Category Archives: Uncategorized

Apparently, someone secretly recorded a talk by a Chinese TV host who said the country is nearly bankrupt and they aren’t allowed to report on it because they’re, you know, communists.

It would explain why China looked at the EU with a “who, me?” when the EU hinted at China bailing out Greece and Italy.

Doesn’t Washington hate big, lobbyistic businesses these days?Why are they helping create them? Oh wait, they don’t hate them, they love them, it gives them more control.

The rise of enormous, super-empowered HMOs closely tied to government regulations suggests we are headed further in the direction of building a corporatist, medico-industrial complex whose powerful lobbies will fight reforms, abuse monopoly powers and further congeal the American health care system into an unmanageable and unaffordable form that will undermine living standards while providing ever-less-satisfactory care.

So, your solution to the lack of foreign businesses investing in America is demonizing businesses and and more taxes in the country with the highest corporate tax rate* in the world? I grant you, the promise of a bailout from the government if the business is big enough is a nice perk.

*I realize no one actually pays that. Because who would when you can buy off a congressman or two for a loophole?

Some British people are going to take a long time and spend a lot of money building one of Babbage’s analytical engines to see if it works. I’m waiting for the Lego version.

I don’t trust the major players in internet service providing to have my best interests at heart when it comes to delivering the internet. I’m pretty sure that since they are awarded monopolies they’ll just price gouge the crap out of me if they aren’t kept in check.

The United States of America. And being born here. IMHO it’s the pinnacle of Western Civilization and has created an unprecedented amount of freedom, wealth and general good welfare for a surprising number of people, one of which is me. And for all its flaws it’s the best of the lot. For which I am thankful.

This is why America works.

I’m okay with it too.

A Democratic legislator said it would be fine with him if the supercommittee failed to reach agreement and steep, automatic cuts to domestic and defense spending happened.

Daniel Amos. They are probably my favorite band ever and I have loved them for 20 years now. Do they throw up the ocassional um, quirky, song, but for the most part they get me and I have all their albums. Okay, not all the Eddies, but all the rest of them. Anyway, my life is better for them having existed and made all their lovely songs.

The Easter Island heads have bodies. Who knew?

I like to think there’s some happy medium between Europe and China’s incentive systems.

The Golden Gate bridge was privately financed by the founder of BofA after the 1929 market crash kept investors from buying up the municipal bonds.

Thoughts on Downton Abbey s02e08  (minor spoilers): Continue reading →

You’re far less likely to get stabbed in the face today than at any other time in history.

The world owes me a living, doesn’t it?

I also found this refreshing [NSFW language].

I don’t pretend to understand the thinking of the State Department but the US on the one hand cut UNESCO’s funding for approving Palestinian statehood and on the other tells Israel to stop building in east Jerusalem.

Do we have any sort of plan or white paper or anything?

There is much truth in the scientifical, peer-viewed hierarchy of candy. I would dispute Caramellos being Top Tier and think half of the Post-Tertiary should move up.

And here we see the reason some people are in front of the cameras and some people are not.

Thoughts on Downton Abbey s02e07  (minor spoilers):

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I find it less than comforting when Germany starts talking about war in times of economic turmoil.

“Nobody should take for granted another 50 years of peace and prosperity in Europe. They are not for granted. That’s why I say: If the euro fails, Europe fails,” Merkel said, followed by a long applause from all political groups.

Entire album playlist

I, for one, can’t wait until everyone gets tired of making 1% on their savings and dumps that money back into the stock market.

Our countries problem, writ small.

“We are entitled to more money from the only industry in the county – Jack Daniel’s distillery,” said Charles Rogers, a 75-year-old retiree and self-described “concerned citizen” of Moore County – home to Lynchburg and Jack Daniel’s..

…

Could the company possibly move to a more tax-friendly county? Most folks think not. But Lynchburg Mayor Sloan Stewart isn’t so sure.

“Everybody says no they won’t. You can’t say no they won’t. That’s always a possibility,” he said. “There’s a chance they could do something like that, pack up and move.”

