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July 31, 2010
"World without end. Always."
Model describes universe with no big bang, no beginning, and no end
By suggesting that mass, time, and length can be converted into one another as the universe evolves, Wun-Yi Shu has proposed a new class of cosmological models that may fit observations of the universe better than the current big bang model. What this means specifically is that the new models might explain the increasing acceleration of the universe without relying on a cosmological constant such as dark energy, as well as solve or eliminate other cosmological dilemmas such as the flatness problem and the horizon problem.
Posted by Vanderleun at 4:16 PM | Your Say (11)
Simon Schama's Eating Disorder
There’s not much I won’t or can’t eat.
I’ve eaten crocodile in Holland; barbied kangaroo at Uluru and mountain oysters in Wyoming. But tongue has always tested my gag reflex. Lambs’ tongues are a particular problem because, since they are pretty much the same size as our own, one stands a fair chance of biting the former rather than the latter. -- FT.com / Books - The language of food
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:28 PM
"I welcome our new alien overlord!"
Hey, if you gotta bow, bowing to Chris Christie is a good choice.
Via Fausta
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:45 PM | Your Say (7)
Rejoice! The Americans with Disablities Act is 20 and still picking your pocket ...
... in creative ways previously dreamed impossible:
In recent months a New Jersey jury ordered a rheumatologist to pay $400,000 for not providing a deaf patient with a sign language interpreter at his own expense; the Ninth Circuit ruled that the law may require movie theaters to provide captions and descriptions for blind or deaf viewers; a federal appeals court ruled that the nation’s paper currency unfairly discriminates against the disabled and must be redesigned (thus taking a different view from the National Federation of the Blind, which doesn’t think there’s a problem); a police dispatcher won a settlement in her lawsuit saying she was unfairly discriminated against because of her narcolepsy (tendency to fall asleep at inappropriate times); a large online tutoring service agreed to provide interpreters; miniature golf courses learned they will have to make 50 percent of their holes accessible to wheelchair users; and so forth. On Friday the Department of Justice announced that it would revisit the high-stakes question of whether and to what extent website operators must make their designs and services “accessible” to disabled computer users, perhaps in onerous and expensive ways. -- ADA’s 20th Anniversary | Cato @ Liberty
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:30 PM | Your Say (3)
What Anne Rice Really Said
"According to what We've heard, Rice's post was heavily edited by her public relations team. The original reportedly went like this:
I quit being a Christian. I'm out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-vampire. I refuse to be anti-werewolf. I refuse to be anti-zombie. I refuse to be anti-ghoul. I refuse to be anti-porphyria. I refuse to belong to a religion whose cruciform symbol is used to terrorize creatures of the night. I refuse to belong to a religion that drives stakes through the hearts of beings with whom I consanguinate. I refuse to be anti-undead. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.Door. Ass. Bang. Dreadful woman.
-- A First Things Blog
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:07 AM | Your Say (13)
July 30, 2010
Don Colacho’s Aphorisms
The internationalization of the arts does not multiply their sources, but rather the causes of their corruption. -- Don Colacho’s Aphorisms: #1,589
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:29 PM | Your Say (0)
Questions the president should have been asked on The View
“Do you know CPR? Because, you take my breath away”
“Would you say that you are The MOST Awesome, or THE Most Awesome?”
“So, about your ‘laser like focus’ on jobs … your eyes are *gorgeous*, by the way”
“It’s so awful that the “f**king NASCAR retards” don’t get all the nuance-y nuance of your nuance-iness, isn’t it?”
-- Obama and A Moronic Room with a View « Snark And Boobs
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:36 AM | Your Say (2)
Chinese WalMart
Pigs get an apple. Alligator is served with an orange in mouth. Remember that. -- iOwnTheWorld.com
Posted by Vanderleun at 7:39 AM | Your Say (1)
July 29, 2010
Genome Research? Feh.
SPIEGEL: Why is it taking so long for the results of genome research to be applied in medicine?
