Tag: Palmer Moment

I’ll Have What She’s Having

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Preach It!

Well, here is another sign of the apocalypse, I am favorably impressed with a realtor. (It’s a family thing, realtors, and real estate developers, have always been the enemy)

This realtor is just a trifle upset that she is showing houses to people who refuse to wear masks or socially distance, and she lets loose with a real “Palmer Moment.” (You Gotta Be F%$#Ing Kidding………)

I’m thinking that we need to strap the never-maskers into a chair, use clips to hold their eyes, hook up the electrodes, and make them watch this over, and over, and over, and over, and over again.

Finally an aggressive, and somewhat profane, case for masks, gloves, and social distancing that doesn’t resort to fear mongering or moralizing.

I don’t know who this woman is, but if she ever runs for office, I am making a donation.

Also, she is wearing her f%$#ing seat-belt.

Always wear your f%$#ing seat-belt.

You Have Got to be F%$#in’ Kidding Me

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Another Palmer Moment

Have you heard about the latest patent?

It’s literally for discussing song lyrics:

Have you ever talked about the lyrics of a much-loved song with a friend? Perhaps the discussion took place online? It might surprise you to discover that you’ve gotten pretty darn close to infringing a US patent.

This month, EFF’s Stupid Patent of the Month feature has singled out Patent No. 9,401,941, owned by CBS Interactive, which has claimed its monopoly to “processing user interactions with song lyrics.” The patent’s big reveal is a “computer-implemented system” for “processing interactions with song lyrics.” Supposedly, this adds to existing technology by allowing a user to select particular parts of songs, view a menu, and then write an interpretation of a selected line.

Of course, even if such an idea were patent-worthy, there were already websites offering that feature before the patent’s priority date of 2011. The most notable is perhaps Rap Genius, a website founded in 2009 that is now simply called Genius.

The patent examiner actually pointed out Rap Genius to the applicant, compelling CBS lawyers to narrow their claims. They added a clause saying that their technology would suggest comments to users based on what type of comments have been written in the past. That narrower definition is unlikely to be infringed by many lyrics sites, but even the narrower definition should not have resulted in a patent grant, argues EFF lawyer Daniel Nazer, who wrote the blog post.

………

Faced with the prospect of a never-ending search for an exact list of features proposed by the applicant, the examiner eventually gives up and grants the patent. That may be what happened here.

Even aside from older technology, the patent, which was filed in 2015, should have been rejected under the Supreme Court’s Alice precedent, argues Nazer. It’s a series of routine Web development decisions, and that’s exactly the type of “generic” computer technology the 2014 Alice decision should have rendered unpatentable.

The Alice in question is Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, where the Supreme Court ruled that just because you add “With a computer” to an unpatentable idea does not make the idea a patentable one.

We seriously need to fix our patent review process.

Another John Carpenter Moment

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Yesterday, I noted that after almost 35 years, I was finally more horrified and disgusted than Palmer was in the 1982 version of the movie The Thing.

Who knew that the mixture of horror and disgust at Betsy Devos would be exceeded in the next day.

Specifically Judith Miller tweeted her horror at the commutation of Chelsea Manning’s sentence:

Obama commutes sentence of Chelsea Manning. How many people died because of manning’ leak? https://t.co/WrijBtp4fo

— Judith Miller (@JMfreespeech) January 17, 2017

This engendered the following observation from Jason Concepcion:

don’t worry, no one can touch your high score https://t.co/2pzkm7dHEz

— ☕netw3rk (@netw3rk) January 17, 2017

For those of you who don’t recall, during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, Judith Miller, then a New York Times reporter was desperately shilling for the Bush administration (Google Judith Miller Curveball) and was typing up anything and everything that she could find, without regard to classification to help them.

So, 4,424 US Soldiers dead, and around 500,000 Iraqis dead, because of her casual handling of classified material, and her even more casual handling of the truth, and suddenly, she’s concerned about the body counts.

Why she isn’t selling perfume one cash register over from Janet Cooke for a living is completely beyond me.

H/t Naked Capitalism.

You Gotta Be F%$#Ing Kidding………

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Musical Accompaniment by John Carpenter and Ennio Morricone here

One of my favorite films is John Carpenter’s magnum opus, The Thing, released in 1982.

It is closer to the original work (John Campbell’s Who Goes There) than did the 1951 Howard Hawks film.

If you haven’t seen it, see it. It is an investigation of isolation, paranoia, with allusions to AIDS and sexual ambiguity.

The movie has many classic moments, and in one, when confronted with a human head sprouting legs and walking off, and Palmer notices, and says, “You gotta be f%$#in’ kidding.”

It is an expression of horror and disgust that I have not seen equaled ………

Until today ………

By me ………

Because today ………

On Capitol Hill ………

………

At the confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, announced that she opposes banning guns in schools because ……… Grizzly Bears:

Senator Chris Murphy who represented the district with Newtown, asked Department of Education Betsy DeVos whether she would oppose guns in public schools.

 As she did with most questions, she waffled.

 Murphy asked, “Do you think guns have any place in or around schools?”

 DeVos fell back on her usual deflection that it is for states to decide, which set Murphy off.

 Incredulously, he asked, “You can’t say definitively today that guns shouldn’t be in schools?”

 With disingenuous wide-eyed misunderstanding, DeVos replied, “I will refer back to (Wyoming) Senator (Mike) Enzi and the school he was talking about in Wyoming. I think probably there, I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies.”

 Murphy ended his questioning by telling her he looked forward to her visiting his state to discuss guns in schools with a disgusted tone. I was seriously surprised that he didn’t throw all of his papers on the floor while walking out.

I will say it again, “You Gotta be F%$#ing Kidding ………”

Murphy is the Senator from Connecticut, the former home of Newtown Elementry and the Newtown Massacre.

I am sure that Ms. DeVos’ reception in the Nutmeg state would be ……… enthusiastic.