Seen online

Eeewww...now I have to wash my blog

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on January 8, 2007 - 11:56am.
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In search of revenge on Eric Muller of Is That Legal?

University of North Carolina law professor Eric Muller [send him mail] appears to have a lot of time on his hands to pursue his avocation of amateur Commissar of Political Correctness. Not only did he have VDARE.com's Peter Brimelow thrown off the air last summer (follow the resulting row here) but he's nursed an obsession with our lovely columnist Michelle Malkin that's hilariously creepy.

...Steve Sailer of VDARE.com linked to my link to one of Mr. Muller's post.

I didn't know

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on January 5, 2007 - 7:26am.
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Prof. Spence went through two months of deep shit.

[T]he month of November and some of December was a wash. Not just dealing with insurance, but dealing with the fragility of life. Not my own–I didn’t see my life pass before me when I got hit or anything like that. But my kids. It tore me up that there was nothing I could have done to prevent the accident my kids were in. Bringing in the new year, particularly given how things COULD have turned out, represents a real opportunity to begin anew. What does that mean?

Reading on, I got a little surprise.

First and foremost it means that I have to slow down and say thank you. I’ve already told a number of my friends about what happened, but haven’t told anyone here. So here are the people that I’ve learned the most from reading over the past year:

Want to buy Bobby Brown's music awards?

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on January 3, 2007 - 6:37pm.
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People who want rap to die should just hang around YouTube

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on January 3, 2007 - 6:22pm.
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It's not racism, they hate everyone

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on January 3, 2007 - 8:56am.
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Who's afraid of the big bad boss? Plenty of us, new FSU study shows
BY BARRY RAY

The abusive boss has been well documented in movies ("Nine to Five"), television (Fox's "My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss") and even the Internet (http://HateBoss.com). Now, a Florida State University professor and two of his doctoral students have conducted a study that shines some light on the magnitude of the problem and documents its effects on employee health and job performance.

"They say that employees don't leave their job or company, they leave their boss. We wanted to see if this is, in fact, true," said Wayne Hochwarter, an associate professor of management in FSU's College of Business.

Working with doctoral students Paul Harvey and Jason Stoner, Hochwarter surveyed more than 700 people who work in a variety of jobs about their opinions of supervisor treatment on the job. The survey generated the following results:

• Thirty-one percent of respondents reported that their supervisor gave them the "silent treatment" in the past year.
• Thirty-seven percent reported that their supervisor failed to give credit when due.
• Thirty-nine percent noted that their supervisor failed to keep promises.
• Twenty-seven percent noted that their supervisor made negative comments about them to other employees or managers.
• Twenty-four percent reported that their supervisor invaded their privacy.
• Twenty-three percent indicated that their supervisor blames others to cover up mistakes or to minimize embarrassment.

What better way to start the year than with a blast of funk?

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on January 1, 2007 - 10:20am.
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2006 Darwin Awards

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on January 1, 2007 - 9:43am.
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Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it, thus ensuring that the next generation is one idiot smarter. Of necessity, the Awards are generally bestowed posthumously.

For 2006, the Winners are:
2006 Darwin Award Winner: STAR WARS
1st Runner Up: HAMMER OF DOOM
2nd Runner Up: HIGH ON LIFE
2006 Honorable Mention (no one dies): SNAKE IN THE GRASS
2006 Honorable Mention (no one dies): FLYSWATTER

And I thought there was no way to interest me in a sequel

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 31, 2006 - 4:08pm.
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You should see the large trailer.

I, for one, welcome our poodle overlords

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 31, 2006 - 11:20am.
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My annual link to Atrios

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 30, 2006 - 3:00pm.
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This WOULD explain some tracks that dropped last year

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 29, 2006 - 9:34am.
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On a recent Saturday, 20 or 30 of the resident parrots swooped down and, amid much screeching, alighted on the branches of an oak tree beside a pre-World War II apartment building. Children inside the apartments gestured and called at the birds; sometimes the parrots talk back. (In captivity, monk parakeets can develop a vocabulary of about 200 words.)

