DonBoy

2008-07-16T10:29:00.000-04:00

I Didn't Know it was Illegal

AP:

ORLANDO, Fla.—A restitution hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in Florida to determine how many investors were bilked -- and of how much money -- by convicted boy band architect Lou Pearlman.

2008-07-01T22:48:00.002-04:00

No hablo español

I know I haven't posted in ages, but it's pretty bad when the bulk of the incoming links are from a typo (I guess) on a Spanish-language blog that belongs to some Japanese guy. Comment #5.

2008-07-01T22:17:00.003-04:00

Too Good to be True

(h/t Language Log)

2008-04-22T14:44:00.002-04:00

You Can't Trust Anyone Nowadays

Headline:

Al-Qaida No. 2 says 9/11 theory propagated by Iran

Details:

Osama bin Laden's chief deputy in an audiotape Tuesday accused Shiite Iran of trying to discredit the Sunni al-Qaida terror network by spreading the conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the Sept. 11 attacks.
...
"The purpose of this lie is clear -- (to suggest) that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it," he said.

2008-04-11T15:39:00.001-04:00

Nine is Prime, Nine is Prime, Nine is Prime

Convincing un-math from a Slashdot poster!

I read one of Marilyn Vos Savant's books, and in it she listed 9 as a prime...

But there's a more-than-50% chance that 9 is prime!
I test primeness by dividing the test-number by all integers, from 2 through the test-number's square root, looking for a zero remainder. So, first, I divided 9 by 2. I worked on this for a while, and ended up with a nonzero remainder. So far, 9 looks prime, and I've already tested half of the potential divisors! In fact, there's just one more potential divisor to try: the number 3. I'm almost done, and everything rides on this final calculation. There's a lot of uncertainty here.
What are the chances that 9 is just going to happen to be divisible by the very last potential divisor that I try? I'll grant you that the chances are non-zero; there really are some composite numbers out there. But the chances aren't one, either. For example, when I was testing 17 for primeness, the last potential divisor I tried was 4, and it didn't work. This last calculation could go either way.
So here we are, having tested half of the possible divisors, and so far 9 is looking prime and there's just one more divisor to test against. So, I ask you: do you want to bet 9's primeness/compositeness on this last calculation? I'll make it easier for you: I tell you right now, that 9 is just like 17, in that it is not divisible by 4. And then, I'll even give you an option: we can finish the calculation by dividing 9 by 3, or you can change your candidate divisor to 5, now that you know 4 doesn't work. Well.. what'll it be?

2008-04-05T00:15:00.003-04:00

Truth in Advertising

Here's a screen grab from a commercial for the current #1 movie, "21", about the MIT students who won a lot at blackjack.

The voice-over confirms it: "Entertainment Weekly raves: 'A Card-Sharp Thriller!' "

That's true. The review is even fairly positive. But as you'd see at the link, "Card-Sharp Thriller" is -- obviously -- a purely descriptive term, like "War Movie!" Nevertheless, with the word "sharp" in there, it sure sounds like a compliment, doesn't it?

Related: Even the book that the movie is a blurry copy of isn't mostly true.

2008-03-26T14:43:00.003-04:00

Fuzzy Logic

"Glasses not Geeky, Research Finds"

Yes, but think what kind of people do research.

2008-03-25T00:26:00.002-04:00

~~When Israel Was in Peep's Land~~ Let My Peeps Go

Look.

(Updated from shame.)

2008-03-23T14:24:00.001-04:00

In no other country on Earth is this story even possible

From a poster at TiVo Community Forum:

For the past several Lent's I have kept kosher as a spiritual discipline. I discerned that I needed to be more aware of what food I was consuming and keeping to this set of rules which were somewhat unfamiliar to me. So I did some research, consulted with a Jewish friend and I did this several years running. I didn't go as far as to buy a second set of dishes, but I ate no ham or shellfish. I refrained from eating meat within two hours of having dairy and vice versa. In Holy Week, I tried to keep to the stricter Passover rules, but I don't think I was very successful at that not really having enough information about what I could and couldn't eat.

2008-03-10T18:08:00.002-04:00

Secret Skin

If you wanted to read Michael Chabon on superhero costumes, in the New Yorker, it would be here.

This sad outcome even in the wake of thousands of dollars spent and months of hard work given to sewing and to packing foam rubber into helmets has an obvious, an unavoidable, explanation: a superhero’s costume is constructed not of fabric, foam rubber, or adamantium but of halftone dots, Pantone color values, inked containment lines, and all the cartoonist’s sleight of hand. The superhero costume as drawn disdains the customary relationship in the fashion world between sketch and garment. It makes no suggestions. It has no agenda. Above all, it is not waiting to find fulfillment as cloth draped on a body. A constructed superhero costume is a replica with no original, a model built on a scale of x:1.

(And I think I know the book of Jewish morality exercises Chabon refers to early on; it also had something about point shaving, which was pretty well-known to the New York Jewish intelligentsia of the 1950s and 1960s.)

2008-03-10T17:57:00.002-04:00

Google Map of Boston Homicides

Neatly categorized by shooting/stabbing/vehicular homicide. The original, on the Boston Globe site, scrolls like a real Google map.

2008-03-10T17:55:00.001-04:00

Misheard on the Street

"Tiger Woods Golf Ennui".

2008-03-10T01:00:00.002-04:00

All the Classical Music You'll Ever Need

2008-03-08T19:48:00.003-05:00

Remote Control

In today's world, if you're the exact right person -- and I'm not that person, but I know somebody who is -- you can sit in your apartment, write the announcement of Obama's Wyoming victory that will scroll across the bottom of the TV screens of an entire broadcast network, and email it to a magic place where it will then automatically be sent out to the nation.

As Albert Brooks says in Broadcast News when he writes words that William Hurt immediately repeats on the TV in front of him: "I say it here, it comes out there".

2008-03-04T23:48:00.000-05:00

Wrongest Comment Ever

It was about John McCain, on December 20th 2007.

2008-02-27T17:07:00.001-05:00

Garfield Minus Garfield

"Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?"

2008-02-18T13:53:00.002-05:00

The Intersection of Politics and Nerddom

I love the fact that Matthew Yglesias, the very prototype of the 20-something political blogger, posted this.

Similarly great, this Stephen Colbert intro from 2006:

On tonight's show I interview Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada. I hope he doesn't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. Also, later tonight I profile Eleanor Holmes Norton, the congresswoman from D.C. I hope the guy from Marvel doesn't get upset.

2008-02-07T16:56:00.001-05:00

Computer-Selected Advertising Funnies

ClickToEnlarge.

2008-01-09T14:30:00.000-05:00

The Porges Diamond

We really ought to get this.

2008-01-05T16:27:00.000-05:00

Wanna Be A Member?

(Not really, no.)

2008-01-02T17:13:00.001-05:00

Mis-punctuated Spam

"Want a penis the size of a porn star? Your solution is here!"

