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Multiple studies show – acupuncture helps headaches about the same as placebo acupuncture. You can perform acupuncture and stick the needles in all the wrong places, and you still get the same benefits as doing it right. Which is to say, barely better than pills. It helps, but the power primarily seems to be a placebo effect in your mind, and not a dependence on ancient, accurate acupuncture. Save yourself some money and just stick needles in yourself yourself?
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That's what happens when black people call white police. This is happening over and over again — call the police for help, have them hurt you more than the actual criminal who was there. This is not the first time, and it won't be the last. But it does seem to happen almost exclusively to people of color.
HOWEVER, this is the first time I know of where the victim has been a cop. This is going to make things interesting — now both parties' testimony may actually be considered equally.
And of course, the name of the cop beat by cops is released, but the name of the cops who beat the cop is not. The cop who was beaten had his gun and badge taken away, but it seems that no action has been taken against the cops who beat the cop.
Wow. The police state here is getting so fucked up that even being a cop doesn't save you.
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In case you missed it, there is a comic called Henry & Glenn, that is about Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig being gay lovers. Here is another related comic, Hilarious.
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Very very odd! Also, somewhat vindicating. KEEP ON DRINKIN'.
Of course, this is really only true for people who already made it to age 55 and have gone to the hospital at least once. In other words, people who have health insurance and didn't die of alcoholism at a younger age :)
The real conclusion seems to be: "Heavy Drinkers who have lived to the age of 55 outlive Nondrinkers, that have lived to the age of 55, although moderate drinking still shows the best survival rate, after the age of 55."
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Hmm. Cool guy.
August 2010
August 31, 2010
August 30, 2010
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HAHAHA
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Things I DON'T want for Christmas anymore.
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Good! These things are food, not pets. They kill people every year, and cause 10s of 1000s of accidents every year. They cause our cars to be totaled, give us lyme disease, and increase EVERYBODY'S car insurance rates. STOP FEEDING THEM.
Here's a restriction I can get behind!
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Of course this is in the south – Arkansas. His mother says "he's really a good guy who made a mistake". No, when you are an officer of the law, using racial slurs is not simply "a mistake". You are not just a person when you are a cop, you represent the government. The government can't be calling people racial slurs. You lose. No donut for you, racist. No cop job for you. You should not be a cop anywhere else ever again. Get a clue, Cheryl Edgmon.
This is why cops are arresting people for videotaping them — they don't want the truth to come out.
And the asshole is wasting even more taxpayer money by appealing his firing: Hey, if YOU got fired, would YOU be able to have a taxpayer-funded appeals process? No, didn't think so. The system protects its own — which allows racism to continue to flourish.
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Yup. Christian groups say that bullies should be allowed to bully and discriminate against gays. If you don't think gay schoolchildren should be assaulted by christians and called a faggot, you're "pushing the gay agenda". Please tell me how Christianity is helping these peoples' lives?
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He went to a restaurant and didn't get the order he wanted. He allegedly told the people they were going to jail for not refunding his money. He called other police over, and got in their face when they wouldn't arrest him. Even though he was already on paid leave for a brain injury, he was ultimately stripped of police power.
But he refused to turn in his guns and badges! They had to serve a search warrant on his house to make him return items he should not legally have had at that moment! How is that not an arrestable offense? What a douchebag!
Police Chief Herman Nixon sounds like a reasonable guy. He sent a form to the state board notifying the board that Graham may have violated Arizona law. Yes — I think when a job suspends you and says that your taxpayer-funded firearm must be returned — and you don't — that that should constitute a crime.
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Wow. I've been using ATI graphics cards with TV out pretty exclusively for 15 years. My only foray into another company [Asus] resulted in my only-ever computer fire, which I had to put out pantsless. Really, the lineup isn't going away, it's just changing names to AMD. Still, it's the end of an era.
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Damn you, tumblr. It's like you were made for collections of inane pictures. Damn you, internet. It's like you were made to steal my soul, and make me enjoy the process!
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I always feel guilty throwing away my pickle juice, because I know it's edible, has more nutrition than plain water, and of course–I paid for it, and fuel was used to deliver it to me. Finally, a page saying what you can do with that leftover pickle juice!
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For the racists out there… Yes, the problem is religion. No, this doesn't mean everyone who's religious is a terrorist.
August 29, 2010
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So, did we really win the civil war?
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All cats. All animated GIFs. All the time.
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Yes: Allowing the government to dictate what consenting adults can do on their own private property is a bad thing. And opening the door to the public shouldn't make it so you lose even more property owner rights! It's seemingly impossible to get this through peoples' heads.
Not being able to drink alcohol? Ludicrous. But hey, this is the smoking ban / nanny government mentality. "What you do is harming me, even though I'm not forced to go there. I must petition the government to stop what you are doing!"
