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mrflip's profile

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Name: Flip
User type: Adminestrone
User ID: 6
User since: January 06, 2004
User last visit: 04:00PM on April 18
Homepage: http://alkalineearth.com/
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mrflip has posted 991 links and 2111 comments on Alkaline Earth since January 06, 2004.

Recent Comments: (Select Last [10] [50] [100] [All])

2010 Apr 12 11:11 (#4205.12749):
I actually own the 'Boners' book.
Illustrated by Dr. Seuss!

It's Dr. Seuss drawings of funny errors from (purportedly) schoolkids' essays. What's great is you'll see those same errors sent around in "our education system is failing look at how dumb students are today" screeds.

2010 Mar 26 10:41 (#4204.12731):
Scroll to the right to see winning scenarios.

gmcd -- -- -- k st ky wva duke -- | -- -- ky -- | -- ky | -- 60 k st, wva, duke don't advance; ky doesn't win flip -- -- -- k st ky wva duke -- | -- -- ky duke | -- ky | -- 55 ky, duke advance; ky doesn't win jarvis -- -- -- k st ky wva duke -- | -- k st ky -- | -- ky | -- 55 kst advances, duke and wva don't, ky doesn't win jtgeek -- -- -- k st ky wva duke -- | -- -- ky duke | -- ky | ky 54 ky gets to finals carl -- -- -- -- ky -- duke -- | -- -- ky duke | -- duke | -- 48 duke gets to finals jason -- -- -- -- ky wva -- -- | -- -- WVa -- | -- wva | -- 46 wva gets to finals soku -- -- -- k st ky wva duke -- | -- -- ky -- | -- ky | -- 58 nano -- -- -- -- ky wva -- -- | -- -- ky -- | -- -- | -- 48 nate -- -- -- k st ky wva -- -- | -- -- ky -- | -- -- | -- 46 | | | actual niowa tenn butl k st ky wva duke bayl | ?? ?? ?? ?? | ?? ?? | ?? 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 8 8 8 8 16 16 32 mist butl ky duke tenn kans wva baylor

2010 Mar 22 03:21 (#4204.12730):
GO BIG RED

They're taking out your Kentuck next, Jonthegeek

2009 Dec 18 12:28 (#4198.12715):
Maybe you like lowest-common-denominator blooper reels. Maybe you should go to this youtube clip:

2009 Dec 13 10:17 (#4191.12712):
Javelina?

2009 Dec 08 04:25 (#4196.12709):
I was thinking about this the other day -- Perry does deserve some cred for the fact that Texas is coming through the recession far better than almost all states.

If you click to select the top several economies by GDP (CA, TX, FL, NY, IL) in this chart of unemployment over time, you'll see that Texas has well outperformed the other top economic states, staying in the 6-8% range. It's also kept pace against baselines for its region.

Here's a chart of Gross State Product over Perry's duration for the top 8 economies; Texas does the best by far, and with much lower state spending. (yes, this invites the question of what more spending would do -- or spending reallocated from abstinence education -- but still.)

So he may be a social policy douchenozzle, as amply documented in the article -- but to whatever extent the governor acts as steward of the economy, he's done a decent job.

public $ gross st prod population All states combined $2,645.2 $13,715.7 300.8 California $385.3 $1,801.8 36.8 Texas $170.3 $1,148.5 23.5 New York $247.9 $1,105.0 19.3 Florida $147.3 $741.9 18.2 Illinois $107.8 $617.4 12.8 Pennsylvania $108.3 $533.2 12.5 Ohio $99.8 $462.5 11.5 New Jersey $86.4 $461.3 8.9

2009 Nov 28 01:29 (#4191.12702):
*hug*

2009 Nov 21 01:29 (#4191.12700):
Oughtn't it be the putative but singular "Largest Graffito in the World"?

2009 Nov 21 01:28 (#4192.12699):
More neat-o art

translations:

1) Christ: idea; Romans: focus
group.
2) James Dean: idea; Car: deadline for the work's publishing.
3) Little Red Hood: idea; Bad Wolf: new marketing director.
4) Whale: idea; Harpoon men: accounts for idea's presenting.
5) Amy Winehouse: idea; Drugs: brand's international guidelines.
6) Seal: idea; Hunters: changings on the briefing.
7) The Beatles: idea; Yoko Ono: equal idea on archive.
8) Couple: idea; Jason: a client who thinks he's creative.
9) Indian: idea; Colonizers: scouter's association.
10) Iulius Caesar: idea; Brutus and the traitors: inputs from the creative criativo.
11) Titanic: idea; iceberg: client's juridical department
12) Mary Antoinette: idea; Guillotine: budget.

