March 27, 2014
Spitfire Needs a Caption
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March 02, 2014
A Simple Chicken-Egg Problem
Via Instapundit, comes a report on how a mobile phone application is creating sociopaths...
Umm...no, but let us look at this for a moment.
So we have an app that will generate a series of sensitive, caring, supportive, text messages and send them to your significant other. This free one up to not worry about such things.
The article takes the position that these applications are turning us into monsters...
No.
Assuming the app is not an elaborate joke, then this is an app that is aimed at callous, duplicitous people and it certainly facilitates their jackassery, but it's not causing them to be that way.
Of course this app is probably not going to work for very long...A significant other is not a tamagoutchi. This is doubly true of the women it seems primarily intended to deceive.
Bro-Ap is a tool designed by sociopaths for sociopaths or perhaps is the product of some socially maladroit IT workers whose autism spectrum disorder kept them from groking why this is not the key to human interaction. It is a creepy bit of software, but it is not some ring of corruption.
It may even have an upside in the age of social media.
That one is using this program WILL come out eventually. Perhaps it will send cheerful texts after a fight or personal tragedy. Especially if the victim is a woman, it will eventually send out a detectable nonsequiter...at which point Facebook and Twitter enter into the picture.
You see, having this app on ones phone is pretty much a red flag of asshattery. Once one is caught using this in an actual romantic relationship (there might be defensible applications I'm not seeing) then one is going to find oneself on the very soon to be developed web page of CONFIRMED BRO-AP (and similar tools) USERS. Very soon young ladies in he know will check their prospective beau's number or twitter handle against that database as a first step and well.....
...The world will be made better through technology.
It is good that reporters are informing us of these things, but technology is what we make of it. Despite breathless speculation by technology ethicists looking to justify their degrees, computer programs and inanimate objects are neither good nor evil. In fact they have no alignment at all.
...well usually.
Via Instapundit, comes a report on how a mobile phone application is creating sociopaths...
Umm...no, but let us look at this for a moment.
First, some quick background on how BroApp works: It not only sends scheduled texts, but comes preloaded with 12 messages to help users get started. The developers also took steps to conceal the automation going on behind the scenes; in places designated "no bro zones,†the app is automatically disabled. (After all, the jig is up if your girlfriend received an automatic text from you while you’re at her place.) The app even has a rating system that lowers the risk of the same message being sent too frequently.
So we have an app that will generate a series of sensitive, caring, supportive, text messages and send them to your significant other. This free one up to not worry about such things.
The article takes the position that these applications are turning us into monsters...
No.
Assuming the app is not an elaborate joke, then this is an app that is aimed at callous, duplicitous people and it certainly facilitates their jackassery, but it's not causing them to be that way.
Of course this app is probably not going to work for very long...A significant other is not a tamagoutchi. This is doubly true of the women it seems primarily intended to deceive.
Bro-Ap is a tool designed by sociopaths for sociopaths or perhaps is the product of some socially maladroit IT workers whose autism spectrum disorder kept them from groking why this is not the key to human interaction. It is a creepy bit of software, but it is not some ring of corruption.
It may even have an upside in the age of social media.
That one is using this program WILL come out eventually. Perhaps it will send cheerful texts after a fight or personal tragedy. Especially if the victim is a woman, it will eventually send out a detectable nonsequiter...at which point Facebook and Twitter enter into the picture.
You see, having this app on ones phone is pretty much a red flag of asshattery. Once one is caught using this in an actual romantic relationship (there might be defensible applications I'm not seeing) then one is going to find oneself on the very soon to be developed web page of CONFIRMED BRO-AP (and similar tools) USERS. Very soon young ladies in he know will check their prospective beau's number or twitter handle against that database as a first step and well.....
...The world will be made better through technology.
It is good that reporters are informing us of these things, but technology is what we make of it. Despite breathless speculation by technology ethicists looking to justify their degrees, computer programs and inanimate objects are neither good nor evil. In fact they have no alignment at all.
...well usually.
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February 24, 2014
Well, As Excuses Go
This probably should win some sort of award.
We've heard about the terrible smog problem in many Chinese cities and many of us assumed that it was a combination ofthe sheer scale of China's industrialization, perverse incentives, and corruption hindering enforcement of existing laws.
