O XKCD, how cruel thou art

The comic is not a very big fan of people who devote their lives to furthering the understanding of literature and culture. I take a small amount of comfort in assuming that my major, classical literature, would be more difficult than generic literary criticism to fake one's way through, simply given the number of languages one must know just to become a grad student. Hmph. Scientists aren't the only legit academics—it's just a few fields that give the rest of us a bad name.

Nas on Wednesday's Colbert Report

I should probably start watching these things earlier than 24 hours after they air, but in case you missed it, Colbert had Nas stop by to talk (and rap) about his crusade against Fox News. ("Nothing says 'thug life' more than a clearly worded argument submitted in writing and supported by the signatures of concerned citizens.") I'm looking forward to the great Nas-O'Reilly debate of '08.

Things People Do

Pencil carvings.

News Jay doesn't want to hear

Windows 7 is looking at a release in 2010. Microsoft is also going back on the offensive with Vista with its latest marketing campaign, where hostile users were blind tested with an existing copy of Vista, and a new OS offering codenamed "Mojave." Users reportedly described the new offering as pleasant; MS then proceeded to shatter their innocence by revealing that Mojave was none other than Vista repainted with a different theme. Moar here.

DNS Cache Poisoning Exploit Made Public

If there ever was a h@x0r equivalent of a WMD, this is it. Means of exploiting a weakness that is present in every standard implementation of DNS was discovered a while back, and now they have been made public. More details on the specifics behind the vulnerability here. This thing's got all the white hats scrambling. I haven't seen this sort of seriousness coming from security researchers in, well, ever. If you haven't heard about this yet, well here it is; better get patching before all your passwords get jacked and google redirects to equestrian imagery of an explicit nature.

Edit: Shit. This was like two days ago. Better late than, never, I suppose.

McCain gains; heads spin

This week has been nothing but net, so to speak, for Barack Obama. Yet the AP is reporting today that McCain's poll numbers in several crucial states are on the rise. And on Tuesday, Obama's chances of winning the election, as calculated by fivethirtyeight, dropped below 60 percent for the first time in a good long while (though it is back to 62 percent now).

How can this be? Not only has Obama had a great week, but McCain has also had a lousy one. He has shown no signs of improving his vastly overstated understanding of foreign policy, and his latest ad—the one that totally seriously tries to blame Obama for high gas prices—reeks of desperation. (Has no one on his staff bothered to explain to him why more drilling wouldn't help prices and why eliminating the federal gas tax is just a terrible idea?)

So why have Americans (I'm looking at you, Ohio) been registering more and more of a preference for the doddering McCain? I can understand that some people are such hard-core Republicans that they'd vote for their nominee even if he were a dead retarded goat fetus, but who, when Q-pac comes a-calling, would say, "You know, I've been undecided before now, but after this week, I think John McCain really speaks to me in a way that Obama never could." Somebody please explain this to me.

Newegg Diversifies

I don't know how long this has been going on, but everyone's favorite e-peen dealer, Newegg, is now selling cookware. The selection is actually quite good.

Being in the market for this type of offering, I've decided to give the new T-FAL A855S264 modular culinary platform a whirl. According to the reviews, it also performs admirably as a dual wielded melee weapon.

Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii No More

So... we now add Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii to the list of names NOT to name your child. It's not legal in New Zeeland, along with the names: Yeah Detroit, Stallion, Twisty Poi, Keenan Got Lucy, Sex Fruit, Fat Boy, Cinderella Beauty Blossom, and the twins Fish and Chips.

However, those intent on ruining their children's lives with more than bad parenting may chose from the following names that have been ruled to be legal: Violence, Number 16 Bus Shelter, Midnight Chardonnay, and the twins Benson and Hedges. Don't forget Pilot Inspector, another good Christian name.

I really hope Number 16 Bus Shelter doesn't refer to where that unfortunate child was conceived.

Confections

Gummi Lighthouses

Sometimes you just have to wonder.

Btw, is this sfw? Kthxbbq.

Random video of the day

In case you haven't seen it yet, this video of Christian the Lion is apparently one of the latest random internet videos spreading around even though the footage is over 30 years old. I saw it on the local news the other morning. The video is kind of corny with the music, but it's a pretty good story, and it's verified by Snopes. How the hell did a department store get a lion cub in the first place? According to the wikipedia entry, the shirtless guy at the end, who apparently arranged reintroducing the animal into the wild, was killed by poachers in the late '80s. That's kind of scary.

Speaking of Batman

Credit goes to whoever I jacked this from.
May I remember you sometime in the future. ^^;

McCain targets crucial leering pedophile swing vote

with his new ad titled "love." Below is a screen shot (sorry, there's no video attached) from his website (h/t to openleft.com).




It's worth noting that he may have had better luck achieving creepiness by presenting the left side of his face.