Monday, April 30, 2012

Outstanding interview with Amber E. aka @rare_basement

Funny Ladies of Twitter: An interview with Amber E. aka @rare_basement ›› Princess Lasertron:

Image via Princess Lasertron
Retail is exhausting but I can’t think of anything else that would be any less exhausting. I don’t think I’d want to get paid to write because I don’t know how to write and I would have panic attacks until deadlines and then disappear from. I guess my ideal job would be winning the lottery and sitting on my ass all day, watching tv. I’m really lazy. I will do what’s necessary to survive but if work wasn’t, I wouldn’t do any. I would like to go to college someday, maybe to learn how to write, but I’m not sure student loan debt is something I would be able to deal with in the future.
Remember how they made a show out of that Sh*t My Dad Says twitter account and it was awful? That's a shame because Amber's feed would make a great sitcom and all that Let's-Make-a-TV-Show-Based-on-a-Twitter-Account money has probably dried up. It could be the show Whitney should have been.

Remember how great Roseanne was when it was great? Though she's not another Roseanne Barr, she's got something of that energy -- I'm just not putting my finger quite on it. There's something Seinfeldian in her tweet DNA, too. If you could mush up just the right parts of prime Seinfeld and Roseanne, with an eye towards the best stuff on Adult Swim, then I think you'd be on the way to making the definitive twitter-based TV show using the @rare_basement stream as your starting point.

Cartoon Network: make this happen.

#DoctorWho Meets Metal is perfectly timed to become my ThisIsMyJam.com Pick of the Week!


 


In your face, Scalia. (Mandates the Founding Fathers wrote into law.)

Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court, and the Constitution: Harvard law professor Einer Elhauge shows how the Founding Fathers supported mandates. - Slate Magazine


1st U.S. Congress image This Day in History
Some spectacular historical reporting by Professor Einer Elhauge of Harvard Law School in the New Republic thoroughly rebut the argument. He has found three mandate equivalents passed into law by the early Congresses—in which a significant number of founders served—and reports that these bills were signed into law by none other than Presidents George Washington and John Adams. As Founders go, one might consider them pretty senior in the hierarchy. Their acts can probably be relied upon to give us a reasonable idea what the Founders intended to be the scope of congressional and governmental power.
Let me be clear, I don't suddenly support "originalism" or whatever Scalia calls is judicial *cough* philosophy. There's just no getting around how funny it is that these Tea Party types, who worship a cartoon version of the Founding Fathers, wouldn't want anything to do with them if they were around today.

Sadly, it's the only the 1792 law requiring all able-bodied men to own a firearm that they'll notice when reading this article and that's the one they'll be looking to bring back.


Going to obsess about my new spex for a second ...

I got my first ever pair of "real" eyeglasses today. You're probably like, "So what? I've worn glasses for years," but this is life-changing, brain-rewiringly weird for me.


Thanks, George Airy.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Margaret Atwood's Martians Read "Moby Dick"


(Not Atwood's) Martians reading (not Moby Dick) Super-Duper Toy Box
“‘Moby-Dick’ is about the oil industry,” they said. “And the Ship of American State. The owners of the Pequod are rapacious and stingy religious hypocrites. The ship’s business is to butcher whales and turn them into an industrial energy product. The mates are the middle management. The harpooners, who are from races colonized by America one way or another, are supplying the expert tech labor. Elijah the prophet — from the American artist caste — foretells the Pequod’s doom, which comes about because the chief executive, Ahab, is a megalomaniac who wants to annihilate nature. 
“Nature is symbolized by a big white whale, which has interfered with Ahab’s personal freedom by biting off his leg and refusing to be slaughtered and boiled. The narrator, Ishmael, represents journalists; his job is to warn America that it’s controlled by psychotics who will destroy it, because they hate the natural world and don’t grasp the fact that without it they will die. That’s enough literature for now. Can we have popcorn?” 
After inhaling the popcorn, they slurped up their Cokes™, then asked me to take an Instagram™ on their cellphones of them with the bottles.
@georgelazenby 

#NC #RTP not well-positioned for growth?

