Mancow Muller shows us how quickly we forget the classics:
867 people in England dressed as Superman to set a world record. The record…World's Largest Gathering of Sad.
— MancowMuller (@MancowMuller) August 2, 2013
August 2, 2013
How soon we forget…
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July 29, 2013
It’s the same joke over and over again … but it’s funny because it’s true
H/T to Nick Gillespie for the link.
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July 20, 2013
The Angry Nerd comes down on Comic Con weapon checks
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July 18, 2013
QotD: It does, however, answer the question “can an orgy be tedious?”
We open to an orgy in a god’s sex cave.
No. Really.
Tannhauser, a bard in the Germanic middle ages, is the boy-toy of Venus, eternal goddess of hot sex that you thought would be totally worth all her baggage but in the long run isn’t. Remember the wisdom of the bros: even if he or she is literally an unearthly gorgeous sex god, somewhere there is someone who is sick of putting up with his or her bullshit.
Tannhauser and Venus are shacked up at Venus’ place, which with typical German lyricism is called “Venusburg.” Tannhauser and Venus are lounging in bed. They’re watching a dance/orgy/cage match among Naiads, Sirens, the Three Graces, fauns, satyrs, nymphs, Baccchantes, and cupids. No, really. I could quote the libretto I just linked, but even the description of this is abusively long. Wagner could have just said “enter the entire Monster Manual, which humps.”
That’s the ballet. There’s no dialogue, and it’s not Wagner’s best music, though it’s not terrible. It does, however, answer the question “can an orgy be tedious?”
Ken White, “Popehat Goes To The Opera: Tannhauser”, Popehat, 2013-07-17
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July 13, 2013
TV station pranked
TV station KTVU actually reported that the flight crew on board crash-landed Asiana flight 214 were:
Deadspin has more, including the video clip:
Bay Area Fox affiliate KTVU purportedly learned the names of the flight crew of Asiana flight 214, which crashed last Saturday at San Francisco International Airport, killing two. These — “Sum Ting Wong,” “Wi Tu Lo,” “Ho Lee Fuk,” and “Bang Ding Ow” — are not their names. The newscaster’s credulous reading puts it over the top.
H/T to Doug Mataconis for the link.
Update: Dave Owens offered the following explanation on one of my mailing lists:
What’s even more awful is that an intern at the NTSB gave them the names.
I imagine he’s a former intern now.
NTSB has apologized.
Update, 15 July: Asiana Airlines has lawyered up over the incident.
Asiana is suing KTVU-TV to ‘strongly respond to its racially discriminatory report’, Asiana spokeswoman Lee Hyomin said.
She said the airline will likely file suit in U.S. courts. KTVU-TV did not immediately reply to emails sent by The Associated Press seeking comment.
The station was quick to correct the gaffe after an ad break following the humiliating broadcast, clarifying the names were clearly wrong and blaming the NTSB for the incorrect information.
Update, 29 July: Korean newscasters get a bit of revenge:
It looks like a Korean news agency is having some fun at KTVU’s expense. After the landing gear failure of the Southwest flight at LGA they showed this graphic with American pilot names “Captain Kent Parker Wright”, “Co-Captain Wyatt Wooden Workman”.
They even went as far as making up fake names for people to interview. Flight instructor “Heywood U. Flye-Moore” and skeptical passenger “Macy Lawyers”.
H/T to Tabatha Southey for the link.
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July 12, 2013
QotD: Canada as mirror-America
Have you heard about this place called Canada? It’s like some weird parallel America where they never had a revolution. There’s some other differences too: It’s colder, for instance, and they call their Seattle “Vancouver.” Also, they keep their Louisiana in the north instead of the south, and every now and then it threatens to leave. Apparently, if you change just a few little variables like that, history comes out differently: You get socialized medicine, and a lot of signs and stuff are in French, and instead of Saturday Night Live there was a show called SCTV which was funnier but didn’t last as long.
Legend has it that if you journey to the far, far north, you can pass through a portal to this alternate America. Unless you live in Alaska, in which case I gather you have to drive west. (*)
(* Or maybe east. The legends are cloudy.)
