Pollywogs!

…what an interesting concept.  I like the original Greek meaning a bit better, it resonates with the sound of the word better, I believe.   I found it after reading the entry ‘book curse‘, which I found on reddit.  My how easily I am distracted…

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I didn’t realize that an iPhone with contract costs (at a minimum) $1,320 for the first year…that is madness!  Makes me really glad I’ve grandfathered my Immix contract for as long as I have, the ‘feature set’ for the price is really sweet…

Hopefully I won’t drop or break this expensive little thing, and can sell it for what I bought it for on eBay if the Android phones reach their potential.

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The netbook market is really expanding, this one looks like a lot of quality equipment for $400.  The Acer Aspire One looks pretty interesting as well.  I don’t know what it is about small electronic devices, but I’m hopelessly hooked…

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This is an excellent idea for subsidising the cost of a solar electric system for your house.  If electric companies were smart, they’d be doing this themselves: allowing customers (at no up front cost of their own) to choose to have renewable installed.  The system would be owned by the power company (say PPL or Southern Company) but the energy would be (mostly) used by the customer’s household.  The bill of course stays the same, just the source of the energy would change.  The customer gets the satisfaction of knowing that their TV and lights aren’t radically changing the environment, and the electric company gets to keep their customer and increases their generation capacity without building additional, massive plants.  As with all things that I think “if it is that simple and necessary, it should simply be DONE”: when I’m dictator, things are going to be different…

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Taxes.  We pay them, and what do we get back?  Bombs, guns and spilled blood. The average individual pays at about a 40% rate, pretty similar to what you see in European countries, and yet we have none of the benifits that your average European country has…because we’re blowing so much money on ‘defense spending’.  How the hell can we justify this war machine that is draining our treasuries like a damn cancer.  But even suggest trimming the military budget and suddenly your a fucking terrorist, soft on defense, aren’t a patriot, or some other mindless drivel.  Oh, and let’s cut taxes on the wealthy while we’re at it.  Fucking baby jesus, what is wrong with this country?  Moronic imbiciles, so easily controlled.  Just turn the TV on and read the corporate message…

…when I’m dictator, things are going to be different…

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Energy.  We need it.  We’re doing it wrong.  Denmark is doing it right.

“Denmark is the model that the United States should be following,” said Steve Pullins, executive director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Modern Grid Initiative.

How’d they do it? Distributed energy.

Unlike traditional “centralized” systems, distributed energy relies on small power-generating technologies like solar panels or ultra-efficient natural-gas turbines built near the point of energy consumption to supplement or displace grid-distributed electricity.

Consumers can not only draw power from the grid, but can feed power into it as well. For instance, homes equipped with solar-power panels could feed unused electricity back into the grid, adding to the total available supply.

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Peru has an energy problem too, as in a lot of rural villages don’t have it!  They also went with the obvious answer, decentralized local generation.  This story made me smile, the entire article restored a little faith in humanity.  The project is just getting started, but it…well, it is just freaking awesome!

To say that this experimental project has been a success so far would be an understatement. Last year 21 homes in Alumbre were equipped with 100-watt wind turbines that power their homes, and the village’s school was powered with a 500-watt turbine. The wind turbines store energy into what are known as “deep cycle” batteries, and the batteries when fully charged can potentially provide energy to homes for up to three days. The batteries need to be replaced every 3-4 years, and for this reason each family with a turbine must contribute to a battery replacement fund on a monthly basis. They pay about 10 nuevo soles each (~ $3 American), a sum that’s less than what most families were previously spending each month on candles and kerosene for lamps.

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I want to try Weight Watchers now:

As I watched her poke around on the screen, managing inventory, calculating points, staying within her range, it hit me:

Weight Watchers is an RPG.

Think about it. As with an RPG, you roll a virtual character, manage your inventory and resources, and try to achieve a goal. Weight Watchers’ points function precisely like hit points; each bite of food does damage until you’ve used up your daily amount, so you sleep and start all over again. Play well and you level up — by losing weight! And the more you play it, the more you discover interesting combinations of the rules that aren’t apparent at first. Hey, if I eat a fruit-granola breakfast and an egg-and-romaine lunch, I’ll have enough points to survive a greasy hamburger dinner for a treat!

Even the Weight Watchers web tool is amazingly gamelike. It has the poke-around-and-see-what-happens elegance you see in really good RPG game screens. Accidentally snack on a candy bar and ruin your meal plan for the day? No worries: Just go into the database and see what spells — whoops, I mean foods — you can still use with your remaining points.