RTP seeks to be more inviting for smaller companies | Mark Turner dot Net:


AARoads.com
Skyrocketing gas prices and different priorities among today’s younger workforce are what dooms RTP. Yes, RTP could survive if it can become a place where one can not just work but also live and play, but it’s an uphill battle that RTP cannot win. Durham and Raleigh are light years ahead of RTP in this regard and that’s where the job growth will go.
It's not just the younger workers that want to rely less on their cars and work close to where they live and play.     If I ever change careers, a key factor in my decision will be in how much commute time (dispiriting, environmentally damaging) I can eliminate.

Brains wonder about themselves.

Who's in charge – you or your brain? | Science | The Observer


Brain The Observer
Neuroscience is uncovering a bracing view of what's happening below the radar of our conscious awareness, but that makes your life no more "helpless, ignorant, and zombie-like" than whatever your life is now. If you were to read a cardiology book to learn how your heart pumps, would you feel less alive and more despondently mechanical? I wouldn't. Understanding the details of our own biological processes does not diminish the awe, it enhances it. Like flowers, brains are more beautiful when you can glimpse the vast, intricate, exotic mechanisms behind them.

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Did you know two thermonuclear bombs were dropped on #NC during the Cold War? (I didn't.)


Dropped nuke io9
The second accidental bombing of the Carolinas occurred around midnight on January 24, 1961, when a B-52G bomber broke up near Goldsboro, North Carolina after a leak was noticed during a standard mid-air refueling. The aircraft's wreckage fell over farmland in the small town of Faro. 
Five of the eight crew members survived this crash ...  
Two Mark 39 thermonuclear weapons were onboard the bomber. One of these bombs parachuted to the ground, whereas the other smashed into a farmer's field at give or take 700 miles per hour, losing its uranium component in the process.
Gerry Canavan

Friday, April 27, 2012

#FF @mmfa Because Rush is too creepy to actually listen to ... #TCOT

Limbaugh reading some J.G. Ballard these days?

Rush Limbaugh is talking about anal exams again, this time how he wants to give one to a Prius with his front bumper: http://t.co/lqLuivgUFri Apr 27 19:01:35 via web


From Crash:


Whatever revs y'r engine.

She had no idea what turned him on until after turning the key ...

Rude calls 'em like he sees 'em and Romney looks like a sociopath.

The thing that President Obama needs to keep in mind about Mitt Romney is that he is a ruthless, amoral son of a bitch. Like Bain Capital, he makes promises that are lies when they get in the way of his greater good or his bottom line. With his polished smile and primped hair, Romney is one of the most outright depraved and evil sociopaths ever to run for office, and that's including Richard Nixon and Pat Robertson. 
Beware the man who presents himself as honorable when his actions have demonstrated nothing but disgrace.
I pulled the final assessment, the examples of Romney behavior that formed the basis of that assessment are in Rude's post for the reading.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Word on the Tweet: #Fuquay April, 2012

Hodor.

Game of Votes. - Ghost in the Machine
... this was too on-the-nose not to share ...
Yes, indeed it is. Just a sample to encourage you to check out the whole thing:

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

News Juxtaposition of the Day

These were lined up just seconds ago on newser.com ...


Cow-sized cat (with fatty liver disease) is smarter than a cow.

~shrugs~


Disney? Nah, I'm going to #HungerGames World! #NC

New literary tourism: read it, watch it, live it | Reuters


Bring your own arrows.
Fans of "The Hunger Games" will soon have a chance to channel the survivalist spirit of the novel's heroine by zip-lining through a North Carolina forest and taking classes in camouflage, archery, making fire and shelter-building.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Competition for "Nation's Worst Governor" is stiff, but Rick Scott has to be one of the front-runners.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) shocked the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence this week when he vetoed $1.5 million in funding for 30 rape crisis centers in the middle of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. State lawmakers allotted the money to offset an increase in need and a lack of sufficient funding for victim services. 
A spokesperson for Scott said he vetoed that particular line item in the state budget because the state already funds sexual violence programs, and nobody was able to make it clear to him why rape crisis centers needed the new funding.
With Scott Walker, Rick Perry, and Jan Brewer grabbing more of the national headlines, he may be sliding under the radar a bit, but he seems determined to make sure his incompetence and malevolence don't go unrecognized.

