Tuesday, November 17. 2015
Since the entire world has quickly settled on singing a dreary, infantile ditty written by a wife-beater that extols the state religion of Nazi Germany and the USSR as a response to an existential threat, I guess it's time to move on to new topics. Speaking of existential, didn't those Frenchmen invent existentialism? No, I think that was Kierkegaarde. Maybe it was Nietzsche. Whatever. It was one of those grouchy fellows. I was doodling in my copybook and trying to get a peek down a girl's blouse that day in school, and must have missed it. At any rate, Europe is just a bunch of zebras at the watering hole watching a lion eat their little sister while mumbling, "Wasn't me, don't care." Who am I to bother about it? Let's read the papers:
Why France will do nothing about the Paris Massacre: Spengler
Ignored in news coverage of the Paris massacre is the single most pertinent piece of background: A 2014 opinion poll found that ISIS had an approval rating in France (at 16%) almost as high as President Francois Holland (at 18%). In the 18-to-24-year-old demographic, ISIS’ support jumped to 27%. Muslims comprise about a tenth of France’s population, so the results imply that ISIS had the support of the overwhelming majority of French Muslims (and especially Muslim youth), as well as the endorsement of a large part of the non-Muslim Left.
Like Obama, Hollande looks at terror attacks through the lens of self-interest. If it affects their personal reputation, they get peevish and start talking like a fop's idea of Audie Murphy. Otherwise, they really don't give a sh*t.
Anonymous Declares Cyber War on ISIS. Why It Matters
Hacker collective Anonymous posted a video Saturday on YouTube in which it declared a cyber war on ISIS. In the nearly two-and-a-half-minute video, a person wearing the group’s signature Guy Fawkes mask read a statement in French promising that the hacktivist organization would attack ISIS in cyberspace with the ultimate goal of weakening the terrorist organization.
I'm sure a multinational terrorist organization is shaking in their sandals over the prospect of a deluge of fake one-star reviews on Yelp.
How Snowmaking Works
Machine made snow is made up of exactly the same stuff as natural snow - frozen water. When the weather provides cold temperatures, but no moisture, our snowmaking team simply adds just the right amount of moisture to the atmosphere to produce excellent snow. It may sound easy, but making great snow requires millions of dollars in specialized equipment and an experienced team of snowmakers.
In my experience, machine snow is half-frozen filthy retaining pond water sprayed all over you if you deign to ski on a weekday.
The problem isn't that life is unfair — it's that you don't know the rules
Society judges people by what they can do for others. Can you save children from a burning house, or remove a tumor, or make a room of strangers laugh? You've got value right there. That's not how we judge ourselves though. We judge ourselves by our thoughts."I'm a good person." "I'm ambitious." "I'm better than this." These idle impulses may comfort us at night, but they're not how the world sees us. They're not even how we see other people.
Silly me. I thought holding up an inexpertly lettered sign with a preachy message and a hashtag was the pinnacle of human achievement.
‘Sexy bombshell’ at center of new Vatican corruption scandal
In a religion where the first woman in history is said to have caused all kinds of problems, the Roman Catholic Church should have perhaps been able to see what was coming with Francesca Chaouqui.Her hiring in 2013 to be part of COSEA, the Pope’s Commission for Reference on the Economic-Administrative Structure of the Holy See, was an eyebrow-raiser for Vatican watchers and Italian tabloids alike.She was, at 30, the youngest member on the influential eight-member panel by more than two decades. She was also the only female.
Bombshell? You guys don't get out much. She reminds me of homely girls who go to Star Wars conventions.
After Paris Attacks, C.I.A. Director Rekindles Debate Over Surveillance
WASHINGTON — In response to the Paris attacks, a top American intelligence official on Monday renewed a debate on government surveillance and privacy, denouncing “hand-wringing” over intrusive spying and saying that leaks of classified information had made it harder to identify terrorists.John O. Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, appeared to be speaking in part about the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance of phone and Internet communications that were disclosed by Edward J. Snowden in 2013. Those disclosures prompted sharp criticism and new restrictions on electronic spying both in the United States and in Europe.
Ever hear of the Fourth Amendment? Cute little thing. It was popular around here 200 years ago. It almost seems like you have a problem using probable cause to determine who to surveil because then you'd have to admit who is probably gonna cause a problem.
Man sentenced 40 years after knocking out sister's two front teeth in row over John Lennon Christmas record
A man has been sentenced for knocking out his sister's two front teeth in a row over a Christmas record 40 years ago. Patrick and Anita Ackroyd disagreed over John Lennon's Happy Xmas (War is Over) when they were teenagers in December 1975. A court heard that he punched her in the face and knocked out her teeth in an assault that has left her wearing a dental plate ever since.
Judge: I need to know which one of them liked that dreadful song in order to rule against him or her.
Weapons stolen from an Army base in Massachusetts during a break-in just 24 hours after the Paris terrorist attacks
Weapons have been stolen from an Army base following a break-in just 24 hours after the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris. The firearms went missing from the armory at the Lincoln Army Reserve Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Saturday night after the suspects entered the building through the roof.
Round up the Friends of Eddie Coyle
Why Do We Still Not Know Whats Inside the Pyramids?
Recently, US presidential candidate Ben Carson commented on his theory that the pyramids were actually primarily used for storing grain, much to the consternation of the US media. Why do pyramid mysteries and alternative theories persist even now? And why have we never explored them fully?
Don't worry. ISIS will crack those open like a pinata after their next Mahdi connects the Sudan to Vienna.
Amazingly Vivid Dino Illustrations Reveal a Brutal Prehistoric World
The Paleoart of Julius Csotonyi, available on May 20, is a collection of artwork by Julius Csotonyi, an award-winning illustrator whose work lives in museums and in science papers. Csotonyi, who holds a PhD in microbiology, works frequently with paleontologists who need help bringing their fossil finds to life.
"Brutal" prehistoric world? Compared to what? My housecat will kill anything it can catch, and tortures it first, too. Your goldfish would eat you if it could fit you in its mouth.
Be careful out there in the brutal posthistoric world today.
Monday, November 16. 2015
Well, it's Monday. Your favorite team lost, so the water cooler is looking less like an oasis and more like an enemy gun emplacement. Hey, Bob, did you see Peyton Roethlesberger throw a pick six and a tantrum on fourth down with the game on the line? You know, the one that caused my team to win, and your favorite team and their benighted fans to be consigned to ignominy and defeat? What did you think about that Bob? Did you enjoy it as much as I did? Whaddya say about that, Bob?
Me, I don't mind Mondays so much. I don't root for Jameis Manziel or Cam Bradford or Russell Brees, so it's of little consequence if the Green Bay Pacers fall to the Dallas Drovers. The first day of the work week holds no terrors for me. I kind of like it there. No one makes me rake leaves at the office. I don't have to change every battery in every smoke alarm in the building at 4 AM because I can't figure out which one is beeping. It would be silly to be required to paint the outside of a skyscraper, wouldn't it? I don't even know where to look for the gutters on a 50-story building, never mind clean them out. No, the office is just fine. Besides, the Internet connection is better, and I get to read the Maggie's Farm morning links while pretending to be working, instead of pretending to be asleep on the couch when my wife gets home with groceries.
Jury convicts brothers in H-1B fraud case, jail possible
Two brothers who used H-1B workers to create a low-cost and profitable on-demand workforce were found guilty Thursday in federal court of violating the law. The trial took place in U.S. District Court in Dallas and lasted for six days. At the end, a jury convicted Atul Nanda, 46, and his brother, Jiten "Jay" Nanda, 44, each of one count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, one count of conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens and four counts of wire fraud. The U.S. filed the indictment in 2013. Penalties range as high as $250,000 in fines and upward of 20 years in prison. A sentencing date was not set.