The alternative pretty much sucks:

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Found that article on Provigil that I had misplaced.  I may have found and posted it before, but I can’t remember.  Have I ever mentioned I have a terrible memory?  There was this smart drug I had bookmarked a really cool article about, but I can’t find it now.  Or maybe I had posted it before.  What was it called, pro-something?

A contrasting viewpoint.  I already have the creativity of a ’special needs’ toddler, so I don’t really see this as a downside…

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Hulu: TV without the TV.  Between this and Comedy Central having TDS and the Colbert Report online, I wouldn’t be sad one bit to get rid of my fucking $70 a month pile-of-crap cable TV bill…

No, seriously, you should watch Arrested Development.  This is the pilot, it is hilarious but doesn’t have the production values of the rest of the series.  Hopefully it gets you hooked:

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And while I’m sharing things I find awesome, check out Liam Finn:

This is a bit shorter than the version they played in the live show, but it gives you a small taste. These guys were just fucking awesome…

Odd that the normal human condition in the United States seems to be satiated AND fundamentally dissatisfied.  Or is it just me?

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I never knew how nice the Picasa Web Albums are.  Flickr, you better kick your shit up a notch!  Oh, and that canyon looks totally awesome too.

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There are people who are working to end Prohibition.  Responsible use?  Abuse being a medical condition rather than a criminal act?  Jesus save us!!!  The ACLU themselves are getting into the act!  (full disclosure: I recently became a card carrying ACLU member).

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Speaking of those devil worshipers at the ACLU, here is an action page where you can remind your representatives that you personally find torture of another human being reprehensible.  You do find the concept of torture to be stomach turning, don’t you?  What, you just told the inquisition that I turned your sister into a newt???

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Plundering the coffers.  What did President Eisenhower say about the Military Industrial Complex?  Seemed important at the time, ahh shucks I’m sure it’s nothing important!  Hell, he was only the Allied Supreme Commander during World War II, what does he know anyway…Oh look, American Idle is on!

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Speaking of things you don’t need to know about, did you know that propaganda is illegal?  Not that legality or fear of accountability has EVER prevented the government from doing anything (hey look, Big Brother is on!)…

JOHN STAUBER: …What happened here was a psy-ops campaign, an incredible government propaganda campaign whereby Donald Rumsfeld and Torie Clark, the head of public relations for the Pentagon, designed a program to recruit 75, at least 75 former military officers, as your report said, most of them now lobbyists or consultants to military contractors, and insert them, beginning in 2002, before the attack on Iraq was even launched, into the major networks to manage the messages, to be surrogates.

And that’s the words that are actually used, “message multipliers” for the secretary of defense and for the Pentagon. This program continues right up to now.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And is the essence of this that what they did was — what the Pentagon did was illegal?

JOHN STAUBER: Yes, what they did was illegal. Now, the Pentagon might contest that, but we’ve had various laws on the books in our country going back to the 1920s. It is illegal for the U.S. government to propagandize citizens in this way.

But you won’t hear anything about THIS on the nightly news!  Oh look, The Insider is on!

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There was once this awesome kid who taped his teacher preaching in a public school classroom.  The Man fucked the kid over, but he persevered and recently wrote an excellent article on just what a shitty job school does ‘educating’ kids these days (and implies the more important WHY):

What is most distressing is not that some public school teachers preach their religion, or that some authors put politics ahead of education. It is that it is so rare for anyone to call them on it. This text is widely used. Yet to my knowledge, no one has challenged these incorrect and misleading statements.

As Americans, we should stand up for our common values. We should champion education and settle for nothing less than the best. Our teachers should do the same and should not misuse their positions to promote their personal agendas.

Thank YOU Matthew!

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The real cost is hidden:

Under longstanding trade agreements, fuel for international freight carried by sea and air is not taxed. Now, many economists, environmental advocates and politicians say it is time to make shippers and shoppers pay for the pollution, through taxes or other measures.

“We’re shifting goods around the world in a way that looks really bizarre,” said Paul Watkiss, an Oxford University economist who wrote a recent European Union report on food imports.

He noted that Britain, for example, imports — and exports — 15,000 tons of waffles a year, and similarly exchanges 20 tons of bottled water with Australia. More important, Mr. Watkiss said, “we are not paying the environmental cost of all that travel.”

Isn’t that “amusing”.