Venter: Because we have, in truth, learned nothing from the genome other than probabilities. How does a 1 or 3 percent increased risk for something translate into the clinic? It is useless information.-- BrothersJudd Blog: ONLY INVENTIONS MATTER:
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:27 PM | Your Say (0)
A Small Navigation Anomaly
We are now number two for the runway.
Pilots are known to have compartmentalized brains, i.e., very good at multi-tasking. For example, I have moved the engine failure procedure to a frontal brain bucket and placed it beside the normal procedure bucket. This is the perfect time for that evil demon of engine failures to appear. The night is dark, wet, electric, and one pilot's mind is in the aft galley... Favorable conditions for molten engine shrapnel. -- Flight Level 390:
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:17 PM | Your Say (1)
Breitbart to Sherrod: Go ahead....
Will Sherrod assert the loss of her job as damages?
This would permit Breitbart to take depositions up the chain of command, from the person who made the infamous "pull over to the side of the road" phone call, to Tom Vilsack, to the people in the White House. -- Leｷgal Inｷsurｷrecｷtion:
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:34 PM | Your Say (6)
Director of CBO Says Meltdown @ Any Moment
With U.S. government debt already at a level that is high by historical standards,
and the prospect that, under current policies, federal debt would continue to grow, it is possible that interest rates might rise gradually as investors' confidence in the U.S. governmentâs finances declined, giving legislators sufficient time to make policy choices that could avert a crisis. It is also possible, however, that investors would lose confidence abruptly and interest rates on government debt would rise sharply, as evidenced by the experiences of other countries. -- Congressional Budget Office Director on Federal Debt and the Risk of a Financial Crisis [Emphasis Added]
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:34 PM | Your Say (0)
Better Bail Faster Billy
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:35 AM | Your Say (2)
Don Colacho’s Aphorisms
The absence of God does not clear the way for the tragic but for the sordid. -- #1,584
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:29 AM | Your Say (1)
The Fork in the Road. Take It.
Daniel Henninger: Taxes: A Defining Issue - WSJ.com
If voters ultimately feel more secure with a Barack Obama and the like designing a national itinerary for some 300 million people in 50 states, then certainly one should vote for letting taxes rise now on one class of Americans and imposing a VAT next year on everyone. They need a whole lot of money, so give it to them to the horizon. We work, they decide.The alternative vision is that to compete for the next 50 years, the U.S. is going to need a tax structure that keeps more of the nation's decisions about using its wealth in the hands—and minds—of millions of intelligent citizens, from any economic class. They work, they decide.
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:22 AM | Your Say (0)
The Newspaper Business Model
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:45 AM | Your Say (0)
You Vill Like Ze ObamaVolt!
Sure, it'll expensive and can only travel about 40 miles per battery charge.
(It can putt another 340 miles on a gasoline powered generator, but wasn't the whole point to eschew the evil-gasoline powered engine?) Thinking of passing that Beamer on the highway? Think again, Kemo Sabe. The ObamaVolt includes many patented SafetyPerformanceRetarding features (SPRFs) for the convenience of regulators. For example, its emisson-free engine delivers next to no horsepower so you won窶冲 even be tempted to speed. Think how much you窶冤l save in tickets!And consider these pluses:
1. The car will be available only in various shades of green (Bilious Green, Envy Green, Lettuce Green, Edamame Green etc.), thus declaring to the world that its owners are environmentally sensitive persons.
2. The radios are specially calibrated to substitute any station carrying Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, or other unacceptable talk show hosts with a local NPR station, so no one who rides in an ObamaVolt need worry about second-hand pollution from racist, right-wing views.
3. Offsetting the high sticker price for what is really a glorified go-cart, the United States government, in addition to bailing out G.M., has extracted billions more from taxpayers like you and me in order to provide the suckers, er, proud buyers of the ObamaVolt with a $7,500 federal tax credit.
Snap Quiz: which of these three implausible pluses is actually true?
-- Answer at: Roger's Rules ｻ My contribution to the car industry
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:09 AM | Your Say (0)
July 28, 2010
Facebook Messages I'm Currently Ignoring
"Bill Whittle
suggested you like Girls Are Unable to Stare at This for 10 Seconds, but Guys Can."Clever and insidious malware from Facebook that seems to be sucking in everyone this morning. What can I say? Men are pigs.
