12.31.2013
You didn't invest in this, did you?
Nothing Focuses The Mind Like The Ultimate Deadline: Death : Shots - Health News : NPR
Luckily for you, there's a new product called Tikker, a wristwatch that counts down your life, so you can watch on a large, dot-matrix display as the seconds you have left on Earth disappear down a black hole.
Money: It's so yesterday
$0 Profits Couldn't Hold Back This Year's Tech Darlings : All Tech Considered : NPR
Zero. That's the total amount of revenue created by Snapchat in 2013. It's the total profit collected by Twitter. And it's roughly how much Apple's stock price has increased between early last December and now.
Which makes you wonder: With all these zeros piling up, how are so many people in Silicon Valley making so much money from technology?
Once again, Lake Superior State saves the day
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – After much twerking and gnashing of hashtags, the word-watchers at Lake Superior State University have released their 39th annual List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.
Lake Superior State is the perfect deliberative body to ajudicate such matters as words because there is only one word in the language that is absolutely, positively necessary in Sault Ste. Marie: Brrrrr.
Disaster Duck
How Deflating: Huge Rubber Duck Goes Flat In Taiwan : The Two-Way : NPR
The BBC reports that "the giant inflatable" burst suddenly Tuesday "in front of scores of people gathered on a quayside" in Keelung Port.
12.30.2013
Gotta have macaroni
$0.60 for cake: Al-Qaida records every expense - Africa - Stripes
In more than 100 receipts left in a building occupied by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in Timbuktu earlier this year, the extremists assiduously tracked their cash flow, recording purchases as small as a single light bulb. The often tiny amounts are carefully written out in pencil and colored pen on scraps of paper and Post-it notes: The equivalent of $1.80 for a bar of soap; $8 for a packet of macaroni; $14 for a tube of super glue. All the documents were authenticated by experts.
You say that like it's a good thing
News from The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The 2016 presidential campaign is well underway.
That's scary all right
Spike Jonze's Her: The Scariest Movie of 2013 | New Republic
We never see Theodore buy the software. We never see him accept an end-user license agreement…
Bills, bills
At City Ballet, Footwear Is Almost As Important As Feet - NYTimes.com
During the course of her relatively quiet performance that evening as the Sugar Plum Fairy, Ms. Peck would wear out two pairs of shoes — not unusual at New York City Ballet, whose dancers regularly go through 10 or 12 pairs a week. That kind of bill can add up: Those shoes cost nearly $100 a pair in stores. City Ballet buys 8,500 pairs a year, and has a $650,000 annual shoe budget.
Potholes on the information superhighway
U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace in Delivering Broadband Service - NYTimes.com
Riga’s [Latvia] average Internet speed is at least two-and-a-half times that of San Antonio’s, according to Ookla, a research firm that measures broadband speeds around the globe. In other words, downloading a two-hour high-definition movie takes, on average, 35 minutes in San Antonio — and 13 in Riga.
And the cost of Riga’s service is about one-fourth that of San Antonio.
12.29.2013
So that's where all my socks went
In the laundry bag. Who would have guessed?
We are giddily celebrating here at Yet Another Media Empire headquarters because today I got all my chores done. Not chores forever, of course. Just chores for today and as far back as we can remember. When was the last time you saw that, Bunky?
And all those socks. Right there. I used to have a pair of red socks and I never wore them, almost, but just left them in the drawer where they played the same role as that red line before the E on your car's gas gauge. If I found myself wearing the red socks it meant there were no more left and I'd better get to the laundry some time soon. But somehow the red socks got worn out (I must have worn them more often than I thought) and now there's no warning—if I'm not careful I'll just be walking along and all of a sudden I'm flat out. Of socks. Which came within one single pair of happening this weekend. But now, look. All those socks.
We are giddily celebrating here at Yet Another Media Empire headquarters because today I got all my chores done. Not chores forever, of course. Just chores for today and as far back as we can remember. When was the last time you saw that, Bunky?
And all those socks. Right there. I used to have a pair of red socks and I never wore them, almost, but just left them in the drawer where they played the same role as that red line before the E on your car's gas gauge. If I found myself wearing the red socks it meant there were no more left and I'd better get to the laundry some time soon. But somehow the red socks got worn out (I must have worn them more often than I thought) and now there's no warning—if I'm not careful I'll just be walking along and all of a sudden I'm flat out. Of socks. Which came within one single pair of happening this weekend. But now, look. All those socks.
In praise of small mercies
The year the book became a luxury object - Salon.com
A format that had originally promised all manner of functionalities was now fairly restrained, similar to an actual book — goodbye, public comments on books…
I say it's a plot to sell more Kindles
Unreturned library books can mean jail time - Associated Press - POLITICO.com
Jory Enck learned that the hard way. He was arrested for not returning a GED study guide that he checked out three years ago in the Central Texas community of Copperas Cove. Enck declined comment to The Associated Press, but he told the Killeen Daily Herald that he wouldn't set foot in a library again: "I think I will probably just purchase a book from Amazon."
A pretty fishy story
Australian sharks take to Twitter to warn surfers and swimmers of their presence | The Raw Story
Australian scientists have outfitted almost 400 sharks with transmitters that send automatic warnings, via Twitter, to Surf Life Saving Western Australia’s (SLSWA) Twitter feed.…
The tweet provides the size and breed of the shark, if known, and its approximate location. It is hoped that the feed, which has over 15,000 subscribers, will help swimmers and surfers make more informed decisions about when to venture into the waters.
Which redefines the term, "shocking"
Brainlike Computers, Learning From Experience - NYTimes.com
Running the program, known as Compass, which attempts to simulate a brain, at the speed of a human brain would require a flow of electricity in a conventional computer that is equivalent to what is needed to power both San Francisco and New York, Dr. Modha said.
12.28.2013
A failure of leadership
More Than 1 Million Americans Lose Unemployment Benefits : The Two-Way : NPR
About 1.3 million Americans lost their long-term unemployment benefits today. This means anyone who has been out of work and getting benefits for than six months will stop receiving their weekly check.
The problem with being good is that it's so freaking annoying: nag, nag, nag
News from The Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- Office workers in search of snacks will be counting calories along with their change under new labeling regulations for vending machines included in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law.
A very cool thing
How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com
What does the way you speak say about where you’re from? Answer all the questions below to see your personal dialect map.
Alas, it may require a subscription to do this but at the link above is a fascinating quiz about word pronounciation that attempts to devine where you were born. It failed in my case, but instead picked three possibilities (Madison, WI, and Rockford and Aurora, IL)—places I've never lived but have visited and which lie between two places I did do most of my growing up in Illinois and Minnesota. And also includes within its "likely" range every place I have lived with only one exception of any consequence: Atlanta. So I'd call that a success. All in all I'd call it a pretty good performance and an excellent demonstration of that, you know, data stuff.