Silly me. From what I've observed, I would have assumed that a "fraudulent H-1B case" would involve NOT bringing illegal aliens into the country to work like coolies.
I Used to Spend $1,000 a Week on Pot Because I Thought Smoking Made My Music Better. I Was Wrong
I was a total monster. I was spending $1,000 a week on weed, and everyone I was in the band with at the time smoked as much as I did. There's so much stupid behavior caused by weed, but I always had that cliché: I needed it for creativity. I've come to realize that at the end of the day, it's only you yourself that creativity comes from. It doesn't come from weed.
Um, it's really only necessary for your audience to be stoned, not you. Sober or not, your records sound like Sesame Street on Seconal, dude.
Increased intelligence is a myth (so far)
The standard error of measuring inches or liters is usually zero assuming you have perfectly reliable, standard measurement devices. Intelligence tests generally show high test-retest reliability but they also have a standard error, and the standard error is often larger for higher scores than for lower scores. Any intelligence test score change after an intervention needs to be considered relative to the standard error of the test. Studies that use a single test to estimate intelligence before and after an intervention are using less reliable and more variable scores (bigger standard errors) than studies that combine scores from a battery of tests.
I have always found that the only way I could measurably increase other people's intelligence is by drinking heavily. The girls get better looking, too.
Lured In by Two Manhattan Psychics, to the Tune of $718,000
He was a successful and well-traveled professional, with close to seven figures in the bank, and plans for much more. And then he gave it all away, more than $718,000, in chunks at a time, to two Manhattan psychics.They vowed to reunite him with the woman he loved. Even after it was discovered that she was dead. There was the 80-mile bridge made of gold, the reincarnation portal. “I just got sucked in,” the man, Niall Rice, said in a telephone interview last week from Los Angeles. “That’s what people don’t understand. ‘How can you fall for it?’ ”
Well, those psychics certainly measurably increased that guy's intelligence. While $718k isn't exactly cheap, it still cost less than a Head Start class.
Turkey blocks access to Reddit under controversial censorship law
An official government site confirms the ban with a generic message that reads, "After technical analysis and legal consideration ... administration measure has been taken for this website." The note is dated November 13th. According to the statement, Reddit was taken down under Turkey's controversial internet censorship law, known as Internet Law No. 5651. Under the law, Turkish Supreme Council for Telecommunications and IT (TIB) can ban websites and block internet content for a handful of reasons, including anything involved with pornography, prostitution, drugs, terrorism, illegal file sharing, sexual abuse of children, and "crimes against" Mustafa Atatürk, the first president of Turkey.
I've blocked Reddit from my computer under an uncontroversial lack of interest in the opinions of neckbeards law.
'Made in France' release postponed following attacks in Paris
"Made in France," directed by Nicolas Boukhrief, stars Malik Zidi as the journalist who uses his own Muslim background to infiltrate a mosque in the suburbs of Paris. He eventually hooks up with a group of would-be terrorists planning to "sow chaos in the heart of Paris," according to a synopsis on the French movie website Allociné.
The Paris gig has been cancelled. I wouldn't worry about it, though; it's not a big Cinema Verite town.
There’s a Downton Abbey Thief on the Loose in America
A local NBC affiliate reports that 30-year-old Branden Joseph Deel began his Downton Abbey–disc binge in January 2014, “when he stole 12 DVD box sets worth a total retail value of $560.88 and has continued to target retailers since then.” As Downton Abbey fans ourselves, we can‘t help but hypothesize that “the Downton Abbey addict” was so enraged by a story line early in the period drama’s fourth season—that Lady Mary would dare to entertain a flirtation so soon after the tragic death of her one true love, Matthew—that, in an act of misguided revenge, he tried to wipe out local retailers’ Downton stocks and possibly save fellow fans from future devastation.
Occam's Razor: he needs coasters and finally ran out of AOL discs.
What Is A Digital-To-Analog Converter, And Do You Need One?
And as more and more of what we listen to comes from our hard drives and cloud services, we’re less dependent on the medium itself and more dependent on the technology that turns data to drum beats. But the audio company, Schiit, which started back in 2010, argues that the best way to maximize the sound that comes into your headphones is to connect the headphones via USB to an external digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The idea is that, whether you have lossless, uncompressed files (which, unlike stripped down MP3s, hold more information and more accurately represent the original sound), iTunes, or a streaming service like Spotify, you’re not getting the full potential without a middleman.
First sentence begins with "And." Second sentence begins with "But." The author then uses parentheses to enclose a dependent clause instead of commas. The rest is all stupid, useless Schiit. So the answer to the second question is 01101110 01101111! Whoops, forgot to convert it to analog. NO!
Adblock Plus was in NYC last week waving the olive branch at advertisers
As the largest developer of ad blockers, Eyeo, with its popular Adblock Plus, has found itself at the center of a fierce debate about ethics and, potentially, the legality of blocking mobile browser ads. The subject has been a popular one in Europe for some time, but it caught fire in the U.S. in June when Apple announced that its iOS 9 mobile operating system would enable (and some say welcome) mobile ad-blocker apps on iPhones. (A new Adblock Plus iOS app for iOS 9 was approved by Apple in September.)
Adblock won't ever stop things like that Popular Science "article" about a particular brand of audio converter. Me, I just want a parentheses blocker.
Microsoft opens Sydney store, its first flagship outside North America
The Redmond-based tech giant has been eager to build buzz around the launch of its first standalone Asia Pacific location and second flagship, after the two-storey Microsoft store in Manhattan. Customers queued in the bright sun with the the promise of free concert tickets and lucky door prizes for early birds, before the window coverings dropped to reveal store staff dancing and cheering inside.
I wonder. Is it no longer possible for a tech company to survive in the market without pretending the entire business is a Gymboree?
That should be enough information to tide you over until lunch. If you fib and say you have a doctor's appointment right after, you might make it until 3:30 before you're required to do any actual work. Make sure to leave early, too. As they say on the Department of Public Works crew, "No sense killing the job."
Sunday, November 15. 2015
Hello everyone. I trust you're all done sleeping one off.
Whoops, I meant to say, I trust you're all back from Sunday service now. If you're like me, there's nothing like a hot cup of joe and the Sunday paper spread out in front of you after church. Of course a printed newspaper was last spotted in my home back when Reagan was abroad in the land, and when the Pope wasn't pro-choice, so I have to make do with a passel of pixels spread out in front of me. On the plus side, the poorly cropped pictures are more plentiful, and some of the articles actually start talking to you, which give the voices in my head a day off. On to the news!
Phones need 'bed mode' to protect sleep
Smartphones, tablets and e-readers should have an automatic "bedtime mode" that stops them disrupting people's sleep, says a leading doctor. Prof Paul Gringras argued the setting should filter out the blue light that delays the body clock and keeps people awake later into the evening. The doctor, from Evelina Children's Hospital in London, said every new model was "bluer and brighter". He said manufacturers needed to show more "responsibility".
Or, you know, you could shut the stupid thing off, and make your kids shut it off. You know, like an adult.
How to Make a Star Wars TIE Fighter Using Starbucks Cups
A few years ago, WIRED’s chief photographer was standing in line at Starbucks when inspiration struck forcefully. “The ribbing on the drink holders reminded me of solar panels,” Winters says. “That instantly registered ‘TIE fighter’ in my head.” That sent him on a quest to create a Yoda-sized TIE fighter using only stuff from Starbucks. All told he needed one tall lid, 10 96-ounce coffee boxes, 12 sample cups, 37 grande cups, 63 drink holders, 216 stirrers, and a workspace significantly larger than a coffee-shop table.