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But.. but.. but… people who believe in conspiracy theories are lame! They shouldn't believe such silly things!
Oh, wait. -
I remember when the Obamicons told me that Obama's new policy of ending raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in states where it is legal — would actually constitute hope and change. Wrong. The fear of prosecution is still there, and the raids haven't stopped. LIKE I SAID.
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… Wow.
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News flash: Cops can shoot their kids and not go to jail.
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RELIGION: Ian Gurvitz: 10 Wrong Questions and False Arguments That Frame Our Thinking About ReligionAmen.
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Another page devoted to our lost brother Dirk Smiler – this one specifically for audio and video
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The police in our country pretty much get to make up what is legal and what isn't. Does legislation even matter anymore? Sure doesn't seem like it. This is bullshit.
Salisbury Police Officer Mark Hunter is an unamerican dick.
District Court Judge Beth Dixon should preferably renounce her citizenship and go live in a real authoritarian state, and see what it's like to be on the receiving end of asshole decision makers like herself.
August 28, 2010
THIS BLOG: Reaches 800,000 hits on 8/28/2010.
Posted by Claire CJS under Clio, Computer, Journal, People[4] Comments
I hit 800,000 views today. (23 days after my predicted 30-day window).
I hit 700,000 on 1/21/2010. (17 days before my predicted 30-day window).
I hit 600,000 on 7/7/2009. (within 1 week of vague “June” prediction).
I hit 500,000 on 12/4/2008. (no prediction)
I hit 400,000 on 5/24/2008. (27 days past prediction)
I hit 300,000 on 2/13/2008. (1 day before prediction)
So:
300K-400K took 3.5 months,
400K-500K took 6 months,
500K-600K took 7 months,
600K-700K took 6 months.
700K-800K took 7.5 months.
Slowest 100,000 in awhile; I’m only getting ~450 hits a day. Things are slowing down a bit — people don’t like movie reviews mixed in with political links. The big decline started around when I started reviewing every movie I watched. Or maybe Google lowered my rank. At this rate of decline, maybe 800K-900K will take a good 8 months? That would put my prediction for hit #900,000 at around 4/28/2011 plus or minus 15 days. We’ll see what happens. I’ve been playing this game for awhile, but it’s getting harder to predict the future!
- ^older snapshot of monthly blog stats – 15,836 is for Jan, 2009
newer 8/2010 snapshot below:
August 28, 2010
VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video[3] Comments
PLOT SUMMARY: A hot tub takes people back to the 1980s. Hilarity ensues.
HAIKU REVIEW: Hot tub time machine
will take you to the 80’s
to relive your life.
UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): I’m going to defer writing a succinct awkward summary in leiu of using this IMDB posting. Way to make a comedy depressing, IYouHeWeShe!
PEOPLE: Co-written by Sean Anders, who wrote and directed Sex Drive and wrote She’s Out Of My League – both excellent comedies. I look forward to his next 3 projects, though one appears to be a remake of Meatballs. (Sure, why not?)
Starring John Cusack (the movie 2012, High Fidelity, Being John Malkovitch, Tapeheads, One Crazy Summer, Better Off Dead, The Sure Thing), Clark Duke (Sex Drive, 64 eps of Greek, and a bit part in Superbad), Craig Robinson (Darryl from The Office, Miss March, Zack And Miri Make A Porno, Pineapple Express, Fanboys, Walk Hard, Knocked Up), Rob Corddry (Lower Learning, Harold In Kumar 2, What Happens In Vegas, Blades Of Glory, Old School).
With smaller parts played by Sebastian Stan, Lyndsy Fonseca (Kick-Ass, How I Met Your Mother), Crispin Glover (Back To The Future, Alice In Wonderland 2010, the movie 9, Beowulf, Epic Movie, Charlie’s Angels, Dead Man, People Vs. Larry Flynt, Wild At Heart, Twister, Friday The 13th:The Final Chapter), Chevy Chase (Saturday Night Live – the golden years), Charlie McDermott (Sex Drive, The Village), Lizzy Caplan (Mean Girls, Cloverfield, 6 eps of True Blood), Collette Wolfe (Observe And Report, 17 Again, Four Christmases, The Foot Fist Way), and Jessica Pare.
QUIRKS: Science fiction. Comedy. Drugs and alcohol. Girls. Skiing. The 1980s.
References Red Dawn. References Better Off Dead (someone yells “I want my $2!” at John Cusack — and I didn’t even notice!). References tons of old 80s movies and music!
VISUALS: 1980s… eyes burning… so many colors. Actually, I liked the way everything looked back then way more than now.
