Archive for June, 2007
Thus spake Evil Overload
June 28, 2007 at 5:25 am
Provisions to make the RealID mandatory for all states have been slipped into the current immigration bill. This would override the objections of Georgia and other states that have come out against this national ID system. If the RealID becomes mandatory, all of our personal information will be stored in a national database accessible by federal and state agencies accross the country, which is not the best scenario from an information security and identity-theft-prevention perspective. If you don’t like this idea, now’s the time to write your senators. For you Georgians out there, here are links to the webpages for Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss, from whence you can email them your perspective on the issue. Also, here are details on the consequences of the RealID program.
Categories: Wot's All This Then?, Conservative Heresy
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Thus spake Sheni
June 27, 2007 at 8:54 am
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to
please everybody.”
- Bill Cosby
Categories: Uncategorized
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Thus spake Evil Overload
at 7:17 am
 The line between the news and The Onion gets even blurrier:
Starburst Fruit Chews are exactly as their name would indicate: chewy. But one Boston-area woman says the candies are so chewy, they should come with a warning label.Victoria McArthur, of Romero, Mich., is suing Starbursts’ parent company, Mars Inc., for more than $25,000 for “permanent personal injuries” she claims she sustained after biting into one of their yellow candy in 2005.
Link
Categories: Thank You Internet!
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Thus spake Evil Overload
June 25, 2007 at 7:37 am
 Fred Thompson, a potential Republican presidential candidate for 2008, apparently has the support of former wives and girlfriends:
“In anticipation of a presidential run, a group of potentially supportive Republican congressmen recently questioned him about his private life.“I was single for a long time and yep I chased a lot of women,” Thompson told them with a grin. “And a lot of women chased me. And those who chased me tended to catch me.”
However, he was also able to reassure them that he was on excellent terms with his first wife and home-town sweetheart Sarah Knestrick, whom he married in Tennessee at 17 and divorced 26 years later. Thompson said he had just spoken to her and she was intending to campaign for him.
“It says a lot about his character that his ex-wife and ex-girlfriends think he is fabulous,” said Mosbacher. “Character is important in a president.”
Truly, what more comprehensive endorsement can there be? Link
Categories: Conservative Heresy
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Thus spake Evil Overload
June 22, 2007 at 12:13 pm
 For those who like to consolidate their culinary transgressions: A bacon-infused chocolate bar!
“In retrospect, perhaps this was a turning point, for on that plate something magical happened: the beginnings of a combination so ethereal and delicious that it would haunt my thoughts until I found the medium to express it–chocolate.”
Link
(thanks, Jason!)
Categories: Thank You Internet!
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Thus spake Ennui
June 21, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Thus spake Evil Overload
June 20, 2007 at 5:28 am
This is going to send baby monitor sales through the roof in the geek community:
PALATINE, Ill. (AP) - A mother of two in this suburb of Chicago doesn’t have to turn on the news for an update on NASA’s space mission. She just flips on her baby monitor. Since Sunday, Natalie Meilinger’s baby monitor has been picking up black-and-white video from inside the space shuttle Atlantis.”Whoever has a baby monitor knows what you’ll usually see,” said the elementary school science teacher. “No one would ever expect this.”
Live video of the mission is available on NASA’s Web site, so it’s possible the monitor is picking up a signal from somewhere.
Link
Categories: Technology Porn
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Thus spake Evil Overload
at 5:22 am
Thus spake Evil Overload
June 19, 2007 at 8:08 am
“But Mr Haq told the National Assembly: “This is an occasion for the 1.5 billion Muslims to look at the seriousness of this decision. The West is accusing Muslims of extremism and terrorism. If someone exploded a bomb on his body he would be right to do so unless the British government apologises and withdraws the ’sir’ title.”
If I was in charge, nobody would be allowed to encourage suicide bombing and get indignant about being called terrorists in the same f&%#ing paragraph. Link
Categories: Wot's All This Then?, Global Death Wish
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Thus spake Ennui
June 18, 2007 at 10:09 am
Thus spake Evil Overload
June 14, 2007 at 11:39 am
Thus spake Evil Overload
June 13, 2007 at 11:12 am
Turn existing heat gradients into soundwaves, then into electricity, with no moving parts! Take that, entropy. Link
Categories: Uncategorized
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Thus spake Evil Overload
at 11:08 am
Cory Doctorow of boingboing.net has interesting things to say about the trend of increasing surveilance:
“Crazy, desperate, violent people don’t make rational calculus in regards to their lives. Anyone who becomes a junkie, crack dealer, or cellphone-stealing stickup artist is obviously bad at making life decisions. They’re not deterred by surveillance.
