December 28, 2015

Nothing more disgruntling...

... than writing a blistering retort to someone, only to find that the post has been locked before you finished. Serves me right for communicating in complete paragraphs.

Which leads me to the burning question: what's "gruntled?" I mean, does anybody walk around gruntled all day? "Hi, Mal, how are you today?" "Oh, I'm gruntled."

-- Mal

November 30, 2015

Must be a slow news day.

Just heard on my local TV: a guy stopped two people on the street, flashed a fake cop badge, and made off with 14 whole dollars from the second person. The first one ran away and the miscreant got nothing.

They're calling it a "crime spree."

-- Mal

November 30, 2015

Some classic paintings modernized:

http://www.boredpanda.com/famous-painting-remakes/

I don't know how to hotlink examples, but there are some nice pix here.

-- Mal

November 27, 2015

It's California Peggy's Birthday!

-- Mal

November 26, 2015

It's the Fiftieth Anniversary already!

Well, of the crime, not the song:

And Arlo has already been interviewed by the Daily Beast: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/26/arlo-guthrie-on-stupid-politicians-and-50-years-of-thanksgiving-classic-alice-s-restaurant.html

-- Mal

November 23, 2015

Hello, Little Girl

Beatles with no drummer and Stu Sutcliffe on bass. Very rare bootleg.

-- Mal

November 4, 2015

One in ten quintillion?

This is really worthy of not: in a online game I'm playing, an acquaintance had a 97% chance of completing a task successfully, and failed twelve straight times. Children the odds against that are so high, you might as well say "impossible" and forget about it.

-- Mal

October 30, 2015

Robert Heinlein once posed a question:

... "When is it moral for a government to do what it is immoral for an individual to do?"

In reference to violence against women and minorities, I offer the following observations:

I suggest that the institutionalization of violence, especially violence towards our own citizens, speaks to that question. I also suggest that there are quite a few people who do not understand the ethical dictum "What I do through another's hands, I do myself." While I would never try to float a serious proposition that people actually do feel a queasy conscience about committing violence themselves, for many I think the opportunity to be sanctimonious, take the moral high ground, and deplore what our institutions do "of necessity" while sadly acknowledging that necessity, adds a piquant spice of justification to their hatred and greed. I doubt, too, it is a sentiment wholly confined to males, for there are many females who support the misogynistic patriarchy for their own reasons (they must be getting something out of it, though I can't imagine what, unless it is a hope of living a life of luxury and privilege as the appendix of an alpha male, not dissimilar to the hope felt by many of the financially oppressed, that they will be rich one day).

-- Mal

October 25, 2015

Songs with enigmatic lyrics

Post a favorite song with lyrics that are completely intelligible, yet are resistant to conveying meaning. I'll start with an easy one:

-- Mal

October 20, 2015

Looks like a good case for arbitration:

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2994787/it-careers/bank-s-severance-deal-requires-it-workers-to-be-on-call-for-two-years.html

Of course, the bank is probably in a right-to-work state, and can basically screw their employees any way they want to without being liable.

-- Mal