Fri - December 29, 2006

Update your feeds! 


The RSS file has moved. I've updated the blog software to Wordpress, and the RSS URL has (out of necessity) changed to:

http://www.toast442.org/feed

If you're reading this, you've still got the old one. 

Posted at 04:26 PM     Permalink  

Sun - October 15, 2006

Roomba monkey 


Check out this über-creepy monkey head mounted on a Roomba. I'm going to have nightmares for a week.

Link  

Posted at 09:27 PM     Permalink  

Wed - September 27, 2006

Hosting sucks... 


Is this thing on ... I hate switching providers - everything breaks for a bit. If this makes it up there, I'll be super surpsrised.

Update: Well slap me silly - it appears everything is back to normal. OK I admit - it was easier than I thought. 

Posted at 12:36 AM     Permalink  

Wed - August 30, 2006

Daily Kos put to sleep... 


Daily Kos used to be my favorite place to get fairly solid reporting on political news. Yes, the thing is ridiculously skewed toward the liberal side of the fence and I tend to fence-sit, but the overall news gathering and digging really stood out with good links to source material and whatnot.

However, there's been a downward trend toward inanity there, which finally pushed me over the edge today. The straw that broke the camel's back was this one where there's an entire article and 300+ comments devoted to proving once and for all that the idiot Lieberman's new campaign ad shows a sunset ("a metaphor for the end of his senate career?") instead of the obviously intended sunrise.

They've got someone digging up the original source material from Getty and lengthly, apparently serious, discussions of such important issues as:

1. This can't be a sunrise because only sunsets cause red sky glow

2. Where this picture was taken couldn't be a sunrise because the beach faces the wrong way

3. The found original source isn't really the right one, there's a slightly different one that is a better fit

4. Much mirth at Lieberman's campaign manager who initially insisted that it was, indeed, a sunrise.

This goes on and on. As I read, I realized that these people were completely out of it. This is but one example of the idiocy that now typifies any given day at dkos. I can't take it any more. The bad outweighs the good and it's too time consuming to sort through the crap there.

Buh bye. 

Posted at 04:01 PM     Permalink  

Wed - September 28, 2005

Screech 


Screeching Woman
I was reading some blogs this morning, and came across this ad on one (VERY) conservative site. It's for a conservative dating company (whatever) but what's up with the screeching loony pictured? Is that really attractive? It looks like she giving some poor liberal anti-war hippie a beat down to show her new conservative mate that she's committed to the cause. Maybe if she didn't look like she's about to decapitate someone she wouldn't need a dating service.

And who approved the use of that stock photo for this company? Yikes. 

Posted at 10:21 AM     Permalink  

Tue - September 6, 2005

Goodbye Little Buddy 


Bob Denver, aka Gilligan dead at 70. He's to be buried in a coconut casket made by the professor. 

Posted at 02:57 PM     Permalink  

Tue - August 30, 2005

Americans Are Idiots? 


Check out this article from the NY Times (ridiculous registration required.) It's about a survey conducted regularly for the past 30 years by Jon Miller at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. Get this:
Dr. Miller's data reveal some yawning gaps in basic knowledge. American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.
Read that last sentence again.
TWENTY PERCENT OF ADULT AMERICANS THINK THE SUN REVOLVES AROUND THE EARTH. I can almost forgive the molecules and DNA - but the DAMN SUN?

I now know how people can wholeheartedly endorse such crap as intelligent design. They actually are completely uninformed, and probably don't even know it. UN - FREAKING - BELIEVEABLE. 

Posted at 12:30 PM     Permalink  

Wed - August 24, 2005

More On Pat Robertson 


Pat Robertson's Getting Older
Check out this freaking senile old weasel! On CNN.com today there's an article in which Robertson claims:
"I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping; there are a number of ways to take out a dictator from power besides killing him. I was misinterpreted by the AP, but that happens all the time,"
Didn't say assassination, huh? Watch this video, then continue reading.


Done? Good. It doesn't get any clearer than that. What the hell is this old fool thinking? We have him ON VIDEO for Christ's sake. He's outright LYING to the press about his comments.
"If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it," said Robertson on Monday's program. "It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war."
If you think I'm messing with the video, see CNN's version in the article linked above.