#AmendmentOne has its supporters, they just don't make a lot of sense.

The #SCLM Strikes Again

Pew: Liberal Media Not So Hot On Obama in 2012 | Mother Jones:

P032312PS-0500
via flickr
The Liberal Media has consistently given more positive coverage to likely Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney compared to President Barack Obama, according to a new survey of media coverage from the Pew Research Center's Excellence in Journalism Project.



Giant Infographic Looks At The History Of Invention

The People Behind The Way We Live


The People Behind The Way We Live

Words mean what they mean except when they don't.

The Living Word - NYTimes.com


How open is the meaning of the term "parallel lines"?

Word meanings are dynamic, but they are also underdetermined. What this means is that there is no complete answer to what does and doesn’t fall within the range of a term like “red” or “city” or “hexagonal.” We may sharpen the meaning and we may get clearer on what falls in the range of these terms, but we never completely sharpen the meaning.
Rank amateur philosophy of language hat on here, but I think Mr. Ludlow is obfuscating a key distinction between the micro-languages within the language we speak and the languages within the language -- formal, informal, scientific, artistic, etc. For example, when he goes on to say the meaning of a term like "parallel lines" remains open to some extent, I suspect the degree to which it is open, if really at all, is insignificant. We can use metaphor and other conversational tools to make it mean something different in conversation, but there is a static definition in the English language we use for mathematics that doesn't brook playfulness or shift. We can teach geometry in American English today just as we could 25 years ago and the meaning of the term "parallel lines" is equally as clear. (Unless I'm very much mistaken and my geometry is out-of-date, in which case I need to rethink my whole understanding of language, too.)

Words certainly do shift in meaning: the words that are fashionable to use for the same meaning change, and we gain and lose the need to express certain meanings over time. How quickly something can happen in a micro-language which changes the language (a meme is born, and suddenly everybody is saying things in a new way -- a process the internet may be accelerating) is fascinating, but I don't think the dynamism crosses from the conversational to the mathematical in a way that makes it meaningful to say the term "parallel lines" is fuzzy. It looks as sharp as an acute angle to me.

Where I do wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Ludlow is in thinking Justice Scalia's philosophy of language is as simplistic, useless, and wrong-headed as his philosophy of law.

Scots crime writer Shona MacLean going "undercover" for marketing purposes.


Shona MacLean
Scottish Book Trust
SCOTTISH crime writer Shona MacLean has been forced to change her name – to S G MacLean – to make her novels more appealing to men. 
The change follows the publication of three successful historical crime books under her full name. The title of her latest novel has also been truncated in its paperback form, to make it more punchy and eye-catching.
It's a man's world ... but it ain't nothin' without a wee lass.

And, yes, she is related to another famous Scots writer. If you don't know Alistair MacLean by name, I'll wager you know some his books -- or the movies based on them.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Nominate Jessica Ahlquist for the #CitizenMedal

Atheists encourage nomination of Ahlquist for Presidential Citizens Medal - National atheism | Examiner.com:


That's Interesting ...
Nominations are now open for the 2012 Presidential Citizens Medal and some atheists (me included) think that Jessica Ahlquist should be nominated.
I agree with Mr. Rosch. Following are the criteria for the medal from whitehouse.gov along with my thoughts on how she meets them:

The 2012 Citizens Medal will recognize “citizens of the United States of America who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.” Executive Order 11494 (Nov. 13, 1969). It is generally recognized as the second highest civilian award of our Government. 
The 2012 Citizens Medal will recognize U.S. citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service outside of their regular jobs, including individuals: 
Who have a demonstrated commitment to service in their own community or in communities farther from home. Someone who has engaged in activities that have had an impact in their local community, on a community or communities elsewhere in the United States or on fellow citizens living or stationed around the world. [Her actions serve every public school student in the country. The immediate impact was in Cranston, RI, but the problem of religious indoctrination in schools is well-documented and persistent.]
Who have helped their country or their fellow citizens through one or more extraordinary acts. Individuals who have demonstrated notable skill and grace, selflessly placed themselves in harm’s way, taken unusual risks or steps to protect others, made extraordinary efforts to further a national goal, or otherwise conducted themselves admirably when faced with unusually challenging circumstances. [She risked the hostility of her school community, and the community at large. She's been threatened by religious extremists -- the kind most likely to act on their violent fantasies. And she's handled this all the aplomb that could be asked of 16-year-old, and more.]
Whose service relates to a long-term or persistent problem. Individuals who have made efforts to combat stubbornly persistent problems that impact entire communities, for example those who have taken innovative steps to address hunger, homelessness, the dropout crisis, lack of access to health care, and other issues that plague too many Americans. [If the threat to secular democracy by the religious is a persistent problem that impacts entire communities, than nothing is.]
Whose service has had a sustained impact on others’ lives and provided inspiration for others to serve. The ideal nominee for a Citizens Medal is a person whose work has had a meaningful and lasting impact on the lives of others. [She has been an inspiration, her invitation to Reason Rally is evidence of that, as well as the support she has received from secularists. The reduction of the stultifying, ostracizing, and bullying influence of religion of public schools is a lasting impact.]
Submit a nomination.

If you've blogged, tweeted, or shared Ms. Ahlquist's sotry with your family and friends, please consider taking a moment to join me in using the link above to ask that President Obama recognize her with this well-deserved honor.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Those pesky shareholders.

Vikram Pandit Raise - Obscene Pay and the Masters of the Universe - Esquire:


Vikram Pandit
via Zimbio
About 55 percent of the shareholders voting were against the plan, which laid out compensation for the bank's five top executives, including Mr. Pandit. "C.E.O.'s deserve good pay but there's good pay and there's obscene pay," said Brian Wenzinger, a principal at Aronson Johnson Ortiz, a Philadelphia money management company that voted against the pay package. Mr. Wenzinger's firm owns more than 5 million shares of Citigroup.
Oh noes! However will Citigroup retain and attract "job creators" without obscene pay?!

When Google's split was announced, I was a little surprised shareholder reaction seemed to be universally positive, as if they didn't give a crap about being able to vote their shares. Mr. Pandit must be pretty jealous his shareholders proved less docile in this instance.

"I am not an Atheist," asserts college kid who unwittingly describes his atheism and reveals his misunderstanding of the term.

I am not an Atheist - Viewpoint - Technician - North Carolina State University


"ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΑΥΤΟΝ / ΨΥΧΗΣ ΙΑΤΡΕΙΟΝ". Δωμάτιο στο σπίτι του Σλήμαν (νυν Νομισματικό Μουσείο), Αθήνα.
That’s correct, I am not an atheist. I am an agnostic. For those who may be reading this and don’t have the slightest clue as to what an agnostic is, I am here to inform you and make it crystal clear I am far from an atheist. I’m not implying there is anything wrong with such beliefs; however, an atheist and an agnostic are completely different.
The comments on the article, particularly the one by Mr. Hummel-Price, good-naturedly set Mr. Toshumba straight.

George Holyoake, coined the term "secularism"

George Holyoake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


George Holyoake
Holyoake nevertheless underwent six months imprisonment [convicted of blasphemy], and the editorship of the Oracle changed hands. After the Oracle closed at the end of 1843, Holyoake founded a more moderate paper, The Movement, which survived until 1845. Holyoake then established the Reasoner, where he developed the concept of secularism.
I use the word quite a bit, but it didn't occur to me until today that I didn't know when it was coined. Now, I do.

And since I'm not familiar with Harriet Martineau, off I go to learn a little about that most intrepid thinker ...