Posted by Vanderleun at 3:10 PM | Your Say (4)
Obama Speech Templates ! & 2
Listen to Obama talk about something that doesn’t have to do with race:
I, I, I, Me, Me, I, I, Me, I just think, seems to Me, Michelle & I, I, I, I, Me, Me, Me, Me, Me. The subject shifts to race, and all of a sudden it’s we, we, we, we, America, Ms. Sherrod, bloggers, talk shows, Cambridge police, we. He stops talking about Himself, because He’s cataloging sins…things that have been done wrong. When that happens, He isn’t part of us anymore. Suddenly, He can grind out entire paragraphs without mentioning Himself one single time. He’ll re-join us when the lecturing is done. Then He’ll be happy to tell us, once again, what He thinks about things. -- House of Eratosthenes
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:24 PM | Your Say (0)
Why Teachers Unions Need to Shut Up & Piss Off
NJ Gov. Chris Christie on "Morning Joe":
This teacher complaining, they're getting four-to-five percent salary increases a year in a zero percent inflation world; they get free health benefits from the day they're hired--for their entire family--until the day they die. They believe they're entitled to this shelter from the recession when the people who are paying for that shelter are the people who have been laid off, who have lost their homes, had their hours cut back, and all we asked them to do was freeze their salary for one year and pay one-and-a-half percent of their salary for their health benefits. For the average teacher in New Jersey, you're talking about $750 a year for full-family health coverage. Now, I don't think that's a lot to ask, and I don't think we can continue anymore to be having the good people of New Jersey who have been laid off and all the rest--as much as I love teachers--you know, everyone's got to be part of the sacrifice. -- Gov. Christie on Saving Money & the Hard Decisions We Have to Make
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:47 PM | Your Say (0)
A Monarchy of Monsters
While it can’t feed or house North Koreans, [The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] is a world-beater in longevity, a record-setter among totalitarian states.
Stalin led a government for 29 years, Mao 27 years, Hitler 12 years. The dictatorship of Kim Il-sung and his son, Kim Jongil, one continuous government, has now reached the outlandish age of 65. Having established inheritance as its method of choosing a leader, it may replace Kim Jong-il (who is said to be ill) with his third son, Kim Jong-Un. One family has found a way to make its own special variety of radical evil permanent. Barack Obama is the 11th U.S. president to deal with it. -- Robert Fulford: North Korea, an antique nightmare | Full Comment | National Post11th eh? My bet is he'll just grant it favored-nation status.
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:44 PM | Your Say (8)
So a blonde walks into...
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:24 PM | Your Say (2)
The First Time
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:55 AM | Your Say (4)
Only Known Tweet of T.S. Eliot
Not here
Not here the darkness, in this twittering world.
-- Burnt Norton
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:21 AM | Your Say (0)
July 27, 2010
Clearwater's lifeguard station needs to be handicapped-accessible
It's not clear yet exactly how much the lift will cost. Dunbar recalled that, years ago, the city also was ordered to install a wheelchair lift for the home dugout at Bright House Field, where the Philadelphia Phillies have their spring training.
That one cost $18,000.
"It has sat unused for seven years," Dunbar said. -- State mandate - St. Petersburg Times
Posted by Vanderleun at 3:12 PM | Your Say (1)
The Left's culture insures that the poor will always be with them
What happens when the poor come to their senses?
They find that it is nearly impossible to get their lives back. To begin with, they have no manners. Wealthier people know when to turn on the manners and when to turn them off, but poor people don’t. They use inappropriate language at the wrong times, and they pay for it. Or they have offputting tattoos that make any advance into a decent management position nearly impossible. Even if their manners are tolerable and their tattoos are hidden or nonexistent, their rebellious attitudes toward their employers may make it impossible for them to advance and may even get them fired. -- We Need a Cultural Revolution - I Want a New Left
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:24 PM | Your Say (4)
The New Old Barbarians
In many ways, the radical Muslim culture we face today is the most significant barbaric opposition to civilization.