Parrots Have Colonized the Wilds of Brooklyn
By Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 28, 2006; A02

NEW YORK -- Alex Joseph, a West Indian-born parks worker, rakes the lawn at the grandly gothic Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn when he and his fellow laborers hear what sounds like a flock of sea gulls dive-bombing at their heads. The workers instinctively duck and whip round and look up and see -- those crazy green parrots, expertly mimicking the sea gull's caw.

"Man, they do that a couple times a week just to play with our minds," Joseph said, grinning wide and shaking his head. "They are a crazy bunch of immigrants, those birds."

They are the wild parrots of Brooklyn, these emerald-feathered yakkers with the wisenheimer sense of humor. Thought to be long-ago escapees from a container at John F. Kennedy International Airport, their ranks replenished by unauthorized releases from pet shops, the parakeets -- originally from Argentina -- have become accomplished city dwellers. There is a parrot colony along the Hudson River cliffs in New Jersey and another bunch that prefers Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx. Of late, two arrivistes have taken up residency on an apartment ledge on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

But mostly these are Brooklyn parrots, content in their adopted borough of 2.5 million people.

The research paper, published in the journal Current Biology, said: "Our data show that the adjustment of individual great tits to local noise conditions is not a local phenomenon but occurs throughout Europe and probably in all noisy urban areas....Urban birds often experience very noisy conditions while singing, which may influence the efficacy of their acoustic signals.

Urban-based birds 'learn to rap'

Birds living in cities are performing a type of "avian rap" while their rural counterparts are sticking to more traditional sounds, a study shows.

Dutch researchers found that urban species of birds sing short, fast songs rather than the slower melodies of countryside birds.

City birds also sing at a higher pitch and will try out different song types.

Experts said city birds have adapted to counter background noise and increase their chances of finding a mate.

Varied songs

The research focused on great tits in ten major European cities, including London, Paris, Amsterdam and Prague, and compared them to forest-dwellers.

In every comparison city birds sang a more varied array of songs, which were short and had higher minimum frequencies.

Urban tits consistently experimented with between one and five note calls, while those in forests close to the cities stuck to more normal combinations of two, three and four note tunes, the research found.

The study even gives the example of one Rotterdam great tit attempting a 16-note song, possibly copied from a blue tit.

Keeping in mind I'm 6'2" and 185 pounds, I agree

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 19, 2006 - 7:30pm.
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Blogosphere 2.0: civility strikes back

Trott has an interesting golden rule that she would like to see bloggers adopt. "If you aren’t going to say something directly to someone’s face, than don’t use online as an opportunity to say it," she says. "It is this sense of bravery that people get when they are anonymous that gives the blogosphere a bad reputation."

...which is a nice way of explaining the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory .

 

Someone's search algorithm needs work

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 18, 2006 - 6:27pm.
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I used to bug out over the occasional search string that brings folks here. I got over it, but this one

http://www.ask.com/web?o=0&qsrc=19&l=dir&q=can a penis pump leave a percent gain

...was too bizarre to let pass unnoticed.

Beyond that, the search linked to a page with no mention of the word 'penis.' Came up third.

 

Nuttin but the dawg in me...

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 18, 2006 - 8:54am.
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People track scents in same way as dogs
Human reputation for poor sense of smell is down to lack of practice.
Erika Check

If you think only hounds can track a scent trail, think again: people can follow their noses too, a new study says. And they do so in a way very similar to dogs, suggesting we're not so bad at detecting smells — we're just out of practice.

Scientists have found that humans have far fewer genes that encode smell receptors than do other animals such as rats and dogs. This seemed to suggest that we're not as talented at discerning scents as other beasts, perhaps because we lost our sense of smell when we began to walk upright, and lifted our noses far away from the aroma-rich earth.

Automation is a bitch, ain't it?