Yet the cameras proliferate, and replace human eyes. The cops on my block in San Francisco stayed in their cars and let the cameras do the watching. The Tube station didn’t have any human guards after dark, just a CCTV to record the fare evaders.”
Categories: Uncategorized
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Thus spake Evil Overload
at 11:03 am
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 8:16 am
Many theorists and fans of the moral Right believe that the “decline in family values”, or ideological shift away from traditional morality based in religion over the last several decades, is being caused by a decrease in religious observance. However, this article puts forth the claim that the causal relationship works the other way: The decrease in family-unit activities (marriage, childbearing, communion among extended family members, etc) is what has given rise to the decrease in religious observance. It makes a lot of sense, and explains trends being observed here, and in Europe and Asia, with regard to family structures and to patterns of religious influence in society. Long essay, but well worth it. See for yourself:
This essay is a preliminary attempt to supply that missing piece. It moves the human family from the periphery to the center of this debate over secularization — and not as a theoretical exercise, but rather because compelling empirical evidence suggests an alternative account of what Nietzsche’s madman really saw in the “tombs” (read, the churches and cathedrals) of Europe.
In brief, it is not only possible but highly plausible that many Western European Christians did not just stop having children and families because they became secular. At least some of the time, the record suggests, they also became secular because they stopped having children and families. If this way of augmenting the conventional explanation for the collapse of faith in Europe is correct, then certain things, including some radical things, follow from it.
Link
(via Monochrom)
Categories: Uncategorized
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Thus spake Evil Overload
at 6:41 am
Fatwas, which can be generally thought of as Islamic edicts on day-to-day living, occasionally take a turn for the bizarre:
“The breast-feeding fatwa came in mid-May. A religious scholar, who headed a department that studies the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings at the Foundation of Religion College of Al Azhar University, wrote that there had been instances in the time of the prophet when adult women breast-fed adult men in order to avoid the need for women to wear a veil in front of them.“Breast-feeding an adult puts an end to the problem of the private meeting, and does not ban marriage,” wrote the scholar, Izat Atiyah. “A woman at work can take off the veil or reveal her hair in front of someone whom she breast-fed.”
Link
Categories: Global Death Wish
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Thus spake Evil Overload
June 12, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Lest our minds inadvertantly drift out of the gutter, here’s a story of nonlethal weaponry gone completely absurd:
“The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soliders to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistably attractive to one another,” Hammond said after reviwing the documents.The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.
“The Department of Defense is committed to identifying, researching and developing non-lethal weapons that will support our men and women in uniform,” said a DOD spokesperson, who indicated that the “gay bomb” idea was quickly dismissed.”
Link
(via Warren Ellis)
Categories: Wot's All This Then?
One Comment »
Thus spake Antropologo
at 9:57 am
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 8:41 am
China, faced with a shortage of surnames, considers loosening the laws governing them:
BEIJING (AFP) - With more than a billion people now sharing just 100 surnames, Chinese authorities are considering a landmark move to try to end the confusion, state media reported Tuesday.
Current Chinese law states that children are only allowed take the surname from either their mother or father, but the lack of variety means there are now 93 million people in China with the family name Wang.
Link
Categories: Uncategorized
One Comment »
Thus spake Ennui
June 8, 2007 at 8:55 am
Thus spake Ennui
at 5:37 am
Thus spake Ennui
June 7, 2007 at 11:26 am
Thus spake Evil Overload
at 5:14 am
Uh oh:
The coalition analysis says munitions recovered in two Iranian convoys, on April 11 and May 3, had “clear indications that they originated in Iran. Some were identical to Iranian supplied goods previously discovered in Iraq.”
The April convoy was tracked from Iran into Helmand province and led a fierce firefight that destroyed one vehicle, according to the official analysis. A second vehicle was reportedly found to contain small arms ammunition, mortar rounds and more than 650 pounds of C4 demolition charges.
Link
Categories: Uncategorized
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Thus spake Evil Overload
at 5:07 am
Scientists have discovered four genetic factors that, when “switched on”, revert non-stem cells, such as skin cells, to stem cells, with no need for embryonic cells. The procedure has been tested in mice, and research is now focused on finding the specific genetic triggers for humans. If successful, the medical benefits of stem cells will be available without the ethical quandaries involved in the use of fetal tissue. Hooray Science! Link
Categories: Uncategorized
2 Comments »
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Fred Thompson, a potential Republican presidential candidate for 2008, apparently has the support of former wives and girlfriends:
