Category: 40yrs
Ghod What a Geekfest!
From Halloween 2010
Charlie, my son, is going to his first cubing competition, the River Hill Winter 2012, and I am his escort / videographer. (I won’t be posting the videos, Charlie will, on his Youtube™ channel, PostalCode74.)
He’s in hog heaven, and I’m using the local WiFi to go online. We brought my laptop so that we could unload the camera’s memory card if needed.
The venue had to move at the last minute, the high school they were using got closed due to snow and freezing rain, but thankfully, there are plenty of little community centers in the Columbia area.
He showed up in his Rubik’s Cube Halloween costume, which was well received, but he is taking it off to compete.
A couple of his fellow partners in crime offered to solve him.
This is not the Best Newspaper Correction Ever
Correction, New York Times, 30 December 2011Yes, it’s an amusing correction, but it’s not the best ever.
The reigning champion, this year, as it has been for nearly 100 years, the Grauniad’s* Corrections and amplifications column.
The material there is extensive and voluminous, but I believe that the best correction of all time comes from their effort on 2 February 2009:
The absence of corrections yesterday was due to a technical hitch rather than any sudden onset of accuracy.
Seriously, corrections simply do not get any better than that.
*According to the Wiki, The Guardian, formerly the Manchester Guardian in the UK. It’s nicknamed the Grauniad because of its penchant for typographical errors, “The nickname The Grauniad for the paper originated with the satirical magazine Private Eye. It came about because of its reputation for frequent and sometimes unintentionally amusing typographical errors, hence the popular myth that the paper once misspelled its own name on the page one masthead as The Gaurdian, though many recall the more inventive The Grauniad.”
You Will Never Have a Christmas Tree This Good
It’s enough to make me want to have this tree, even though I’m a Yid.
This is sweet:
The Japanese (see link) truly understand the spirit of Christmas.
H/t DC at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.
Some Perspective on the F-22 Onboard Oxygen Generator Problems
If you have followed this all, you know that there have been number of restrictions and groundings on the F-22 due to repeated failures of its onboard Oxygen Generation system, well Stephen Trimble puts it all in perspective:
This is the internet, it all comes down to cats.
Who Says Irony Is Dead?
Do you remember the theatrical release of the Atlas Shrugged Movie, imaginatively named Atlas Shrugged Part I? It was first movie of a 3 part series based on Ayn Rand’s magnum opus.
Yeah, I didn’t think so. It left theaters so fast that I don’t think that they had time to finishing the lettering on the sign.
Well, in their attempt to further
rip-off
monetize their gullible objectivist fanboi base, they made a fairly substantial DVD release that they are now having to recall:
100,000 “Atlas Shrugged” DVDs have been recalled for an important danger they posed to unwary consumers: the title sheet suggested that viewers help someone out besides themselves.
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand that tells the story of an alternate reality version of America where all the millionaires get sick of the government taking over their inventions so they go on strike. The original title sheet for the movie said that in it, “AYN RAND’s timeless novel of courage and self-sacrifice comes to life…” This grave error posed a risk of fire. As in, it would make Ayn Rand fan’s heads spontaneously immolate upon reading it. So the producers recalled the 100,000 DVDs to replace the sheet.
The new sheet will read, “AYN RAND’s timeless novel of rational self-interest comes to life…” (Emphasis added.)
Needless to say, the idea that the overpaid* self-styled supermen succeeded in refuting Ayn Rand’s core message and now feel ethically compelled to correct this, at significant personal cost, is just chock full of Irony.
*If they are paid at all they are overpaid.
Deep Thought
H/t ILIWIUITMABOIP.
People With Way Too Much Free Time…
More Deep Thoughts
I’m still checking out the Artist’s web site.
H/t Darren Jon Ashmore.
Deep Thought
Headline of the Day
Don’t Tell Me I Never Gave You Anything
Here are my pictures from New York. (Click for big honking images)
Most notable was a Broadway disaster so bad that Dick Cheney should be the producer:
And here are the offices of the Gray Lady:
I remember Times Square before it became a Disneyfied version of Blade Runner:
Maybe it’s the Eastern European Jewish heritage, Cossacks and all, but I really hate mounted police:
Deep Thought
When traveling via bus, bring a travel pack of tissues, in case the bus bathroom is out of toilet paper.
