Of 953,000 Jobs Created In 2013, 77%, Or 731,000 Are Part-Time

Zero Hedge has numbers and charts:

When the payroll report was released last month, the world finally noticed what we had been saying for nearly three years: that the US was slowly being converted to a part-time worker society. This slow conversion accelerated drastically in the last few months, and especially in June, when part time jobs exploded higher by 360K while full time jobs dropped by 240K.

This bluetooth-enabled vibrator syncs up with your smart phone

By combining a Bluetooth-enabled vibrator with iOS and Android apps, Vibease vibrator vibrates in sync with audio fantasy.

With the Fantasy App, you can select one of the audio fantasies from the list to set you in the mood. You don't have to hold the vibrator (or your smartphone). You can relax and totally enjoy the moment. No user control is needed from this point onward. You are free to completely immerse into the fantasy and experience pleasure at a level you never thought possible.

A user’s guide to committing fraud on the Obama­care exchanges

Weekly Standard:  The Dishonor System

Interesting article running the numbers on how to game the system.

Friday links

Portraits of Birds with Stylish Hairdos.

Check out this 1912 test for eighth graders in Kentucky.

National Geographic’s 2013 Photo Contest Winners Gallery.

79 Common Mispronunciations.

The Slightly Sordid History of Twister.

HD Footage Of Plants And Insects Magnified Thousands Of Times.

What happens to your poop after you flush it down the toilet?

Ozymandias read by Bryan Cranston for a Breaking Bad trailer

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'
~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Oops - you missed it. Wednesday was National Orgasm Day

Better luck next year.

I love this headline: Rare Naked Ladies Crocus Infected with Even Rarer Smutty Fungus

Who knew botany and mycology could be so naughty? Naked ladies and smut have come to light in the U.K., but not in the way you might think.

Yes, you can get your minds out of the gutter. We’re talking about the rare plant called the naked ladies crocus (Colchicum autumnale) and the even rarer sooty-black smut fungus (Urocystis colchici).

The smutty fungus is a legally protected species in the U.K.

Also, there's a Cotswold Fungus Group, and they discovered this month’s fungus.

New Website to Answer Obamacare Questions for Businesses Crashes on First Day

Weekly Standard:

Thursday morning, the White House announced a new website to answer questions from businesses about Obamacare. Valerie Jarrett wrote about the launch in a blog post titled, "A One-Stop-Shop on the Health Care Law for Businesses Big and Small." However, within two hours, the website had crashed, giving users the following error screen:

Armed agents raid animal shelter to euthanize baby deer

"It was like a SWAT team,” shelter employee Ray Schulze said. 

Two weeks ago, Schulze was working in the barn at the Society of St. Francis on the Kenosha-Illinois border when a swarm of squad cars arrived and officers unloaded with a search warrant. 

“(There were) nine DNR agents and four deputy sheriffs, and they were all armed to the teeth,” Schulze said. 

The focus of their search was a baby fawn brought there by an Illinois family worried she had been abandoned by her mother. 

The warden drafted an affidavit for the search warrant, complete with aerial photos in which he described getting himself into a position where he was able to see the fawn going in and out of the barn. 

Agents told staff they came to seize the deer because Wisconsin law forbids the possession of wildlife.

More at Hot Air: So, they took the deer and killed it. Mercifully, I guess, the state has chosen not to press charges against this animal shelter for the horrible crime of trying to rehabilitate a deer abandoned by its mother in an animal shelter and transfer it to a wildlife preserve in Illinois, where wild deer are permitted by law. Apparently, if the shelter had had a state-issued permit for keeping a wild deer, everything would have been fine, which suggests keeping one is not inherently dangerous, despite that being the Department of Natural Resources’ justification for killing the fawn.

The target of the SWAT-like operation:

From 1983, the Queen's speech for third world war

Guardian (Warning - sidebar ads may be NSFW)

"Our brave country must again prepare itself to survive against great odds. I have never forgotten the sorrow and pride I felt as my sister and I huddled around the nursery wireless set listening to my father's inspiring words on that fateful day in 1939. Not for a single moment did I imagine that this solemn and awful duty would one day fall to me."