Not all Muslims are barbarians; many live in the western world, enjoying western culture and ideals which do not interfere with their faith, like any other religion. Yet there is a strong, dangerous, and loud portion of the Muslim world which certainly is barbaric. -- Christopher Taylor: DEALING WITH THE BARBARIAN
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:04 PM | Your Say (0)
July 26, 2010
It's Always Something
World Will Run Out of Internet Addresses in Less Than a Year, Experts Predict [The fact that "experts" are predicting makes me sure everything will work out fine. In fact, I'm in favor of taking measures so that the world runs out of "experts."]
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:46 PM | Your Say (2)
Don Colacho
There is an illiteracy of the soul which no diploma cures. -- #1,570
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:28 PM | Your Say (1)
The word is "douche space bag"
What It's Really Like To Be A Copy Editor - The Awl
Posted by Vanderleun at 6:41 PM | Your Say (0)
This Man Gets Paid $787K to "Manage" Bell California
Bell Chief Administrative officer Robert Rizzo: $787,637 -- Los Angeles City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana: $256,803 -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: $173,987 (Schwarzenegger has declined to take his salary) -- President Barack Obama: $400,000 His last raise was $84,389.76. Next July, he will receive a $94,516 pay hike.Rizzo defended his salary and that of his staff and the council by saying they don't receive car or cellphone allowances and must pay their own way to out-of-town conferences.
Even fired "Rizzo is entitled to a state pension of $650,000 a year for life."
-- The Scavenger
Perhaps a just God will call him to his eternal "reward" before he can collect.
Posted by Vanderleun at 4:16 PM | Your Say (8)
Quote of the Day
"Meanwhile, the names of intel sources, which were classified to protect them from violent retribution, are now public. Fuck you, Wikileaks." - J.
I think the time it took Julian Assange to weigh the moral choices involved with publishing these documents was roughly equivalent to the time it took the make-up artist to powder Assange's face for his latest television interview. -- | Center for a New American Security
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:02 AM | Your Say (2)
July 25, 2010
And Now a Word from Our Sponsor
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:33 AM | Your Say (3)
Obama's "Cabinet:" Their Function is Fellation
Obama’s cabinet doesn’t know what it’s doing; you don’t need a study telling you that. The evidence is all around us.
And common sense should tell you that if there are some smarts in that cabinet, they aren’t going to be of very much use are they? How on earth could they be? Imagine yourself as a high ranking official in the Obama administration. A decision comes along, and what do you do? Answer: You don’t. If you say “peanut butter and jelly” and the Little Emperor says “roast beef on rye” you look like a complete dork. You’ll be backpedaling like crazy, claiming that your remarks were taken out of context — and that’s among your friends, before word even gets out. So no, this isn’t a relevant statistic. For all practical purposes, the experience of this cabinet must be zero percent. -- House of Eratosthenes
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:09 AM | Your Say (0)
July 24, 2010
Don Colacho
The press always chooses what to praise with impeccably bad taste. -- #1,555
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:56 PM | Your Say (0)
July 23, 2010
Logo of the Week
After all the blather, bluster, and babble, one simple image sums it all up:
Created By the indefatigable Big Fur Hat
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:57 PM | Your Say (1)
Discussion of the Day
neo-neocon's Talking to liberals:
"I have come to believe that they are enemies to liberty, although not intentionally. Do intentions matter? I think they do. Will they wake up? Perhaps if things get much worse -- but then will it already be too late? And in the meantime, what do I do with my own anger?"Numerous and multiple suggestions ensue.
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:39 PM | Your Say (1)
Krauthammer Late to the Party with a Kool-Aid Cocktail
Charles Krauthammer weighs in on the dark future today with Beware the lame duck
"Assuming the elections go as currently projected, Obama's follow-on reforms are dead. Except for the fact that a lame-duck session, freezing in place the lopsided Democratic majorities of November 2008, would be populated by dozens of Democratic members who had lost reelection (in addition to those retiring). They could then vote for anything -- including measures they today shun as the midterms approach and their seats are threatened -- because they would have nothing to lose."Sadly, Krauthammer is a full month behind the sphere. In June, NeoNeoCon had this all laid out:
Pajamas Media » Harry and Nancy's Last Stand This "fierce urgency of now" comes from the obvious political consideration that a lame duck Congress has nothing to lose. Once it'sbeen thrown under the bus and lies there bleeding (actually, you might say it threw itself in front of the bus, but let's not quibble about the finer points), it might just as well enact a piece of legislation that will further bankrupt the country and please the left fringe and nobody else. Beware a group that's still in power but has stopped fearing any consequences from the public.
