News of the Weird / Plus, June 23, 2015
News of the Weird / Plus
June 23, 2015 (Part 2) [weird stuff that made me excited (frightened) (ROTFL) (appalled) last week, some of which will appear in News of the Weird soon] [Part 1 on Monday, Part 2 on Tuesday]
WOOD-TV, Grand Rapids, Mich., noted that the heating and air-conditioning at 19 local schools is still, to this day, controlled bya Gateway computer running Windows 95 an Apple Lisa a Commodore Amiga. WOOD-TV
Suspicion Confirmed: Three part-time New York City postal workers were busted for writing bogus Dear-Santa-We’re-Poor children’s letters for display at Xmas time so that bleeding hearts would shower them with gifts. It worked. New Yorkers are notoriously generous in the few days before Xmas (thus freeing themselves up from that annoying “generosity” until the next Xmas). New York Post
How drunk do they get in Ireland? Gerard McGaughey caused about $800 damage at a bar (and knocked himself out) when he crashed against the front window. According to the surveillance video, he was trying to head-butt his own reflection. DerryNow.com
It’s getting out now that, since the gov’t closed its pathogen-research lab just off NY’s Long Island (where winds could blow any oops-ies out to sea) and gave Homeland Security authority to re-establish it somewhere, they decided to put it in Kansas (aka “Tornado Alley,” where oops-ies would contaminate the entire Midwest food supply). [Note to Readers: You’re too late; SyFy channel’s probably looking at a dozen scripts right now. Slate.com
In a BBC documentary, Stephen Hawking’s son, Tim (now 36), said as a lad he messed with the old man, adding cuss words to his speech-machine software and bumper-car-racing with his wheelchairs. [ed. Obviously, that was before The Simpsons writers drew Hawking up some aggressive wheelchair accessories.] Mother Nature Network
Matt McMullen, inventor of super-realistic RealDolls, is working on adding animation--meaning that half of all Japanese men (and a fair percentage of the rest of us) will have no further need for women. The problem, though is the “uncanny valley,” which of course refers to the market-tested fact that if the doll is too real, it will be perceived as creepy. That is, no matter how realistic McMullen can make them, they still have to look a little like . . dolls. New York Times
How to Be a Dept. of Homeland Security Bureaucrat: If you catch border-jumpers, blindly assume (a) they’re not jumping in order to claim asylum and (b) they’re here mainly for the purpose of taking jobs away from Americans (i.e., deportable). The bureaucrats learn about (b) by (allegedly, that is) asking the border-jumper point-blank. (That’s what the bureaucrats’ forms say, anyway--even if the border-jumper was . . 3 yrs old . . or 11 days old, even.) Huffington Post
Nine NYC graffiti-ists/vandals filed a lawsuit against a landlord who whitewashed their work from his building without notifying them in advance. Seems a bit of chutzpah . . except that if they convince a federal judge that their work has “recognized stature,” the landlord will owe damages under the U.S. Visual Artist Rights Act. New York Daily News
Republican presidential contender (sort of) Carly Fiorina is, with her hubby, rich (net worth about $59m) (2013 income, $2.5m) and made it a campaign talking point that the Fiorinas had to file 17 state tax returns in addition to the federal. A New York Times writer selected their “Michigan” return as an example, finding that they owed the state $40 in 2013--but only determinable after filling out 58 pages’ worth of data the state requires (in order to show that everything else Michigan could charge them for was actually more justly payable to other states). Wrote the Times, gently, “[O]ther advanced countries generally do not emulate” the U.S. tax structure. New York Times
June 23, 2015 (Part 2) [weird stuff that made me excited (frightened) (ROTFL) (appalled) last week, some of which will appear in News of the Weird soon] [Part 1 on Monday, Part 2 on Tuesday]
WOOD-TV, Grand Rapids, Mich., noted that the heating and air-conditioning at 19 local schools is still, to this day, controlled by
Suspicion Confirmed: Three part-time New York City postal workers were busted for writing bogus Dear-Santa-We’re-Poor children’s letters for display at Xmas time so that bleeding hearts would shower them with gifts. It worked. New Yorkers are notoriously generous in the few days before Xmas (thus freeing themselves up from that annoying “generosity” until the next Xmas). New York Post
