March 17, 2010

BUMPED: MARCH MADNESS: Bracket Manager

Get your brackets filled out here.  Password is "integrity".  First three rounds add a bonus for underdogs.

Hope to see you all there, if you're interested.  Winner gets to pick the target of a facecock!

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 08:25 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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March 15, 2010

I think this probably matters to about three of us

Joel Spolsky is quitting blogging.

Side note - I didn't realize Kathy Sierra was making public appearances again.

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Uh oh you're gonna get sued

This is an interesting little blurb about how about 70% of HR professionals in a study admitted that they turned down a job candidate based on online reputation.  From context, it appears we're talking MySpace, Facebook, etc. types of online media.

This has fascinating implications for discrimination laws.  I have a friend who does high level HR work for a large company.  He said that the first thing HR does with resumes is to go through and do an internet search on the person's name and the email address listed.  I asked if they looked at pictures.  He said yes.  I said congrats, you just admitted to me that you have an official policy to review the age, sex, marital status, religious affiliation and race of your candidates.  He stared at me and then said "oh shit". 

The practical effect of doing these searches is precisely that.  I totally understand why an HR department would do that.  Hell, I would sue the hell out of, say, a security company that didn't do that and it turned out that the employee had a facebook group for "robbing the stupid".  But that means that these searches are going to turn up exactly the types of information that companies are prohibited from asking directly.

The problem is that people act like Facebook, etc., is private when it truly is not.  People blather all the time about their kids and spouses and vacations and going to church and on and on and on.  Hell, people list their sexual orientations.  How the hell is a company going to prove that it didn't hire someone because s/he was talking about how wasted s/he was at the club and not because of the picture of that person with her/his same sex partner?  How is a company supposed to prove it didn't hire a guy because he was saying how he nearly went postal when the last place fired him and not because the picture shows that he's in his 50's?  How is a woman supposed to prove she didn't get a job because she simply wasn't qualified and not because she talks about her struggles as a single mother?

Now, I know the obvious answer is to interpret anti-discrimination statutes narrowly and not in the massive way the laws are currently viewed.  But that's not the current situation.  The current situation is such that a more cynical plaintiff's lawyer could have a tremendous amount of fun getting an HR person to sit through a dep and explain why this person posting pictures about her cat is fine but that person posting a picture holding a beer is not.  Good times good times. 

That brings up something else.  Say you're someone like me who is aware of these issues and works diligently to keep your Super Sekrit Real Identity off the intertubes.  But.  You have friends.  And your friends take pictures of you when you're off on vacation.  Your friends post pictures of you completely hammered to Facebook and tag those pictures with your name.  That's then discovered by a prospective employer.  Bingo bango you have the same problems. 

This is an enormously lucrative business for evil trial lawyers mwahahahaha problem for businesses.  You have to do some type of due diligence or you're screwed.  Do too much and you're screwed.  All I can say is I'm glad I don't do employment defense work. 

Posted by: alexthechick at 11:57 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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HoboTech - Portable shelter

Whether you're the hobo or the hobo-hunter, it's always a good idea to stay informed on the latest in hobo technology.  Fast Company Mag profiled several of these innovations: two jacket-tent combos, and a rolling slinky shelter thingamabob.

First, the oddly named "JakPak" - a jacket that transforms into a personal tent.  Sort of.



Second, some unnamed jacket-tent do-dad:



Lastly, the WheelLY, which collapses into a pushable wheel thingie and can be used to haul hobo gear in lieu of a shopping cart.








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March 12, 2010

Romantic Comedy + Depressing = FUCKING GENIUS!!!

I know that we were promised that there would be no math, but this just fucking works...



(Sorry if you happen to be well adjusted and/or happy.)

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Just spitballing here but I think they should play this everytime Bush makes an appearance




I think it would be awesome. Just jam the last year right up Obama's ass.

Posted by: chad98036 at 03:25 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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March 11, 2010

March 10, 2010

President of the without a clue club?

