News of the Weird 2.0 (December 2, 2013)
News of the Weird 2.0
Angst, Confusion, Cynicism, Ridicule
Prime Cuts of Underreported News from Last Week, Hand-Picked and Lightly Seasoned by Chuck Shepherd
December 2, 2013
(datelines November 23-November 30) (links correct as of December 1)
No “Hacking” in the 1960s?: The U.S. Strategic Air Command was so dismissive of Defense Sec’y Robert McNamara that they overrode his security instructions and kept the default PIN for triggering silo-based Minuteman ICBMs (PIN: “00000000"). During the height of the Cold War. For almost 20 yrs. With a couple of real-life Gen. Jack D. Rippers roaming U.S. bases. TodayIFoundOut.com
Is the bra the perfect garment? Men would be healthier if they wore 'em (so sensors could monitor their vital signs). Lucky gals. Discovery.com
He’s “the conscience of the Chinese robbery industry,” Internet wags said. He stole an iPhone, and when the owner sent him a text decrying his loss of contacts, the thiefsent back the phone nahhh, but he did hand-copy 11 pages of contacts on paper and send that back to the victim. BBC News
Finer Points of the Law: It’s official (by a 3-1 vote of judges, anyway). A driver trying to recover from a bikini-bra-unfastening prank while behind the wheel is not subject to usual standards of negligence if she smashes into something. Associated Press via ABC News
Where is Norman Kazmierski? Listen, if you run into him, Yr Ed warns, Give the poor bastard some room! (You wouldn’t like Norman when he’s mad.) Chicago Sun-Times
Memorable First-Time-Behind-the-Wheel: James Pratt, achieved lift-off in his Audi, flew it into a house, trapped a couple inside. No insurance, no license, no sobriety, no problem. BBC News
Blast From the Past: (No, wait, they’re still in prison, from the 1990s? No way!) Fran Keller and her husband Dan, who ran a day-care in Austin, Tex., and, according to urchin-victims who never make stuff up, got involved in that whole “cat/dog/baby dismemberment, chain-saw-wielding, Mexican-army-abusing” activity that obviously resulted in a tiny tear on one girl’s hymen, and the great state of Texas threw away the key. Only recently did a pediatric “expert” from the 1990s say, well, I just went to a seminar, and maybe that “tear” in the hymen was a natural thing. Even Geraldo apologized for getting caught in that satanic-abuse frenzy. (I don’t think Anna Quindlen ever did, though.) Jeez. 21 yrs in the slammer so far. (Bonus coverage: Vice.com has another: the “satanic lesbian rapists” of San Antonio.) Austin American Statesman /// Vice.com
No Such Thing as Rehab: Henry Earl, 64, was arrested in Lexington, Ky., again, drunk as a skunk. The Smoking Gun says it’s collar number 1,500-plus. The Smoking Gun
Looks Like a Deutsch Trend to Me: For the 2nd time in 8 yrs, here’s a German arrested for arranging a perfectly-consensual cannibal dinner after a meeting on a fetish website. Reuters
Financial writer Henry Blodgett is the latest to make the point that, for intelligent people, we sure do lazily go with the flow, intellectually, instead of critically thinking. His target: Do rich people “create” jobs (and therefore must never have their taxes raised lest they quit “creating”)? But, c’mon, rich people “create” jobs only in the sense that ejaculating males are “fathers.” They create the baby, but whether the baby survives, grows, is good, healthy, moral, productive, etc., could be nurtured by the sperm-dropper but so often depends on the kid’s total surroundings (and “public policy,” as in the ol’ “It takes a village”). Besides, radical feminists (and science) are hard at work as we speak questioning how much longer we’ll need the ejaculator, anyway.) But still, the headlines for the foreseeable future will be “Rich people create jobs (therefore no tax increases).” Business Insider via Slate
Speaking of ejaculators, South Africa’s reputation for rape is about as bad as India’s, yet in the advanced-placement school test recently, there appeared a thought question on just how a test-taker might direct the rape scene in a movie. It was, the creator explained, just an attempt to “[assess] the pupils’ concept of using metaphor as a theatrical technique.” (Still--.) BBC News
Thanks to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors (and a regular shout-out to Kev at Nothing To Do With Arbroath).