Here, I’ll send you 15,000 tons of waffles…

Oh look, now I need 15,000 tons of waffles, please send me some…

That noise you just heard?  That was my head exploding…

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You know what a good job our government has been doing lately?  I mean that sarcastically, not the good job they’ve been doing fucking us over, they’ve literally been slamming that shithole a perfect 10 the past eight years…

Well, they’ve done a ‘good job brownie’ on the 9/11 report:

This isn’t just a matter of academic and historical interest about the 9/11 attacks, although it is that. One of two things almost certainly happened here, each of which is of great importance. Either Mukasey is lying about the 9/11 attacks in order to manipulate Americans into believing that FISA’s warrant requirements are what prevented discovery of the 9/11 attacks and caused 3,000 American deaths — a completely disgusting act by the Attorney General which obviously cannot be ignored. Or, Mukasey has just revealed the most damning fact yet about the Bush’s administration’s ability and failure to have prevented the attacks — facts that, until now, were apparently concealed from the 9/11 Commission and the public.

Hey wait, that isn’t just the 9/11 report, this sounds like some SERIOUS SHIT going down!  But you won’t hear anything about THIS on the nightly news.  Oh look, Survivor is on!

(I may have previously posted this, I apologize, but you aren’t in the streets protesting yet)

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God hates fags.  Err…god hates shrimp?  Hmm…god hates atheists!!!

Did you hear about the state legislator who last week blasted a Lutheran minister during a committee hearing for spewing dangerous religious superstitions, and then attempted to order the minister out of the witness chair on the grounds that his Christian beliefs are “destroying what this state was built upon”?

Of course you didn’t, because it didn’t happen and would never happen. Not to a Christian, not to a Jew, not to a Muslim or to anyone who subscribes to any faith.

Such an attack would rightly be considered scandalously out of bounds in contemporary society.

But you probably also didn’t hear about what actually did happen…

I mean, fuck, who DOESN’T hate atheists?  They’re worse than them thar ahy-rab muz-lims.

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Speaking of why I’m such an intolerant jerk when it comes to ‘god’, I present to you the REAL Pledge of Allegiance:

I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

‘Hey wait you atheist fuck, that isn’t the pledge!  Why do you hate our troops?  Jesus loves you!  Die you commie scumbag!’

“In God We Trust” printed on government issue money?  My contempt runneth over and splashes out across the globe.  Sex and religion, both best enjoyed privately behind closed doors…

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Finally, Lee Iacocca is a pretty cool dude:

‘Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening? Where the hell is our outrage?

We should be screaming bloody murder. We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car.

But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, ‘Stay the course’. Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned ‘Titanic’. I’ll give you a sound bite: ‘Throw all the bums out!’

Heck yea, Lee!  Damn straight!  I’m all riled up now!  Let’s march on Washington!  We will not be drowned out, heckled, mocked.  We will be heard!

…but can I get back to you in a bit?  The Real World just came on.  Err, and I have Dancing With the Stars and The Batchelor after.  You know, tonight isn’t so hot for me.  How about I get back to you later this week?  I’ll try to make some time between The Hills reruns and The Biggest Loser.  I’ll call, we’ll touch base then, I promise!

Shit I found on the interwebs which you may or may not find interesting…

It has been a while since I’ve done this, I’ve allowed my shit to collect, so this may be a big one!

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A Grand Solar Plan:

This kind of thing makes me want to march on Washington, screaming and gibbering like a lunatic…

“The federal government would have to invest more than $400 billion over the next 40 years to complete the 2050 plan. That investment is substantial, but the payoff is greater. Solar plants consume little or no fuel, saving billions of dollars year after year. The infrastructure would displace 300 large coal-fired power plants and 300 more large natural gas plants and all the fuels they consume. The plan would effectively eliminate all imported oil, fundamentally cutting U.S. trade deficits and easing political tension in the Middle East and elsewhere. Because solar technologies are almost pollution-free, the plan would also reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by 1.7 billion tons a year, and another 1.9 billion tons from gasoline vehicles would be displaced by plug-in hybrids refueled by the solar power grid. In 2050 U.S. carbon dioxide emissions would be 62 percent below 2005 levels, putting a major brake on global warming.”

$400 billion over 40 years?  That is so much money.  Where could we ever come up with that much money from?   That is an impossible amount of money to spend on something as useful and vital as energy independence (and clean energy to boot!).

I’ll tell you what this Bush Administration is:  a fucking travesty.  May we string them up by their balls at a gas station yet?

It isn’t all terrible, but the progress is very slow.  I guess I should rejoice at every new major solar plant in the works, I just feel like we’re all a day late and a dollar short.