12.27.2013
Or care? At all?
I've always said I didn't want kids. Now that I've been voluntarily sterilized, will people finally believe me? http://t.co/eCOW1snFh5
— Salon.com (@Salon) December 27, 2013
Bean soup is good4U…
…and easy to make, too—you just cook up a pot of beans and add some other stuff, whatever you want. And even better, there's always some left over for lunch, which a good squirt of two of Tabasco will turn into a whole new thing. Just mentioning. Also, it's cheap.
Add a red (or green) Christmas cookie (or two) and you're good to go.
Add a red (or green) Christmas cookie (or two) and you're good to go.
Twitter implodes
Learn how to build a Massive Twitter following in the Best Selling book Tweet Naked - What are you waiting for? http://t.co/THgZnDbqKk
— Scott Levy (@FuelOnline) December 17, 2013
Here's a rule: When people start writing books about it, it's over. (And it's only a matter of time before some university offers a degree.)
Also, it is just me or has Twitter gone headlong downhill since it wen't public? I don't twit much but I do use Twitter as an ersatz news feed, following an assortment of journalists and other sources. Recently, though, my timeline is full of advertising and posts from people I've never heard of and (sorry, Scott) really don't care about. Feels like I'm just watching it crash and burn.
Also the sky is blue and—here's a shocker—grass is green
Grad student proves NSA can link metadata to your identity with ‘marginal effort’ | The Raw Story
A Stanford graduate student has shown just how easily names can be matched with phone records…
And you thought the Pennsylvania Turnpike was bad
VIDEO: Rescuers Are Drawing Near To Ship Stuck In Antarctic : The Two-Way : NPR
…passengers and crew on the stranded ship spent Christmas "at a frozen standstill 100 nautical miles east of the French base Dumont D'Urville, about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart, Tasmania."
Setting a new standard for silliness
Vista Workers Told Their U.S. Health Plan Fails Test - Today’s Paper
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has told Vista volunteers and other AmeriCorps workers that their government-provided health coverage does not measure up to the standards of the new health care law, and that they may be subject to financial penalties unless they obtain insurance elsewhere.
12.26.2013
Memo to people in northern-tier states:
It feaking snows every freaking winter. Snowy highways get slippery. Work on remembering that.
Pileup blocks turnpike, interstate in eastern Pa. | New York Post
READING, Pa. — Portions of both the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 78 are shut down in snowy eastern Pennsylvania after chain-reaction pileups involved dozens of vehicles on slippery highways.
(The photo with this story is definitely worth a click.)
Planning a party? Try the T…
MBTA says it will not collect fares after 8 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. http://t.co/2uNQ4vaCQM”
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) December 26, 2013
I had (well, have)…
…a really nifty little pocket-sized portable USB hub just sitting here on my desk for a year or so and then one sorry day I decided I really didn't need it at the moment and put it away. Now I want it. And I can. Not. Find. It. Anywhere.
I know it's somewhere and eventually I'll find it but in the meantime, this kind of thing makes me craZy. I swear, I will never put anything away again. Ever. (OK, I already never put anything away, mostly, but still.) I mean it, too.
I know it's somewhere and eventually I'll find it but in the meantime, this kind of thing makes me craZy. I swear, I will never put anything away again. Ever. (OK, I already never put anything away, mostly, but still.) I mean it, too.
Just take a deep breath, Bunky
Delayed Packages Ruined Christmas This Year - The Wire
Due to shipping delays, an unexpectedly large number of people this Christmas were forced to do dumb stuff like interact with family members instead of playing with their cool new gifts. Both UPS and FedEx acknowledged that more packages than expected did not meet their anticipated Christmas Eve delivery date.
Curmudgeons unite
In self-protection, [author] Brunton says he’s avoided ever getting a Facebook page: “Whenever there’s a new privacy scandal I say — being friendless pays off again.”
12.25.2013
My prediction, for what it's worth…
Snowden to warn Brits on Xmas telly: Your children will NEVER have privacy • The Register
Last week, Snowden talked about smartphone snooping by the US in a second plea to Brazil for asylum, an unsuccessful bid in which he offered to help uncover Uncle Sam's surveillance of South America.
…is that this whole Snowden affair, in the end, will result in less privacy for U.S. citizens, not more: First, because more intelligence gathering will be outsourced to private concerns (this has already been recommended by presidential advisors), resulting in less control over the information collected; second, because employers will become more intrusive about screening the backgrounds and monitoring the communications of employees.
Dot promoted
Lynn C Dot is promoted to chief or our Pacific Rim Bureau, and the Seattle Desk position will be assumed by some guy.
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…
Sign-Up Period Extended Again for Health Plan - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Tuesday that it would provide more time for people to complete their applications for health insurance if they could show that they missed the deadline because of problems with the federal health care website.
12.24.2013
Not exactly jolly, but still
Before he wrote The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson authored another book called Isaac's Storm. It's about the history of meteorology and the U.S. Weather Bureau, for which agency a man named Isaac Cline worked, and a massive hurricane that struck Galveston in September of 1900, leveling the city and leaving 6,000 dead, the most destructive natural disaster that's ever occured in the United States. It's a gripping tale told skillfully, and if you've enjoyed any of Larson's other books you can't miss with this. Now on our book list.
Reliable to a fault
My calendar just buzzed to remind me that tomorrow is Christmas. I'm clicking "snooze."
Not dampen too much, at least
News from The Associated Press
Not to dampen any spirits, but studies show heart troubles spike this time of year.
And where is the tomato sauce?
Pouring Cheese on Icy Roads in (Where Else?) Wisconsin - NYTimes.com
MILWAUKEE — In a state whose license plates advertise it as America’s Dairyland, where lawmakers once honored the bacterium in Monterey Jack as the state’s official microbe and where otherwise sober citizens wear foam cheesehead hats, road crews are trying to thaw freezing Wisconsin streets with a material that smells a little like mozzarella.
Today in deadlines
Day Is Added to Deadline as Rush Hits Health Portal - NYTimes.com
A record-setting crush of last-minute shoppers descended on HealthCare.gov on Monday…
The high volume of visitors also prompted White House officials to…effectively extend the deadline, allowing those who sign up on Tuesday to still receive coverage from Jan. 1.
U.S. Softens Deadline for Deal to Keep Troops in Afghanistan - NYTimes.com
With about a week left in the year, the Obama administration is backing away from a Dec. 31 deadline for securing a deal to keep American troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014…
12.23.2013
He did, he didn't, he didn't, he…what?