In response to the common educational standards being proposed by governors and state education chiefs:

One critic said the proposal appeared to have unstoppable momentum.

"I think it's a done deal because Obama attached all this money," said Susan Ohanian, a former English teacher and education policy blogger who lives in Vermont.

She said standards deny teachers the ability to judge what should be taught and when. "If we don't trust teachers to do that, then we have no business leaving them in the classroom," she said.

The standards project was funded by the governors and state schools chiefs. Along with the Gates Foundation, it has backing from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and others. Drafters included experts affiliated with Achieve, ACT and the College Board. Reviewers included university professors and other educators.

Others are more positive:

The 70-page math proposal seeks to bring coherence, rigor and focus to instruction, said William Schmidt, a Michigan State University professor of education and statistics who reviewed it. In many states, he said, math standards are "a mile wide and an inch deep," in contrast to standards in countries that have outpaced the United States in achievement in recent years.

 

The 60-page English language-arts proposal, plus three appendices, seeks to build skills and knowledge in reading, writing, speaking and listening, with special focus on grammar, usage and vocabulary. E.D. Hirsch Jr., author of "Cultural Literacy," said the proposed emphasis on science and history texts would give students a stronger base of knowledge for reading.

Chester Finn Jr. of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute praised the examples of suggested texts from ancient Greece (Homer) to modern times (Amy Tan, Toni Morrison, Jhumpa Lahiri). "It's full of terrific stuff, high quality, content-rich, the kind of thing you want your kids or grandkids to read in school," he said.

I'm sure that somewhere someone (Glenn Beck I am looking at you Glenn Beck) will find some hidden communist agenda in this but for right now I am mildly optimistic

Here is a list of the recommended reading for the proposed standards.

Here is an excerpt of some of the standards

Update: I sent a copy of the reading list to my parents, my sister and my brother so that they could take a look at what may be recommended (required?) for my nieces and nephews along with the following suggested additions to the list:

If it was me I would add a few things, the entire Constitution and the amendments, Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, The 9/11 Commission Report, The Road to Serfdom, A Brief History of Time, Selected Feynman Lectures, 1984, The Gulag Archipelago, Atlas Shrugged, A Tour of the Calculus, Wealth of Nations, Two Treatises on Government, maybe Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto, Treasure Island, and the Three Musketeers
Update 2: One of the Washington Post writers has some criticism of the standards.

What I especially worry about is a stepping up of what we have already seen happen with curriculum in the NCLB era. The “push down” effect has essentially pushed into lower grades the things kids are supposed to be able to do and know.

Once, schools gave youngsters a chance to learn how to read according to their own development. Now, a child who still can’t read by the end of first grade is in deep trouble from which it can be hard to emerge.

...

Telling teachers that they must teach certain things to each child in a specific grade ignores this notion of individual development.

Another concern about the new standards is that they are only for math and English. The emphasis on those subjects in No Child Left Behind's assessment scheme led to a dangerous narrowing of curriculum in public schools; the arts disappeared in many systems, science and history and physical education took a back seat too.

...

There is a common notion in American education reform circles that we are falling behind other countries with high-achieving school systems in large part because we don’t have national standards.

But in her new book, “The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future,” Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who served as Barack Obama’s chief education adviser duringn the presidential transition, makes clear that this isn’t the case.

She explains how Finland--now widely hailed by U.S. policymakers--turned around its school system. But, contrary to popular belief, it didn’t do it by establishing a highly centralized national system with detailed national standards.

It “shifted to a more localized system in which highly trained teachers design curriculum around very lean national standards,” she wrote. All assessments are school-based, designed by teachers, rather than standardized.

Valid criticisms and they echo the concern of commenter car in in the comments. My responses would be:

Push down is a concern but from what I can see these are not grade specific standards, but a set of outcomes that all students should be able to achieve by graduation. Maybe there are proposed grade specific standards coming, if so they would need further evaluation. Finland is used as an example of a case against national standards:

She explains how Finland--now widely hailed by U.S. policymakers--turned around its school system. But, contrary to popular belief, it didn’t do it by establishing a highly centralized national system with detailed national standards.


