Things That Follow

The usual:

Vic Toews, Canada's public safety minister, recently issued a blunt declaration about his new Internet spying bill.

Anyone who opposes Bill C-30 "can either stand with us or with the child pornographers," Toews declared.

And a predictable HA HA follows:

OTTAWA—Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is calling for an investigation into how his divorce records ended up on Twitter.

Toews has been targeted in an online campaign related to the introduction of a surveillance bill which gives authorities easier access to people’s Internet lives.

Meanwhile:

Two NDP MPs broke party ranks to vote with the government Wednesday night in the final House of Commons vote in favour of scrapping the long-gun registry.

So I suppose what's needed is proof that child pornographers own guns.

Thank you Latvian Google.*

*This is why we Latvianally Google.

Yale Law SUCKS!

Long ago we noticed that Yale would confirm that it had issued any diploma that looked nice enough. I was and continue to be pissed that I did not know that in time to take advantage of it. Some follow-up:

A federal judge in Connecticut has rejected a second bid by Yale University to throw out all the allegations in a lawsuit filed by a South Korean university that claims it lost tens of millions of dollars after Yale damaged its reputation.

Dongguk University claims in the 2008 lawsuit that it hired an art history professor after Yale wrongly confirmed the professor earned a doctorate at the New Haven school. Court papers say the professor, Shin Jeong-ah, later had a scandalous love affair with an aide to South Korea’s president.

ALSO:

TinyPic doesn't like granny anymore. Gotta fix that. What use is a photo-hosting site that just erases your stuff? I've lately been using Google Sites for GIF hosting, as a Google account gets 10GB of storage, but it's kind of a pain in the butt to track down your GIF's URL.

ALSO ALSO:

Let's turn off the verification for a bit and see how it works out.

Freedom is Dangerous and Wrong

Yuval Levin has a provocative headline to offer:

White House: Freedom is Dangerous and Wrong

He's talking about this article, in which a White House spokesman says it's dangerous to restrict all that there coverage for contraception and stuff. And it literally is! People die! Here though, is the nub of the argument:

As [White House Yakking Guy Jay] Carney says: “Decisions about medical care should be made by a woman and her doctor, not a woman and her boss.” Quite right. And we might add: not by a woman and her federal bureaucracy either.

SPERM DEATH PANELS. And I'm glad this "freedom" business works so well for gay marriage. But let's have a little thought experiment:

Scene #1
You are not funny, so you go to your family clown for funny-lessons. The clown prescribes seltzer only and is sympathetic to a regimen of rubber-chicken exercises, but your coverage doesn't include that.

Scene #2
You are not funny, so you go to your family clown for funny-lessons. The clown prescribes seltzer and a regimen of rubber-chicken exercises, which are covered by your insurance plan.

Q: In which scene is there more freedom?

A: Obviously there is more freedom in Scene #1, because your employer is not in a Nazi death camp.

FURTHER CORNERITE WISDOM:

Deroy Murdock:

Imagine, as Jonah does, that Rick Santorum is elected president and becomes the reincarnation of Cotton Mather, just as Nancy Pelosi probably fears as she lays her coiffed head on her high-threadcount pillows every night. Imagine further that instead of repealing Obamacare, the former GOP senator from Pennsylvania decided to keep this law in place and modify it along much more traditionalist, even puritanical, lines.

Santorumcare could involve — say — a federally mandated, five-day waiting period before women could have abortions. This parallels the original five-day interlude that potential firearms buyers faced under the Brady Law. How could the Left object to that?

How about a requirement that every American who receives free condoms from any federally subsidized health center first must receive 30 minutes of mandatory abstinence counseling?

And why not a rule that those who visit Gay Men’s Health Crisis cannot accept any services until after completing a two-day course on gay conversion, so that they can be “cured” of their homosexuality?

It is really really hard to put such stupidities past Republicans, but if the point is that different political parties will have different priorities, well, thanks Einstein. If they want to keep getting elected, though, they might not want to get their grubby little hands on the old folks' Medicare and so forth. Even a conservative must bow to the fact that people WANT Social Security. My bet is that people - families even! - will enjoy paying less money for services they use, like contraception.

Now is this last part written with rue or glee?