Also, there’s some awesome manipulation in the article’s writing style.

Thoughts on Downton Abbey s02e06 (minor spoilers): Continue reading →

6.02 x 10^23. Go find yourself 12 grams of Carbon to celebrate.

Here’s the problem, Republicans are just as culpable for the horrible mess that our federal government is as Democrats and anything they say can boomerang right back at them. It’s easier to point the finger elsewhere.

It was Washington that declared prudent home-lending standards racist and gutted traditional underwriting rules in the name of diversity. It was government that created the risk on Main Street. Yes, Wall Street spread it, with the help of Treasury-backed Fannie and Freddie. But who’s at greater fault for harming the village — the person who poisons the well or the one who distributes the water?

Neither. Both. Just fix it already.

I really hope this ends in tears. The gnashing and wailing of government officials as Americans decide the 4th amendment actually means something and disbands the TSA.

The random inspections really aren’t any more thorough normal, according to Tennessee Highway Patrol Colonel Tracy Trott who says paying attention to details can make a difference.

So, why are you doing it then?

It’s a list of fantasy books that “should” be made into TV shows, according to some guy on the internet.

Here’s the thing though, I don’t trust TV or movie makers to make good adaptations of stories I like. I grant you, they have gotten better at it in the last decade, but it’s still a chance I am unwilling to take with stories I enjoy.

If they touch The Kingkiller Chronicle, I can’t be held responsible for my actions. To take that lovely prose and turn it into anything else would be a sin. A mortal sin. The Belgariad would end up like the Sword Of Truth series, i.e., a goofy sword and sandals thing.  Riftwar would end up like that too. The Curse of Chalion might work, but those are more thinking than doing stories and I don’t think they could remain true to the books and make good TV with it. Sword of Shanarra, well, it would be the cheap knock off of LOTR that it is.

Winning quote from an Occupy Boston demonstrator:

“It’s turning into us against them,” Warner said. “They come in here and they’re looking at it as a way of getting a free meal and a place to crash, which is totally fine, but they don’t bring anything to the table at all. It gets really frustrating.”

The door squeaking, the accents, the look on his face, this just gets funnier the more you watch it.

Big Pharma has had significant success with a malaria vaccine trial. Also the guy’s name is Witty, leading to significant punning potential.

Witty, malaria scientists and global health experts stressed that the vaccine,

Punctuation is so important. An Oxford comma would go a long way in that sentence.

Touch screens everywhere! I want one.

I’ll grant him he makes some good points, but since I can’t live on the moon, I’m still disappointed at our progress.

 Consider this:

• Hundreds of people have already traveled in space.
• The International Space Station continues to operate, conducting experiments and research that have widespread implications not just for future space missions but also for developments here on Earth.
• Daily, we send and receive communications transmissions that are bounced off of manmade satellites.
• We have robots exploring other parts of our Solar System, including the surface of Mars, and devices such as the Hubble Space Telescope transmit images that provide ever increasing insights into the expanse of the Universe.

In short, we are already THERE – in space. And this is happening just 50 years after the first space missions that sent men into orbit. In many ways, it is akin to the explorations of the New World that occurred in the decades after Columbus first sailed across the Atlantic during the age of the first Renaissance centuries ago.

I have a bad feeling about all this inflationary pressure. Like even if the Fed keeps it all down now, sooner or later we’re going to pay the piper and it’s going to explode all over us in some form.

Thoughts on Downton Abbey s02e05 (major spoilers):

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Another Muppets trailer, this time with actual plot!

There are moments when I despair of America. This is one of them. 4 million Americans bothered to watch the Kardashian wedding, which, by the way, has nothing to do with Elim Garak, Gul Dukat or Ziyal, so lay-ame.

I realized it’s only 1% of all Americans, but 1% is too many. I’d threaten to move some place better, but Netflix and Hulu only work on American IPs, so you know.

The price of peanuts and peanut products is about to shoot through the roof. I blame Bush.

No really, it’s Ken Jennings opening a Bag O’ Crap from wOOt.

More entertaining is him talking about maps:

Thoughts on Downton Abbey s02e04 (minor spoilers):
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The readers of Rolling Stone are bad and this list should make them feel bad [danger: slideshow].

I’m not particularly a fan of a lot of the songs, but there were way worse ones in the 80s. The problem is that no one has heard them for ~25 years and don’t remember them. I can agree with Nos. 1 and 2. But No. 2 has been tainted by more recent and traumatic memories of this: [ETA: wordpress.com is doing that thing again, click through to the post to get the actual videos.]

So, I’m not sure if I’m the best judge.

I strongly disagree with Puttin’ on the Ritz, Rock Me, Amadeus, and  The Safety Dance. I mildly disagree with Mickey and Lady In Red. Not my bag, but solid 80s songs.

You want bad songs? Enjoy.

I could keep going. Now I remember why I was so excited when I discovered the Alternative genre.

Occupy Sesame Street.

A mumps outbreak at Cal.  Should I break out the leeches? Enjoy your easily avoidable misery.

Steven Speilberg, Peter Jackson, Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Cary Ewles, Daniel Craig, John Williams, and WETA. It’s going to rock.

I have no idea why the wrong video is showing up on the front page. It’s right in the post itself…. Click through and enjoy.

I hope he’s right.

How to learn from your mistakes.

In the first half of the 20th century, you didn’t have to ask every department of the government for permission if you wanted to build a giant killer robot to send to Mars. Also:

Innovation can’t happen without accepting the risk that it might fail. The vast and radical innovations of the mid-20th century took place in a world that, in retrospect, looks insanely dangerous and unstable. Possible outcomes that the modern mind identifies as serious risks might not have been taken seriously—supposing they were noticed at all—by people habituated to the Depression, the World Wars, and the Cold War, in times when seat belts, antibiotics, and many vaccines did not exist.

Yes! Time to brush off the Smoot-Hawley. I just like saying it. It’s not like I know enough about worldwide economics to have an informed opinion on tariffs and protectionism. But really, is this wise, getting into a fight with our biggest foreign creditor? *something something borrower something servant to lender*

I never joined Geocities, but I well remember how all the search results (AltaVista, ftw) would take me to someone’s fan site. And the animated gifs. Oh, the animated gifs.

Anyway:

A. Someone saved all 641GB of Geocitities right before it went down, which isn’t fair because it should have been captured at its height. I wonder how active that torrent is.

And B. they then made a neighborhood map of it.

Thoughts on Downton Abbey s02e03 (minor spoilers):

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Everything is interesting.

A foolish trope of modernity is that experience leads to disenchantment and ennui. Boredom with life does not result from exhausting life’s riches, but from skimming them.

I have found this to be true.

The top 10 most frequently challenged books according to the American Library Association.

2010: 1) And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson; 2) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie; 3) Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley; 4) Crank, by Ellen Hopkins; 5) The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins; 6) Lush, by Natasha Friend; 7) What My Mother Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones; 8) Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich; 9) Revolutionary Voices, edited by Amy Sonnie; 10) Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer

I am really surprised that Brave New World is still taking heat. It’s like, what, 100 years old? I can get behind the Twilight thing though, because have you seen what she does with commas? It makes my proclivity toward parenthetical thought look restrained.

Coming from a home where, as far as I know, I was allowed to read anything I wanted, and my teachers made me ask a couple times—A Clockwork Orange comes to mind, and boy was I sorry I chose that in the end—I find it strange that people want books banned. I get not wanting to read them, or finding them offensive, but I don’t get thinking you or your child or others in your community are too dumb to think through why you might disagree with a book and unilaterally decide that no one have access to it.

Europeans don’t respect Ugandans claims to land ownership. Think of all the carbon credits though.

Sorry to link you to TV Tropes, but this brilliant work deserves the recognition. And Rory Williams.

Thoughts on Downton Abey s0202 (minor spoilers):

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CERN scientists announce they have observed particles going faster than light. I hope it doesn’t take another 3 years to confirm though.

Where’s your scientifical poo-poohing of FTL travel in scifi now, haters?

