Just a Reminder

That nothing is perfect, perfection is unattainable, there is always more work to be done, you can never really relax.

Look at laundry. It never stops.

Look at house maintenance. A house falls apart almost as fast as you can prop it up.

Look at joggers. They keep running and running and will never get there.

Now look at your self.

Willful ignorance opens it's fat mouth and speaks with a horribly grating accent, again.

The current wettest blanket of them all thinks that we shouldn't be wasting valuable resources performing research on fruit flies. Of course, when you don't "believe" in "DNA" or the "theory" "of" "evolution" "by" "natural selection" then you wouldn't really understand what kind of an impact fruit fly research may have on things such as autism or dare I say, Down syndrome.

"That's more than the shortfall to fully fund the IDEA," she said. "And where does a lot of that earmark money end up? It goes to projects having little or nothing to do with the public good -- things like fruit fly research in Paris, France, or a public policy center named for the guy who got the earmark. In our administration, we're going to reform and refocus. We're going to get our federal priorities straight, and fulfill our country's commitment to give every child opportunity and hope in life."

This is hard not to laugh at...

Faniq writes:

You probably heard a few years ago that T. Boone Pickens, who chairs the hedge fund BP Capital Management, gave Oklahoma State a $165 million donation to be used all for helping the school's athletic program. And the largest portion of it was going to be used to beef up the school's football stadium and football facilities.

Well, there was one problem with Boone's donation. He left the donation in the hedge fund, which initially seemed to be a good idea as oil prices soared in a post Katrina economic climate, swelling the initial gift to over $300 million. That was before things began to turn in 2007, as international demand for oil failed to meet projections, causing the fund to come to a sudden standstill, and then dropping on mistakes made by fund managers, who were managed by Pickens.

Anyway, Pickens resisted pleas by some OSU Regents to bank a good deal of the balance out of the fund when it exceeded $300 million, which was only 14 months ago. Instead Pickens decided on borrowing almost $200 million needed to expand and renovate Boone Pickens Stadium on the Stillwater campus, despite the fact that the donation was dropping in value.

Now, here's the bad news. Yesterday all indications were that OSU Regents had been told last Friday afternoon that a large portion of the Pickens donation in the BP Capital hedge fund was virtually wiped out by margin calls on the funds investments in the third quarter.

Since when did universities turn into investment firms? I wonder if the economics department advised on this decision.

One of these two men is going to be president of the united states.

In case you think it was photoshopped.

What's wrong with the economy part 1

Happy joy unicorn land

In happy joy unicorn land, the nice asian man next door has kindly asked that we stop borrowing his lawn tools and kitchen equipment, since if we insist on using our hats and shoes as cooking pots and chopping up our furniture for firewood, he is concerned that he won't ever see again the nice things he lent us for our barbecue last summer.

Chinese regulators have asked domestic banks to stop lending to U.S. financial institutions in the interbank money markets to prevent possible losses during the financial crisis, the South China Morning Post reported Thursday. The China Banking Regulatory Commission's ban on interbank lending of all currencies applied to U.S. banks, but not to lenders from other countries, the report added, citing a source. End of Story

Marketwatch (HONGKONG)

That is stupid #4. Alaskan Manly Men Gourment Coffee, Ahar!

Ahar mateys! Come aboard an' try some of my delicious grog. Ahar! I mean coffee: coffee thick as a slurry o'fish bait rolling around in a ship's hold after a long voyage, with the delicate aroma of a skipper's armpits and the barest hint of o'stale crab meat.

Come meet me for a cup at your local supermarket. No autographs please! But I am available for children's parties. Ahar! I mean p-arghties, of course.

Surprise! Theism negatively correlated with IQ

What's worse: that it took so long for someone to get round to doing this research, or that this research is more important than ever in the 21 century?

University of Ulster professor Richard Lynn will draw the conclusion in new research due to be published in the journal Intelligence, the Times Higher Education Supplement reports.

Lynn and his two co-authors argue that average IQ is an excellent predictor of what proportion of the population are true believers, across 137 countries. They also cite surveys of the US Academy of Sciences and UK Royal Academy showing single-digit rates of religious belief among academics.

Oh, I know what's worse. That I'm going to have to tread on eggshells when taking about this with so many people I hold dear.

"Sarah Palin's Big Day" - Slart's version

Let me see now, excited old man with hard-on, soccer mom (ooooh sorry, 'hockey mom'), taking care of her kids. Sounds like a winning presidential ticket to me.

"Sarah Palin's Big Day"

I saw a news headline on CNN today, watching the one-eyed-monster and drinking coffee.

"Sarah Palin's Big Day"

Whether or not one's political views tend towards conservatism, liberalism, or hopefully, moderation, whether or not one runs red, blue, or green, something in the title and subtle implications of the header lit a fire under my ass.

