Category: Weird

F%$# the F%$#ing Yankees

The New York Yankees are claiming in court that they should hold the trademark on the term evil empire, at least as it applies to baseball:

Fans of the New York Yankees might bristle when they hear their team referred to as the “Evil Empire.” But the team itself doesn’t seem to mind, at least judging from a recent legal dust-up over the phrase.

A panel of trademark judges in Washington, D.C., earlier this month denied a request from a private entrepreneur, known as Evil Enterprises, Inc., to register the trademark for the phrase “Baseballs Evil Empire.”

Evil Enterprises wanted the exclusive right to market merchandise using that phrase, which was coined in regard to the Yankees by Larry Lucchino, the president and chief executive of the Boston Red Sox, back in 2002. Upon learning that the Yankees had signed sought-after Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras, Lucchino was widely reported as saying: “The evil empire extends its tentacles even into Latin America.”

Evil Enterprises initially applied for a trademark back in July of 2008.

But the Yankees objected, arguing that they had the rights to the phrase—at least when used in connection with baseball.

This is a level of truth telling by the Yankees that rivals that of the satirical publication The Onion.

As God as My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly

So not the f%$#ing Onion, but they are dosing mice with Tylenol and dropping them from helicopters on Guam:

Something about this just does not sound like a good idea. In the coming months, toxic mice will rain down on the jungles in Guam. They are the solution to the intrusion of the brown tree snake which has wiped out much of Guam’s native bird species after first arriving on the island in U.S. naval ships after World War II. With an estimated 2 million of the snakes on the island, the military has decided to carpet bomb the island with dead mice laced with lethal painkillers. Italy carpet bombed one its islands with poison to combat a similar rat problem. The brown tree snakes have been cutting power lines and even biting residents. However, there is the obvious problem of other animals eating the mice. To reduce this problem, the scientists have developed a flotation device with streamers designed to catch in the branches of the forest foliage, where the snakes live and feed. Yet, if anything goes wrong, we have replaced a brown tree snake problem with an army of airborne paratrooping zombie toxic mice with addiction problems.

What the hell?

Seriously, someone has jumped the f%$#ing shark!

It Still Tastes Better Than Dr. Pepper

That being said, I understand why guests at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles were squicked out when a body was found in its rooftop water tank:

Guests of a downtown hotel where missing Canadian tourist Elisa Lam was found dead in a rooftop water tank expressed horror at the discovery.

Lam’s body was discovered by a worker at the Cecil Hotel checking out complaints of weak water pressure, police said.

“I’m really disgusted,” said Annette Suzuki, a San Francisco resident staying at the hotel. “Wouldn’t you be if there was a dead body in the water tank you’re drinking from?”

As authorities were searching for clues at the scene of the discovery Monday evening, Pippa Beaumont, 26, of South Africa was rushing out of the hotel with her luggage in tow.

She had planned to stay at the hotel but decided not to when she learned a body had been found in one of the hotel’s water tanks.

In Los Angeles, the water drinks you.

Firewood Versus Honey Boo boo

I’ll go with the aesthetic sensibilities of the Norwegian people:

The TV program, on the topic of firewood, consisted mostly of people in parkas chatting and chopping in the woods and then eight hours of a fire burning in a fireplace. Yet no sooner had it begun, on prime time on Friday night, than the angry responses came pouring in.

“We received about 60 text messages from people complaining about the stacking in the program,” said Lars Mytting, whose best-selling book “Solid Wood: All About Chopping, Drying and Stacking Wood — and the Soul of Wood-Burning” inspired the broadcast. “Fifty percent complained that the bark was facing up, and the rest complained that the bark was facing down.”

He explained, “One thing that really divides Norway is bark.”

One thing that does not divide Norway, apparently, is its love of discussing Norwegian wood. Nearly a million people, or 20 percent of the population, tuned in at some point to the program, which was shown on the state broadcaster, NRK.

In a country where 1.2 million households have fireplaces or wood stoves, said Rune Moeklebust, NRK’s head of programs in the west coast city of Bergen, the subject naturally lends itself to television.

“My first thought was, ‘Well, why not make a TV series about firewood?’” Mr. Moeklebust said in an interview. “And that eventually cut down to a 12-hour show, with four hours of ordinary produced television, and then eight hours of showing a fireplace live.”

………

But the real excitement came when the action moved, four hours later, to a fireplace in a Bergen farmhouse.

Perhaps you have seen a log fire burning on television before. But it would be very foolish to confuse Norway’s eight-hour fireplace extravaganza on Friday with the Yule log broadcast in the United States at Christmastime.

While the Yule log fire plays on a constant repeating loop, the fire on “National Firewood Night” burned all night long, in suspensefully unscripted configurations. Fresh wood was added through the hours by an NRK photographer named Ingrid Tangstad Hatlevoll, aided by viewers who sent advice via Facebook on where exactly to place it.

For most of the time, the only sound came from the fire. Ms. Hatlevoll’s face never appeared on screen, but occasionally her hands could be seen putting logs in the fireplace, or cooking sausages and marshmallows on sticks.

“I couldn’t go to bed because I was so excited,” a viewer called niesa36 said on the Dagbladet newspaper Web site. “When will they add new logs? Just before I managed to tear myself away, they must have opened the flue a little, because just then the flames shot a little higher.

Yes, this is deliciously weird, but this is a hell of a lot less pathological than the American regime of reality programing.

Stay Classy, Teabaggers

Yes, the fine folks at Freedomworks, produced a video with two female staffers playing Hillary Clinton and a Panda having sex:

An internal investigation of FreedomWorks—the prominent conservative advocacy group and super-PAC—has focused on president Matt Kibbe’s management of the organization, his use of its resources, and a controversial book deal he signed, according to former FreedomWorks officials who have met with the private lawyers conducting the probe. One potential topic for the inquiry is a promotional video produced last year under the supervision of Adam Brandon, executive vice president of the group and a Kibbe loyalist. The video included a scene in which a female intern wearing a panda suit simulates performing oral sex on Hillary Clinton. [Author’s note: The previous sentence contains no typos.]

………

In one segment of the film, according to a former official who saw it, Brandon is seen waking from a nap at his desk. In what appears to be a dream or a nightmare, he wanders down a hallway and spots a giant panda on its knees with its head in the lap of a seated Hillary Clinton and apparently performing oral sex on the then-secretary of state. Two female interns at FreedomWorks were recruited to play the panda and Clinton. One intern wore a Hillary Clinton mask. The other wore a giant panda suit that FreedomWorks had used at protests to denounce progressives as panderers. (See here, here, and here.) Placing the panda in the video, a former FreedomWorks staffer says, was “an inside joke.”

Another FreedomWorks staffer who worked there at the time confirms that “Yes, this video was created.”

Seriously, these guys are showing less maturity than your average 13 year old boys in a locker room in a farting contest.

Too Much Free Time Example of the Millennium

I give you Ryan Werber, who created the world’s most amusing traceroute:

6 Episode.IV (206.214.251.1) 68.642 ms 67.307 ms 67.005 ms
7 A.NEW.HOPE (206.214.251.6) 65.986 ms 68.502 ms 68.708 ms
8 It.is.a.period.of.civil.war (206.214.251.9) 67.067 ms 70.139 ms 66.52
9 Rebel.spaceships (206.214.251.14) 70.214 ms 70.192 ms 71.622 ms
10 striking.from.a.hidden.base (206.214.251.17) 71.427 ms 74.206 ms
11 have.won.their.first.victory (206.214.251.22) 71.665 ms 70.434 ms 7
12 against.the.evil.Galactic.Empire (206.214.251.25) 69.218 ms 70.621
13 During.the.battle (206.214.251.30) 69.059 ms 68.931 ms 69.981 ms
14 Rebel.spies.managed (206.214.251.33) 77.247 ms 72.757 ms 77.61
15 to.steal.secret.plans (206.214.251.38) 71.224 ms 71.164 ms 69.543
16 to.the.Empires.ultimate.weapon (206.214.251.41) 68.744 ms 68.824
17 the.DEATH.STAR (206.214.251.46) 72.316 ms 74.551 ms 66.354 ms
18 an.armored.space.station (206.214.251.49) 69.413 ms 70.334 ms 6
19 with.enough.power.to (206.214.251.54) 66.182 ms 66.627 ms 71.23
20 destroy.an.entire.planet (206.214.251.57) 71.926 ms 71.266 ms 70.
21 Pursued.by.the.Empires (206.214.251.62) 67.298 ms 65.956 ms 66.
22 sinister.agents (206.214.251.65) 65.020 ms 67.806 ms 70.508 ms
23 Princess.Leia.races.home (206.214.251.70) 68.894 ms 71.147 ms 71
24 aboard.her.starship (206.214.251.73) 72.130 ms 71.093 ms 74.026
25 custodian.of.the.stolen.plans (206.214.251.78) 68.568 ms 67.939 ms
26 that.can.save.her (206.214.251.81) 67.063 ms 69.874 ms 68.889 m
27 people.and.restore (206.214.251.86) 70.395 ms 70.144 ms
28 freedom.to.the.galaxy (206.214.251.89) 66.098 ms 65.432 ms
29 0——————-0 (206.214.251.94) 75.931 ms 74.159 ms 80.012
30 0——————0 (206.214.251.97) 73.026 ms 73.403 ms 73.256
31 0—————–0 (206.214.251.102) 83.602 ms 82.079 ms 70.743
32 0—————-0 (206.214.251.105) 70.459 ms 69.403 ms 68.782 m
33 0—————0 (206.214.251.110) 68.516 ms 72.472 ms 71.811 ms
34 0————–0 (206.214.251.113) 69.056 ms 65.981 ms 68.202 ms
35 0————-0 (206.214.251.118) 66.790 ms 71.556 ms 74.292 ms
36 0————0 (206.214.251.121) 68.286 ms 71.042 ms 71.587 ms
37 0———–0 (206.214.251.126) 72.702 ms 71.785 ms 72.442 ms
38 0———-0 (206.214.251.129) 78.143 ms 74.411 ms 72.828 ms
39 0———0 (206.214.251.134) 69.692 ms 66.187 ms 67.369 ms
40 0——–0 (206.214.251.137) 69.184 ms 70.678 ms 67.445 ms
41 0——-0 (206.214.251.142) 70.383 ms 68.220 ms 67.543 ms
42 0——0 (206.214.251.145) 67.593 ms 72.970 ms 73.220 ms
43 0—–0 (206.214.251.150) 70.964 ms 69.082 ms 70.831 ms
44 0—-0 (206.214.251.153) 73.856 ms 71.848 ms 70.311 ms
45 0—0 (206.214.251.158) 71.517 ms 69.204 ms 69.538 ms
46 0–0 (206.214.251.161) 68.076 ms 68.179 ms 67.620 ms
47 0-0 (206.214.251.166) 68.738 ms 70.518 ms 68.757 ms
48 00 (206.214.251.169) 68.281 ms 70.225 ms 74.811 ms
49 I (206.214.251.174) 70.203 ms 71.668 ms 71.672 ms
50 By.Ryan.Werber (206.214.251.177) 68.900 ms 71.461 ms 72.297 ms
51 When.CCIEs.Get.Bored (206.214.251.182) 75.816 ms 73.957 ms 71.333 ms
52 read.more.at.beaglenetworks.net (206.214.251.185) 70.254 ms 73.799 ms

Unfortunately, his little trick went viral, and then the script kiddies decided to DDOS the site, so the traceroute no longer works.

H/t DC at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

Turtle Power!

They beat us to the moon:

You might say the answer is Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and that other guy Michael Collins, the crew of Apollo 11. Or you could represent for the crew of Apollo 10, which reached the moon in May 1969 and then headed back to Earth without landing.

But there is a much stranger answer to this question, depending on how much you care about humans and what your definition of reaching the moon might be. Before any people arrived at the moon, other animals got there first. And unlike the dogs and monkeys that were made famous in early space shots and Earth orbits, the first vertebrates to reach the moon were a pair of steppe tortoises, Discovery’s Amy Shira Teitel reminds us.

The Soviet Zond 5 sent the animals around the moon — although not into lunar orbit — during a mission in the middle of September, 1968. The unmanned craft then returned to Earth and splashed down in the Indian Ocean, after which the Russians recovered the craft.

A month later, Soviet scentists revealed that the Zond had been a tiny ark, carrying the tortoises, “wine flies, meal worms, plants, seeds, bacteria, and other living matter.” A small dummy packed with radiation sensors flew, too.

Later, the turtles took to living in sewers, fighting with Japanese weapons, and eating pizza.

If You Spend the Better Part of a Decade Sh%$ting on a Profession………

It appears to me that if you are going to do your level best to be horrible to teachers, and to make their lives a living hell, it’s Probably not a good idea to let them bring firearms to work and to give them military training:

Tennessee has emerged this week as a center of the “the answer is more guns in schools” sentiment following the Newtown, Conn. elementary school shooting.

A member of the Republican-controlled legislature plans during its upcoming session to introduce a bill that would allow the state to pay for secretly armed teachers in classrooms so, the sponsor told TPM, potential shooters don’t know who has a gun and who doesn’t.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) has said the idea will be part of his discussions about how to prevent a shooting like the one in Newtown from happening in the Volunteer State.

This is not quite as stupid as McArdle’s suggestion that we brainwash 6 year old children into gang tackling gun toting maniacs, but it’s pretty f%$#ing close.

I am waiting for The Onion to announce mass layoffs, because they can no longer compete with reality.

Canada is a Strange Place

And I have to preface this by, “No, this is not The Onion.”

It appears that Quebec police have foiled a massive theft from the Canadian Strategic Maple Syrup Reserves:

It was a culinary whodunit involving a daring heist, a golden bounty, and now, some allegedly sticky-fingered suspects.

Police in Quebec announced the arrest of three men in the theft of 6 million lbs. of maple syrup from a provincial warehouse, a haul estimated at $18-million and enough to smother a Himalayan mountain of waffles and pancakes.

The arrests mark a badly-needed break in a case that circled the globe and pulled in law-enforcement agents operating in two countries and three provinces, all deployed in the retrieval of one of Canada’s most cherished resources.

The theft was discovered in August at a depôt rented by the Quebec Federation of Maple Syrup Producers, in what police believe was an inside job. Some 10,000 barrels of stockpiled syrup, part of the federation’s carefully guarded “International Strategic Reserve,” had gone missing. The Fort Knox-style controls reflect the fact that Quebec dominates the world market in maple syrup and carefully controls the commodity’s price and supply.

(emphasis mine)

Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve? Seriously?

Something is seriously weird here.

Also:  If they have a International Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve T-shirt, or a baseball cap, I want one.

Now I Know How HP Employees Felt When Fiorina was Fired

Because George Lucas has sold LucasFilm and the Star Wars Franchise, meaning that he will no longer be able f%$# it up. (Ewoks, and the Star Wars Holiday Special, Jar Jar Binks, and midi-chlorians, anyone?)

Unfortunately, I also feel how HP employees felt when Meg F%$#ing Whitman was hired as CEO:

In the rare bit of news that could blow Hurricane Sandy off the map, Disney announced today that it had purchased Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion—and announced that the company will debut Star War Episode VII in 2015. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers,” George Lucas said in the official announcement of the transaction, in what is a substantial understatement, given the creative quality of the prequels. “I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime.”

Disney?  The f%$#ing mouse?

He f%$#ing sold f%$#ing Star Wars to the f%$#ing mouse?

Grrr………