Speaking of solar, how about having renewable energy fuel the first mass production electric car?  How completely perfect would that be!  Of course, it does cost $28,000…that said, it does go 10,000 miles on $250 worth of fuel (like getting 120MPG at $3 a gallon!) with no need for oil changes or other mechanical service.  Now, that doesn’t speak of the true reasons (beyond the crude economics) to use an electric car:  to wean ourselves off foreign oil, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution, and to help build and foster the inevitable technology needed to make our day to day lives sustainable.

And while we’re here, talking about efficiency and whatnot, how about an article explaining the truth behind the ‘a hummer is greener than a prius’ myth, care of Slate?

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5 Myths About “Sick Old Europe”:

You know, those Republicans don’t want you to consider the idea of a small, reasonable military and a strong social support system to be ‘acceptable’.  Much like the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, no one predicting hijackers crashing planes into the WTC, no one predicting the levees would break in New Orleans, and so on and so on and so on, if we lie to you and feed you bullshit, you’ll believe what we want you to believe because that is just the kind of person you are…

“Beware of stereotypes based on ideological assumptions. As Europe’s economy has surged, it has maintained fairness and equality. Unlike in the United States, with its rampant inequality and lack of universal access to affordable health care and higher education, Europeans have harnessed their economic engine to create wealth that is broadly distributed.

Europeans still enjoy universal cradle-to-grave social benefits in many areas. They get quality health care, paid parental leave, affordable childcare, paid sick leave, free or nearly free higher education, generous retirement pensions and quality mass transit. They have an average of five weeks of paid vacation (compared with two for Americans) and a shorter work week. In some European countries, workers put in one full day less per week than Americans do, yet enjoy the same standard of living.

Europe is more of a “workfare state” than a welfare state. As one British political analyst said to me recently: “Europe doesn’t so much have a welfare society as a comprehensive system of institutions geared toward keeping everyone healthy and working.” Properly understood, Europe’s economy and social system are two halves of a well-designed “social capitalism” — an ingenious framework in which the economy finances the social system to support families and employees in an age of globalized capitalism that threatens to turn us all into internationally disposable workers. Europeans’ social system contributes to their prosperity rather than detracting from it, and even the continent’s conservative political leaders agree that this is the best way.”

What an insane idea.  European politics puts our liberals firmly on the conservative side of the political spectrum, their liberals would be considered Gravel and Kucinich-style wingnuts over here, and yet look at all of the good they’ve accomplished over the past couple decades.  While the US has devolved into a corrupt Gilded Ag, Europe has been surging ahead, leading the world in nearly every catagory you’d care to examine.  Europe is looking better every day…

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Calling B.S. on the Idea of ‘Marijuana Addiction’:

I know I am a raging marijuana addict.  Right up there with riding bicycles, taking walks in the woods and playing video games, it is one of those things that once you’ve tried, it stays with you forever…

“Earlier this month, the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse announced plans to spend $4 million to establish the nation’s first-ever “Center on Cannabis Addiction,” which will be based in La Jolla, Calif. The goal of the center, according to NIDA’s press release, is to “develop novel approaches to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of marijuana addiction.”

Not familiar with the notion of “marijuana addiction”? You’re not alone. In fact, aside from the handful of researchers who have discovered that there are gobs of federal grant money to be had hunting for the government’s latest pot boogeyman, there’s little consensus that such a syndrome is clinically relevant — if it even exists at all.

But don’t try telling that to the mainstream press — which recently published headlines worldwide alleging, “Marijuana withdrawal rivals that of nicotine.” The alleged “study” behind the headlines involved all of 12 participants, each of whom were longtime users of pot and tobacco, and assessed the self-reported moods of folks after they were randomly chosen to abstain from both substances. Big surprise: they weren’t happy.”

Oh.  You go cold turkey off of cigarretts and you feel like shit?  Must be the marijuana!!!

Did you know California has 300 to 400 medical marijuana dispensaries?   And someone recently had the bright idea to start a weekend course in growing the stuff?

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Spiritually uplifting courthouse installation of Flying Spaghetti Monster:

Where do these awesome people live?  I want to live near other awesome people!  We ought to all move to Vermont and sesseed!

“We are lucky enough to live in a country that allows us, its citizens, the freedom of speech. I have chosen to put up a statue of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to represent the discourse between people of all different beliefs. The many faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds of Cumberland County’s residents make our community a stronger richer place. I respect and am proud that on the people’s lawn, the county courthouse, all of these diverse beliefs can come together in a positive dialogue.”

Can you believe that is in Tenessee?

