Saturday, September 14, 2013

Oops: Admin Error Sends Bradley Manning to Death Row, Nidal Hasan to Gender Reassignment Surgery


FT LEAVENWORTH, KS — An administrative error has been blamed for a mix-up in sentencing involving the cases of convicted Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan and Bradley Manning, the Army private convicted of leaking classified documents to the website WikiLeaks.

After sentencing concluded last Wednesday in Fort Hood, Texas, it was reported Hasan would undergo gender reassignment surgery and change his name from Nidal to Nahid Hasan. Nahid is an Arabic name meaning “one with full, round breasts.”

Not long after it was revealed, the traitor formerly known as Chelsea had been transferred to death row where he awaits execution by lethal injection.

via IMAO

Ben Affleck plays every single one of the Superfriends


Via io9
Kevin Bolk has come up with the perfect solution to all of the backlash, rumors, and hoaxes surrounding casting in the Man of Steel sequel: cast Ben Affleck as all the characters
All-Ben Affleck Justice League

Video: Man Calls NSA in Attempt to Recover Deleted Email



Iranian-Dutch filmmaker Bahram Sadeghi accidentally deleted an email message and couldn't get it back, so he decided to call up an organization with a reputation for email storage: the U.S. National Security Agency.

When he couldn't get an NSA employee to admit to collecting email and Internet data, he let her know that he was born in Iran, so maybe he's a person of interest to the NSA. Could she check for his email now?

What happened next was a 5-minute cat-and-mouse game with two NSA employees, where Sadeghi tried to draw out various admissions about surveillance programs, and the NSA tried to get his name and contact information.

via Daily Dot.

Stunning: High-Speed Photographs of Paint Splashing into Water

ALBERT SEVESO
Website | Facebook | Behance | Prints
More at Twisted Sifter, which also has examples of the same artist's photos of ink dropping into water here and here):

Alberto Seveso is an Italian artist specializing in illustration, graphic design and photography. Born in Milan, Seveso currently lives and works as a freelance artst from his hometown of Portoscuso, Sardinia, Italy.  
In his latest series entitled Dropping, Seveso drops acrylic paint into water, instead using high-speed photography to capture the splashes occurring above the surface.

Boston school recites Muslim poem instead of Pledge of Allegiance on 9/11 anniversary

A school in Boston reportedly had a Muslim poem recital over the intercom instead of the Pledge of Allegiance on the 12th anniversary of 9/11.

The principal of Concord Carlisle High School, Peter Badalament issued an apology and said that a 'small number' of people were outraged at the poem, which was meant to promote 'cross-cultural understanding'.

Obama and Putin Tag Team

Both Obama and Putin work toward the same end: the elimination of America as world super power and the last place for freedom lovers to run to on Mother Earth.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Kim Dotcom sues New Zealand gov over FBI-ordered raid


Background:
January 20, 2012: The police's anti-terrorist squad make an airborne assault on the mansion of Kim Dotcom as part of an FBI copyright criminal investigation.
June 2012: The High Court rules the search warrant for the raid was unlawful and the search was illegal.
August 2012: The police officer who led the operation refuses to name people involved in planning the raid ``because of the nature of the work they do''.
September 2012: The mystery group are revealed as operatives for the Government Communications Security Bureau. The spying they did was illegal, forcing an apology from the Prime Minister.
April 2013: Papers are lodged with the High Court at Auckland seeking damages and compensation for the raid.
Taxpayers face a $6 million bill in damages over the unlawful raid and illegal spying on Kim Dotcom and others.

Legal papers filed with the High Court allege an "excessively aggressive and invasive approach" by police during a raid on Dotcom's mansion 18 months ago.

They also accuse Deputy Prime Minister Bill English of acting unlawfully in trying to cover up the spying by the GCSB before the raid.

Friday links

The History and Psychology of Clowns Being Scary.

Mid-1800s Locomotive Builders' Prints.

And the winner of the vote for official mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society is...

The Map That Lincoln Used to See the Reach of Slavery shows the concentration of slaves by county in 1860.

Talking urinal aims to prevent drunk driving by discussing one’s aim.

Heineken's Lost Plan To Build Houses Out Of Beer Bottles.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

And the winner of the vote for official mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society is...

This guy:


This gives the blobfish the unofficial title of world's ugliest animal.  My personal choice for runner-up would be the pubic lice:


Here's a gallery of the contenders, and here's more information.

More at the BBC:
The blobfish tops a list that includes the huge-nosed proboscis monkey, the similarly afflicted pig-nosed turtle, an amphibian affectionately known as a "scrotum frog" and pubic lice. 
Biologist and TV presenter Simon Watt, president of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, said he hoped the campaign would draw attention to the threats facing these weird and wonderful creatures.

Must Read Jonah Goldberg: The myth of live-and-let-live liberalism

Liberalism is about control.

In Washington, D.C., the city's department of health wants to subject people seeking a tattoo or body piercing to a mandatory 24-hour waiting period before they can go through with it. That's just one of the regulations in a 66-page proposal of new rules for the tattoo and piercing industry.

Reasonable people may differ on the wisdom of these proposals, but as someone whose interest in such establishments begins and ends with keeping my daughter away from them, I can't get too worked up either way, save to say D.C. has bigger problems to worry about.