W.H.: Obama has signed up for insurance under Obamacare - Jennifer Epstein - POLITICO.com
President Barack Obama has signed up for health insurance through an Affordable Care Act exchange, the White House said Monday.
In what an official acknowledged is a “symbolic” move since the president gets his medical care from the military, Obama selected a low-cost bronze plan through the District of Columbia exchange.…
But Obama did not directly sign up for insurance. Rather, his staff went in person to sign him up, an official told POLITICO.…
Obama signed up for coverage only for himself and not for the rest of the first family, and will pay a premium that’s under $400 per month, the official said.
Wait, didn't we try this once?
Look at This Amazing Animated Typography, Built by a Google Whiz | Wired Design | Wired.com
“There’s something about animated typography that feels deeply personal,” Brandel says. “Letters start to take on lives when they saunter or skip in a certain way. It offers a new avenue for expression.”
Nobody remembers <blink>? (In 1996 Jakob Nielsen described the element as "simply evil" in his Alertbox column Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design.)
Do we really need to go through all that again?
12.22.2013
We weren't wondering
WEAK US CARD SECURITY MADE TARGET A JUICY TARGET
Companies haven't further enhanced security because it can be expensive.
No Bunky, we're not nuts, we're bananas
ICELAND'S HIDDEN ELVES DELAY ROAD PROJECTS
Elf advocates have joined forces with environmentalists to urge the Icelandic Road and Coastal Commission and local authorities to abandon a highway project building a direct route from the Alftanes peninsula, where the president has a home, to the Reykjavik suburb of Gardabaer. They fear disturbing elf habitat and claim the area is particularly important because it contains an elf church.
A million sign up for Obamacare…hooray!
Unemployment Benefits Are Ending for 1.3 Million Americans. What's That All About? | Mother Jones
On December 28, 1.3 million people will lose their unemployment insurance. That's because Congress failed to add an extension of those benefits into the budget deal that will likely pass the Senate this week. Here is some background:
But a million dumped off unemployment benefits? Eh.
What Indiana knew
Hitler’s Hunt for the Holy Grail and the Ghent Altarpiece - The Daily Beast
The Ahnenerbe sent expeditions all over the world. To Tibet, to search for traces of the original, uncorrupted Aryan race, and for a creature called the Yeti, what we would call the Abominable Snowman. To Ethiopia, in search of the Ark of the Covenant. To the Languedoc, to find the Holy Grail. To steal the Spear of Destiny, which Longinus used to pierce Christ’s side as Christ hung on the cross, and which disappeared from a locked vault in Nurnberg. To Iceland, to find the entrance to a magical land of telepathic giants and faeries called Thule…
[H/T a guy in Seattle]
The last English major
Triumph of the English Major - NYTimes.com
The point is truth and beauty, without which our lives will lack grace and meaning and our civilization will be spiritually hollowed out…
Right, right. But just try stuffing truth and beauty into the coffee machine.
12.21.2013
Luckily, all that talk about how the government can never do anything right doesn't apply to nukes
Margin for error 1/8 of an inch in nuclear world - U.S. - Stripes
Investigators determined that a single replacement circuit card in a Minuteman 3 computer system's slot connector was one-eighth of an inch from being fully seated. That effectively jammed communications between the missiles and the five launch control centers to which they are connected by buried cables.
We don't have Whole Foods here
We just have partial foods. Aparently they have Whole Foods in Brooklyn.
Whole Foods, and Gentrification, Grows in Brooklyn : The New Yorker
…the store stocks over two hundred products from bakers and food makers from the borough, including a cage-free, Sriracha-spiced mayonnaise…
We don't even have cages for our mayonnaise. All our mayonnaise is cage-free; it just sits there on the shelf, totally unrestrained. (And I thought Sriracha was some kind of Volkswagon.)
What? New Jersey has an annual bear hunt?
A 350-pound bear apparently used a crawlspace as a hideout during New Jersey's annual black bear hunt.
Are there prizes? Other than the bear? (What are you going to do with a dead bear in your garage?)
12.20.2013
Success comes in really, really tiny steps
The continued rise of single-subject sites » Nieman Journalism Lab
…we[*] have grown from a small reverse-chron blog to a full-blown news organization with employees and living wages and HR policies.
*Not we. Them. We, on the other hand, believe we are "reverse-chron," an exotic (but apparently cureable) disorder of the DNA.
Dear Ms Takken [The first k is silent.]
Regarding your new job title, over there in the right column, I'm just wondering—what is general click bait?
-Weirdly Attracted
Dear Weirdly,
Not what, who. The General's original surname was Bate, but he changed it to Bait in order to conceal his identity while on loan (briefly) to the CIA. When he later tried to change it back he found somebody else had claimed it (just like that!) and the closest match available was Bate9876. This looked pretty dorky on that little nameplate generals wear on their pockets, so he just kept Bait. In spite of it all, he requires our special care.
-Ms Takken [The first k is silent.]
Or maybe just trying to get more people to log in
The K-9, Frankie, located the bags of heroin, which were labeled “OBAMA CARE,” and the four were taken into custody, State Police said.
“To the best of our knowledge, it’s like branding,” said State Police Trooper Todd Nolan
And hopefully it'll warm the place up some
Canada high court strikes down all restrictions on prostitution - Yahoo News
OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Supreme Court of Canada struck down all current restrictions on prostitution on Friday, including bans on brothels and on street solicitation, declaring that the provisions unconstitutionally violated prostitutes' safety.
Yeah, good plan
But frankly, I find it far easier to put my faith in Santa and a little reindeer with a red nose.
We're leaving for the oh-shut-up space
Magazine Eats World: The Ever-Expanding Edible Empire - Modern Farmer
So, now, the tiny magazine from Ojai is found across the United States and Canada. All, according to Ryder, are “doing well because the hyperlocal print model is thriving in the food space.”
We are ex-relieved
Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson's ex-aides found not guilty of defrauding her and her ex-husband. http://t.co/FdbJib6MBH
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) December 20, 2013
Glad to have that cleared up
Corrections - December 20, 2013 - NYTimes.com
Anchorage — not Boise — is “the most remote city of its size in the country.”
New health insurance policy: Just wing it
News from The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- People whose existing health care insurance has been canceled because of the Affordable Care Act will not be hit with tax penalties for failing to line up new coverage as required under the law.…
Under another stopgap option Sebelius announced Thursday, those whose plans were canceled will be able to buy a bare-bones catastrophic plan regardless of their age. Such plans had been intended for those under 30.
12.19.2013
But what is the sport of kings?
How the NFL Fleeces Taxpayers - Gregg Easterbrook - The Atlantic
Football is the king of sports.
