You might find this uninteresting but I think it's fascinating

I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but Amazon has stopped selling all of Macmillan's books. All of them, ebook version, paperback, hardcover, every single one. Why? There's a huge fight going on because Amazon wants a hard cap of $9.99 for ebooks and Macmillan wants a flexible pricing model.

This is probably the best post I've read about the entire situation. Why? Because it's pretty even handed, especially given that it's by an author who is directly affected by this.

My response is getting long so I'll tuck it below the fold. If nothing else, read the post at the link because it gets into the nitty gritty about the publishing business and profit margins. I found that very interesting.

UPDATE: In the interest of fairness, here is Amazon's response.

My response to that is wow is that self-serving.  If anything, I'm now less impressed by Amazon's response.  I certainly hope that this leads to the development of an alternative.  Competition is good. 
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Posted by: alexthechick at 01:42 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Early draft of Constitution found in Philly

Residents and local officials said to be nearly overwhelmed by the temptation to tear the document into a thousand pieces.

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It's the velvet glove that makes the beating truly hurt

The thing about VDH's beatdowns is that they're so very very polite. That makes the bitchslapping hurt that much worse.

Posted by: alexthechick at 09:59 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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How Awesome Is Canadian Socialized Medicine?

So awesome that Danny Williams, the Premier for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador is flying to the United States for mega serious surgery.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is set to undergo heart surgery this week in the United States.

CBC News confirmed Monday that Williams, 60, left the province earlier in the day and will have surgery later in the week.

The premier's office provided few details, beyond confirming that he would have heart surgery and saying that it was not necessarily a routine procedure.

I wish the Premier good health and a speedy recovery from what ails him. But, what does it say when somebody this important in Canada has to fly out of the country to get an emergency procedure? And whither shall less important or less prosperous Canadians go if they have a health issue? Consider this nugget as the Democrats keep trying to push this sort of socialized medicine upon us.

Posted by: eddiebear at 09:49 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The Dude's solo is so money

So, a bunch of pop music's biggest stars have come together to raise money for the earthquake victims in Haiti by doing a remake of "We Are the World," which is a nice gesture. Good on them.

According to this story, several generations of stars came together to record the benefit song. Everyone from Tony Bennett, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, and Barbra Streisand to the Jonas Brothers, Pink, Snoop Dogg, Vince Vaughn and Jeff Bridges are lending their vocal talents to the effort.

Wait, Vince Vaughn and Jeff Bridges? What the fuck?

Posted by: Sean M. at 01:50 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I Guess Chris Matthews Grew Weary Of "Nazi" References

Thank you, MSNBC. Thank you for allowing Chris Matthews to still cash a paycheck from something slightly more classy than public access television. Not only is a troubled man allowed a place to go when he is granted a pass from the "rest home" to vent his demons without hurting himself or the Tall Indian, but he provides me the opportunity to witness a man gracefully slip the surly bonds of stupid and touch the face of pure, unfiltered lunacy.

What's going on out there in the Republican Party is kind of a frightening, almost Cambodia re-education camp going on in that party, where they're going around to people, sort of switching their minds around saying, if you're not far right, you're not right enough. 

Yeah. My comment...
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Posted by: eddiebear at 12:48 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Thank You, Ben Nelson

Thank you, Senator Nelson. Thank you for holding out for enough bribes to buy your Obamacare vote that you took a piece of legislation that originally was as popular as a chance to see a naked Margaret Cho and turned it into the equivalent of an unwanted and cash upon receipt goatsegram. And Thank you for making Obamacare so radioactive, your own party is suffering even more than before and having to spend money to defend you (TPM Link).

And yet, despite all of the bad news, the Democrats keep plugging away. They keep trying to get their way, despite repeated defeats (Greg Sargent Link). And they keep digging themselves a deeper hole. Oh well. Fuck them. Fuck them with a FAIL colonic.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:11 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Green like Radioactive Man

With the liberal green energy push, I'm not surprised that the new suggestion from Teh Won's administration is nuclear energy.  With cap-n-tax looking like it will never see the light of day on the Senate floor, Big O has to do something new to maintain his status as Super-Green-Man; nuclear power is as good a way as any to do that, I suppose. 

He used the SOTU to talk about nuclear energy, and now wants a whole new crop of nuclear plants (that's right - crop of plants, how cheese-tastic was that, huh?):

To back that up, he is expected to seek $54 billion in additional loan guarantees for nuclear power in his 2011 budget request to Congress on Monday, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the request has not been made public.

 White House officials say Obama's actions reflect his long support of nuclear power. But lawmakers from both parties say the speech reflected a new urgency and willingness to reach out to Republicans who have criticized Obama for not talking more about the role nuclear energy can play in slowing global warming.