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 18, 2006 - 7:52am.
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Or, why I gave up on the idea of a purely automated site.

I stopped by Jesus' General...the chances of me, personally visiting (or even linking) Tom Delay's blog being about zero. Anyway, it seems ol' Tom wants to run a "Carnival of Conservatives." And apparently his techies are feeding it by searching their blognet for certain key words.

They linked this dude, and I'm not sure the fact that they were stupid enough to link this excellent satire as a serious article is funny or not.

Background information

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 15, 2006 - 4:29pm.
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Nice link from African American (Black) Political Pundit. Kinda long, though...pagination is your friend.


Anatomy of the American Empire

Neocolonialism

The American Empire is based on neocolonialism.  Neocolonialism is a social relation in which an imperialist nation economically exploits subordinate nation(s) that are formally independent.  The subordinate nation is officially independent with its own nation-state but is economically dependant on an imperialist nation which exploits it.  An indigenous elite controls the state but the means of production are still (mostly) controlled by foreign capitalists.  This is a form of economic imperialism.  This is different from old-fashioned formal (traditional) colonialism in which the subordinated countries do not have political independence.  Generally neocolonialism means that multinational corporations from the imperialist nation control a substantial portion of the economy of the subordinate nation(s).  

An example of neocolonialism is Brazil.  Brazil is very rich in natural resources and has a substantial amount of industrial development; if you go by natural resources it should be one of the richest countries in the world.  In 1964 a US-backed coup overthrew the elected government and installed a military dictatorship.  This dictatorship was sometimes called "Colonial Fascism" because of its combination of extreme repression (including torture and mass murder) with economic dependence on the United States.  Although there were elements of neocolonialism prior to this period they became much larger as a result of the policies implemented by the new regime.  Its policies greatly favored foreign capital, including free export of profits and reduced taxes on the income of foreign firms.  Essentially, they sold off most of the country's economy to foreign (mostly US) companies.  As a result by 1968 foreign companies controlled 62 percent of Brazil's foreign trade, 40 percent of the capital market, 77 percent of overseas air transport, 82 percent of its maritime transport, more than 80 percent of its pharmaceutical industry, 90 percent of its cement industry, 100 percent of its motor vehicle production and 100 percent of its tire production.  The majority of these foreign companies were American.  These policies simultaneously brought about immense poverty for the majority of Brazilians (Keen/Wasserman, p. 361-375).   This foreign domination of Brazil's economy (and many other countries' economies) continues today and is an example of neocolonialism.  

Like I said

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 15, 2006 - 1:56pm.
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Whenever I have the thought of taking The Colbert Report off the recording schedule he does something brilliant.

Watch it before 12/28...the link expires...and there's an ad in the player...

Serendipitous link of the day

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 15, 2006 - 10:35am.
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I ain't quoting a damn thing. I'm just warning you we're headed for Borg-dom or extinction and I can't tell which at this point.

Finding this sort of thing is evidence the RSS capability is back, by the way... 

Now that the election is over, I'm in favorof less tolerance for this sort of nonsense

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 12, 2006 - 10:30am.
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I suppose I can be taken to task for waiting. I suppose there would be a degree of validity to any such complaint. My strong point is analysis, and smacking down bullshit in a way that silences it (who really cares about being correct anymore...see the debating society story linked earlier)...and I know embarrassing folks into shutting up doesn't change their motivation and only makes them hide their hands after throwing stones.

That said...

The one where I connect Edward Said,Beyonce, and Dead Horses ;pour liquor out for a homey and start to explain my abscence

...Then the slider i n the humdinger the one that gets my goat,my ipod nano and my bouncy ball.

One of the purer expressions of the American spirit

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 12, 2006 - 8:41am.
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Among the things you'll see at the Cycle World motorcycle show.

A ridicuous motorcycle

Not a new Kramer, just an asshole desperate for attention

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 11, 2006 - 12:14pm.
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Andy Dick -- The New "Kramer"?
Posted Dec 5th 2006 12:29PM by TMZ Staff
Filed under: Train Wrecks

Andy Dick hasn't learned anything from the Michael Richards incident.