That seems uncomfortable. Add 's to star and we'll talk.

2008-01-01T21:55:00.000-05:00

Keeping, Sort Of, a Resolution, Sort Of

I saw this microwave today, and found that someone had beaten me to the punch of noting how peculiar it is. I'll just add that when you push "Italian", it cycles between "pasta dish", "chicken parm", and something else.

Seriously -- "plate of food"!

2007-11-19T16:12:00.000-05:00

You Wish You Were There

A very detailed recap of the SNL cast's live WGA benefit performance. Samples:

Almost Pizza: ... This was another fake commercial - for "Almost Pizza" — it looks like pizza, it tastes like pizza, it smells like pizza — but we never find out what it actually is, or why there's a need to find a substitute for pizza. All we know is that when it falls on the floor it sounds like shattering glass, but, not to worry, "it's still alive." Well, what exactly are you expecting them to come up with at 5 am in the writer's room? Comedians. They have demons.

Are You My Adopted Chinese Baby? Yuppie couple Poehler and Sudeikis can't tell which of the adopted Chinese babies on the playground is theirs. Awkward!

2007-11-16T10:51:00.000-05:00

Weather/Science (The Seasonal Obsession Begins)

Boston Globe headline and story:

Forecasters growing more confident about a warm winter

You know what would be nice? If these stories let us know how accurate the same group was in previous predictions. The same thing comes up with other groups -- more than one Farmer's Almanac puts out a press release that gets duly quoted and forgotten.

2007-11-05T21:13:00.000-05:00

Unfogged Comment

Not from me!

Off-topic, but endlessly amusing to me. My mother-in-law (amazing cook) hosts a big Thanksgiving dinner every year. She inevitably ends up with some mongrels and strays who don't have friends or family nearby to dine with. This year, one of her guests asked if she could bring along someone else who didn't have anywhere else to go.

So my 70-year old MIL asks me, "Have you heard of a guy named Axl Rose? He's supposed to be a musician or something."

2007-10-29T17:02:00.000-04:00

Relations

I am filled with unnameable emotions from this.

2007-10-23T12:11:00.000-04:00

English Lesson

AP [emphasis mine]:

The undercover sting began after complaints in the doorman building alleging drug sales at the 17th floor apartment he shared with his girlfriend, police spokesman Paul Browne said.
In eight purchases over the summer, undercover officers bought roughly a quarter kilogram of cocaine, with a street value of around $20,000, police said. During the arrest, they recovered 10 crack pipes and five small bags of cocaine.
"There was considerable traffic to his door," Browne said. "He was pretty indiscrete about it."

If only the guy had said there was continuous traffic to his door. That would have been sort of brilliant.

Obligatory explain-the-joke link here. Obligatory answer to those who think "continually" would be more correct in my suggestion: fuck off.

2007-09-28T21:48:00.000-04:00

It's Only Fair

Some Jets fans are suing Bill Belichick for cheating. AP:

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., by Carl Mayer of Princeton Township, N.J., stems from the Patriots being caught illegally videotaping signals from Jets coaches in New England's 38-14 season-opening win Sept. 9.
"They violated the integrity of the game," Mayer's attorney, Bruce Afran, told The Associated Press. "This is a way of punishing Belichick and the Patriots."
Mayer is seeking more than $184 million in damages for Jets ticket holders.

Sounds like trouble for the Pats, huh?

Mayer and Afran, who consider themselves public interest lawyers, have been thorns in the side of New Jersey politicians for years, filing lawsuits and demanding investigations to advance their grievances. They are well known in the state but generally have had little success in their causes.
Both have lost bids for elected offices, and Mayer once served as a presidential campaign adviser to Ralph Nader.
Their demand in March for a probe of Gov. Jon S. Corzine's gifts to a former girlfriend was rejected by a federal prosecutor. In 2006, a judge vetoed their effort to block Corzine's appointment of Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., to fill the governor's seat in the U.S. Senate.
They also failed to get a court to order a special election to replace Gov. James E. McGreevey when he resigned in 2004.

That Nader thing's worrisome, though. Maybe Bush will end up winning the AFC East this year.

2007-09-28T00:18:00.000-04:00

Slight Misinterpretation

Bloggers have recently noticed copswritingcops.com, a web site in which police officers write in and complain when other cops give them, or their families, traffic tickets. All of the "offending" job-doers are identified by name and location in a way that's not at all threatening. One entry in particular got a lot of attention -- emphasis added:

I really didn't mind the ticket once I knew I was getting one. I've written thousands and is it really that bad?? The thing that bothers me is 1) she showed no respect for me. All the years I have worked, the different units I've been on, the shitheads that I have arrested didn't mean squat to her. I've given breaks before for people doing 19 miles over the limit. I have even let one go for doing 150+ on LSD. She didn't know this and that's the whole idea! She should have given me the break knowing that I go out there everyday and risk my life. I wouldn't have given her a ticket! 2) Now as a training instructor, she was is the danger zone. She wasn't paying any attention to what was going on. She was just writing the ticket. She looked to be well over retirement age and probably was just sticking around to get those few more percents on her pension. She didn't even see my duty weapon.. :( In plain view...

Wow...that's some serious professional courtesy! Unfortunately for my first interpretation, there's a clue to the real meaning in a previous paragraph:

I then realized that I was getting a ticket. After stopping hundreds of cops on Lake Shore Drive, some state, I was getting a ticket.

So...no free acid trip. Just a free ride at 150 MPH.

2007-09-23T13:29:00.000-04:00

Everything is Connected: Constance Cummings Edition

I decided to watch one last random movie from the TiVo before clearing my head for the new TV season, and I picked the 1945 Blithe Spirit, which I've probably seen before. I was looking up the lesser-known (to me) cast members, in particular Constance Cummings as Harrison's wife. Here are the surprises:

-- Born Constance Halverstadt, she married the writer Benn Levy, suggesting that she may have been MOT.
-- Between 1931 and 1934, Cummings appeared in 21 films, most notably the Harold Lloyd picture Movie Crazy, and American Madness, which was directed by Frank Capra.
-- After the couple moved to England, Benn Levy was a Labour MP from 1945-1950.
-- Later in life, her stage roles were more significant than her film roles, culminating in a Tony in 1979 for her role as an aviator recoving from a stroke, in Arthur Kopit's Wings. Which I saw in its first run at the Yale Repertory Theater. But did I see the actual, legendary Constance Cummings in that early performance?

Looks like it.

2007-09-18T18:13:00.000-04:00

My New Favorite Web Site

This is gonna kill my productivity: tvtropes.org, a summary of every recurring element of every fiction ever. Most of them will have you just nodding your head in recognition, but how can you not love a site that labels the idea of "planet where everyone shares a single defining trait" as Planet of Hats?

UPDATE 1: "The failed resurrection of Crossroads, a British Soap Opera, ended by revealing the entire series had been the dream of a supermarket worker."

