Overheard
I get to go to the back and play with the mashed potatoes.
quote out of context
During one race, Robic hallucinated that mujahedeen on horseback were pursuing him; his support team pretended to see them too and urged Robic to outrun them.
the opposite of socialism
That tens of thousands of Americans lost their health insurance shortly after being diagnosed with life-threatening, expensive medical conditions has been well documented by law enforcement agencies, state regulators and a congressional committee. Insurance companies have used the practice, known as “rescission,” for years. And a congressional committee last year said WellPoint was one of the worst offenders.
But WellPoint also has specifically targeted women with breast cancer for aggressive investigation with the intent to cancel their policies, federal investigators told Reuters. The revelation is especially striking for a company whose CEO and president, Angela Braly, has earned plaudits for how her company improved the medical care and treatment of other policyholders with breast cancer.
BeetleCam
Two dudes put a camera on top of a homemade remote control buggy and took photos of wild animals in Africa.
We booked a trip to Tanzania and set about designing, building and testing BeetleCam. The first step was to get up to speed on the necessary robotics and electronics that would be required to build such a vehicle from scratch. Having conducted some research, we sourced components from around the world. Construction then began in earnest with sawing, soldering, sewing and super gluing taking place around the clock in Will’s garage.
photo out of context
dear clusterflock
Yesterday was a pretty good day on clusterflock.
spame name
Leo Combs.
The Ride
These cover images brought me to The Ride Journal and, after perusing the first issue, I’m more captured by the images than the writing. Regardless, if I can find a copy of Issue 3 I’ll be buying it.
Red
I recently read the review in The New Yorker. I think I would love seeing this.
Has anyone seen it? Lucy? Perhaps in London? (Lucy, I know you are busy just now.) If not, perhaps one or two of you New Yorkers (or folks about to be in NYC) would go see it and report? Is it as good as it sounds?
The Man’s Guide to Love
real advice. man to man. seven days a week.
The Lucy Report
Impurity
Main Entry: blemish
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: flaw
Synonyms: beauty spot, birthmark, blackhead, blister, bloom*, blot, blot on the landscape, blotch, blur, brand, bruise, bug*, catch, chip, cicatrix, defacement, defect, deformity, dent, discoloration, disfigurement, disgrace, dishonor, eyesore, fault, freckle, hickey, imperfection, impurity , lentigo, lump, macula, maculation, mark, mole, nevus, nodule, patch, pimple, pock, pockmark, scar, second, sight, smudge, snag, speck, speckle, spot, stain, stigma, taint, tarnish, vice, wart, whitehead, zitAntonyms: adornment, decoration, embellishment, ornament
* = informal/non-formal usage
And so I live to embellish.
From the comments
I think my comment just went to spam because I said shitbag three times.
Quote out of context
You know there are simply a huge number of big, sweaty major corporations out there in big, sweaty capitalismland who claim to be in the business of feeding and caring for the human body, but who actually care about as much for your general health and well-being as a Republican cares for his meth dealer’s lesbian daughter’s organic free-range Vermont wedding.
dear clusterflock
Can someone explain this joke to me? I’m stumped:
“A man is on the phone with customer service spelling his name, “it’s Marty – that’s ‘M’ as in market, ‘A’ as in apple, ‘R’ as in red…” and the agent interrupts saying “Sorry – “R” as in what?”
dear clusterflock
Pimples. Do you still get ‘em? How bad were they for you in those formative years?
reducing the world’s suck
How do you know suck when you see it?
Henry [Jenkins]: For me, suck consists in imposing your tastes on someone else by cutting them off from participating in meaningful activities. Right now, our schools do that all the time. Mark Twain told us to never let schooling get in the way of our education. Yet, for too many kids it does. And the first standard of education should be to above all, do no harm. So, for me, when school computers block sites having to do with Herman Melville’s great American novel because Moby-Dick contains the word, Dick, they introduce a certain amount of suck into the world. When schools use technology to spy on their students rather to open the world to their investigation, that’s suck, no matter how you cut it. And when kids are classified as “dangerous” because they are emo or gamers or…, then again, there goes the big suck.
The Texan Economy
This is not what I would expect from Texas:
While its political leaders may occasionally flirt with secession, Texas thrives on connection. It surpassed California several years ago as the nation’s largest exporting state. Manufactured goods like electronics, chemicals, and machinery account for a bigger chunk of Texas’ exports than petroleum does. In the first two months of 2010, exports of stuff made in Texas rose 24.3 percent, to $29 billion, from 2009. That’s about 10 percent of the nation’s total exports. There are more than 700,000 Texan jobs geared to manufacturing goods for export, according to Patrick Jankowski, vice president of research at the Greater Houston Partnership. “A lot of it is capital goods that the Asian, Latin American, and African [countries] are using to build their economies.”
King of the Southern Table
A Terrible Life Choice
I just keep watching this over and over.
via
quote out of context
Most of all, I found this thread to be a lesson in how quickly smart people will side with their Darwinian intuitions, and attack another smart person with intolerance, just because something feels icky to them.
a chicken in ever doctor’s office
I’m telling you that this works. You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor, they would say I’ll paint your house. I mean, that’s the old days of what people would do to get health care with your doctors. Doctors are very sympathetic people. I’m not backing down from that system.
the new hundred
Benjamin Franklin is still on the C-note. But he has been joined by a disappearing Liberty Bell in an inkwell and a bright blue security ribbon composed of thousands of tiny lenses that magnify objects in mysterious ways. Move the bill, and the objects move in a different direction.
The secret of happiness is not to expect this high standard of euphoria day in and day out
from a discussion about the creepy Symbicort commercial
And, I found the ad on YouTube, but for some reason, it isn’t embeddable.