Now, the War on Lucifer
Florida denies ‘grossly offensive’ Satanists a spot at the State Capitol building | The Raw Story
A Satanic display will not be joining a Festivus pole made from beer cans, an office desk chair representing the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and a nativity scene at the Florida State Capitol building.…
The 5-foot-by-5-foot poster the Satanists hoped to display showed an angel falling into hell along with a message reading, “Happy holidays from the Satanic Temple.”
Holidays. See? If they'd only said, Merry Christmas…
When this is news we're in trouble, Bunky
How Long Will You Wait at the Emergency Room? - ProPublica
People who are having heart attacks or who have suffered life-threatening injuries are typically seen by doctors as soon as they arrive at the hospital.
Ooops
Undernews: Media apology of the week
By unfortunate error we referred to ....the late Sebastian Horsley’s girlfriend, who arranged the exhibitions, as a prostitute.…
And I thought it was me
Chasmology! The study of yawning! It’s a real thing! There’s even an international conference!
Is it too late to say Target targeted?
40m card numbers stolen from Target - Boing Boing
On December 13, security researcher Brian Krebs reported that Target was investigating a data breach "potentially involving millions of customer credit and debit card records." Target confirmed this morning that 40 million such records were stolen.
Time for the "some things never change" piece
The Long, Expensive History of Defense Rip-Offs | Mother Jones
General George Washington decries the suppliers overcharging his army: "It is enough to make one curse their own Species, for possessing so little virtue & patriotism."
Dear Prudy,
Just in the last week or so, when I'm out and about, I've been encountering this, well, old (OK, elderly, like me) woman, very short, wears a nice coat and a proper hat, walks with a stick, who makes some sort of (presumably) seasonal comment as we pass on the sidewalk, like, for example, the other day, something about snow and Christmas. Today she said, "Got your chimney all cleaned out for Santa?"
What should I tell the children?
What should I tell the children?
12.18.2013
The books on our reading list are books we recommend…
…but this one, The Spy, by James Fenimore Cooper, we recommend with certain reservations. It is not an easy read. Oh, it's a pretty good yarn, an adventure set in the American revolutionary war written only 40 years after that war ended. And it's a book of some literary interest, being considered by some the first inherently American novel ever (and one that occasionally pops up on lists of great spy stories).
It's written in an archaic language with long-vanished sensibilities, full of impossibly dashing soldiers and women constantly blushing and weeping (full of "sorrows," Cooper notes, "and varied emotions"). Yet it comes to an entirely satisfying conclusion if one hangs around long enough to reach the end.
For its price (free), it's worth at least a look.
It's those cranky Canadians again
All of a sudden the Liberals are suggesting that Santa Claus is no longer Canadian and that they would abandon the North Pole and abandon Santa Claus.
Slow news day
News from The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) -- For a significant number of Americans, Christmas has largely lost its religious meaning, becoming an occasion focused instead on visiting family and friends and exchanging gifts, according to a new survey released Wednesday.
Be honest: How would you like to find one of these in your bed?
Riverboat’s Backers Look for a Way to Get the Delta Queen Moving Again - NYTimes.com
…the Delta Queen has been parked here since 2009 as a hotel along the Tennessee’s north shore. A newcomer to Chattanooga, the state’s fourth-largest city, it embraced a practice of other local hotels and offered a Moon Pie, a locally developed confection of marshmallow filling, chocolate and graham crackers, with turndown service.
Sounds a little cynical there, Bill
Got a Light? Olympic Torch Relay Seems Cursed to the Ends of the Earth - NYTimes.com
The Olympic flame is not eternal, but is relit a few months before each Olympics, said Bill Mallon, a former president of the International Society of Olympic Historians. It originates in the temple of Hera in Olympia, Greece, where it is ceremonially lit by “supposedly Greek virgin priestesses,” Mr. Mallon said, using the sun’s rays via a parabolic mirror.
12.17.2013
Always a good time in Madison
Flying Spaghetti Monster joins crowded holiday display at Wisconsin State Capitol | The Raw Story
The Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics group at the University of Wisconsin set up the satirical religious display alongside a “Festivus” pole and a “Winter Solstice Nativity” scene featuring Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Mark Twain that was set up by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
“The rotunda is getting very cluttered,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation.…
Snow makes me hungry
Look, I can't help it. I sit here watching it snow and all I want to do is eat. More. Or take a nap.
That sounds like a good idea.
And speaking of "smart toilets"…
Here's What It Looks Like When A 'Smart Toilet' Gets Hacked [Video] - Forbes
A hacked toilet could theoretically scream and spray you with the bidet while opening and closing its ‘mouth,’ “causing discomfort or distress to user,” according to a Trustwave security advisory.
Distress. Right.
Plus, imagine how happy this would make the N.S.A.
Most People Are Cool with 'Smart Toilets' That Share Their Personal Data - The Wire
The results of a new survey from Intel and Penn Schoen Berland say that 70% of people in 8 countries would be willing to share data from their smart toilet (pdf) if it would mean lower healthcare costs.
And that's without jelly
Peanut butter, as an early pioneer in the field demonstrated at General Electric in the 1950s, turns to diamond.
12.16.2013
How long before you can get a degree in fish psychology?
Scientists Find That Polluted Oceans Could Make Fish Anxious | Mother Jones
Simply stated, ocean acidification is making fish anxious—or, at least, anxiety as we measure it in fish.
Well oops
FDA: ANTI-BACTERIAL SOAPS MAY NOT CURB BACTERIA
Under a proposed rule released Monday, the agency will require manufacturers to prove that anti-bacterial soaps and body washes are safe and more effective than plain soap and water. Products that are not shown to be safe and effective by late 2016 would have to be reformulated, relabeled or removed from the market.
I seem to have spent all day…
…putting boots on and taking them off again, and hauling heavy jackets around the streets of this town. Winter. And it's not even really here yet.
I meet people who enthuse about the fresh air. Why is it people think cold air is fresh? Arguably it's less fresh than warm air, given the number of furnaces cranking away at the time. Or maybe people who exclaim about fresh air are just tired of saying ^(&$**_ freezing my )%%#%^&*. Could be.
Ahhh, those Italians
Female protestor who kissed riot policeman's helmet charged with sexual assault - Boing Boing
"Franco Maccari, the Secretary General of Coisp, the Italian police officers' union, said during an interview on Radio24 that he had pressed charges against the demonstrator who kissed an officer's helmet…"
A friend from suburban Chicago once said to me…
"I always listen to WFMT in the morning when I'm getting ready to go to work. All the other radio stations tell you about sub-zero wind chill and massive traffic jams on the expressway, but WFMT tells you it's Beethoven's birthday."
Which it is. Today.
View Classical Music Radio Schedule - 98.7WFMT - Classical and Folk Music Radio Streaming Online
12.15.2013
Who says the Lady is gray?