UPDATE 2: They're right: TvTropes Will Ruin Your Life.

2007-09-07T21:18:00.000-04:00

"In The Year 2000"

The xkcd guy found this in a newspaper from December 28, 1900:

2007-09-04T16:42:00.000-04:00

Hadda Share

Commenter at Bill Bickel's Comics I Didn't Understand:

There’s a Japanese movie I saw once, I do not remember the name, where the main character disguises himself as an easy chair and lives inside this woman’s apartment so she’ll sit on him. Very weird and creepy.

2007-08-30T17:52:00.000-04:00

Red Light/Green Light: The Harrowing

Apparently, this is not unheard of in airports:

I walked from the arrival gate towards baggage claim, and when I was about halfway there, all of a sudden about a dozen or more TSA personnel and private security staff appeared, shouting STOP WHERE YOU ARE. FREEZE. DO NOT MOVE. Not just at me, but all of the travelers who happened to be wandering through the hallway at that moment.
Some of the TSA guards then backed up against walls in the hallway, and sort of barked at anyone who tried to move a few feet away from their "spot," like towards chairs to sit down or whatever.
One TSA guard jogged ahead, back towards the arrival gates (United, this was Terminal 7). At first I assumed maybe it was some weird security drill? A few of us asked what was going on, and got terse answers, like, "Security review." WTF? 5 minutes passed. 10, 15, 20. The two teen Japanese tourists about ten feet behind me looked utterly dazed -- welcome to America, guys. I was really jetlagged and cranky, wanted to move a few feet and sit down, but the TSA lady nearest me kind of snapped at me to stop and stay frozen where I was when the order went out.
After 30 minutes, the TSA people said, okay, you may leave now. And everyone unfroze, and went and got their bags. No explanation. I guess I should have pressed for an explanation, or demanded to know why we were being held without our consent and without a provided reason, but I was really tired and just wanted to get the hell out of there and go home. Perhaps I was wrong to have just walked away.

And a half-dozen commenters have similar stories. [Boing-Boing now with comment moderation by Teresa Nielsen Hayden.]

2007-08-28T00:10:00.000-04:00

Idaho

In browsing the Idaho Governor's web site (in response to this, of course), I notice that the Republican Governor proudly displays photos from his April 2007 "Cuba Trade Mission" trip. Doesn't that seem kind of non-boycotty, especially for a Republican?

2007-08-27T16:21:00.000-04:00

Simpsons Movie Spoiler, and Credit Where It Is Due

The 15 seconds of The Simpsons Movie that people are quoting is the "Spider-Pig" song, which I referred to earlier. Here are the complete lyrics:

Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig
Does whatever a Spider-Pig does
Can he swing from a web?
No he can't, he's a pig
Look out, he's the Spider-Pig

As the credits rolled, I saw that the "Spider-Pig parody lyrics" were credited to a group of people, at least 5 of them. There are barely 5 parodic words here. Counting "pig". Which, I admit, appears several times. ("Does" in the second line, and "he's" in the last are more like Homeric misquotations -- they should be "can" and "here comes", respectively.)

I guess 5 guys sat in a room, and this is what came out. They all helped?

(Actually, the slow a capella version of this during the closing credits is about the funniest thing in the movie.)

2007-08-19T19:24:00.001-04:00

"Side-effects may include..."

There must be something new in the water at the Colbert Report offices. There were a couple of points where I couldn't breathe. (Ironic, considering the content.)

2007-08-13T22:18:00.001-04:00

Not Terribly Helpful

So if you were walking past a newsstand and briefly saw this:

don't you think there's a chance you might not get the point?

2007-08-11T23:24:00.000-04:00

PSAs from My Childhood

This isn't quite was I was looking for, but it's close:

Attempts to find "It's the latest, it's the greatest, it's the library" so far have failed.

UPDATE: Hear a crappy midi version here; see a copy of the sheet music's cover here (Brooklyn!); live in-library performance RIGHT HERE!

2007-08-11T23:05:00.000-04:00

Elvis And Roone

The 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death is this week. From the NYTimes review of the 1994 Roone Arledge bio, The House That Roone Built:

On the day Elvis died in 1977, Mr. Arledge made that the lead story on the ABC evening news; the other networks led with a Washington story about the Panama Canal treaties. It may be the truest measure of Mr. Arledge's influence on television that on a comparable news day today, all the broadcasts would lead with Presley's death.

That may be overstating Arledge's particular influence, but...can you even imagine not leading with that today?

2007-08-11T22:57:00.000-04:00

Completely Unnecessary Products

Breakfast cereal that contains bits of real granola...bars. From Nature Valley, who previously had almost exclusively made granola bars.

That's like the restaurant I was at a few months ago that made pancakes out of donuts. They bought donuts from Dunkin Donuts, ground them up, and used that as the base of their pancake mix. (It's not on their current menu, but you know, if you got 'em, link 'em.)

2007-08-09T18:14:00.000-04:00

Qualifications

Mark Evanier has a report from Frank Buxton on the first tryout of Mel Brooks' new musical version of Young Frankenstein. Note this part:

Shuler Hensley, who was the only good "Poor Jud" in Oklahoma I ever saw, assays the monster and, again the inevitable comparison to the late Peter Boyle, brings the creature to life. (Stop me before I pun again.) He can sing. The Monster can sing! And dance, too.

But, may I point out, it's even better than that. Shuler Hensley not only has experience in musicals, he also played the Frankenstein Monster in the film Van Helsing. This makes him not just perfectly qualified for his current role; it makes him the most appropriately-qualified person for a particular role, ever.

2007-08-08T18:29:00.000-04:00

Choose Your Own Blog Adventure

If you'd like to read a discussion, which may remind some readers of an old Usenet comics thread, about whether a badly-executed team book can ever be the fault of the creators, go here.

If, instead, you'd like to read John Holbo's digression about the fact that "most Shakespearean actors, as recently as the 19th Century, were Skrulls", go here.

2007-08-08T00:02:00.000-04:00

John Scalzi Explains Who's Going To See Stardust

Stardust, on the other hand, cobbles together its audience from various demographics. First, science fiction/fantasy fandom, almost none of whom is interested in Rush Hour 3 (and which, as anyone who looked at Serenity's grosses can tell you, is worth exactly $10 million on opening weekend). Second, older moviegoers, who may be drawn in by the presence of Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert DeNiro and the novel and amusing movie idea. Third, older (that is, 30+) couples out on dates.

Then throw in, in decreasing order of importance, family audiences (it's PG-13 but that's close enough for government work), Edwardian-era-loving gays and/or Anglophiles, the comic book and/or Matthew Vaughn fans not at Rush Hour 3, moviegoers who actually read reviews to decide what they're going to see, and single, cat-loving women hoping for just one more Princess Bride experience before they die.