Our friends on the left should worry about what potentially could happen to their shiny new toy, if Obamacare ever became Santorumcare, Brownbackcare, or Palincare.

As a wise man once said: “Careful what you wish for.”

Or insanity?

Dear Mac People (Also Other People)

LibreOffice is really slick. I recommend it.

OpenOffice worked and was free, but it looked (haven't downloaded a copy for quite a while) like shit on a Mac. NeoOffice pays more attention to the interoperability aspect, but is kinda clunky and slow, and it's left my older machines behind. LibreOffice is better than both.

Something else to note is that Quicktime Player (which does nifty screen-capture videos) is not Quicktime Player 7. The latter does more than the former, particularly with Perian.

Hey Pope!

This child-raping business costs you more than two billion dollars!

Asia is going to be the next new scandal hotspot, says your own bishop!

People can make cheap and nasty animations of your head exploding and know there'll be a scandal to use them with!



I believe this is why they call them sick days. Sniffle. Still makes me giggle though. Have I mentioned that his butt stinks?

Just for Valentine's day, here is a sweet story of a monk and a nun who decided to do something normal and fuck each other. Also they got married and lived happily ever after.

CHEAP STAGING REVEALED UPDATE!

If we tip the view over a little bit (particles follow the camera eye) things get weirder.

Progress

This is a fun little puzzle to solve!



I'm not very good at the garment art and the blood dripping does funny things, but it's good enough for an animated gif when the time comes. Maybe I'll clean that up a little. So to speak. He's more fulla blood than a non-stop communion-wine intake would allow, but more blood means a more satisfying way to conceal how crappy the underlying mechanics really are.

What remains is to section his head into little chunks that fly off in the appropriate directions, give or take a little directionality because we like random effects. There are two eyeballs in there; they start out their lives right by our Poop's eye sockets. There's a nice explosion of blood triggered, and I'll be darned if those particle explosion thingies don't have adjustable gravity attached to them which makes the whole thing a little more disgusting. Yet satisfying. For additional gore I have a few chunks of meaty coyote-skull that'll have to serve as the contents of the Poop's brain. I regret not finding a jackal.

Oh and happy St. Valentine's Day Massacre to you all!

The State of Psychiatry in Afghanistan

From last summer here is what is being done for broken people:

The afternoon tour of the hospital was both better and worse than I had imagined. The bad news is that yes, they do chain people to the beds (in some hospitals they have to raise the cost of their own chains); there are 10 patients in a small room (all day – with nowhere else to go), sat on beds which almost touch each other; nobody is admitted unless their relatives come too to look after them; nurses are almost non-existent; efficient psychiatrists can see 60 patients in little over an hour; the forensic ward is only different because it has more chains.

BUT the patients do talk together, appear generally well fed and clothed, seem to care about each other, sometimes include spiritual healing in their treatment, receive medication efficiently, and only have a 5 second waiting time for psychological treatment. The last one is not a test to see if you are still awake, but the way the outpatient clinic works: 1-2 minutes with the doctor and nurse (the doctor interviewing, diagnosing and prescribing and the nurse completing the notes) then along to the next table with a psychologist as soon as you have finished, if the psychiatrist thinks it will help. You might not get very long for your session, though, and none of it all is exactly confidential…

The whole of a short tour can be reached via this tag.

Superintendent for the Destruction of the Gods

Part of what Graeber is outlining here is that everywhere coinage arose in the service of conveniently funding empire and elites (which happened in China and Greece and India at suspiciously similar times) its opposition arose also, in the form of various philosophies and religions. In this sense the rise of overpowering religion after the fraction of empires (and the vanishing of coinage) was a very good thing for the average farmer, who was much less likely to have to deal with the mechanisms that could enslave him (religions often being opposed to usury and slavery) in the business of military expansion.

ѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪѫѪ

In other filling-up-the-space news, NO POKÉMON IN THE SEARCH HITS!

oh shit its monday 20
my pet 3
black closeted men 2
cute spiders 2
faded background van halen 2
gerbils 2
hutsul culture 2
hutsul logo 2
michelangelo god 2
sammy hagar in the river? 2

FUCK-YOU-GOOGLE UPDATE!

Searched straight from Firefox, which sends me to .ca:



Searched via Googlebar Lite which will send me to the .com I usually use:



Assholes, I would like to search THE WEB. THE WEB!