Fourth Down Bot - N.F.L. Coverage - The New York Times
For every fourth down of every N.F.L. game in the 2013 season, NYT 4th Down Bot analyzes over 10 years of N.F.L. game data to determine whether a team would have been better off had it punted, attempted a field goal or gone for a first down.
You can follow the NYT 4th Down Bot in real time on Twitter, here.
I'm not a weather geek, I'm a weather grumbler
(And I’ve lived in plenty of grumble-worthy places over the years.) But here’s a little-known fact: In high school I belonged to the weather forecasting club. For one year. Not so much because I cared much about the weather (though in Duluth everybody cared about it a little), but because the faculty advisor was the algebra teacher and basketball coach, and therefore a cool guy.
Back then, in the middle of the 20th, weather forecasting was not as good as it is today. Just by predicting today’s weather for tomorrow, consistently, one could almost always run up a better record than the guy on TV. That’s about all I learned. I never did figure out how to read a weather map although I still think they’re fun to look at.
Snow, however, is not fun to look at. It just lies there turning the world into black and white. (Except for the red house out my kitchen window, next door.)
Indeed!
“Those who have never tried it cannot easily imagine what a rapid progress a warm-hearted female can make in love, in the short space of half an hour, particularly where there is a predisposition to the distemper.”
Excerpt From: James Fenimore Cooper. “The Spy.” iBooks.
Or something. Or…wait. What?
Suddenly, it's the thing
France Broadens Its Surveillance Power - NYTimes.com
The law provides for no judicial oversight and allows electronic surveillance for a broad range of purposes, including “national security,” the protection of France’s “scientific and economic potential” and prevention of “terrorism” or “criminality.”
What happens…
Iran Reports Successfully Sending Another Monkey Into Space - NYTimes.com
The monkey, a male rhesus macaque named Fargam, or “Auspicious,” returned to Earth safely, state television said.
…when the monkeys learn more about what's going on up there than we know? Is anybody worrying about that?
12.14.2013
Today is not the day
The widget said 7º this morning so I put on my one-day-a-year jacket when I went out walking, but by the time I got home it had warmed up to 10 or maybe 11 and the jacket was much too warm, so today is not the day. Meanwhile, it's only a white-spotted Christmas here so far, but just about everybody seems to agree on 9 or 10 more inches of snow in the wee hours of Sunday, and probably a little warmer too. So tomorrow won't be the day either. Not that I mind. On the whole, I would rather be in July.
Also guys who stand in front of grocery stores ringing bells
Saint Nicholas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, thieves, children, pawnbrokers and students in various cities and countries around Europe.
Big trove of illustrations from British Library
British Library sticks 1 million pics on Flickr, asks for help making them useful | Ars Technica
Though the library knows which book each image is taken from, its knowledge largely ends there. While some images have useful titles, many do not, so the majority of the million picture collection is uncatalogued, its subject matter unknown.
12.13.2013
White
My snow forecasting app, which this morning predicted a 2-inch snowfall for tomorrow, now predicts 10. Which means there may be a lot of people running around on Saturday babbling about a white Christmas. Look, it'd be OK with me if you have a white Christmas if you would just clean up after yourself the next day. But you won't, will you? Oh no. It'll be March, maybe even April before you do.
Grump.
Grump.
We hear leeches are coming back too
Jeffrey Toobin: Is the Constitution to Blame for Government Dysfunction? : The New Yorker
It’s often noted that the United States is governed by the world’s oldest written constitution that is still in use. This is usually stated as praise…
Awesome!
Buzz Hoot Roar – Vocabulary Friday: Omphaloskepsis
With an average of 67 different types of bacteria living in each one of our belly buttons, each one of us has a unique microbial fingerprint.
Work avoidance built right in!
Checking your tonsils from space
Darpa's Giant Folding Spy Satellite Will Dwarf All Other Space Telescopes | Danger Room | Wired.com
Darpa, the military’s futuristic research agency, says it has plans to “break the glass ceiling” of space telescopes by shooting a new design into orbit that’s made of plastic and unfolds into a mammoth satellite that would dwarf the world’s most famous telescopes.
You didn't think they were planning to spy on Saturn, did you?
Today's exercise in missing the point
Study: Alcohol would have kept James Bond from bedding women or stirring his drinks | The Raw Story
Agent 007 boozed so much that in all reality he would have had the tremulous hands of a chronic alcoholic, according to an offbeat study published by the British Medical Journal.
If statistics are any guide, Bond would have died from alcohol- and tobacco-related diseases in his mid-50s, it says.
Now that you mention it…
Geoff Dyer on Photography: Cliff Diving in Thailand | New Republic
Excellent film though it is, Gravity is a thoroughly inappropriate title for a movie set in space, in zero-G.
There'll always be an England
This morning's NYTimes reports:
Being an “incorrigible rogue” is no longer against the law in Britain.
(No link because if your stories at the Times are rationed this one's not worth the click—the sentence above is pretty much it. Still, good news is where you find it.)
12.12.2013
Take what you can get
About the only good thing that can be said about the budget deal just patched together by House Republican budget chair Paul Ryan and Senate Democratic budget chair Patty Murray is that the right-wing Heritage Foundation and the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity oppose it.
Call Ender
Play This Harmless-Looking Web Game, and You're Helping the Pentagon | Danger Room | Wired.com
The site’s five games are designed so that when users solve puzzles to advance to the next level of play, they are actually generating mathematical proofs that can identify software flaws that cyberattacks could exploit.
And you thought the NSA was having all the fun
German police build ‘Nazi Shazam’ music detector to track right-wing, banned tunes | The Raw Story
Authorities in the eastern state of Saxony hope to use their brainchild to identify and shut down Internet radio stations that play banned songs.
'Tis the season, Dude
Fox News host Megyn Kelly tells kids: Jesus and Santa are both white guys | The Raw Story
“For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white,” Kelly said.…
“I mean, Jesus was a white man too. He was a historical figure, that’s a verifiable fact, as is Santa — I just want the kids watching to know that.”
Glad we got that cleared up.
Nothing like steel door to stop the internet
Swiss Set Sights on Becoming World's Data Vault | SecurityWeek.Com
Housed in one of Switzerland's numerous deserted Cold War-era army barracks, the high-tech Deltalis data center is hidden behind four-ton steel doors built to withstand a nuclear attack -- plus biometric scanners and an armed guard.…Wait. What?
Also, dead trees!
The Obamacare Paper Pileup - ProPublica
When HealthCare.gov [1] and some state-run insurance marketplaces ran into trouble with their Web sites in October and November, they urged consumers to submit paper applications.
