And you are here why?

Today's NY Post has an awesome (-ly made up) article about how NYC is planning on banning Happy Hour, because, well, it'll reduce alcohol consumption or something.  Happy hour in the city could end if Department of Health policy party-poopers go ahead with a proposal to outlaw beer and booze specials at bars and restaurants, sources told The Post. “It’s absolutely been discussed,” confirmed a department source. “It goes to show you the spirit with which they operate. Everyone is a child.” High-level conversations have gone beyond merely “throwing pencils on the ceiling and seeing what sticks,” another Health source revealed. When said Department of Health was asked directly about this, they tried to throw the NY Post off the scent Agency spokesman Sam Miller denied existing “plans to pursue any policy around discount-alcohol sale.” But fear not dear reader, since those fearless news-hounds were on the case - they went right back and asked their "sources...

The Beeb reports that over in Britain, the Ministry of Defense is seriously toying with the idea of putting missiles on apartment roofs during the Olympics.  Because, you know, Terrorists.  Also, Think Of The Children™ The MoD says in the leaflet that the missiles will not pose a hazard to residents and "will only be authorised for active use following specific orders from the highest levels of government in response to a confirmed and extreme security threat". The document states: "Having a 24/7 Armed Forces and police presence will improve your local security and will not make you a target for terrorists. "The location has been chosen as it is situated close to the Olympic Park and offers an excellent view of the surrounding area and the entire sky above the Olympic Park. "The top of the tower also offers a flat, uncluttered and safe area from which to operate." The Army website says the HVM system is "designed to counter threats from...

Paul Krugman sez. Everything makes David Walker think of the need for entitlement reform. Everything makes George Will think of Ronald Reagan.

@TBPInvictus pulls up a gorgeous comparison of the recent President's performance when it comes to Government Investment & Expenditure, indexed to 100 at inaugaration. Huh? Ok, in simple-ese, the size of the Gummint through the President's term, starting at 100 on day 0. Ah! So we all know exactly what to expect right? Under the Republicans (Reagan, Bush I, Bush II), Gummint size goes down, and under Clinton and that Evil Evil Obama, it goes up, right? Here you go. Oh wait, that can't be right, can it? Turns it it is - Clinton & Obama are, by a pretty huge margin, the presidents that have presided over the slowest growth in Gummint, with it actually shrinking under Obama . I think Invictus puts it best when he says So, it’s clear to see   what spendthrifts the Democrats have been and how fiscally responsible the Republicans are   what a canard it is to claim that Obama has been spending like a drunken sailor. In fact, Clinton and Obama have bee...

It doesn't matter who you are or what you do. Its what   #Klout   thinks that matters.   Klout - injecting uncertainty in an uncertain world...

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Paul Graham classifies the possible Levels of Disagreement into a fairly nifty Hierarchical approach. DH0. Name-calling. This is the lowest form of disagreement, and probably also the most common. We've all seen comments like this: u r a fag!!!!!!!!!! [...] DH1. Ad Hominem. An ad hominem attack is not quite as weak as mere name-calling. It might actually carry some weight. For example, if a senator wrote an article saying senators' salaries should be increased, one could respond: Of course he would say that. He's a senator. [...] DH2. Responding to Tone. The next level up we start to see responses to the writing, rather than the writer. The lowest form of these is to disagree with the author's tone. E.g. I can't believe the author dismisses intelligent design in such a cavalier fashion. [...] DH3. Contradiction. In this stage we finally get responses to what was said, rather than how or by whom. The lowest form of response to an argument is...

WaPo points out that research into basic science - which we've been pretty drastically eliminating over the years - is actually pretty damn useful. Federally-funded research of dog urine ultimately gave scientists and understanding of the effect of hormones on the human kidney, which in turn has been helpful for diabetes patients. A study called “Acoustic Trauma in the Guinea Pig” resulted in treatment of early hearing loss in infants. And that randy screwworm study? It helped researchers control the population of a deadly parasite that targets cattle The thing about basic research is that you can't guarantee success.  The conventional take on it is that people knew what they were aiming for, but that is about as far from the truth as you can get.  Serendipity is always stalking you, and you never know what you might find around the next blind-alley. That said, the one sure thing is that - to borrow a phrase - if you don't play, you can't win. Heres hoping to...

Available on Amazon , a collection of (nearly) a hundred sacred teachings that are capable of "bringing about an enlightenment experience so pure, so elevating, and so intense, you could plotz". Examples include If there is no self, whose arthritis is this? Be here now. Be someplace else later.   Is that so complicated? Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story. Accept misfortune as a blessing. Do not wish for perfect health, or a life without problems.   What would you talk about? The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single Oy. There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that? Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.   Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be the least of your problems. The Torah says, Love your neighbor as yourself. The Buddha sa...