What did catch my eye was this line from the write-up in the metro section of the Washington Post: "The body art rules are the latest product of a city government that has occasionally struggled to reconcile its socially liberal sensibilities with a zeal for regulation."

As a conservative resident of Washington, D.C., where registered Republicans are outnumbered by about 9 to 1 and where truly conservative Republicans are outnumbered on a scale comparable to the predicament faced by Frodo and Sam when they sneaked into orc-infested Mordor, I find such statements hilarious.

There is a notion out there that being "socially liberal" means you're a libertarian at heart, a live-and-let-live sort of person who says "whatever floats your boat" a lot.

Alleged proof for this amusing myth (or pernicious lie, take your pick) comes in the form of liberal support for gay marriage and abortion rights, and opposition to a few things that smack of what some people call "traditional values."

The evidence disproving this adorable story of live-and-let-live liberalism comes in the form of pretty much everything else liberals say, do and believe.

Milton Friedman, at age 93, regarding drug prohibition

Here's the video.  Watch then read the related post at AEI.


"I do not think the state has any more right to tell me what to put in my mouth than it has to tell me what can come out of my mouth. Those two are essentially the same thing, and they are both essential elements of freedom."

Thursday links

15 Funny Clothing Tags.

48 Names for Things You Didn’t Know Had Names.

The 7 (Singing) Sutherland Sisters had 37 Feet of Hair.

When People Started Wearing Clothes.

A fore-edge painting is a technique of painting on the edges of the pages of a book: the artwork can only be seen when the pages are fanned.  Boston Public Library has put its collection online.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

NSA hands raw intel to Israel, hopes it respects limits on usage

NSA official: "We sometimes share more than we intended."

Since 2009, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been sharing raw signals intelligence (SIGINT), including information about specific US people, directly with Israel’s counterpart to the NSA, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

Black Friend For A Day

“Ever wondered what it was like to be cool and have a black friend for a day?”



via

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

“You’re my wife? Holy sh*t!”

I've had this sent to me by several people, so I guess I should post it.


In response to all of the questions: I had a hernia repair to fix residual tears from a previous surgery. 
I wish I could remember this but I was definitely out of it. 
This was my fifth surgery within our six years of marriage and she’s been by my side through all of it. In a previous surgery I suffered a severe complication and we didn’t know if I’d ever function the same again. She is the love of my life.

Rise of the Thought Police: Bullying Your Children Into Forsaking Their Values


Proposed “anti-bullying” legislation creates a powerful new bureaucracy to police students' values and remediate politically incorrect beliefs.

Five-year-old Suzie heads off to kindergarten in rural Minnesota. She settles into her class routine full of activity, discovery, and friendship.

Then the day takes a turn. As part of newly mandated diversity training, Suzie’s teacher brings out Heather Has Two Mommies for some light mid-morning reading. A typically precocious kindergartener, Suzie pipes up during the story to correct the teacher’s telling. “God gave us a mommy and a daddy,” she exclaims.

Though no student takes exception to Suzie’s remark, the teacher cringes and becomes keenly aware of her state-mandated role to report any incident which could be construed as bullying. So Suzie gets pulled out of class and taken to the principal’s office where she’s met by a counselor.

Misplaced modifier of the week or app of the week? Man wards off polar bear with cellphone

What's the polar bear doing with a cell phone?

Polar bear startled by cellphone light, giving man chance to escape.

Reminiscent of Groucho: "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don't know":

World Championship Squirrel Cook Off

This year's culinary creations ranged from squirrel with cashews and spring rolls to Caribbean jerk squirrel and fried plantains. The dishes were a step up in sophistication from last year's fare, which included squirrel jalapeƱo cheese poppers and minced squirrel brains with cream cheese in pastry dough. Still, the same winning duo as last year, brothers Brandon and Blayne Estes, once again took home the $500 prize and bragging rights with a simpler, more countrified entry: squirrel sausage.

"When it is prepared properly, it is as good as chicken or rabbit," he says. "They are the ultimate free-range animal."

Testicle size may indicate men's childcare aptitude

Men, you're gonna want to stop watching those kids ASAP.

Men with smaller testes more are likely to take charge of parenting jobs and reacted more strongly to photos of own children. But the reverse could be equally true: indulging in childcare may make a man's testes shrink.

Tuesday links

10 Things That Have "Rained" From the Sky.

How Did Music Begin?

The 10 Best Fictional Laboratories, Ranked.

Excellent Gallery: Photographs of Disasters that Occurred Before 1920.

What if I jumped out of an airplane with a couple of tanks of helium and one huge, un-inflated balloon? Then, while falling, I release the helium and fill the balloon.

The Beatles' Hey Jude as a Flowchart.

Must Read: UK Guardian, doing the work US media won't do - Benghazi: a challenge to official version of events

Read the whole thing at The Guardian:

A year after the first US ambassador in 33 years was killed on duty, Chris Stephen, one of the first western reporters on the scene in Benghazi, pieces together what really happened from witness accounts, official reports, and the ruins of the compound.

What is perhaps most striking is the inconsistencies: the US version of events compared with those of witnesses and the facts on the ground. The two do not tally. And so, a year later, there remain pressing questions about what happened that night – and what the Americans say happened.

Excellent music video: What Does The Fox Say?

So, generally I have no use for music produced after 1972 (or classic music written after 1900), but I love this video.



via Pleated Jeans.