Fallout Shelter

Somewhat rushed haiku

DSL dead; theft
of wireless in spring rainstorm
not recommended.

...

I really don't know WTF to say about these, but please go look.  If you can read any of the languages involved (one of which appears to be Russian; the others Asian of some sort?), I'd really appreciate any glosses you could provide. 

If you chase down some of the links, there are more drawings reconceptualized as drawings instead of photographs. 

[Via T.Rev.]

Silver bullet?

I've previously avoided commenting on Josef Fritzl, the wacko in Austria who imprisoned his daughter in a dungeon and had children with her.  But now he says he deserves credit for keeping them alive: 

“I am no monster... I could have killed all of them, and no one would have known. No one would   have ever found about it.”

In other words, he thinks he deserves credit because he could have done worse. 

It's people like Fritzl who make me think positively about the death penalty.  In fact, I'd say he deserves to be hanged, embalmed, decapitated, cremated, and buried with a stake driven through the ashes, but that might be to good for him. 

The good thing here is that since he's 73 years old, he's probably not going to live too much longer, in prison or out. 

Wow. Just wow.

Chilean Volcano Erupts With Ash, Lava, Lightning

Bleat like a sheep

Yes, I voted today. 

It's an old picture, but it still fits. 

The Ring

Mandingo III, or Yet Another Saturday Night's Entertainment Shot to Hell

I'm sure a lot of us can relate to this:

After 45 minutes the seal gave up, swam into the water and then completely ignored the bird it had just assaulted, the scientists report.

so I'm wondering:

• why one community isn't up in arms, trying to prove the penguin was female
• why another community isn't up in arms, trying to prove the penguin was male
• why a couple more communities aren't trying to find the penguin and comfort it
• why yet more communities aren't trying to kill the sea lion, or at least put it in jail

I'm sure I'll have more smartass remarks to add later, after everyone I've insulted starts complaining.  OTOH, that didn't happen last time. 

After the cameras were off, I wonder if either of them had a cigarette?

[Via mothwentbad.]

Going around with the begging bowl

Anyone have a 3-button, USB, wired mouse they want to donate to a worthy cause: me?  :)  My M$ wireless one is worth about what you'd think it is.  :(  I also need a long (~20 foot or more) CAT-5 cable. 

Unspeakable

I've added Unspeak to the sidebar, where it'll immediately get lost in the mass of other stuff I consider "important."  So, I've dropped it in a post too.  Go take a look.  And thanks to Richard for reading it regularly and posting about the outrages it documents -- enough such that I finally started paying attention.  It's double-plus good. 

"may have been deliberate" my ass

Heparin Contamination May Have Been Deliberate, F.D.A. Says

Even if China executes 81 of their upper muckety-mucks, or 81 of them commit suicide, I don't think I want to be using much of anything from China, especially if it's going in my body, and especially since an intermediate company "tried to find the original source of the contamination but was stopped by the Chinese authorities." 

The shot heard round the world

Perhaps some of my U.K. readers could comment on this BBC article: 

America's 'safety catch'

Junk mail II: The Lacuna(e)

I got a really nice looking piece of junk mail today.  It was from Wake Forest -- not the town, but the university (which confusingly moved from Wake County to near Winston-Salem in the 1940s).  Couldn't think why WFU would postally spam me, but....

They were plugging their "MA in management" program.   Their slogan was "(MA)ximize Career Potential": apparently they have a master's program in management from their B-school that's not an MBA.  Still not sure why they sent me this, but....  The letter fell out.  "After graduation, a world of possibilities." Uh....

The body of the letter started:   "With the culmination of your child's college education approaching,..." 

Um.

---

A professor once told me a joke about university presidents.  It went something like "A university president has three jobs: provide parking for the faculty, sports for the alumni, and sex for the undergraduates."  Perhaps one of my almae matres did too good a job on the last.  But I suspect they actually didn't do well enough. 

Reach out and tickle my electrons

If you're trying to get up with me and having a tough time, I suggest e-mail (or even some form of IM) these days.  I apologize for any inconvenience you may or might have experienced. 

Onward Xian Soldiers

God, I wonder what happens if you actually are a gay atheist: 

"Atheist soldier claims harassment"

I don't think the mass of the soldiers and sailors I know and have known would describe themselves as religious, which does make me wonder what the composition of our armed forces is like these days. 

Quotation from article:

"I will take care of my soldiers. Nowhere does it say I have to pray with my soldiers, but I do have to make sure my soldiers' religious needs are met," he said.

Religion brings comfort to a lot of people," he said. "Personally, I don't want it or need it. But I'm not going to get down on anybody else for it."

[Thanks, Ray!]

Subprime mortgage crisis for dummies

A deposition distillation, posted by Mr. James Urbaniak [courtesy St.Rev]:

"Aaron Wider: An Important New American Voice," or "Fuck you, you fucking fucking fuck!"

And now, via Google Docs, for the more visually oriented among you [courtesy Romelia; took a long time for me to load under M$ IE]:

"The Subprime Primer," or Stick Figure Theatre: "Blow Me in my SPV"

"I left my coyote in San Francisco"

Urban coyotes (PDF alert), not to be confused with Urban Cowboys, are apparently all over the place, including Durham.  Coyotes are the new wolves. 

1000s of people blog every day. What if 1 of them seems suspicious?

London cops declare war on photography.

[Via richardthinks.]

 

Buzzword

I can't stand it any more.

---

"This country needs a man with a granite sack and legs of log...that slaps people who are talking. I am that man." - "Ray Smuckles" in Achewood by Chris Onstad

"Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy." - Some dead white guy talking to some other white guy about yet another dead white guy. 

---

[Picture (my cropping) from here.]

Not in the middle of the bell curve

Durham Magazine has been sighted in the wild, as noted elsewhere. The magazine's WWW site is new, but says "Website Coming April 2008", which didn't make my head explode, as I'm not exactly in the middle of the bell curve. 

Love seeing Scott Howell eating a biscuit from Biscuitville on the front cover; hate that they consistently mis-spelled "Watts Grocery" as "Watt's Grocery" through the entire magazine.  Doesn't anybody look into these things?  (And no, I didn't misspell "mis-spelled": I just think it looks better that way, prolly because I'm not exactly in the middle of the bell curve.) 

Anyway, the folks over at Kevin's BCR look like they're already getting as excited about the new magazine as they did last time, because... well, let's face it: none of them are exactly in the middle of the bell curve, either.  :)

Canine revenge

I know the Michael Vick stuff is old news, but I couldn't help posting the first funny thing I've seen come out of it: 

Chewed up Michael Vick cards fetch more than $7K

Someone should give a pack of those trading cards to every dog taken out of Vick's "care," and let the dogs tear hell out of them.  :)

I CAN HAS EXPENSIV MAKEOVR?

icanhascheezburger looked a little different when I bumped into it again today.  Turns out they can probably give up on the "cheezburger" and start eating steak:  The site was bought out last fall.  The overarching company, Pet Holdings, has raised M$2¼ in venture capital.  I can has $$$?

edit:  Trapped... by... lolcat... generator....

moar funny pictures

Thank god for web 2.0 apps

I present Slate's Hillary Deathwatch Widget:

Rain on me

Thank god we're getting this rain when we do: it's not much, but it's washing the effing pollen out of the air.  No yellow haze!  Woo-hoo!