Angst, Confusion, Cynicism, Ridicule
Prime Cuts of Underreported News from Last Week, Hand-Picked and Lightly Seasoned by Chuck Shepherd
December 2, 2013
(datelines November 23-November 30) (links correct as of December 1)
No “Hacking” in the 1960s?: The U.S. Strategic Air Command was so dismissive of Defense Sec’y Robert McNamara that they overrode his security instructions and kept the default PIN for triggering silo-based Minuteman ICBMs (PIN: “00000000"). During the height of the Cold War. For almost 20 yrs. With a couple of real-life Gen. Jack D. Rippers roaming U.S. bases. TodayIFoundOut.com
Is the bra the perfect garment? Men would be healthier if they wore 'em (so sensors could monitor their vital signs). Lucky gals. Discovery.com
He’s “the conscience of the Chinese robbery industry,” Internet wags said. He stole an iPhone, and when the owner sent him a text decrying his loss of contacts, the thief
Finer Points of the Law: It’s official (by a 3-1 vote of judges, anyway). A driver trying to recover from a bikini-bra-unfastening prank while behind the wheel is not subject to usual standards of negligence if she smashes into something. Associated Press via ABC News
Where is Norman Kazmierski? Listen, if you run into him, Yr Ed warns, Give the poor bastard some room! (You wouldn’t like Norman when he’s mad.) Chicago Sun-Times
Memorable First-Time-Behind-the-Wheel: James Pratt, achieved lift-off in his Audi, flew it into a house, trapped a couple inside. No insurance, no license, no sobriety, no problem. BBC News
No Such Thing as Rehab: Henry Earl, 64, was arrested in Lexington, Ky., again, drunk as a skunk. The Smoking Gun says it’s collar number 1,500-plus. The Smoking Gun
Looks Like a Deutsch Trend to Me: For the 2nd time in 8 yrs, here’s a German arrested for arranging a perfectly-consensual cannibal dinner after a meeting on a fetish website. Reuters
Financial writer Henry Blodgett is the latest to make the point that, for intelligent people, we sure do lazily go with the flow, intellectually, instead of critically thinking. His target: Do rich people “create” jobs (and therefore must never have their taxes raised lest they quit “creating”)? But, c’mon, rich people “create” jobs only in the sense that ejaculating males are “fathers.” They create the baby, but whether the baby survives, grows, is good, healthy, moral, productive, etc., could be nurtured by the sperm-dropper but so often depends on the kid’s total surroundings (and “public policy,” as in the ol’ “It takes a village”). Besides, radical feminists (and science) are hard at work as we speak questioning how much longer we’ll need the ejaculator, anyway.) But still, the headlines for the foreseeable future will be “Rich people create jobs (therefore no tax increases).” Business Insider via Slate
Speaking of ejaculators, South Africa’s reputation for rape is about as bad as India’s, yet in the advanced-placement school test recently, there appeared a thought question on just how a test-taker might direct the rape scene in a movie. It was, the creator explained, just an attempt to “[assess] the pupils’ concept of using metaphor as a theatrical technique.” (Still--.) BBC News
Thanks to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors (and a regular shout-out to Kev at Nothing To Do With Arbroath).
Comments
I read the article on the falsity of trickle-down economics and then had to share it with a bunch of people. This is stuff I've been talking about for ages, and it's nice to see someone involved in finance admitting that our economic system is so very badly off-kilter.
Posted by Alassirana on 12/02/13 at 06:09 PM
Alassirana, trickle down was a myth clear back when Prez. Reagan espoused it and it still is. That's what you get when a sitting president is in (at least) the first stages of Alzheimer's.
00000000- Where does the power really lie? A question that is just to scary to contemplate seriously.
moob covers- Some guys need them too!
contacts- How many of those returned contacts also got robbed subsequently?
vandal- Maybe the old dude has some organic brain problem, or maybe he's just a total asshole.
flying car- So it runs on alcohol.
false guilt- What those people have been through is tragic. Shouldn't the junk science 'professional' witnesses be held accountable somehow.
1500- Oh but the penalty for 1501 is soooo severe, just you wait and see!!
consensual cannibalism- Fava beans and chianti!
rich/jobs- Trickle down's black little heart.
rape- Thank goodness we do not have a pro rape culture here, sad that some countries do.