The extraordinary speech forms part of a chilling 320-page war games scenario – codenamed Wintex-Cimex 83 – which was drawn up by top intelligence, defence and Home Office staff. It is revealed in a cache of secret documents released on Thursday by the National Archives, which evokes the shadow of nuclear armageddon that hung over Britain 30 years ago.

The potential Queen's speech was written as in real life the UK ambassador to Moscow warned that the warlike rhetoric of Yuri Andropov, general secretary of the Soviet Communist party, had become "profoundly disturbing". 

And this:

The briefing adds that the doctrine of "no first use of nuclear weapons" – one that was not accepted by Nato – was known as NOFUN.

Read the entire speech over at the BBC: Link

The 18 Greatest Dog Smiles Ever

Go to Buzzfeed for the whole set.

Flame-thrower guitars

John Springer made a series of flame-shooting playable guitars, some of which can shoot fire up to 18 feet.  via Neatorama.

What To Google To Get The Government To Show Up At Your House

He travels to Asia for work. She looks up pressure cookers online. And God only knows what their 20-year-old son Googles. That combination, apparently, is how you get a "joint terrorism task force" to show up at your door on Long Island:

That’s when I felt a sense of creeping dread take over. What else had I looked up? What kind of searches did I do that alone seemed innocent enough but put together could make someone suspicious? Were they judging me because my house was a mess (Oh my god, the joint terrorism task force was in my house and there were dirty dishes in my sink!). Mostly I felt a great sense of anxiety. This is where we are at. Where you have no expectation of privacy. Where trying to learn how to cook some lentils could possibly land you on a watch list. Where you have to watch every little thing you do because someone else is watching every little thing you do. 

All I know is if I’m going to buy a pressure cooker in the near future, I’m not doing it online. 

I’m scared. And not of the right things.

Blowpaste is the world's first vegan oral sex lubricant that doubles as toothpaste

Read the whole thing at UPI:

The Chicago couple created their company, CheekyChaCha, and made the water-based Blowpaste lube from aloe vera, sodium bicarbonate, vegetable glycerin, and peppermint and wintergreen essential oils.

Bearing the slogan "Dirty sex, clean mouth," Blowpaste was created, Ejan says, because most oral lubricants contain aspartame, candy flavors and other things that are bad for your teeth.

Check out this test for eighth graders in Kentucky dated 1912

In case you didn't realize how much the government schools have been dumbed down:

Update: Answers here, via Greg Pollowitz.



via Daily Mail

Paralyzed Man Wakes to Find His Dog Bit Off His Testicle

Gawker:

An Arkansas man paralyzed from the waist down told police he awoke Monday morning to a "burning pain," only to find his dog chewing on a ball. His ball, that is.

According to the official police report, the 39-year-old Trumann resident regularly sleeps in the raw, and was fully nude when he woke up yesterday around 7:45 AM to discover his dog "had eaten one of his testicles."

The unidentified owner had rescued the "small, white, fluffy" stray just three weeks ago, and had yet to take it in for a checkup.

Sadly, the dog's first visit to a vet was to be euthanized.

The Arkansas Department of Health will test the dog's remains for rabies.

Meanwhile, adding insult to injury, the man was transported to St. Bernards Regional Medical Center to be treated.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car has a new ad campaign

Low Rates And ‘Cock Sucking’ Promised In Rental Car Ad.

The ad in question appeared in the July 19 edition of Wales Pembrokeshire Herald. It claims Enterprise has every day low rates, holiday discounts, an extensive range of vehicles to choose from, home pick-up and delivery, and "cock sucking."

The New Bailout Begins: Eminent Domain Is Upon Us

Read the whole post at Zero Hedge: 

Richmond, CA is raising both market and constitutional concerns. As NYTimes reports, the city is the first to use eminent domain by the local government (in partnership with a 'friendly' mortgage provider) to seize homes, force investors to take a loss on the mortgages, re-issue a new 'lower' mortgage, and allow the homeowner back with positive equity (ready to lever-it-back-up into a new Harley). As Guggenheim notes, this is likely to hurt supply of new mortgages and as we noted previously (here and here), it seems clear that private-label MBS holders will not be happy, consumers hurt as mortgage costs would rise (this 'risk' has to be priced in), and taxpayers unhappy as this is yet another transfer payment scheme to bailout underwater loans.