2007-08-06T22:04:00.000-04:00

Cruel and Unusual

BANGKOK, Thailand - Thai police officers who break rules will be forced to wear hot pink armbands featuring "Hello Kitty," the Japanese icon of cute, as a mark of shame, a senior officer said Monday.
Police officers caught littering, parking in a prohibited area, or arriving late — among other misdemeanors — will be forced to stay in the division office and wear the armband all day, said Police Col. Pongpat Chayaphan. The officers won't wear the armband in public. [Wusses!]

The striking armband features Hello Kitty sitting atop two hearts.

2007-08-02T21:14:00.000-04:00

Some Stuff About Jekyll

I was going to do some proper writing about the BBC version of Jekyll, which starts on BBC America this Saturday having just finished its 6-episode run last week in the UK, but the usual laziness got the better of me, with the result that I can link to Alan Sepinwall for the facts of the matter, and move directly on to some extra thoughts:

-- there was a point or two where I began to entertain the possibility that Steven Moffat is Alan Moore in disguise. More than one episode of Coupling is structured around games with form, such as a split-screen sequence that takes up 2/3 of an episode, or (more than once) seeing the same events more than once from various characters' points of view. Furthermore, there are moments in Jekyll where the dialogue is so clever that it draws attention to itself, which I've always found to be a danger with Moore. Which is my excuse for quoting my favorite line, from the scene where Mrs. Tom Jackman learns about Mr. Hyde:

Claire: What are you? I thought I married a man!
Hyde: You miscounted.

As a counter to this theory, two points. One: My favorite episode of Coupling -- in fact, one of my favorite sitcom episodes ever -- "The Cupboard of Patrick's Love", is not one of those formalistic exercises. Two: Alan Moore isn't funny. When he is, he's funny like a very smart robot, or he's stealing from National Lampoon stories and/or the film made from them.

--when it comes down to it, Jekyll is oddly constructed. Alan mentions this in his review, but I'm not sure it's totally successful. By the time we get to the end, we're dealing with very different situations from the beginning, to the extent that certain characters from the earlier, more expository episodes are left wandering around, attempting to exposit on a question that never particularly held my interest, which is the precise connection between not-quite-fictional Henry Jekyll, and our hero, Dr. Tom Jackman. Ultimately, this question is resolved with at least 3 revelations, one of which earns a "was that supposed to be a surprise?", and the other two of which earn a "well, if that's the case, then why did this or that character...." -- I imagine Moffat has answers in his head, but they're not obviously on the screen.

Really, though, you wanna see James Nesbitt do some Hyde. It's a riot.

2007-07-26T21:07:00.000-04:00

Name That Tune

Wesley Morris reviews The Simpsons Movie for the Boston Globe:

While the movie allows for moments of comedic dead space, its asides are often funny. A sequence of Bart skateboarding naked through town cheekily mocks standards of nudity. A song Homer makes up for his new pet ("Spider-Pig") is set to the tune of one of the TV versions of "Spider-Man." It deserves to rival Rihanna's "Umbrella" as the song of the summer.

"The tune of one of the TV versions of 'Spider-Man'", that's what it says. Wonder which one? There've been at least three such series. How ever will we guess?

Just kidding.

2007-07-16T16:36:00.000-04:00

Throw Your Money Away!

This seems like a terrible marketing use of a common expression, doesn't it?

"Holy crap! My dollar went so far, I can't even find it with a telescope!"

2007-07-12T15:36:00.000-04:00

Something for Everyone, Somewhere on the Web

Shoelaces.

(By the way, you'd agree that if you buy a pair of shoes with leather laces, the laces shouldn't break within a month, right?)

2007-07-11T23:29:00.000-04:00

Greatest Lyndon LaRouche Fact Ever

"He was very strange. He would show up at meetings of his own organization to hand out leaflets denouncing it.”

2007-07-11T17:13:00.001-04:00

Flashback

Forty years ago today, July 11th 1967, I picked up a copy of Marvel Collectors Item Classics #11. That was my conversion to Marvel Comics, and I've been buying comics ever since.

Twenty years ago today, I picked up the long-awaited Watchmen #12. Noticing the date, I considered declaring myself done with comics, on the theory that everything from then on was likely to be superfluous. Looking back, I may have been right. Although I wouldn't want to have missed seeing Zombie Spider-Man eat his own leg, or whatever.

2007-07-09T17:49:00.000-04:00

I am told:

I found this in Wikipedia, I was looking up (out of boredom) the article: Himno
Nacional Mexicano, the National Anthem of Mexico.  There is an obvious joke in
the entry.  This is from early on in that entry:
On November 12, 1853, President Antonio López de Santa Anna
announced a competition to write a national anthem for Mexico. The
competition offered a prize for the best poetic composition espousing
the virtues of low-riding.
Silly!  Here's the truth, google-lated from the Spanish version of WikipediaIn 1853, president Antonio Lopez of Santa Anna
summoned an aid for the creation of the National anthem. The call
offered a price “to the best poetic composition than it can serve as
letter a truely patriotic song”.
That's better.

2007-07-08T23:49:00.000-04:00

They've Got Branches Everywhere!

Man disguised as tree robs bank.

Sketch to which post title is punchline.

Really, I'm just posting this because I love the joke.

2007-07-04T21:45:00.000-04:00

Impassive Voice

On WBZ's coverage of the Boston Pops July 4th concert, ending as always with the 1812 Overture, Jack Williams just referred to the Overture "celebrating the victory over Napoleon". For some reason, he forgot to mention whose victory.

(On the other hand, it's not exactly a secret. Here's a piece from the 2003 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette addressing the Americanization of the 1812.)

2007-06-27T21:03:00.000-04:00

Hulk SMASH Puny Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics

You've heard of the "Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics", right? Matt Yglesias named it here:

As you may know, the Green Lantern Corps is a sort of interstellar peacekeeping force set up by the Guardians of Oa to maintain the peace and defend justice. It recruits members from all sorts of different species and equips them with the most powerful weapon in the universe, the power ring.

[...] The important point is that, when fully charged what the ring can do is limited only by the stipulation that it create green stuff and by the user's combination of will and imagination. Consequently, the main criterion for becoming a Green Lantern is that you need to be a person capable of "overcoming fear" which allows you to unleash the ring's full capacities. [...]

Suffice it to say that I think all this makes an okay premise for a comic book. But a lot of people seem to think that American military might is like one of these power rings. They seem to think that, roughly speaking, we can accomplish absolutely anything in the world through the application of sufficient military force. The only thing limiting us is a lack of willpower.

In my recent political science reading -- which, as it happens, concerns the circumstances under which all of the heroes of the Marvel universe might be forced to wage a World War Hulk -- I decided that Matt got the color right, but the character wrong. The key is in the Hulk's semi-catchphrase:

"The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets!"