Alternate title: How to Make an Infantile Adult Using Only Pop Culture and a Candy Store Masquerading as a Coffee Shop.
The bizarre scheme to transform a remote island into the new Dubai
Earlier that year, the Comorian government had received a proposal from some visiting Arab businessmen. What if the Comoros started to sell their citizenship to raise funds? There was a great demand for passports in the Middle East, the men explained; for starters, wealthy individuals saw a second or third nationality as a shortcut to make travelling and doing business abroad easier.
I think France has also been toying with the idea of hosting some "visiting Arab businessmen." I wonder how that's going?
Justice officials fear nation's biggest wiretap operation may not be legal
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Federal drug agents have built a massive wiretapping operation in the Los Angeles suburbs, secretly intercepting tens of thousands of Americans' phone calls and text messages to monitor drug traffickers across the United States despite objections from Justice Department lawyers who fear the practice may not be legal.
I have a dictionary. I fear that "Fear" is the wrong word in that headline. DILLIGAF might approximate their mood. however.
How Paris ISIS Terrorists May Have Used PlayStation 4 To Discuss And Plan Attacks
The hunt for those responsible (eight terrorists were killed Saturday night, but accomplices may still be at large) led to a number of raids in nearby Brussels. Evidence reportedly turned up included at least one PlayStation 4 console. Belgian federal home affairs minister Jan Jambon said outright that the PS4 is by used ISIS agents to communicate, and was selected due to the fact that it’s notoriously hard to monitor.
"The hunt for those responsible." That's a good one. I imagine common-sense Playstation control will fix everything. With an outright ban on assault Playstations, of course.
The Savings App Designed by a Behavioral Economist
As humans, our failings are epic. Some of us eat too much, lie to ourselves, don’t exercise enough, and spend so much money that we have nothing left for that vacation in Hawaii. But technology, Dan Ariely believes, might save us from ourselves. Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, is an investor and the chief behavioral economist at Qapital, a Swedish-startup geared toward encouraging Millennials to save.
Or, you know, you could shut the stupid thing off, and make your kids shut it off. You know, like an adult.
Why human-in-the-loop computing is the future of machine learning
First, a machine learning model takes a first pass on the data, or every video, image or document that needs labeling. That model also assigns a confidence score, or how sure the algorithm is that it’s making the right judgment. If the confidence score is below a certain value, it sends the data to a human annotator to make a judgment.
I know! We could install a steering wheel in self-driving cars! That would let the passenger drive the car using their judgment! Of course, first they'd have to shut their stupid iPhone off, and make their kids shut theirs off. You know, like an adult.
Six Strange Things That Have Been Happening in Financial Markets
While the term may mean little to your average retail investor, swap spreads have become the talk of financial markets in recent weeks as they plumb historic lows and seemingly defy market logic. At issue is the fact that swap rates—or rates charged for interest rate swaps—have dipped below yields on equivalent U.S. Treasuries, indicating that investors are charging less to deal with banks and corporations than with the U.S. government. Such a thing should never happen, as U.S. Treasuries theoretically represent the "risk-free" rate while swap rates are imbued with significant counterparty risk that should demand a premium.
Let's see: Barack Barry Hussein Soetoro Obama. I only count five.
Why Free Can Be a Problem on the Internet
T-Mobile, the wireless company, said last week that it would let customers watch as many movies as they wanted on services like Netflix and HBO as well as all other kinds of video, without having it count against their monthly data plans. Given the growing popularity of streaming video, its plan, called Binge On, should appeal to many consumers. But there are real concerns about whether such promotions could give telecommunications companies the ability to influence what services people use on the Internet, benefiting some businesses and hurting others.
Or, you know, you could shut the stupid thing off, and make your kids shut it off. You know, like an adult.
In Scandinavia, “patient hotels” provide an alternative to hospitals
On August 21, a new hotel opened on the campus of Denmark’s foremost specialized care hospital, Rigshospitalet. Called the Patient Hotel, this 74-room building provides convenient accommodations for self-sufficient patients who have traveled from far away, for an exam or treatment. For patients undergoing long-tern medical care, the tranquil, sky-lit space also provides a temporary escape from the regular hospital’s blaring machines and daily bustle.
Wow. Those benevolent and intelligent Scandinavians have discovered that neurotic hypochondriacal lonely people prefer a four-star hotel over staying at home and reading Web MD -- if someone else pays for it. There's also a helpful picuture of of a member of this super-race of humans bicycling on two underinflated tires while texting.
Well, that's all the news that fits. Into my schedule, I mean. I think I'm going to, I don't know, shut this stupid thing off now. You, know, like an adult.
Saturday, November 14. 2015
I don't get in nearly as many scrapes on Saturday Night as I once did. I'm always the toughest guy at the Olive Garden at 4:10, so no one dares front me over the newly rationed bread sticks, and I'm usually home in bed before the real heavy stuff comes down past 5:00.
I'm no shrinking violet, though. I was a welterweight pacifist back in the day. Since I didn't believe in violence, I was only allowed to fight with other pacifists in my weight class. I once gave an Indian burn to a Hare Krishna in an airport terminal that I bet he's hasn't forgotten yet.
Anyway, if you venture out this evening with a glint in your eye and the devil in your heart, be careful of hanging around known tough guys like Elton John. Did you ever listen to the lyrics of Saturday Night's All Right (for Fighting)? That dude would kick your ass with his crepe-soled sneakers at the drop of a straw boater.
Here are the Saturday Morning Links:
The world is entering a third stage of a rolling debt crisis, this time centred on emerging markets
Householders in America have struggled for years to work off the excess borrowing taken on during a global housing boom in the 2000s. The economy has suffered from a shortfall of spending as a consequence. The world economy was dealt a second blow, after 2010, when the delayed effects of that earlier boom were played out in a debt crisis at the fringes of the euro area, one that at several points threatened to break up the currency union.
Housing debt? Ten years roll by and somehow everything is still George Bush's fault.
Stop-and-Seize Turns Police Into Self-Funding Gangs
The threat to individual liberty from stop-and-seize is painfully clear. Without requirements for an arrest or for a warrant, the power to confiscate cash is a clear diminution of property rights. Effectively, the police have been given official sanction to commit literal highway robbery without the threat of punishment. People whose property was seized must pay a lot of money and spend a long time in court for even the chance of getting it back, and police who seize money with no good reason don't, apparently, suffer any threat of discipline.
I have solved this problem with insolvency.
Vincent Asaro, Accused in Lufthansa Heist, Is Found Not Guilty
The verdicts, delivered after little more than two days of deliberations, left many in the courtroom stunned, most visibly prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office, which had spent years building a case against Mr. Asaro, 80, with testimony from high-ranking Mafia figures and recordings by an informer for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
People are stunned that jurors don't want a purported mafia member angry at them. That is stunning.
Paris attacks: Bataclan and other assaults leave many dead
France has declared a national state of emergency and tightened borders after at least 128 people were killed in a night of gun and bomb attacks in Paris. Eighty people were reported killed after gunmen burst into the Bataclan concert hall and took hostages before security forces stormed the hall.People were shot dead at restaurants and bars at five other sites in Paris. At least 180 people were injured. These are the deadliest attacks in Europe since the 2004 Madrid bombings.
Hmm. It would appear they don't - want - to live like a refugee. Don't want to live like a ref-huge-gee.