IT'S LOVELIER IN LATVIA UPDATE!



There we go: the international site for the order, a Wikipedia article, and a little more non-local stuff. Easy!

Surprises

Andrew Price:

I’m not saying the creators of “Star Trek” were conservatives; they weren’t. But liberalism has shifting values, and for a brief period at the end of the 1960s, liberalism temporarily overlapped with the values of classical liberalism, which is the foundation of modern conservatism. “Star Trek” benefited from this. In fact, I think you’ll be surprised how deeply conservative these shows are.

I will be utterly surpised I am sure.

This is “the Nazi episode.”

I am feeling as if I will be less surprised.

On its surface, you might think a story about Nazis is left wing. After all, Hollywood wants you to believe the Nazis were a right-wing phenomenon equivalent to Libertarianism/ Conservatism. This is laughable, as the national socialist Nazis were everything the left claims to love. Yet, many people still ignorantly accept the idea the Nazis were rightists rather than leftists because that’s what they’ve been taught by leftist teachers. So it shouldn’t surprise us if a show about Nazis was meant as an attack on conservatives.

I was not surprised.

But darn it, he's kind of right! Hideous liberals would have government agents blow up the head of the Poop if they could!



Here we've added a simple on/off switch that controls everything; the Pope is swapped out for a headless version and at the same time on goes the plumbing. The white garment may actually require art, which is a problem, but maybe I can make the various trails of gore sustain somehow - that would be a wonderfully easy solution. And I'm still unsure of the what the right mechanics of the explosion would involve. Bits of his head as an image on a quickly expanding transparent sphere? A one shot set of particle generators? That last seems pretty easy.

Now to help The Lovely Daughter with her art project.

UPDATE!

Idea!



Hmm, maybe not.

It's kind of amusing in motion though...

Power

Reproduced fourfold because I'm like that, here is one of the scariest logos in existence:



That's from the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute of the Национальный исследовательский ядерный университет, or the National Nuclear Research University.

Over here are a couple more versions where the horse looks even more terrified, including this one:



I wonder if student discipline is a problem. Could anything bad happen at a place with the sweet-sounding domain-name of mephist.ru?

Clothing available though the rear-side logo is somewhat odd.

POWER AT-WORK LISTENING UPDATE:





















GODLIKE POWER UPDATE!

As ever, we are responsive to the needs of the readership:



Pope-exploding requires sophisticated tools and careful planning. With well-placed orbs we can pump standard aftermath-blood no problem, and swapping out a pope for a headless bloodied pope is a snap. The problem is getting the head explosion right, or if not right, FUN.

Different particle streams can have slightly altered physics in which more orbs or static pictures of gore (skull bits, brain goo) fly outward from the pope's neck at a reasonable or hilarious rate, changing colour or size as they fly away and fall. When there are enough of those you can fool the eye into thinking a lot of work has been done. But maybe it would add komedy value to have individual chunks of the pope's face fly toward the viewer and have those be somewhat recognizable. I could probably hide another set of features behind this pope's head so that when the intact pope vanishes the hidden pope chunks would fly forward, in priority over the less unique bits of meat and fluid following. For god's sake, at least an eyeball!

Such are the trials of the artist.

I Have Been Waiting For This

J—:

"Sign my petition!"

To make this an Olympic sport. It's right in so, so many ways.

Riiiiiight.

I guess Leviticus doesn't count.

Good News Everyone!

Via Gnoetry we learn that JanusNode 3.0 is out.

It's the modern age and JANUSNODE HAS GONE TWATTY!



ALSO:



Explanation:

- The ‘Be extra-brilliant’ button is a placebo. It doesn't actually do anything, but you will probably be able to convince yourself that it does. As Janus likes to remind us: a lot of what matters is in how you look at things.

AND FURTHERMORE:

My latest spotted danio just died heinously and with all the pensive crap in this life a tan hidden spotted danio story would make my day. What she had was an irradiated throat and if I had the money she would have lived many more minutes. I blame the screamin'.

Wanna make money in Hollywood?

News!

Wanna make money in Hollywood? Release patriotic movies that promote conservative values and do not denigrate Christianity.

