Owie owie owie

Hey, leg, you're not supposed to do that!  You're not an elbow, you don't even bend that direction!

Picture below the fold for the faint at heart.  This is a crying shame, Preston Burpo's a nice guy.
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Posted by: Alice H at 09:51 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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And a Happy Memorial Day to all of you

Besides being a day for honoring the memories of those fallen, which conservativebelle did in the previous post, it is also the beginning of summer, which is hands down the greatest time of year.  In that spirit a salute:


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Posted by: chad98036 at 02:46 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Desktop > Laptop

Got a new desktop, haven't had a desktop in I think eight or nine years.  Dear God this is a million times better than a fucking laptop.  Fuck large laptops, I'll use mine for backup until it dies, then replace it with a small laptop or netbook for on the go. 

I also got rid of my TV, fuck TV's too (unless you're using them for movies or serious console gaming, and it's gotta be pretty damn big), my new desktop has a nice big screen and a TV tuner if I ever get cable again.  Got a nice set of speakers for it too, I'm blaring my good sized and ever growing collection of 80's mp3s on it right now.  This thing is awesome, I don't have to wait for it to do anything.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 08:24 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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Seems like something's missing here

I've never watched "Sex and the City" (or as Brian on "Family Guy" called it, "a show about three hookers and their mom") so I don't know why I bothered clicking on an article listing ten reasons why you should watch the movie sequel, but I did notice #4:

Samantha repeatedly screams "Bite me!" to an angry mob of religious men, while also giving them the finger.

Well, I'm sure that the audience will get a kick out of Samantha screaming at and giving the finger to whatever non-denominational group of religious men the reviewer is talking about.

Yeah.

Posted by: Sean M. at 12:13 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Poorly Dressed is the new People of WalMart.

Example behind the cut to protect your sensitive eyes.
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Posted by: Alice H at 09:19 PM | Comments (95) | Add Comment
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Fuck secondhand smoke

In Indonesia, children are so efficient at slow suicide that they take on the burden of ingesting smoke themselves.



No pshop there, guys.  Seriously, can you imagine what this kid's going to be like in 20 years?  Comfortable with guns, chain-smoking, has a tantrum if he's not indulged.  All he needs is a white shirt, a black suit, a thin black tie, and a straight razor.

Posted by: Alice H at 08:38 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Let's start a fanboy war

The blood of slave labor is on the heads of iTampon fanboys.

Posted by: Alice H at 08:31 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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PSA for pen junkies

Cross pens are Buy 1 Get 1 at Staples this week, just got a pair of Cross Aventura fountain pens. 

They're no Montblanc 149, but they're nice looking and writing knockabout pens.  They have a wider selection of rollerball and ballpoint pens if you prefer.  If nothing else, they make for a reasonably priced token business gift or "I have no fucking clue what to get you" gift.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 12:09 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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This is why we heart Carla Bruni

Because any woman who can say “Sie erhalten mich sehr heiss” in four languages is all right by most morons interested in women, I'm thinking.

I'm also thinking that most morons interested in women are thankful that our First Lady isn't as multilingually skilled.

Posted by: Alice H at 03:17 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Ninjas!

I can't help but think that if these were real ninjas, the muggers wouldn't have escaped, though. 

Posted by: Alice H at 05:33 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Presented without context

"I thought I’d see that on the Lower East Side. I think that’s fabulous!" he said. "It’s a beautiful penis." The Post reporter wonders if this is appropriate for children's eye level. "It’s New York. Kids have seen worse," the stylist says.

Of course they have. In New York, kids are exposed to hideous penises almost every day.

Posted by: Sean M. at 06:03 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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DMD

Here's a really offensive one. 

Remember when the other kids would tease you and you'd react so they kept doing it because it was just so damned fun to fuck with you? 

Think about it.

Posted by: Moron Pundit at 09:15 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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You'd think I would be laughing at this

But, actually, I'm not. BP is using Kevin Costner's invention to try to clean up the oil spill.  I don't pretend to understand if this really is stupid or not but here's the thing.  First, the headline is designed to make you laugh at Costner.  If you read more, you find out that this is a long term project for Costner and his brother, who appears to have some kind of scientific background.  Why the hell can't an actor invent something?  Seriously, why not?  Just because he's an actor doesn't mean he's right.  It also doesn't mean he's wrong.  Also, they've been at this since Valdez in 1989 and the first license for this thing was issued in 1993 so it's not like he's jumping on this right now. 

Second, I did not know that Costner's blown $40 million of his own money on various enviro things.  You know what?  We're always bitching about the environuts lecturing The Little People on what we have to do while they go jetting around (I'm looking at you Gore).  It appears that Costner's actually putting his money where his mouth is.  Good for him.

I still think he's an enormous tool.  But I'm not automatically going to mock this.  If it works?  Good! 

Posted by: alexthechick at 12:23 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Moar DMD

Here's my Paint masterpiece,



Gotta add,

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:02 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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NY Public Schools show a flash of brilliance (mainly because I am claiming credit for the idea)

Back in in 2007 I pointed out that the education industry had not kept up with technological developments; that it wasn’t taking advantage of technology to deliver the best possible product.

Two areas that I specifically mentioned were customizing education to the needs of the end user and utilizing constant feedback techniques to insure that material is being delivered and learned to the fullest extent possible.

