the abdication of his fundamental legal responsibilities. Instead of engaging in a good-faith interpretation of the War Crimes Act and the Geneva Conventions, he may have merely been responding to political pressures from the White House to liberate the CIA and the military from the rule of law.

Bybee should, of course, be given a full opportunity to clarify this matter at the impeachment proceedings. But at present, his only public explanation is his extravagant appeal to executive privilege. This cannot suffice. He should be required to take personal responsibility for his actions and explain why they don't make him into a systematic enabler of the war crimes that have disgraced America.

he has a point. I'd like to see the matter at least considered.

Commenters...

Not actually getting any, I don't really have to distinguish between the types on my own...but this bestiary could be used like your North American Field Guide to the species.

When I comment myself, I usually TRY to be:
The Droll - The mainstay of all fun sites, this poster regularly tosses out clever comments, plays of words, one-liners, amusing pictures. There’s a lot of these characters on places like Fark.com

but I fear that others would tend to classify me as:
The Lecturer - This is the buzzkill pedant who feels the need, even in a casual, light comments section to post a 1,000 word exegesis on what everyone should be talking about. Hey, thanks pal!