Sounds like either way too many or not nearly enough, don't you think?
A Thousand Dildos For The Military Wives
In other sexytime news from PCMag (??? (well, both stories refer to robots, kind of, I guess)), iPhone users don't put out on the first date as frequently as Android users. But they do put out more frequently than Blackberry users.
You know, that time when he sent the rogue computer into a nervous breakdown by commanding it to compute π to the last digit.
Not to keep being that guy on this, but I gotta say, what's shown at right indicates to me that after half a decade, at least, of being logged into Google and letting it examine what's rather hysterically called my personal data, the most powerful computer network on the planet still can't do any better than throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks.
The lesson? Spend a part of your day, every day, on Gmail, talking nonsense with your friends. That's how you defeat Skynet.
Oh, and have some more π. Mmmm, pi.
But still, ladies, how cool would it be if instead of having to carry around condoms (due to the … uh, forgetfulness, yeah, that's it … of men who have something else swamping their minds), you could instead, in an intimate moment, reach into your purse or the bedside table, and PULL OUT A RAY GUN?
"Now, now, dear, this won't hurt a bit."
(h/t: Rufus Polk)
P.S. Because Uncle Eb will be mad if that's the only picture I use, let's have equal time, and present an ad for … uh, sneakers, yeah, that's it … that just happened to appear on the same page. (Thanks, Google!)
Very nice, Twitter. What an elegant way to remind people that the blast of flame that they're about to send is actually going to be read by a human being on the other end.
(embiggen)
Do your billing and cooing here!
The lazy journalist's two favorite words.
Not that I'm accusing FoxNews of being journalists, you understand.
(Backstory.)
Here's the first couple of slides to get you started:
See the rest.
Baratunde, if you didn't already know, is digital director of The Onion. The slides are part of the pimping celebration of the release of his autobiography. Of course there is an affiliated website filled with fanciness, because, come on, digital director. [Insert joke about bossing around white people here. But keep it tasteful so as not to upset Charles Murray fans.]
Want to participate in a video chat? Friday 3 Feb 11am EST, on the WaPo's site. See his blog and Twitter feed, also.
Check out the salutation. (Click it to see the whole thing.)
Sweeeeeeeht. Now, let me go get my buckets and head on down to K Street.
Lucky for him you can't see his hands.
What, context? You want context? What goes around comes around, Willard. Ask anybody. Including the Salt Lake Tribune.
(h/t: KK | title: cf.)
[Added] Pareene rushes to his defense!
... than re-posting a video which ran as a pre-roll ad and calling it "blogging," but I can't think of what it would be. But who cares, I love these.
I haven't ever seen the cougar one. Have you?
The process doesn’t daemonise itself ...
Wait. Wait wait wait. That's not the weird part.*
I happened across the above while looking to see if a semi-spammy-seeming email had anything behind it.
On a thoroughly unrelated note (except chronologically), and my weakness for nerd jokes aside, I did next find what I was looking for, and did the first thing you always do with a new search engine: type in your own name. Which didn't return much, but did lead me to discover that a phrase of mine apparently went sorta viral about a year ago.
I guess I have an OpenSalon post from The Majority Report to thank for that. So, thanks, Sam! (Or whoever actually runs that blog.) And let us hope a seed or two got lodged in Matt Bai's ear.
* (The part to which I refer starts at 0:24).
(alt. audio link | transcript)
I think I only ever saw that once, when it originally aired, but I've never forgotten it. (Although admittedly it did blur a bit -- if you know me AFK, you might have heard me say that the weird part is "a different golden retriever.")
This week's Amazon "MP3 newsletter" (which, really, can have its good points way down at the bottom) featured a name that was completely new to me. Okay, we all know the drill. Tinker to Evers to Google, and … by Chance, look. at. that.
Elizabeth Grant (born June 21, 1986), better known by her stage name Lana Del Rey, is an American singer/songwriter. She has been described as a "self-styled gangsta Nancy Sinatra",[5] and cites Britney Spears,[6] Elvis Presley and Kurt Cobain amongst her musical influences.[6][7]
Uh ... I was gonna say I, too, liked Kurt, but after typing those three dots, I've decided it's probably more honest just to say, Okay! Spectrum covered! Why SHOULDN'T everyone like you?
Gah.
I did also listen to the title track of what I am told is her monster new album, and made it nearly two-thirds of the way through before giving it a considered "meh." Or "neh." Not sure. Already fading from memory.
It's going to be a long time before I'm able to floss my brain clean of "self-styled gangsta Nancy Sinatra," though.
Hey, wait! I've got a new complaint!
So there's that.
Molly once said, "We have to have fun while trying to stave off the forces of darkness because we hardly ever win, so it's the only fun we get to have."
In that spirit and not at all because I obsessively test links, I typed my name into The Trustworthy Search Engine mentioned last post. On one of many pages featuring the burblings of Long Beach City College's finest,* I was presented with this advertising image:
Which is now linked as it should be. You're welcome, rightwingers!
(title: cf.)
* Never forget: SASQUATCH ISRAEL.