One may not agree with everything a politician does, says, demonstrates, or enacts into law. One may find hypocrisy throughout the legal system, and in practices of politicians in public and private life. One may fear the ramifications of certain measures taken by those in power, sometimes meant to protect us, sometimes serving a purpose benefiting those who sat down behind closed doors, hands in the coffer, and said "Yes, let's." For the sake of this wet blanket, please for the moment suspend these thoughts. Let's look at Sarah Palin as a public servant, one of many, all of whom hold different value systems.

Her "Big Day". Like she's some prom queen or debutante getting ready for her "coming out" into society? Oooh, Sarah! Where did you get your hair done? What designer are you wearing tonight? What's your morning ritual? What's your color chart? How do you manage to look so put together with five kids, a grandbaby on the way, and a state to run? Am I crazy for finding this offensive to all women? She might as well wear a veil and tell the audience she's waited for this moment her whole life, according to the announcement on the news. Why doesn't the media rise above and beyond trivial jibes and let one's opponent become done or undone without derisive, childish comments? Tongue in cheek is only good for gentle admonishment; it is much harder to act like an adult and give everyone equal credit to individual existence and values, whether or not one is in agreement.

The undertones of the "Big Day" statement wrench my female innards. I have a feeling some reporters will be focusing on her dress style and makeup rather than the fact she's a first in many political arenas, much like a certain member of the Democratic camp. Will they treat her as a politician with ideas to bring to the table (or ideas to oppose), or will they truss her up and bring her to stage as an oddity, a skirt suit show instead of suit and tie? Women, after all, were granted the right to vote after everyone else. Her "Big Day". Like she hasn't been running a state for the past two years, like this is the first speech she's ever given in her life. Similar to Obama's ethnicity and background forced to the forefront to make an issue of or take issue with--at the end of the day he is an American, plain and simple. This is how I view him, and how I view Palin. He has broken ground, much like Palin (following in Geraldine Ferraro's footsteps). He gets a Historic Moment In Time, she gets a "Big Day". Well, paint my nails and call me premenstrual! Obama called a reporter "sweetie" and dismisses her, but that's no matter now, is it?
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juy9NwI8_i0 )
She should be flattered he even noticed her, right? We'll let women play the game but won't give them any chips to bet with. And if she makes a fuss, there's always a stake and lighter fluid handy.

I don't give a sh** who anyone votes for or what people believe; I have my own path (always open to discourse and discussion). We all get to believe what we want in this country, and speak freely without fear of persecution and imprisonment, but while the constitution governs our supposed basic rights, there are those who refuse to govern their own mouths when it is their responsibility to the public to do so. All I hope for is that the person elected to office will give a hoot about this country and guide us towards a better state of being, even if I don't agree 100% with his or her beliefs. In the meantime, we are subjected to behaviours and opinions unfit for media representatives and public servants during the political gladiator fight. Deep wounds are reopened, rubbed with salt, and badly dressed with dirty linens. Reporters and campaign managers stand no better than schoolyard bullies. CNN, among other news agencies, took a big wool one, dunked it in a bucket, and held it over my face this morning. Of course, this is not the first time a mainstream media outlet has degraded a public servant--I'm touching the tip of the iceberg. Anyone remember the New Yorker's "humorous satire" of Michelle & Barack Obama? Where do these people get this stuff?

But then again, maybe I'm just experiencing some PMS, right? After all, women do tend to get a little emotional at times and it may affect our judgement. I'd better get back to finding the perfect cookie recipe, and I've got a pile of laundry up to my neck, mostly consisting of blankets.

Suspension of Disbelief

This morning, my underwear reminded me of something I'd like to share: suspension of disbelief. I'll spare you the entire train of thought, but suffice it to say that I got to thinking about the movie The Incredibles. Specifically, I was thinking about the superfast little boy who zipped up from his school desk, put a tack on his teacher's chair, and zipped back to his desk before anybody could register that he was not in his seat.

Ok. That's fine. Let's suspend our disbelief. Grant the little tyke his speedy feat. But what about all the consequent phenomena? Just how fast was he going? Faster than sound? He would have made a shock wave and everybody in his class would have heard the sonic booms. Let's say he stayed under Mach 1. His trip through the classroom would have left the air stirring like the wake of a semi truck. The tack he placed probably would have been sucked up into the low pressure zone he made as he vacated the spot he was in as he placed the tack. A roaring wind would have ripped around the classroom. Surely people would have noticed.

Completely unbelievable, even if you posit the one incredible thing. That brings me to the general point of this particular wet blanket. Suspension of disbelief is great. I like it. But there's only so far a reasonable person can go with it. We can easily suspend our disbelief regarding phenomena outside the human experience or outside the realm of knowledge. But once universal laws start getting stepped on, the disbelief suspension gets less and less easy.

Take for instance another movie, X-Men: The Last Stand (colloquially, X-Men 3). I'm willing to grant Wolverine his claws and healing ability and metal-coated skeleton. I can grant Professor X his telepathy. There are lots of the mutant powers toward which I am willing to suspend disbelief. But what about that one dude who kept throwing those spikes at Wolverine? Where did they come from? Where is all the mass coming from? And the scene with the bridge and Alcatraz? OOH! That is completely unbelievable, it had me spluttering and pointing in disbelief. Bridges are the shape they are because some really smart people spent a lot of time and energy designing them. And suspension bridges absolutely depend on the cables to hold them up. That bridge would have collapsed the moment that our nearly believable Magneto stopped holding it up.

I have another movie example. In Starship Troopers, which by the way absolutely murdered Heinlein's novel, a ship in orbit around a planet is shot down. Hm? Things in orbit don't fall out of orbit just because they get broken into two pieces. They are already falling. That's what orbiting is. They can't just fall out of the sky. Remember the Chinese weather satellite? It is still up there in pieces.

When well understood physical laws get violated, I start asking questions. And so should you. I don't mean to be a killjoy (or should I say, "wet blanket?"), but I do want people to do a little more thinking and question asking than they seem to do now. And if you are a movie maker, I would be happy to act as a believability consultant.

This Week's Official Wet Blanket:

My Dog, for committing the ultimate in Wet Blanket Behaviour: Ruining Birthday Parties.

He just ate the birthday cake my husband spent all night last night baking for me. We were going to share it with our new neighbours and the only people we know in this god-forsaken podunk upstate town in the middle of nowhere.

The kicker: lots of sugar and lots of flour wreak havoc on a little dog's sensitive digestive system.

That Is Stupid #3: How do you make corn chowder?

1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of potato soup
1 can whole kernel corn
2 c. Half and Half
Salt and pepper to taste
1 can New England clam chowder

Combine all ingredients in large saucepan. Heat to blend, eat with crackers.

Yeah, eat with crackers, cracker. Why not just buy 5 cans of corn chowder? What kind of moron decided that corn chowder according to the above recipe was a good idea? The scary thing is that some people would consider mixing 4 cans of condensed soup together to be "cooking" and a "creative effort."

Well, I don't. And you shouldn't either.

Try the following, instead. It is a product of intelligence guided by experience.

Actual Corn Chowder

1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 Tbsp olive oil
Sautee chopped onion and garlic in olive oil until onion becomes translucent.

3 cups milk
Place milk, onion, and garlic in a pot over medium heat.

2 potatoes
salt
black pepper
Cook cubed potato over high heat in the pan in which you cooked the onion. When browned, add to the pot.

3 ears corn
1 spring onion
Slice the kernels off of the cobs and into the soup. Put half of a sliced spring onion into the pot. Fry up the other half of the spring onion so that it is crunchy and use that as a garnish.

1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
salt to taste
water
Make the soup taste nice, then let it cook for a few minutes. Add water to the desired consistency, or more milk if you'd rather.

If you're vegan, as I'm sure some of you are, substitute coconut milk for the cow's milk.

McCain/Palin 2008

Damn it, I was so excited when I saw Palin on the ticket. Should have known better.

What's wrong with global warming.

The repubs get the word into their heads and think it means warming. It doesn't. It means turbulent weather.

Watch the spot just west of New Orleans.

Creationism is rampant

The United States is a country that was founded by puritans. An article in the NY Times last week discusses a teacher, David Campbell, who is struggling to teach Florida public school kids the theory of evolution by natural selection. Struggling because these children have not only been indoctrinated with ludicrous creationist bullshit by their parents but they've also been taught not to think, ask questions or come to conclusions on their own. They've been taught to adamantly, brutishly stand by something that they aren't, by virtue of the thing itself, allowed to question.

It upsets me greatly that people actively choose ignorance. I am disheartened by the fact that they willfully misunderstand what science tells them. The worst part? The wet blanket? It's only getting worse, thank you very much Kansas State Board of Education. The mere fact that there is a need for laws that explicitly require evolution to be taught in school is depressing. It means that there are thousands of teachers out there, teaching hundreds of thousands of students, in the name of science, that a man with a white beard waved a magic wand one day, presumably out of boredom, and we all appeared. Or worse, that perhaps out of sheer laziness, he just invented a way for it to perpetuate itself and that's where natural selection comes in.

"[Americans] have a deep-seated distrust of real intellectual effort (probably because we suspect that it will destroy, and I hope it does, that myth of America to which we cling so desperately). " James Baldwin, The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American, January 25 1959 .

What's wrong with politics #1

The election coming up is probably going to Obama. Well, more than probably - he couldn't lose it if he tried. Very hard. Extremely hard. The amount of difficulty involved in losing the election is directly proportional to how shitty the last people left everything.

And whoever comes next, and whoever comes after that, some things are now damaged beyond repair. The shitheads have run the country into the ground face-first and a lot of what's broken is gone forever. No use crying over spilt milk. Can't turn back the clock now.

Shitheads 8, Non-shitheads 0.

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