I think this captures the psychological stance better than the GL business. I never understood what "exercising will power" is really supposed to mean, anyway; the best I can visualize is a very intense frown. It's like "thinking hard", but with your character. Tenuous stuff. Now, getting mad? We all understand that. So we're being told that if we just get mad enough, our resulting strength will enable us to achieve any goals, no matter how non-responsive to anger they might be.

Furthermore, doesn't this track with the bile from the right? It's not that liberals are being accused of not having enough "will"; the cry goes up, "Why aren't you properly angry, like we are? WHAT KIND OF A MISERABLE WRETCH DOES NOT SHARE OUR ANGER, AND OUR LOVE OF OUR OWN ANGER? BLOGS SMASH!" It ties directly into all the other rageaholic right-wing stuff.

2007-06-19T17:52:00.001-04:00

Stick Figure Physical Therapy

I have an "issue" with my right knee that is now being address by physical therapy. I had my first appointment earlier today. The PT described several exercises, wrapped my knee in a vibrating wrap of some sort, and left the room, saying she'd "write down the exercises" for me to do later. When I was done with the vibrating thing and got back to the front desk, here are the "written instructions" she had left for me:

The last one, in particular, looks like I perhaps need a very close friend to help me do it properly. Also, it looks like that science experiment with the toy bird that dips its head in the water.

2007-06-17T23:05:00.000-04:00

Who's Going to be More Pissed Off?

The Boston Globe on new doings in the Baskin-Robbins chain:

At a newly opened store in New Canaan, Baskin shop owner Anna Valente-Krolikowski added a few of her own touches, including extra tables and chairs, and a 37-inch flat-screen television that plays Disney movies all day. Outside benches are on the way.
On a recent afternoon, 5-year-old Henry Selvala sat quietly with his eyes glued to a "Shrek" movie, sipping his strawberry smoothie. His mother, Kristin, said she used to visit the old Baskin-Robbins store about once a week.

Disney. You know, I was going to put a link here, but all their pages either have Flash or they automatically play some loud video without asking, so just pretend I did. It was just to compare it to....

Dreamworks.

Discuss.

2007-06-13T22:39:00.000-04:00

Gender Differences

From a Reuters piece on how men get overwhelmed by grocery stores:

Many men have difficulty finding items, forego buying rather than risk purchasing a substitute for an item on the grocery list and hesitate to ask for help if they can't find an item, [Mandy] Putnam[, vice president at consulting firm TNS Retail Forward] said in her report.

"They never ask for help, except maybe from the butcher, but they always say they never had problems finding anything when the cashier at the register asks," she said.

Yeah, we don't ask for directions. But do women really bother to respond to "Did you find everything OK?" At that point, I've waited in line, I'm ready to go, and there are people in line behind me. Am I supposed to either get out of line to get some item that I couldn't find, or hold everyone else up while some clerk goes to get me a jar of Baco-Bits?

2007-06-11T23:38:00.001-04:00

Media Criticism

O.J. Simpson thinks there's too much silly celebrity news coverage.

Simpson, who spoke on his cell phone while ~~looking for the real killer~~ returning from an early morning round of golf, said he still gets up to five calls a week from reporters seeking comment -- but declines virtually all of them.

2007-06-11T17:45:00.001-04:00

Misdirection

For a change of pace, I was listening to mostly-conservative talk radio WRKO for a few minutes the other day, and heard something kind of odd. (Let me point out up front that I didn't hear the whole discussion, but I heard the last 10 minutes or so.) The host was Mariellen Burns, who has a Saturday 1-4PM slot. The topic was a law that went into effect this week in Connecticut that bans protests at funerals. The trigger for this bill is the recent outbreak of funeral disruptions or attempted disruptions by the "God Hates Fags" Westboro Baptist Church, which has branched out from its core competency -- screaming at the funerals of dead gay men -- into screaming at the funerals of dead servicemen, on the theory that they died because God's angry at America for not being anti-gay enough. (Obligatory obvious point: shouting "God Hates Fags" at the funerals of actual fags didn't cause any laws to get passed.)

Now, Burns, unlike the right-wing talkers usually heard on RKO (they carry Limbaugh and Savage during the week) , didn't talk like a right-winger, in either her tone or her choice of words, which is why I kept listening to try to figure her out. But the odd thing -- and again, I missed the beginning -- is that she kept referring to "this group" that was protesting the funerals of Americans who had died in Iraq. She didn't mention the "God Hates Fags" context at all. Now, if a radio host knew the history of the group, you'd think she might mention it. If she didn't know the history of the group, she might conclude that it's an extremist anti-war group, and then say so. She didn't say so. But if she knew the history of the group, and didn't mind leaving the audience with the belief that this was an anti-war group, but didn't want to get called out for a lie, she might do what she did -- leave it up to the listeners to get the wrong idea.

Since I missed the beginning, I thought I'd see if WKRO has audio archives of its shows. It turns out that it does, but only of their two weekday stars (Howie Carr and Tom Finneran) and of Red Sox games. These archives are supposedly text-searchable, using software technology from a company called Podzinger, and not surprisingly, it doesn't work as well as you'd like. Here are some hits from searching for "Baptist" in the WRKO archives, along with the words that got mangled into it in the transcripts:

... this go quiet talk about it took part is. Very opinion it Baptist -- that last week on the broadcast the red dot broadcast we talked about without. Startled I ... ["this particular issue"]

... I think you need to have more consistent grown -- Baptist I think so often. What you see a guy struggling usual -- out and it'll kind of stay would you. I think ... ["at-bats"]

.. to do take up work or -- afterschool game out not a Baptist who paid so it's here and a outsmart the weather. You better be right and you'd better still have ... ["afterschool" game, which it got right the first time in the sentence]

... Indianapolis people who were leaders today -- aren't reverend Walt our religion Baptist Bible on our egos in every Friday night with a group of about ten people ... [correct!]

... the country. Banning partial birth abortion a chemist out where the southern Baptist assembly of god groups well there -- years ago not too many years -- -- they ... [yes!]

... not about liberal or conservative. It's about holding people accountable they do Baptist . ... ["bad things". Ooh, that's gotta smart.]

So: an inconclusive investigation. Maybe I should see if the Language Log people will take an interest.

2007-06-09T19:42:00.001-04:00

Life, Art, Etc.

I'm accidentally watching the "All-American Game", some kind of high school baseball All-Star game. It's taking place at Isotope Park, in Albuquerque, NM. That's the home of the Albuquerque Isotopes, who play in the Pacific Coast League.

Take it away, Wikipedia:

The name was chosen by fans in a name-the-team contest, and is taken from an episode of The Simpsons (episode number CABF09: "Hungry Hungry Homer") in which Homer Simpson discovers that the local baseball team, the Springfield Isotopes, are secretly planning to move to Albuquerque. The "Isotopes" name is appropriate, since New Mexico has a number of well-known scientific/military facilities dealing with nuclear technology, such as Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP), as well as hosting the first nuclear weapons test, the Trinity test.

