Thinking of you good folks who are in that part of northern Colorado. Absolutely surreal. And I know that one reader who was badly affected by Hurricane Sandy also just lost part of his New Jersey childhood. And a lot of businesses that got hurt by Sandy just got hurt again. Take care out there, guys …
Category: Miscellaneous
Apple unveiled its new iPhones yesterday. Their main new feature is that they give the NSA the chance to get your fingerprint, along with everything else. But! Not! To worry! They’ll only get your fingerprint “securely.” Because these phones are secure-secure-secure. (H/T O) Bravo, Paul Bonneau: “An appeal to NSA engineers.” L.A. sent this article along with the comment that if you have to get government permission to build a doomsday bunker, perhaps you’re in the wrong location for riding doomsday out. (Oh no, tsks the deputy mayor, “Children have been held in bunkers.”) This is a great program. Our…
I’m lucky enough to have several friends who keep bees. At one apiary, they strive each year to come up with a clever label. In 2012 (which, as you recall, was the year the world ended), they had the Bee of Doom descending: But this year they outdid themselves. Their most productive hive was also the most protective hive. Although the humans eventually “won” and took the honey, the bees put up a battle worthy of … well, see for yourself: Note the extra “stingers” on those bees. —– I’ve blurred the name and location of their apiary for privacy…
Oh man, I hope this turns out to be the real deal. ‘Cause I want one! I’ve always thought the first tiny, bare-bones Japanese imports of the 1970s were the perfect cars for me. Reliable, no-frills, front-wheel drive, affordable. Not a whole lot of comfort, but also not a whole lot of electronic this and automatic that to go wrong. Was a disappointment when regulations and market forces un-simplified the simple, basic, economy car. Now comes the Elio. Or next year comes the Elio. Okay, I dunno about the stability of that three-wheel design, and it’ll be some kind of…
We were all probably hoping and thinking that Glenn Greenwald and his partner David Miranda weren’t behaving stupidly while sending/transporting Snowden documents over international borders. Alas, perhaps they were. Even if you’re in major anti-news mode, you’ve probably heard about or seen Miley Cyrus’ grotesque “twerking” performance a few days back. The ‘Net has been full of tsking about the way “Hannah Montana” turned on her little-girl fans with her crude display of sexuality. But everybody’s missing the point, you see. It’s not that Cyrus’ performance was over-sexualized. It’s that it was racist! Yes. Seriously. Racist. I think this sets…
I’ve been saving some of these for a week or more. So if you’ve seen a few before bear with me. Chaos is gradually receding. But gradually … NYPD refuses to answer questions about how they (and Bloomberg) pointed firearms at an innocent audience. “At war with the concept of secrecy itself.” ‘Nother good one from Tom Knapp. The Free State Wyoming project has a brand new forum hosted by my old friends at the Mental Militia. (UPDATE: Please see Mama Liberty’s correction in comments. The new Wyoming Mavericks forum has no official connection with the FSW.) “23 signs you’re…
You know that constant busy-ness that’s afflicted (or blessed) me since late spring? It culminates this week. Specifically tomorrow. After that, though there’s another week or two of “heightened activity”* as the folks at the NSA-CIA-DHS like to say, it is done. I can go back to being my usual slug-lazy self** and poke around on the Tubz for good (and bad) stuff to blog. But look for the blog to have a couple of quiet days. Of which today was one. Tomorrow will probably be even quieter. So I count on the Commentariat to pick up the flag and…
Most media outlets aren’t mentioning that those four people who found and reported that killer-kidnapper in Idaho were all armed, men and women both. (They didn’t confront the creep because even though they felt something was wrong about the man and the nervous young girl they didn’t realize until they got home who the two were.) First dog Bo is so privileged he may soon have to be named Incitatus. But even Caligula probably didn’t make Roman taxpayers fork over bux for his critter’s private progresses through the streets or a $100k per year handler. How Nixon ushered in an…
Carl-Bear (who occasionally traffics in science fiction) makes his best guess about what Elon Musk’s mysterious new “hyperloop” transportation system will be. And finds it familiar. One more (rather weird) way that the rich are different than the poor. Different toxins in their bodies. Government forces one privacy option out of business (in the creepiest way). A new privacy option is born. Not in the U.S. of course. Nobody in their right mind would base a privacy service in the U.S. from here on out. Small business? The IRS wants to know what you’re doing with your cash — and…
You can’t blame 11 and 12 year olds for not understanding. But the adults who dreamed up and supervised this Very Bad Idea … well, ought not be left in charge of anything much more than a TV remote. Or maybe even that’s too much responsibility for them. (H/T LA)