But in reality this is comparing apples and oranges. Finland is a culturally homogenous country with 1/60th the population in 1/30th the area of the United States and about half the population is located in 6 cities in one geographic region. Unless the standards from city to city vary wildly the local standards are in effect national standards. Even if that wasn't the case what Professor Hammond advocates (lean national standards implemented at the local level) is what is being proposed

The entire set of reading standards consists of 18 items of this nature:

Determine both what the text says explicitly and what can be inferred logically from the text.
If that is to detailed we really have problems.   Math standards are more detailed but again it is only a set of measurable outcomes for graduation not specifics on how to get there. 



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Man arrested for putting his caulk in womens' asses

The latest black market cosmetic surgeon.

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March 09, 2010

Semi-lame but I lIke it


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March 07, 2010

Eh, it's better than cartoons.

Okay, that's funny.
Here we have politics in a Pakistani province. It's about funny and almost scary but not really endy, it seems to be localized in one province.
Rioting broke out between rival parties Biryani Ittehad-Sindhi [BI(S)] group and Pakistan Pulao Party (PPP)

Why were they fighting?
Rice.
The Biryani Ittehad party likes, you guessed it, Biryani rice, the Pulao likes, right again, Pulao rice.
Apparently they're fighting over which is more Muslim.
The fighting happened at a place that served biryani rice.
It gets funnier
scared customers tried to leave, but were stopped by the unknown men who blockaded the door with the handis. (handis are little pots used to cook rice V)
...one guy had his priorities right
“I saw one man scarfing down his plate of Bombay biryani under his table, even as children were crying in fear
...
and the grand finish

Early this month, several newspapers ran print ads in which pulao was compared to paella and risotto – so-called ‘kafir’ dishes – while biryani was extolled as the food of devout Muslims. The newspapers eventually had to pull off the ads after demonstrations were held outside their offices by Pakistan Pulao Party members. “It was an insult to a sophisticated dish. Pulao doesn’t make you belch crudely like biryani,” said a PPP worker at the demonstration. “Calling it ‘kafir’ is just hitting below the belt.”


To get that province really riled up, run an ad about how biryani rice was given to the Persians by the Jews when they fled from Babylonian captivity so it's not a kafr dish but Jooooooooooooo-food.
The funniest part is that the Persians weren't Muslim when they gave either rice to Pakistan so neither should be considered "more Muslim".

I'm surprised Israel hasn't perfected a method of causing rioting and revolution in Muslim countries using this method. It's hard to get all invasiony when your young men are fighting each other over important stuff like rice.

Unless..... this is a test op. In which case I should probably shut up.

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March 06, 2010

What's Australian for "Get the stick out of yer arse"?

Sunday morning update, vid changed. It works now.
Via Tim Blair we find out that some Aussie has her knickers in a wad over a Texas circus having a boxing Kangaroo.
I'm not sure which is funnier, the OUTRAGED!!!!!!! article or the vid.
You make the call.
First, the vid


From the article (subhed)
IT IS an image that will leave every Australian sick to the stomach.
...
One of Australia's most iconic symbols is reduced to a cruel and insulting comedy act - all in front of an audience cheering for more.

You'd think they were beating it with brass knuckles or something, in case you haven't watched the clip, the kangaroo is having a blast and kicking ass.

Either way, they're both entertaining.

Posted by: Veeshir at 05:43 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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March 05, 2010

Found At Power Glutes Emporium

Does this make any fucking sense?

Corruption is endemic to government. At a low level, it’s a cost of doing business. But if you want to reduce it even further, you’re going to need to go back to a system where fewer elected officials do a lot more appointing. That way, one man or woman is accountable when things go wrong. When everyone’s elected, no one’s accountable.

Wasn't (isn't) everything Bush's fault.  He was elected. 

Wait.  I got it.  He was selected. 

Fucking r-tards.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 04:46 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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March 04, 2010

I question the Smithsonian's opinion of historical significance.