2007-06-07T20:09:00.001-04:00

My Niche

Between this, and the earlier that, I think it's clear that I'm a better blog-correspondent than blogger.

2007-06-02T14:29:00.000-04:00

Another Oopsy

As Mark Liberman says at Language Log,

...I guess the problem is that Silicon Valley hasn't yet invented a spell-checker for banners.

2007-06-02T01:12:00.000-04:00

You Will Laugh

Colorado Sen. Wayne Allard put out a press release with a staffer's notes still in it:

"First responders in Colorado have recently provided critical services in the face of blizzards and tornados," added Allard. "Since I don’t think first responders have really done anything significant in comparison to their counterparts who have dealt with real natural disasters, I have no idea what else to say here..."

2007-06-02T00:33:00.000-04:00

This Won't Last

Every TV show you've ever heard of, viewable on your computer. Hosted in the UK, which might make it slightly harder to shut down.

Here, try the German version of The Office.

2007-05-31T00:05:00.000-04:00

For May 31st

This guy is really sick of Pachelbel's Canon.

2007-05-29T23:51:00.000-04:00

Don't Even Think About the Super Bowl

...or you'll have to pay the NFL, if they have their way.

Step 1: The NFL trademarks "Super Bowl".

Step 2: The NFL licenses out its trademark to just about any product category there is.

Step 3: To protect its licensees, the NFL polices all commercial uses of "Super Bowl". A sports bar can't advertise a Super Bowl special if they aren't a "Super Bowl" licensee.

Step 4: Businesses, being fluent in the English language, begin advertising the parties/events they're hosting for the "big game", Sunday, February Whosis.

Step 5: Feb, 2006: The NFL attempts to trademark "The Big Game". ("Disclaimer NO CLAIM IS MADE TO THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO USE "GAME" APART FROM THE MARK AS SHOWN")

Step 6: Now. The NFL gives up on that. Not because it's stupid, mind you, but because the Stanford/California game has been called that for over a century. They say they may re-file with language clarifying that they "only" claim a trademark on "The Big Game" as a synonym for the Super Bowl.

If Harvard and Yale get in on this, it's gonna be trouble.

2007-05-29T21:43:00.000-04:00

What's Kuroko?

This. (Don't bail out before the halfway point just because you think you get the idea.)

Or, slicked up a little, this.

And this.

2007-05-28T11:02:00.000-04:00

Breaking News!

Kerry said to weigh politics in 2002 vote

2007-05-20T15:12:00.000-04:00

There Are a Lot of Dr. Pepper Imitators

As seen here.

2007-05-19T17:21:00.000-04:00

Mt. Auburn Hospital

Possible general rule: don't trust a hospital named after a cemetery.

2007-05-14T17:15:00.000-04:00

Not Surprising

Bloc head: 'I made a mistake'

-- Toronto Star

2007-05-12T18:17:00.000-04:00

Bunnies!

2007-05-08T00:42:00.000-04:00

And the Number One Fan Fiction I Never Want to Read....[drum roll]

...is described in "150 Years of Mary Sue":

The author of most of the "Baccarat Figurines" series in X-Files fan fiction makes no secret of his (the author is presumed by many readers to be male) admiration of Skinner "the hunk"; his weepy, sulky Mulder is infantilized by Skinner, who calls him "baby" and is charmed "that someone that tall could make himself so small and cuddly," as Mulder "cuddles on [Skinner's] chest ... his usual pose with him"; when the two watch cartoons while waiting for Mulder's pre-sex enema to take effect, "Mulder [is] the one paying more attention." The stories struck appalled readers as "characterization *defilement*."

2007-05-06T00:40:00.000-04:00

Royals To Get A Taste Of Angels' Colon

Actual headline. Via Ken Levine.

2007-05-03T12:36:00.000-04:00

Stable Condition

I don't think this story is going to "develop" much, so you? Click to enlarge because I couldn't figure out how to make it both bigger and still legible. From the Boston Globe.

2007-04-21T10:18:00.000-04:00

Keeping Track

More people probably read these words of mine at Mark Evanier's blog than have read anything else of mine, put together, so I guess I should link to it here. On the afternoon of the Virginia tech massacre, Mark -- after watching God knows what kind of morons on cable TV and/or reading blogs -- wrote this:

I think we can best honor the memory of the victims by using the tragedy to lobby hard for our particular views on Gun Control. Whatever you believe, just insist that this proves you're right. Hey, if you can use it to swing a little public sentiment in your direction, you may even be glad all those people were shot.

That last part really pissed me off, so here's what I sent him, which he posted:

On your 2:21 pm posting: you're painting with a terribly broad brush, and it follows jarringly on the heels of the Colbert posting, in particular this of Colbert's: "Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us."

I think you're expressing a cynicism (that isn't typical of you, from what else I've read) that all political debate is just opportunism, and that it is inappropriate to take the bloodiest school shooting in history and use it to talk about those elements of gun policy that someone sincerely believes contributed to it. I disagree, presuming that we're talking about people arguing in good faith. I can certainly understand you not wanting to invite a swarm of gun control emails, and perhaps your sarcastic both-sides-be-damned approach seemed like a way of avoiding that. Nevertheless, "referring" to both sides at once, by abstracting away any actual position and turning to phrases like "whatever you believe," comes across as spitting on the concept of having a position, or believing that it matters. You also seem to show contempt for the idea that one side might actually be right, even though both sides continue to behave in the "same" manner by persisting in arguing for their side.

The point of the discussion that I'm sure is playing out on blogs and on TV is not to "honor the memory" of those who died. Their survivors will not be spending the next several days hitting refresh on their RSS readers to follow the discussion, or watching cable news. If I strongly believe that implementing my position would save 32 more lives in another event, the time to argue for it is now, not later, and I think that can be done without disrespecting the dead.

Finally, that bit about "you may even be glad all those people were shot": that's another thing that's worse, not better, from naming no names, or sides of the issue. Maybe you've been watching cable news all day, and someone you've seen deserves it, but from out here, it's just a terrible accusation looking for a target.

His answer follows at the link.

If I were writing it again, I'd be more careful about unwinding his sarcasm, but, relevant to my statement

Their survivors will not be spending the next several days hitting refresh on their RSS readers to follow the discussion, or watching cable news.

I should admit to finding this comment at The Volokh Conspiracy, from 7:32 that evening:

My name is Bob Rogers. I am a math professor at Virginia Tech. I work in McBryde Hall, a few doors down from Norris. I was on the fifth floor watching as the swat teams moved in. And as the bodies were carried out.

You callous, unfeeling assholes on both sides can have your precious intellectual discussions before the blood has dried. I'll just sit hear and wait to hear which of my friends has been killed. If you pass a jagged 5mm kidney stone some time tonight, please let me know.

(It's in a thread whose title is Tragedies as Occasions for Discussing Ways To Prevent Repeat Tragedies; the exchange above between Mark and me has been mirrored by a number of people on various blogs.) So I am factually wrong about who's going to be hitting refresh on their RSS feeds.