For two decades, that has been the message Movieguide has been pushing, and on Friday, Feb. 10, when it celebrates its 20-year anniversary with an awards show airing on The Hallmark Channel, the organization will present a 76-page report designed to back up its assertions.

This year’s report sells for $1,000, and the price includes tickets to the annual Faith & Values Awards Gala held at the Universal Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. The report praises such 2011 releases as Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Battle: Los Angeles, Moneyball, We Bought a Zoo and Hugo while heaping scorn on the likes of Super 8, Red State, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Bad Teacher and Happy Feet Two.

ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ Ѫѫ Ѫ ѫѪ Ѫ ѫѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ

ѫ ѪѫѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ Ѫѫ ѪѫѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ Ѫѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѫѪ ѫѪ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѫѪѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѫѪѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѪѫѪ ѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ Ѫѫѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѫѪ ѫѪѪѫѪ ѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѪ
ѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѫѪ ѫѪѪѫѪ ѫ ѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ ѫѪѪѫѪ ѫ ѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ ѫѪѪѫѪ ѫ ѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
Ѫ ѫ ѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѪѫ ѪѫѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѪѫ ѪѫѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѪѫ Ѫ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫѪѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѪѫ ѪѫѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ Ѫѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ
ѫѪѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѪѫ ѪѫѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪѫ ѪѫѪ ѫѪ

TIM KALEMKARIAN Mania!

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Great Moments in On-Screen Sadism

I recently watched the almost-unbeatably miserable 1965 post-nuke exploration The War Game. In its way it's more sadistic than Salo; the dry and authoritative BBC documentary style avoids having to tell a story involving characters, so you can pile horror upon horror without having to worry whether or not someone enters a room and says hello. It's obvious that the writers sat around compiling (or choosing from the sources referenced at the end) just as many awful things as they possibly could to put into a short film, and good for them I guess, but eventually it seems like they really want their hideous and battered countrymen to suffer as much as possible.

The presence of a variety of stiff amateur Britons posing for man-in-the-irradiated-street interviews enlivens the proceedings, with this the topper on the plutonium birthday cake:

Narrator: These children are orphans of the attack. They were each asked what they now wanted to grow up to be.

Scabby-from-radiation Orphan #1: I don't want to be nuffink.

Scabby-from-radiation Orphan #2: Neither do I.

Scabby-from-radiation Orphan #3: I don't want to be nothing.

Scabby-from-radiation Orphan #4: Neither do I want to be nothing.

Comedy-rule-breaking orphans are in the still below.

The Google Video version below is a smidge shorter than the version bad people can find by doing bad things on the internet. I'm not sure what's gone, but the orphans around the 43:00 mark are a little glitchy so maybe it's just a transference problem.

Enjoy!



APOCALYPTIC UPDATE:

On heavy rotation for some reason:



This city, your culture
Your modern-day suffering
Is over so what if I love it
I can't help it, that's all

After I started playing it endlessly I looked it up and discovered it was one guy from this band and another guy from this band THUS PROVING DEFINITIVELY that, uh, I like the things I like?

Shenanigans

Get 'em!

Two of Japan's largest auto suppliers with operations in Michigan, Yazaki and Denso, pleaded guilty to price-fixing on electronic auto supplies and will pay $548 million in fines. Four Japanese executives from Yazaki also pleaded guilty and will serve between 15 months and two years in U.S. prisons.

I believe those Japanese auto executives were responsible for the recession that is ruining the lives of people all over the world. Well done, US justice authorities!

Common Misconceptions

Go Newt Go!

Heh heh heh...

Newt Gingrich’s campaign says it will challenge Florida’s delegation to the GOP national convention, and at least one member of the Republican National Committee thinks it has cause. According to party rules, any primary held before April 1 “shall provide for the allocation of delegates on a proportional basis.” Florida’s primary, however, was a winner-take-all contest, so Mitt Romney is currently entitled to all of the state’s 50 delegates.

Because Florida broke the rules by going early, it has lost 50 percent of its original delegates already, as provided by Rule No. 16. But Gingrich’s allies argue this penalty doesn’t absolve the original sin: Florida’s winner-take-all status. On top of losing 50 percent of its delegates, Gingrich’s camp contends that Florida should also reward its remaining delegates on a proportional basis.

Brand Newt™: