Crooks and Liars has a great clip of old school Daily Show, featuring Stephen Colbert, the Singing Senators (Ashcroft, Lott, Craig, Jeffords). Completely hilarious.
Friday, August 31, 2007
This sounds intense
A new documentary called Redacted about the rape and burning of a girl in Iraq by American Soliders. Can we, er, figure out a way to see this?
Smed had the scoop!
Politico just sent out this "Breaking News Alert."
I'd like to remind our readers that Smed broke this story two weeks ago with her impassioned plea to hold a bake sale to get the poor guy to stay.
I hate Dana Perino.
All I'm sayin is that we were on top of the Castro dead/not dead story, and now we certainly scooped Politico on this one.
The turtle has arrived
Last night I finally got the turtle tattooed on my ankle! I got it done at Curious Tattoo in CP, by a very nice guy named Jon. He's amazing - he just did Rhonda's tattoo as well, and I highly recommend him. Sadly, our internet was down last night, so I can't post the pictures, but they're coming. In the mean time, use your imagination.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Self-Promotion
I usually wouldn't promote my work here, but look at this awesome cover from the Austin Chronicle. And my name is really big! Yay! The story, less exciting, is here.
Also, I might get to go to Richard Garriott's (the guy on the cover) launch party. If you don't know about him from your time in Austin, he throws crazy awesome shindigs. He possibly does the coolest rich guy stuff ever. Like building a replica of Shakespeare's Globe on his Lake Austin property. Just to hang out in. Or owning a part of the zero-gravity plane and taking Stephen Hawking along for the ride. Or hosting gigantic haunted houses with holograms that freak Mark Hamil out. Yay! I'm an objective journalist. Yay!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tucker Carlson: Least Anti-Gay Right Winger or Skinhead?
Of a guy that hit on him in a men's room in high school: "I went back with someone I knew and grabbed him." "What did you do?" "Hit him against the stall with his head, actually." [Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha] "Then the cops came and arrested him." Video from Gawker here. Longer video of all the speakers making it very clear, for the record, "They are also not gay" here. Ha ha ha ha ha. Wheee.
Back to molding young minds
Rather on the spur of the moment, I accepted a job teaching at Montgomery College yesterday. Montgomery College is pretty cool. It's a community college of sorts, but has a strong international emphasis. There are students from 170 countries on the campus, which is amazing. I think it'll be a cool population to teach!
I start next Thursday. I'll be teaching 3 sections of Introduction to Communication, and still be working part time at CRS through early November.
I haven't taught in a while, I kind of miss it, and I'm pretty excited about it! Hooray change!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Planning Ahead (Hopefully way ahead)
When I die, I want my head cryogenically frozen. I hope that one day science will develop the abilities to attach my head to a robotic body and allow me to have more time on Earth. Hypothetically, I will look something like this:
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Back to Just Hating TV
Anchorwoman has been cancelled. It aired its pilot. Now it's gone. First Castro, now Anchorwoman. All the things I have strongly mixed feelings about are just fading away. Oh well, I'm off to a virtual worlds masquerade ball. Let's hope nothing/nobdy awesome dies there.
I'm not going out tonight
"The Trapeze Swinger" by Iron and Wine is so beautiful that it makes my heart ache. It might be of particular interest to Nuraido, considering her recent dabbling in trapezery. The song's over 9 minutes long yet you won't want it to end. Obtain it by any means possible, dudes and dudettes.
I will not let this go.
It's 9 o'clock on a Saturday night, and Victor and I have been hanging out and drinking wine. We would go out, but no one goes out here until at least 1 or 2 in the morning. So this is what we do instead.
Apparently there's a new emcee in town
I apologize, I still don't know how to do cuts. However, I just posted the first ever originally composed hip-hop lyrics on this blog, so you shouldn't care. In fact, just because I did something fresh and didn't cut the post at the same time, cutting posts has now become very, very uncool.
But, yeah. Lyrics.
Is this your iconoclast victory of epic proportions?
The rain and thunder that batter the threshold of my ideological doorstep?
Have you been counting my missteps, counting the poison drips
that filter through the sediment into the coffee I sip?
I bet you love watching me slip through the cracks
in the teeth of that luminescent smile you flash.
This is a fuselage crash, the dispersion of embers,
the sting of your cankers, the descent of ten thousand anchors
Take a step back, absorb what was just periphery.
