Friday, August 28, 2009

Okay this looks fucking awesome

These eco pirate dudes cruise around Antarctica and kick ass on some Japanese illegal whaling ships.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Mega Millions odds better than I thought

From the Mega Millions page on the NY Lottery website:

"Overall chances of winning on a $1 play: 1:39.89."

Wow, so all you need to do to win is buy like 40 tickets, or something. I don't know I dropped out of Calculus.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Tick bites and red meat allergies

For the last few years I've been having some mild to fairly intense reactions to eating meat. It all started out on Fire Island a few years ago when I had a burger and got hives all over my body. I had never had them before and was pretty freaked out watching my skin erupt with gross looking bumps. Also, the itching is close to unbearable.

It has come and gone over the years, but this weekend a few hours after having an incredible slice (or two) of Chris' expertly prepared pork loin, I was pretty much covered in hives.

Today I learned that it appears to be caused by a reaction to a tick bite (that I probably got the summer of my first reaction). This is a newly recognized phenomenon, discovered by a cluster of cases on the tick-ridden north coast of Australia.

Unfortunately, the cure is: don't eat beef, pork, lamb, venison or pretty much anything that walks on four legs. Oh, and a severe reaction can be fatal.

Wow!

http://www.ivanhoe.com/science/story/2009/08/602a.html

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Healthcare Hypocrits

via Slate:

We're witnessing a conversation between various people who are dependent on taxpayer-funded health insurance telling the public why tens of millions of people shouldn't have access to it. Most of the opponents of universal health care don't really think the public provision of health insurance services is immoral, evil, or socialistic—after all, they'd be at risk of bankruptcy without it.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Really? No public option?

Come on, people, it's just an "option". Can we please just fight for our rights for once? We managed to get a Muslim Kenyan elected president, can't we please just have access to doctors and hospitals?

Check out Physicians for a National Health Program for some compelling arguments.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

"Green is stupid!"

I just realized what drives Republicans in their inconsistent, incoherent policy positions. Remember when you were in grade school and you really hated this other kid? Hated him in a way that only, say, a 2nd grader can. You hated this kid so much that everything thing that he said, did or liked filled you with rage. This kid liked to wear green. It was sort of his "thing". So you hated green with a passion. "Green is the stupidist color," you'd say. "Only retards wear green. I hate green." And you really believed that, objectively, green is a stupider color than red, yellow, blue, brown, etc. You couldn't understand how anyone could possibly like green because it is so obviously horrible.

Now think Fox News and the "tea baggers" and "birthers" and the like. Universal Health Care? That's stupid! It's socialism! How could anyone support that? Democrats proposed it. Cash for Clunkers? Oh, you mean "stimulus". Only "Obots" like that and they're stupid! Stupid, stupid Obots! The strategic use of soft power as a more effective deterrent to anti-American propaganda and the proliferation of asymmetrical threats? Huh? Oh, Democrats support that? Then that's stupid! STUPID!