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A mini-Reddit Roundup!!

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http://www.alternet.org/stories/72539/

“Long’s lack of humility has probably done him no favors. At the time, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), expressed dismay.

“When I hear about leaders of charities being provided a $300,000 Bentley to drive around in, my fear is that it’s the taxpayers who subsidize this charity who are really being taken for a ride,” he quipped.

In November, Grassley, who serves as ranking minority member on the Senate Finance Committee, ramped things up a bit. He announced that he is seeking detailed financial information from six mega-ministries, Long’s among them.”

Baby Jesus Fucking Christ it is about time! Oh, and some things that make you want to reconsider eugenics…

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I hate that asking questions and demanding truth and transparency brands you a conspiracy theorist, but apparently there are a couple people in our armed forces who are ‘whatever slanderous thing you call people who simply want the truth’. Twenty-five of them, to be precise.

More traitors in the military giving aid to terrorists…you’re either with us or against us, the decider has spoken…

How about some traitors in our intelligence agencies? Toe the party line folks, we have an agenda to carry out here, everyone on the same page…

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Fighting the man, Wesley Snipes style…

“Tax specialists and lawyers say that the Snipes case hinges on whether he can persuade jurors that he sincerely believed that he did not have to pay taxes, while prosecutors will argue that he was just trying to avoid them. The Supreme Court has ruled that people can make such an argument, but two leading defense lawyers said that Mr. Snipes might have a hard time using it as a defense.”

Odd, huh?

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The man fighting you. Very unfortunately so. Liberty and justice for all? I’m more disgusted by this country by the moment.

“Jones was hired at age 19 to work for Halliburton in Houston, Texas, and the next year was sent to Iraq to work for Halliburton. She says that she was drugged and raped by numerous coworkers in Baghdad, and was then confined by Halliburton armed guards to a shipping container, denied food, water, or medical help.

Jones used a borrowed cell phone to contact her father, who in turn contacted Representative Ted Poe (R, TX) who contacted the State Department, which freed Jones from Halliburton’s shipping container. U.S. Army doctors performed an examination that discovered evidence of vaginal and anal rape, but the sexual assault kit disappeared after being turned over to Halliburton and was later recovered missing some pieces of evidence, including doctor’s notes and photographs of Jones’ bruises.”

What the hell is wrong with each and every one of the god damn douche bags involved in this crime heaped upon crime heaped upon crime???

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http://rawstory.com/news/2007/…

‘A year ago, Homeland Security gave security clearances to nine New York City fire chiefs and began sharing intelligence with them. Even before that, fire department personnel were being taught “to identify material or behavior that may indicate terrorist activities” and were also “told to be alert for a person who is hostile, uncooperative or expressing hate or discontent with the United States.”‘

I just read Fahrenheit 451 a few months ago, and while the author didn’t elaborate on the long slow process between firemen who put out fires and firemen who were thought police, I imagine in his head the first baby step was exactly like this…

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http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/…

Let me see your ‘oh’ face. Or not, because I’ve only got three minutes before the next round of keg stands start:

“Sociology professor Paula England’s survey questioned students about their most recent hook-ups, which ranged from kissing to manual sex to oral sex to intercourse. The results showed that 44 percent of men had reached orgasm compared to 19 percent of women.

More specifically, 70 percent of men climaxed during intercourse without oral sex beforehand, but only half the amount of females could do the same.”

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http://rawstory.com/news/2007/…

Wouldn’t this be an awesome picture to see in a newspaper?

“A Republican communications director expressed outrage at the photos, telling the Daily News, “It is simply inappropriate to have political attack art, in the form of egregious doctored photographs of the President and other high-ranking officials who have dedicated their lives to public service, in a taxpayer-funded building frequented by schoolchildren and the general public.”"

Inappropriate like the 10 commandments hanging in courthouses, or taxpayer funds going to quasi-religious organizations, or like governmental organizations releasing propaganda to the public (hello FEMA staged press conference), or like the president lying his ass off over and over and over, leading our nation into a war in Iraq which has cost over a million lives so far?

Inappropriate like that?

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Mastering the Republican art of damage control, by spinning the facts of your own egregious behaviour and applying it to your opponents:

“Pope Benedict, in a new encyclical released on Friday, said atheism was responsible for some of the “greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice” in history.”

Excuse me for a second, I snorted chocolate milk out my nose. After I cleaned up the mess, I started crying for the people slowly and agonizingly tortured to death over the years by Christians in the name of god. I believe I have myself back together, finally…