Cuppacafe

Random Thoughts April 21st

by Walt Posted on Apr 21, 2008 under Cuppabits | 1 Comment

Thoughts and links, because you deserve it.

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ATTACK OF THE HEATHERS

The following is sliced out of context so please go read the whole thing, addressed to a major author:

[...] a blog is not a personal journal. It is a statement for any one out in the public to read, consume and comment on. If you did not want public feedback, why not have a diary that is kept at home for no one else to read? Or why not lock your posts so that only a select few are privy to your thoughts? To blame someone else for the consequences of your own actions seems very irresponsible.

You’ve stated very offensive and demeaning things towards readers in the past, in essence implying that they are smart enough to spend money on your books but not smart enough to provide any reasoned critique.

Tess Gerritsen is pulling her blog down after Dear Author and a comments thread there got critical and then got out of hand. “Pulling her blog down” isn’t correct. Putting on hiatus without removing the posts is more accurate.

I haven’t followed the controversy to date, so I’m in catch-up mode. But the deeper I look into this, the more I don’t want to know. I’ll occasionally read Tess’ blog, but only because I enjoy her sense of humor. Apparently, it’s a humorous remark that made Tess seem like she was defending someone … well, apparently it’s a deep subject and I won’t say more.

If you remove the actual details of this situation, I’ll attempt a meta point here. The masses of readers on the internet will tend to bunch up in clumps, and sometimes those clumps become cliques. Yes, cliques, just like back in high school. Authors, when they choose to become public figures by chatting with their friends and readers online can unknowingly be a part of their own clique — but also they can become targets of other cliques.

Cliques around blogs and bloggers form, just like they can around authors. Mark Cuban, rich guy and blogger with a certain level of idiocy, attempted to ban other bloggers from the locker room of his NBA basketball team. However, the bloggers who Cuban sought to ban were also credentialed with legitimate news agencies, the NBA overruled him. So Mark Cuban has people he hates in his locker room throwing questions at him, all up close and personal. [NewYorkTimes]

The thing about cliques, however, is that there’s less loyalty there than you think, and the criticism they might throw out has the lifespan of an ant bite.

– — –

NO FOOD FOR OIL!!

Europe was going to be an area completely free of “genetically modified foods”… well, until the price of food started rising fast with no end in sight. Japan and Korea had the same idea, but apparently they’ve buckled under the pressure of high prices and started buying genetically engineered corn for use in food products like soft drinks and snacks. [NYTimes]

Question: When you fill up your car with gasoline containing 10% ethanol, are you stealing corn tortillas from the people of Mexico?
Related: SaveOurTacoTrucks!

– — –

A Part Time Dog?

British people wonder about it, but in Tokyo Japan, it’s been available for a while.

In other pet news closer to home, I noticed the distinct lack of our neighbor’s cat in the last few weeks. That changed when I heard our neighbor’s loud voice chastising the cat for not being a good mommy cat and leaving her newborns all over her back yard. Yes, this is the second litter of cats for our neighbor cat. Obviously they never watched Bob Barker.
Here’s a 30 sec. You Tube that expresses Bob’s and my thoughts on our neighbor cat:
[Let's Get Neutered Song]

– — –

The Amazon Kindle is back in stock, so you can quit following those Ebay Kindle profiteering auctions

The Kindle is still overpriced, even without the Ebay auctions.

– — –

Got a hankerin’ to call someone in India beside tech-support?

It’s $9.95 a month for all the international calls you want [Chron.com]

– — –

I’ve upgraded a few WP blogs under my control to the latest version, 2.5. Unfortunately, some things got moved around, including some stuff that’s supposed to be to the right of the posting window in the admin section. Here’s a fix for that.

Not critical for you the reader, but it’s a pesky thing for WP bloggers.