The message below the "Showoff" logo means: "because there are already many ways to kill your idea".

2009 Nov 16 02:01 (#4191.12695):

Our old friend LUECKE is about 2.4 miles long

Nazca Lines -- more here. "The largest are over 200 metres (660 ft) across."

More Giant Figures visible from Google Earth

...plus a Pink Bunny

...and many more in these old AE threads on Google Sightseeing and Google TomPeeping

2009 Nov 16 01:51 (#4189.12693):
Only two thumbs up for stripical? weaksauce.

I've submitted definitions for bargle:

To use a smartphone to resolve the factual matter of a subject under debate while out at a bar with friends. From "bar" and "google" via "bargain".

If bargling shows you are wrong, you have been iPwned.

Barney: "England's greatest Prime Minister was Lord Palmerston!"
Wade: "Pitt the Elder!"
Lenny: "Hold on, let me bargle for which had the more salutary effect on British foreign policy and domestic weal."

and iPwned:

To be proven wrong in a dispute according to factual information retrieved on an iPhone or other internet-connected device.
If one of your friends bargles something you said and disproves your claim, you have been iPwned.

Chico from the Magnificent Seven was played by Horst Buchholz, not James Dean. iPwned! Bam!

but they'll take a day or so to come through. Warning: you won't like the existing alternative definitions.

2009 Nov 16 12:50 (#4190.12690):
More shockers: Obama doesn't personally operate his Twitter account, and Malcom Gladwell isn't an instant expert on everything from the IQ to the "igon value".

2009 Oct 30 01:29 (#4089.12681):
A nice Ricardo Montalban anecdote.

Is there a website where folks like MrBun can record "This star is actually a [really cool person|flaming dickhole waste of skin]"?

2009 Oct 07 12:39 (#4073.12674):
That will always make me laugh.

Especially the 'double ew double ew double ew dot jay oh en e es BIGASSTruckRentalAndStorage dot com'

2009 Oct 07 12:37 (#4184.12673):
Your latter story is completely consistent with the claim that he is a well-regarded mathematician.

2009 Oct 07 12:36 (#3863.12672):
eBay auction: I'm selling my wife's box, my cock won't fit (SFW)

2009 Sep 16 06:20 (#4184.12664):
I have a Greater Bacon Number of 4:

Flip Kromer was on It's Academic with Mac McGarry;
It's Academic (the longest-running Quiz Show program in history) was spun off to a NYC-area network, where it was hosted by Art James.
Art James appeared as a game show host in the film Mallrats, which also featured Michael Rooker, who was in JFK with the Bacon.

Art James ALSO appeared in .... THE STAR WARS MOTHERFUCKING CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!!!! .... with James Earl Jones, magic 7, Bacon

2009 Sep 11 03:23 (#4183.12641):
Do I even need to say how much I like this?

2009 Sep 11 01:58 (#4181.12639):
For more like this: Foodpolitics at the Faster Times, as edited by my cousin Hannah!

2009 Aug 26 08:13 (#4152.12634):
would you like to wash that down with a photo catalog of single soft drink cans spanning more than a century? Soda USA.

2009 Aug 26 07:10 (#4152.12633):
Tab Cola -- I have no idea what fraction of this article is bullshit but it sure was interesting.

2009 Aug 12 10:22 (#4181.12624):
For decent fast food: Can you do potatoes? Wendy's baked potato + broccoli - cheese + barbecue sauce = decent meal for almost nothing.

My biggest concern is the environmental load meat imposes; this is the chief reason I'm a vegetarian.

...

I assume "So the food industry is also to blame for making all yummy, bad for you food so cheap and easily available" is tongue in cheek -- but see this old post for the astonishing figures on how much value modern agriculture has added to our lives. The typical US family spends half as much on a percentage basis -- from 20% in 1950 to under 10% now -- for food, and only 5.6% of its budget on food eaten at home. Against the striking increase in BMI, consider that the mean height has increased by an inch since 1960 and about four inches this century: there are significant but subtle improvements in health to weigh against the increase in obesity. On a national and global scale, hunger and malnutrition are now effectively political, not economic, problems.

-----

In that light, I'm disappointed by this author's failure to distinguish between cooking as a bourgeois leisure pasttime vs. cooking as a survival necessity with socially regressive opportunity costs.

The statement that "food companies [persuade] Americans to let them do the cooking" is silver-spooned bullshit. And worse yet:

"Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation (another four minutes cleaning up); that’s less than half the time that we spent cooking and cleaning up when Julia arrived on our television screens."

To this I say thank freaking goodness: in addition to the aforementioned marginal addition to my household budget, that's 30 minutes a day -- 2.7% of my waking day, about $3500/year in opportunity cost for a median earner.