Bank Of America Self-Sueing (Sue-icide?) No Doubt A Delight For Attorneys

Bank Of America Sues Itself In Unusual Foreclosure Case:

" ... And suing the piss out of ourselves when we do."
But in Florida's Palm Beach County alone, Bank of America has sued itself for foreclosure 11 times since late March, according to foreclosure fraud activist Lynn Szymoniak, who forwarded one such foreclosure filing, dated March 29, 2012, to The Huffington Post. (A white-collar crime expert, Szymoniak was recently awarded $18 million for her work helping the government recover $95 million as a result of bank foreclosure problems in North Carolina.) 
In the March 29 filing, Bank of America is seeking to foreclose on a condominium and names the condo owner and Bank of America as defendants in the suit. The company is literally seeking damages from itself in order to foreclose on the condo owner.
Masterlitigabation?


Friday, April 20, 2012

#FF @JoseCanseco Say what you will, he at least has a sense of humor about himself.


Let me be clear that home run off my head should have been a four base error it was not going over the wall cannot be scored a hitTue Apr 17 06:15:16 via web

It's somewhat inevitable that it's all going to result in disgrace and disaster, if it hasn't already, but the man's putting himself out there in a more sincere way than most famewhores celebs.

Fort Worth Weekly

Thursday, April 19, 2012

#NC Christian explains (eloquently, thoughtfully) why he will vote against #AmendmentOne

Improvisation of Thought: why i'll vote against:
Church-state separation is important because Christianity may not always be the dominant religion in this society. As Christians, our freedom is important. After all, it is again St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians that reminds us that “it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Restricting others’ freedom simply because we possess the political power to do so is precisely the opposite of Jesus’ mission.
Secularism, it's for everybody's protection.

@ebertchicago reviews #NC rasslin' documentary "Fake It So Real"

Fake It So Real :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews


Image via rogerebert.com
"Fake It So Real" filled me with affection for its down-and-out heroes, a group of semi-pro wrestlers in Lincolnton, N.C. On Saturday nights, they rent a hall, construct their own ring, set out the folding chairs, stage a wrestling show, take the ring apart, truck it away and start talking about next week. For this labor, one of them jokes, they get "20 bucks, a hot dog and a pat on the ass." 
See also: Chris Solar's YouTube Channel.


Sorta endearing North Carolina grade C pro wrestlers in a good new documentary, "Fake It So Real." My review: http://t.co/8HqLcMImThu Apr 19 23:31:10 via SocialOomph


Sonic screwdriver 'invented' at Dundee University #DoctorWho

BBC News - Dr Who's sonic screwdriver 'invented' at Dundee University


via BBC
Dr Mike MacDonald, of the Institute for Medical Science and Technology (IMSAT) at Dundee, said: "This experiment not only confirms a fundamental physics theory but also demonstrates a new level of control over ultrasound beams which can also be applied to non-invasive ultrasound surgery, targeted drug delivery and ultrasonic manipulation of cells.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Ghost we don't to want go into the light ...

On Walkabout. - Ghost in the Machine


Berk and KcM
I'm not saying the Ghost is dead and buried, but I don't see it coming back online regularly anytime soon ...
The blogosphere is diminished.

Back at the beginning of Triptych Cryptic, we looked around and said (I'm paraphrasing), "This guy is doing it right," as we pointed at the monitor showing the early days of GitM. The cryptonauts I started with having, for the most part, moved on and now Kevin stepping away from the keyboard, it's feeling more than a little lonelier around here.

Two Ted Williams items discovered because I wondered just now whatever became of his severed head.

Ted Williams' Daughter on Auctioning Her Father's Legacy, Cryonics Controversy - ABC News:

"To My Pal Ted Williams From Babe Ruth"

She points out that her father had a life-long obsession with science. Indeed, he authored what is considered one of the definitive blueprints for baseball success, "The Science of Hitting." 
"My dad was a man of science," Williams says. "He wasn't a religious man. I can't apologize for that. He didn't believe in god. He believed in science."
Warms the cockles of my atheist heart. Also, that baseball ... wow.