– — –

And finally, a story about a dog named Snickers

– not our dog also named Snickers–

A Cocker Spaniel that was adrift with her masters for three months before washing up on a South Pacific island, but being prevented from going home with her owners and facing the possibility of a death sentence [LATimes]

photo credit: AP

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Snickers the Sea Dog is barely more than a pup, but he’s already an old salt.

The 8-month-old pooch spent three months adrift in the Pacific with his owners and a parrot until their 48-foot sailboat ran aground in December on tiny Fanning Island, 1,000 miles south of Hawaii. Snickers and Gulliver had to be left behind as their owners hitched a ride on a cargo vessel.

Then in March, the SOS was sent out in a boating journal that the orphaned critters were to be destroyed on Fanning, one of 33 scattered coral atolls that make up the remote island nation of Kiribati.

As word spread, a bevy of people worked to rescue the cocker spaniel and the macaw, including a man who desperately wants to adopt them: retired Las Vegas resident Jack Joslin.

“I love animals,” Joslin told The Associated Press on Friday. “I had two dogs up until the middle of March. Then I had to have my border collie euthanized. The day they called saying the ashes were back was when I read the story (about Snickers). It occurred to me I could do something.”

On April 9, Norwegian Cruise Line workers rescued Snickers from Fanning and dropped him off on Oahu island, Hawaii, where he will remain in quarantine until he is flown to Los Angeles.
[2news.tv]

It’s not over yet, because of the issues of the McCaw parrot are stickier (American importation laws) so the parrot is at risk of being … uh, a dead parrot…

But as far as Snickers goes, all I can say is

AWWWWWW…

Love Links

by Walt Posted on Feb 14, 2008 under Cuppabits | 2 Comments

On this day of love, manufactured by some chocolate dealing card maker, I thought I’d toss a few links your way — with love

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Things That Go BZZ! In The Night
After fighting it out in court, Texas has given in and will allow the sale of sex toys to be sold… as get this… sex toys! [Chron]

Ever since the Eveready Bunny got involved in the sex business, Texas has been first in protecting its citizens from the dangers of unprotected buzzing! Sex toy sellers have been able to sell most toys under the guise of “educational displays” … so as to… uh… teach contraception… yeah, that’s the ticket. Now me, I don’t know all the Ins and Outs of sex toys that go in and out, but having a government prevent the sale of sex toys is an affront to all things holey…

– — –

Mystery Date
You’re a guy, and you have found it hard to get dates. What to do?
Why not go to the local jail and ask to bail out poor female victims of justice?
Then take them home with you.
Talk about an appreciative woman!

Man Accused Of Posting Bond For Women In Exchange For Sex

How does this guy manage to find women in jail you ask?
Go here (http://www.stopcrime.org/suspectsearch.asp)
and tell the search tool you’re looking for a female, 25 years old +/- 5 years, and see the pictures that pop up.

Is there anything the Internets can’t do?

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NOT YOURS!

“I was in bed laying with my girl (and) I heard something rumbling underneath my bed. I thought it was my dog.”

What Jeremy Lynn heard was not a dog, but from a peeping tom who had broken in hoping to see his girlfriend naked.

“(When) I looked underneath there, I saw these eyes staring back at me. I was like ‘what the crap! This ain’t normal,’” said Lynn.

WHEN PEEPING TOMS CLIMB IN THE ROOM TO GET A BETTER LOOK —

AND THEN GET THE CRAP BEATEN OUT OF THEM BY THE BOYFRIEND AFTER THEY’RE DISCOVERED –

FILM AT 11! [Fox News, North Carolina]

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HELLO, ROCK 105? CAN YOU PLAY, “I’M JUST NOT THAT INTO HIM?”

Radio station gives away your final Valentine’s Day gift:

A divorce

– — –

Here at Cuppacafe Central, the mail yesterday had the annual gift:

A very large oversized (12in. x 12in) magazine HARLEQUIN ROMANCE REPORT 2008

that you can see presented at Harlequinromancereport.com.