"It’s generally assumed that the entrance of women into the work force is responsible for the collapse of home cooking, but that turns out to be only part of the story."

I assume nothing of the kind -- I think the liberation from food preparation duties is one of many factors that allowed women to enter the work force; or at the very least that the causality runs both ways.

So what are we doing with the time we save by outsourcing our food preparation to corporations and 16-year-old burger flippers? Working, commuting to work, surfing the Internet and, perhaps most curiously of all, watching other people cook on television.

"What are we doing with time formerly spent on [task that people demonstrably exchange money to avoid]? Just [things that people have always done and whose time value is profitably exchanged for the former task, which profit is spent in leisure activity: for example, one that is new and therefore suspect; and another, cherry-picked as ironic straw man]."

2009 Jul 16 09:32 (#3863.12606):
Vague Science. I'm in, where do I send my subscription form?

2009 Jul 12 09:30 (#4170.12595):
I'm on record: I gladly trade 35F and slushy for a 100F and scorchy any time you ask. You have not heard me complain about this weather, only report the facts, since my pissing and moaning budget is reserved for the dozen or so days it dunks below 50F here.

Austin FTW.

(And fellow Austinites: there's no better reason for a phone call to your friend up north than one of those random 75deg mid-January days, amirite? "Oh, hey, I just put on shorts and grilled out today, what are you up to? Oh, digging your car out from 7 inches of snow? Wow, that must suck. OK gotta run, I'm meeting some friends for ice cream.")

2009 Jul 11 01:55 (#4170.12593):
I pulled the NCDC weather for Austin from 1948-present (see infochimps.org link for details) and got my Tufte on.

This temperature cycle is hotter than but comparable to the 1950-1965 era. I've got no idea if it's global warming or the peak of a cycle. The fundamental conclusion -- that this year so far, 2000 and 2008 were damn hot -- stands up well.

The first plot is a year-on-year time series similar to the one in the link. It shows degrees over 100F, for days where the temperature exceeded 100F. Each year's baseline is one grid cell higher than the previous, with bars above 106F allowed to overlap (this results in a darker cell on the few occasions they do):

Check that Indian summer in 2005!

This next one shows a histogram of temperature by four-year group: the vertical scale shows temperature in 2.5 degF blocks, and the inner scale shows #days with that temperature. Gridlines show 100,95,90 (red) and 45,40,35 (blue). The last four years and 1996-2001 were unusually hot, but the intervening four years were mild against the 30-year block. Keep in mind the last (2006-2009) block is incomplete.

Did you know that Austin temperatures are far more likely to be in the 70s -or- 90s than they are to be 83-90 degrees?

Here's that last chart but year-by-year; click to see it in size ginormous:

2009 Jul 09 06:51 (#4163.12591):
Language Log's Rebuttal

2009 Jul 06 01:16 (#4168.12587):
Man, great AE/gooreader outpouring... It's like someone airlifted Ziggy 20 miles offshore and locked him in a metal box where he can only surf the internet but can't rub one out. That's too unlikely a scenario, though...

2009 Jul 04 02:53 (#4165.12584):
If it makes you feel better, for any given person of somewhat similar racial stock either a) you almost certainly share an ancestor or b) one or both of you have incestuous family trees.

Ignoring your West Virginian origins, you have ~8k ancestors at the 13 generation mark (~390 yrs, 30 yr/generation). If on average each couple raises three offspring to reproducing age, those 4,000 couples would have 4.3 billion descendants. This is clearly too high -- the incest assumption can't strictly hold. (A 17-generation tree with no overlap and no generational population growth -- 2 kids per couple -- has 65k ancestors and 8.5B descendants. Requiring no overlap is what makes the tree explode.) Still, accounting for some incest and limited mobility, if you and another person have even one geographic region of ancestry in common you should only have to go back a dozen or so generations for a shared relative.

2009 Jun 28 12:54 (#4163.12582):
Finally finished the DFW essay -- fantastic. Contrapuntal to The Phenomenology of Error, linked to earlier.

2009 Jun 21 11:01 (#4161.12580):
Alternate links to Harper's article (and no, the UT Library doesn't have it, or at least it was not within the ambit of my recent Escheresque deathmarch through its unusable faceted search interfaces):

* http://billtotten.blogspot.com/2009/04/infinite-debt.html
* http://forums.tunk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=19739

2009 Jun 06 10:54 (#4156.12565):
Via the author's blog, a Grand Unified Theory of Schwartzenegger.

2009 Jun 06 09:49 (#4022.12564):
Someone took up the gauntlet and made Literal Eclipse of the Heart -- and it's certainly the best of the lot, with a killer barrage of pop-culture references starting at the 1/3 mark.

2009 Jun 01 11:11 (#4082.12563):
Another turd in the internet utopia: sites like Facebook, Youtube, etc throttle server traffic to low-income countries because they pay out with low ad revenue.

2009 Jun 01 10:36 (#4151.12562):
Tyson's metro? Should be interesting.

2009 Apr 24 07:53 (#4141.12538):
@jonthegeek -- I gave half-credit on the conspiracy question, for his tepid indictment of the Scientific Establishment (TM) on the crime of Ageism.

2009 Apr 21 05:23 (#4141.12528):
Scoring that comment against the Crackpot Index:
1. A -5 point starting credit. (-5)
2. 1 point for every statement that is widely agreed on to be false. ( 2)
3. 2 points for every statement that is clearly vacuous. ( 3)
6. 5 points for using a thought experiment that contradicts the results of a widely accepted real experiment. ( 5)
7. 5 points for each word in all capital letters (except for those with defective keyboards). ( 5)
9. 10 points for each claim that quantum mechanics is fundamentally misguided (without good evidence). (10)
18. 10 points for each favorable comparison of yourself to Einstein, or claim that special or general relativity are fundamentally misguided (without good evidence). ( 5, half credit: Susan Boyle)
24. 20 points for defending yourself by bringing up (real or imagined) ridicule accorded to your past theories. (20)
34. 40 points for claiming that the "scientific establishment" is engaged in a "conspiracy" to prevent your work from gaining its well-deserved fame, or suchlike. (20)
37. 50 points for claiming you have a revolutionary theory but giving no concrete testable predictions. (50)

Total: 115. I tried to err on the side of generosity (lower crackpot index).

I haven't scored the video, someone else want to get on that?

2009 Apr 21 08:40 (#4140.12524):
OK, that's good -- I'd include a few of the efficient recurrences for e, pi, important functions.

But calculating those requires a lot of multiplication, and for that you want an actual log table.

2009 Apr 21 08:17 (#4141.12523):
LENR = low energy nuclear reaction aka Cold Fusion.

2009 Apr 11 09:56 (#4137.12516):
A couple head-scratchers among the other pitches: esp 4th from left on top row, 2nd from right on bottom row -- no, the iPhone does not work like that.

2009 Apr 07 10:45 (#4125.12515):
Congrats GMcD and Javelina!

2009 Apr 01 01:22 (#4134.12503):
last_visited count(*) 2009-04 4 2009-03 15 2009-02 2 2009-01 1 2008-12 3 2008-11 2 2008-10 2 2008-07 2 2008-04 2 2008-03 1 2008-01 1 2007 17 2006 56 2005 36 2004 23 [never] 18

Most of the '05 and '06 users are spam I think.

2009 Mar 31 04:12 (#4125.12493):
Yes, yes, that is why I said "...while I still can".

2009 Mar 31 03:57 (#4134.12492):
I feel 4chan loved.

@pablo -- we did some user stats a while ago, I'm too lazy to look them up but maybe you will.

2009 Mar 31 01:40 (#4125.12485):
Posting this eCard while I still can...

2009 Mar 28 11:44 (#4125.12483):
-- Final 4 -- | -- Semis -- | -Final- | Score Max Remain Max Possible mrflip . MchSt x Pitt . UNC . UConn | MchSt x Pitt | x Pitt | 94 16 110 Sivraj x Wake x Pitt . UNC . UConn | UConn UNC | UNC | 81 64 145 gilliss x Louis x Pitt . UNC . UConn | x Louis UNC | UNC | 85 48 133 saucy x Louis . Vill . Cuse x Memph | x Louis Vill | Vill | 82 48 130 Natedogg . MchSt x Pitt x OK . UConn | UConn x OK | UConn | 81 48 129 --eliminated-- JonTehGeek x Louis x Pitt . UNC x Memph | x Louis UNC | UNC | 75 48 123 BarackObama ND2 x Louis x Pitt . UNC x Memph | x Louis UNC | UNC | 75 48 123 doncarlo x Kans x Xavr . UNC . UConn | x Kans UNC | x Kans | 83 16 99 habcous x Wake x Pitt . UNC . UConn | UConn x Pitt | x Pitt | 75 16 91 WestIsOKIGuess x Louis x Pitt . UNC x Memph | x Memph x Pitt | x Pitt | 72 0 72 javelina x Dayt x Xavr x Mich x CSNor | x Dayt x Mich | x Mich | 37 0 37 beckto x Wake x TX x Cuse x TxA&M | x TxA&M x TX | x TX | 27 0 27 doncarlo x USC x Minn x SFAus x Corn | x Corn x Minn | x Minn | 13 0 13