Second the ultimate customer for the project, will have to be heavily involved in the process. For example Boeing needs Aeronautical Engineers. To really get the type of engineer that they want they would need to lay out a set of skills that they feel are important. From there it would be necessary to backtrack to the courses which develop those skills, and a curriculum would need to be developed. From there textbooks would need to be written and labs developed. On and on continuing up the chain until a comprehensive program had been developed.

Once that process has been completed it is necessary to deliver the required knowledge to the student. Most of the pieces are already in place. Lectures can be developed and delivered via pod cast or youtube (The open courseware project and iTunes university are already doing some of this). Reading assignments can be emailed out. Textbooks and other course materials can be placed on Wikibooks. The two major sticking points as I see it are labs and a feedback mechanism.

Feedback is the easiest - IM, Email, Phones, Blog Comments, all those offer a feedback loop. Testing is another method. Here we have to be careful though. We want the test to be both fair and applicable as well relatively secure. In other words we don't want a bunch of multiple choice questions floating around on the internet that a student can memorize to get a passing grade, but we want the test to really measure knowledge. Part of this problem can be solved by the use of adaptive testing.
Adaptive testing is a method of testing that adapts to an examinees knowledge level of a subject.

CAT successively selects questions so as to maximize the precision of the exam based on what is known about the examinee from previous questions.[1] From the examinee's perspective, the difficulty of the exam seems to tailor itself to their level of ability. For example, if an examinee performs well on an item of intermediate difficulty, he will then be presented with a more difficult question. Or, if he performed poorly, he would be presented with a simpler question. Compared to static multiple choice tests that nearly everyone has experienced, with a fixed set of items administered to all examinees, computer-adaptive tests require fewer test items to arrive at equally accurate scores.[1] (Of course, there is nothing about the CAT methodology that requires the items to be multiple-choice; but just as most exams are multiple-choice, most CAT exams also use this format.)

Apparently someone was listening because the NYC Public School System is experimenting with exactly this type of system, as described in this Freakonomics article from the NY Times.

The School of One tries to take advantage of technology to essentially customize education for every kid in every classroom and help teachers do their job more effectively. That is of course a daunting task — and perhaps, some might argue, unnecessary — but the amount of thought and analysis that have so far gone into the program is impressive. Furthermore, the enthusiasm it has generated from people like Duncan and Klein make it a program to watch. And the early results are promising.

You’ll hear about School of One’s conception, its potential pitfalls, and most of all how it works day-to-day. You’ll spend some time in a classroom in I.S. 339 in the Bronx, hearing from kids like Lionel (at right), whose daily “playlist” — in this case, his math lessons — are chosen in part by an algorithm that is designed to learn how Lionel learns best.

And you’ll hear how Chris Rush and others track and analyze the schoolwork that Lionel is doing to make sure he’s not just doodling away his time (like Levitt did in the third grade).

I'll be interested to see how this all plays out. I don’t think it will be the panacea for America’s education woes but I do think it has potential, especially the idea of addressing individual learning styles.

(There is a podcast associated with this article that is worth listening to. On a similar subject I have mentioned the Intelligence Squared debates before. They had one a few months ago regarding the damage the teachers unions were doing to education. It is worth a listen also.)

Posted by: chad98036 at 07:19 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Screw him

It turns out that someone kneed Kos in the face this past weekend. Couldn't have happened to a nicer asshole.

Oh, wait...

(And, yes, of course, this post is evidence of the right wing's propensity for violence.)

Posted by: Sean M. at 02:18 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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You know how you can tell that Einstein was right about time being elastic?

The last 15 minutes before the World of Warcraft server come back online seem to stretch forever.

On a related note; Blizzard restored my old account today, my faith in humanity is partially restored.  I don't know if Alex's intervention had anything to do with it or not but thanks for the effort at least.  M

Motivated by this episode I have to decided to right the wrongs in the world (of warcraft) and sent in my resume for the account services rep position that they have open.

Update:  I finally got logged in and now I have a dilemma.  When the account was stolen my highest level character was a level 77 hunter (Colgallon on Bael'gun if anyone is on that server).  Whoever stole the account got him up to level 80 and upgraded about half the gear purple.  He also acquired a lot of honor marks (1200 or so) but he stripped my bank and left me with 66 silver and destroyed my pet, Doggie a level 76 boar that I had had since 10th level and replaced him with a wasp.  Arguably I am better off now than I was but do I keep the levels and unearned gear or do I ask a GM to roll me back and restore the gold, as I recall I had about 4700 GP.  I couldn't afford cold weather flying yet.

Posted by: chad98036 at 12:51 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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All hell may be about to break loose in Thailand

Is it just me, or has anyone else watched enough bad movies that when you see a red dot of light on someone you immediately think sniper...either that or the episode of House where he's playing with Cuddy's cleavage in front of prospective donors...

Posted by: Alice H at 02:46 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Eyeballing? Srsly?

I'd find this less disturbing if it resulted in death rather than us just ending up with a bunch of idiots who can't see.  Can we get some legislation passed barring anyone who's this stupid from getting welfare benefits after they've blinded themselves?

Posted by: Alice H at 01:34 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Hey, ladies!

Are you looking for a fella? Well, if you're smart, willing to go to ballgames, and this, that and the other, have I got the guy for you!

Oh, and let me warn you: if you walk out the first time you see him, you just might not be the gal for him.

Posted by: Sean M. at 01:23 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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