Seemingly half of it is about confessions, lies and what can break up a relationship. All those marketing dollars, and not a lick of marketing.

– — –

Perhaps nobody is really out there looking for love

– — –

Cuppabits December 5th

by Walt Posted on Dec 05, 2007 under Cuppabits | 7 Comments

Happy 10th Anniversary, Alison! I love you so much!

Alison and I got married ten years ago today in a little room with just four witnesses. Keeping the complications out of the wedding ceremony? Priceless.

– — –

Perhaps you’ve noticed a change in the theme for Cuppacafe. I was feeling festive and figured we’d don a brightly colored theme for the holiday season. The current theme is credited to Petr Kratochvil and can be found here. EDIT: I killed that theme because it looked terrible with IE6, something I didn’t notice until I used a different computer this morning.

The header that’s been on this blog in support of the writers strike I kept as a header longer than any other header I’ve created. I stole the Hollywood sign photo from somewhere, and added the word “STRIKE”. I thought it was slightly clever, but now that I see that it was used in a post on a popular blog that deals with the writers strike [DeadlineHollywoodDaily], it looks positively brilliant! (just kidding, it’s still a cheesy idea that was probably thought up by dozens) - see original -

And if you support the writers, drop by the store selling the “We Write. They Wrong” gear and drop a few bucks.

– — –

Speaking of the writers strike, I see that Tim Kring says HEROES will change from the original plans because of the writers strike. The guy that plays Sylar WAS going to have a scheduling conflict, as he is contracted to portray “Young Spock” in the upcoming STAR TREK “prequel”. He couldn’t film his role on both the TV show and the STAR TREK movie. The strike has delayed all TV programs including that of HEROES, so by the time that HEROES starts filming, Sylar will be available to be his bad old self again.

– — –

The SCI-FI Channel got its highest ratings ever with TIN MAN.

The ratings, however, don’t indicate if I’ll like it or not, and unfortunately, I don’t. I’ve watched the first two segments, and I’m waiting for the twist in the third segment. There WILL be a twist, right? It can’t be this straight forward, can it?

– — –

How would you like to have a gas available where, if you inhaled it, you wouldn’t get sick for a week afterwards? [HouChron]

Truly science fiction material.

– — –

Watched a 12 year old Leno show tonight. Well, just the opening. Wow, is NBC putting on the lousiest reruns of Leno on purpose? NBC just happened to choose the night where all the jokes bombed. Close to the end of the monologue, Jay makes a couple of jokes about his guest David Copperfield and his impending marriage to supermodel Claudia Schiffer. Bizarre to listen to, knowing so much about how David picks up girls these days.

– — –

You folks suffering from the weather in the Northern sections of the country, take care, and keep warm and dry, okay?

Black Friday Catsup, Catchup, Catch-all

by Walt Posted on Nov 23, 2007 under Cuppabits | 7 Comments

Hi, my name is Walt, and I’ve neglected my blog posting

{Hi Walt}

Since I don’t have to clean or prep for any food holiday, I figured I’d catch up with a blog post filled with as many leftovers as my fridge:

– — –

Regarding my cooking:
The Spinach Dip is easy, but it’s never perfect enough for me. And what I think is the best Spinach Dip, others don’t like as much.

Sweet Potatoes are easy, but people like them too sweet. You shouldn’t have dessert as a side dish, but again, that’s what people expect, so I make it that way. I got impatient when cooking off the cobbler style nut topping and burnt the top. That’s the price you pay when you’re using one oven to cook/warm two turkeys and about ten side dishes.

Squash Cassarole: I rarely make it the same way twice. Water control of the cooked squash dictates how moist the stuff is; this year I used frozen sliced, and true enough, it turned out a bit better than working with fresh. That said, I’ll probably do this again for Christmas, and I will try it with fresh again. Side thought: Isn’t it amazing how modern technology can get you fresh summer type vegetables in cold weather?