Well, it turns out we were wrong. They MEANT to do that.
We've heard about the terrible smog problem in many Chinese cities and many of us assumed that it was a combination ofthe sheer scale of China's industrialization, perverse incentives, and corruption hindering enforcement of existing laws.
Well, it turns out we were wrong. They MEANT to do that.
Thick smog is the best defence against US laser weapons, a Chinese military chief has declared on national television.
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February 13, 2014
Signs and Portents
As unwelcome as last weeks pronouncement was, we really should cut Punxsutawney Phil some slack.
Via Colleen Doran
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January 29, 2014
What the HELL Was THAT!?
I just watched Megan Kelly do a 5 or 6 minute segment on a family being tormented by demons. Apparently social services went to some ladies house to sieze her kids and decided against it on the grounds that they came to believe that the mother was not at fault. They and the accompanying police officers determined that the children's injuries were actually caused by poltergeists or demons or some other ectoplasmic annoyances that do not belong on an actual news show.
Look...Ms. Kelley...if you're going to go all Discovery Channel on us just bite the bullet and interview Bat Child....or switch to hosting Red Eye.
"Whut?"
Look...Ms. Kelley...if you're going to go all Discovery Channel on us just bite the bullet and interview Bat Child....or switch to hosting Red Eye.
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January 13, 2014
Some Advice for Jamie Stiehm
Full disclosure:
I'm not a Catholic. I'm a Methodist...we're way removed from those Catholic types because we got excommunicated from the Anglican Church over several disagreements of which ordaining ministers in the rebellious 13 colonies was the final straw...though a strong strain of what would later be called Disestablishmentarianism probably did not help. I mention this for two reasons....
First: I have for years tried to work the word antidisestablishmentarianism into a post and the above mention of its polar opposite is probably the closest I'll ever get.
Second: For the purposes of this post I need to assure my readers that that as far as I'm concerned them thar Catholics are all infidels and I am not being manipulated, threatened or brainwashed by papist puppeteers.
AUUUGH...He's taking about, politics...AND religion...in the same post. Now I'll NEVER have any friends!
more...
Full disclosure:
I'm not a Catholic. I'm a Methodist...we're way removed from those Catholic types because we got excommunicated from the Anglican Church over several disagreements of which ordaining ministers in the rebellious 13 colonies was the final straw...though a strong strain of what would later be called Disestablishmentarianism probably did not help. I mention this for two reasons....
First: I have for years tried to work the word antidisestablishmentarianism into a post and the above mention of its polar opposite is probably the closest I'll ever get.
Second: For the purposes of this post I need to assure my readers that that as far as I'm concerned them thar Catholics are all infidels and I am not being manipulated, threatened or brainwashed by papist puppeteers.
AUUUGH...He's taking about, politics...AND religion...in the same post. Now I'll NEVER have any friends!
That's why we put these things below the fold....
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After the Polar Vortex...
...what ever could be next?
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January 01, 2014
In the Interest of Being All Multicultural and Stuff...
We've decided to bring in a guest today from....
...
...
I'm sorry...WHAT!?
...
...
I'm sorry...WHAT!?
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December 31, 2013
There is no Fighting It
The inexorable advance of time will catch you.
Happy 2014 everybody.
...and it can be mean.
Happy 2014 everybody.
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December 15, 2013
Oh, So THAT Explains it....Wait, No It Doesnt!
So a friend sent me this the other day asking the perfectly logical question "Whaa...?" To which my response was "Derp."
It appears to be traditional Chinese, and appears to be about the Christmas story so one would guess that it's a Sunday school flyer except for the little matter of Pinky Pie there glaring at the savior....
Fortunately, Suburban Banshee is on this...
more...
It appears to be traditional Chinese, and appears to be about the Christmas story so one would guess that it's a Sunday school flyer except for the little matter of Pinky Pie there glaring at the savior....
Fortunately, Suburban Banshee is on this...
more...
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October 31, 2013
STOCK UP!
Via Instapundit comes the terrifying news that a bunch of California NIMBYs are conspiring to get the Huy Fong Foods factory shut down.
They make Sriracha.