Suddenly it seems the cityscapes not what it used to be
Suddenly it seems the asphault’s grown serpentine
and squirms into tourniquets that pinch off reality’s arteries.
You strike the first blow because you’ve gotten quicker
I can’t dodge because the static’s gotten thicker
while out in the car the children get sicker
because mommy spent the med money on liquor
It goes one two three one two three four
You can go if you want but don’t slam the door
Because when disturbed the sleepers love to make war
It goes one two three one two three four
I tighten up the saddle, lead the cavalry into the reef
because even monsters get engulfed by the swagger of the seas.
I sit back turn the tables in a way you’ve only heard tell of in fables
after months of swinging stable, looks like the bough's dropped the cradle
Gets burned, didn’t know who he pulled the pistols on
It goes one to three one to three four,
You can go if you want but please don’t slam the door
Because when disturbed the sleepers love to make war
Like they haven’t done this all before
Friday, August 24, 2007
Castro Death Rumor Mongering
Update 5:59 pm: I'm out. Call/text with updates, or post em if you got em. Have a great weekend, y'all!
Update 5:44 pm: I am going home in 16 minutes. If any of you bloggers are still around then, update this! Let's break the news! And by break, I mean be the first to link to whatever news source does break it. Unless we got friends in Cuba we can chat with. Or Miami. Nothing new on tar interwebs that I can find, though. [News updates below the jump]
Apparently all the classy blogs are against propagating the rumors of Castro's death.
Not us here at House of Nerds! At least until it's time to go home and get drunk.
Follow the bright circle....
Once upon this same earth, beneath this same sun, before you, before the ape and the elephant, before the wolf, the bison and the whale, before the mammoth and the mastodon, in the time of the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs were of two kinds. Some had flat teeth, and fed upon the leaves of trees, and those with sharp teeth, for eating meat, preyed upon the leaf-eaters.
I've decided to own this one.
You better read this, because it's pretty much the klutziest and most damaging thing I've ever done to property that does not belong to me.
Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.
nuraido and I (and our roommate who doesn't post to this blog, so she doesn't get mentioned) watched The Graduate tonight. And I would like to point out that you should see this movie. For the following reasons (which nuraido helped on a bit....):
a) You should see this movie simply because of the overwhelming number of screenplay references that it contains. It's amazing. Some of the most famous cinematography ever occurs in the first five minutes of the movie.
To see the rest, make the jump....
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Zombie mode banana-related issues
I've sort of been a zombie all week, which has led me to make some odd decisions.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Blog stuff, socialness and dinosaurs
First, I'd like to point out that it's August 22nd, and it's really cold in DC. Like, I should have brought a jacket kind of cold. It's really strange.
Second of all, I'd like to welcome Fodder (our third roommate who's lived with me for six months and can't spell my name) as our newest author to the blog! Yay, John!! After the jump, various other updates.
I hate The West Wing with the firey passion of a thousand suns, but I can't stop.
It's entirely too good.
It's a quarter of four in the morning, and here I am watching this damned show instead of sleeping.
I blame Greg and Kelly.
And plan to punish them.
And any of you who watch it, too.
Why I Hate/Love TV
So Fox has a new pseudo-reality show called "Anchorwoman." In it, Lauren Jones, former Miss NY, model, and Price is Right girl, with no journalism experiences takes over as the lead anchor for Tyler, Texas' KYTX. Now I know I'm only a tech writer who blogs, so my journalistic bar may be set a bit lower than the New York Times', but this is just frightening to me. Also awesome. I was super-pissed reading about the Rolling Stone reality show to find a new reporter (who also had no journalism background or writing experience), but, as I'll never be a TV anchor, I'm kind of looking forward to the premiere tomorrow night.
So what? Much of it already is."
Oh yeah, AP? At least we don't crib directly from the press release and then add a little bit of Yankee spin. Stupid Northern hippies.
Why I Hate Hippies
I care about the environment as much as the next guy. I'm an Eagle Scout. I don't litter. I recycle everything my apartment takes, and I occasionally take the leftovers to the city plant. But I hate hippies. I got a letter yesterday from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality saying, in effect, that "A concerned citizen" reported to them my car was smoking on July 31st at 6:45pm.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Allow me to make the blog a little more depressing...