MchSt Vill MchSt flip MchSt UNC MchSt flip UConn Vill UConn nate UConn UNC UConn nate MchSt Vill Vill soku UConn Vill Vill soku MchSt UNC UNC GMcD UConn UNC UNC ~tom

2009 Mar 28 10:56 (#4125.12482):
Dominated: JonBama (by gilliss), doncarlo (by everyone)

2009 Mar 27 11:23 (#4125.12479):
-- Final 4 -- | -- Semis -- | -Final- | Score Max Remain Max Possible mrflip MchSt Pitt UNC UConn | MchSt Pitt | Pitt | 70 96 166 gilliss Louis Pitt UNC UConn | Louis UNC | UNC | 69 96 165 Natedogg MchSt Pitt OK UConn | UConn OK | UConn | 65 96 161 saucy Louis Vill x Cuse x Memph | Louis Vill | Vill | 74 80 154 Sivraj x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn UNC | UNC | 65 88 153 habcous x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn Pitt | Pitt | 59 88 147 WestIsOKIGuess Louis Pitt UNC x Memph | x Memph Pitt | Pitt | 64 72 136 --eliminated-- JonTehGeek Louis Pitt UNC x Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 67 88 155 BarackObama ND2 Louis Pitt UNC x Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 67 88 155 doncarlo x Kans x Xavr UNC UConn | x Kans UNC | x Kans | 67 32 99 javelina x Dayt x Xavr x Mich x CSNor | x Dayt x Mich | x Mich | 37 0 37 beckto x Wake x TX x Cuse x TxA&M | x TxA&M x TX | x TX | 27 0 27 doncarlo x USC x Minn x SFAus x Corn | x Corn x Minn | x Minn | 13 0 13

Becky: you lost. Ben: You win. Consult the PhD degree on your wall for more details.

2009 Mar 25 03:02 (#4125.12470):
The 2d-to-last prize is Beckto's UNLESS ((Syracuse wins both its next two games) AND (Xavier does not win both its next two games)).

notthomas -- Is it true you can edit brackets? If so you could repair MsC's bracket, if you both cared to.

-- Final 4 -- | -- Semis -- | -Final- | Last 3 pts mrflip MchSt Pitt UNC UConn | MchSt Pitt | Pitt | 96 WestIsOKIGuess Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Memph Pitt | Pitt | 96 BarackObama ND2 Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 JonTehGeek Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 gilliss Louis Pitt UNC UConn | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 Sivraj x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn UNC | UNC | 88 habcous x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn Pitt | Pitt | 88 Natedogg MchSt Pitt OK UConn | UConn OK | UConn | 96 doncarlo Kans Xavr UNC UConn | Kans UNC | Kans | 96 saucy Louis Vill Cuse Memph | Louis Vill | Vill | 96 beckto x Wake x TX Cuse x TxA&M | x TxA&M x TX | x TX | 8 javelina x Dayt Xavr x Mich x CSNor | x Dayt x Mich | x Mich | 8 doncarlo x USC x Minn x SFAus x Corn | x Corn x Minn | x Minn | 0

2009 Mar 21 05:49 (#4125.12457):
Holding a Wake for your bracket?

-- Final 4 -- | -- Semis -- | -Final- | Last 3 pts mrflip MchSt Pitt UNC UConn | MchSt Pitt | Pitt | 96 WestIsOKIGuess Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Memph Pitt | Pitt | 96 BarackObama ND2 Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 JonTehGeek Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 gilliss Louis Pitt UNC UConn | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 Sivraj x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn UNC | UNC | 88 habcous x Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn Pitt | Pitt | 88 Natedogg MchSt Pitt OK UConn | UConn OK | UConn | 96 doncarlo Kans Xavr UNC UConn | Kans UNC | Kans | 96 saucy Louis Vill Cuse Memph | Louis Vill | Vill | 96 beckto x Wake TX Cuse TxA&M | TxA&M TX | TX | 88 javelina Dayt Xavr Mich x CSNor | Dayt Mich | Mich | 88 doncarlo USC x Minn SFAus Corn | Corn x Minn | x Minn | 40

2009 Mar 19 04:05 (#4125.12445):
Here's the final four and beyond matchups. I'm not going to calculate the max-points-remaining until we get to the final four; right now the last column is round-4,5,6-max-points. I went ahead and put it in likely finishing order, with me at the top, beckto, doncarlo and javelina at the bottom, and you also-rans grouped.

