14 Mar 08 links for 2008-03-14

• This story is … wow. Color me flabbergasted here.
  (tags: funny weird amazing)

13 Mar 08 Rep. Kern: “Homosexuality > Terrorism”

An Oklahama state legislator, Sally Kern, thinking she was not being recorded, proceeded to give a diatribe full of hateful invective about how gays are looking to convert two-year-olds to their lifestyle and are a more deadly threat than terrorism. The audio is here, the transcript here. An excerpt:

Studies show that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades. So it’s the death knell of this country. I honestly think it’s the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat … If you got cancer or something in your little toe, do you say, well, you know, I’m just going to forget about it because the rest of me is fine? It spreads. OK? And this stuff is deadly, and it’s spreading, and it will destroy our young people, it will destroy this nation.

Now that her words were spread nationwide, she shows no regret or recant, and stands by them. So does her party:

A state lawmaker who declared that homosexuality is a greater threat to the United States than terrorism said Monday that she received a standing ovation from her fellow Republican legislators Monday.

Reread the excerpt above, and then try not to be darkly amused when you read this:

Kern: I said nothing out of hate.

Uh, yeah.

A young man whose mother died as a result of Timothy McVeigh took issue to Kern’s remarks that homosexuality was worse than terrorism. He attempted to deliver a letter to Rep. Kern, but was prevented by an highway patrolman. I present it here.

Rep. Kern:

On April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City a terrorist detonated a bomb that killed my mother and 167 others. 19 children died that day. Had I not had the chicken pox that day, the body count would’ve likely have included one more. Over 800 other Oklahomans were injured that day and many of those still suffer through their permanent wounds.

That terrorist was neither a homosexual or was he involved in Islam. He was an extremist Christian forcing his views through a body count. He held his beliefs and made those who didn’t live up to them pay with their lives.

As you were not a resident of Oklahoma on that day, it could be explained why you so carelessly chose words saying that the homosexual agenda is worst than terrorism. I can most certainly tell you through my own experience that is not true. I am sure there are many people in your voting district that laid a loved one to death after the terrorist attack on Oklahoma City. I kind of doubt you’ll find one of them that will agree with you.

I was five years old when my mother died. I remember what a beautiful, wise, and remarkable woman she was. I miss her. Your harsh words and misguided beliefs brought me to tears, because you told me that my mother’s killer was a better person than a group of people that are seeking safety and tolerance for themselves.

As someone left motherless and victimized by terrorists, I say to you very clearly you are absolutely wrong.

You represent a district in Oklahoma City and you very coldly express a lack of love, sympathy or understanding for what they’ve been through. Can I ask if you might have chosen wiser words were you a real Oklahoman that was here to share the suffering with Oklahoma City? Might your heart be a bit less cold had you been around to see the small bodies of children being pulled out of rubble and carried away by weeping firemen?

I’ve spent 12 years in Oklahoma public schools and never once have I had anyone try to force a gay agenda on me. I have seen, however, many gay students beat up and there’s never a day in school that has went by when I haven’t heard the word ****¹ slung at someone. I’ve been called gay slurs many times and they hurt and I am not even gay so I can just imagine how a real gay person feels. You were a school teacher and you have seen those things too. How could you care so little about the suffering of some of your students?

Let me tell you the result of your words in my school. Every openly gay and suspected gay in the school were having to walk together Monday for protection. They looked scared. They’ve already experienced enough hate and now your words gave other students even more motivation to sneer at them and call them names. After all, you are a teacher and a lawmaker, many young people have taken your words to heart. That happens when you assume a role of responsibility in your community. I seriously think before this week ends that some kids here will be going home bruised and bloody because of what you said.

I wish you could’ve met my mom. Maybe she could’ve guided you in how a real Christian should be acting and speaking.

I have not had a mother for nearly 13 years now and wonder if there were fewer people like you around, people with more love and tolerance in their hearts instead of strife, if my mom would be here to watch me graduate from high school this spring. Now she won’t be there. So I’ll be packing my things and leaving Oklahoma to go to college elsewhere and one day be a writer and I have no intentions to ever return here. I have no doubt that people like you will incite crazy people to build more bombs and kill more people again. I don’t want to be here for that. I just can’t go through that again.

You may just see me as a kid, but let me try to teach you something. The old saying is sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Well, your words hurt me. Your words disrespected the memory of my mom. Your words can cause others to pick up sticks and stones and hurt others.

Sincerely

Tucker

It’s nice to know that future generations will have people like this within them.

     ¹Redacted in original.