Jesse Walker, “Canada Repeals Restriction on Online ‘Hate Speech'”, Hit and Run, 2013-07-11
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July 10, 2013
“Neocon” as an all-purpose term of abuse
Only problem w/this fact check is that "neocon" now means "people I disagree with" so all usages tend to be correct. http://t.co/OPaESKx5S3
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) July 10, 2013
Neocon stole my parking space at the supermarket yesterday.
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) July 10, 2013
Neocons at the Chinese place put mushrooms in my Lo Mein when I specifically told them "no mushrooms."
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) July 10, 2013
@JonahNRO Saw a neocon at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.
— Dave next door (@Nashcat66) July 10, 2013
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July 4, 2013
In honour of our American cousins’ Fourth of July…
… here’s Tim Hicks singing “Stronger Beer”:
H/T to Dave Slater for the link.
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July 2, 2013
Reason.tv – Up in My Grill: 4th of July Rap (featuring Remy)
Ain’t no party like a nanny state party.
Song written and performed by Remy. Video produced by Meredith Bragg. About 1:20 minutes.
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June 29, 2013
Chris Kluwe on how to be a manly nerd
Former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe has a must-read piece in Esquire about how to be both nerdy and manly:
For example, every morning, I wake up from my nesting pile of bearskin pelts and immediately plunge into an ice-cold spring-water bath in order to facilitate maximal hair follicle growth on my face, chest, back, and pendulous member. After the brisk cleanse, I dry off by shaking my rippling muscles in a vigorous twitching pattern, much like that of a dire wolf shedding rain. I then run down a nearby small game animal, spit and roast it over a hand-built fire, and toss the bones to my pet crocodile, Frederick.
When it comes to playing video games, I’m just as manly. My Xbox 360 controller is hand-carved from a single block of mahogany, and it features an inbuilt testosterone sensor that lets me know if my massive thews involuntarily clench too hard in between rounds of Call of Duty and Battlefield 3. Obviously, the only reason I would start crushing exotic hardwood between my calloused hands is due to sheer excitement at my five-to-one kill/death ratio, and not at all because of an overwhelming abundance of pulsating sexuality coursing through my chiseled body, attracting all the poser girl gamers.
Sometimes, when one of the lesser females manages to somehow defeat me (obviously by cheating), I’ll let loose a primal bellow of animalistic rage in order to send her weak and delicate frame scurrying back into the bedroom where she belongs. Once she’s safely returned to her proper place, I make tender, ravishing love thrusts into her always-willing ladyparts, which I know she enjoys immensely. As a manly gamer, it is both my duty and my privilege to remind the fairer sex of the proper hierarchy in the electronic jungle, and I take my duties seriously. We manly gamers need to constantly reassert our alpha-ness upon the inferior girl gamer wannabees so they don’t get any stupid ideas that they’re as good as us.
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June 24, 2013
Don’t judge a book – especially a science fiction book – by its cover
H/T to Lois McMaster Bujold, who sent this link to her mailing list.
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June 21, 2013
Duffelblog will probably get a lot of the “Onion article mistaken for real news” action today
It’s guaranteed to get on a lot of thin-skinned people’s radar:
Amidst cries of outrage and controversy, Activision unveiled the latest addition to the Call of Duty franchise at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last week, entitled Call of Jihad: Scourge of the Infidels. The first-person shooter, developed in conjunction with some of al-Qaeda’s top field experts, will be launched for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for release on September 11, 2013.
Like previous titles in the series, Call of Jihad will feature campaign, online multiplayer and a “Suicide” mode — reminiscent of “Survival” in Modern Warfare 3 — with the objective being to slaughter as many innocents as possible before a quick-reaction force arrives.
The campaign takes place in an alternate reality where infamous al-Qaeda operatives like Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are still alive and Khalid Sheik Mohammed is a free man. The opening mission of the campaign, displayed as part of a teaser trailer at E3, takes place in the Pakistani compound raided by SEAL Team Six. The player must single-handedly dispatch the American commandos as Bin Laden escapes on a camel before time elapses.
Game developers also confirmed the martyrdom perk would always be turned on.
“It’s fucking sick!” squealed die-hard gamer Bryan Campbell, 17, of Manhattan, New York. “I give it two severed heads up!”
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June 19, 2013
Nostalgia for an imaginary better past
I love this:
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June 16, 2013
Not from the Scottish Tourist Board
For more great reasons to love Scotland, click here.
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