This moron is a complete and utter lunatic. Anyone who supports this idiot has seriously got a screw loose. He's called for dropping a nuke on the state department, indirectly called for the deaths of three supreme court justices, and now this. This guy has lost his mind, I believe literally. Someone needs to get him back to his nursing home and crank up the meds.

And to think this man was a semi-serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination back in '88. Very scary.

Update later in the afternoon: This guy really is some piece of work. First we have "If he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think we really ought to go ahead and do it." Then the very next day, "I didn't say 'assassination'," despite unambiguous video evidence to the contrary. Now we have "Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement." Well, gee, isn't that special. I'm glad that one of this country's so-called religious leaders clarified his position on assassinating other heads of state. What a jerk. 

Posted at 12:32 PM     Permalink  

Tue - August 23, 2005

America's Taliban 


Pat Robertson has officially jumped the shark - on national television he called for the assassination of Venezuela's President Chavez. Yes, he wants the US to kill the leader of another sovereign country. He's not harboring terrorists. He hasn't threatened to nuke DC. He isn't amassing troops on our borders. He does, however, have a big old pile of oil and likes Castro just a little too much.

Like or hate Chavez, this kind of talk is precisely the thing that lots of people bash Muslims for - the fatwas and whatnot. Yet here we have a mainstream so-called Christian leader calling for the assassination of another human being. How is this any different? All these religious nutcases are of the same cloth.

Disgusting.

Link to CNN article. 

Posted at 09:34 AM     Permalink  

Mon - August 22, 2005

Tylenol Commercial 


Thanks to Tivo, I don't see too many commercials, but tonight I was semi-paying attention and out of the corner of my eye saw this screen completely filled with a pore-revealing close-up of some woman shot by a semi-drunken baboon. It was for Tylenol. The woman went on to explain that she gets a lot of headaches "almost every day" and that she used to just take whatever was laying around to alleviate the pain. But then she learned that aspirin could cause problems with her stomach - problems she couldn't even feel! And she says - "I'm not OK with that." So she started taking Tylenol and now life is all peaches and clean toilets.

What strikes me as really freaking strange about this is that she says she gets headaches almost every day. But somehow this concerns her not one whit. It's the theoretical damage to her stomach that gives her sleepless nights. That brain tumor keeps growing in her frontal lobe, but at least her stomach is A-OK!

Just nobody tell her about the damage to her liver that could be occurring by taking the stupid Tylenol every damn day. She wouldn't be OK with that.

I personally nominate this for the dumbest commercial of the year.

Update: Check it out! An actual copy of the commercial. (2.0 MiB, Quicktime) 

Posted at 09:33 PM     Permalink  

Fri - May 27, 2005

Banning Pointy Knives in Britain 


I can hardly believe that this isn't a joke article. But it's on CNN's website. Doctors in Britain are calling for the banning of large pointed kitchen knives. That is, no more traditional chef knives. In the kitchen. The knife is the most popular murder weapon in Britain, and the claim is made that the easy availability of the pointy kitchen knife makes impulse killings fueled by alcohol or, perhaps, stupidity far too easy.

They propose replacing these culinary killing machines with blunt-nosed varieties, saying that there is no need for sharp pointy objects in the kitchen. They even surveyed 10 whole chefs to prove it. Ten! So that's settled, then. Seriously, what's next? If the knives are banned, it will be heavy blunt objects that go next - until we're all drinking soup from plastic disposable bowls and playing nerf cricket. 