Apple is Shutting Down Beats Music, Just Like Most Companies it Buys
Apple bought Beats last year for $3 billion in large part for the technology behind its streaming-music service. Unlike so many recent acquisitions, Apple let Beats Music live on instead of its more typical strategy of immediately shutting down acquisitions after incorporating their technology into its own products.
William Howard Taft wouldn't leave a scrap of flesh on Tim Cook's bones.
Microsoft Invented Google Earth in the 90s Then Totally Blew It
Terraserver could have, should have been a product that ensured Microsoft would remain the world’s most important internet company well into the 21st century. It was the first-ever publicly available interactive satellite map of the world. The world’s first-ever terabyte-sized database. In fact, it was the world’s largest database for several years, and that Compaq was—physically speaking—the world's largest computer. Terraserver was a functional and popular Google Earth predecessor that launched and worked well before Google even thought of the concept.
Oh look. The same people who said Microsoft was an evil monopoly because they made an operating system and a web browser are mocking them for not taking over the whole Internet.
MIT team invents efficient shockwave-based process for desalination of water.
...the system uses an electrically driven shockwave within a stream of flowing water, which pushes salty water to one side of the flow and fresh water to the other, allowing easy separation of the two streams. The new approach is described in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters, in a paper by professor of chemical engineering and mathematics Martin Bazant, graduate student Sven Schlumpberger, undergraduate Nancy Lu, and former postdoc Matthew Suss.
Somehow I don't think Mizzou students would have come up with this.
Can the vocabulary of deceit reveal fraudulent studies?
The deceitful papers tend to be vaguer, more difficult to read, and have fewer quantifying words, the authors found. They also use a bit more jargon, with fraudulent publications containing 1.5% more technical terms. Another trend, Markowitz told ScienceInsider, is that spurious papers generally had more references. Such characteristics tend to make fraudulent papers more “convoluted” and “costly” in terms of readers’ time, he says.
I just look for the word "consensus." Saves time.
Beware of ads that use inaudible sound to link your phone, TV, tablet, and PC
The ultrasonic pitches are embedded into TV commercials or are played when a user encounters an ad displayed in a computer browser. While the sound can't be heard by the human ear, nearby tablets and smartphones can detect it. When they do, browser cookies can now pair a single user to multiple devices and keep track of what TV commercials the person sees, how long the person watches the ads, and whether the person acts on the ads by doing a Web search or buying a product.
I only watch football on TV so I imagine the continuous stream of high-pitched swearing will interfere with this scheme.
Have a lovely Saturday!
Friday, November 13. 2015
Well, if you manage to crawl to the finish line at 5 PM today, you've made it through another week. Look on the bright side. Unless you're melanin-challenged and work at a college, you'll still have a job on Monday, and you have two whole days to show your liver who's boss. On to today's links!
Did You Just Get a $500 Freelance Assignment? The City Might Bill You $30,000
Although little-known to people who work at home sewing, writing, designing, illustrating, party planning or tutoring, their perfectly legal pursuits are deemed "unlicensed" by L.A. officials, and they must register with City Hall. Then, these tens of thousands of residents are notified to pay an obscure annual city "business tax."
Just drive an Uber cab. Your magic iPhone transubstantiates all regulations into ponies and cupcakes.
60-Year-Old French Apartments Look Like a Utopian Dream
Between 1954 and 1973, the country erected public housing in the suburbs surrounding the City of Light. These towering structures, which included some six million units, embodied the prevailing idea that modernist architecture could help foster a utopian state by improving people’s lives. “They were praised as places where men could blossom away from the agitation of big cities,” Kronental says.
My Utopian dream is living in France after all these buildings are demolished.
The Making of the Most Expensive Mansion in History
When the house's asking price was announced last May, some people figured it was an absurd marketing ploy, since if the property fetches anything close to $500 million, it will obliterate the current world-record price of $221 million, for a London penthouse. But absurdity is all relative in today's gigamansion market—particularly in L.A., where previous milestones such as the $85 million sale of the 123-room Spelling manor in 2011 are beginning to look quaint.
The author of this article sure doesn't know much history. Try putting in an offer on the Biltmore Estate. You'll have to buy 1/6th of the Pisgah National Forest to go along with it. It used to be the back yard.
Sweden Reintroduces Border Controls
"The overall assessment when we collect information from the police, the Civil Contingencies Agency and the Migration Agency is that it is warranted to impose temporary border controls," interior minister Anders Ygeman told a press conference. More than 120,000 people have arrived since January in Sweden, which is, with Germany, one the favoured destinations for migrants coming to Europe and wich has, until recently, upheld what Ygeman called a "generous" policy.
At this point, wouldn't Swedish border controls only keep Muslims in?
Udacity Raises $105 Million Series D, Bringing Valuation To $1 Billion
The announcement came as the company celebrated the one-year anniversary of its nanodegree program. The nanodegrees are now recognized by some of Silicon Valley’s biggest companies, including Google and Salesforce.
I guess homeschooling is only bad when conservatives do it.
The Latest Evidence That Helmet Laws Don't Help Bike Safety
What the researchers failed to find was any connection between helmet laws and bike-related hospitalization rates. That held true whether they looked at all cycling injuries or just traffic-specific injuries. Surprisingly, it also held true when they narrowed in on body parts protected by a helmet: the brain, head, scalp, skull, face, even neck. Since helmet laws don’t necessarily mean compliance, they looked at helmet usage, too, and once again found nothing.
Humans take chances. Increase their feeling of security, and they'll take bigger chances.
7 Long-Term Productivity Habits Of The Most Successful People
One thing uniting the most high-power leaders with the lowest-level workers is time: Day in and day out, we all have the same amount of it. Where the variation comes in is how we use it. Some of the most successful people tend to attribute their achievements at least partly to time management.
The most successful people don't spend all day reading lists on the Internet.
Van Gogh's Turbulent Mind Captured Turbulence
The painter's magnificent brushwork made (intuitive?) use of a property known as luminance, a measure of the relative brightness between different points. The eye is more sensitive to luminance change than to color change, meaning we respond more promptly to changes in brightness than in colors. This is what gives many Impressionist paintings that familiar and emotionally moving twinkle, as we can see, for example, in Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise.
Hey, NPR: His brain didn't work. His eyes were fine.
The New Yorker Editor Who Became a Comic Book Hero
Comic books? Educational? The very idea is comical to anyone familiar with the 1954 Senate subcommittee investigation that linked juvenile delinquency to horror and crime comics. The politicians dealt the industry a staggering blow that it overcame only after superheroes, plus corny teens like Archie and a rascal named Dennis, came to the rescue. Still, comics are seldom associated with literacy. But Françoise Mouly started Toon Books precisely to get more young people reading, and thinking, and enjoying the printed word, lushly illustrated and handsomely bound as well.
So, my collection of Classics Illustrated never happened, right Francoise?
How the Western Diet Has Derailed Our Evolution
A group of Italian microbiologists had compared the intestinal microbes of young villagers in Burkina Faso with those of children in Florence, Italy. The villagers, who subsisted on a diet of mostly millet and sorghum, harbored far more microbial diversity than the Florentines, who ate a variant of the refined, Western diet. Where the Florentine microbial community was adapted to protein, fats, and simple sugars, the Burkina Faso microbiome was oriented toward degrading the complex plant carbohydrates we call fiber.
Florence, Italy, gave us the Renaissance. I'm pretty sure you can buy manganese mined by hand in Burkina Faso, which is pretty swell, too.
Everybody have a great day, and make sure to buy a drink for your whole microbial community tonight after work. It's the friendly thing to do.
Thursday, November 12. 2015
I have no idea how anything at the University of Missouri ever gets done. It's pretty clear this is a campus held hostage by a few entitled nitwit students and a few radical professors (some of whom have lost their job).