2007-04-21T10:11:00.000-04:00

Actual TV Show

America's Cutest Puppies. Next: Animals Close Up with a Wide Angle Lens with Hats, as seen on South Park.

2007-04-15T11:32:00.000-04:00

On My TV Right Now

Mozart opera in English...and subtitled in English. If you have to subtitle it, doesn't that suggest that translating it into English failed to make it comprehensible? (OK, I admit that the intermittent spoken dialog works.)

Looks great in HD, though.

2007-04-13T23:12:00.000-04:00

What Was the 32nd Most Popular Girl Baby Name in America in 2005?

Destiny. Unless these people are lying. From Dan Radosh.

2007-04-09T18:23:00.000-04:00

Oh Yeah, Another Thing

Why is Planet of the Apes running on the History Channel? (That link will expire at some point, but it's good for a couple of weeks, I think.)

2007-04-09T17:30:00.000-04:00

They Oughtta

...make Kosher-for-Passover Easter candy. I checked quickly and nobody seems to have cornered this market.

2007-04-05T20:48:00.000-04:00

More Philosophy

Everything's Hofstadter-y once you remember how to think that way. For instance: On Sunday's Meet the Press, Orrin Hatch said this about fired US Attorney Carol Lam:

She was a former law professor, no prosecutorial experience, and the former campaign manager in Southern California for Clinton...

In Josh Marshall's words,

Lam has never been a law professor, was an Assistant US Attorney for 14+ years and, of course, was never a campaign manager for Bill Clinton. Except for that, well...

Hatch's...retraction?

My comments about Carol Lam's record as a U.S. Attorney were accurate, but I misspoke when making the point of discussing politically connected U.S. Attorneys. I accidentally used her name, instead of her predecessor, Alan Bersin, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton.

So here's the question: you and I may say that Hatch was wrong, but might it not be fairer to say that he was just right, but about something else?

Just kidding.

But this has potential:

My comments about Carol Lam's record as a U.S. President were accurate, but I misspoke when making the point of discussing Presidents who were never actually President. I accidentally used her name, instead of Benjamin Franklin.

My comments about Carol Lam's record as a U.S. State were accurate, but I misspoke when making the point of discussing states that are shaped like mittens. I accidentally used her name, instead of Michigan if you don't count that funny other piece.

My comments about Carol Lam's record as a fictional sea-faring vessel were accurate, but I misspoke when making the point of discussing ships in 19th-century American literature. I accidentally used her name, instead of the Pequod.

My comments about Carol Lam's record as a controversial branch of Judaism were accurate, but I misspoke when making the point of discussing Jewish women wearing tallises. I accidentally used her name, instead of Reconstructionism.

My comments about Carol Lam's record as "that being than which no greater can be conceived" were accurate, but I misspoke when making the point of discussing deities whose existence can best be established by odd medieval philosophers. I accidentally used her name, instead of Dice-K. He's not? Well, tell that to the Boston sports media.

2007-04-05T17:46:00.000-04:00

It's Like a Dream, a Beautiful Dream

Comment at Unfogged:

My daughters, who just turned four, appear to be at the height of their advice-giving powers. The other day Siobhan said, "Daddy! Let's pretend we're sleeping, and this is our dream!"

Which reminds me, the Hofstadter book arrived. He's still the only author I know who has a characteristic typeface. That's all I got so far.

2007-04-02T10:51:00.000-04:00

You'll Never Get Any Work Done Now

The people at teevee.org don't post nearly as often as they used to. They must save it up for the April's Fool specials.

2007-04-01T20:16:00.000-04:00

Extremely Low-Bandwidth Video Capture

This is one of my favorite awful jokes, mostly because it comes out of nowhere. It's from the Rugrats Passover special, which I watched a few years ago because I kept hearing that it was notably good. I had intended to video capture it as a seasonal special, but my video capture hardware stopped working, and when I reinstalled its software it stopped working even worse...so here's a transcript. The setup is that Angelica, the three-year-old who pushes around the smaller kids (babies), is Pharaoh; following the 10 plagues, she's just freed her slaves, who are played by the babies. The next morning:

Pharaoh: Bring me some Reptar cereal!

Servant: Uh, um, Miss Pharaoh ma'am, we're all out.

Pharaoh: Out? How can we be out of Reptar cereal?

Servant: Well, see, the slave baby who's supposed to get the cereal every morning was set free.

Pharaoh: Well, would you please tell me what moron set free the Reptar cereal slave?

Servant: Uh, you did.

Pharaoh: Oh, yeah. Well, forget him then! I'll just have a nice cold glass of goat's milk.

Servant: Um....you let the milk slave go free too.

Pharaoh: OK then, in that case I'll just have a long hot bath.

[Servant grimaces nervously.]

Pharaoh: You mean, I threw out the baby with the bathwater, too?

Adult viewers: Oh, for the love of God.

2007-03-29T21:36:00.000-04:00

Hey Arthur!

This one was worth seeing:

And it made me want to look up Scott Kim.

SYNCHRONISTIC UPDATE: My copy of the latest book by Douglas Hofstadter, which I ordered from Amazon in July 2006 and has been delayed twice, just shipped. (Hofstadter being the reason I know about Scott Kim, ya see.)

2007-03-27T21:42:00.000-04:00

Too Stupid for Words

Richard Cohen has caught Barak Obama in an untruth!

In his memoir, "Dreams From My Father," he recounts a watershed moment of his own -- a "revelation," a "violent" awakening, an incident that "permanently altered" his "vision." Twice he tells how as a 9-year-old he went to the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia (a country where his mother had taken him to live) and came across a Life magazine article about a black man who had tried to whiten his skin through some sort of chemical process. The result was a disaster.
"I felt my face and neck get hot," Obama wrote. "My stomach knotted; the type began to blur on the page."
The child had, for the first time, confronted racism and its hideous consequences.
Only there is no such issue of Life magazine. So says the Chicago Tribune, which has gone through the Obama memoir with commendable thoroughness.
...
When the Tribune told Obama that Life magazine historians could find no such story, Obama suggested it might have been Ebony -- "or it might have been . . . who knows what it was?" (The Tribune says Ebony's archivists also could not come up with such an article.) Indeed, the memory of the event/non-event is so firmly planted in Obama's mind that it seems to have become an emotional truth for him, far more powerful than an intellectual truth.

See, it wasn't in Life or Ebony. So Obama must have made it up -- it's the only other possibility! Or, as Greg Sargent summarizes:

Glenn Greenwald takes The Washington Post's Richard Cohen to task today for blasting Obama over the most trivial of memory lapses possible -- the fact that he got the name of a magazine wrong that he'd read when he was nine years old. No, Obama didn't remember the name of a magazine he read roughly in 1970, the year the Beatles broke up and Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died.