SOUNDTRACK: Lots of great 80’s hits! I’m glad that INXS’s “Need You Tonight” seems to be less popular than “What You Need” these days.
MORALS: Fuck reality. Fuck the butterfly effect. Break rules and seize the yesterday!
BAD STUFF: Not entirely historically accurate, but that really doesn’t matter for comedic purposes. So Poison wasn’t really popular in 1986. So what?
There was a slight lull in the middle when they were smoking the cigar and Clint had to play the scene 3 times because he kept getting distracted. But that doesn’t really count as a true detriment.
Some of the plot was predictable, but comedies are about the voyage, not the destination.
CONCLUSION: The writer from Sex Drive and She’s Out Of My League does not disappoint! This was easily the best comedy we’ve seen all year. Sci-fi and comedy go together so well, and they are such an underplayed combination. Futurama, anybody?
It started out hilarious, and then it continued to be hilarious, and then it didn’t disappoint with a crappy ending… It delivered the whole way through. Lots of laugh out loud moments!
RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 5/5 stars. IMDB: 10/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 5/5 stars. IMDB: 10/10.
Yes, this movie gets a perfect score. Very rare.
The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 6.8/10, Netflix: 3.8/5 stars (Netflix‘s predicted rating for us was 4.6/5 stars–pretty much accurate).
RECOMMENDATION: SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SIMILAR MOVIES: It kind of reminds me of what would happen if the movies 17 Again and Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel had a baby together.
MOVIE QUOTES:
Jacob: [from trailer] Do I really gotta be the asshole who says we got in this thing and went back in time?
Jacob: I’m kinda right in the middle of a thing right now, but can I text you later?
Girl at Club: Can you what?
Jacob: Are you online at all?
Girl at Club: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Jacob: How do I get a hold of you?
Girl at Club: You come find me.
Jacob: That sounds… exhausting.
FRIENDS’ RATINGS: Stacy M said it was pretty funny. Angel liked it, but not as much as The Hangover. (I think it’s equal to or greater than. Hard to say. Both movies were more or less perfect.) In general this was very well received. Ian had good things to say about it. (more…)
August 28, 2010
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I'm kinda anti-vinyl: I think it's archaic, klunky, inferior equalization [but often better dynamics, but that is much more about changes in the industry than changes in format to cd/mp3]. I do love the big cover art, and lyrics sometimes not available on CD or cassette. This, however, is still pretty fucking cool. DEATH RECORD!!!
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Click through for a free Freezepop song…
August 27, 2010
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Animals in disguise, hanging out with animals they don't belong with.
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Make it so that new tabs opened in Chrome are always at the very right.
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Will this be as good as Session Manager is for Firefox?
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Pastor owns a gun. Pastor has a constitutional right to hold his gun on his own property. Pastor has a constitutional right to speak to someone in an unmarked car, and say, "Why the fuck are you on my property?" Cop doesn't have the right to shoot someone not shooting at him. Cop's name, of course, is not released. Your constitutional right to self defense and owning a gun? Not much of a right, if exercising it gets you shot. What happened to the tasers the cops love?
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A great flickr utility. I wanted to download all the photos in a particular set to my harddrive. YES, I already have these photos, but I would have had to manually choose them out of my 14000 photos spread across 1000s of folders and subfolders. It's easier just to download them all again. This is a java web-app [no download] that lets you do just that.
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Gee, I wonder why? Maybe because religion is a cancer to the human species, causing people to base decisions on fairy tales instead of reality?
August 26, 2010
JOURNAL: COMPUTER: 2TB installed and formatted!
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Computer, Hardware, Journal, People, TechnologyLeave a Comment
Moving files-that-I-wouldn’t-mind-losing to new drive as we speak. New total stats (less 80G from 1999 computer in bedroom that is usually turned off):
Total Usable Space: 10,655,142,125,568 9923.4G 9.69T
Total Used Space: 7,471,858,606,080 6958.7G 6.80T
Total Free Space: 3,183,283,519,488 2964.7G 2.90T
Percentage Free (Full): 29.88% (70.12% full)
^ Generated using the “Free” command (“free c: d: e: f: g: h: etc”, I have a “fr.bat’ that is basically free followed by every valid drive letter), and then passed through to “frpost.pl”, a perl script that I use to postprocess the free command, giving gigabyte/terabyte conversions, and a multi-drive total at the bottom. Go past the jump for the code to that perl script, it’s quite useful for prettying up windows output to get a nice total like this.
August 26, 2010
SUBGENIUS: AUDIO: I remixed something! Sorta.
Posted by Claire CJS under Clio, Journal, Media, Music, People, SubGenius[6] Comments
So, I actually remixed a song. Or, rather, a segment of a song.