Turkey Breast from heaven: I bought a generic WalMart $1.50/lb frozen turkey breast, and thawed it, put it in a gallon sized Ziploc bag and added a brine for about 15 hours. I couldn’t find a “turkey brine” at the store, so I fashioned my own. Chicken soup mix, salt, various herbs including sage (I found some spare “Pork Rub flavoring” and used that) and topped it off with some Apple Cider. Don’t over salt the brine. I used about 16 ounces of brine because my gallon Ziploc bag was mostly full of turkey breast. The ultimate ratio should be about a cup of salt to a full gallon of brine, but if you’re using chicken soup mix as a partial flavoring, reduce the salt accordingly. The turkey breast turned out perfect this year, so I did something right.

Dessert: I really loved all the desserts that were brought over. Too bad we were all too stuffed to actually try any. It’s almost as if you should have to have a separate day for eating the desserts. I like to try something I’ve never done on Thanksgiving and did so this time — yes, I screwed it up, but we won’t talk about that, mmkay? And no, you can’t cover up your kitchen mistakes with whipped cream. But you can try!

– — –

Babies know right from wrong at an early age [Newsweek]

And they’re secretly judging. Notice the part where the babies quit judging when the researchers removed the oversized eyes from the toys.

– — –

There’s a secret behind those “viral videos” and that secret is… they’re gaming YouTube.

I’d heard about this before, people charging to get a particular video seen. But here’s a guest post on TechCrunch by a guy who says his company doesn’t even charge if he can’t get your video seen over 100,000 times. One of the more interesting parts? They resubmit the thing and even change the name of the video in order to get the most viewings. They’ll also do NOT put on tagwords until about a week after it gets popular, so as to NOT have “related videos” that aren’t yours on the same page.

Of course, having a post explaining your success on the hyper popular tech site TechCrunch is interesting… I mean, couldn’t they have, you know, made a video about this?

– — –

Thing is, now I suspect all videos of being faked wanna be viral videos … like this one

– — –

The CALIFORNICATION lawsuit by Red Hot Chili Peppers against the people who created the cable show of the same name:

Uh, you can’t copyright titles, especially if the term was part of a popular bumper sticker in the 1970s.

– — –

I’ve been busy trying to put together a Linux driven computer, but ran into a buzzsaw when trying to make it wireless. I purchased a wireless USB dongle (WG111T from Netgear), but I can’t get the software to work on the computer without locking the whole computer up. The Linux software was simple to install, but some custom things I want to do just take way too much research time to accomplish.

– — –

We’re babysitting a dog, and our dog plus another dog equals mischief and mayhem. We didn’t get much sleep last night, and so… it’s time for a nap.

Cuppabits November 7th

by Walt Posted on Nov 07, 2007 under Cuppabits | Comments are off

Notes from all over, in no particular order:

– — –

Ladies, I know you’re checking shoe size

Dr Dunlop describes the male “purring” sound as a “C’mon baby” call to females, used as a mating signal.

“The lower the sound, the bigger you are,” she said.

There’s a joke here involving Brad Garrett’s recent divorce, but I’ve got nothin’.

– — –

It’s spin and the lack thereof

When the runoff from farms comes down the Mississippi River and empties into the Gulf Of Mexico, the fertilized water blooms, dies, and then that dieing life decomposes, sucking the oxygen out of the water, starving the fish in the area of oxygen. It’s a seasonal thing called The Dead Zone.

But when scientists attempt the same thing in the ocean, [NYTimes] they’re saving the planet!

Nobody talks about the carbon dioxide being sequestered by the fertilizer runoff coming down the Mississippi.

– — –

The first casualty of the 2007 Writer’s Strike is a comedy scribe for a late night show on FOX.
Tom Johnson, head writer for Talkshow With Spike Feresten, suffered a broken leg when he was run over by a car.