Now, it’s time to process all that paper. And with the deadline to enroll in health plans less than two weeks away, there’s growing concern that some of these applications won’t be processed in time.
Don't stop worrying! There must be something else!
And YA conspiracy theory is born
Hawaiian Official Who Released Obama's Birth Certificate Dies In Crash : The Two-Way : NPR
Loretta Fuddy, a Hawaiian health official who in 2011 was briefly in the national spotlight when she verified the authenticity of President Obama's birth certificate and authorized the release of information about it, died Wednesday in the crash of a small plane off the island of Molokai.
Definitely the right state for a grump
The Puritan War on Christmas Was the Best War on Christmas - The Wire
If you're going to fight a war on Christmas, an all-out ban on the holiday seems like a pretty solid goal. It's also something the Puritans actually accomplished, in multiple countries, for decades, putting today's Christmas haters to shame. From 1659 to 1681, Bostonians faced a five-shilling fine for celebrating Christmas…
Apparently that Fox News crowd is just a bunch of chickenhawks where the war on Christmas is concerned, too.
12.11.2013
Luckily, I'm not one
Chowing Down On Meat, Dairy Alters Gut Bacteria A Lot, And Quickly : The Salt : NPR
One type of bacteria that flourishes under the meat-rich diet has been linked to inflammation and intestinal diseases in mice.
Ahhh, so that's why
Islamists in Syria seize US ammunition | TheHill
The Obama administration has suspended aid to Syrian rebels following the seizure of a warehouse by Islamists, The Washington Post reports.
A new alliance of Islamic groups called the Islamic Front took control of warehouses in northern Syria used to store ammunition, vehicles and other supplies for the Western-backed Supreme Military Council on Friday, the Post reports.
But does it have to rain the whole vacation or just part?
Man who sued because it rained punished for irrational claims
The man who sued the Dominican Republic because it rained during his vacation has been labelled a “quarrelsome litigant” by a Quebec judge.
Above the fold
Naww, we're waiting for smart cuff links
The first smartring has an LED screen, tells time, and accepts calls | Ars Technica
Forget smartwatches—smartrings are the new thing now.
The one good thing…
…about hustling the recycle bin to the curb on an icy December morning is that for the rest of the day everything else seems cozy and warm. Mmmmm.
12.10.2013
More stuff we never wanted to know
Ancient cockroach ate poop - Boing Boing
By studying the preserved poop of ancient cockroaches, scientists have determined that those roaches were, themselves, eating poop.
Isn't this that little Tucker's web site?
Liberals want to stop men from checking out women | The Daily Caller
I’m not saying looking at tits is any kind of noble pursuit.…
Well, whatever. It's pretty much all down hill from there.
We don't much like these end-of-year lists, but…
The Biggest Cheaters of 2013 : The New Yorker
Acknowledging, of course, that this list includes only those who got caught, here the year’s most newsworthy cheaters, liars, and frauds.…
Go jet stream, or something
I have a Chicago radio station playing here and I'm getting frostbite from listening to the weather report. I'm just hoping all that cold gets dumped somewhere else—say, DC—not here.
On the other hand, cold is good for the Bears (Bear weather!), who clobbered Dallas last night, outdoors in Chicago (on Mike Ditka Day).
But canine homework ingestion, no
Delayed Train? Skeptical Boss? M.T.A. Will Give Passengers a Late Note - NYTimes.com
Since June 2010, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has given more than 250,000 such notes, titled Subway Delay Verification, to riders…
12.09.2013
What makes Shakespeare such a great writer?
Here's what: People have been standing in line for 400 years to see his plays.
From yesterday's NYTimes:
The current Shakespeare boom on Broadway is not unprecedented and hardly limited to that most prominent corner of the theater world. Every summer, our parks are overrun with star-crossed lovers and introspective Danes. America is glutted with Shakespeare festivals and theaters. In a 2010 post, the theater blogger Isaac Butler called this our “Shakespeare problem,” tabulating over a thousand Shakespeare productions at nonprofit theaters in the first decade of this century.
[Emphasis mine.]
The play's the thing.
Somebody in Virginia freaks out over maybe a little more snow
Round 2: Another winter storm expected Tuesday morning - FairfaxNews.com
Tomorrow? Snow, two to four inches of it, the National Weather Service says.
Meanwhile here, in our pleasant New England valley, maybe <0.2 in., NWS predicts. Here's to you, VA.
Go ahead, tell us what you really think
GOP Comes Up With A Brilliant Outrage Generation Plan | The Raw Story
How better, then, but to find shit to complain about knowing full well that if it’s “fixed”, then the solution will be something else you can complain about? Why wait for the Democrats to do something you can feign outrage over, when you can do it yourself, blame the Democrats, and feign outrage over the thing that is, if you have any sense at all, not actually a problem? This is a dream come true for Republicans, a self-generating fountain of bullshit that is increasingly detached from obstacles like reality.
Aside from a couple of patches and a few doodads (and a marksmanship medal—no kidding!)…
…the only thing I have left from my brief military career are two pairs of woolen boot socks (one pair khaki and the other, unaccountably, black) issued in basic training—half-century socks. They may (I hope) never wear out. Because they're perfect in, well, boots on a chilly, sloppy New England day like today. Like, emphatically, today. Although by noon it's only a fraction below freezing, so nicely warming up. (The socks work fine in slippers too.)
Picture worth a thousand words but not so many flakes
Winter Storm Moves Into Mid-Atlantic : The Two-Way : NPR
Two days after Friday's storm, roads resemble ice rinks and highways north and west of Dallas are strewn with abandoned cars, KPAX in Missoula, Mont. reports.
Putting aside the question, what is a station in Montana doing reporting traffic conditions in Dallas, the photo of Dallas' blizzard-congested I-35 is worth a look. A real close look (yes, Bunky, there is some snow there).
Oh no! Spies (among the spies) among the orcs
Spies’ Dragnet Reaches a Playing Field of Elves and Trolls - NYTimes.com
Though the games might appear to be unregulated digital bazaars, the companies running them reserve the right to police the communications of players and store the chat dialogues in servers that can be searched later. The transactions conducted with the virtual money common in the games, used in World of Warcraft to buy weapons and potions to slay monsters, are also monitored by the companies to prevent illicit financial dealings.
Here's a story with a War Games vibe: Elves, trolls, and supermodels, monsters and spies and real spies, all milling around and chasing each other and them too—actually, sort of sounds like fun.
12.08.2013
Picked up a book yesterday…
…and haven't been able to put it down. Except for the Sunday Times. So a day off from blogging, it seems.
12.07.2013
What, us worry?
It's 8ºF at O'Hare. But it's 35º here.
Just one little hitch…
Winter Storm Dion to Bring Snow, Ice From West to the Northeast | Weather Underground
By early Monday, the majority of the energy associated with Dion will be over Canada.