Fellow SubGenius Orpheus Stain had the idea of doing an Exquisite Corpse audio project — breaking up a long track into 5 parts, and having different people remix each part. I, uh, appropriated samples from The Simps0ns (mainly Lisa tripping, and Marge talking about LSD), Doom (the game), The Three Stooges, and even the Moon8 album (Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon re-done as 8-bit Nintendo music).
Most selections were based on my WAV file collection from the early 1990s… I’m too lazy to actually decide on a sample and then find it; rather I look at what I have and incorporate random things. I’d never done anything like this, and learned how to use the program Mixcraft after determining that CoolEdit wasn’t quite powerful enough for this specific situation.
Anwyay, here’s the original blurb from Orpheus Stain, Ministry Of Slack:
While putting together AlcheMinistry Labs episode 23 : The Chaos! : I came across a track called “JD lives on” from The John Dillinger died for you society on Last.fm. It was a semi-repetitve 7+ minute long piece, but far too predictable to go onto a podcast in honour of Eris Discrodia! I realized, cutting it into 5 pieces and handing them out to anyone who wanted a slice could indeed make it much more chaotic. “JD lives on” is now “John dilinger died for you and is still alive!”.
- Orpheus Stain – 23 Skidoo : instrumental.
- Pontifex Soddi -John Dillinger is processed.
- UUAR UUZARE – Shot down in his tracks.
- Clint — i.e. ME!! — aka Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos – John Dillinger is still alive.
- Orpheus Stain – Dillinger beat the shit out of those motherfucking Illuminati cocksuckers.
- You can download the mp3 here: http://www.divshare.com/download/12360028-d56. A better filename than the default download filename would be “Orpheus Stain, Pontifex Soddi, Erazuu, Clint aka Xanatos – John Dillinger Died For You And Is Still Alive!.mp3”
You can tell where my part begins: The first sample from The Simps0ns.
This message is brought to you by The John Dillinger died for you and is still alive Society. (more…)
August 26, 2010
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Yes, religion causes this. Chilling pictures.
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Wow. Could the hospital have possibly fucked up more than it did? Treating an accident victim so badly that he and his wife feel he has to leave the hospital for his own safety?
And then security guards William Reese and Donovan Scott thought it was acceptable to (allegedly) assault a patient? To deliberately try to inflict more injuries on someone who came there fore lifesaving care? Could they BE more idiotic?
And then the hospital wouldn't let him go with the incorrect ID bracelet — probably because they didn't want to have evidence of their wrongdoing enter a courtroom. That should be considered evidence tampering and witness intimidation. This should become a criminal issue.
$12.7M lawsuit. That's the only way they'll listen. PATIENTS HAVE A BILL OF RIGHTS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Patients%27_Bill_of_Rights — You can refuse treatment. It's YOUR body, and YOUR freedom. (Oh wait – the Democrats haven't been able to get this bill passed, even with majority control…)
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Now we're in trouble; the circuit courts don't agree with each other. This is going to have to go to the supreme court — and that's scary.
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Protecting and serving you, by taking your tax dollars and spending them on killing you. First, they took away guns from people who needed to defend themselves. Then, after those people ran out of supplies, they had the authority to shoot them if they tried to "loot" more supplies. The government protecting and serving. You think this is how it would have gone down in an affluent, all-white area? Hell no.
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We're failing as a country.
August 25, 2010
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Another good account to follow
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Prompted by complaints from people he ticketed – literal highway robbery. Government power: Enemy to the people, unless properly held in check. Surprising to see Texas actually do something about this, what with Texas usually being such a shithole.
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When EFF talks, everyone should listen.
As usual, this is a huge overstepping of bounds by Apple. Microsoft's douchebaggery pales in comparison.
Taking pictures of the users without them knowing, recording your voice when you're not making a call, learning how to identify you by your heartbeat, checking if the phone has been hacked, recording your internet activity? Do Apple people really worship Steve Jobs enough that they would stand up for this shit? Yes, it's like a cult. One I'm glad I left.
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Why is science so slow to cure diseases, when advances make things so promising? This article attempts to answer that. Warning, it's kinda long: 4 "pages".
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All eggs in one basket. What could possibly go wrong?
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They already tried this with infrared scans that let police peer into peoples' homes. And it was ruled unconstitutional. But that's not going to stop them from doing the same thing with cars.
After all, "Driving is a privilege, not a right". (Who defined that anyway? The freeedom to be mobile is inherent to being a human being; but then we set up our suburbs such that it's impossible to get around WITHOUT a car, and thus 9 out of 10 people own a car.)
Just more Big Brother Police State Surveillance Society bullshit, if you ask me. This isn't going to make people safer, it's going to make them less safe: Less safe from the leading incarcerator in the planet: The U.S. government.