According to sources, the hopped-up comedian hopped onstage Saturday at L.A.'s Improv comedy club and dropped the n-bomb on a room full of stunned clubgoers.

Andy was heckling comedian Ian Bagg during his routine, when Dick allegedly got out of his seat, jumped onstage and began joking with Bagg. The subject of Michael Richards came up, but the two comics quickly moved past it. As Dick exited the stage, he suddenly grabbed the mic and shouted at the crowd, "You're all a bunch of niggers!"

I'll never understand Google

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 4, 2006 - 11:19am.
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Why is Prometheus 6 the first site in a search for 'saternalia'?

 

Seems Ridley is a bit of a coward

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 2, 2006 - 12:57pm.
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OregonLive.com


Ridley's Game
Screenwriter, novelist, talk show host and NPR commentator John Ridley has written, under a pseudonym, a nasty piece for "Esquire" dealing with his painful adventures writing a script for "Bobby," the film directed by Emilio Estevez which deals with the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

The snark lives here.

What you learn depends on what you see

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 1, 2006 - 10:25pm.
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About two weeks ago I spotted an essay by Clay Shirky called, Social Facts, Expertise, Citizendium, and Carr. Citizendium is a "wikipedia" with volunteer expert editors. What caught my attention was the discussion of seperating authority from expertise. It's a common problem...in fact, it's called management. It's inherent is the insistance on data without 'bias.'

I had no intention of visiting Citizendium for a while. I figure I'd hear about it if it took off.

Well, I heard of them. This is Kali Tal, one of the recruited experts (and as of this writing the newest registered user of P6).

Of course he's not Horowitz

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on December 1, 2006 - 8:01am.
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Nothing annoys me more than being talked to like I'm stupid by people that know better. It brings the speaker no tactical advantage. The energy raised doesn't blow up, thereby destroying my own structures. I use it to hone and target my response. That's not an advantage to me, because in the end I'm still annoyed...I don't read any Republican sites regularly because my second greatest annoyance is being talked to like I'm stupid at all.

Talking to me like I'm stupid can be done while agreeing or disagreeing with me. Tends to come mostly from the Conservative side of the agora but there's more than enough coming from the liberal side to make it feel like a two-front war on occasion.

Because I'm the Black partisan, not the Democratic, Black Democratic, or Democratic Black partisan, I still have to attend to those of real talent who are, well, wrong. Partly because watching the weaving of a complex bridge connecting undeniable fact (be it physical or social) with desired outcome using processes restricted by political orientation is just interesting. I remember reading some mathematician said something like the more eloquent the proof the less sure its basis. I feel something similar is at work here; and as in mathematics you can learn from interesting failures.

The Alternate States of America

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on November 29, 2006 - 7:44am.
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Man, you can blog about anything and turn up something cool. This joint, strangemaps, is about unusual maps (of course). This one

This map illustrates the ‘Totem Foods’ of North America, celebrating ”the many distinctive regional food traditions on the North American continent by featuring a totem food key to the identity of each region. These totem foods are more than just important commodities - community feasts, household rituals, song, stories and the nutritional well-being of residents have revolved around these foods for centuries.”

is interesting and this one,

Obviously I feel the need for some humor in here

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on November 29, 2006 - 7:14am.
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I find this amusing as hell, conceptually.

You are an asteroid that has seen many of your brethren decimated by the evil spaceship in the original Asteroid's game. The loss of your rock-fellows has hurt and scarred you deeply. Your rocky heart has ached for vengenance.

Your time has come.

 

I had to check

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on November 27, 2006 - 8:31pm.
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He did

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on November 19, 2006 - 9:32pm.
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Darkstar

I make comments in a few of blogs that I find most interesting. Today I've decided to provide comments I made in Booker Rising in a Quote of the Day entry. I'm doing so because I think I wrote something of interest.

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