However, it appears there will be a mixture of snow, sleet and freezing rain in parts of New England…
Wintry mix, it's called. Oh yeah.
12.06.2013
Agreed
Chocolate Chip Mint: Brought To You By The Color Red
Meanwhile, I recommend you watch the movie Red2. It has kissing but it also has Spam so I figure it's a wash. Plus, it has Helen Mirrin which puts it in Must See category - a really fun movie.
I stayed home and read King Lear
TV REVIEW: BROADWAY WINS IN LIVE 'SOUND OF MUSIC'
NEW YORK (AP) -- Whew, that was nerve-wracking, right? All those kids and staircases, pillow fights, candles and dancing.…
–Grump
Oh, that guy
From this morning's Times:
Two years ago, White House officials told The Boston Globe that the president had never met Onyango Obama, known as Omar, Mr. Obama’s uncle. But Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said Thursday that the 2011 statement was incorrect. In fact, the two men lived together briefly while the president was a student at Harvard Law, Mr. Carney said.
12.05.2013
Isn't there some Seseme Street character called Big Chicken?
The Obama Administration's Meaty Gift to Big Chicken | Mother Jones
Remember the proposal that Obama's US Department of Agriculture has been pushing since spring 2012, the one that would speed up kill lines in poultry slaughterhouses while simultaneously slashing the number of federal inspectors who oversee them? As I've reported before, the plan involves a unleashing a barrage of antimicrobial sprays onto chicken carcasses as they zip down the line.
Meanwhile, yum!
Oh, and also:
…"government agencies have not conducted independent research into the possible side effects on consumers of using the chemicals," Kindy reports.
In case you were wondering.
Why does this remind me of an old TV show called "Laugh-In"?
Cultural War Games - NYTimes.com
Some social conservatives embrace a seasonal victimhood this time of year, complaining that Christians are continually being mugged by anti-Christmas atheists bearing court orders. But the map pinpoints only a handful of alleged secular assaults, one of which is titled: “Salvation Army Volunteer Using Smaller Bell After Business Owner Complains.”
12.04.2013
Probably just not enough antibiotics, is all
Timeline: A Short and Sweet History of Fake Meat | Mother Jones
August 2013:Dutch scientists make the world's first lab-grown burger from cow muscle cells, fetal calf blood, and antibiotics. In a live-streamed tasting, the patties are pronounced "close to meat" but "not that juicy."
And what are they going to do with all those spare sailors?
Angola is in the process of acquiring the recently-decommissioned Spanish aircraft carrier Principe de Asturias, according to one news report. The entire Angolan navy has just 1,000 sailors. The 643-foot-long Principe de Asturias needs 830 sailors to fully function.
Goosebumps
Wisconsin DNR struggling to curb sex at nude beach
"There's no doubt there's more stuff going on," said Nathan Kroeplin, who supervises DNR law enforcement in Dane County.
Yes, no doubt. A lot of shivering, would be my guess. Nude beaches in Wisconsin? Brrrrrr.
Running out of things to buy: The end is near
News from The Associated Press
"There's so little that's new to buy for the holiday season," said Candace Corlett, president of WSL Strategic Retail, a retail consultancy. "The idea of a subscription service is fun and exciting."
Picky, picky
Obamacare Website Is in Great Shape — If This Were 1996 | Wired Business | Wired.com
According to The Washington Post, the Obama administration said Healthcare.gov processed 18,000 insurance enrollments during the most recent 24-hour period, “nearly double the previous record.” Great. But consider that on Cyber Monday last year, Amazon filled 306 orders per second. That’s 26.5 million orders in the most recent 24-hour period. This year, it’s hard to imagine that number won’t be higher.
…It so happens that Amazon is now offering the world a set of online infrastructure services, the AWS cloud, specifically designed to handle the massive amounts of traffic the White House hoped to juggle from the get-go (Netflix and Dropbox are both clients). But it took a different route, and in the simple terms of e-commerce, it’s still stuck in 1996.
Another family we know way, way too much about
Dick Cheney 'Surprised' By 'Attack' On Liz Cheney Over Gay Marriage
Former Vice President Dick Cheney was floored when his daughter Liz became the target of a Facebook "attack" from within the family for her opposition to gay marriage.
And also money
Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android - NYTimes.com
…consistent with a vision put forward by the Google co-founder Larry Page, who has argued that technology should be deployed wherever possible to free humans from drudgery and repetitive tasks.
Looks to me like a big market for hard hats
Mommy, the Drone’s Here! - NYTimes.com
Experts say there may be as many as 30,000 unmanned private and government drones flying in this country by 2020, ratcheting drones into a $90 billion industry, generating 100,000 jobs. A degree in drone management can’t be far off.
Those were the days
Positively Fourth Street, All Over Again - NYTimes.com
One primary pleasure of the Coen brothers’ new movie, “Inside Llewyn Davis” — a film that is abundant in its pleasures — is revisiting a New York that most New Yorkers thought was gone for good: Greenwich Village of the early 1960s, when downtown was teeming with bohemians and dreamers and not with lost tourists holding upside-down maps.
12.03.2013
And will Americans' awe of bureaucratic gibberish ever be greater?
Wonkbook: After Obamacare, will Americans ever trust the government again?
"There's a reputational loss that has already taken place about the capacity of government to cope with complexity and deliver services," says Ted Marmor, a leading expert on Medicare.
Lotta deadlines floating around DC these days
US to destroy Syrian weapons at sea | TheHill
The Obama administration has agreed to destroy Syria's most lethal chemical weapons at sea after failing to find a country willing to do it on their soil, the White House confirmed over the weekend.
The weapons make up a little less than half of Syria's arsenal and are supposed to be out of the country by Dec. 31…
Searching for the anti-Fox
How to Burst the "Filter Bubble" that Protects Us from Opposing Views | MIT Technology Review
Much social research shows that people prefer to receive information that they agree with instead of information that challenges their beliefs. This problem is compounded when social networks recommend content based on what users already like and on what people similar to them also like.
Relax—just give Amazon your co-ordinates (they already know everything else)
Amazon's Drone Has Many Asking 'What Could Go Wrong?' : The Two-Way : NPR
For the record, Amazon promises that "safety will be our top priority, and our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies and designed to commercial aviation standards.
And other sage advice
Regular countries, like regular people, are obliged to say they're sorry. You invade your neighbor, for instance, and an apology is indeed in order. With an exceptional superpower, however, it's another matter. For Washington to apologize, whatever the issue, would be like the guest of honor at a formal dinner arriving in jeans. Nobody would ever forget it or think well of you again.
