1.09.2016

See? This is why we've needed the internet all along

I ran across this story on CNN…

Dog 'pants' selling like hot cakes

…so I decided to google hotcake sales. Sure enough, this from Bloomberg:

Hot Cakes Are Actually Not Selling Well at All

Travel back in time to find some of the best writing you'll ever read

The TIME Magazine Vault

The first great social war

Obama administration plans shake-up in propaganda war against ISIS - The Washington Post

"Friday’s high-level conference with senior executives of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, LinkedIn and Apple is the administration’s most ambitious attempt to persuade those companies to collaborate in the ­counter-militant campaign."

Or, well, maybe not. Seems like Twitter erupts in acrimony over just about everything, and I imagine those other services are much the same. But how it got to be that the big tech companies are the villains in this whole terrorism story, I don’t know. I suspect it’s just a matter of being handy.

It's official: Everything I ever learned is now wrong

Sorry, grammar nerds. The singular ‘they’ has been declared Word of the Year. - The Washington Post

 

1.07.2016

I'm going to read this as soon as I find that bag of cookies I bought yesterday

New federal dietary guidelines - Step away from the soda | NJ.com

 

A job for Donald Trump

‘Pick up and go home’: Crowd cheers Oregon sheriff’s call to armed group | New York Post

"The group objecting to federal land policy seized buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday. "

Why not let the Donald build a wall around those buildings? Then lock the door and turn off the lights.

Problem solved.

Ohio State researcher discovers ignorance is bliss

Why Good-Hearted Consumers Don't Want To Know If There Are Ethical Issues With Stuff They Buy : Goats and Soda : NPR

"If we're actually told that a specific product was produced in an unethical way, we won't want to buy it. Yet given the choice, most of us would rather not know the backstory."

1.06.2016

Unclear on the concept


Actually, that's exactly what Obama did, enforce the laws we have, and in a rather tepid way, IMVHO, at that.  If we must listen to those R candidates on the matter, then it was Ben Carson (no kidding) who hit the right note: "The President's actions have everything to do with advancing his political agenda & little to do with actually protecting American citizens."

Nowhere in Obama's proposals was there anything about taking anybody's guns away, for the record, although they—Obama's proposals—will certainly boost gun sales once again nonetheless. All in all, we are not impressed.

Siri, sometimes you make me want to tear my hair out


OK, now you've got my attention


The Web: A Revelation of Patriotism. The Story of the American Protective League. How 250,000 American Business Men Became Detectives to Help Win the War

Turns out this book, published in 1919, is available in digital form here, from the Hathi Trust digital library.

Hum Along

Music Division, The New York Public Library. "All aboard for Podunk" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1890. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-ea5c-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

This'll kill a couple of days easy

NYPL Public Domain Release 2016 - Visualization

 

1.05.2016

Mental health day

When a bunch of squatters in Oregon talk about “we the people” they may be talking about you the people, but not me.

Somehow I remember pro-NRA types arguing we don’t need new gun laws because we already have plenty, and they’re not enforced. Now, it seems, Obama wants to start enforcing them.

The Army will pay you to eat its food.

Driving through Lima, Ohio, I always had a mad urge to sing, “Lima Lumber doodle-dandy."

The saying “scot free” is redundant.

1.04.2016

Always the fine print (or in this case, not so fine)


Probably a trend worth encouraging

Armed robber took “Snapchat selfie” with victim, leading to his arrest |

 

Anything for New Hampshire

Clinton: Aliens may have visited us already | TheHill

"'I just hope it's not like 'Independence Day,'' said Clinton, referring to the film where aliens attack earth."

[Story originally reported by the Conway Daily Sun, "The official and original motto of The Conway Daily Sun is 'Seeking the Truth and Printing it.’”]

Our nomination for the most meaningless sentence of the 21st and possibly also the 20th Century

Gallup: Government is nation's biggest problem | TheHill

"Americans say their own government was the nation’s biggest problem in 2015."

Read just a little farther and you’ll learn:

"About 16 percent say some aspect of government …was the nation's biggest problem last year"

Which means both people channeling Saint Ronnie and people believing the Republican party should be banned before it screws up any more than it already had would both count as dissatisfied with government—and they’d still total only 16 percent.

Thanks for nothing.

Louvre: Nothing there but art

The disappointed tourists of Yelp - CNN.com

 

Playoff weather


1.03.2016

Off to a fast start, this new year

Saudi Arabia Cuts Ties With Iran Amid Fallout From Cleric’s Execution - The New York Times

"Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday and gave all Iranian diplomats 48 hours to leave the kingdom…"

Another war in the Middle East. Just what we need. Wait till the Donald hears.

Watching the river

Tracking the massive floods affecting the Midwest - Washington Post

 

Sounds like an ideal solution to me

Armed militia, Bundy brothers take over federal building in rural Oregon - The Washington Post

"An armed militia took over a building at a national wildlife refuge in Oregon late Saturday and vows to occupy the outpost for years…"

PS: While I think this whole thing is pretty dopey (eg. protesters refer to the building in question as a “government building” and a building “belonging to the people” in one breath) it’s notable that, while the protesters are frequently called armed I have yet to see evidence of weapons in pictures or video.

Ode to the snail (and hooray!)

Why the Post Office Makes America Great - The New York Times

"Something I take for granted now just didn’t occur to me: There were standardized rates, and you could just slap a stamp on your letter, drop it in a mailbox, and it would go to its destination."

On getting a round tuit

Mayor sets sights on turning Toledo into 'a 21st century city’ - Toledo Blade

"All too often, city departments have no idea what other departments are doing, she said."

Or, apparently, what century it is.

Have you noticed this?


There's a lot of jaw dropping going on on the internet these days.

Just when you thought things couldn't get any creepier

Alabama couple spots nude man wearing Ronald Reagan mask - NY Daily News