Posted at 09:56 AM     Permalink  

Fri - April 15, 2005

Tom DeLay Comes Out Against Your Right to Privacy 


Tom DeLay (R-LaLa Land) has got more problems than you can shake a pointed stick at, and he's not helping himself based on his latest rumblings. Yes, he's finally apologized for calling for the impeachment of federal justices with whom he disagreed with regarding the Schiavo nonsense. And while the press is slobbering over these statements, he goes off again on the judiciary:
"I blame Congress over the last 50 to 100 years for not standing up and taking its responsibility given to it by the Constitution. The reason the judiciary has been able to impose a separation of church and state that's nowhere in the Constitution is that Congress didn't stop them. The reason we had judicial review is because Congress didn't stop them. The reason we had a right to privacy is because Congress didn't stop them.(Italics mine)"
Yes, you read that right: Tom DeLay thinks that your right to privacy shouldn't exist; wouldn't exist except for those activist judges. What kind of crack is this guy smoking? Who the hell is against privacy? At least the first two items he quoted has some semblance of support from some loony portion of the population. But privacy? I doubt you'd find many people outside some power-hungry politicians and nutjob law enforcement types that just can't stand the fact they can't go through your mail legally that would endorse stripping citizens of their right to privacy. (Well, that is, definitely not in such a bold way, anyhow. Small erosions of our privacy are happening every damn day.)


This guy is seriously dangerous. He sees his way out of the countless ethics violations heaped on him: he's directing everyone's attention to some non-problem that few people support but that can severely damage our government. In fact, check out this incredible non-denial of his own problems. He doesn't give a shit, really (from the Salon War Room):
DeLay also answered a couple questions about his alleged ethics violations, saying, "This stuff that's in the press is frivolous." But when Washington Times reporter Charles Hurt pressed the issue and asked if DeLay had ever "crossed the line of ethical behavior," DeLay turned a bit more demure. "Ever," he said, "is a very strong word."
 

Posted at 01:26 PM     Permalink  

Fri - April 1, 2005

Ms. Wheelchair Stripped of Title for Standing 


This reads like something from The Onion. This CNN article gives a quick story about Janeal Lee, who won the Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin pageant and was on her way to the nationals before being stripped of her title for appearing in a picture standing up.
Candidates for the crown have to "mostly be seen in the public using their wheelchairs or scooters," said Judy Hoit, Ms. Wheelchair America's treasurer.

"Otherwise you've got women who are in their wheelchairs all the time and they get offended if they see someone standing up. We can't have title holders out there walking when they're seen in the public."
Bizarre. CNN.com doesn't do April Fool's Day articles, do they?
 

Posted at 08:52 AM     Permalink  

Thu - March 24, 2005

More Worrying Intelligent Design Nonsense 


This opinion piece from Jay Mathews in the Washington Post is yet another in a long string of articles that have been appearing in the mainstream press over the past few months. Like the others, this piece has the author claiming that he sees no problem with teaching ID and the theory of evolution side by side. He says this is ok because students and teachers alike get a lot out of comparing and contrasting these two theories.

To be fair, Mr. Mathews seems like he comes down fairly on the side of science when talking about this, but it's hard to tell here. He's treating ID like it has some sort of near-equivalency with evolution. The problem is that, of course, it doesn't. I'm cool with teaching the history of theories that didn't make it when talking about evolution. Hell - go all Lamarckian on the little punks - at least it was a valid theory in it's day. Heck, even where there is some real debate about the theories there is no real problem teaching all sides. But this ID crap is nothing but religion wrapped in pseudo-science. It's not an alternate theory of how life came to be. Keep it out of the classroom please. 

Posted at 07:57 PM     Permalink  

Sat - March 19, 2005

Science is Losing 


Check out this article in the NY Times. It says that several IMAX theaters - including some in science museums - are refusing to show films that mention evolution, the Big Bang, or even the geology of the Earth. All for fear that there may be protesters against these films because they contradict Biblical teachings. Let me rephrase: Science museums are refusing to show films for fear of religious nutcases. Where the hell are we, the Taliban's Afghanistan? From the article:
The number of theaters rejecting such films is small, people in the industry say - perhaps a dozen or fewer, most in the South. But because only a few dozen Imax theaters routinely show science documentaries, the decisions of a few can have a big impact on a film's bottom line - or a producer's decision to make a documentary in the first place.
This is getting out of hand. I think we need a hardcore gang of protesters that are funded to protest outside of these churches for teaching things that make them sound dumb. This country is going back to the Dark Ages.
 

Posted at 02:01 PM     Permalink  

















©