Erica suggested that I write about my disturbing dreams. I hope blogging suffices, Erica. I kind of feel like a 14-year-old, using my blog to detail my dreams, but I also kind of don't care.
Eulogy
Jack's memorial service is tonight. The Austin American Statesman wrote a really great article about him here. After the jump is the eulogy I wrote, and a picture Zack's dad was nice enough to send me. (Zack is the goofy dark haired kid in the picture - Jack's debate partner and best friend.)
Monday, August 20, 2007
This is Jack
This is the kind of kid he was, and the kind of obituary he would have wanted, I think. The Statesman, and his family and friends, got it right.
More sadness and loss, and the Russians getting it right
I think a lot of you know by now, but one of the Westlake debaters, Jack Jenkins, died in a car accident at 1 am Friday morning.
My grandmother can officially never see this blog
I rode a motorcycle for the first time. In Buenos Aires. Without a helmet. With a stranger. Ha.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Let's Organize a Bake Sale for Tony Snow!!
Poor Tony Snow, Bush's White House spokesman. He has to resign from the post because he's not making enough money. And how much is he making, you ask? After the jump, my friends. After the jump...
Friday, August 17, 2007
US Army Seriously Thinking About Ender's Game
So I'm writing up a story right now based on an interview with a virtual worlds guy who was formerly Director of the Disruptive Technology Office and Chief Technology Officer for the U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.
Most awesome part: "I was deeply moved a long time ago by Ender's Game. And it's a common theme in the military. And it's real now. It's no longer just science fiction. And the whole premise behind Snow Crash is real now." To be fair, most of the interview is about how we can use virtual worlds to train soldiers in cultural differences and promote information sharing. But I'm pumped about kids training to fight space bugs. Also hacker samurai.
Caribbean Fest pics!
J-stew, a good friend of mine (and potential future blog author) came to visit a few weeks ago. A bunch of us trekked out to the DC Caribbean festival. It was unfathomably hot and crowded, we waited 2.5 hours for food, and we drank delicious fruit smoothies out of pineapples. Here are a few pictures from the fest - check out the beads!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Time Magazine's Version of Stairway to Heaven?
Is Time Magazine trying to say something about Billy Graham, or was this simply a case of poor layout design? You be the judge...
It's Fairly Likely We're All Just AI
"My gut feeling, and it’s nothing more than that,” he says, “is that there’s a 20 percent chance we’re living in a computer simulation.”I don't know if any of you have ever read Nick Bostrom, an Oxford philosopher who is, coincidentally, into transhumanism, before. But one of his ideas is that it's almost certain we'll eventually develop technology to run AI. That civilization could easily run simulations about its ancestors, and likely would. That means we could be those ancestor sims instead of the actual ancestors. Here's a good NYTimes article about it.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Radar Picks On Second Life Lothario's
Radar Magazine sent a correspondent into Second Life, where about 1/5 of usage is devoted to adult activity, usually roleplay. Now it's fun with literalism in teacher-student relations:
Student: Oh ... I naughty ... let play anoterh [sic] game.
Radarette: No. You must get this right or you'll never work in a numbers-related field. If you won't play along I can find somebody else.
When they take away my right to vote, can I still blog?
Yeah, there are still people who apparently think woman suffrage was not such the great plan.
I think that women are generally more risk averse then men are and they see government as one way of providing insurance against life’s vagaries. I also think that divorced women with kids particularly turn towards government for protection. Simply giving women the right to vote explained at least a third of the growth in government for about 45 years.
The effect on state governments was pretty dramatic, and I think that it not only explains a lot of the government’s growth in the US but also the rest of the world over the last century. When states gave women the right to vote, government spending and tax revenue, even after adjusting for inflation and population, went from not growing at all to more than doubling in ten years. As women gradually made up a greater and greater share of the electorate, the size of government kept on increasing. This continued for 45 years as a lot of older women who hadn’t been used to voting when suffrage first passed were gradually replaced by younger women.
After you get to the 1960s, the continued growth in government is driven by higher divorce rates. Divorce causes women with children to turn much more to government programs. Of course, changes in the divorce laws from “at fault” to “no fault” helped cause some of this change. As I discuss in the book, the liberalization of abortion also led to more single parent families.
Interestingly, this guy thinks so too, as he eloquently explains in his post entitled "How society defends itself; and is women's political equality a good thing?"