 The 104 nuclear reactors in operation in 31 states provide only 20 percent of the nation's electricity. But they are responsible for 70 percent of the power from pollution-free sources, including wind, solar and hydroelectric dams.

 Several analyses of the climate bills passed by the House and under consideration in the Senate suggest that the U.S. will have to build many more plants in order to meet the 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050 called for in the legislation. One of those studies, by the Environmental Protection Agency, assumed 180 new reactors would come on line by 2050.

Something that is being glossed over in the MSM, however, is Obama's decision to close the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste facility.  It merits a whole sentence in the article I quoted above.

This may get a little long, so if you're interested, go below the fold.

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Posted by: Ember at 09:55 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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A PSA

I came home to discover that the hd on my desktop decided to utterly die for no reason.  There was much epic swearing.  Thankfully, it's under warranty and it's getting fixed on Friday but everything is gone.

The only good thing?  I realized yesterday afternoon that I hadn't plugged back in the external so I did because I  have a nightly backup scheduled to run.  By an utter miracle, that backup ran before the crash. 

Backup every night people.  It's very simple to set up a backup to an external and just set it and forget it. 

Now I just hope that the good folks at HP don't realize just how many versions of the Bible I have on that hd. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 09:04 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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What would YOU do with 2,000 Playstation 3s?

Video games are awesome.  Now, I'm an XBox 360 girl myself - although I own a PS3 - and I can guarantee you that a crapton of XBoxes couldn't pull off some of the amazing things that a crapton of PS3s wired together can.  To prove it, the Air Force spent a shitton of money on 1,700 PS3s (yes, that's right, seventeen hundred PS3s), so they could hook'em all together and hopefully simulate what exactly goes on in a human brain.

PS3s are powerful systems, and, while the nearly 2,000 systems that will be linked together aren't going to be quite as smart as some other super-computers, they are (believe it or not) a greener way to go - using less power and somehow knowing to shut off PS3s that aren't "thinking" at that moment in time.

Awesome sauce.

(H/T to Xbrad for reminding me about this story.)

Posted by: Ember at 08:14 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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There's an occupation. In my pants.

She has a pair of 45s.
And a real gun too!
I saw a similar vid at the Jawas, so I'm stealing their idea but not their link.

Updated with link. Because I'm an idiot. I need to hook a few thousand Playstations to my brain.

Posted by: Veeshir at 05:06 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Correlation Does Not Imply Causation

Which, of course, shocks the cocks off nanny-state law makers:

Laws banning cellphone use while driving apparently haven’t reduced crashes, according to a study released on Friday that compared the number of total crashes before the ban with the number after. The study found virtually no difference in the numbers, a finding that had the researchers scratching their heads.

Might as well be scratching your asses, tardos because your world view disallows you from understanding why this is the case.

Simply put, the people that, when texting, were more likely to get into accidents are exactly the same people that are more likely to get into accidents while NOT texting.  Sure, texting while driving is probably dangerous but the people that drive inattentively will tend to text more dangerously than people who, all things being equal, would be less likely to get into an accident anyway.

So, your stats don't show a decrease because those same sub-standard drivers found some other way to fuck up no matter how many baby gates you put between them and their own stupidity.  Similarly, no matter how many weapons you make illegal or foods you ban, fucking fat people will still kill each other.

But, dillweeds, of course you can't understand that.because it is imperative that the risk of death and failure in general society be somehow revised to zero.  No matter how much evidence exists pointing out that natural selection gets its fucking cut, you insist on tilting at the windmill of perfect safety at the expense of general freedom.

So, you know... get fucked.  Die in a fire.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 03:59 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Fish. Barrel.

I just. Wow.

So. It appears that Gibbs is either a. drunk, b. a functional retard (no offense to the functionally retarded for the comparison), c. having a stroke while giving this answer or d. some combination of the above.

His answer to being asked about the budget and the enormous deficit? "You can't spend more money than you have".



Even Baghdad Bob is ashamed of that answer.

Posted by: alexthechick at 03:53 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Taxman Obama

From somebody on my Facechimp wall.

Posted by: eddiebear at 03:51 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Pixy! We Know Your Secrets!

Yeah, this explains those "server outages" pal.

FebFast, which works to highlight the dangers of drugs and alcohol, questioned 1006 people in the lead-up to a campaign that encourages Australians to give up drinking during February.

And most believed they had the willpower to meet the challenge.

Three-quarters of those surveyed said they would be able to stay sober for 28 days.

But others totally snubbed the idea, with one in 20 showing just how much they love a drink by revealing they would rather go without sleep for the entire period than not pick up a bottle.