Krauthammer's Kool-Aid cocktail? He closes his essay with:
"The Democrats could, of course, make the pledge today and break it tomorrow. Call me naive, but I can't believe anyone would be that dishonorable."I hope he's being more sarcastic than naive, but either way he needs to pay closer attention and invest in hemp futures.
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:24 PM | Your Say (4)
How to Write About Africa
In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular.
Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat. Do not mention rice and beef and wheat; monkey-brain is an African's cuisine of choice, along with goat, snake, worms and grubs and all manner of game meat. Make sure you show that you are able to eat such food without flinching, and describe how you learn to enjoy it—because you care.
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:59 AM | Your Say (6)
Do Congresspeople really believe that drinking bottled water kills polar bear cubs?
Congress Spent $604,000 on Bottled Water -- in 19,000 individual line items, many for Nestle's Deer Park water-delivery subsidiary --- Tom Nelson
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:19 AM | Your Say (0)
Our Glorious American Socialism
Honestly, our Socialism is awesome.
I can shake down a struggling middle-class family in fly-over country one hour and be throwing back overpriced cocktails in a velvet-draped L.A. eatery the next hour. I can wax-poetic about the Party's commitment to fairness, democracy and the common man one second and then meet behind closed doors as a Super Delegate the next second. I can be both rich and downtrodden, compassionate and ruthless -- and there are suckers out there to foot the bill. And that is what makes it work, Comrades -- the suckers. Some suckers are looking for a handout while other suckers are looking for a backstage pass to rub elbows with us the elect. -- Chairman M. S. Punchenko
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:50 AM | Your Say (0)
News The People's Cube Doesn't Have Time to Write About
Headlines just in fromThe People's Cube - Correct Opinions for Progressive Liberals
- Congress ceases Pentagon spending, outsources armed forces to China
- Shirley Sherrod accepts apology, gets new gov't job in End of Life Counseling
- On first visit as Britain's PM, David Cameron chooses a communist state, seeks detente
- Report: President Obama to visit the United States in the near future
- GOP challengers promise post-racial presidency after 2012
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:32 AM | Your Say (0)
July 22, 2010
Don Colacho
History is irreversible.
But it is not unrepeatable.
-- #1,546
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:13 PM | Your Say (0)
And They Say Print Media Is Dead
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to iOwnTheWorld.com....
Posted by Vanderleun at 7:05 PM | Your Say (2)
Sherrod Questions Obama's Race Credentials, Wants a Beer Summit
Shirley Sherrod: I want to speak to Obama
"I know he's African-American or part African-American, and many of us are not totally black in our genes. I'm one of them. But when you get down to where the rubber meets the road, I think he needs to understand a little more of what life is like at that level."Cue "Hello Papa. Hello Mama. Here I am at Camp Obama...."
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:54 AM | Your Say (7)
When Change = No Change: Newark's Always Been a Shitty City
Things are getting so bad in Newark that the mayor has ordered the government to stop buying toilet paper. -- Newark Budget Cuts [Note: Jokes about Newark being on it's ass will be considered hostile.]
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:50 AM | Your Say (2)
Zombie's Top Ten Racist Incidents of the Week
Sadly Mel Gibson's Career Cratering Meltdownat 8.5 Actual Racism comes in second to the New Black Panthers/Department of Justice Imbroglio with a score of 9.5 Actual Racism!
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:10 AM | Your Say (0)
Rhetorically Speaking
Spencer Ackerman of Journolist:
"What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger's [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically."