Not The Onion: New teeth grown from urine

Read the whole thing at BBC:

Scientists have grown rudimentary teeth out of the most unlikely of sources, human urine.

The results, published in Cell Regeneration Journal, showed that urine could be used as a source of stem cells that in turn could be grown into tiny tooth-like structures.

Scientists find mystery coffin at Richard III site

A team of archaeologists said Monday it has unearthed an unusual coffin-within-a-coffin in the central England parking lot where it found the skeleton of King Richard III, and that they hope to identify the remains within.

These 7 Incredibly Bizarre Classic ‘Smurfs’ Episodes Are Really Smurfy

Interesting post at Flavorwire: As Smurfs 2 opens this week, and everyone under 12 will see it and not a single person over 20 will go without a kid in tow, it’s time to look back at the real Smurfs, i.e. those of the Hanna Barbera cartoon that ran from 1981-1990. 

The Smurfs first reached American shores in the 1980s, and in some lights the country has never been the same.

Tuesday links

Can You Actually Cough Up A Lung?

Sharknado hairdo, or hat, or something.

How Beer Gets Its Color.

If you wanted to anchor an airplane into the ground so it wouldn't be able to take off, what would the rope have to be made out of?

9 Terrifying Parasites.

The Cost of Being a Superhero in Real Life: Then & Now (Infographics).

Cross-posted at @NRO's The Corner.

Ruby Slippers for the Sharknado/Wizard of Oz Crossover

How cool are these?

The Price of Being a Superhero in Real Life: Then & Now

You can view all 5 superheroes at Mashable (Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk and Wolverine).

Porn Sex vs Real Sex, The Differences Explained With Food

Probably NSFW just because of the subject, but it's actually pretty PG-13.



via Laughing Squid.

Couple born on same day, married for 75 years, died one day apart

Both born on the same day, Dec. 31, 1918, Helen and Les were high school sweethearts who celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary this year. It would be their last - Helen died on Tuesday, July 16, and Les died the next day, July 17. They were 94.

They met at Huntington Park High School and eloped on Sept. 19, 1937. They were married against their own parents’ wishes. “It was a real love match, wasn’t it,” their oldest son, Les Jr., said. “They were together every day for 75 years.”

Hospital Networks Reject ObamaCare Accountable Care Organization (ACO) initiative

Investors: Nine major hospital networks just decided they'd had enough of being "Pioneers" for ObamaCare.

They withdrew from the health reform law's Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) initiative, which launched in January 2012 with 32 health systems participating.

Health systems have cooled to the ACO concept in part because the federal government is six months behind in providing them the Medicare claims data they need to comply with the rules.

Providers are also concerned about the risks they have to assume to participate. If they don't realize the "savings" that regulators demand, they'll have to just take the loss — regardless of how much time, effort, or expense it takes to treat someone.

The intent is to force ACOs to be more efficient. But this setup gives providers substantial incentives to skimp on medical care.  

Plus, patients could potentially sue entire ACOs for medical malpractice by claiming that their "actions or policies prioritized cost savings over patient safety."

China clamps down on cheating in university entrance exams by banning brassieres

A letter sent to candidates’ parents outlined the new policy: “When students and staff enter the exam venue they will have their clothes, accessories, shoes, hats and any carry-ins strictly checked by professionals and will only be allowed to enter if the equipment does not set off an alarm. Therefore, any article that contains metal and can trigger beeping from the security machines will become obstacles for the candidates.”

Bras with metal clips were banned while students with metal fillings or implants would have to produce a doctor’s note, Xinhua reported.

Detroit is dying, but neighboring Oakland County is booming

Via AEI, an interesting story from Bloomberg about the stark contrast between dying, bankrupt Detroit and its thriving, prosperous, wealthy neighbor directly across 8 Mile Road — Oakland County, one of a small, select group of US counties that is so financially stable that it enjoy a Triple-A bond rating.