I was going back and forth with C about the latest kowtowing to the American Taliban and that made me think of a clip emailed a couple of days ago by Special Agent Z200a.
Χιούμορ είναι αλήθεια:
I was and am grateful that FINALLY someone with a platform bigger than mine is talking about this. Not to claim superiority over Mr. Maher, of course, but I've been asking this since late '07, early '08 at the latest. Really. I'm no master of literature or anything, but I've got enough breadth to do a Sunday crossword puzzle, if you see what I'm saying, and the name Alinksy didn't even ring a bell when it first got trotted out, round about the time the Wright and Ayers cards finally went flaccid.
But the thing I really liked about this clip was that twenty-five second bit starting at 1:02 about totebaggers some liberals not realizing (or worse, refusing to believe) that there really, really is a disturbingly large chunk of the population whose world view begins and ends with such craziness. Like Alinksy is Teh Left's secret playbook. Or Obama hates America, because he's like Mao. No, Pol Pot. No, Castro. No, Stalin. No, Hitler. One of them. Or the answer to all of our fiscal woes is to go back on the gold standard and invest the rest in personal generators and automatic weaponry (which Obama stealthily plans to take away, doncha know), strictly intended for hunting defending Teh Constitooshin, of course. And God help you if you let Obama's seekrit FEMA police give your child a vaccine or make him eat green vegetables!!!1! Because Michelle is uppity angry!!!1! Also!!!1!
Believe it. Or don't, and see for yourself: go to The Trustworthy Search Engine and type in any of the above. Or any phrase from current events, or American history (1776-1789, 1860-1861, 1941-1945, and 9/11/2001-5/1 /2003 will work best), that comes to mind. And then wallow for a while. Or just browse around Summa Wingnuttia.
No need to panic. They're still a decided minority,* albeit noisy and redolent. But please, just be aware. They're not amenable to compromise, much less reason, and you'd do well to bear that in mind. Not saying it's time for a purge or anything like that. Just saying that you might be amazed what's in our midst.
--bjk +7. Ἐν οἴνῳ ἀλήθεια.
(Pic. source: The Triadvocate | All Greek to you? Okay, here: 1, 2)
__________
[Added] Oh crap. Googling around for one of the above links teaches me that once again, I am behind: that consarned Edroso has already been all over this one, too. Days ago!
Welp, if you, too, are just learning about this recent work from Roy, sorry for wasting your time, but glad I'm only the opening act, at least! Intro here, full column here. Go.
* The Republican primaries have not been considered in making this statistical assertion.
... a couple of posts ago, didn't you?
The nation's leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, is halting its partnerships with Planned Parenthood affiliates — creating a bitter rift, linked to the abortion debate, between two iconic organizations that have assisted millions of women.
The change will mean a cutoff of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, mainly for breast exams.
Planned Parenthood says the move results from Komen bowing to pressure from anti-abortion activists. Komen says the key reason is that Planned Parenthood is under investigation in Congress — a probe launched by a conservative Republican who was urged to act by anti-abortion groups.
Which, I gotta say, deserves to be on anybody's shortlist for worst non-denial denials.
Have a look, also, at Planned Parenthood's statement.
As of this moment, the top hit on Google News points to FoxNews. Most of the next positions belong to posts filled with rejoicing from wingnut websites like Townhall and worse.
Next question?
If you have in the past, please don't give any more of your money or other support to Komen for the Cure Now Exclusively For Rich Women. That includes their Race for the Cure. This is a disgrace, and there are plenty of other more worthy organizations. Like Planned Parenthood, for example.
(h/t: just about everyone I follow on Twitter)
P.S. More from Jezebel.
Michael Wolfe's answer to the Engineering Management question, "Why are software development task estimations regularly off by a factor of 2-3?" is entertaining, and almost certainly more wisely widely (well, the typo don't lie) applicable.
Not that I'd know anything about schedule slippage, of course.
P.S. He is CEO of Pipewise, and you should have a look at the beta tester sign-up form on their home page. Ah, Mad Libs.
From the Calling a Spade a Spade Department, in alliance with the Day Late Dollar Short Division of our UpToTheMinuteNews™ Service, for his hilarious report of a couple weeks ago on the Iowa caucus results:
One by one, all the other claimants to the title of No. 1 “movement” and/or Christianist conservative had peaked and plummeted …
It's useful to distinguish them from the millions of regular Christians, is the point.
+ + + + +
I first encountered the term on The Daily Dish, and Wikipedia says … oh, hey, look!
Not to be confused, indeed.
Anyway, Wikipedia says that Safire gave credit to Sully for the coinage. Or at least the reissue. Reading that piece, though, I see that I am also only about seven years behind in congratulating Mr. Hertzberg. Sorry, Rick.
And see Urban Dictionary. Guess the term has become more mainstream than I had thought. God bless us everyone.
Or not. Maybe it's just another example of being trapped inside the bubble.
Anyway, congratulations to Mozilla for the release of Firefox 10.0, and no one tell Jean-Yves Perrier that I also have installed on my machine Opera 11.61. Not to mention Chrome 16.0.912.77. Because he is right: friends don't let friends sniff user-agent strings.