Rodger the Real King of France:
"The nation is in the grips of an organized socialist mafia. We need some "Untouchables" with guns and warrants. If their motto is "Pass legislation while you can, and fix it later," ours should be be "Shoot first and then shoot them again to make sure." In a literary sense, of course."-- Curmudgeonly & Skeptical
Posted by Vanderleun at 8:37 AM | Your Say (3)
Wise[ing Up] Latinos
Hispanics’ feelings toward Obama lie in between those of blacks and whites,
as is so common in American racial patterns. The President’s Hispanic ratings have fallen roughly in parallel with white opinion, with the big drop starting a little later in 2009. This also follows a long tradition: Hispanic voters generally follow changes in white opinion, just more erratically, while staying significantly to the left of whites for perfectly understandable reasons of self-interest: they are much more enthusiastic about racial / ethnic preferences and tax-and-spend policies from which they hope to benefit at white expense. -- Steve Sailer's iSteve Blog: Obama's Divisiveness
Posted by Vanderleun at 3:47 AM | Your Say (0)
Monster Star
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:49 AM | Your Say (0)
July 21, 2010
Don Colacho says
"Vulgarity is not a product of the people but a subproduct of bourgeois prosperity." -- Don Colacho’s Aphorisms: #1,539
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:59 PM | Your Say (0)
Get me a real peasant!
If the establishment bent a knee to service, the new elites prefer a certain attitude.
They love ideology more than achievement, striking poses more than ideology. Their nirvana is the moralistic beau geste: the theatrical embrace of the downtrodden, the apology for past sins, the chastizing of generic racists, sexists, Wall Street capitalists, homophobes, Islamophobes -- endless punitive categories filled by those irrational plebeians. When, as vice president, Al Gore landed in La Paz, Bolivia, for an official visit, he demanded to see a peasant. That's the attitude. -- The problem of the elites « vulgar morality
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:39 AM | Your Say (0)
TEENS GET HIGH LISTENING TO MEL GIBSON TAPES
NEW YORK, NY: They put on their headphones, drape hoods over their head and drift off into a world of "Mel highs."
A young girl freaks out and leaps up in fear, a teenager shakes violently and a young boy seems to be in extreme distress -- they are all listening to tapes of Mel Gibson ranting at his ex-girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva. This is the world of Mel-ing" the new craze sweeping the internet in which teenagers use Mel Gibson's rants to change their brains in the same way as real-life narcotics. -- WWN
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:26 AM | Your Say (3)
Going Bananas
The U.S., Japan and Israel as the driving forces of modern commerce.
The engines pull the train. Other countries think they make a contribution to commercial innovation, but, in my eyes they are very limited. Japan does the deep pioneering work, like the first real hybrid automobile engines (not like the American version which is just a big starting motor) and the brilliant innovations in marketing such as the banana vending machine. -- Pro Commerce: Fruit machines
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:54 AM | Your Say (0)
Unreported Achievements
"Every day 160,000 Android-powered devices are activated -- that’s nearly two devices every second."
Yep, that'd be 30K MORE phones a day than Apple. And my guess is that Android's pace is accelerating, while the iPhone 4 is probably sliding downward, given how many folks bought it at launch (Mashable reports that 1.7 million were sold in first three days, so 1.3 million the next 20 days). In fact, if you do THAT math, and divide 1.3 million by 20 days, you get 65,000 iPhone 4s sold each day, which is nearly 100,000 less, PER DAY, than Android phones. -- On Math, iPhones, Android, and the 100K Phone Gap - John Battelle's Searchblog
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:30 AM | Your Say (3)
Don Colacho
The despotic decisions of the modern state are, in the end, taken by an anonymous, subordinate, pusillanimous, and probably cuckolded bureaucrat. -- #1,535
Posted by Vanderleun at 2:41 AM | Your Say (0)
The Neuters of Journolist
Ace sums these sexless patients up:
These bloodless, sweatless, sexless nobodies know nobody but their own pathetic kind, and they're all so career-oriented they have subverted every flash of actual humanity and personality they have to better conform to the herd's expectations. And the herd doesn't like race stories (at least race stories that don't feature the preferred villain Big Whitey), and so they internalize that in what passes for their personalities and they in turn don't like race stories either. -- Ace of Spades HQ
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:51 AM | Your Say (0)
July 20, 2010
Don Colacho’s Aphorisms: #1,528
Although we may have to yield to the torrent of collective stupidities dragging us along in its current, let us not allow ourselves to be dissolved in its mud. -- Here
Posted by Vanderleun at 11:15 PM | Your Say (1)
‘COEXIST?’ You First.