Since 1950 the population of Detroit has fallen by more than 60 percent, from 1.8 million to 700,000. Over that same period the population of Oakland County—a square comprising Ferndale, Southfield, Birmingham, and a cluster of other cities and towns—tripled, to 1.2 million. The county today is one of the wealthiest in the country, and 8 Mile Road has the feel of an international border. The relationship between Detroit, the nation’s poorest city, and its northern neighbors often resembles a border dispute, characterized on both sides by anger, resentment, fear, and caricature. Detroit’s July 18 bankruptcy filing is merely the latest chapter in the long dysfunctional marriage between a once-thriving city and its suburbs. 

If there’s one person who best embodies this psychodrama, it’s L. Brooks Patterson, the county executive of Oakland and for decades one of Detroit’s harshest critics. Patterson, 74, who was elected to his sixth term last fall, has held the post since 1993. 

Patterson oversees 4,000 employees and a budget of $776 million for fiscal 2013. In the 1990s he switched county workers from defined benefit pensions to 401(k)-type plans, and new hires no longer get lifetime retiree health care—instead they receive health savings accounts. Changes like these have saved hundreds of millions of dollars and eliminated the legacy labor costs that plague not only Detroit but city and state governments all over the country. Oakland is part of a select group of U.S. counties that enjoy a Triple-A bond rating.

Today is Mussolini's birthday

The Germans should allow themselves to be guided by me if they wish to avoid unpardonable blunders. In politics it is undeniable that I am more intelligent than Hitler.
- Benito Mussolini (attributed, 1934)

It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins. To make a people great, it is necessary to send them to battle even if you have to kick them in the pants. This is what I shall do.
- Mussolini (quoted in the diary of his son-in-law, Count Galeazzo Ciano, 11 April 1940, the day after Mussolini brought Italy into World War II)

Voglia partire in perfetto orario... D'ora innanzi ogni cosa deve camminare alta perfezione.
- Mussolini (to a railway station-master, attributed)

(We must leave exactly on time... From now on, everything must function to perfection.*)

(Today is the 130th anniversary of the birth of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) in Forli province. Mussolini studied in Lausanne and Geneva but was expelled from Switzerland because of his socialist activities. As a journalist in Italy, he continued his political agitation and argued for Italy's entry into World War I, in which he was later wounded. He founded his fascist party in Milan in 1919 and by 1922 was invited to form a government during a political crisis partly of his own making. During the 1920s, Mussolini soon embarked on a wide-ranging reform program while gradually eliminating opposition parties and becoming more aggressive in foreign policy. His alliance with Germany in 1939 led directly to Italy's disastrous role in World War II, for which he was deposed in 1943 and later executed by Italian partisans. Of Mussolini, English writer J. B. Priestly said in 1934,

"The man's a fraud, a mountebank, a megaphone. He doesn't amount to anything more than a black-shirted bullfrog croaking away in the mud.")

* N.B. Likely the origin of the view that "Mussolini made the trains run ontime," which indeed he did.

Weiner happy about his shrinking staff

At Michelle Malkin: Anthony Weiner’s campaign manager quit on Saturday, but according to Weiner that’s good, because it’ll make room for all the people who are clamoring to work for him:

Anthony Weiner’s already limp mayoral campaign suffered another huge blow yesterday, when his campaign manager abandoned the sinking ship.

Danny Kedem quit as Weiner’s campaign point man following a disastrous week on the trail, the embattled mayoral candidate confirmed this morning.

“Danny has left the campaign. He did a remarkable job,” Weiner said

“We have an excellent staff. More people have come on, frankly. We’ve gotten more volunteers and more people coming over to help the campaign in the last several days than anytime since the campaign started.”

The Science Behind the Foul-Smelling Corpse Flower

What’s eight feet tall, has a creepy nickname and can be smelled from miles away? It’s the rare titan arum plant, aka the corpse flower or Amorphophallus titanum, which just bloomed in the United States Botanic Gardens in Washington, DC. The plant has an unpredictable blooming cycle that lasts years, and the corpse-like odor it emits attracts pollinating bugs like flies and dung beetles. In the video below, the Botanic Garden’s public science educator Todd Brethauer explains the chemistry behind this legendary plant’s potent stink.

via Geeks Are Sexy.

A life-sized Cylon made out of wood

Dmitry Balandin, a scifi enthusiast and crane operator from Ukraine, has built a life-sized robot fashioned from 500 pieces of plywood.

More information and several more pictures at io9.