MA ambiguous
I Knew the Nation Went Downhill Once Ohio Joined the Union - Lawyers, Guns & Money
Personally, I blame William McKinley.
C- for U.S.
American 15-Year-Olds Lag, Mainly in Math, on International Standardized Tests - NYTimes.com
Fifteen-year-olds in the United States score in the middle of the developed world in reading and science while lagging in math, according to international standardized test results being released on Tuesday.
12.02.2013
Once again, technology saves the day (also your shoes)
Property Managers Use DNA To Sniff Out Dog Poop Offenders - Slashdot
Rather than put up with a neverending supply of potential EcoBot fuel on marring the landscaping, facilities managers took cheek swabs of all the dogs on the property and sent them to A Knoxville, Tenn. that provided DNA profiles under a program with the dignified name 'PooPrints.' Now, for a fee of only $60 per pooch, residential managers can confirm the provider of a pile of PooPrintable material by comparing the DNA in the dog with the DNA in the pile.
The nerve
Minn. Man Ticketed For Making It Snow Money At Mall Of America : The Two-Way : NPR
A Minn. man who was down on his luck, decided to spread some holiday cheer at the Mall of America on Friday by dropping 1,000 dollar bills from the fourth floor of the rotunda as a three-person choir sang Let It Snow.
Guy gets ticketed for disorderly conduct. Minnesota is a very orderly place.
Or why don't we just stay on Daylight Saving Time year round?
Parents Of Sleep-Deprived Teens Push For Later School Start Times : Shots - Health News : NPR
Cristina Sevin is convinced there's a better way to raise teenagers: Push back the start of school one hour. Instead of a 7:17 morning bell, how about 8:18?
What's wrong with this sentence?
Urinating robot leads up Turner prize nominees | The Raw Story
The creators of a naked male mannequin who pees into a bucket and a room filled only with conversation are in the running for Britain’s prestigious Turner prize for contemporary art announced on Monday.
Heresy! Heresy!
Why Pushing People to Code Will Widen the Gap Between Rich and Poor | Wired Opinion | Wired.com
Instead of making people adapt to technologies — in the process leaving behind large swaths of society — technologies should adapt to our needs and values.
Teaching people to code in school may be a fine idea, but no more fine than teaching people to write, say, or read. Or type, for that matter. Or play a clarinet. And some kids will learn it and some probably won't, and some teachers will be good at teaching it and some won't, and the Earth will spin.
Insurance guy, all heart, commiserates
Insurers Claim Health Website Is Still Flawed - NYTimes.com
“Somehow people are getting lost in the process,” the insurance executive said. “If they go to a doctor or a hospital and we have no record of them, that will be very upsetting to consumers.”
12.01.2013
100 down
Happy 100th birthday to the crossword puzzle! Enter our contest below. - The Washington Post
Remembering the small word squares he’d solved as a young Brit in Liverpool, he drew a diamond-shaped grid with numbered squares and numbered clues. It contained 32 words, and his simple instruction read: “Fill in the small squares with words which agree with the following definitions.”
Who, us?
Intel chair warns of 'huge malevolence' | TheHill
“There is a real displaced aggression within this fundamentalist, jihadist Islamic community. And that is, the West is responsible for all the things that are going wrong," [Feinstein] said.
But it doesn't matter because if it doesn't work we can blame it on somebody else, whew
The White House says it met its Obamacare goal. There’s still more work ahead.
If the system's front end works as smoothly as the Obama administration says it does, that means more applicants will get to the back-end functions of HealthCare.gov, where the insurance company needs to know who signed up for their product. We know a lot less about how prepared those systems are for a possible flood of enrollments and how they will perform in the coming weeks.
You say that like it's a bad thing
This is how your brain tells time - Salon.com
Without the ability to track elapsed time, our morning shower could continue indefinitely.
Does this mean Interpol can take a break?
What Piracy? Removing DRM Boosts Music Sales by 10 Percent | TorrentFreak
DRM was once praised as the ultimate tool to prevent music piracy, but new research shows that the opposite is true. Comparing album sales of four major labels before and after the removal of DRM reveals that digital music revenue increases by 10% when restrictions are removed.
Forget the password sermonette—just duck
Oh, and in case you actually did forget the code, it was handily written down on a checklist handed out to the soldiers.
Almost as good as owning Jesse James's socks
News from The Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) -- Former Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger could soon see some of his jewelry, clothes and other belongings on the auction block.
And it doesn't end with jewelry and clothes:
Other items include binoculars, a telescope, camouflage clothing, nine fedoras, 27 pairs of sunglasses, ceramic poodle salt and pepper shakers, assorted porcelain cats and hundreds of books, many with Bulger's handwritten notes scrawled in the margins. There's also a McCain/Palin campaign button and a God Bless America poster.
Indeed.
Imagine our dismay
News from The Associated Press
Thanksgiving Day is no longer all about turkey: It's eating away at Black Friday shopping.
11.30.2013
Yes, Bunky, it's come to this: Turkey soup
I'm thinking with lentils and a few carrots, maybe a little touch of curry powder. And a good bread. But that's just me.
Finally, somebody makes sense
Spencer Ackerman - Actual anonymous Jewish mother during inevitable Thanksgiving NSA conversation: "Well, I'm just glad SOMEONE reads my emails."
Our nomination for Astrophysicist of the Year
Comet ISON, Presumed Dead, Shows New Life - NYTimes.com
“It’s definitely maybe alive,” Dr. Battams [an astrophysicist at the Naval Research Laboratory] said. “There’s a strong definite chance it might be, may be alive.”
11.29.2013
So we should hug more Egyptians then?
Why Iran wants The Bomb | The XX Committee
The Americans don’t even go to bat for longtime friends like Mubarak, do you really think their word is good when they already hate you?
Didn't Caesar try that?
Improvised is such a wimpy word
Improvised rocket launchers fired near U.S. base in Japan | The Raw Story
Improvised rocket launchers were fired close to a US airbase near Tokyo, police and the American military said Friday, with suspicions falling on one of Japan’s small ultra-leftist groups.
Calling them craft launchers would be trendier.
Is this the hope? Turnip shortage may end on moon
NASA plans to grow turnips on the Moon by 2015 | The Raw Story
The lunar “greenhouse” will likely arrive on the moon as payload on an unmanned Google Lunar X-Prize mission in 2015. In it will be five days’ worth of air, a small water reservoir, and 140 seeds of cress, basil, and turnips.
Astonishing! Some guy at New Republic discovers…mobs.
What 'Mob Mentality' Can Teach Us About Black Friday | New Republic
If Black Friday this year is anything like the past few years, otherwise sane people will temporarily lose it as they form frenzied—and even violent—mobs.
Who would have guessed? (Ah ah, be honest now.)
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