Archive for December, 2011

NFS: Not For Storage

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

The Unix-Haters Handbook (which I am proud to say I own a physical copy of) is now available for free download.

(Hattip: Unix tool tip.)

Is this a dagger that I see before me?

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

The Transportation Security Administration says officers found two throwing daggers hidden in a hollowed-out book at a checkpoint at Reagan-Washington National Airport.

I’m linking to the HouChron and not the WP because the HouChron story contains an illustration of the daggers and the book. (“Chapter 2: Ninja Equipment”?)

The daggers measured just over a half-foot long

Or, as we in the civilized world call it, “six inches”. About the length of a ballpoint pen.

The awesome power of the Internet.

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

I went over to ask a cow orker a question, and he had this up on his monitor. And I said “What?!”

List of animals with fraudulent diplomas.

So it isn’t quite “A Short, Incomplete, and Somewhat Random List of People Who Have Had Their Heads Impaled on a Spike on London Bridge“, but still fun.

But hey! At least the trains ran on time!

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

Havel’s anti-communist critique contained little if any acknowledgement of the positive achievements of the regimes of eastern Europe in the fields of employment, welfare provision, education and women’s rights. Or the fact that communism, for all its faults, was still a system which put the economic needs of the majority first.

(By way of Balko, who calls this “The most vile thing you’ll read today.” It is still early, but we feel that we’re going to have a hard time arguing with that.)

(Obligatory.)

(And by the way, the whole “trains ran on time” thing? Not so much.)

Important medical news.

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

…51-year-old woman in the state died after she was infected with the “brain-eating” amoeba Naegleria fowleri, which enters the body through the nose and sometimes causes devastating meningitis. Apparently, the amoeba lurked in tap water the woman used in her neti pot, a pitcher-like device used to rinse nasal passages.

This is why I only use single-malt scotch in my Neti pot. (Mixing it with Mountain Dew is optional.)

The OSU Sanction.

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

No postseason play in 2012, loss of nine scholarships over the next three years, and probation through 2014.

Tressel, who was forced to resign on May 30, was separately issued a show-cause penalty. If any NCAA school wants to hire him in the next five years, it must first persuade the NCAA why it wants to hire a known rules violator and agree to certain restrictions.

(I really liked The Eiger Sanction when I was a kid, mostly for the mountain climbing. I was a little young to get the more subtle jokes, like the character named Yurasis Dragon.)

(And I’m more than a little surprised that there’s been no FARK link yet.)

Quote of the day.

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

I tucked it in there with the dishes following the well-known scientific principle of “why the hell not?”

Indeed. In our studies of the history of technology, we have found that much scientific and technical advancement is motivated by that same principle.

Grand juries gone wild! On the next TMZ!

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

We have previously covered the grand jury investigation into the Harris County DA’s Office. We have not posted on this in a while, mostly because up until the past few days, there was not much going on.

The latest development is that prosecutor Rachel Palmer was summoned to appear before the grand jury and refused to answer questions.

This Lisa Falkenberg column contains a good summary of the most recent developments. And The Hon. Murray Newman is still all over this as well.

By way of Jay G.

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Our first thought was “Dead rats? Not dead gophers?

Our second thought was, “Is the gopher even indigenous to Massachusetts?”

(Hattip. Dead gophers explained here.)

On the first day of Christmas, the TSA gave to me…

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

But Tuesday, the TSA Chorus made hearts light at Terminal 4’s American Airlines gates as they performed for passengers caught up in the extra madness of holiday travel at Los Angeles International Airport.

So. Many. Jokes. So. Little. Time.

Edited to add: You know, I think I’m going to crowdsource this. Can you, my faithful and cheerful readers, come up with appropriate lyrics for TSA Christmas Carols? Leave them in comments. Just to make this fun, best lyrics submitted before December 31st (as determined by a committee consisting of myself, Lawrence, and Mike the Musicologist, pending the agreement of the latter two) wins a crappy prize, probably something I have duplicates of.

Edited to add 2: It doesn’t have to be set to “The 12 Days Of Christmas”, by the way. You can use any Christmas tune, up to and including “Fairytale of New York“. But unless you think we’ll immediately recognize the tune from your lyrics, please do make a note of it in the comments.

TMQ watch: December 20, 2011.

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Oh, look! TMQ got us a Christmas present. To quote John Gruber (who is actually quoting Norm MacDonald): “Happy birthday, Jesus. Hope you like crap.”

After the jump, what we’ve been dreading all year…

(more…)

Ah. Memories.

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Remember Randy Adams?

Sure you do. Randy “Hire me to be police chief of Bell and approve my disability retirement at the same time” Adams. Yeah, that one.

It seems that the judge in the case of the “Bell 8” is wondering why Mr. Adams is not on trial.

The DA’s answer to that question is: we didn’t have enough evidence for an indictment. However, the city’s dealings with Adams are part of the charges against Robert “Ratso” Rizzo and Angela Spaccia. Not that there’s anything wrong with the DA picking the cases he feels like he can get indictments on. Just interesting that the judge is asking questions.