OK, I Think That the Interview Went OK………
I am home, and I am both completely wiped, and famished.
Interviews tend to leave me tired, but the hunger is a new one.
I’ll know something in the next week.
Wish Me Luck
I have a job interview tomorrow afternoon.
Perhaps I can avoid a stint of unemployment this time around.
But Vegemite Is a Weapon of Mass Destruction
It appears that Australia’s Foreign Minister Paul Rudd was rather put off when homeland security wanted to prevent him from taking the brown food like substance on a commercial flight:
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd had to talk himself out of trouble after airport officials flagged up a suspicious liquid in his cabin baggage – a jar of Vegemite.
Mr Rudd was heading to New York from Mexico City when he attracted the authorities’ attention.
He explained that the dark brown paste was his breakfast and, with help from local diplomats, was allowed through.
Vegemite, a savoury paste made from yeast extract, is popular in Australia.
It is similar to Marmite, which is widely eaten in the UK, but is hard to buy in many countries.
“Only problem travelling to NY is that they tried to confiscate our Vegemite at the airport. Needed Foreign Ministerial intervention,” Mr Rudd tweeted.
“Airport staff were surprised when I said it is good for you and I ate it for breakfast. They then waved me through,” he said.
One bit of meta here, if you object to my using the the tag “Food” on this post, I understand completely.
It was a tough call for me.
Only One in 25?
A study has found that 1 in 25 business is a psychopath:
One out of every 25 business leaders could be psychopathic, a study claims.
The study, conducted by the New York psychologist Paul Babiak, suggests that they disguise the condition by hiding behind their high status, playing up their charm and by manipulating others.
Favourable environmental factors such as a happy childhood mean they can function in a workplace rather than channelling their energies in more violent or destructive ways. Revealing the results in a BBC Horizon documentary, Babiak said: “Psychopaths really aren’t the kind of person you think they are.
“In fact, you could be living with or married to one for 20 years or more and not know that person is a psychopath.
“We have identified individuals that might be labelled ‘the successful psychopath’.
“Part of the problem is that the very things we’re looking for in our leaders, the psychopath can easily mimic.
On Wall Street, I would expect the number to be closer to 24 out of 25.
Best Headline Ever
They Live
I have no frelling clue as to what the back story here is, but you can click on the image for the ginormous image.
H/t DC on the Stellar Parthenon BBS.
I’ve Had it With These Motherf%$#ing Republicans on This Motherf%$#ing Plane!M
Alligator 0, Snake 0, Let’s call it a tie.
The latest regulation that the Republicans are objecting to and trying to repeal, is one that literally forbids snakes on a plane.
I’m not kidding here. They are literally trying to roll back regulations on the transportation of snakes on airplanes:
Democrats and Republicans all agree that the nation needs to move on a jobs agenda. And Republicans have a new plan: unleash the reins of snake commerce.
GOP members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today called attention to a proposed regulation that would restrict the transportation and importation of nine types of snakes, including the Burmese Python.
In a new report entitled “Broken Government: How the Administrative State has Broken President Obama’s Promise of Regulatory Reform,” GOP members cited the proposed snake ban as one of seven examples of red tape choking off job growth in an already ailing economy.
One witness invited to testify, snake breeder David Barke, told lawmakers that the rules “threatens as many as a million law-abiding American citizens and their families with the penalty of a felony conviction for pursuing their livelihoods, for pursuing their hobby, or for simply moving with their pet to new state.”
Politico reports that Florida officials, led by Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), are pushing for the new rules because the Everglades are under attack by 100,000 gigantic Burmese pythons who have been accidentally introduced by negligent pet owners. The outside invaders have been on a rampage, devouring native birds and other creatures. One python grew so big that it managed to devour a six-foot alligator before exploding. No really. This actually happened. There’s a photo.
No, this is not The Onion, and I wish that I didn’t live in a world where I cannot tell the difference between reality and satire.