But I'm at a loss for words when it comes to stuff like this.
Black pain is not an easy subject to cover, but the lesson we can take from this encounter at Missouri is that our presence as journalists, with the long legacy of criminalizing blackness that comes with it, may trigger the same harmful emotions that led to the students’ protests in the first place.
We have a name for activists who don't want the media around. They are called fascists. They seek to impose their views by force, and having media around exposes their sometimes brutal and always childish behavior to the world. It has nothing to do with sensitivity or "safe space" (what the hell is that?). It has everything to do with hiding your aggression from visibility.
Now, as the University continues to spin out of control, we're learning that most of the claims were lies. We're learning the hunger striker is really just an entitled brat. The football team are just useful idiots, pawns in a bigger game of stupidity, which became apparent when the students sought to separate themselves to create "black only healing space."
I have no doubt these students have grandparents who fought to have schools integrated. So I'm confused. Did we come full circle? Is separate but equal the law of the land, or is separate but equal only in effect if and when a certain group of people say they want it to be in effect? I'm all for their right to voluntarily segregate themselves, but if they do so they should be aware they are simply making things unequal once again, and they have no standing to ask to be treated equally.
They have created a very arbitrary line. I think I'll go create my "white only healing space" to sort through my emotions on this, but I have a feeling I'd be called a racist for having that space. I know these kids are wrong. It's hard for opinions to be wrong, but when they are, they are usually wrong by a long shot. In this case there's no question. These are not students, because they've learned nothing and are acting out on childish impulses. If the university had a president, I'd think the correct response is to expel each and every one of them. There's always room for protest on campus, there's always room for freedom of speech. But there isn't room for lying, misrepresentation, and there's certainly no room for closing one's mind to history and/or the law simply because your emotions were 'triggered'. Time to grow up, snowflakes.
I was wondering. Does anybody know how to write jokes any longer? Or more to the point, write humorously? If they're extant, I haven't noticed it. It takes a light touch to write humor, and few seem interested in giving it a try. The best writers would only salt in jokes as foils to a larger humorous situation. Wodehouse had Bertie Wooster, who was impersonating Gussie Fink-Nottle, trying to tell an inappropriate joke at dinner, which is being hosted by a gaggle of grim old sisters, some of whom are hard of hearing.
- There are these three deaf chaps on a train and it stops at Wembley.
- What's he doing?
- Mr Fink-Nottle is telling an anecdote.
- Anyway, there it is at Wembley, and one chap says, "ls this Wembley?, and the other says, "No, it's Thursday."
- What did he say?
- He said, "No, it's Thursday."
- No, it's not. lt's Friday.
- l know.
- l changed my library book.
- lt's a joke, Charlotte.
- Thank you.
- The third one says, "So am l. Let's go and have a drink."
- lt's a joke about drink, Charlotte.
- No, it's not about drink.
- lt's about Why did the first man bring up the days of the week?
- No, the first man is the one who says, "ls this Wimbledon?''
- No - That was the second man.
- Let Mr Fink-Nottle finish his joke before we judge it.
- Well, that was it, actually.
In the book this is adapted from, the text is funny because it is a comic situation described in an amusing way. The joke is an excuse to be humorous. It's supposed to be a bad joke, but it really isn't. Twain used the same sort of approach to tell good jokes, but by prefacing them by saying, "This is a bad joke," he had an easier time weaving a humorous narrative around them. The woefully misnamed "situation comedies" have become the modern version of this form of light comedy, but they are usually just a series of blunt jokes barely strung together. Not the same thing.
At any rate, is this Wembley? Time for the links, all supplied with PG Wodehouse quotes to suit:
10 Famous Korean War Veterans
The Korean War began in the early morning hours of June 25, 1950, when North Korean soldiers stormed across the 38th parallel in a coordinated attack against South Korea. The first military action of the Cold War lasted three years and claimed the lives of 5 million soldiers and civilians. On the 65th anniversary of the start of the Korean War, learn about 10 notables—from astronauts to actors—who served in the conflict.
“...it has been well said that it is precisely these moments when we are feeling that ours is the world and everything that's in it that Fate selects for sneaking up on us with the rock in the stocking.”
Alibaba's Singles' Day sales surge 60 percent to $14.3 billion
Singles' Day was originally a mock celebration in China for people not in relationships. But Alibaba in 2009 co-opted the event into a consumption-fest for all, featuring steep discounts and other promotions aimed at attracting droves of customers online.
"You can't be a successful dictator and design women's underwear. One or the other. Not both."
The Amazing Rube Slowberg Machine
Exactly how slow will it be? Will I be alive by the time it finishes? Will any of my grandchildren live to see how it actually ends? Will the inevitable heat-death of the universe interfere with the Rube Slowberg machine, or is that part of it?
“In a series of events, all of which had been a bit thick, this, in his opinion, achieved the maximum of thickness.”
The Case for Buying a Home You Can't Afford
Young professionals willing to stretch their budgets now should consider Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., among other cities, according to a new report from Trulia. In New Haven, Conn., the typical millennial (defined by Trulia as an adult between ages 25 and 34) can expect to spend 37 percent of her income on housing in the first year of her mortgage. Three years later, though, the same homebuyer’s monthly payments will fall below 31 percent of her income, according to Trulia’s estimates.
“Beggars approached the task of trying to persuade perfect strangers to bear the burden of their maintenance with that optimistic vim which makes all the difference. It was one of those happy mornings.”
Court Says Tracking Web Histories Can Violate Wiretap Act
But despite those decisions and perhaps more importantly, the court was careful to make another point: That merely tracking the URLs someone visits can constitute collecting the contents of their communications, and that doing so without a warrant can violate the Wiretap Act. And that’s an opinion that will apply not just to Google, but to the Justice
Department.
“I mean, imagine how some unfortunate Master Criminal would feel, on coming down to do a murder at the old Grange, if he found that not only was Sherlock Holmes putting in the weekend there, but Hercule Poirot, as well."
Rare early photographs of Peking
Photographs of Peking, now known as Beijing, made by Thomas Child in the 1870s and 1880s are to go on show in London's Chinatown as part of Asian Art in London season. More than 30 original photographs from the Stephan Loewentheil Historical Photography of China Collection, the largest holding of historical photographs of China in private hands, are included in the show.
"Memories are like mulligatawny soup in a cheap restaurant. It is best not to stir them."
Why I Chose The Gun And Then Silicon Valley
When I look around, I see people who want to make a contribution. I see people who want to make a better world, by doing groundbreaking scientific work, by creating impressive works of art, by writing critical articles or inspiring books, by starting up sustainable businesses. And you all have chosen your own instruments to fulfill this mission of creating a better world. Some chose the microscope as their instrument. Others chose dancing or painting or making music like we just heard. Some chose the pen. Others work through the instrument of money. Ladies and gentlemen, I made a different choice….I chose the gun.
“The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun.”
Facebook director sells nearly half his stake
Facebook Inc. director Marc Andreessen has sold nearly half his stake in the social network since Oct. 30, securities filings show.Between Oct. 30 and Nov. 6, Andreessen sold 921,362 shares in Facebook collecting about $96.5 million, according to three filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“As a rule, from what I've observed, the American captain of industry doesn't do anything out of business hours. When he has put the cat out and locked up the office for the night, he just relapses into a state of coma from which he emerges only to start being a captain of industry again.”
How Could You Like That Book?
In fact it may be that the most seductive novelists are also the ones most willing to risk irritating you. Faulkner comes to mind, so often on the edge between brilliant and garrulous. Italy’s Carlo Emilio Gadda was another. Muriel Spark. Sometimes even Kafka. Resistance to these writers is never a surprise to me. On the other hand, I do spend endless hours mulling over the mystery of what others like. Again and again the question arises: How can they?