COEXIST bumperstickers represent more than just the obnoxious posturing of self-important twits
– although the obnoxious posturing of self-important twits is a huge component of what they represent. These public statements represent the kind of dangerously parochial, ethnocentric mindset that conservatives are often labeled with, except this mindset is the mantra of the transnational liberal/left. It is a mindset that sees the “intolerance” of the West as the real root cause of conflict, and imagines that if we can just get beyond our own myriad flaws all will be well. What this mindset does not appreciate – what it almost willfully ignores – is that all those groups represented by all those symbols making up the COEXIST design are not the same, do not share the same values, and in many cases have absolutely zero interest at all in coexisting. -- Kurt Schlichter @ Big Peace
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:11 PM | Your Say (5)
The Decline of the Democratic Party
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:14 AM | Your Say (1)
July 19, 2010
Kafkatrapping
Consider the model S:
Skepticism about any particular anecdotal account of {sin,racism,sexism,homophobia,oppression,}, or any attempt to deny that the particular anecdote implies a systemic problem in which you are one of the guilty parties, is itself sufficient to establish your guilt. Again, the common theme here is that questioning the discourse that condemns you, condemns you. This variant differs from the model A and model P in that a specific crime against an actual person usually is in fact alleged. The operator of the kafkatrap relies on the subject's emotional revulsion against the crime to sweep away all questions of representativeness and the basic fact that the subject didn't do it. -- Eric Raymond @ Armed and Dangerous
Posted by Vanderleun at 7:25 PM | Your Say (3)
Raymond's Rule of Smartphone Subsumption:
If neither the physics nor the ergonomics of a gadget's function require peripherals larger than will fit in a smartphone case, the smartphone will eat it! -- Armed and Dangerous-- Smartphone, the Eater-of-Gadgets
Posted by Vanderleun at 7:15 PM | Your Say (0)
July 13, 2010
Spambot on the Crotch Bomber
In response to an item here on the Christmas bomber that notes: "Mudallad timed his actions to coincide with the lowering of the landing gear, which signified that the airliner was over Detroit.
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:51 AM | Your Say (3)
July 12, 2010
Connect the Dots
One of the key points of our NAACP keynote
was Lady M’s reminder that she’s supporting a “Healthy Food Financing Initiative" which costs $400 million a year – and that’s just to attract food retailers to the deserts! They’ll have to come up with the start up funds on their own. The $400 million, as I understand it, will be split evenly between Jesse Jackson’s Operation Push shakedown arm and independent contractors. JJ’s $200 million will be used to persuade Piggly Wigglys to come back to “urban centers” just because it’s the right thing to do. The other $200 million will be divided up into multiple contracts for peoples of color who have the right political connections. They’ll be using the funds to put together brochures telling the Piggly Wigglys management team why it’s in their best interest to open up a store in (fill in the blank with the urban center of your choice). And of course their will be administrative costs, plus shipping and handling. But we figure the whole initiative will create or save about 1500 jobs, so this one’s a twofer. -- Michelle Obama's Mirror's Blog: Lady M Wanders the Food Desert
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:11 PM | Your Say (3)
Obamacare: Other Than These Small Problems It's Great!
The 2,000-page piece of legislation, according to figures compiled by Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP), will leave at least 23 million people without insurance,
- a figure that translates into an estimated 23,000 unnecessary deaths a year among people who cannot afford care.
- It will permit prices to climb so that many of us will soon be paying close to 10 percent of our annual income to buy commercial health insurance,
- although this coverage will only pay for about 70 percent of our medical expenses.
- Those who become seriously ill, lose their incomes and cannot pay skyrocketing premiums will be denied coverage.
- And at least $447 billion in taxpayer subsidies will now be handed to insurance firms.
- We will be forced by law to buy their defective products.