An interview of G.R.R. Martin! by John Hodgman! in which Martin explains why when Tolkien kills off and then resurrects characters it’s totally bogus, but when he does it repeatedly it’s awesome (DWD spoiler: Jon isn’t totally dead, I’ll bet money on it).

Okay, I may exaggerate there, but only a little.

OnStar keeps tracking you even after you discontinue service with them, and they might sell the information. They’re very unclear on that point.

Intel has developed a chip that runs on solar power. Or, they specifically say, lemons or a potato.

More than I ever wanted to know about emergency backup power. The car thing is a great point for those of us who don’t want/can’t afford to get a generator though. USB and 110 converter thingies are really cheap but you have to get them before you need them…tricky.

Americans will get used to eating what the government tells them are healthy.

And why is it any of the government’s business what I eat? Because they’re going to foot the bill when bad nutrition choices create health problems. And that’s why I have a problem with Obamacare.  My problem isn’t with a single payer system as such, it’s with every thing I eat and everything I do suddenly becoming the government’s business.

Republicans want to give the DHS power over federal land within 100 miles of the borders. It will also make them immune from everything but constitutional court review.  Giving the most fascistic of our governmental organizations nigh unlimited power strikes me as a bad idea.

You might as well save another trillion by saying that we are not going to have a bicentennial invasion of Canada as a way to get the War of 1812 done right. There are a lot of countries that we could decide not to attack and have savings. So that’s a farce.”

– Charles Krauthammer on Fox News today.

I don’t know, this strikes me as an idea worth kicking around. Plus, we could have their oil sands, because that’s the only reason the US goes to war anymore, anyway.

Also, I’m still a little bitter about 1812.

Long story short: Corrupted disk corrupts other disk’s boot sector. Fine, fine.

Oh, my DVD drive is halfway busted, so the repair disc doesn’t work consistently enough to be useful. Startup repair can’t find OS.

Then, the buttons on the case stop working so I can’t turn it on and off.

Really? Really?!

Thoughts on Downton Abbey  s02e01 (minor spoilers):

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The United States Government – haunted by the fear that someone, somewhere, may not be thoroughly miserable on their flight.

A vastly expanded, federally-mandated database of things doctors might need to bill you for. I truly hope that space travel becomes common enough that we need all those codes.

A clueless government is about to pass another stupid law about all appliances with a microchip.

Breaching an agreement or ignoring your boss might be bad. But should it be a federal crime just because it involves a computer? If interpreted this way, the law gives computer owners the power to criminalize any computer use they don’t like.

I have no doubt the big corporations will fade back quietly for a while until the mob goes home and then go on with business as usual, but it would be nice if they had to tiptoe around a little as they corrupt American politics. I also have no doubt the Republicans will forget all about this as soon as they get their piece of the pie and can’t throw accusations at Obama anymore. It’s nice while it lasts though.

But we free-market populists take whatever drippings we can get, and lip service from prominent Republicans on center stage is an improvement. Important Republicans typically shy away from attacks on big business, presumably for fear of alienating key donors and supporters.

Doctor Who. The second half of series six is already underway. And the eleventh Doctor is the best. doctor. evar. Also, Rory and Amy and River are the best companions evar. Steven Moffat forever.

Downton Abbey. Starts September 18th. So looking forward to it. So much win. If you haven’t watched series one, you should and it’s available on Netflix and Amazon Instant and DVD of course.

Reamde by Neal Stephenson. I only like about 2/3 of his books and I’m due for one I don’t like, but I’m still excited about a new one. Here’s hoping it isn’t one of the ones I don’t like.

Castle. Although, if they don’t stop with the Angsty!Castle and bring back Fun!Castle, they’re going to lose me.

Top Gear. BBC. Of course.

Leverage. Although, they have removed all my legal means of watching them online, so they’ll probably lose me. I mean, it’s an enjoyable show but not so awesome that I’ll work for it.

Have I Got News For You. Even though some idiot is clamping down on the awesome YouTubers that made it possible for those of us outside Britian to watch it.

The Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge. I’m still debating this one. It doesn’t release until October, so I have plenty of time to make up my mind.

The Muppets, Tintin, John Carter (from Mars) and Immortals are all coming out this fall, but I will of course wait until available on Netflix to watch.

Sherlock series 2 has been moved to 2012 due, rumor says, to the the stars being busy filming The Hobbit. This makes me sad.

A map of who officially has nuclear weapons, fissionable nuclear materials, had nuclear material stolen, etc.  Yay.

The NY Times, of all places, noticed that Sarah Palin said some reasonable things that most Americans would agree with.

She made three interlocking points. First, that the United States is now governed by a “permanent political class,” drawn from both parties, that is increasingly cut off from the concerns of regular people. Second, that these Republicans and Democrats have allied with big business to mutual advantage to create what she called “corporate crony capitalism.” Third, that the real political divide in the United States may no longer be between friends and foes of Big Government, but between friends and foes of vast, remote, unaccountable institutions (both public and private).

Sarah Palin, the moderate independent.

Top standalone episodes from each season of X-Files. Disclaimer: I stopped watching when the movie came out so I have no idea about the second half.

Now I have to go watch Jose Chung’s From Outer Space, Small Potatoes and Humbug, which were robbed.

Thanks for all the fish mainstream sci-fi.

The copyright troll is suffering legal setbacks. Here’s hoping the patent trolls come to similar sticky ends.

One of the architects of ObamaCare prepared a report for Wisconsin on the cost to the state’s residents. It’s not pretty.

That’s because more than half the individual market will still end up paying more: “After the application of tax subsidies,” the report projects, “59 percent of the individual market will experience an average premium increase of 31 percent.”

You used to be so cool. Not that I have any need to watch more than one movie at a time, but this isn’t helping you right when you’re getting all sorts of competition from Hulu and Amazon and Redbox. They may be more restrictive, but they’ve always been restrictive, so it hurts less. I still like you though. (I’m still going down to the 1 DVD plan though.)

It seems everyone was paler and wore less makeup during the war. Rumor has it that it’s airing September 18th in the UK. Definitely January 8th if you’re the kind that will wait for the PBS airing.

Up to 75 years in prison for recording police. Everyone from the cops that arrested him, to the prosecutor, to the judge, to the lawmakers of Illinois should be ashamed of themselves and/or move to the Soviet Union where their views are more in line with the spirit of the government.

Idaho is cool with just one party consenting to the eavesdropping. This is a bit worrying on the surface, but IANAL. Also, it’s illegal to open a telegram that’s not yours.

Washington is more strict. And again with the telegrams.

I disagree with only a couple of songs on this list [warning: slideshow]. Tubthumping is still awesome despite the saturation and I’m kinda torn on What’s Up. Which is to say that I like the songs in the genres that I like and don’t care about the rest of them.

I would have sworn that I’m Too Sexy and Ice, Ice Baby were 80s songs though.

The British have wacky spelling and pronunciation and the Oxford comma, but they are dead right about “logical punctation”.

Appeals concerning the NSA’s warrant-less surveillance of the interwebs are going on this week.

Astronomers found a supernova within hours of the light of it exploding reaching earth.  It should be visible with binoculars in a couple weeks.

NPR has the entire Green Album available for listening to. I’m torn about it. I like the bands and I like the Muppets, but together they don’t always work. Alkaline Trio’s Moving Right Along is the highlight.

CNN reporter was “grazed by bullet casings“. Yeah I get that too, every time I go to the range, being left-handed. I’ll grant you, those suckers are hot for a second.

Infrastructure free, ad hoc networking for emergency situations. I thought, “neat, but will it reach critical mass” and went on with my life this morning, but in light of the East Coast earthquake, I’ll pass it along.

Maybe why the poor in America are curiously ambivalent about wealth redistribution.

Hilarity ensues when you ask students to give up an advantage they’ve worked hard for to help those less fortunate than themselves.

In the midst of the rising tide of bad economic news, the Economist has a cool graph that compares the GDP and population of US states to other countries.