You've seen the writeups on "liquid metal", and how its going to be on/in everything from Apple, Samsung, Cars, Motorcycles, and quite possibly, killer robots from the future. The obvious question is, ignoring Mercury, what on earth is it? It turns out that its just a brand name for a particular kind of metallic alloy that cools slowly, and just gets more viscous (thicker) as it cools, to the point where its basically solid at room temperature.  This is in contrast to "regular" metals, which are crystalline, and don't really have a given melting point. The point behind all this?  Metals, being crystalline, are difficult to mold in to complicated shapes - you usually have to forge them into that shape which has all sorts of limitations in what you can actually do with them.  This is in comparison to "liquid metals" which being amorphous (think glass) can be worked into all sorts of fun shapes when they are molten/viscous (really, thin...

MissTravel.com , where "Attractive" people who want to travel can find "Generous" people to travel with them. I swear I am not making this up.  And, I'm fairly certain this isn't a joke. From the How It Works section  Membership Types Attractive Traveler:   If you are a beautiful person who wants to travel for free, just signup as a "Attractive Traveler". Attractive Travelers are adventurous and open minded people who loves to travel, but lacks the budget to do so. As such, you are looking to meet other Generous members who are willing to pay for you to travel, or gift you frequent flyer miles which may be redeemed for free flights on all major airlines. Remember, as a Attractive Traveler, you get to use our website 100% Free. Generous Traveler:   If you are a generous sponsor, signup as a "Generous Traveler". Generous Travelers are generous members who are seeking to travel with a beautiful companion, and who is willing to ...

There is a pretty huge meme going around right now about how "Google Drive is stealing your data".  Typical examples on twitter include @pdparticle - WOW! Google pretty much owns your data once uploaded to Google Drive. t.co/YUIqIVtM #GoogleDrive Google Drive owns everything you upload: terms of service analysis t.co/MDuZZ52R The truth, as in most of these cases, is a lot more complicated.  In a nutshell, if you want to blame anybody/anything, blame the copyright laws . First of all, just to get this out of the way, Google explicitly says   Some of our Services allow you to submit content. You retain ownership of any intellectual property rights that you hold in that content. In short, what belongs to you stays yours Moving on, consider what rights Google needs to just do what it does on a day to day basis In fact, do this backwards - if you store your data on a hosted service, anywhere , then you have to assign a whole bushel of rights to that service fo...

Noah Smith brings the pain to the WSJ editorial page. Mind you, that is somewhat unto shooting fish in a barrel, but it is still fun to read a comprehensive and thorough Fisking He first calls attention to what appears to be a massive exodus from the Golden State: Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last two decades than have come from other states. This is a sharp reversal from the 1980s... Wow, California must be well on its way to being a ghost town. Oh wait, no. Because during those past two decades, immigration more than made up the difference. California's population has risen from 29.8 million to 37.3 million. [...]Next up, we have some pure unadulterated old-fashioned bullshit: "[I]f you're a guy working for a Silicon Valley company and you're married and you're thinking about having your first kid, and your family makes 250-k a year, you can't buy a closet in the Bay Area," Mr. Kotkin says. The   median...

According the the NY Daily News , the in things amongst teens is Hand Sanitizer .  Really. Six young people recently landed in a Southern California emergency room with alcohol poisoning after chugging the antimicrobial gel. Hand sanitizer contains a whopping 62% ethyl alcohol — making the foul liquid akin to a shot of hard liquor. YouTube has seen an influx of videos of teens chugging the foul germ-killing goo. Which does indeed seem to be the case ( YouTube, at least ) It does bring up a fair point though - given a choice between Tequila and Hand Sanitizer, I'm not quite sure which one is the more reprehensible...

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From BGR , Ubergizmo and others, is the story of a chinese vendor that is selling, wait for it, Home Buttons for the next iPhone. Yup. You got that right. Home Buttons . For the next iPhone. Why is this a story?  Really, WHY? Please, just shoot me...

Existential Dread On the road, laptop blinks out, won't reboot for 20 long (!) minutes. Knee-buckling Relief Laptop comes back on.

Who knew the Chicago Tribune could do this?  Their spectacular Obituary for Facts - Facts, 360 B.C. - A.D. 2012 is a must read.  Some excerpts To the shock of most sentient beings, Facts died Wednesday, April 18, after a long battle for relevancy with the 24-hour news cycle, blogs and the Internet. Though few expected Facts to pull out of its years-long downward spiral, the official cause of death was from injuries suffered last week when Florida Republican Rep.   Allen West   steadfastly declared that as many as 81 of his fellow members of theU.S. House of Representatives are communists. Facts held on for several days after that assault — brought on without a scrap of evidence or reason — before expiring peacefully at its home in a high school physics book. Facts was 2,372. "It's very depressing," said Mary Poovey, a professor of English at   New York University   and author of "A History of the Modern Fact." "I think the thing Americans ought to mis...