Category Archives: Uncategorized

Idiots

All the organizations and companies supporting the heinous SOPA. It all the usual suspects, media corporations and lawyers, with a few surprises, like the Major County Sheriffs, the Majority City Chiefs and GoDaddy.

Hurray!

In my excitement over Downton Abbey Christmas special, I forgot that Sherlock returns on January 1st.  A good way to start the new year, I think.

My money, please take it

That does it, I’m reading The Hobbit this weekend.

Best Korea = screwed either way

Even the best case scenario, a peaceful reunification of the Koreas, won’t be pretty.

I can understand the confusion

The perfect response to Slate’s Nervous Nelly article on Nerf and their awesomeness.

Do it again!

Emmett Otter outtakes.

Good Riddance

Kim Jong-Il is dead, world leaders are busy not saying what they really think.

I found Under The Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader to be a painfully balanced and but interesting look at the recent history of the country, if you’re interested.

As an aside, 2011 has been a bad year for despots in general, hasn’t it?

Really?!

First off, I thought collusion was illegal. Secondly, it seems apparent publishers don’t care about ebook sales, or hope it’s a passing fad, because they are guaranteeing that I am going to buy a used paperback. Did they learn nothing from Napster and the music industry?

Digital books have one two advantages over physical ones, I can fit a lot of them on one device and carry them all with me and I can buy them without having to get up. But all that convience just isn’t worth more than the cost of a paperback.

Sorry authors, I bet I would have enjoyed your writing.

RIP

Christopher Hitchens. He was an amazing writer whose work I enjoyed, even when he was wrong.

This is really awesome

Isaac Newton notebooks are online for your viewing pleasure. Knowledge of Greek would be useful.

I’m sure there’s a not at all guilty reason for his reticence

Look, you chose to be a public servant, driving a publicly-owned car. That kind of negates your right to privacy there.  Getting the cops to cover for you is, a. really bad PR for the cops, and b. if not illegal, it should be.

I have no doubt that newspapers mangle the news regularly, and I can understand wanting to avoid that, but shoving evidence under the carpet is no way to get out of trouble. It’s just going to make things worse. Release the evidence, get your experts to explain what happened and go about your life.

Note to self: Make sure next car doesn’t have black box.

The best stop animation of Indiana Jones you’ll see today

SCIENCE! IN SPACE!

Something 25 light years away is bouncing our old TV signals back to us and scientists are using that to recover the lost Doctor Who episodes. Awesome.

It all makes sense now

A good tutorial on the latest news from CERN about the Higgs boson thing.

Um, what?

Norway is facing a butter shortage as Christmas approaches. I cannot even fathom how this possible.

This is terrible

Shame on every Senator that voted for this. And I’m pretty sure the terrorists have won when the Democrats are the ones trying to limit the government’s power.

We’ve all played Civ, you know

Having failed at conquest victory conditions twice, Germany goes for the economic victory.

I suspect he survives

The Doctor Who Christmas Special prequel.

Little bits of history repeating

I remember when the Falkland Islands thing happened the first time. I doubt it will go any better for Argentina this time, should Britian decided to stop writing letters and do something.

Police and the rising use of force

A look at the militarization of the police over the last 30 years.

The amount of force the government uses to uphold a given law is no longer determined only by the threat to public safety posed by the suspect. Now, it appears to give an indication of how serious the government is about the law being enforced. The DEA sends SWAT teams barreling into the offices of doctors accused of over-prescribing painkillers not because the doctors pose any real threat of violence, but because prescription drug abuse is a hot issue right now. The feds sent SWAT teams into marijuana dispensaries not because medicinal pot merchants are inherently dangerous people, but because officials believe the dispensaries are openly defying federal law. It is, to put it bluntly, a terror tactic.

Science!

Scientists have developed a new coating that may keep eyeglasses and tablets/phones from smudging.

He has a point

“I’m sorry, but you are President of the damn United States of America. You have to do what is right for the country and not worry about the political ramifications.”

While the money quote is good, the problem isn’t the President. The problem is Congress is unwilling to legislate because that would require being willing to take the blame, and it’s far less risky to let the President take the blame than to take a stand. It’s Congress’ job to figure out how to fix things and then the President then executes those plans. It’s been a while since it’s worked that way though, so I can understand why Cardoza is confused about it.

 

It’s a bad idea

Google points out that the Protect IP Act is a bad idea. And if trial lawyers like it, you can bet it’s a bad idea.

Imagine my surprise

Martin says he’s going to have to kill a lot of POV characters off soon.

Stephen Colbert and Neil deGrasse Tyson

Talking to high schoolers, so no earth-shatteringly new explanations, but still good.

Christians in Egypt

An interesting conversation between Michael Totten and a Protestant Christian Egyptian, Ramez Attalah. Part 2 here.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

RIP Anne McCaffery

RIP Anne McCaffery, creator of some of my favorite characters and planets. Oh, how I wanted to meet Robinton.