American Science & Engineering should change their name…
And nevermind the fact that x-rays are harmful. Every single one of them. If you get scanned 10,000 times — that's not good for you.
Or that legal gun owners will be harassed by cops that scan their guns in their trunks…
Or the 4th Amendment…
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Dinosaurs, whining as they sink into tar pits. I laugh, and light a match.
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KMFDM just announced that they have an official Twitter account.
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Of course, I had already did this. So something that isn't Windows is creating thumbs.db. Grrrr. Is it ifranview?
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These pussy officers — Officer Darren Johnson (suspended without pay for 45 days), and his superior, Captain. William Jennings (resigned), could not control a 94-pound 10-year-old boy without having to taser him (and slap him). And Capt. William Jennings didn't even put in the police report that he slapped the kid. Yes — these guys aren't fit to be cops.
But I'm betting at least one of them will become a cop in another jurisdiction. That's what happens. -
Officer Keenan Lane — an incompetent asshole in my book — also radioed other police to apprehend an armed suspect; despite having taken the toy gun away from O'Banion before O'Banion tried to run away. Running away was dumb, but that doesn't justify police using excessive force on O'Banion.
And the city agreed, by paying $150,000 to him. Because of Officer Keenan Lane's fuckups, the city had to pay. Bad piggie, no donut.
If you have a license for it, Indiana is an open carry state. Which means people have a constitutional right — no less than your right to be a Christian or to vote — to be able to carry guns openly if licensed. But instead of checking for a license, or determining the gun was fake — idiot cop Keenan Lane got into a dangerous footchase with a supposedly "armed suspect". Tempest in a teapot.
This dog has bitten other cops too — and the cops tried to shoot it but missed. They can't control it, try to kill it, but still use the dog against citizens.
August 25, 2010
VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: All Tied Up (1993)
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Media, Movies, People, Reviews, Video1 Comment
[IMDB link] [Netflix link] A full-screen made-for-TV movie that we only found on VHS, with a whopping rating of 4.4/10 on IMDB!
PEOPLE: Zach Galligan (Gremlins), and the lovely Teri Hatcher (Lois & Clark, Desperate Housewives), Lara Harris (The Fisher King), and Tracy Griffith.
QUIRKS: Love. Betrayal. Cheating. Bondage. Female domination. This is a quirky romantic comedy.
VISUALS: The only visual appeal are the three beautiful women. Most everything else in this movie–including the writing–is kind of lacking.
MORALS: Don’t cheat on people. Also: Don’t kidnap people. It’s kind of mean. But apparently, it can save a relationship, if you live in the fictitious world of this movie. :)
BAD STUFF: The budget. The writing. Several plot holes.
CONCLUSION: This movie is saved only by the female domination / bondage / hot chicks / Teri Hatcher angle. Which is exactly why we picked it up anyway…
RATINGS: Netflix: 3/5 stars. IMDB: 6/10 for Clint, 7/10 for Carolyn. Saved by the bondage/Teri Hatcher/hot chick angle
RECOMMENDATION: Not recommended unless these particular quirks appeal to you.
SIMILAR MOVIES: Think “Misery”, but without being creepy. (more…)
August 24, 2010
JOURNAL: DREAM: 20100805: dream 1 of 2: Carolyn falls out of a car
Posted by Claire CJS under Clio, Dreams, Journal, People[3] Comments
Dreamed that Carolyn and I were riding in the back seat of Carolyn’s parents’ car, just like we did in real life to go to our real-life Cape Cod vacation. Carolyn was telling her parents about our real-life argument that we had in real life the previous night before.
Went to bed about this mad
Then, suddenly, Carolyn fell out the window and I saw her hit the ground and roll. We were probably going 45MPH.
Carolyn’s dad didn’t even slow down.
I was quite upset — and had to tell Lowell to stop the car. I think Carolyn survived the accident.
accidents suck
I woke up with a big adrenaline rush, still quite mad from going to be angry, but also quite sad to see Carolyn hurt in my dreams. It helped put the argument we had into perspective; Most dreams aren’t so therapeutic.
Falling sucks. But at least I can be optimistic with validity, since this falling only occurred in a dream.
“Dreams… They’re the hurricanes that wash the soulfilth from the superdome of our nightminds.”
– Xavier:Renegade Angel (more…)
August 24, 2010
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Good article on just how fucked up our justice system is.
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Don't want the government to store a naked picture of you? Don't go through an airport scanner. They lied to us and said the machines weren't capable of saving the images. But now it's come out that they've saved at least ~35000 images so far.
Did nobody see this coming?
