A new motorcycle deserves a new license plate, so I ordered this from the DMV today:
Monthly Archives: October 2011
XKCD on Alternative Literature
I just noticed CVS has started stocking homeopathic pills on the same shelves with--and labeled similarly to--their actual medicine. Telling someone who trusts you that you're giving them medicine, when you know you’re not, because you want their money, isn’t just lying--it’s like an example you’d make up if you had to illustrate for a child why lying is wrong.
XKCD on Verifying Identity
I hear in some places, you need one form of ID to buy a gun, but two to pay for it by check. It's interesting who has what incentives to care about what mistakes.
Stephen King on Harry Potter
“Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.” – Stephen King
The Query of Despair
Over at The Daily WTF, they have an example of what I would classify as a “nightmare query”.
I’m glad I don’t have to debug that.
I Have a New Toy
I decided to by myself something nice as a post-birthday present today. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, and looking at a few different models at two different showrooms. Today I finally pulled the proverbial trigger.
Say “hello” to my shiny new V Star 950 Tourer.
New Decoy Website Launched To Lure Away All Moronic Internet Commenters
The Onion has a great idea about how to fix the problem of stupid commentators adding unhelpful, mean and useless commentary to the bottom of every web page:
New Decoy Website Launched To Lure Away All Moronic Internet Commenters
I wish I’d thought of it.
Bankers’ Salaries vs. Everyone Else’s
Occupy Wall Street
There’s a great article over on Rolling Stone with suggestions for what demands the Occupy Wall Street folks might make. I think the protesters would do well to adopt these as their official demands, and to resolve not to stop protesting until all of them are met:
Drug Cartel Violence in Mexico
From BoingBoing:
Ironically enough, Mexican narcogangs appear to be a greater threat to American homeland security than the Middle Eastern terrorists who dominate the popular discourse.
That’s certainly an interesting observation. Here we have documented actual attacks against Mexican and American citizens, and yet no outcry of a need for immediate protection at any cost.
Why are Americans more afraid of Middle East terrorism than of Mexican terrorism? A terrorist threat from Mexico is real, immediate and documented. A nut-job terrorist from Mexico can more or less just walk across the border unchecked with whatever explosives or other devices they want.
I’m certainly not advocating for a 20-foot high barb-wire-topped electrified fence to be constructed across the entire border with Mexico. I’m not proposing anything about our relationship with Mexico be changed at all. What I’m proposing is that people consider that we’re attached at the hip with a country that, for whatever reason, produces an alarmingly high amount of terrorist violence, and we’re doing nothing about it, and getting along fine. Why can’t the same non-action be applied to the Middle East?