۝

And then there's this novel that intrigues me:



The idea for “Extra Innings” was born six years ago out of a marriage between two of Spitzer’s loves — baseball and history. He was watching a Red Sox game one night, during which Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo were discussing Williams. Channel surfing through a commercial break, he flipped to a show about mummies and the afterlife. It would be great, he thought, to combine William’s cryogenic freezing with the question of life after death. In his mind’s eye, he pictured what Williams would be like if ever unfrozen.
Unfrozen and, one hopes, his frozen, tragically abused, severed head repaired.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Uh ... Morphsuits. #CoverYourShameDudePlease

Cheap Morphsuits for Sale | Buy Custom Morphsuits

Can you identify (one of the) problem(s) with Morphsuits?
Hint: The guy in red has. The guy in green has not.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Happy 50th Ian MacKaye

Ian MacKaye - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I know Frank Sinatra famously sang about how he did it his way, but did he really? If there's an American musician who's truly blazed his own trail, it's Mr. MacKaye. You can debate what "authenticity" means in the context of music ... to some extent everything is a remix ... I don't think you can dismiss this man (as a scold or a pedant), this music (as just noise, or "not punk"), or this ethos (as rigid, joyless) without losing something essential.





Contemptuous Gingrich stiffs UNC journo #NC #tcot

His aide gave no preconditions; no topics were off limits. 
That’s why I was so surprised when, before I had finished asking my first question, that same aide cut the interview short and prompted Secret Service to grab and briefly detain me as the former speaker was led away.
Class act, that guy.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

19 regional words worth knowing, but not really deserving of immediate widespread adoption.

19 Regional Words All Americans Should Adopt Immediately - Mental Floss


amazon.com
17. jasm (n.), Connecticut
Meaning “intense energy or vitality,” the sentence provided in the dictionary was so good, I wanted to share it with you all, too: “If you’ll take thunder and lightening, and a steamboat and a buzz-saw, and mix ‘em up, and out ‘em into a woman, that’s jasm.”
Uh, I'm CT born and bred and I've never heard this. Never. I will ask my facebook peeps from back home to chime in though just in case I was oblivious.

It is, however, perilously close to another word that is also used in the context of some intense energy that sometimes goes out into a woman, which I'm too gentlemanly to discuss openly in mixed company. But I think somebody was pulling the wool over the author of that post's eyes.




 Follow Me Here

Blue Man Group Kindergarten (Sounds Awesome)

Started in 2006 by members of the Blue Man Group, an alternative theater troupe, and their wives, the school’s original mission was to “reimagine education for a changing world.” The goal was to nurture creative and adaptive learners, not to teach students to digest and regurgitate facts and formulas. It considers itself a lab school, where teachers, parents and students collaborate; there are plans to have a teacher training program by 2013.

Waxy turns 10

Waxy.org Turns 10 - Waxy.org:

Carving out a space for yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share your work, is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your time. It's why, after ten years, my first response to anyone just getting started online is to start, and maintain, a blog.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

What in the name of sanity was that? Shoppach's slide-flop.

Kelly Shoppach steals his first base with quite possibly the worst slide ever (VIDEO) | Big League Stew - Yahoo! Sports:



Before Friday, Boston Red Sox catcher Kelly Shoppach had gone 464 games without attempting to steal a base — a length of time that qualified for an active MLB record and dated all the way back to the 31-year-old's big league debut in 2005.
That was awful and brilliant. Brilliantly awful and awfully brilliant. I've seen bad baserunners slide too soon before; but, I don't think ever quite that soon, or in quite so dig-your-knee-into-the-ground-y fashion. The rest is poetry in motion. The most bloody awful poetry, like we imagine Mr. Shankly would've written.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Eternal Sunshine of the Recovering Addict's Mind

Memory Extinction Technique Found to Relieve Drug Cravings: Scientific American


Image via knowagoodmovie.com
Researchers have come up with a way to help prevent recovering drug addicts from relapsing -- without using other pharmaceuticals to help. The approach involves modifying addicts' behavior by weakening their memory of drug taking, which relieves their cravings and might help to prevent relapse.
Side effects may include: Rapid Onset Personality Disintegration, dissociative disorders, loss of sense of identity, paranoia, you become the guy from Memento, ultra-vivid nightmares that may or not be related to your extinct memories, zombieism, and lycanthropy. In rare cases, brain damaged individuals may join a local chapter of the Tea Party. Contact your doctor immediately if hear voices, feel strange compulsions, vote Republican, or listen to AM talk radio.