UPDATE: Every blogger should link to Washington Post articles, because their automatic trackback finder can't tell the big boys from the teeny little fish:

2007-03-19T22:08:00.000-04:00

That's Journatainment

TAPPED:

Relatedly, the Daily News has also decided to give Obama the rather awesome short-hand headline name of "Bam," as in "Al & Bam phone chat axes feud." I foresee a string of "Biff! Bam! Pow!" online ads, with maybe an occasional "Zowie!" thrown in for good measure. Some guys have all the luck.

2007-03-19T18:23:00.000-04:00

The U.S. Copyright Office knows you want to know:

How do I protect my sighting of Elvis?
Copyright law does not protect sightings. However, copyright law will protect your photo (or other depiction) of your sighting of Elvis. Just send it to us with a Form VA application and the filing fee. No one can lawfully use your photo of your sighting, although someone else may file his own photo of his sighting. Copyright law protects the original photograph, not the subject of the photograph.

(via)

2007-03-11T18:09:00.000-04:00

Genetic Damage

Continuing my fascination with celebrities whose lives are intertwined:

[Uma] Thurman was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Her mother, Nena von Schlebrügge (b. 1941), was a Swedish fashion model, who was briefly married in 1964 to LSD guru Timothy Leary after the two were introduced by Salvador Dalí. She married Uma's father, Robert Thurman, in 1967.

If you're old enough, you'll remember that the scare story about LSD was that it caused chromosome damage and all your kids would be horrifying freaks. Let's speculate that someone married to Tim Leary in 1964, even for a few months, probably dropped acid.

Freaky nose, huh?

UPDATE: Coincidentally, Family Guy had an opposing viewpoint last night.

2007-03-05T17:11:00.000-05:00

Now I Feel Really Stupid

For years I've been walking past this sign in Harvard Square (click to enlarge):

I figured, if there can be such a person as "Ima Hogg", there could be a law firm called "Dewey, Cheetham and Howe".

Wrong, you moron.

2007-03-03T17:48:00.000-05:00

Technology

According to my TiVo, here's what's on my PBS station right now:

Elvis Lives: The 25th Anniversary Concert

Music (2006) Modern technology reunites Presley with his band onstage at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis, Tenn.

ITYM necromancy.

2007-02-28T20:10:00.000-05:00

More Misc

-- a "senior administration official" on the Vice President Cheney's plane gave an interview to reporters on condition that he not be identified. Since he refers to Cheney as "I", there's a limited list of suspects. (via)

-- in the absence of popup blockers, if you double-click on a single word in any article at nytimes.com, you get a popup with a dictionary entry it. This is infuriating to people who routinely double-click words at random while reading web pages. How many of these people have this Tourette's-like twitchiness? To my surprise, plenty of the readership at Drum and Yglesias.

[UPDATE: This is far worse than I thought:

Maybe it's just a multitasker thing? I also find I can't usually limit myself to doing one thing at a time. I usually have half a dozen tabs open in Firefox and am switching all between them -- I can't read more than a paragraph or two of any piece before I get restless and switch to another page -- then back after a bit. Seems my brain just needs something to do while reading.

The earlier Unfogged thread had several references to ADHD. I no longer think that's an exaggeration.]

-- there are people in the UK who "refer[] to the ground outdoors as the floor". New one on me.
(via)

-- cheap headline joke:

Rock stars get all the breaks.

2007-02-25T15:07:00.000-05:00

Terry Gilliam's Iraq Joke....from 1985's Brazil

The interviewer poses a question regarding the unknown terrorists responsible for the citywide destruction: “The bombing campaign is now in its 13th year. How do you explain this?” To which the official replies, in that very British stiff-upper-lip manner, “Beginner’s luck!”

(From "Nuts To Brazil", at the blog "Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule"; the piece is part of the Jim Emerson-launched Contrarian Blog-a-Thon of last weekend.)

2007-02-23T19:59:00.000-05:00

Summaries

Yglesias:

Among Jewish Democrats, a whopping 89 percent say the war was a mistake. The rest are on Joe Lieberman's staff and will probably be switching parties soon.

Speaking of which, Political Insider via Hilzoy:

If Lieberman were to caucus with the Republicans, they would still not take full control of the Senate, despite Vice President Dick Cheney's ability to break 50-50 ties. This is because of a little-known Senate organizing resolution, passed in January, which gives Democrats control of the Senate and committee chairmanships until the beginning of the 111th Congress.

Via the Good Roger Ailes: Martin Peretz at TNR complains that the Clintons are all about money. Oh, by the way, Peretz sold a controlling interest in the magazine today...probably for money.

If you have 12:30 to spare, listen to Craig Ferguson on why he's not going to do Britney Spears jokes.

The Nielsen-Haydens and friends explore Conservapedia.

2007-02-07T17:20:00.000-05:00

Guaranteed Better Than Justin Long, Though

The "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" campaign has been translated into English. I mean, British. English/British humo[u]rist and TV personality Charlie Brooker has the right idea:

The ads are adapted from a near-identical American campaign - the only difference is the use of [David] Mitchell and [Robert] Webb. They are a logical choice in one sense (everyone likes them), but a curious choice in another, since they are best known for the television series Peep Show - probably the best sitcom of the past five years - in which Mitchell plays a repressed, neurotic underdog, and Webb plays a selfish, self-regarding poseur. So when you see the ads, you think, "PCs are a bit rubbish yet ultimately lovable, whereas Macs are just smug, preening tossers." In other words, it is a devastatingly accurate campaign.

Here's the problem: you might think, given the existing imbalance between Mac and PC users, that the goal of the campaign is to get PC users to switch. But when the PC -- and by extension, its users -- is shown to be a loser, even a genial loser, the message reads as "You, the PC user, are a loser". People don't like to be insulted, so one reasonable response to such an ad is "Well, fuck you too, my good man."

Perhaps this is a conscious choice; maybe the target audience is people who've never bought a computer before, and aren't already "a PC". In which case, they're not talking to me, so I shouldn't be surprised. But fuck them anyway.

Samples: here, here, here. Via the unpermalinkable quicklinks at Plastic.

2007-02-04T10:35:00.000-05:00

A Mathematical Formula That Plots Itself

Back when I was in college, this would have burned my brain out for a week.

Via, via.

2007-01-14T15:29:00.000-05:00

I Think This Might be a Lawsuit

US woman dies after water contest

A Californian woman who took part in a water-drinking contest to win a video game system has died of water intoxication, tests have shown.

Jennifer Strange had taken part in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" game run by KDND 107.9 radio in Sacramento, which promised the winner a Nintendo Wii.

A work colleague said Ms Strange had reported her head was hurting hours after the contest and was going home.

Ms Strange, 28, was found dead on Friday at her house in Rancho Cordova.

2007-01-09T17:54:00.000-05:00

Funny

There's a whole genre of dubbed Gollum/Smeagol videos on YouTube. This one cracked me up.