“It was one of the dullest speeches I ever heard. The Agee woman told us for three quarters of an hour how she came to write her beastly book, when a simple apology was all that was required.”
Have a lovely practice Friday.
Wednesday, November 11. 2015
Heather MacDonald:
Even without the sports boycott tool, however, the takeover of the college campus by racial hysteria appears all but complete. A video of a black female student at Yale screaming and cursing at her college master is a chilling portrait of self-engrossed, bathos-filled entitlement that has never been corrected by truth, much less restrained by manners: “Be quiet!” she shrieks at the frozen administrator, “Why the fuck did you accept the [master] position,” she continues at full, self-righteous cry. (The student’s tirade was occasioned by a statement issued by the master’s wife disagreeing with Yale’s admonition to students not to wear “culturally appropriative” Halloween costumes.) If anyone has reprimanded the student for her grotesque lack of courtesy, Yale is not letting on. Instead, Yale’s president, Peter Salovey, issued the usual fawning declaration of sorrow for the tribulations experienced by Yale’s privileged minority students: “Their concerns and cries for help made clear that some students find life on our campus profoundly difficult.”
This shocking video is a glimpse of the future—the boorish, hate-filled Cultural Revolution come to America. Colleges have capitulated completely to delusional victimology; unless employers are willing to stand up against the coddled products of the academic hothouse, we may all soon be living in a world of screaming, monomaniacal victims.
University of Missouri Police Ask Students to Report ‘Hurtful Speech’
To me, that is hurtful and offensive, so I would report the police to the police
Also, Yale’s Idiot Children
Desire is Complicated - "Everybody Wants More Than Just One Thing"
It is even more complicated than that, because many of us desire not to desire some of the dumb things we desire. Some even seek to renounce desire in general, which is a complex desire.
Well, Bird Dog has gone off for a few days to make sure his mountain redoubt/bolthole is still stocked with beans and ammo. That means you're stuck with me, Roger, the King of Sicily.
Not to worry. I'm not prone to strong opinions, so there's no need to offer trigger warnings for the faint of heart and pushy college students. The only trigger warning I ever paid attention to was a shell being racked. All the rest is conversation, and a dull one at that. On to this morning's links!
Sexual Selection Makes Female Songbirds Drab
The study, published in Nature, found that sexual selection does play an important role in creating colour differences between male and female plumage. But the contrast is largely driven by females evolving to become drab.
Life, ah,finds a way. I bought plenty of drinks for some pretty drab females back in the day.
Ancillary Copyright 2.0: The European Commission is preparing a frontal attack on the hyperlink
According to a draft communication on copyright reform leaked yesterday (via IPKat), the Commission is considering putting the simple act of linking to content under copyright protection. This idea flies in the face of both existing interpretation and spirit of the law as well as common sense. Each weblink would become a legal landmine and would allow press publishers to hold every single actor on the Internet liable.
Oh dear. Bloggers would have to produce their own text and stop linking to newspapers they purport to hate.
After 'robust' discussion, fast food giant McDonald's is not pursuing a REIT
Amid low interest rates, McDonald's also plans to add a "meaningful" amount of additional debt, said CFO Kevin Ozan in a release."As a result, we are increasing the Company's cash return to shareholders target to about $30 billion for the three-year period ending 2016 - a $10 billion increase over our previous target, with incremental debt funding the vast majority of the increase," he said.
There's a term for borrowing money to pay existing investors instead of trying to turn a profit.
Mummified Hand from Yorkshire May Be Last Hand of Glory Still in Existence
The Bladen Journal reports that a mummified hand found in Castleton, North Yorkshire, England is the only known ‘Hand of Glory’, a grotesque artifact meant to aid thieves in their work during the night, still in existence. This mummified hand supposedly has the power to “entrance humans” according to the Express. Hands of Glory were also a favorite tool for thieves and creative storytellers for over 200 years.
I hereby propose we call Obama's autopen the Hawaiian Hand of Glory.
Bob Dylan and the “Hot Hand”
But as Dylan grew older, as the immense catalogue of his songs came to embrace everything—folk, rock, gospel, blues, Tin Pan Alley—he looked back on the golden period of 1965-66, the moment of the hot hand, when the songs came two and three a day, as if from heaven, and he seemed as filled with wonder as the rest of us.
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.
Helmut Schmidt dies at 96; W. German chancellor fought domestic terror
Schmidt, a center-left Social Democrat, led West Germany from 1974 to 1982. He was elected chancellor by lawmakers in May 1974 after the resignation of fellow Social Democrat Willy Brandt, triggered when a top aide to Brandt was unmasked as an East German agent. The new leader brought a sometimes abrasive self-confidence and his experience as West Germany's defense, finance and economy ministers to the job, which he took during the economic downturn that followed the 1973 oil crisis.
Better than what they have now. Neither could carry Adenauer's jockstrap, however.
Life in a Studio Apartment with my Wife and Two Sons
Between July 2011 and August 2015 I lived in a ~400sqft studio apartment in San Francisco. I moved in a bachelor but by the time I moved out, I was one member of a four person family. Here are some things I learned along the way.
Six of us lived in a 960 square foot ranch, and were about average. Why do Millennials demand a trophy for everything? Move.
‘Tinder for threesomes’ gets $500K investment
There are no two ways about it: This dating app was built for threesomes.London-based startup 3nder — the name can be pronounced “Thrinder” to rhyme with “Tinder,” according to its founder — said it has raised $500,000 in seed capital from a pair of unnamed angel investors.Since 3nder’s mid-2014 launch, nearly 1 million users have downloaded the iOS app in search of kinky hookups — whether “straight, bisexual, gay, poly- or pansexual,” says founder and CEO Dimo Trifonov.
I'll bet both investors are divorce lawyers
The future of sustainable agriculture is all about smart technology and scaling up
Are the organic hand-picked tomatoes sold at farmers’ markets really better, in a technical sense, or do they just make us feel like better consumers – perhaps even better human beings? If the organic tomato is just a vehicle for romantic fallacy, then we have to look dispassionately at how they are grown from the perspective of sustainability.
I see the generation that thinks they invented small apartments thinks they invented agriculture the week before.
Well, everybody sally forth and make sure you make enough money today to buy sustainably grown tomatoes before the farm goes out of business and you're forced to buy the pinkish baseballs they always had at the A&P.
Tuesday, November 10. 2015
Monday, November 9. 2015
The American death tax is a terrible thing. It doesn't apply to most working class people who slide their possessions past the tax man - and the very wealthy avoid it, but it kills families with savings, large farms or family businesses which have appreciated over time. For a recent example of how the wealthy deal with it, Estate Taxes And the (Clinton) Family Business.
One might think that American policy-makers would want more independent families, building up businesses and assets, but no. Only the filthy rich can afford to do that. Death tax drives Dems to dementia
 Image via Theo
The Novels of John Fowles: A Reassessment
Harvard Sex Week is Pretty Much Everything You’d Expect
No Plato week? No Bach week? Is that place a zoo?
Daycare Workers Fired for Refusing to Pretend Little Girl Is a Boy
So we should probably talk about that Colorado sexting ring scandal
Why do we prefer the Rolex to the Timex?
I prefer Timex. You don't care if you lose it, get it stolen, or break it.