Crime scene photo of shoe

DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com

A lot of the West Coast writers are following Nikke Finke’s blog because many of the normal trade papers take waaaay too many ads from the studios. Variety could be putting out even handed information, but it’s too easy to assume that they’d never say anything nasty about the tactics of the studios.

And yes, the studios reportedly have already pulled at least one dastardly negotiating ploy. Read

– — –

You know those nasty staff germs that are supposed to be resistant to all of our modern antibiotics?

They’re apparently not resistant to our ancient antibiotics.

The $1/day generic drugs from the 30s win!!

– — –

Not So Desperate Housewives

Nothing like a good old fashioned sex party. Wait, who invited the City Council?

– — –

Being very pregnant hurts new album release sales. I’m not sure why.

When you add in the diva factor:

“[She] costs too much money and doesn’t sell enough. The woman requires everything short of flying monkeys to get on a stage.”

All you get is the rumor that you’re going to be released from your contract.

And you don’t even get to keep the flying monkeys.

– — –

And finally, a flop in the (Re)making:

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is being remade.
[Original][2008 version with Keanu Reaves]

Why? Is this some sort of anti-war rhetoric in a boring movie being passed off as a cool update to a classic movie? How could this possibly be spun to make it the least bit interesting? A spoof version would be better than a straight remake.

Dear Keanu Reaves: Why do you persist in choosing really crappy movies to get paid for?

Dear Producers of crappy remakes: I have a couple of dozen ideas that are better than this. Contact me. I could get you the movie rights to a project that a big well known Hollywood movie producer (one of them a Keanu Reaves movie!) had to release over contractual issues.

Cuppabits October 8th

by Walt Posted on Oct 08, 2007 under Cuppabits | 1 Comment

Stuff from anywhere my browser hit:

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What will it look like when Apple has a monopoly on computers?

CollegeHumor.com

– — –

One of the worst fighting grounds in the worst sectors in Iraq a year ago is now controlled by one of the best police forces in Iraq and is arguably the most peaceful over the last few months. Micheal Totten [freelance, working for tips off website] Iraqi Police in Ramadi are favorably reviewed in the linked article, but quality police in Iraq are still the exception.

Baghdad is still a mess — mainly because of the conflicting militias, but it’s nice to see some bright spots.

– — –

The Americans invaded Britain about 100 years ago, and have just about taken over the whole island.

The American gray squirrel has pushed the native red squirrel north. It seems our grays don’t have very good manners. [NYTimes]

– — –

1. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat was invisible, and he maded the skiez and da earths, but he did not eated it.
[LOLcatBible]

No illustrations as yet, but it’s a work in progress.

– — –

You know who else got a Halloween celebration banned because of his costume?

– — –

Alison uses her instant on-instant save-runs off three AA batteries “Dana” keyboard because it’s so fast to turn on and start using.

How would you like if if you could turn on a computer and have the full boot process take only five seconds?

This new motherboard can boot up Linux because all the important stuff is on the motherboard.

It’s a geek thing, but we’ve been headed this way for a while, thanks to cheaper memory.

– — –

On another geek subject, I’m pretty much against having a space station that does little besides provide a place for astronauts to go. That’s the situation of the ISS, something America will quit funding the moment the thing is all put together.

If I ever have to eat my words as to the usefulness of the ISS, this son of T.Boone Pickens will probably have a role in it. [Wired] He wants to rent the space station.

Thomas Pickens III wants to make pharma drugs cheaply by using processes only available in the micro gravity environment of the space station. His company, however, is still a penny stock, and had some financial trouble of late.

– — –

The Power Of The Pussy:

A few years back, it was leaked that Nicolas Cage had to get rid (a good chunk ??) of his comic book collection before his marriage to a waitress.

Now, Charlie Sheen is getting married, and to please his bride to be, he’s having his 13 tattoos removed. [M&C]

That’s a lot of pain to go through for Charlie.

Not the tattoo removal.

Getting married again.

