Yee haw, environment....
Monday, 31 May 2010
Much snark has been directed toward President Obama for his decision to spend this Memorial Day weekend in Chicago rather than in Washington. Right-wing hysteria generally attributes this to Obama's rocky relationship with the military and overall disdain for the troops. After all, every president honors the fallen in-person at Arlington National Cemetery, right?Via firedoglake, not so much:The critics were either ignorant of the facts or they failed...
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Finally, I have a label for it. Frisson.Roger Ebert pens an elaborate essay that incorporates Twitter, classic works of literature, and neurophysiology into an enlightening companion piece to a Wired article on how the Internet is helping to change our neural pathways.The French word frisson describes something English has no better word for: a brief intense reaction, usually a feeling of excitement, recognition, or terror. It's often accompanied...
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Friday, 28 May 2010
Sitting out on the back deck tonight, watching Mrs. Skeptimist bury some tomato plants in one of those newfangled upside down hanging planters, a sudden craving surfaces.I want a banana split.Huh? What brought that on?Perhaps I've been bitten by the bug of summer. At lunchtime, I motored over to the pharmacy with the windows down and sunroof open, my Fidel Castro hat perched on top of my baldness to ward off many-nomas. Having some time to waste,...
Paul Rieckhoff, executive director and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, details how Memorial Day is often viewed by veterans and their families. Not surprisingly, Rieckhoff believes there are two Americas on this day:For most Americans, Memorial Day weekend marks the triumphant return of summer: a trip to the beach and a day off of work - barbecues, beers and bargains. Yet, as most Americans head to the beach or the mall, many...
So one moment, President Obama is condemned by the right for allegedly having a socialist plan to take over the world, and the next moment, these same doinks complain that he's been slow to take over oil spill containment activities?It's like a two-headed coin, where both sides are stupid.Boys, I'm tellin' ya. You're gonna want more cowbell....
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Kevin Drum seems a little frustrated by the current oil spill machinations, and understandably so:I feel like I should say something about the big press conference Obama just held. It's not like he does a whole lot of them. But it seemed pretty soporific to me. On the one hand, it's true that when he said he was "angry and frustrated" about the BP oil spill, he sure didn't seem very angry or frustrated. On the other hand, watching the CNN...
Republicans have a point. When I was in a foxhole, bullets whizzing overhead, in moments when I wasn't contemplating certain death, I had an overwhelming urge to hump the dogface ass-deep in the mud next to me. And I'm not even gay.Imagine how difficult it would be for a homo who couldn't control his craven desires. Fucktar...
Want to know something about chicks? Sure you do. Look at me. Look. At. Me.Chicks dig dudes with a hairless, commanding scent. Who speak...in...halting...sentences. Muscular, sinewy officers who battle Gorn until the man-lizard is overcome by the power of Kirk-sweat and righteousness. That's the essence of manliness, the fragrance of fortitude.You don't want to smell of Spock. That's illogical.Bones Balm? Dammit, it's a cologne, not an ointment,...
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Today is Geek Pride Day. Why? Because we geeks have the technical expertise to make it so, that's why.Via Wikipedia: Geek Pride Day is an initiative which claims the right of every person to be a nerd or a geek. It has been celebrated on May 25 since 2006, celebrating the premiere of the first Star Wars movie in 1977. Rights:1. The right to be even geekier.2. The right to not leave your house.3. The right to not like football or any other...
The Bobblespeak Translations version of This Week with Jake Tapper, with guests Tim Kaine of the DNC and Michael Steele of the RNC:Tapper: Mike Steele your Senate nominee Rand Paul says the Civil Rights Act was great except for the desegregationSteele: sure that was stupid - but he’s clarified it to say he doesn’t hate black people he just doesn’t want have to be around them if doesn’t want toTapper: Tim how can you lose now?Kaine: well we’re Democrats...