Yale Student Goes Into Shrieking Hysterics Over Threat to P.C. Totalitarianism
THIS IS BASICALLY AN ADMISSION THAT MUCH OF THE YALE STUDENT BODY IS MENTALLY ILL
"A Thin-Skinned Minority Is Ruining This Nation": Professor Crushes "Political Correctness" Wave Sweeping America
Not thin-skinned - manipulative bullies
In Britain, Free Speech Goes Out with a Whimper
The Uberization of Money - The familiar middlemen of 20th-century banking and investing are giving way to something very
different. Are we ready for the opportunities—and the risks?
Time to Panic: Global Warming Could Make There Be Too Many Lobsters
Keeping Americans poor in a prosperous country like America is not as easy as you think.
Karl Rove's gratuitous and erroneous shot at Calvin Coolidge.
Union: Obama Threw Workers Under the Bus - Longtime Democratic ally could be big GOP booster in 2016
Time
to Panic: Global Warming Could Make There Be Too Many Lobsters - See
more at: http://moonbattery.com/?p=64962#sthash.EEkNIh3T.dpuf
Killing Ben Carson
It is .. interesting to hear the reporters yelling back at Carson, unabashedly taking the role of advocates for their political party.
9 False Things Obama Said About His Bio That Didn’t Cause a Media Feeding Frenzy
Hillary Clinton: Most charter schools ‘don’t take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them’
Lie
Hillary Clinton Lied Under Oath Repeatedly During Her "Successful" Benghazi Testimony
Migrants turn up their noses at 'boring' German village... and some have already left
Daycare
Workers Fired for Refusing to Pretend Little Girl Is a Boy - See more
at: http://moonbattery.com/?p=64988#sthash.j7FGsLPj.dpuf
Saturday, November 7. 2015
Friday, November 6. 2015
Over the transom -
The Clinton money-laundering machine
Charles Krauthammer said that he had no doubt some of the 30,000 e-mails Hillary deleted very likely had references to the Clinton Foundation's business, which would be illegal and a conflict of interest. Others say it is organized crime at its finest -- and we are financing it. This is a summary of how the Clinton Foundation works as a tax-free international money laundering scheme. It will probably eventuallyprove to be the largest political criminal enterprise in U.S. history.
This is a textbook case on how you hide foreign money sent to you and repackage it to be used for your own purposes. All tax free. Here's how it works:
1. You create a separate foreign "charity." In this case one in Canada.
2. Foreign oligarchs and governments then donate to this Canadian charity. In this case, over 1,000 did, contributing mega-millions. I'm sure they did this out of the goodness of their hearts, and expected nothing in return. (Imagine Putin's buddies waking up one morning and just deciding to send untold millions to a Canadian charity).
3. The Canadian charity then bundles these separate donations and makes a massive donation to the Clinton Foundation.
4. The Clinton Foundation and the cooperating Canadian charity claim Canadian law prohibits the identification of individual donors.
5. The Clinton Foundation then "spends" some of this money for legitimate good works programs. Unfortunately, experts believe this is on the order of 10%. Much of the balance goes to enrich the Clinton's, pay salaries to untold numbers of hangers-on, and fund lavish travel, etc. Again, virtually all tax free, which means you and I are subsidizing it.
6. The Clinton Foundation, with access to the world's best accountants, somehow fails to report much of this on their tax filings. They discover these "clerical errors" and begin the process of re-filing 5 years of tax returns.
7. Net result -- foreign money, much of it from other countries, goes into the Clinton's pockets tax-free and untraceable back to the original donor.
This is the textbook definition of "money laundering."
Oh, by the way, the Canadian "charity" includes as a principal one Frank Giustra. Google him. He is the guy who was central to the formation of Uranium One, the Canadian company that somehow acquired massive U.S. uranium interests and then sold them to an organization controlled by Russia. This transaction required U.S. State Department approval, and guess who was Secretary of State when the approval was granted?
As an aside, imagine how former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell feels. That poor schlep is in jail because he and his wife took $165,000 in gifts and loans for doing minor favors for a guy promoting a vitamin company. Not legal, but not exactly putting U.S. security at risk.
Sarcasm aside, if you're still not persuaded this was a cleverly structured way to get unidentified foreign money to the Clinton's, ask yourself this:
Why did these foreign interests funnel money through a Canadian charity?
Why not donate directly to the Clinton Foundation? Better yet, why not donate money directly to the people, organizations and countries in need?
This is the very essence of money laundering and influence peddling. Now you know why Hillary's destruction of 30,000 e-mails was a risk she was willing to take.
 Agriculture is "capitalist, racialized patriarchy."
Ugly Toenails
Climate: “We’re going to become extinct. Whatever we do now is too late.”
So screw it.
Gina McCarthy is coming for your air conditioners
Over my cool dead hands
The Future Looks Bleak for Biofuels
Good
Borrowing While Poor - Upcoming regulation won't fix the underlying problem of payday loans: a lack of access to credit.
Caveat emptor. But these things can be a godsend for people in a jam, with lousy or no credit.
Obamacare Is Dead - It doesn’t work because it couldn’t work.
It was meant to fail
From Pope Benedict, via Ace's quotes:
"There is a self-hatred in the West that can be considered only as something pathological. The West attempts in a praiseworthy manner to open itself completely to the comprehension of external values, but it no longer loves itself; it now only sees what is despicable and destructive in its own history, while it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure there."
Pope Benedict XVI
Warren discusses the social teachings of the Church:
A man should have the serenity that comes from living in his own home; should not depend entirely on some boss for his livelihood, and daily permissions; nor be entangled from adolescence in debt, nor constantly huzza’d by tempters. He should never be treated as cattle, or chattel, or “demographic target.” He should not be deflected from the life of pilgrim, sub specie aeternitatis; nor deprived of the freedom to make his own way.
Individualism vs. Collectivism: The Tools Collectivists Use To Gain Power
More From The Hillary Chronicles——-Mistress of Deception
Hillary: Former Presidents Won’t Have to Declare Their Criminal History For Employment
Ben Carson's unusual theory about pyramids
Stick to your knitting, Dr. Ben
Denmark to Bernie: Stop Dissing Us with That S Word
Combat photographer accused of making passes at women faces harsher punishment than Bergdahl
Feminizing the Air Force with legal terror. Having young females around makes guys act stupid, always. I somehow doubt that the Russkis or the Chinese would do that, and their Bergdahl would have been instantly executed
STICK A FORK IN EUROPE: It’s Done
Suspicion of ISIS bombing in Sinai jet crash could bring strong Russian retaliation
Obama still can’t see that Arabs don’t care about the Palestinian sideshow
Arabs hate the palis
Thursday, November 5. 2015
See this video?
Not from the Onion, but from Veritas. Sheesh. Maybe they should hand out those smart pills, because the Stupid Pills are not doing any good.
Wednesday, November 4. 2015
 I ate your candy! Jimmy Kimmel Pulls Off Halloween Candy Prank for 5th Straight Year, Brings America’s Kids to Tears
Lighten up, people.
Susan Williams spoke to Good Morning America about Robin's struggles with Lewy Body Dementia
The Big, Bad Breastfeeding Industry
Baby formula never hurt me.
Colleges should allow students to take smart drugs
I used them a few times. Very effective
Diversity compels society give up its traditions, its sacred rights, and even its basic decency
Diversity is not diverse
Six-Step Guide for Dealing with a Friend Who Dressed Up as an ‘Indian’ for Halloween
The DOE threatened to cut off funding if the transgender student was not given locker room privileges. Enjoy the new rules, girls.
Boys will enjoy
And if he self identified as a cat, would the school district have to supply him with a litter box?
As a dog-identifier, I just want to pee on the floor
Climate alarm #23,456: You Can’t Make Love When It’s Warm Out
German Church Removes Symbols of Christianity To Make Migrants ‘Comfortable’
Are the Christians comfortable now? Or should they ban Bach too? And - obviously - Mendelssohn.