I hate to call out the Smithsonian for dumbassery, but, well, I'm going to call out the Smithsonian for dumbassery.  Remember last month when Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. donated the handcuffs that were used to arrest him to the Smithsonian's new Black History museum?  Well, apparently, the Smithsonian thinks that was of greater historical significance than O.J. Simpson's murder trial:

What O.J. Simpson wore when he was acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife and her friend was the suit seen around the world during one of the most watched televised moments in history.

 But the Smithsonian Institution, America’s repository of historical artifacts rejected it Tuesday as inappropriate for their collection.

 Announcement of the museum’s snub came the morning after a California judge approved the donation as the solution to a 13-year court battle over the carefully tailored tan suit, white shirt and yellow and tan tie. The ensemble has been held by Simpson’s former sports agent, Mike Gilbert.

Okay, look.  O.J. Simpson is a douchebag.  But the O.J. trial was of massive importance to this country.  Massive.  Everyone watched it, everyone still talks about it, and it was an historic event.  Period.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is a whiny self-important Harvard professor, who was arrested for refusing to comply with an officer of the law's requests for identification.  I know we had a heated discussion or two about whether it was okay for the guy to be arrested, but the fact is that the Beer Summit is nowhere near the same level of significance to American history that the O.J. murder trial is.

It's stupid to say, "Yeah, we'll take those handcuffs," and then, less than 30 days later, turn around and refuse to take the suit O.J. wore when he was acquitted.

I can't imagine that, in a museum collection of more than 142 million pieces, they don't have something else that is "inappropriate" to their collection, but I'm too lazy to go find something.

UPDATE:  Here's a list of some of the weird shit in the Smithsonian collection.  H/T to Patty Ann via this comment at The Hostages.

Posted by: Ember at 11:34 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

Apropos of nothing, consider this my order for you to watch this movie.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 12:49 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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March 03, 2010

Wednesday afternoon random crap



I can never decide if this movie is really bad or really good. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who's seen it - discuss.

Posted by: Alice H at 06:22 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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So, attention whoring atheist types are doing the pr0n for Bibles thing again

If Christians were smart, they'd set up next to the atheists and announce with bullhorns, "Keep your Bibles, there's porn free on teh intarwebs!"  Seriously, why the fuck would anyone buy porn in 2010?  Is that technically wrong to do, as far as Christian doctrine?  Yeah, probably.  Would it be funny as hell to throw the smug bullshit right back in these guys' faces?  Fuck yeah.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 12:20 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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March 02, 2010

Quick Hits Around the 'tubes. Fuck Edition

What the Fuck?
The Secretary of State, a highly skilled political operator, knows exactly what she is doing here. She is giving her full support for the official stance of Buenos Aires, despite the fact that Great Britain has made it clear that the sovereignty of the Falklands is non-negotiable.

Fuck the What
?

Our home library needed a new copy of the Federalist Papers ... offers this disclaimer

 

“This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today. Parents might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work.”


We're Fucked.
The uproar began when the all-white Zeta Tau Alpha team from the University of Arkansas beat out five other ( all black V) sorority teams to win last weekend's national final in the Sprite Step Off competition.
...
On Thursday, sponsor Coca-Cola announced "scoring discrepancies" and said the runner-up — ...whose members are black — would share first place and receive the same $100,000 in scholarships...
It was unclear what the discrepancies were and Coca-Cola would not elaborate.

Fuck us.
Over the last six months of 2009, SWAT teams were deployed 804 times in the state of Maryland, or about 4.5 times per day.
...
94 percent of the state's SWAT deployments were used to serve search or arrest warrants, leaving just 6 percent in response to the kinds of barricades, bank robberies, hostage takings, and emergency situations for which SWAT teams were originally intended.

No, Fuck You.
The District of Columbia’s murder rate plummeted by an astounding 25 percent last year
(That's since their "disarm law abiding populace" laws were declared unConstitutional. V)


Links via Cold Fury, the Agitator and Say Uncle.

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