Things you should know
posted at 12:01 pm on November 22, 2006 by Bryan
Don’t go to work for a Saudi household. They’re maid-raping slave drivers. Our State Dept? Apologists for maid-raping slave drivers.
Multiculturalism, anyone?
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The Ninetendo Wii is a promiscuous blue tooth thief. You’ve been warned. (And I still want one.)
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I like tofu. I like turkey. The two should never meet.
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Is good music dead or merely dying? And are ringtones a factor? Discuss.
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I like my universe old, dark and energetic. By the way, did you know that the guy who discovered dark energy is only about 34 or 35 years old? And that he discovered dark energy when he was about 29 or so? There’s a Nobel or two in his future.
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Because you asked for it: You’ve heard of The Political Teen. Here’s the Nuclear Teen. Does creating fusion reactions in your parents’ garage earn you a visit from Mohammed El-Baradei?
Blowback
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RIng tones bringing death to music?
Reminds me of the howls from the string players when the piano started coming around.One guy could then effectively play a party, and they screamed to holy heaven that every string player was obsolete and would never find work again.”Death to that infernal contraption!!”
Same old schtuff,different gizmo.
bbz123 on November 22, 2006 at 12:10 PM
Im having a turducken again this year. They are great. Turkey/duck/chicken all in one. How can you lose? Try it. You’ll love it!
Are the 80′s over? Then the good music is dead. :(
And finally. Wuh? No story on the kid who make a fusion reactor in his mom’s garage? Come on! That is awesome!
lorien1973 on November 22, 2006 at 12:14 PM
There is so much going on with cosmology right now–theories and ideas are literally changing by the day, there’s such vitality in that discipline. I need to find the time this long holiday weekend to catch up on all those Sky and Telescope and Astronomy magazines I have sitting on the table.
Matt Helm on November 22, 2006 at 12:15 PM
Ewwwww tofu. Well I can’t say I’m surprised a Cowgirls fan is into weird things. ;)
Ian on November 22, 2006 at 12:19 PM
And the defendant’s brother “simply cannot understand that a jury can give credibility to an Indonesian maid….the only possible explanation is some sort of anti-Muslim bias.”
Makes perfect sense. The Qur’an says:
1. A woman’s worth is half that of a man
2. A rape victim must produce four male eyewitnesses to the rape in court or else get the accusation turned around on them, risking conviction of adultery and death by stoning.
So the Colorado Attorney General went to Saudi Arabia and submitted to aggressive questioning about the conviction by King Abdullah for 3 days.
Surreal.
RushBaby on November 22, 2006 at 12:19 PM
Not dead, just not played on the radio. I recommend CDbaby.com
Gwillie on November 22, 2006 at 12:31 PM
C’mon man. Muse’s new album “Black Holes and Revelations” is good. It’s anti-Bush agitprop, but it still rocks. Regina Spektor’s new album is pretty good. Imogen Heap is doing all kinds of cool stuff.
I like the last My Chemical Romance album (the new one is dissapointing) and there’s a new wave of cabaret/opera/rock starting to crest out there with Rufus Wainwright and The Dresden Dolls and some other bands sorta like them. A lot of it is still kind of immature and underdeveloped, but it’s headed in an interesting direction. Especially if it manages to link up with the Melodrama/Pop/Rock of bands like Evanescence. Strangeness, discipline, and overwhelming emo could combine to make for a decent new genre.
The White Stripes sure flamed out fast though. I guess there’s only so much you can do with something that stripped down. Unless you want to head off into The Killers territory and start aggressively messing with your vocals.
In sum, plenty out there. You just gotta be looking for it. It don’t come to you anymore.
The Apologist on November 22, 2006 at 12:38 PM
And thats a defense? This guy is a rapist and deserves at least the 28 years he will do. The lies about the community being behind al-turki are , well lies.
I dont really know why he went, I guess this guy Turkey’s (i question the timing) family is extremely wealthy, but our AG came back as strong about the conviction as when he left.
YOU GO GIRL !!
From Arapahoe County,
shooter on November 22, 2006 at 12:38 PM
Whuts he gonna do? Write a strongly worded letter to the parents? MAYBE EVEN IN ALL CAPS?
blogRot on November 22, 2006 at 12:39 PM
The best part about the teen story is that his mom said no to a time machine, but said yes to a nuclear fusion reactor. Hilarious.
lorien1973 on November 22, 2006 at 12:42 PM
Attila (Pillage Idiot), that line about the tofu duck (yourself)…priceless.