-- Final 4 -- | -- Semis -- | -Final- | Last 3 pts mrflip MchSt Pitt UNC UConn | MchSt Pitt | Pitt | 96 habcous Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn Pitt | Pitt | 96 WestIsOKIGuess Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Memph Pitt | Pitt | 96 Barack Obama ND2 Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 JonTehGeek Louis Pitt UNC Memph | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 gilliss Louis Pitt UNC UConn | Louis UNC | UNC | 96 Sivraj Wake Pitt UNC UConn | UConn UNC | UNC | 96 Natedogg MchSt Pitt OK UConn | UConn OK | UConn | 96 doncarlo Kans Xavr UNC UConn | Kans UNC | Kans | 96 saucy Louis Vill Cuse Memph | Louis Vill | Vill | 96 beckto Wake TX Cuse TxA&M | TxA&M TX | TX | 96 javelina Dayt Xavr Mich x CSNor | Dayt Mich | Mich | 88 doncarlo USC x Minn SFAus Corn | Corn x Minn | x Minn | 40

2009 Mar 19 03:52 (#4125.12444):
Oh hey lookit that -- the tiebreaker is ~~final score~~ total score of final, not winner's score. I am the only one who can't read, as I'm assuming Javelina is among those who can't care.

Is one of the doncarlo's a feeneyla?

JonTheGeek -- was your entry made as you, using O's picks? If so I propose that Natedogg's Obama picks get zeroed out and JTG contends on his advisor's merits.

2009 Mar 18 01:50 (#4125.12439):
Maryland will win the tournament, here's how I know.

2009 Mar 18 01:33 (#4125.12438):
Holy crap yay! We'll hold a Westival in honor of your triumphal return.

2009 Mar 07 06:07 (#4122.12434):
Also: In just the brief clip I've seen and of course hearing about bikini girl... was American Idol always "Real World with more singing"?

It seems like you have to have not only a good voice but also a huge flashing "I FIT STEREOTYPE X" hovering over you.

2009 Mar 07 06:01 (#4122.12433):
The horror... the horror...

2009 Mar 04 04:03 (#4119.12429):
Looking through those I ran into this one, for which I thought "Wow, someone decided to give Obama a halfassed Alex Grey treatment"...

Turns out that's cause it's a photo of an unfinished Alex Grey painting. The completed version isn't one of his better ones (a, b) but is certainly much more subtle. He's actually one of my favorite working artists.

2009 Mar 02 01:27 (#3863.12424):
I weirdly can't find any thread about Rev Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, but XMFCers may recall the somewhat-turgid documentary detailing his culture-jamming campaign against the Disneyfication of Times Square. It's like Improv Everywhere but with a political edge.

Anyway, the Right Rev. is Running for Mayor.

2009 Feb 28 09:12 (#4115.12420):
Q1: Banksy, given that the denominator is zero. (follow link if you're also a fan -- new recent stuff there).

Q2: Jerry West

2009 Feb 13 11:31 (#4106.12405):
Chad after Dentist

2009 Feb 08 06:40 (#4103.12400):
Another perspective: Where Sweatshops are a Dream - and another: End of the Line, a photoessay on the Chittagong ship-breaking yards in Bangladesh.

2009 Feb 06 11:04 (#4107.12396):
So did you get me that gorilla or not?!!?

2009 Feb 06 11:32 (#4106.12395):
Is our childrens stoning? "Why is this HAPPENING to me?"

2009 Feb 02 09:13 (#3784.12388):
Wow, I am loving IHKH

2009 Feb 02 09:13 (#4100.12387):
Wow, apparently Arizonans got dicked over by not only Santonio Holmes but also John Holmes [sfw] Sunday night...

2009 Jan 23 06:38 (#4098.12374):
I have no idea whatsoever what's going on here.

2009 Jan 21 04:18 (#4097.12368):
Satellite photo of the inauguration -- click for GINORMOUS res. Took me a little to figure out why the crowd down the mall had that odd fan-out structure...

If you look really close you can see Beckto and Flanders on the mall, and Ms_c angrily kicking on the door of the purple secion.

2009 Jan 21 03:55 (#2582.12367):
Can I assume that Joyce Zipperer is an artistic alias? Or is that aan aptonym for the ages?

2009 Jan 18 11:18 (#4095.12353):
Yes but as you've also pointed out you're the world's only living heart resection patient.

2009 Jan 17 07:29 (#4041.12350):
Awesome: via Lessig, word that Rick Boucher will be head of the House Telecommunications subcommittee.

Boucher wrote the Digital Media Consumer's Rights Act (DMCRA) and is a good guy when it comes to digital rights issues and internet policy.