People aged between 20 and 69, from all states and territories, took part in the online survey, conducted over three days in December.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Hic! Hic! Hic! Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!

Posted by: eddiebear at 02:23 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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How is this not actually racist?

Yes, I'm throwing out the racist charge. Yes, I do think it's deserved. I can come up with no other term to describe the concept that the solution to black homicide is to reduce the access of black Americans to firearms.

That's a direct link to the analysis.  Now, I will admit that it is a bit unclear if there's some rhetorical sleight of hand going on here.  The entire report is about black homicide and black victims and how black people are more likely to be killed by guns.  I could not see any discussion of the race of the offender, though I may have missed that. After this discussion, the sentence is "Successful efforts to reduce America’s black homicide toll must put a focus on reducing access to firearms."  (p. 6)  Note that there is no racially restrictive language in that sentence.  Reading the prior analysis, however, the conclusion would be that the group whose access must be restricted is black Americans. 

That is straight up racist.  Seriously.  There was a tremendously shameful period of American history in which blacks were denied the right to own firearms.  I cannot believe it's 2010 and some liberal group is, more or less, making that argument.  It's absurd.  It's insulting.  It's disgusting.  And, yes, it's racist as all get out.

I fully expect to the response to be "oh no we want to take away everyone's guns so that's not racist!"  Nope.  It's just idiotic, pathetic and unconstitutional. Not to mention counterproductive and attempts to take away one of the most fundamental human rights, the right to self-preservation.  I will defer to eddie's prowess regarding the content of my response to that idea.

It appears that Pennsylvania is number one, btw.  Ha!  We are better shots than Detroit!  I'm calling shenanigans on that though.  I mean, most of that has to be Philly and as we all know Philly actually belongs in New Jersey. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 10:46 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Speaking of weird crap

The Firefly project is going to study Gamma Ray flashes in the Earth's atmosphere.  (Gee, where could the name have come from, it's a mystery that).  [Obligatory:  GAMMA RAYS WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIIIEEE]

From what I understand, which is basically nothing, these are similar to or connected with mega lightening events.  See, this is why settled science is such utter crap.  The entire existence of such events was unknown until the mid-1990's or so.  It turns out this happens far more frequently than expected.  What do we know about these events?  They happen.  That's basically it. 

For that matter, do you realize we still don't understand how lightening forms in the first place?  Really, the concept that we know much of anything about the physical world is shocking in its arrogance. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 10:04 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Mmm...mmm...mmm...

Say, this isn't at all creepy.

Posted by: Sean M. at 02:04 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Fuck Bipartisanship!

Fuck bipartisanship! Fuck it forever with a day old shrimp ring soaked in pestilence. Fuck betraying what core values we might have. And fuck helping the other side when they are floundering.

That is why I am heartened by what Congressman John Boehner (Speaker in 2011?) said today.

"There aren't that many places where we can come together," Boehner, R-Ohio, told the NBC program "Meet the Press."

Republicans were elected to stand by their principles, and those principles are different than the "leftist proposals" offered by Obama and congressional Democrats, Boehner said.

And why should we work with them? Why should we in opposition give in to the majority, when doing so would mean we would openly endorse policies 180 degrees opposite to what we believe, thus betraying our principles? Why should we help our opponents, since standing (virtually) united in opposition to almost every shit sandwich (save the Porkulus. Fuck you, RINOs) and letting the Democrats ruin themselves trying to pass unpopular legislation has only caused them problems?

And let this be a lesson to any RINO squishes out there: we are watching you. You fucking fuckity fuckbagels of fucking fuckitude fucking try to help the Democrats, and it will be your fucked up futures we'll fucking use to fire up the fucktrain of fucking awesome. With a good electoral year ahead of us, now is the time to tell Nancy the Noxious to fuck off and taste the FAIL.

Thank you, Congressman. Thank you for coming out and endorsing the "Fuck you, Democrats" strategy going forward.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:49 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Could Another Conservative Conquest Happen In Obama's Home State?

Adam Andrzejewski (yeah, I copy and pasted his name) is running in the Republican Primary for Governor as a conservative against a guy who endorsed Obama. Andrzejeswki is not only unabashedly conservative, but he recently received an endorsement that rises to the "Holy Shit!" level by having Lech Walesa endorse him. And last time I checked, Chicago has a large Polish and Lithuanian population.

Internal Polling (FWIW) has Andrzejewski only down 2 points, so we will see what happens. But either way, this guy is making waves in a state that is otherwise tough sailing for non Democrats, and with what just transpired in Massachusetts, who knows what could happen?

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:26 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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