I’m in the camp that music is in its death rattle, but at this point I’m almost an old fogey (sp?) at 37. My cell’s ringtone is (vibe followed by) the sound of the old style phones that still had actual bells in them (called Old Phone).
urbancenturion on November 22, 2006 at 12:56 PM
Hands down, the best quote from the fusion reactor story:
I can just see how that played out:
“Mom, can I build a hyperbaric chamber?”
“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.”
“Well, then, how about a nuclear fusion reactor? Everybody at school’s got one already!”
“Boys will be boys. Make sure you clean your room first.”
Hack Ptui on November 22, 2006 at 1:04 PM
That’s what I have too, I was gonna use a Koran verse ringtone, but the imams said no….
ScottG on November 22, 2006 at 1:04 PM
And now we know what happened at (almost) the beginning of that old universe.
Down to one millionth of a billionth of a billionth of a second from the ‘Big Bang’. Only God knows that instant.
shooter on November 22, 2006 at 1:05 PM
Anybody who watched the AMAs last night knows, with absolute certainty, that good music is dead.
CookeyD on November 22, 2006 at 1:09 PM
… and on that note, Happy Thanksgiving everyone! :P
dead-duck on November 22, 2006 at 1:13 PM
I wonder that sometimes too.
Then I remember my parents wondering the same thing… as did my grandparents.
So yes, to our generation, The Music is dead! Long live The Music!
taznar on November 22, 2006 at 1:43 PM
Ahh, yes I still remember. Impatiently ripping the cellophane off of the cover, slipping out the big, black disk. Careful to avoid fingerprints. Placing the arm with the Shure cartridge down gently to hear….”GODD#$% THE PUSHER MAN”…..
My dad never quite looked at me the same way again after hearing Steppenwolf for the first time…
BacaDog on November 22, 2006 at 1:49 PM
If you’ve made the decision, for moral or any other reason, to not eat meat…then *DON’T EAT MEAT*. No tofu-turkeys, no soy bacon, no hamburgers made out of ground up snow tires…don’t cheat/no meat. There’s a carnivores dream of a bumper sticker.
If, on the other hand, there’s some reason that you *CAN’T* eat meat, because of cholesterol or some other health concern…then, you’re screwed.
For those with vegans in the family, especially strident ones, try to greet them this holiday season with bacon on your breath, maybe with little turkey-leg fragments between your teeth. Give ‘em a big smooch and a cheek-rubbing hug. Feel free to fart gravy.
I hate mouthy vegans.
Puritan1648 on November 22, 2006 at 2:00 PM
ROFL
Puritan, you sure have a way with words.
BacaDog on November 22, 2006 at 2:11 PM
Regarding the home-grown nuclear fusion teen, here’s a follow-up question:
Quare: Does the Second Amendment allow people to have their own personal nuclear deterrent?
Just curious.
Blaise on November 22, 2006 at 2:25 PM
…not really.
My kids all grew up talking like this, and the ones at home are picking up on it.
My wife *HATES* it. She’s afraid what they’ll say at church.
Then again, my Dad used to do the “pull my finger” thing with us as children, in front as many people as possible, hoping to hit the jackpot in front of a real bluenose.
I remember being 6 years old in a grocery store, and him looking sidelong at a pregnant woman, saying to nobody “Hmmm, wonder what got into her.” He got what he wanted later when I saw a pregnant lady on the street when we were in the car going home. I said the magic words, and Mom went ballistic.
I guess that it runs in the family.
I was about 16, in study hall in high school, when I suddenly remembered the incident, and finally got the joke. I fell off my chair.
Puritan1648 on November 22, 2006 at 3:06 PM
I’m with you Lorien, the 80′s had the best music (and the best President)!
Other topics:
It’s snowing … IN FLORIDA! Must be all that “global warming” we keeping about!
Four women murdered, ALL FACING EAST! I forget, which way is Mecca?
Huge explosion at Mass. chemical plant destroys 90 homes, poor man’s chemical weapons attack?
Tony737 on November 22, 2006 at 3:10 PM
we keeping about??? oh … moiy … gaaawd!
we keep HEARING about!
Sheesh!
Tony737 on November 22, 2006 at 3:36 PM
Hey Apologist,
Try The Decemberists, Say Anything, and Sigur Ros…there’s an eclectic mix of musical goodness.
StoutRepublican on November 22, 2006 at 3:46 PM
Who?
RightWinged on November 22, 2006 at 3:53 PM
I think not. The Wii specs mention nothing about Blue-tooth capability, only 802.1 (for wireless internet connection). Furthermore, in Blue-tooth, there are protocol exchanges that require initiating and receiving equipment to “bond” with each other before any files are transferred. The only file “thief” activity in the Blue-tooth world might be in the hacker community…
ricer1 on November 22, 2006 at 4:07 PM
Having camped out in front of the store for 25 hours in order to get my Wii, I can check this when I get home. I tend to think it’s probably BS, since BlueTooth (in my experience) always requires a passkey before connecting.
The Wii is pretty awesome and you should want one. Stay away from Red Steel though, they didn’t get the controller dynamic correct. Zelda is (as usual) a great game. Rayman’s Raving Rabbids and Monkey Ball are fun to play and great as a multi-player.
The downside of the Wii….it doesn’t have a ‘wired’ internet option and my wireless router is broken! After all the games, the controllers, the high def cable, and now, the wireless router I’ve been buying for this thing, it’s turning into the gift that keeps on giving (except that it wasn’t a gift to begin with…so, perhaps it’s more aptly a ‘money pit’? At least it’s a fun one!)
JadeNYU on November 22, 2006 at 4:48 PM
I’ve seen this several times over the last couple of days around the net… A hyperbaric chamber is NOT a time machine!! It is used for medical treatment of several different conditions. As much as I despise Wikipedia, a good description of a hyperbaric chamber and it’s uses can be found here
MOMinuteman on November 22, 2006 at 5:20 PM
Four women murdered in Atlantic City.
Four women gambeling and NOT wearing burqas?
Tony737 on November 22, 2006 at 5:27 PM
Yes. I realized this later on. I kept reading it as “hyperbolic chamber” which is a time machine in cartoon land:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbolic_Time_Chamber
I could have SWORN the original artical said “hyperbolic” too – I remember copying and pasting that into google to find out what a hyperbolic chamber was. Might have been corrected later.
lorien1973 on November 22, 2006 at 5:46 PM
Actually, that’s what the article said up until yesterday. They quietly corrected it. Wish I’d gotten a screenshot.
Hack Ptui on November 22, 2006 at 8:23 PM
Thank god someone else agrees with me (on the correction). I thought my reading skills were suspect for a while there.
lorien1973 on November 22, 2006 at 9:01 PM
Yep… vegan is pronounced “veggin’” in my book.
RD on November 23, 2006 at 12:44 AM
I personally think the new My Chemical Romance album is one of the best albums of the last decade or so. It’s clearly influenced by Queen, Pink Floyd, and 80′s hairbands. I wish more bands would be as bold as they were with this one.
DaveS on November 23, 2006 at 1:54 AM
Wow. I guess it’s Thanksgiving al-Turki for Colorado inmates–good enough.
Hyperbolic chamber? The whole thing was started on “The Onion” for crissake.
Hyperbole–hi-PURR-buh-lee–A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a year or This book weighs a ton.
hillbillyjim on November 23, 2006 at 6:37 AM
P.S. Hyperbaric chamber is basically an enclosed space in which atmospheric pressure can be regulated. (as in barometric pressure). First practical use, I believe, was in keeping divers from getting the “bends” from rapid pressure changes encountered while surfacing too fast.
(Tom Clancy’s “John Clark” used one to dramatic effect while torturing another character.)
hillbillyjim on November 23, 2006 at 6:45 AM
In re the appropriately named al-Turki: the man is convicted of slavery and rape and his response is that “Attacking traditional Muslim behaviors was the focal point of the prosecution.”
As for Tofurkey, it’s not bad. I had it once for Thanksgiving with a Hindu friend, before coming vegetarian myself.
Tzetzes on November 23, 2006 at 9:31 AM
Dave S., you think “The Black Parade” is a great album? Sure the single kicks balls, but the rest of it? I’ve only heard snips of the other songs so maybe I’m wrong, but I didn’t hear anything that got my motor runnin’ like on the last album. I still play that thing all the way through at least twice a week.
StoutRepublican, Sigur Ros is definetly cool. Deep space cool. I’ll have to check out the Decemberists now. You’re the third person to suggest that to me in a month. I think I’ve heard Say Anything and I don’t remember being impressed, but I’ll have to go back and give ‘em a second listen. Or a first.
Also delectable:
Neko Case – “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood”
Camille Dalmais – “Le fil”
And Fiona Apple may be an idiot, but she still writes songs that make the angels smile. She’s like cigarette smoke and lowcut dresses in a barroom halflight. Here’s hoping she never gets the psychiatric help she clearly needs, cause that girl sends me.
And R.I.P. Elliot Smith and Jeff Buckley. Could’a used more of them before they left the building.
The Apologist on November 23, 2006 at 10:04 AM