2009 Jan 16 02:45 (#4089.12348):
If I ever build a lowrider you best believe it's gonna be a Cordoba. Por que el Chrysler Cordoba es un coche muy macho!

2009 Jan 15 11:05 (#4012.12346):
So, 0.5 to 0.6 Billion dollars, at 125 to 150 M$/mile.

The current light rail is $105M, or $3M/mile.

This route is a factor of 40-50 times as expensive, even accounting for none of the exogenous costs that come from blocking traffic and business in downtown for three years.

--

People will move to where the rail line is. This will fuel growth on the East side, an entirely good thing, and it will densify central-ish Austin development, another good thing.

2009 Jan 15 08:47 (#532.12344):
[I was looking for the right cleverly germane place to drop the following link, but this thread was so retro awesome necroworthy my search stopped here. Anyway]

Via natedogg, check out the Miami Herald's 404 Not Found page. Funny.

2009 Jan 15 01:00 (#2582.12338):
Awesome!

2009 Jan 15 12:49 (#4012.12337):
This guy is off by a factor of 50 at least. Among other things, I know SoCo is fancier than S Lamar, but THERE'S A RAIL RIGHT OF WAY AND A BRIDGE AND EVERYTHING running parallel to lamar from 2nd to Ben White, connecting to an existing spur out to the airport.

Let's see if TTJ can weigh in on this.

John -- within a factor of 10, how much to run light rail straight through an existing street in NIH, across Old Georgetown, down Arlington road, up Bradley and down Wisconsin to Friendship heights. Add in a bridge expansion.

* Downtown Austin
* Downtown Bethesda

2009 Jan 14 05:40 (#4089.12334):
I tried to find the old ¿Quién es más macho? skit online but I could not. Then I thought about it, and we're never going to be able to find things that dance anywhere near the 'hmm, maybe inappropriate' boundary online, are we? Not even "Song of the South" stuff, things that are just iffy: nobody ever go fired for skipping to the next thing in the back catalog for the official colxn and takedowning everything on youtube.

2009 Jan 11 03:19 (#4086.12331):
That's a deep cut. So is the Bea Arthur track.

2009 Jan 11 03:48 (#4069.12328):
Readers React.

2009 Jan 11 03:31 (#4085.12327):
Via MeFi, a non-taked-down version or an annoying download site download.

It'd be fair to say 'gee, go buy it' but... um.... $700 used in unspecified condition.

2009 Jan 08 03:54 (#4081.12323):

Reply from Wesley Stamper on January 7, 2009:
“I like one of the videos connected to this …”
Within *two* clicks of “related videos”, I was watching three teenage girls dancing around in their underwear.
So, THANKS, Bill!

That would be a fun rating system for youtube.

1) How many comments before the first "ur a fag", repurposing to political "debate" or triggering of Godwin's Law.
2) How many clicks away is a naked/underwear girl or a cat doing something adorable.

I conjecture the global maxima to be "100" and "3" respectively.

2009 Jan 08 02:04 (#3863.12322):
You've seen aptonyms, but have you ever seen one that looks like, acts like and misuses his name as badly as this peckerhead? [link and observation via CH]

2009 Jan 08 10:40 (#4036.12319):
The Obama administration has moved quickly to allay two of my concerns. First, they are not averse to the claim that UT is number one, and going forward support a college football playoffs. Second, Obama has pledged to improve his bowling game through a disciplined process of Wii Sports training with coaches Malia and Sasha.

Polls reveal the bowling thing resonates strongly with the coveted Strangers in the Alps demographic, many of whom cite Clinton's early april press conference as a low ebb in their support for Obama.

2009 Jan 04 06:13 (#4041.12315):
The white house sets the record straight on the Bush legacy

2009 Jan 03 10:55 (#4075.12314):
WaPo's IN and OUT list.

Out: Expensive Bicycles. In: Fixies!

2009 Jan 03 10:42 (#3759.12313):
Wax Arenas -- the comments below are pretty enjoyable for a Wizznutzz fan.

2009 Jan 02 11:31 (#4080.12310):
Not to mention your tendency to travel with that padded vest holding maroon-sleeved rolls of quarters, spare wire, boxcutters and a squirt gun. (For laundry, better radio reception, opening boxes and general hilarity, of course)

2009 Jan 02 11:16 (#4055.12308):
OK, this study of priming by just changing the language is fascinating.

When Prof. Laitin's Somali assistants asked Somali-speaking students in the Northeastern Province of Kenya to complete the sentence "My favorite radio station is ___" (or its Somali translation), the answers varied as follows:

Voice of Kenya Somali Radio BBC Asked in English (n=56) 54% 43% 4% Asked in Somali (n=70) 24% 51% 24%

When asked to complete the sentence "Between home and school, I prefer ___", their answers were:

"Home" "School" Asked in English (n=68) 68% 32% Asked in Somali (n=71) 25% 75%

These are obviously pretty large differences.