Delta Aquarid meteor shower peaks tonight

Details at EarthSky.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Is Your Cable Box Spying On You?

The abyss is staring back: Behavior-Detecting Devices From Verizon, Microsoft And Others Worry Privacy Advocates.

Should a TV-mounted box have the ability to track our movements, record our voices and monitor our behaviors? Should cable providers and tech companies be allowed to collect such information without our consent?

Lawmakers and privacy advocates are asking such questions as companies continue to experiment with data collection that will extend beyond our gadgets and into our living rooms and bedrooms.

Reminds me of Dr. Seuss: 

“Oh, the jobs people work at! Out west near Hawtch-Hawtch there's a Hawtch-Hawtcher bee watcher, his job is to watch. Is to keep both his eyes on the lazy town bee, a bee that is watched will work harder you see. So he watched and he watched, but in spite of his watch that bee didn't work any harder not mawtch. So then somebody said "Our old bee-watching man just isn't bee watching as hard as he can, he ought to be watched by another Hawtch-Hawtcher! The thing that we need is a bee-watcher-watcher!". Well, the bee-watcher-watcher watched the bee-watcher. He didn't watch well so another Hawtch-Hawtcher had to come in as a watch-watcher-watcher! And now all the Hawtchers who live in Hawtch-Hawtch are watching on watch watcher watchering watch, watch watching the watcher who's watching that bee. You're not a Hawtch-Watcher you're lucky you see!”

via Instapundit.

Sharknado hairdo, or hat, or something.

via Fashionably Geek.

Turnabout: Korean news station uses goofy names for Southwest pilots involved in landing gear collapse

Slothed: You probably remember KTVU’s royal eff up with reading obviously fake Asian names for the pilots of the Asiana crash. Names like “Wi To Lo” and “Ho Lee Fuk”.

It looks like a Korean news agency is having some fun at KTVU’s expense. After the landing gear failure of the Southwest flight at LGA they showed this graphic with American pilot names “Captain Kent Parker Wright”, “Co-Captain Wyatt Wooden Workman”.

They even went as far as making up fake names for people to interview. Flight instructor “Heywood U. Flye-Moore” and skeptical passenger “Macy Lawyers”.

Well played Korean TV, well played.

via Fark.

New Pakistani superhero: the Burka Avenger

Meet Burka Avenger: a mild-mannered teacher with secret martial arts skills who uses a flowing black burka to hide her identity as she fights local thugs seeking to shut down the girls' school where she works.

In a case of art mirroring life, the cartoon is one that Pakistanis can only too keenly relate to - as their educational institutions are regularly targeted by terrorists.

The Taliban have blown up hundreds of schools and attacked activists in Pakistan's northwest because they oppose girls' education.

The militants sparked worldwide condemnation last fall when they shot Malala Yousafzai, a 15-year-old schoolgirl activist, in the head in an unsuccessful attempt to kill her.

Action in the 'Burka Avenger' cartoon series, which is scheduled to start running on Geo TV in early August, isthe first South Asian ninja who wields books and pens as weapons.

UK woman who received $10K taxpayer funded boob job suing for $20K because her boobs are too big

The Taxpayers’ Alliance hit out: “She appears to want to milk the NHS and taxpayers."

True Facts About The Owl

Ze Frank's latest:

The science of winning poker

Interesting article at WSJ:

Concepts from the branch of mathematics known as game theory have inspired new ideas in poker strategy and new advice for ordinary players. Poker is still a game of reading people, but grasping the significance of their tics and twitches isn't nearly as important as being able to profile their playing styles and understand what their bets mean.

Despite bankruptcy, Detroit’s new $400 million dollar taxpayer-funded hockey rink is a “go”

Read the whole thing at HotAir.

Failure sometimes has an inertia that is difficult to stop. Detroit’s reality is anything but pretty:

Detroit city services are already stretched extremely thin. On average, police take about an hour to respond to calls for help, and 40% of street lights are shut off to save money.

Because of a lack of funds, the police force has shrunk in size to the point that it simply can’t respond in any meaningful way to help citizens who are victims of crime. As you might imagine then, crime is horrific. City services are so minimal as to almost be non-existent. Yet the refusal to face that reality and deal with it still exists among those who should know better.