(Via Metafilter.)

13 Mar 08 Tumbles from 03/13/08

“CNN apologized today for getting on-air analysis of Gov. Spitzer’s legal options from a former…”

New York now has a black, legally blind governor. Damn cool.

Quite a precise message. (via ian boyd)

12 Mar 08 FOX Grampas Snipe At Each Other On the Air

I remember the studio reporter from when I lived in New Jersey, although I can’t remember his name. This is fairly hilarious.

12 Mar 08 Tumbles from 03/12/08

Stephen Colbert and John Legend do the infamous…

scaryroll

scaryforever

scans_daily: Richie Rich and NKOTB

scans_daily: the Happiest Kid On Earth

scans_daily: Invincible Presents Atom Eve #2

THE SIMPSONS — done, in amazing detail, with Legos.

M.C. Escher as a Video Game. Quite cool.

Disney’s “ZOGM terrists gonna kill us…

Neatorama » Blog Archive » Pickle Sickle

TheHill.com - Weyant’s World: February 28, 2008

New Indiana Jones 4 Movie Poster - What Do You Think? | /Film

“It’s harder and harder trying to do the Lord’s work in the city of Satan.”

12 Mar 08 links for 2008-03-12

• Air Force Cyber Command’s New Weapon: DMCA Notices | Threat Level from Wired.com
  The Air Force’s marketing firm sends a DMCA notice … er, illegally, since U.S. Government works are specifically NOT copyrightable.
  (tags: government whaddafuck dumbfuck)
• Your cat could save your life | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
  “Non-cat owners appear to have a 40 percent higher risk of dying from myocardial infarction than those who do have a cat, according to a study presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference last month in New Orleans.”
  (tags: cats cool funny cute sweet)
• As a kid, did you play Donkey Kong on the Atari 2600? If so, this guy wrote it for you, and there’s some interesting stuff.
  (tags: games nostalgia cool interesting fascinating)
• The Vatican’s new Seven Social Sins (as contrast to the Seven Deadly Sins).
  “Bioethical” violations (birth control), “morally dubious” experiments (stem cells), drug abuse, pollution, contributing to rich-poor divide, excessive wealth, and creating poverty. You know, overall, not too bad. Some of it’s on the mark.
  (tags: religion interesting food4thought)

11 Mar 08 Can I Get a Napkin, Please?

What if you were eating at a food court in a mall?

What if the food vendors suddenly broke into song, complete with music coming over the loudspeakers?

If “Once More With Feeling” had happened in the real world, that must be what citizens of Sunnydale would’ve felt like …

08 Mar 08 Fun Surprise About Clinton’s “3 A.M.” Ad

Hah!

Hah!

This is wonderful!

The blonde girl in the infamous 3 A.M. Clinton ad?

It was stock footage, from a while ago.

The kid is turning 18 this year. And is an Obama ‘08 precinct captain.

HEH!

08 Mar 08 Tumbles from 03/08/08

A rather funny photograph.

07 Mar 08 links for 2008-03-08

• Scott Kurtz (the creator of PvP) and Fake Scott McCloud (of PVP Makes Me Sad) have been having a little interchange.
  And frankly, I think Fake Scott McCloud is kicking Kurtz’s but. Really, I’d like the comic to be funny again. It ain’t, and until Kurtz realizes this …
  (tags: comics interesting)
• if men wrote m4w ads like women wrote w4m ads
  (tags: heh-heh-heh hysterical)

07 Mar 08 How to Hide Your Tasks with Remember the Milk

Remember the Milk is a fantastic website which I use to keep track of the tasks I need to do. I usually have a great deal of things going, because my mind hates to idle; as I walk to work and have about six thoughts along the lines of “oh, I have to follow up on this.” (As a brief digression, Jott’s integration with Remember the Milk has proven to be a lifesaver in that respect; a call to an 800 number and a few keywords spoken into the phone, and my task inbox now has a brand spanking new note, and my mind can then let it go.)

But one of the things I have sorely felt has been the lack of a “hide until” feature. This is a feature that appears on quite a few other task websites, and its purpose is to basically hide a task from view until such-and-such-a-date. Why would you want to hide a task from view? Usually because you can’t do anything about it until that date. For example, you may need to do laundry two weeks from today — but if you do that too far ahead of time, you’re cleaning clean clothes. So, maybe you don’t want to “see” that task (a task that you simply cannot do) and have it clutter up your to-do list until the day before.

I can’t tell you who came up with this idea, other than to tell you quite emphatically that I didn’t. It arose in the Remember the Milk forums somewhere. But, as best as I can tell, no one has documented it anywhere, and the technique thus hasn’t really gotten a lot of attention.

Basically, here’s the long and the short of it: you are able to reproduce the “hide until” feature already … by repurposing the “time estimate” field of each task.

If you think about it for a moment, it stands to reason that if we are going to construct our own “hide until” feature, it has to depend on a variable that already works with dates or times. As things currently stand, that narrows down the fields to two particular choices: the due date or the time estimate.

Some people have reconstructed the feature by treating the “due date” field as a “hide until” field, and coding their Smart Lists appropriately. But this solution sacrifices your ability to have a due date — and I consider a due date to be far too important a functionality for the idea of sacrificing it to be at all practical.

The answer then is: you use the time estimate.

Essentially, what you put into the “time estimate” field of a task is your answer to this question: “How many days before this task is due do you want it to pop up on your task list?”

If you don’t want to see a task until the day before it’s due, you put in: “1 day”. Or “2 days” or “3 days” or “4 days”, etc., whatever you believe to be appropriate. If you want it to be completely invisible until the day the task is due, you might put in “1 minute”, instead. (That “1 minute” technique would be appropriate only for an all-day task; anything specifically set for a certain time in the day would get a bit snafued. I don’t run into it because I usually don’t set specific due-times.) If you want it to be immediately visible, you leave the field blank altogether.

(In a sense, you’re not being disloyal to the original purpose for the time estimate field. After all, if something takes 1 day to complete, then you would want to start on it (at the very latest) at least one day before it is due.)

The other half of the solution then becomes the implementation of Smart List rules that hide these things until they are ready.

So, when looking at my master list, in order to apply this time sensitivity, I plug in the following:

(((dueBefore:”now”) OR (due:never) OR (NOT timeEstimate:”>0 min” NOT (due:never AND tag:@books)) OR (due:”tomorrow” AND timeEstimate:”> 1 minute”) OR (due:”2 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 1 day”) OR (due:”3 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 2 day”) OR (due:”4 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 3 day”) OR (due:”5 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 4 day”) OR (due:”6 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 5 day”) OR (due:”7 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 6 day”) days”) OR (due: “8 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 7 days”) OR (due: “9 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 8 days”) OR (due: “10 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 9 days”) OR (due: “11 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 10 days”) OR (due: “12 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 11 days”) OR (due: “13 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 12 days”) OR (due: “14 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 13 days”) OR (due: “15 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 14 days”) OR (due: “16 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 15 days”) OR (due: “17 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 16 days”) OR (due: “18 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 17 days”) OR (due: “19 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 18 days”) OR (due: “20 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 19 days”) OR (due: “21 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 20 days”) OR (due: “22 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 21 days”) OR (due: “23 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 22 days”) OR (due: “24 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 23 days”) OR (due: “25 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 24 days”) OR (due: “26 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 25 days”) OR (due: “27 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 26 days”) OR (due: “28 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 27 days”) OR (due: “29 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 28 days”) OR (due: “30 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 29 days”) OR (due: “31 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 30 days”))

Quite the monster, eh?

What it breaks down to is this: I am telling it to show me:

• anything that’s overdue (dueBefore:”now”), or
• anything that has no due date at all (due:never), or
• anything that has no time estimate (NOT timeEstimate:”>0 min”) and is not something on my reading list (due:never AND tag:@books).

From here, we begin the bulk of it. You begin to see this pattern:

• (due:”tomorrow” AND timeEstimate:”> 1 minute”) OR
• (due:”2 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 1 day”) OR
• (due:”3 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 2 day”) OR
• (due:”4 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 3 day”) OR
• (due:”5 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 4 day”) OR
• (due:”6 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 5 day”) OR

And so on. With this pattern, because of the “greater than” sign, the “timeEstimate” you’re essentially looking at is the next one down in the sequence of dates. So, for example, here:

• (due:”tomorrow” AND timeEstimate:”> 1 minute”) OR
• (due:”2 days” AND timeEstimate:”> 1 day”) OR

the Smart Rule is saying that if it’s due tomorrow and I asked you to hide it until [any amount of time that's more than a minute (i.e., a day)], show it to me now. Or, if it’s due two days from now and I asked you to hide it until two days before the due date, show it. Or, if it’s due three days from now and I asked … you get the idea.

Now, there are two down sides to this technique.

(1)
It makes the language huge. For this, I use the “list:” functionality that was introduced into the advanced search language. All of the time estimate language goes on a “master” Smart List. From there, I apply tags for my actual working lists, so that I don’t see home-only tasks on my work list, or work-only tasks on my home list, or stuff on hold, or books from my reading list.