2008 Dec 31 12:03 (#3863.12307):
From SisterInLawOK -- Maine man faces [DUI] charge atop Zamboni.

2008 Dec 30 10:03 (#4078.12305):
What happens when a Catalonian moves here and sets up with the Caganer? yawn.

I suppose the reason this doesn't blossom into neighbor drama is that the caganer is supposed to be hard to find: it's kindof a "Where's Waldo" game, apparently.

2008 Dec 30 09:51 (#4078.12304):
Don't you think the war on Xmas over here would be so much more fun if there were an active "Creche, Menorah, whatever -- as long as there's a person dropping a deuce" faction?

2008 Dec 20 06:59 (#4075.12289):
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/1217081mugyear1.html

2008 Dec 20 02:15 (#4073.12283):
To those who have to sound: Try loading this file; you should just see a halcyon blue screen. Hold shift and hit reload. Then come back here and try again. Maybe that will help? Dunno.

The guy who designed the xmas lights thing did it just right. It's just funny enough to be funny and just annoying enough that I'll be glad to see it go.

2008 Dec 20 01:54 (#4075.12282):
I didn't have any problem with the wrong side of the road, though shifting left-handed was bizarre -- but I do remember my mom pointing out that the fast lane wasn't where I thought it was.

They're entitled to make fun of the Ska-pun band name for being outré, but think fondly on the genre that gifted us with "Janitors Against Apartheid", "Let's Go Bowling", "The Cherry Poppin' Daddies", "Mephiskapheles", "Skif Dank", "Less Than Jake", "Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra" and "Save Ferris"

... and this looks like a somethingawful photoshop job:

2008 Dec 20 01:45 (#4041.12281):
Vanity Fair has leaked copies of the White House formal dinner menus for the remaining portion of Bush's tenure. Brilliant.

2008 Dec 19 02:57 (#3787.12276):
If you enjoy the Doonesbury, his current thread with Toggle and the release of Chinese Democracy is great.

[Backstory: BD, the older vet, has been going through a long physical and emotional struggle to adapt to the loss of his leg in Iraq. Toggle was a young soldier in his deployment, the guy who made killer mixtapes for everyone in the squad. Last year Toggle got blown up by a car bomb and has recovered but still has significant aphasia as a result. He and Axl are healing together.]

2008 Dec 18 05:46 (#4074.12263):
High five and a million thanks to you natedogg, on Getting Wood.

(wood, of course, being the traditional 5th year anniversary gift.)

2008 Dec 18 05:10 (#4075.12262):
Obama is Time's Person of the Year.

2008 Dec 18 04:45 (#4074.12261):
Pink Killers Shirt, Bachelorette fer sure.

2008 Dec 18 04:11 (#3863.12260):
Since the movie Sniper is one of my favorite guilty pleasures, I found this article fascinating. Equally fascinating are its outlinks: to a story on the "White Tights" -- deadly and mythical ~~rodents of unusual size~~ female snipers of Chechnya; and to storied sniper Carlos Hathcock (nicknamed "Lông Trắng" (White Feather) by the Vietnamese).

One of Hathcock's most famous accomplishments was shooting an enemy sniper through his scope, hitting him in the eye and killing him.[2] Hathcock and John Burke, his spotter, were stalking the enemy sniper in the jungle near Hill 55, the firebase Hathcock was operating from. The sniper had already killed several Marines, and was believed to have been sent specifically to kill Hathcock. When Hathcock saw a flash of light (light reflecting off the enemy sniper's scope) in the bushes,[2] he fired at it, shooting through the scope and killing the sniper.[3] Surveying the situation, Hathcock concluded that the only feasible way he could have put the bullet straight down the enemy's scope and through his eye would have been if both snipers were zeroing in on each other at the same time, and Hathcock fired first, which gave him only a few seconds to act. Given the flight time of rounds at long ranges, both snipers could easily have killed one another. The enemy rifle was recovered and the incident is documented by a photograph.

(This incident was written in to the movie Sniper, natch.)

I also feel compelled to link to this on-point classic.

2008 Dec 16 08:44 (#4073.12249):
@natedogg - for some reason I feel compelled to note that I knew that. and find it no less hilarious.

That esquire article is missing Fred and Sharon, which is a grave oversight.

@nano -- you are running Firefox? if not, that is my answer.

2008 Dec 15 10:46 (#3910.12245):
Beaker fronts Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem for a stirring version of Coldplay's "Yellow".

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