From the New York Times:Federal regulators responsible for oversight of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico allowed industry officials several years ago to fill in their own inspection reports in pencil — and then turned them over to the regulators, who traced over them in pen before submitting the reports to the agency, according to an inspector general’s report to be released this week.Words fail me. Outrage does n...
Monday, 24 May 2010
It's all mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."The point is that I did it."No, the point is that you looked ridiculous repeatedly slamming a sheet of wood laminate onto your head in a vain attempt to motivate others. To your credit - I'll bet reported incidents of plywood head slamming drop precipitously.var addthis_pub="kpshea";...
Lifelock CEO Todd Davis has plastered his social security number everywhere to demonstrate how well his company's identity theft services perform to keep client information secure.Davis has had his identity stolen at least 13 times. So how's that working out for you, Todd?It's working out so well for Lifelock's customers that the US Federal Trade Commission has fined Lifelock $12 million for deceptive advertising practices. But this isn't a rant...
This is the sort of prose I would have expected to find in one of my college writing classes. For freshmen. In 1983.It wasn't quite man-bites-dog, but there were men and there were dogs and there was biting.Can we rule out involvement by the South Carolina Republic party?WTOP radio was a 2009 Edward R. Murrow award winner. Fabulous.var addthis_pub="kpshea";...
If the BP oil gusher wasn't so tragic, the political response would be highly entertaining. Even though it's killing our environment and might wipe out thousands of jobs for years to come, we can't stop the risky drilling practices because our insatiable thirst for oil has made us drunk on petroleum products, with a corresponding degradation in our decision-making abilities. At the same time, pols who squawk loudly about bailouts, government interference,...
Sunday, 23 May 2010
Friday, 21 May 2010
From the "this doesn't make me feel any more comfortable about flying" department comes word of a maintenance engineer who printed a fake pilot license on his home printer and used it to drive around 737s for thirteen years.Thomas Salme flew back and forth between Sweden and the rest of Europe, and no one was any the wiser. It's rumored that he liked gladiator movies.Fake license. Home printer. 737s.Maybe things are a lot more loose in Europe than...
Thursday, 20 May 2010
After a week where the only place I could blog was in the basement, I'm beginning to feel like the real deal.If only it was my parent's house.Does it count that I'm banished downstairs because we're having hickory floors installed on the first floor?I guess not. Maybe I should order some pizza.var addthis_pub="kpshea";...
Via Andrew Sullivan, a Douglas Adams observation from 1999, before the world was filled with blogs and bloggers:So people complain that there's a lot of rubbish online, or that it's dominated by Americans, or that you can't necessarily trust what you read on the web. Imagine trying to apply any of those criticisms to what you hear on the telephone. Of course you can't 'trust' what people tell you on the web anymore than you can 'trust' what people...
Good news if you're looking to test your security defenses - the Metasploit framework has updated to version 3.4.0.You wouldn't use Metasploit for evil purposes, boys and girls. Would you?More than 100 new exploits have been included compared to 3.3.0, and a slew of bug fixes have also gone into the release.From Darknet:This is the first version of Metasploit to have strong support for bruteforcing network protocols and gaining access with cracked...
Mukhtar is having a birthday, so his regulars turn into a well-wishing flash mob.A Daily Dish commenter shares the following:Thanks for posting that. Six months ago, extremists in Denmark were pitching legislation banning minarets. And of course there was the Muhammed cartoon controversy. Now a bus driver whose name means "chosen" in Arabic is celebrated by the folks who see him every day. It's good to see a sense of goodwill, born of community,...
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Via The Poor Man Institute:Well I must say. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for Republicans in general, but this is just shocking. Josh Marshall is reporting that Rand Paul, teabagger icon and son of a libertarian conservative so hardcore that he hung on to his high school pledge to name one of his children after Ayn Rand, may be ungracious, perhaps egotistical, and something of an elistist? Mr. Marshall had better knock off this scurrilous rumor-mongering...
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