00000000- Where does the power really lie? A question that is just to scary to contemplate seriously.
moob covers- Some guys need them too!
contacts- How many of those returned contacts also got robbed subsequently?
vandal- Maybe the old dude has some organic brain problem, or maybe he's just a total asshole.
flying car- So it runs on alcohol.
false guilt- What those people have been through is tragic. Shouldn't the junk science 'professional' witnesses be held accountable somehow.
1500- Oh but the penalty for 1501 is soooo severe, just you wait and see!!
consensual cannibalism- Fava beans and chianti!
rich/jobs- Trickle down's black little heart.
rape- Thank goodness we do not have a pro rape culture here, sad that some countries do.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 12/02/13 at 08:07 PM
ICBM: reminds me of Feynman's autobiography. (Which, btw, is hilarious - read it.)
Bra behind wheel: and how about holding the one who unfastened it responsible? That seems more reasonable to me.
Trickle-down: in the rest of the world, this is old news. Glad to see that the Neo-monetarist States of Mercantila are finally getting the message, too. Now to repair the massive damage done to the world's economy over the previous couple of decades.
Bra behind wheel: and how about holding the one who unfastened it responsible? That seems more reasonable to me.
Trickle-down: in the rest of the world, this is old news. Glad to see that the Neo-monetarist States of Mercantila are finally getting the message, too. Now to repair the massive damage done to the world's economy over the previous couple of decades.
Posted by Richard Bos on 12/03/13 at 08:46 AM
Trickle Down - Yes, we need to instead model our economy on the systems in Venezuela and Zimbabwe. That will raise the standard of living for most everyone.
Posted by RobK on 12/03/13 at 12:15 PM
"Bra behind wheel: and how about holding the one who unfastened it responsible?"
Read the news story. The one who unfastened it was killed in the collision he caused, and apparently didn't leave an estate worth suing. The driver presumably had insurance. Lawsuits are often all about finding some person or organization who has money and trying to prove THAT was the one responsible, not that other person who isn't worth suing.
-Cougar :{)
Read the news story. The one who unfastened it was killed in the collision he caused, and apparently didn't leave an estate worth suing. The driver presumably had insurance. Lawsuits are often all about finding some person or organization who has money and trying to prove THAT was the one responsible, not that other person who isn't worth suing.
-Cougar :{)
Posted by Cougar Allen on 12/03/13 at 01:30 PM
Trickle Down: This reminded me of an old cartoon. A sergeant and a private were walking past a two story outhouse. The top door was Officers and bottom was Enlisted. The SGT was saying "At least we don't have wipe them!"
Posted by BMN on 12/03/13 at 02:08 PM
RobKon: I don't see why we have to choose between one braindead extreme and the other, equally moronic. Something closer to the sane middle would be more to my liking.
Cougar: Ah - I did read the article, but apparently not carefully enough, because I missed that. (But if that's what lawsuits are about in your country, I pity someone seeking justice over there. And especially someone defending against an injust case.)
Cougar: Ah - I did read the article, but apparently not carefully enough, because I missed that. (But if that's what lawsuits are about in your country, I pity someone seeking justice over there. And especially someone defending against an injust case.)
Posted by Richard Bos on 12/04/13 at 08:35 AM
The 'sue the deepest pockets' mentality has been prevalent for years over here Richard. Mainly, I believe, because large corporations prefer to settle nuisance suits out of court due to it being cheaper than defending against them. Even if the company is sure to win in the end the process is so long and drawn out that the lawyers are the only true winners.(financially anyway) And, no, that is not how it was meant to be but it is what the system has morphed into unfortunately.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 12/04/13 at 08:46 AM
Bread and circuses.
Posted by RobK on 12/04/13 at 09:21 AM
An Oklahoma man proposed to his girlfriend last week while an officer tried to arrest him on two outstanding warrants.
The Internet Dark Age' which accuses Internet providers in general and BT specifically of placing government back-doors into the modems provided to customers as part of their broadband packages.
The Internet Dark Age' which accuses Internet providers in general and BT specifically of placing government back-doors into the modems provided to customers as part of their broadband packages.
Posted by Alex Williams on 12/21/13 at 11:55 AM
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