- There is no check in the new legislation to halt rising health care costs.
- The elderly can be charged three times the rates provided to the young.
- Companies with predominantly female work forces can be charged higher gender-based rates.
- The dizzying array of technical loopholes in the bill—written in by armies of insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyists—means that these companies, which profit off human sickness, suffering and death, can continue their grim game of trading away human life for money.
Posted by Vanderleun at 3:19 PM | Your Say (9)
How Apple Decides What to Make
"Then Steve comes in," Evangelist recalls. "He doesn't look at any of our work. He picks up a marker and goes over to the whiteboard. He draws a rectangle. 'Here's the new application,' he says. 'It's got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says burn. That's it. That's what we're going to make.' " -- Apple Nation | Page 2 | Fast Company
Posted by Vanderleun at 1:43 PM | Your Say (0)
Peasants, Gentlemen, and Varlets
Unqualified Reservations: Actual letter to a liberal friend
There are three basic attitudes toward government in America today. There are people who believe government is there to serve them; there are people who believe government is there to serve others; there are people who believe government is there to subsidize them. In our medieval metaphor, these correspond to peasants, gentlemen, and varlets respectively. The last is the caste Marx called the "lumpenproletariat" - and he was no fan of this group, or of political movements that exploited it. Respectable people say "underclass."
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:33 PM | Your Say (0)
The Big Green Lie Exposed
Both the greens and their opponents need to understand that the reason that the Great Global Green Dream is melting
lies in the sad truth that whatever the scientific facts of the matter, the global green movement is so blind and inept when it comes to policy and process that it has deeply damaged the causes it cares most about. Not since the incident at Chappaquiddick derailed the Ted Kennedy for President boomlet of 1969 has a political movement imploded so fast and so messily as the green crusade to stop global warming. -- Walter Russell Mead's Blog - The American Interest
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:10 PM | Your Say (0)
QOTD (So far)
"There are few problems in life that cannot be solved by freedom (in this case, the freedom to own guns and shoot wild dogs)."
-- Rebellion University: A few words about stray Dogs In Baghdad.
Posted by Vanderleun at 12:01 PM | Your Say (0)
Kill the Internet Kill Switch
The second [problem with an internet kill switch] is that we can't predict the effects of such a shutdown.
The Internet is the most complex machine mankind has ever built, and shutting down portions of it would have all sorts of unforeseen ancillary effects. Would ATMs work? What about the stock exchanges? Which emergency services would fail? Would trucks and trains be able to route their cargo? Would airlines be able to route their passengers? How much of the military's logistical system would fail?.... Once we engineered a selective shutdown switch into the Internet, and implemented a way to do what Internet engineers have spent decades making sure never happens, we would have created an enormous security vulnerability. We would make the job of any would-be terrorist intent on bringing down the Internet much easier. -- Schneier on Security: Internet Kill Switch
Posted by Vanderleun at 10:27 AM | Your Say (0)
Chill, Stan, Chill
Comment on Stan Cox's WaPo thumbsucker In the heat wave, the case against air conditioning LoonsToTheLeftOfMe wrote:
Stan, here's a better idea to save the planet. How about you and all your wacko-green friends commit hari-kari? That would probably reduce the US population by 30%, and likewise reduce carbon emissions, energy consumption, and hot air generally by 30%! Oh, and let's not forget your sex pervert leader, Al Gore, who's trying to warm the planet all by his lonesome - and not very successfully at that. You mean to tell me that among you millions of enviro-wackos Gore couldn't find one mindless, decent-looking young hottie to take care of his needs without having to assault her? How pathetic. By the way, if you want to live in a cave, there's a country waiting for you called Afghanistan, where there's a special cult of wackos with their own version of 'environmentalism', hell-bent, just like you are, on taking the world back to the Stone Age. They're called the Taliban. They'd love to have you!
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:17 AM | Your Say (0)
DrudgeKu
Posted by Vanderleun at 9:03 AM | Your Say (2)
July 11, 2010
Let's Review
Posted by Vanderleun at 6:15 PM | Your Say (1)
Presented as a Pubic Service
This iOwnTheWorld.com "Tutorial:"