Sunday, November 26, 2006

I gave thanks at the office blog

Oh shut up.
NYT: Cingular Wireless …, the largest cellphone carrier in the United States, will hold a series of interactive “texting bees” around the country early next year to teach parents how to send text messages to their children.

Blog from Sri Lanka!
Politically Incorrect comedy is nothing new to Sri Lanka. All our traditional performance like 'Lenchina', 'Puppet Theatre' or 'Thovil' filled with all sort of politically incorrect comedy. Good Spicy Stuff! But once Christian culture becomes the mainstream culture in Sri Lanka and top of that Indian comedy came to in to Sri Lankan cinema we loose the taste of controversial comedy. We need a Borat in Sri Lanka!

Oh brave new world, here we come!
NYT: When families adopt positioning cellphone services, a new problem will likely emerge, Professor Mark said. The very act of turning off one’s location beacon may itself be seen as suspicious. “If you don’t want your location known,” he asked, “does that mean you intend to do something improper?”

Oh brave new virtual world, here we are! With cash!
NYT: … Linden Lab, the corporate creator of Second Life, says that thousands of people are building businesses through their virtual-world creativity. Second Life’s Web site tracks how many U.S. dollars have been spent in the virtual world in the previous 24 hours; on a recent Saturday morning, the figure was $328,517. In addition to a variety of “adult”-themed pastimes, residents also buy clothes and home décor and artwork — no doubt one reason that many brands are interested in the place.

Oh brave new cartoon!
A user review of HAPPY FEET, from Netscape: “Although I can't quote exactly what was said since I just saw it once, the implication was and I certainly inferred a message of ‘pro-immigation’. [Sic] This movie has some fun parts to it but no one in the theater was laughing. It is really not a good kids [Sic] movie. It is laced with all kinds of hot button liberal issues. It is trying to be ‘good’ in that it is pro-environment, pro-inclusiveness and tolerance but at its core it is a thinly veiled assault on traditional values. It is a cleverly marketed bait and switch.”

Meet the new boss….
Amanda Schaffer, writing in SLATE:

“Eric Keroack is a Massachusetts obstetrician-gynecologist who argues that abstinence until marriage is the only healthy choice for women. Until recently, he served as medical director of a pregnancy-counseling organization that runs down contraception and gives out scientifically false health information—for instance, that condoms ‘offer virtually no protection’ against herpes or HPV. Keroack also promotes a wacky piece of pseudoscience: the claim that premarital sex disrupts brain chemistry so as to create a physiological barrier to happy marriage…. Keroack's appointment, as deputy assistant secretary of population affairs within the Department of Health and Human Services, did not require congressional approval.”

Headline of the month
“Humans 'Taste' Like Bacon, Robot Says”

What the…?
The former Russian spy supposedly poisoned by polonium? According to Wikipedia, polonium is “a very rare element in nature, polonium is found in uranium ores at about 100 micrograms per metric ton (1:1010). Its natural abundance is approximately 0.2% of radium's.” Why would a poisoner pick this particular highly exotic weapon? Wouldn’t cyanide have done the trick?

On the other hand, you apparently don’t need much polonium to do the trick. Again, according to Wiki, just 525 microcuries of it will kill you. A microcurie is one millionth of a gram. Oh, and polonium was named by Madame Curie herself, as a salute to her native Poland. And now you know… the REST of the story.

From christianitytoday.com:
“I don't mean to sound like Chicken Little (or Turkey Lurkey?), but the one day set aside to contemplate our blessings and their divine origin has, in one generation, been reduced to a football orgy and now, for football widows, a jumpstart on the biggest shopping day of the year as more stores open on the sacred Thursday.”

We spent Thanksgiving with friends, watching a Discovery Channel marathon of bizarre survival stories. The dread wife proclaimed the day “Sharksgiving,” and a jolly sated time was had by all. We gave thanks that we were not trapped in the jungle with no shoes, or clinging weakly to the side of a raft as sharks slowly encroached our personal space. Pecan pie!

On Friday we did not shop. It’s a good thing we didn’t: Friday’s high web traffic disrupted the sites of Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, and Walt Disney.

Oh shut up the both of you.
Charles Krauthammer: “Borat is many things: a sidesplitting triumph of slapstick and scatology, a runaway moneymaker and budding franchise, the worst thing to happen to Kazakhstan since the Mongol hordes, and, as columnist David Brooks astutely points out, a supreme display of elite snobbery reveling in the humiliation of the hoaxed hillbilly.”

From WIRED, more creepy news disguised as chipper portent of the future:
What if you could one day unlock your door or access your bank account by simply “thinking" your password? Too far out? Perhaps not.

Researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, are exploring the possibility of a biometric security device that will use a person's thoughts to authenticate her or his identity.


Fake or jake? You decide.
Quoted by Patt Morrison in THE HUFFINGTON POST:

"I would like to send my condolences out to Catherine Altman, Robert Altmans wife, as well as all of his immediate family, close friends, co-w.orkers, and all of his inner circle.

"I feel as if I've just had the wind knocked out of me and my heart aches.

"If not only my heart but the heart of Mr. Altman's wife and family and many fellow actors/artists that admire him for his work and love him for making people laugh whenever and however he could..

"Robert altman made dreams possible for many independent aspiring filmmakers, as well as creating roles for countless actors.

"I am lucky enough to of been able to work with Robert Altman amongst the other greats on a film that I can genuinely say created a turning point in my career.

"I learned so much from Altman and he was the closest thing to my father and grandfather that I really do believe I've had in several years.

"The point is, he made a difference.

"He left us with a legend that all of us have the ability to do.

"So every day when you wake up.

"Look in the mirror and thank god for every second you have and cherish all moments.

"The fighting, the anger, the drama is tedious.

"Please just take each moment day by day and consider yourself lucky to breathe and feel at all and smile. Be thankful.

"Life comes once, doesn't 'keep coming back' and we all take such advantage of what we have.

"When we shouldn't..... '

"Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of yourselves' (12st book) -everytime there's a triumph in the world a million souls hafta be trampled on.-altman Its true. But treasure each triumph as they come.

"If I can do anything for those who are in a very hard time right now, as I'm one of them with hearing this news, please take advantage of the fact that I'm just a phone call away.

God Bless, peace and love always.

Thank You,

"BE ADEQUITE"

Lindsay Lohan

Finally, oh brave new world, by by.
AP: “An East Tennessee county that has beamed live 24-hour video from its jail on the Internet for nearly six years may nix the practice following complaints of harassment and security concerns.

“Some viewers have been using the cameras to harass female jailers by calling them on the telephone and taunting them as they work, according to Anderson County sheriff's officials.

Talk about unintended consequences! Is there a difference between government surveillors and private sector voyeurs? They’re both looking for different things, I suppose, but both must get a thrill when they find exactly what they’re looking for.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Shoales ... this is 'yer pal' in Hayward. Heard the piece on virtually everything virtual on KQED this morning and LOLed! (LedOL to be grammatically correct ...)

Have been probing around your various and sundry sites and can't find it.

Will you post it @ dbmt.blogspot.com?

Please do ... I want to circulate it to my friends and family ... I am a masocist... hmmm...

Ian Osticasm

5:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Merle Kessler wrote:
> Headline of the month
> “Humans 'Taste' Like Bacon, Robot Says”

So, we're safe, until scientists come up with robots who LIKE bacon.

-D.E.

8:03 PM  

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