A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Tag Archives: news

Jan 18 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Harsh Punishments for Poor Mourning of Kim Jong-Il

Harsh Punishments for Poor Mourning of Kim Jong-Il

Choi Song Min for the South Korean online newspaper The Daily NK:

The North Korean authorities have completed the criticism sessions which began after the mourning period for Kim Jong Il and begun to punish those who transgressed during the highly orchestrated mourning events.

Daily NK learned from a source from North Hamkyung Province on January 10th, “The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn’t seem genuine.”

The ichbinschockiertundgleichzeitignochnichtschockiertüberhaupt tag doesn’t apply here because no one on the planet will actually be shocked by this.

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Jan 12 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Parts of stricken Mars probe Phobos-Grunt may strike Earth

Parts of stricken Mars probe Phobos-Grunt may strike Earth

Ian Sample for The Guardian:

A Russian spacecraft that became stranded in orbit on the way to Mars last year is expected to fall back to Earth next week.

The 13.5 tonne Phobos-Grunt has been circling Earth since November when rocket boosters failed to ignite and send the spaceship on its journey to the Martian moon of Phobos. The spacecraft suffered a computer malfunction after launch and when repeated attempts to contact the rocket failed, the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, had to abandon the mission.

Oh dear.

Risk assessments by the Russian, German and US space agencies have focused on whether the highly toxic fuel, known as unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) and dinitrogen tetroxide (DTO), could contaminate the debris site.

…

According to the agencies’ reports, the spacecraft’s aluminium fuel tanks are likely to rupture and leak at an altitude of about 100km and burn up, perhaps completely, on re-entry. The fuel will either ignite or be dispersed in the atmosphere.

Colin:
Yeah but they “expected” it to go to Mars too.
Colin:
So.
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Jan 11 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Critics assail crime laws aimed at people with HIV

Critics assail crime laws aimed at people with HIV

David Crary, the Associated Press:

Now, a coalition of advocacy groups — backed by an outspoken champion in Congress — is ratcheting up a campaign to press for review and possible repeal of criminal statutes specifically targeting HIV-positive people.

Well, surely it can’t be that ba–

A man in Texas is serving a 35-year prison sentence for spitting at a police officer — because he has the virus that causes AIDS and his saliva was deemed a deadly weapon. In Michigan, an HIV-positive man who allegedly bit a neighbor during an argument faced a bioterrorism charge.

…

HIV is not spread by saliva, tears or sweat, and there are no documented cases of it being transmitted by spitting, according to the CDC. As for biting, the CDC says there is no transmission risk if the skin is not broken; in a “very small number of cases,” transmission did occur when a bite drew blood and caused severe tissue damage.

Oh, well I guess it can.

This country.

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Jan 08 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Craig Welch, The Seattle Times:

It was Monday morning, Jan. 2, and the four Seattle hikers were more than halfway through a beautiful weekend of winter camping at Mount Rainier National Park (which remains closed until Saturday).

Now someone in a chopper was barking a garbled message through a loudspeaker.

“We thought we heard ‘A ranger has been shot and killed, shooter at large,’ ” camper Brian Vogt wrote in an email exchange with The Seattle Times. But it wasn’t all that clear.

That’s when the pilot let fly his backup plan. He dropped a coffee cup with a warning scrawled in ink: “A ranger has been shot shooter at large. Call on cell if able to Pierce Co Sheriff.”

The above photos, via MSNBC’s PhotoBlog, were taken by one of the campers, Jen Berthiaume. She and her party made it out okay, and the suspected shooter of the ranger was found dead later. Check Welch’s article for the full story.

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Jan 07 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Competition sparks tablet price cuts

Competition sparks tablet price cuts

I would strongly recommend against clicking through to this full article by Roger Yu for USA Today, as it has two enormous facepalm triggers: (1) USA Today reporting and (2) mainstream tech reporting. Unfortunately, I try to be a good sourcer, so there it is.

Anyway, the article itself has this one amazing quote which I wanted to share:

Many tablets are simply overpriced, says Roger Entner of Recon Analytics. Apple can afford to charge $499 for an entry-level iPad given the large app market and the brand appeal. But other manufacturers should be more realistic, Entner says. “BlackBerry and Sony have cut their price point from ridiculous to mildly amusing.”

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Dec 28 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Why NORAD Started Tracking Santa

Why NORAD Started Tracking Santa

Kristen Wyatt, the AP:

Santa-tracking volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado said they fielded about 102,000 telephone queries on his progress beginning early Saturday, breaking the previous mark of 80,000.

All well and good, but why did they start tracking Santa in the first place? I only realized I didn’t know the answer to this question when she gave it later in the article:

The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been telling children about Santa’s whereabouts every year since 1955. That was the year a Colorado Springs newspaper ad invited kids to call Santa on a hot line, but the number had a typo, and dozens of kids wound up talking to the Continental Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD’s predecessor.

The officers on duty played along and began sharing reports on Santa’s progress. Tracking Santa is now a tradition at NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canada command that monitors the North American skies and seas from a control center at the Peterson base.

Awesome.

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Dec 24 2011
Mark Twain, probably

School accused of putting autistic student in bag

School accused of putting autistic student in bag

Bruce Schreiner, AP:

A 9-year-old autistic boy who misbehaved at school was stuffed into a duffel bag and the drawstring pulled tight, according to his mother, who said she found him wiggling inside as a teacher’s aide stood by.

Why the hell would you do this. Like, what possible rationale could there be for

At a meeting with school district officials, the bag was described as a “therapy bag,” Baker said, though she wasn’t clear exactly what that meant. She said her son would sometimes be asked to roll over a bag filled with balls as a form of therapy, but she didn’t know her son was being placed in the bag. She said school officials told her it was not the first time they had put him in the bag.

Nominating “therapy bag” as euphemism of the year ‘011.

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Dec 24 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Pigeons match primates in number sense

Pigeons match primates in number sense

Kate Shaw writing for Ars Technica:

Overall, the birds performed about as well as the rhesus monkeys had in the original experiment. Both species are certainly capable of learning a simple mathematical rule, then using that rule in a more abstract sense to handle new values.

Can’t wait for the first avian mathematician.

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Dec 23 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Sorry we thought Adolf Hilter’s Mein Kampf would make a good Christmas gift: Waterstones

Sorry we thought Adolf Hilter’s Mein Kampf would make a good Christmas gift: Waterstones

How the fuck does this happen?

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Dec 18 2011
Mark Twain, probably

New MLB deal: No corporate tattoos

New MLB deal: No corporate tattoos

The AP:

Baseball’s new labor contract includes more video replay, the chance for a longer All-Star break and a small, but likely welcome perk for players: the chance to get a private room instead of a roommate during spring training.

… for players thinking about selling ads on their bodies, MLB has thought ahead. The agreement says “no player may have any visible markings or logos tattooed on his body” as part of the uniform regulations.

“Just trying to head something off at the pass,” said Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president for labor relations.

‘Ili:
WHAT DO THEY KNOW THAT WE DON’T
Colin:
Derek Monster.com Jeter
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