#Fuquay-Varina Independent - Letters section should feature tumbling tumbleweed (or, my letter?)

Fuquay-Varina Independent - Your source for local news, classifieds, business listings and events.

~tapping my fingers impatiently~



It's been about a week since I submitted a letter to my local newspaper about the moral imperative to oppose Amendment One on May 8th. I was good: I didn't use any swear words or call anybody names or anything. If it needed some editing for length or content, it couldn't have been that much.

C'mon, F-V Independent if not mine, at least publish something here. Because, if I'm the *only* person writing and you're still not publishing, then I'm really crestfallen.


Baboons can distinguish words from gibberish.

Reading Baboon  mnartists.org
Related: Baboons unable to distinguish GOP talking points from gibberish.



Monkey see, monkey read? Baboons can learn to tell English words from nonsense words, w/o any knowledge of language http://t.co/rh0kOYXLThu Apr 12 18:03:43 via HootSuite

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

#FollowAnyDay @JADEDPUNKHULK Combining my love of tweeting Hulks and anything related to Minor Threat



There was no doubt I would have to hold on to this one.

Monday, April 9, 2012

What's wrong with this picture? (Hint: That's Big Papi partially obscured by the umpire attempting to steal second.)

Screencap via MLB.com
Answer behind the Riddle Answer/Spoiler Barrier ...



Unalaska, AK's Officer Shockley writes colorful incident reports.

Small Town's Police Blotter Is A Riot | NPR.org:

Officer Shockley documenting the louts and Whippit kids of Dutch Harbor.

Welfare Check (19:23 hrs, 2/22/12) — Caller asked officers to check on two men who were inhaling nitrous oxide from Whippit canisters in the Safeway parking lot. An officer contacted the two men, who claimed they would not be driving after inhaling and would cause no problems this evening.


Trespass (23:06 hrs, 2/22/12) — Officers responded to a hotel room where the two Whippit boys were disturbing other guests with their raucous behavior. The two men bemoaned the deterioration in the quality of people now living in the community after they were told they were not allowed to return to the hotel premises.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

#NC / #SC border not yet settled?

The Carolinas Work to Clarify Their Borders - NYTimes.com:

My marked up detail from an unadultered image NYTimes.com


A couple of hundred years ago, intrepid surveyors carved out a line between North Carolina and South Carolina and marked their work with notches on trees and, later, the occasional rock. The federal government eventually approved the boundary and life went on. 
But trees fell. The rare stone marker was lost. Land was bought and sold and guesses were made. Bit by bit, the border shifted a little bit north.
Borders have consequences: dog and owner now have different state residency.


Mr. Neff's New Rule makes sense to me ...

New Rule: Healthcare | goblin cartoons


"Let them die, be illiterate, and drive 4x4s."
Image ABC News
If you’re opposed to the government being involved in healthcare, you have to propose an alternative that will guarantee that all citizens get the healthcare they need, regardless of their income or pre-existing conditions. Or you have to come clean and admit that you don’t think all citizens should get the healthcare they need, but then you have to explain why you think some people don’t deserve healthcare and why healthcare is different than education, public libraries, police protection and road maintenance (all of which people get regardless of their income). 
Or you have to shut the fuck up.

#FollowEaster @GayHole -- to whom Bob Mould was heard to ask, "Could you be The One?"


The guy who puts shotgun shells in my Easter basket in preparation for zombie Jesus, is The One.Sun Apr 08 02:15:24 via Twitter for Android

And now, because of the way my neurons fired around the reference to "The One" in the context of Easter which lead to Beaster and to Bob Mould back to Hüsker Dü and Mould singing "Could You Be The One?" it's got to be played.

Happy Easter.

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