There is much to be said for the view that affording women political rights (as distinct from the protection of their human rights, property rights, and civil rights) inevitably leads society in the direction of the Nanny State that we see in full bloom in today's Britain and Europe, leading ultimately to the end of national sovereignty and the onset of global governance. Women's primary external concern is safety and security. That is how it should be. Women are the natural care-givers and are naturally focused on the home and the family and its protection. But those same priorities, when expressed through the political sphere as distinct from the private sphere, inevitably lead a society in the direction of socialism. Once women have the vote, there is, over time, a growing tendency for women to stop seeing their fathers and husbands as the primary providers of security, and to see the state in that role instead. This tendency encourages--and in turn is greatly exacerbated by--the increase in unmarried motherhood. Single women, both with children and not, overwhelmingly see the state as their principal provider and accordingly vote overwhelmingly for the left. If women's vote leads a society in the direction of socialist statism, the weakening of marriage and the family, the loss of male responsibility, the loss of basic freedoms (which only men are physically and temperamentally suited to defend), and the loss of national vigor, does that not suggest that giving women the vote was a mistake?
Then there is the direct effect on society of having women in high leadership positions. I believe that with rare exceptions such as a Margaret Thatcher or a Golda Meir, women are not well suited for upholding the basic external structure of society. That is preeminently a male, not a female task. To me, the female-dominated politics of the Scandinavian countries do not represent a positive and uplifting direction for the human race. The huge number of women in the British Parliament do not represent a growth of British national strength but its decline.
Neat.
Tuesday Morning Comics
This week seems mysterious to me. I'm not sure why. Anyway, here's a new set of comics I think you'll enjoy.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Heroes of the day
Dr. Denis Mukwege, who treats rape victims in the Congo, and Eve Ensler, the author of the Vagina Monologues, who had the courage to talk to the survivors and experience some of the worst violence against women anywhere in the world.
This article is fantastic, and you should read every word. It took me about an hour to get through it - parts are so graphic I had to put it down to keep myself from shaking or crying, so you might want to wait until you're not at work to read it. But you should.
Pimm's and Lemondae: The Easiest Way to Drink Away a Summer Afternoon
Seriously, if made right, you can down pitchers of these on a hot summer afternoon before knowing what hit you. Quite frankly, it's amazing.
Stuff a'brewin part two: Politix
Nothing better than to start Monday mornings with reasons to throw a party. We're drinkin at my house on August 31.
Lots of stuff a'brewin - part one
Updated below the jump.
Man, I've been at work for 45 minutes, and I don't even know where to start with the all the stuff I want to say.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
On a Duet of Dueling Emilys
This being my first contribution to this fine commune of voices, I would just like to state outright that I am not a pimp. Or at least not by choice. I have never purchased a cane without a disability to necessitate it (I haven't purchased one at all, but specificity is sometimes necessary). I do not wear a ring, let alone several rings beset with glamorous stones such as opal. I have a one o'clock curfew, and as such my ability to work the streets is severally mitigated. No, ladies and gentleman, it was never in my aspirations to be the panoptacon eyes on some poor woman who has not, yet, payed me my money.
Argentina is cold, but you'll be so drunk you won't care
It is a lot colder here in Buenos Aires than I thought it would be.
postsecret
Many of you may not know that I read postsecret every week. In fact, I've made it into my screensaver, and have around 2000 saved thus far. I think it's one of the more amazing things available on line today. And here's what I think:
a) You should start reading it. It's very cool (or depressing, or funny, or pretty much anything).
b) You should send in a secret. You'll feel surprisingly better by mailing it. And it's actually not too bad if it doesn't get posted.
At the request of Frank, the guy who created the site, I'm gonna link his montage of secrets video. Alas, this means no new secrets this week...
Friday, August 10, 2007
xkcd part two
If you haven't already read mathgimp's post from yesterday about the funniest of xkcd, you should start there and then come back to mine. He showed you most of the best ones, and a lot of the funny(?) math ones, but he left out a few of my favorites. So, after the jump, here they are.
xkcd is Hilarious
So, I had this post all planned out. After nuraido posted about xkcd, I spent an entire work day reading all of them. And I almost got in trouble for the times I laughed out loud. Before I could post my favorites, though, work got in the way. But now I have the time, and xkcd is freaking awesome. After the jump, a lot of linky goodness of all of my favorites. Seriously, click on the links (pretty much every word below). They're really funny too.
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