I have some laughably authoritarian liberal friends who said that this simply is what we will have to put up with to fly safely in the future, and to "get over with it". Such cowards should start their own airline — I'd rather fly with passengers that aren't so scared of terrorism that they don't feel safe without showing their junk to Big Brother. Such authoritarian liberals need to go back and hang out with Ben Franklin for awhile; authoritarianism is un-America.
Human beings have an inherent right to movement without being constantly surveilled by their government.
I hear fascist DUBAI doesn't allow these, because they are too intrusive. But in the land of the free, it's fine. Oh, horrible irony!
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If you just saw the movie Eyeborgs, seeing this will scare you. Hell, if you've seen Robocop, this should scare you. This is NOT cool. The police are supposed to be civilians, not military. This thing pretty much exceeds the scope of what a civilian can do; this is military technology to be used against the people. Very little good can come of this; very great bad WILL come of this.
Fortunately, this isn't real. Yet. But you can bet it will be. They're already using killer robots on the battlefield. It's only a matter of time (and instability) before this technology is turned against civilians. There's not a military technology in existence that hasn't been used to wipe out civilians.
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I'm only posting this because my yard is FULL of kudzu, so I'm always happy to find out actual uses from this pesky weed. In my case, though, it keeps my backyard from eroding away, so it's actually doing what it was brought here to do. Still, it's a fight against taking over our house every summer. Can't even get into my backyard from the right side of my house right now; kudzu web taller than us!
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Modemac's excellent review of the AdultSwim cartoon Superjail, which is an amazing show that should have lasted longer than it did.
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Linux: Superior in theory, but often failing in practice. No, virtualization and wine doesn't count.
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Awesome. You'd never see something like this in America, where he who has the gold makes the rules. If passed, employers would not be allowed to log workers computes or read their emails. "But I own the computer, wah wah." Too bad. Your ISP owns the computers that your internet traffic goes through, and that doesn't mean that they get to read your email.
Employers can block whatever websites they want — including the entire internet. It is entirely possible to keep people from wasting company time without having to monitor them. Victory for the workers. The owners already own everything. They can already fire whoever they want. They don't need to have videos of us scratching our butt in our offices, or logs of our personal emails. Employers own the phone systems at their work, too, but they aren't allowed to tap your private calls. Same difference here.
August 23, 2010
JOURNAL: DREAM: 20100821: stabbed Carolyn in the back with scissors
Posted by Claire CJS under Clio, Dreams, Journal, People1 Comment
I dreamt Carolyn & I were being held hostage in some hotel room.
The bad guy gets distracted, so I take his gun to try to free us, but then it turns out to just be a gun-shaped piece of metal. WTF, mang!
He’s there, trying to rape/kill/whatever to Carolyn, so I look for another weapon to use against him. I notice this pair of metal scissors — much like the govt-issue scissors I grew up with, but not as big as the Voldo scissors.
I go to stab the guy in the back. I actually opened the scissors up about 4 inches, so that it would make 2 stab wounds instead of one. But then I stupidly stab Carolyn in the back with both scissor prongs (about 0.75 inches deep), despite the fact that it would be obvious, even to a 3 year old, that I was stabbing the wrong back. WTF?!?!
Realizing I wasn’t thinking things through, I finally stab the correct back — the criminal’s. Once they are sticking in his back. I then use both my hands — a flashback to when I recently cut myself with scissors with the strength of both hands — to shove the scissor blades ALL THE WAY INTO the guy’s back. Quite violent. He finally dies. Carolyn & I get the hell out of there.
In the city, we run into Sam Watson, who I recognize within 1 second of turning the corner. The End.
“Dreams… They’re the hurricanes that wash the soulfilth from the superdome of our nightminds.”
-Xavier:Renegade Angel (more…)
August 23, 2010
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Gee, a torture device that leaves no evidence being installed in jails, where there is no accountability for abuse. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? Thank you department of homeland security.
Anyone want to take bets on how long it is until we see a video on youtube of a bunch of people being mercilessly tortured by this device?
They tried to use this in Afghanistan, and decided it was no good, for whatever reason. So of course they will now recoup the development costs by using it on American citizens instead.
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Yup. A crime lab made up that there was blood at crimes they weren't. People went to jail for murder based on lies from the crime lab. And that's the problem with complicated scientific forms of determining guilt: It makes people feel good about justice being served, but in fact they are often unverifiable, like an electronic voting machine. Can you imagine going to jail for the rest of your life for something you didn't do?! They did this for SIXTEEN YEARS.
No actual crime is prevented when your justice system is based on bullshit lies.
Of the 190 particular cases being reviewed, 4 people are on death row, 3 have already been executed, and 5 died in prison.
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A recent Time magazine online poll voted the Church Of The SubGenius as "Fraud of the Century". Awesome!