Looks like I'll have to keep a ready bag of the stuff in the trunk for when I to to pho' shops.
The only good thing about this odious development is that stocking up on these has no downside...I'll have a chilli stockpile which I can use even if the situation improves. This is is stark contrast to what happened when I got burned after that Hostess fiasco and found myself holding a freezerfull of Twinkies I had not unloaded before the underground Twinkie market collapsed when the company reorganized.
Of course commodities speculation is always fraught with peril.
They make Sriracha.
Looks like I'll have to keep a ready bag of the stuff in the trunk for when I to to pho' shops.
The only good thing about this odious development is that stocking up on these has no downside...I'll have a chilli stockpile which I can use even if the situation improves. This is is stark contrast to what happened when I got burned after that Hostess fiasco and found myself holding a freezerfull of Twinkies I had not unloaded before the underground Twinkie market collapsed when the company reorganized.
Of course commodities speculation is always fraught with peril.
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October 14, 2013
Well...I Guess That My Window of Opertunity....
...to purchase Taken by the T-Rex has passed.
Via Instapundit we learn that Amazon, B&N and other E-Book publishers are removing all self published E-Books from their virtual shelves, while they go through them and discover if there is any designated naughtiness amongst them.
This is a gut-punch to the self published E-book industry and hurts a lot of authors. I certainly carry no brief for the subject matter and would not gripe if Amazon instituted a "no incest" policy, but this sweeping action is both lazy and hurtful. If it continues it will kill an emerging industry.
Via Instapundit we learn that Amazon, B&N and other E-Book publishers are removing all self published E-Books from their virtual shelves, while they go through them and discover if there is any designated naughtiness amongst them.
Their statement ends with the conclusion that the website will be operational again "once all self published eBooks have been removed and we are totally sure that there are no offending titles available.†When that will be, they did not say.
This is a gut-punch to the self published E-book industry and hurts a lot of authors. I certainly carry no brief for the subject matter and would not gripe if Amazon instituted a "no incest" policy, but this sweeping action is both lazy and hurtful. If it continues it will kill an emerging industry.
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October 05, 2013
One of These Does Not Belong
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September 15, 2013
The Twin Terrors Of Twitter
Pity Robert Stacy McCain. He is beset by vast quantities of Twitterspam and is noting a pattern that distinguishes it from comment or E-mail spam.
Like a surprising number of RSM links these are mildly NSFW.
Like a surprising number of RSM links these are mildly NSFW.
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September 05, 2013
Ace has Discovered
...the root cause of his problems.
I urge you to go and read the whole thing. But remember. His was not the worst fate. Some of us had our childhoods beset by Malt-O'-Meal.
I urge you to go and read the whole thing. But remember. His was not the worst fate. Some of us had our childhoods beset by Malt-O'-Meal.
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What's Wrong With This Forecast?
So..In the mad dash between work and class I encountered a report on the Weather Channel.
It seems that Tropical Storm Gabrielle is bringing horrendous flooding to Hispaniola and particularly Puerto Rico...but is unlikely to affect the United States in any way.
Ummmm.....
It seems that Tropical Storm Gabrielle is bringing horrendous flooding to Hispaniola and particularly Puerto Rico...but is unlikely to affect the United States in any way.
Ummmm.....
"Well, It ain't the Geography Channel"
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September 01, 2013
Yeah. Looks Legit.
GASP!
Here's the thing.
I had like 14 tabs open and was looking for info on cycler times between Earth and the main belt so I have NO idea what site this pop-up spam scam was lurking on...but I gather that they're preying on space geeks.
Here's the thing.
I had like 14 tabs open and was looking for info on cycler times between Earth and the main belt so I have NO idea what site this pop-up spam scam was lurking on...but I gather that they're preying on space geeks.
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August 22, 2013
A Practical Demonstration of the Correct Delivery Method of a Convocation Speech at a United States Engineering College
One of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes shares her thoughts on this presentation..
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August 09, 2013
Definitions Are Important
For example: What is a loaded gun?
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August 02, 2013
But Nobody Reads the TOS
Given that it is a group blog by a bunch of lawyers, I was surprised to learn the extent to which the terms of service at the Volokh Conspiracy are much shorter and straightforward than most.
And yet......
And yet......
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