The Causes of Income Inequality
Tax the prosperous at 99%. Crisis solved.
Z Man:
It’s possible that the looming custodial state, where the Cloud People rule over the Ground People like game wardens, is going to be wonderful. The Ground People will embrace being cared for like children and accept being pushed around by the authorities when necessary. The sense of looming catastrophe that animates much of the alternative right will turn out to be completely misplaced. Instead, it will be viewed as a great leap forward for humanity.
Presidential Candidates Should End Daylight Saving Time
Darn right. It's stupid.
State Department emails conflict with Clinton’s Benghazi testimony
Everybody knows she lied. She's a liar. That's old news
With Its Bathroom Ordinance, Houston Takes Leave of Its Municipal Senses
Asians are the wealthiest demographic in the US. Why Asian Americans Don't Vote Republican
In the US, the wealthy tend Democrat. The working class and middle class tend Conservative.
Ooops! New NASA study: Antarctica isn’t losing ice mass after all !
Bill Gates says that capitalism cannot save us from climate change
Good grief, what a jerk
Climate Change Parasites Scholars Rev Up Rhetoric, Draconian Policies
The hilarious legacy of ‘last chances’ for climate, exposed
Doom is always just around the corner
Sorry, kids, the 1st Amendment does protect 'hate speech'
I'm thinking of starting a demolition company in China ...... the next boom
WEAPONS CACHE Found Hidden at Swedish Migrant Center
Why Palestinians Do Not Want Cameras on the Temple Mount
Tuesday, November 3. 2015
Just as with migrants to the US, the overwhelming numbers of those in Europe are economic migrants.
And in the US as in Europe, they are also coming by government invitation. They are offered homes, money, food, and welcoming groups of young women handing out blankets, language lessons, etc. Free stuff. In Germany and Sweden, though, there is really no honest work for a Somali immigrant if they even wanted it.
That's why you see them running scams and stealing luggage all across Europe these days.
George Bush was right when he talked about jobs that poor and unskilled Americans did not want to do, even though he was mocked for it. America has and had plenty of need for unskilled and semi-skilled labor, but Americans passed on that low-paid work while the Guatemalans and Mexicans jumped on those jobs with pleasure. Now they own those jobs - and those small businesses - while the native poor Americans who supposedly have learned American values and the American Constitution remain on food stamps. Bill Clinton, to his credit, tried to deal with that but illegal immigration won.
When I wonder out loud why these hundreds of thousands of fit young men with their iPhones hiking into Europe don't apply themselves to building futures in their own homes, I am termed a racist. But isn't it racist to assume that young, strong and clearly well-fed young men with iPhones are helpless in their own homelands?
Now Merkel Says Germany Must Step Up World Role in Refugee Crisis
Merkel said European Union initiatives hadn’t gotten far enough and that she will push for a permanent distribution of refugees across the 28-member bloc.
Good luck with that, Angela. You and Sweden, stupidly, created the crisis, and you and Sweden alone will bear the consequences.
 Images via American Digest and Theo,
Building a Park Underground - New York's LowLine park has the power to transform the Lower East Side neighborhood. Is that a good thing?
Dumbest idea ever. Plus the Lower East Side needs no transformation
A group of middle-aged whites in the U.S. is dying at a startling rate
Via Insty, a book: How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor
If I retired, I think I would decay. I'd have plenty to do, but no real purpose.
How can you combat climate change without a private jet?
NASA Study: Mass Gains of Antarctic Ice Sheet Greater than Losses
Here’s why China’s one-child policy was a good thing
The transformation of David Brooks
He has gone Full Twit
“Progressive remedies have condemned millions of poor black and Hispanic children to lives of poverty and hopelessness and damaged the lives of countless others.”
Here’s the speech students at Williams College were too outraged and offended to hear
Sorry, Social Justice Warriors: Political Correctness Has Peaked
Sweden: Sex Change for Children
At Hayek:
‘Can you imagine a worse incentive system than one that rewards failure with higher budgets and punishes success with lower budgets?’ I can’t – yet that’s pretty much the prevailing incentive system for governments around the world.
Scarborough: No Republican Has Hosted Network Sunday Show or Newscast in 50 Years
Changing the “Macho” Male Culture of the US Military
A Mass Migration Crisis, and It May Yet Get Worse
Soros Admits Involvement In Migrant Crisis: ‘National Borders Are The Obstacle’
Billionaire investor George Soros has confirmed he wants to bring down Europe’s borders, following the accusation made last week by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Last week, Mr Orban accused Mr Soros – who was born in Hungary – of deliberately encouraging the migrant crisis.
Soros is a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, was Nazi collaborator, got rich manipulating currency markets. What's his issue?
Arctic Attracting New Military Scrutiny
Obama's Corrupt and Immoral Abuse of the Military
Gen. Breedlove: Intelligence Community Changing How it Handles Russia
COVERING TERRORISM AGAINST ISRAELIS:AN IDIOT’S GUIDE
A Failure of Strategic Thinking in the Middle East
Scarborough:
No Republican Has Hosted Network Sunday Show or Newscast in 50 Years -
See more at:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/mark-finkelstein/2015/11/02/scarborough-no-republican-has-hosted-network-sunday-show-or#sthash.0BpWQZrW.dpuf
Monday, November 2. 2015
Yale associate master defends Halloween free expression; hilarity outrage ensues.
Free expression is a power trip of the white cisgender patriarchy.
 America’s Forgotten Missionaries
Cats Are Neurotic, and Yes, They Want to Kill You
Are any foods "safe" to eat anymore?
No. Herbal teas cause cancer too.
Kids aren’t spending enough time just going outside
Fred Thompson dead at 73
Only 73? Man, that guy packed a lot into his life
Z-man: Living in America is Babel
"I’m asked occasionally: “why do you use gendered pronouns for your son?”"
San Francisco neighbor says don't call thieves 'criminals'
Jewish Professor Hounded at California Riverside Campus For Holding Pro-Israel Views
Christian Pastor, Liberal Author, and Atheist Professor Agree on This Ridiculous College Trend - We've gone from academic inquiry to cultural inquisition.
Ithaca College a hotbed of institutional racism
Journalism School Dean Dorothy Bland Joins Hate Hoax List
Oooops! Black Man Arrested For Setting Fire to 2 Black Churches
Just like climate change, the horrors must be invented to keep the activists funded
Top boffin Freeman Dyson on climate change
Ted Cruz: Climate Change Is A Religion, Not Science
National Lampoon could not be published today
Yes it could - and it should
The Media’s Potemkin Village Starts to Topple - But whining about liberal bias means nothing if you don't back it up with some action of your own.
Geriatric Democrats should fear Marco Rubio and the Republican youth wing
Government needs to be more than crass extortion:
The problem for the U.S. political class is that the provision of actual public goods is nowhere near large enough of an enterprise to justify all of the clients they want to pay on the public payroll or all of the large, complex, lavishly funded agencies that they want to establish for the purpose of putting themselves in charge of them. So they have to return to the old protection-racket model: Much of American government today exists simply to stand between you and your own goals to collect a fee.
The Death of the American Welfare State:
The "modern" system that we have adopted with its low birth rates, late marriages, working parents, high social spending and retirement benefits is at odds with itself. We can have low birth rates, deficit spending or Social Security; but there is no possible way that we can have all three.
German Village of 102 Braces for 750 Asylum Seekers
How Long Can Europe’s Welfare States Welcome Refugees and Migrants?
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Photo: Dawn at Maggie's HQ, with coupsie car 