I had no idea that R. Crumb helped the Church reach popularity…
"fanatical devotion to anti-fanaticism" — good stuff.
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It works both ways, ladies.
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New record-breaking large photo – 70 gigapixels. I looked for distant buildings on the horizon, and zoomed into the level of reading license plates and seeing people. amazing!
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Completely NOT covered by Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, or CBS news. Or NYTimes. The "Old journalism" industry is a bit useless. Get your news online, or you'll only get a subset of what's really happening. TV news, especially, is utterly useless. If you watch your news on TV, you're not being informed; you're just tricking yourself. This happened 3 months ago, and there's still not any articles about it in mainstream media…
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People being tracked like cattle and inventory; no right to privacy; government knowing where you are whenever you go out in public. How about a bomb that goes off when you walk past it? Very easy now. This is not good. No right to privacy. Did Germany learn nothing from its previous exercises in tracking people (with help from IBM) during The Holocaust?
Germans, make sure to microwave your cards so the RFID doesn't work…
August 22, 2010
VIDEO: CARTOONS: REVIEW: Titan Maximum – another cartoon by the makers of Robot Chicken
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Cartoons, Clio, Media, People, Reviews, Video1 Comment
[IMDB link] [Wikipedia link] [Not available on Netflix.]
PEOPLE: Created by Tom Root (Robot Chicken stop-motion animator and producer) and Matthew Seinrich (Robot Chicken creator, writer, and executive producer).
Voices:
Rachel Leigh Cook as Jodi (I’ve never seen a single one of her 43 movies). Eden Espinosa (unknown) as Sasha, who seems to be based on Sasha Grey. Seth Green, of course. Brekin Meyer (Jon in the 2004 Garfield movie, Go, Can’t Hardly Wait, the surfer from Escape From L.A., The Craft, Clueless, Joseph Gribble from King Of The Hill). Dan Milano as Willie Palmer (he was Greg The Bunny in Greg The Bunny! I totally didn’t notice this!). Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian from Star Wars) as Admiral Bitchface.
PLOT SUMMARY: Titan Maximum is basically Voltron, but his program was canceled. But now a new threat requires him to be awakened again. But two members are missing — so they are replaced with a geeky kid, and a stoic monkey.
UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Voltron fails at saving billions of grandparents.
QUIRKS: Voltron parody with a Robot Chicken attitude. Good characters, bit so-so plots. The whole series is, technically, one 9-episode serialized story. It might have worked better as a movie, but then nobody would have watched it. (Hardly anyone did anyway, but hey, that’s because AdultSwim is obscure for a lot of people.)
Sasha seems to possibly be inspired by Sasha Grey. I wish I’d realized that when I was watching this. Now you know, and knowing’s half the battle. To see a bit of what I mean, look at this picture vs this picture.
The monkey… is the most hilarious character I’ve ever seen that never makes an expression or says anything. He just looks straight ahead, calmly, never acknowledging anything. The most he will do is slightly turn his head, or blink an eye. It’s… really hard to understand why it’s so hilarious, but contrasted with every other character’s over-reactions and dramatic talking, his lack of, well, anything — is hilarious.
VISUALS: Stop-motion animation that looks just like Robot Chicken, but with more interesting camera angles.
WILHELM SCREAM: Yup, I think in the last episode! Debbie had emailed me to ask me if I heard a Wilhelm scream in Family Guy the night before, but I hadn’t watched it yet. I got to respond, “No, but I *did* hear it in *other* things I watched that night!”
BAD STUFF: Unfortunately, it just wasn’t as brilliant as Robot Chicken. The plots were a bit thin at times. The humor was always close to grade-A, but the action and story left a bit to be desired. The story was still interesting, but it’s kind of difficult to tell a serialized story in 11 minute chunks. This should have been a 22 minute show, but then it only would have lasted 5 episodes.
CONCLUSION: Definitely worth seeing for Robot Chicken / AdultSwim completists. I mean, it’s only about 2 hours total.
RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 7.4/10 – A “high 7”.
Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10.
No IMDB/Netflix rating — still awaiting 5 votes on IMDB.
RECOMMENDATION: If you don’t require your humor or story to be sophisticated, and want to kill 2 hours watching an adults-only Voltron parody… Here is the only show I know of in existence that will do that for you.
SIMILAR SHOWS: Voltron + Robot Chicken. But really: Super Adventure Team. Except nobody remembers that. Hell, *I* didn’t even watch it… Yet. (I own it.)
QUOTES:
“It’s like I’ve memorized every combo in the game and he just keeps hitting the A button.”