– — –

And finally, for you affected grammar freaks out there:

Cuppabits September 28th

by Walt Posted on Sep 28, 2007 under Cuppabits | Comments are off

Links from all over — The fresh ones and the stale, all links must go!

– — –

AOL IM is vulnerable to attack and AOL won’t patch it until sometime next month

When the good guys are trying to demonstrate that an attacker can format your hard drive or run any nasty process on your machine, they instead call up the Windows Calculator. The link shows that with the right malformed link in your AIM, some random person can pull up your calculator on your Windows Machine. (The so called “Proof of Concept” that the hack works.) Obviously if a bad person were to give you this same thing, you could kiss your computer goodbye.

I use Trillian, which connects to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ…
Apple’s iChat is not vulnerable.

[via Wired]

– — –

If you’re old enough to remember why Americans were forced to switch coolants in their automobiles, you know that the formula for Freon had to be changed. You know that it was chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that persisted in the atmosphere, slowly migrating to the North and South Poles to then be broken down by sunlight high in the atmosphere, destroying the Ozone layer. That was 21 years ago[National Science Foundation].

Well, that’s probably still true. But apparently the calculations of the breakdown process were off, and by a large factor, too. Some atmospheric scientist says that new calculations say that the rate of breakdown of the CFCs can’t be right, and his work is being published in an upcoming issue of the well respected NATURE magazine.

Now, we can see how big the hole in the Ozone layer grows each year, but now the scientists are saying that they can’t figure out the exact method of how that happens. CFCs are still responsible for the process, but their role may go from “primarily responsible” to a “partly responsible” role.

This is all a geek way of saying that we switched away from the wonderful Freon because of a scientific overreaction.

– — –

Your moment of Lizard Zen [LAist]

– — –

The Silent Conspiracy Theory

Stay with me, because this gets complicated. Back in July, there was a chemical weapons accident deep inside Syria. At least 50 people were killed when some chemical weapons were being loaded onto “Scud” missiles. Additionally, a strange ship from North Korea docked in a Syrian port, and unloaded what some folks believe were North Korean nuclear materials.

On September 6th, Israeli jets went on a daring bombing raid, deep inside Syria. The jets dropped their bombs in the middle of the desert and left. The Israelis called it Operation Orchard.

Here’s the deal: The Israeli operation bombed something, but nobody knows what it was. It was either nuclear materials or the chemical weapons area.

Here’s the upshot: The Syrian paid for the best antiaircraft protection system in the world, and it was apparently completely and totally silent for the entire Israeli raid. It’s a Russian system, one that the Iranians have started investing in. And Syria has remained silent about the entire affair, acknowledging only that Israeli jets violated its airspace and dropped some bombs in the middle of the desert, recently claiming that the bombs didn’t even go off. (Of course, these bombs that didn’t go off would be called “extra fuel tanks” but we’ll let others figure that out)

But here’s the REAL DEAL: The Iranians are freaking out. They have noticed several things about all this, and realize that Iran, and their entire nuclear program are vulnerable to attack, and if they get their nuclear sites bombed, they won’t even know until the bombs are dropped. There’s no secret that Iran would like to destroy Israel. The issue is, if Israel can fly bombs around through any air defense, the Americans can too.

Scary stuff.

[link]

– — –

Guess which way Larry Craig voted in the Senate when homosexual hate crimes legislation came up?

– — –

Would YOU watch a new KNIGHT RIDER series starring K.I.T.T?

What if KITT could transform into different cars?

What if David Hasselhoff was nowhere near the show’s production? Ahh, I have your attention now. Good.

– — –

One of the longest articles on Wikipedia, and yes, it’s on something that nobody cares about.

The line of Royal Succession to the British Monarchy, carried out to the 1286th person in line to the British throne.

– — –

And finally, what happens when you build a house over a coal mine, and the land subsides, causing the house to tilt 15 degrees?

Turn it into a pub! When you get drunk, everything seems all upright!!

More pictures here: The Crooked House