4.11.2015
4.10.2015
Gotta love it, NRA edition
From today's New York Times:
See also this in the Tennessean.
[Noted by our Midwest and Elsewhere bureau.]
"Seventy-thousand people are expected to attend the National Rifle Association’s convention opening on Friday in Tennessee, and not one of them will be allowed to come armed with guns that can actually shoot. After all the N.R.A. propaganda about how “good guys with guns” are needed to be on guard across American life, from elementary schools to workplaces, the weekend’s gathering of disarmed conventioneers seems the ultimate in hypocrisy.
"There will be plenty of weapons in evidence at the hundreds of display booths, but for convention security the firing pins must be removed."
See also this in the Tennessean.
[Noted by our Midwest and Elsewhere bureau.]
Now if he just had an Apple Watch, he'd have everything
This luxe pool table car can travel up to 100mph | New York Post
"A California car builder has constructed his very own mobile man cave — capable of traveling up to 100 mph and comes complete with full size pool table, television, electric dart board, refrigerator and high-end sound system."
Also…
"Fiscella told Barcroft that he originally wanted to build the car as a prop for his billiards store. But he eventually made the awesome decision to add on all the bells and whistles typically found in one’s manspace."
Whaaat?
What ever happened to Will Rogers?
The Wise Words of Maya Angelou. Or Someone, Anyway. - NYTimes.com
“[The] misattribution is a textbook example of a widespread phenomenon in the world of quotations: Churchillian Drift.…
"Britons tend to attribute anything vaguely political to Churchill (and before Churchill, Disraeli); Americans like to credit anything folksy to Mark Twain, and before Twain, Benjamin Franklin."
4.09.2015
WPA
April 8, 1935: FDR Forms the Works Progress Administration | The Nation
"At just 22, a very young (and avowedly Communist) Jimmy Wechsler argued in The Nation (December 18, 1937) that the view that the WPA’s workers were mere ‘boondogglers’—and that the program was only ‘nourishing parasites’—was wrong. He carefully compiled statistics on how much the program had already achieved: ‘29,000 miles of new roads, 1,099 school buildings, 1,440 recreational centers, and 3,350 miles of new trunk and lateral sewers,’ and so on."
It snowed last night
What?
Not a whole lot, but enough to leave tracks in the streets and footprints on the walks. Enough to, you know, see. Make stuff white. Again.
Sure it'll melt, and probably by the end of the day. And it's supposed to rain tonight.
(And why is it always supposed to get warm tomorrow?)
Not a whole lot, but enough to leave tracks in the streets and footprints on the walks. Enough to, you know, see. Make stuff white. Again.
Sure it'll melt, and probably by the end of the day. And it's supposed to rain tonight.
(And why is it always supposed to get warm tomorrow?)
4.08.2015
Debating debaiting chocolate
New Hampshire debates banning baiting bears with chocolate - Yahoo News
"Fish and Game officials strongly backed the ban after lab results showed conclusively that four bears were killed by eating chocolate in September.
"The two female bears and two cubs were found dead within 50 feet of a baiting site that had been laden with donuts, chocolate mints and 90 pounds of baking chocolate."
Seems like sound advice
Undernews: There will always be a Chicago
"And it was in Chicago that Alderman Fred Roti ran on the slogan, 'Vote for Fred and Nobody Gets Hurt.'"
RIP Stan Freberg
Comedy genius, father of funny commercials Stan Freberg dies | Boston Herald
"His masterpiece was the pioneering concept album 'Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America,' a work produced in two volumes that sounded seamless although they were recorded 35 years apart. They took the listener from the time of Columbus' arrival in North America (he couldn't pay for the land he'd just discovered because it was Columbus Day and the banks were closed)…"
Maybe they should move their servers to Hil's house
White House computers hacked by Russians | New York Post
"Russian hackers penetrated a White House computer system and were able to eyeball sensitive information — including details of President Obama’s schedule that were supposed to be secret, a new report said Tuesday.
"The hackers were believed to be the same ones who cracked into computers at the State Department in recent months, CNN reported."
Sounds about right
Undernews: How civilization will end
"We will all live to be over 100 but won't be able to remember why"
4.07.2015
Two dry-ish ducks and a beached whale
Lake Cindy is looking a little parched right now but we're expecting rain later in the week, and it'll flood.
Maybe we just have too many experts
More scientists doubt salt is as bad for you as the government says
"‘There is no longer any valid basis for the current salt guidelines,’ said Andrew Mente, a professor at McMaster University and one of the researchers of a major study published last year by the New England Journal of Medicine."
Which, come to think of it, is about as good an argument for American education as you can make.
This is cute, but it just a little bit disingenuous…
…since there are 38.8 million people in California, many of whom, we presume, flush now and then. You can do the math.
Yeah, who in the world would believe a guy like this on a subject like, you know, nuclear physics?
Obama convinces scientists to support Iran nuclear surrender | RedState
"The president’s top nerd, MIT-nuclear-physicist-turned-Energy-Secretary Ernest Moniz…"
Get real, right?
4.06.2015
Of course the real question is, will it fit in a laptop?
This Battery Has Lasted 175 Years and No One Knows How | Motherboard
"The bell’s clapper oscillates back and forth constantly and quickly, meaning the Oxford Electric Bell, as it’s called, has rung roughly 10 billion times, according to the university. "
(Only if it’s for a very, very big lap.)
The good old days
The 137th White House Easter Egg Roll - NationalJournal.com
"Photos from the earliest egg rolls to today."
But can I still outrun them?
Warmer weather may make spiders fast and loose - The Washington Post
"Sure enough, when the researchers tracked the movements of spiders at different temperatures they found that the cold made them sluggish. At 59 degrees Fahrenheit, the spiders moved no faster than 20 cm a second. At the top temperature of 104 degrees, they nearly tripled that speed."
They say this like it's a bad thing
Do Your State's Hospitals Serve Big Macs? | Mother Jones
"The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) isn't wild about this phenomenon and made this map, which shows the US hospitals with fast-food chains inside them:"
We are shocked
The richer you are, the better you sleep - The Washington Post
"That's the takeaway from a fascinating slice of data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week looking at sleep levels by income group. Crunching numbers from the 2013 National Health Interview Survey, CDC researchers found that the relationship between income and sleep is linear and positive."
4.05.2015
Too late…
…for an all-Big Ten NCAA final but semi-all will do.
On Wisconsin.
(And girls tonight. Go UCONN.)
Get your bangers while you can
Bloomberg ‘considering’ running for mayor of London | New York Post
"While the movement is likely a political pipe dream, powerful Brits publicly backed the idea — perhaps seeking mayoral bans on fizzy pop, black cabs and high-calorie bangers and mash."
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