“We thought you’d given up on us. And by ‘We’ I mean ‘I’ and by ‘thought’ I mean ‘hoped’ and by ‘given up’ I mean ‘died’ and by ‘on us’ I mean ‘in a fire’ and by period I mean disappointed ellipses.” (more…)
August 22, 2010
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Great article. And it only takes 2 minutes to read. Not news, but societal commentary about how wars are never truly won. From the civil war to the war on terror
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Everyone has an inalienable right to engage in commerce. Taxing people more than they earn is just a way of squelching business. This is stupid bullshit. Freedom from licensing! I don't need the government to license bloggers for my protection. Nobody is being protected here, this is just tyranny. It's not real capitalism when you have to pay more to the state than you earn conducting "business". I've been waiting 10 yrs for my first $100 payout from Google Adsense. When it happens, do I owe somebody a fucking business license fee?
August 21, 2010
JOURNAL: YARD SALES: 20100821: 2010 Expedition #10: started VERY late, almost too late to bother, yet we still got some stuff
Posted by Claire CJS under Carolyn, Clio, Hobbies & Activities, People, Yard SalesLeave a Comment
Got up around 12:30PM, went to Home Depot, and made it out driving to yardsale by about 1:30PM or so, and went out until 2:30ish(?), for a total of perhaps just 1 hours.
Only spent $3.00 plus ~$1.50 or so on gas for roughly 10 miles of driving, for a total cost of $4.50.
We bought 9 items – 10 if you count the walky-talkies separately – for a total estimated value of $112, leading to a profit of $107.50. To earn that much after taxes you’d really have to earn $154; money saved (by not having to spend it) is actually worth more than we realize when the government’s cut is taken into consideration.
Anyway, this works out to a “wage” of $107/hr as a couple or $53/hr per person. Surprisingly good, even if some of the profit is in value that we don’t directly perceive. ($32 for a harmonica?! Really?!)
- $1.00: garden shears, rusty, larger than our old broken pair (EV:$10, based on the rusty condition deducted from the $15-$20 avg cost of these–I have rust remover)
- $1.00: walkie talkies ($0.50 each), Genex GMRS – serial # 074120714853 and serial # 074120714854, Cat No. 21-1873, FCC ID PM3MK1995, Model# MK2000 (manual here) (EV:$20, at least, probably more)
- $0.50: harmonica, metal outside, wood inside, Hohner Blues Harp MS (EV:$32! No clue this was a “high grade’ harmonica [if there’s such a thing]. Surprised it costs that much.)
- $0.50: magnifying glass, round ultra-generic [realized I had 0, now I have 2] (EV:$5)
- $FREE: bag, cell phone, McGuire-Nicolas Work Wear, blue, with metal belt clip, 5″x3″ (EV:$14)
this EXACT thing
- $FREE: bag, camera, Bear Mountain Gear by Ryka, 6″x4″, with front pocket, had a small calculator in the pocket (Ameribano Mortgage Group) (EV:$15, new cases are ridiculously expensive, this is way better than the one we paid $30 for in 2001)
- $FREE: bag, camera, generic, 2 inside pockets, one place for like a lighter, 7″x5″, non-removable belt loop (EV:$10,not as rugged as the others)
- $FREE: mailbox, white, metal, bent, slightly rusty (EV:$5, more really, cause we’re on our 3rd mailbox in 10 yrs, so it’s a given we’ll have to buy another)
- $FREE: screwdriver set, small — not as small as eyeglasses repair ones, but smaller than anything we have (EV:$1)
Yup. Nothing TOO exciting, but it’s good – we just threw away the $30 camera bag bought in 2001. We finally have a suitable replacement [we re-used the strap].
Click here for other Yard Sale-related postings.
* EV stands for “Estimated Value”, which I estimate by looking things up in Google Shopping/Google/Amazon/Ebay. I don’t always deduct for an item being used, unless it’s actually in worse condition in a way that matters. I also try to only count shipping if it’s the type of thing that would need to be shipped, and only if the price isn’t “fixed” (i.e. 1 cent items that cost $10 to ship would not be $10 in person). (more…)
August 21, 2010
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We destroyed 10s of 1000s of lives without compensation – and we're still threatening them to allow us to do it again. And we still want special treatment – liability caps, no government liability [unlike with France and Russia]. Basically, we fucked over a whole populace, and now we're threatening them if they don't allow us to have a framework that would allow us to do the same thing again. Fuck Union Carbide, Bhopal is among one of the worst things any corporation has ever done.
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Cartoons for download.
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OMFG this is awesome. Wish they showed this in computer science class…
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Get your information elsewhere. America is not "fair and balanced". We're big money partners with Israel; we give them money, they spend it on manipulating our media.
Now, this is ancient history. These documents are from 1960 and have recently been declassified. You can bet that today, this still goes on, with a number far higher than $36M.
Claire's blog 