How drunk do they get in Ireland? Gerard McGaughey caused about $800 damage at a bar (and knocked himself out) when he crashed against the front window. According to the surveillance video, he was trying to head-butt his own reflection. DerryNow.com
It’s getting out now that, since the gov’t closed its pathogen-research lab just off NY’s Long Island (where winds could blow any oops-ies out to sea) and gave Homeland Security authority to re-establish it somewhere, they decided to put it in Kansas (aka “Tornado Alley,” where oops-ies would contaminate the entire Midwest food supply). [Note to Readers: You’re too late; SyFy channel’s probably looking at a dozen scripts right now. Slate.com
In a BBC documentary, Stephen Hawking’s son, Tim (now 36), said as a lad he messed with the old man, adding cuss words to his speech-machine software and bumper-car-racing with his wheelchairs. [ed. Obviously, that was before The Simpsons writers drew Hawking up some aggressive wheelchair accessories.] Mother Nature Network
Matt McMullen, inventor of super-realistic RealDolls, is working on adding animation--meaning that half of all Japanese men (and a fair percentage of the rest of us) will have no further need for women. The problem, though is the “uncanny valley,” which of course refers to the market-tested fact that if the doll is too real, it will be perceived as creepy. That is, no matter how realistic McMullen can make them, they still have to look a little like . . dolls. New York Times
How to Be a Dept. of Homeland Security Bureaucrat: If you catch border-jumpers, blindly assume (a) they’re not jumping in order to claim asylum and (b) they’re here mainly for the purpose of taking jobs away from Americans (i.e., deportable). The bureaucrats learn about (b) by (allegedly, that is) asking the border-jumper point-blank. (That’s what the bureaucrats’ forms say, anyway--even if the border-jumper was . . 3 yrs old . . or 11 days old, even.) Huffington Post
Nine NYC graffiti-ists/vandals filed a lawsuit against a landlord who whitewashed their work from his building without notifying them in advance. Seems a bit of chutzpah . . except that if they convince a federal judge that their work has “recognized stature,” the landlord will owe damages under the U.S. Visual Artist Rights Act. New York Daily News
Republican presidential contender (sort of) Carly Fiorina is, with her hubby, rich (net worth about $59m) (2013 income, $2.5m) and made it a campaign talking point that the Fiorinas had to file 17 state tax returns in addition to the federal. A New York Times writer selected their “Michigan” return as an example, finding that they owed the state $40 in 2013--but only determinable after filling out 58 pages’ worth of data the state requires (in order to show that everything else Michigan could charge them for was actually more justly payable to other states). Wrote the Times, gently, “[O]ther advanced countries generally do not emulate” the U.S. tax structure. New York Times
Comments
Commodore Amiga - My first computer was a VIC-20 and it was a good learning machine. The successor C64 really made the company. I still have both and drag them out now and then. The Amiga was the Commodore answer to the IBM-type PC. But by that time Commodore had lost its way and went belly up due to poor sales and bad marketing strategy.
Hawking - I hear tell that Prof. Hawking has a wicked sense of humor. I've seen mention that he has done work with the Monty Python group on a recording of the "Galaxy Song".
Hawking - I hear tell that Prof. Hawking has a wicked sense of humor. I've seen mention that he has done work with the Monty Python group on a recording of the "Galaxy Song".
Posted by KDP on 06/23/15 at 05:00 PM
School- I bet they have a beautiful up to date football stadium though, cuz you know, THAT'S important.
Homeland security- Well, that should keep the terrorists away.
Real dolls- Yeah because how realistic the doll looks is the only creepy thing about it, right?
Art- The owner should have left it up and charged rent for use of the 'venue'.
Homeland security- Well, that should keep the terrorists away.
Real dolls- Yeah because how realistic the doll looks is the only creepy thing about it, right?
Art- The owner should have left it up and charged rent for use of the 'venue'.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 06/23/15 at 06:11 PM
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