__________
[Added] Actually, he does acknowledge Those Other Browsers. My bad for writing a blog post based only on the lede. I should have done the responsible thing and delivered my smart-assery via Twitter.
[Added2] Paul Ryan's Ars Technica post on the new release may be of interest to some of you, especially if you're a developer or someone responsible for enterprise installations.
[Added3] His name is actually Ryan Paul. My apologies, Ryan. I blame Eddie Munster.
I'm not sure, but I think Scientology's Prime Directive must be It's way too late to stop the spread of news, but it's never too late to punish the whistleblower!
Remember Debbie Cook? That ex-high official whose email of a month ago, ostensibly only to other true believers, leaked out right after the latest exposé of Scientology's fund-raising practices was published by Tobin and Childs? Well, this'll shock you: she's being sued, by guess who?, for talking out of church school after allegedly taking $50K to keep her lips zipped for the next billion years. Tony Ortega's post is a good place to start.
While over at Runnin' Scared, I noticed another item that's quite interesting: "The Decline and Fall of Scientology? Skeptic Magazine Makes the Case." Ortega got an advance copy; the rest of us will have to bookmark and wait a couple of weeks.
JC just let me know via email that long-time Political Animal Steve Benen has taken a job with The Rachel Maddow Show. If anyone deserves recognition for his tireless work, it is definitely Steve.
He announced the new gig last week on the old site. He didn't write an introductory post on the new one, but just got right to work. (Which comes as no surprise to his friends.) One of his co-bloggers, or possibly, his boss, did post a helpful notice, though, alerting Steve's long-time followers that The Maddow Blog would be adding a feed dedicated to Steve's posts.
The new Political Animal will be Ed Kilgore, who wrote one of the better self-introductions that I've ever seen.
I have to confess that my initial reaction to hearing about Steve's successor was, "Isn't he that centrist, eventheliberal[X] guy? As in, used to write for TNR, and so forth?" It seems as though my memory wasn't too far off, or perhaps more precisely, my memory of his image wasn't far off, and I'm encouraged by the way he dealt with that.
Congratulations to Steve and Ed.
P.S. If you're not familiar with Steve's blogging, his recent post about the latest effluvia from Grover Norquist is a good example of his style: honest reporting from a clear perspective. No Shape Of Earth: Views Differ headlines from him, and no Fair And Balanced™ bullshit, either.
P.P.S. Perhaps also helpful: Ed's words on the same event. And more generally, especially for those of the "there's no difference between the two parties" persuasion, a longer piece on the same creature.
... they're also dumber than a sack of hammers.
Latest bit of evidence? It seems that a couple from that noted terrorist haven of Ireland were detained by your Department of Homeland™ Security® and after hours of interrogation, denied entry into the erstwhile land of the free and home of the brave. For? A "terrorist tweet." Their words. I am not making this up.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the only way the real terrorists win is if we let them.
(h/t: JC, who got me Googling after sending a different link. Not that I don't trust you, JC, but, you know. The Sun. Always worth double-checking whatever they say, even if they got this one right.)
I keep meaning to put together a more comprehensive list of tools and references concerning online privacy, because I get asked about it almost enough to make me wish I had one place to point to. Ah, well, I guess the key word there is "almost." But meantime, here is part of an email exchange that I had yesterday that offers some links and gives you a sense of where I'm coming from, if you want it. Please feel free to add your favorite ways of protecting your privacy online in the comments, and I'll update this post with them.
A correspondent writes:
Are you mad about google's new "Privacy" plan?
My [slightly edited] response is below the fold. (Which, yes! Tells you it's another one of THOSE responses.)
… (Amazon, for example, adds as much capacity to its data centers each day as the whole company ran on in 2001, according to Amazon Vice President James Hamilton) …
From "The Great Disk Drive in the Sky: How Web giants store big—and we mean big—data," on Ars Technica.
By the Google, Deparment of Tracking, Demographics Division:
Oddly enough, their belief about my age makes me feel especially young.
As to my apparent apparel interests, I can't remember if it was Bush I or Reagan who was president when I bought my last bathing suit, and I certainly didn't do it online, but if that aspect of my profile means I'll be seeing more ads featuring bikini models, far be it from me to gripe.
More from Casey Johnston over at Ars Technica, who is now suffering from gender confusion.
You, according to Google, here.
Oh, Willard. Honestly ...
Perhaps no Republican campaign monitors Twitter more closely than Mr. Romney’s operation, which believes that it can ferret out bias among reporters by analyzing their posts.
I suppose after he gets his butt whupped
in November, they can always
get jobs with Brent Bozell.
Another fine story from the great Betty Cracker.
(h/t: JC, via email)
The Biased Librul Media seems to have forgotten the title, which, as any RealAmerican™ will tell you, must be
The Disgrace of Bill Clinton
What is it, 2012? And Gmail still doesn't know how to display a forwarded .eml attachment? Perhaps they have been spending their energies in the wrong places, hmmm?
Thought they had released a new album, but it turns out it's just another stupid Facebook game.
Probably the first time I've felt like that sort of geezer who misses cultural references when my first reaction was thinking of a death metal band.