This dude makes these prints, and others like them. I want to believe.

After weeks of waiting and voting, the NPR Top 100 Science Fiction and Fanstasy Books list is done. The list is an interesting mix of pop and literary styles.

I don’t have much to argue with, but quibbles are as follows:

While I enjoy A Song Of Fire And Ice as much as the next person, it would not be that high on the list if it weren’t coming off of massive publicity due to the show and recent book release. It’s good, but not that good.

I’m surprised Wheel of Time did as well as it did. I put it down after 100 pages in the first book, but while it obviously has its fans, most seem to think it’s gone on too long. Squeaky wheel effect, maybe.

I also can’t believe the Thomas Covenant, Self-Pitying Jerk Across The Multiverse, beat out the Vorkosigan saga, even if only by one place.

Cryptonomicon higher than Diamond Age? Please.

The new TSA chief may not be as brain-dead as the previous ones.

I don’t know what Labor Force Participation rates are, and I don’t care enough to go check, but apparently they’re down. I’m commenting on this so I can post this picture, which I love.

This shirt and others are in my Amazon wish list. It’s never too soon to start my birthday shopping, you know.

It’s appalling that Green Day won Rolling Stones’ Greatest Punk Band of All Time poll. Every other band on that list should have beat them, since, you know, they were actually punk bands (yes, yes The Clash and Social Distortion crossed genres too. Still better.)

I’m going to go listen to Social D now in protest.

No, it not so dangerous. But I tried to cook Americium, Radium and Beryllium in 96% sulphuric-acid, to easier get them blended. But the whole thing exploded upp in the air…

.

Sarcasm boost creativity. Which is why I am the next Michelangelo, obviously.

You can’t be howling about your opponents use of violent metaphors in politics and six months later use them yourself. Oh wait, this is America, we only care about whatever current “crisis” CNN and Fox have decided we should care about.

Time magazine lists the 30 greatest music videos [unfortunate slideshow format]. They got all the ones I thought of.  Somewhere in the 90s I started having never seen any of them.

Apple (the company) has more cash on hand than the US government.

Spock Is Not Impressed is made of win and LOLs.

The “polar bears are dying off” scientist is under investigation for integrity issues. What about, nobody knows yet.

First off, I always wondered how Piers Morgan got anywhere in the US, but then more recently, I’ve been wondering if there would be any splashback on him with the whole hacking deal.

The fun starts at 4:15 and the threats at 5:20 and Ian wins at 8:10.

Starts at 5:50

I just love those videos so much.

Do they get all their medical information from the NFL? Also, where was the NFL when they were in peewee, high school and college football? They should probably sue their parents for allowing them to play as minors.

42 years ago today we landed on the moon.

A test of whether the Fifth Amendment applies to your computer passwords is coming up in Colorado.

Related: TrueCrypt

I’m not as convinced that politicians couldn’t see the outcome writ large in the communist countries at the time, making it less of an attempt at benevolence and more of a power grab, but other than that, a good article.

The numbers on what a bank run in America would look like. Based on my semester of microeconomics, I suggest avoiding that kind of thing.

While we’re on the downer talk, an historical look at federal borrowing over the last 30 years.

360 degree HD view of the Discovery shuttle flight deck.

Soon enough people will just walk out with their groceries under their arms. Inconvenient for people that buy more than a meal’s worth of groceries, and makes life easy for shoplifters, but hey, good for the environment.

Today marks the first full orbit of the planet Neptune since its discovery on the night of September 23-24, 1846.

A cool time lapse video of the last space shuttle rollout, complete with annoying voiceover. Atlantis is supposed to launch tomorrow at 11:26 EDT. You can watch it launch here.

I shudder to think how the TSA could become more pointlessly invasive in their searches.

I came for the They Might Be Giants covering Tubthumping, I stayed for the other interesting combinations.

Nasty coal energy may have kept the planet from warming over the last decade. And surely we all still remember the last decade of global warming alarm. Back when it was still called global warming. And it was alarming.

Way to be awesome. I would have got you something, but I already did April 15th.