Neato

It’s way too much work for me to make, but the pocket espresso maker with built in alcohol stove is very cool.

Oh, you noticed

Germany, who has a high savings rate and spends so much less than they take in that they’re giving everyone a tax rebate this year, points out that America isn’t doing so well in the budget area.

“The U.S., as far as I know, has a worse debt-to-GDP ratio than the whole eurozone, and we are talking about the eurozone, not about the United States and that Congress can’t get its act together,” said a member of the German press during the briefing. “So from the European perspective, it seems that this country is in a bigger mess than Europe.  We are not proud where we are.  We know that it’s slow and not bold, and so on, but at least they are doing something; they are deciding something, they’re trying to pull that through.  And here, nothing is happening — third time this year,” he added, referring to the Supercommittee failure.

All of which, IMHO, has to do with the fact that no one wants to man up and tell Americans the year before an election that they can’t afford all the nice things they’ve been relying on the government to give them and the choices are cutting spending and higher taxes. See, if we did both, neither side would be happy, which I believe is the essence of a good compromise and has made America the well-governed country it’s been for the last 200 years. It’s not fun getting out of debt, and I’m sure none of this will be helpful to the brutalized economy that flinches like an abused child at the slightest hint of bad news, but at least we would stand a chance of lowering our deficit.

Yes!

The FTL neutrinos got a small boost when they repeated an experiment and got the same results.

I really doubt the neutrinos are FTL, but I also really hope it’s true.  In no small part because of the consternation of the armchair physicists that are freaking out over having their worldview questioned. To coin a phrase, the tree of science must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of dearly held theories. Also, just as general relativity exists right alongside special relativity, I suspect the same will happen, should the FTL thing be true.

Or:

She has a point

Sarah Palin is becoming quite the populist pot-stirrer.

The corruption isn’t confined to one political party or just a few bad apples. It’s an endemic problem encompassing leadership on both sides of the aisle. It’s an entire system of public servants feathering their own nests.

The reasonable explanation

The world exports more than it imports, which means aliens owe us big time.

The Tournament of Muppets

Need I say more. Putting Animal up against Gonzo day 1 was hardly fair. I predict a Fozzie / Gonzo / Ms. Piggy fight for the top spot.

Shut Up and Take My Money

It looks like How To Train Your Dragon crossed with every princess movie of the last 20 years, but I have faith that Pixar will make it special. Also, great voice casting.

Huh

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.

Unintended? Consequences

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.

Mixed messages

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?

Neato

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.

Good

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.

Month of Thanks: Day 9

Flag and Sunshine 5The 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.

Opportunity

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.

Month of Thanks: Day 8

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.

Huh.

The Easter Island heads have bodies. Who knew?

Haha

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

I did not know that

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

I Blame DDR

Squee!

Some good news for your Friday

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

There’s a lot of awesome inherent in this

He says what we’re all thinking

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

I also found this refreshing [NSFW language].

Mixed messages

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?

Read the footnotes

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.

Fairly awesome

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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Don’t mention the war

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.

I found this enjoyable

Entire album playlist

Buy, buy, buy

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.

You owe me

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

Happy Mole Day

6.02 x 10^23. Go find yourself 12 grams of Carbon to celebrate.
Avagadro  sees what you did there

Um, yeah

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.

How Orwellian

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?

Please don’t touch them

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.

Do tell

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.”

Hillbillies and the Dark Crystal = winnning combination

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

Science!

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.

Neat-o

Touch screens everywhere! I want one.

But where’s my rocketpack?

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.

Nuke it from orbit

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):

Continue reading

I just might go see this in the theater

Another Muppets trailer, this time with actual plot!

The fact that I know this pains me

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.

MOAR!

Buy! Buy! Buy!

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

wOOt

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):
Continue reading

This list is a travesty

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.

It’s what the internet is for

Occupy Sesame Street.

What is this, Victorian England?

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

How could it go wrong?

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.

VDH

I hope he’s right.

Good effort, all

How to learn from your mistakes.

I blame bureaucracy

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.

Smoot, smoot, smoot

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*

Good times

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):

Continue reading

It’s true

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.

Really? We’re still upset about that?

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.

I’m pretty sure this is how it started last time

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

Try not to follow too many links

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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Oh please, oh please, oh please

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?

Epic Awesomeness

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.

Who didn’t see this coming?

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

This will end in tears

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

In case of emergency

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.

Oh yeah?

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.

Because they’ve done so well with the airports?

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.

Remember the Raisin!

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.

Okay

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):

Continue reading

Really?

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

We pay people money for this

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.

Leave us alone

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.

Finally

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.

My Fall Entertainment list

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.

Sleep well…

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

Pass my smelling salts

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.

Fair enough

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.

Happy Birthday, Star Trek!

Thanks for all the fish mainstream sci-fi.
1966 ... Kirk ponders!

Good news, internet

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

Ouch

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.”

Oh Netflix

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.)

Hurray!

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.

This is wrong

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.

It’s really “the most overplayed songs of the 90s”

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”.