Rather than them being inclusive Smart Lists, they’re usually exclusive ones. By this, I mean … well, I can best illustrate by showing you the language for my work list:

list:@zBoth NOT (tag:@home OR tag:@mac)

In this example, the “master” list I draw from is @zBoth (the “z” prefix pushes it towards the end of my Smart Lists) — and this Smart List is saying, “Show me everything on @zBoth that does not require that I be at home (@home) or that I have access to my home computer (@mac).”

Were I to have done:

list:@zBoth AND tag:@nothome

I would have seen only those tasks that needed to be done while out. Anything that could be done either at home or at work (which wouldn’t have either the @home or the @nothome tag), or anything that had been incompletely tagged (perhaps just having arrived from a call to Jott) wouldn’t show up on such a list.

So, I’m of the mind that with Smart Lists, it’s better to build the language so that it excludes the tasks you can’t do in that locale, rather than only include the tasks you can do in that locale.

(2)
This hardcoded “hide” feature has a limit. What’s the limit? Basically, you can only go “(due:”x days” AND timeEstimate:”> x-1 day”)” for so long before things get a little ridiculous with the language.

It’s important, however, to realize that this “limit” doesn’t restrict how far in the future something can be scheduled — this “limit” is instead limiting the size of the gap between when a task is unhidden and when it need be done. I can still schedule a task for a year off and have it unhide itself a week before then. What this “limit” ends up being is that, unless I want to include a very large amount of search language, I cannot, say, have it reveal something 200 days before it’s due. Since I haven’t thus far needed that “gap” to be anything more than 31 days, that proved to be just fine for me.

And so, there you have it. Using the “time estimate” field, you can have Remember the Milk hide your tasks until it is time to act upon them, keeping your task list nice and clean of events you can’t do anything about. Until such time as the folks over at Remember the Milk code that feature into the mix, this’ll give you the same functionality, employing a field that (at least with me) was lying completely unused before.

06 Mar 08 links for 2008-03-07

• Yeah, they’re fuckin’ up “Watchmen”, as expected. *sigh*
  (tags: movies comics awful)
• School Bans Hugs Over 2 Seconds - Local News Story - KPHO Phoenix
  No kidding. Good grief. Dumbfucks.
  (tags: dumbfuck censorship fascist whaddafuck imeanreallywhaddafuck)
• Teen Says TSA Screener Opened Sterile Equipment, Put Life In Danger - News Of The Strange Story - WFTV Orlando
  “James Hoyne, 14, has a feeding tube in his stomach and carries a back-up in a sealed clear plastic bag. Hoyne said two weeks ago a TSA officer insisted on opening the sterile equipment, contaminating his back-up feeding up tube which he later needed.”
  (tags: whaddafuck terrorism fascist dumbfuck government)

06 Mar 08 Tumbles from 03/06/08

via www.reuters.com

05 Mar 08 links for 2008-03-06

• “And in one of the most egregious and downright disgusting decisions in Disney theme park history, the gorgeous New Guinea rainforest scene [in the "It's a Small World" ride] will be replaced with a Hooray for U.S.A sequence.”
  Are you fuckin’ kidding me with this?
  (tags: nostalgia whaddafuck horrifying horrible)

05 Mar 08 Tumbles from 03/05/08

via kishcom.com

Size of Alaska as compared to the continental United States (via…

Corky & The Juice Pigs REMember & Burn Victim Girl (via…

“The image shows tan clouds [on Mars] billowing away from…

04 Mar 08 links for 2008-03-05

• Neatorama » Blog Archive » Trivia: Bert and Ernie = Banana and Orange
  “The Muppets Bert and Ernie were designed by Don Sahlin based on two fruits: Bert was a banana and Ernie was an orange.”
  (tags: interesting cool nostalgia)
• 15 Unfortunately Placed Ads
  Some of these are just wonderful.
  (tags: images hysterical)
• Chicagoist: Little Plastic Baggies To Be Banned?
  Kinda ridiculous given the number of different things those little baggies are used for. War on drugs goes nuts.
  (tags: drugs whaddafuck chicago)

04 Mar 08 Tumbles from 03/04/08

YTMND - March of the Hillaries

YTMND - Senator Clinton unleashes the power

via farm3.static.flickr.com

Big MacChicken « Grocery Eats

via media.funlol.com

scans_daily: New Poster

03 Mar 08 links for 2008-03-04

• Manufacturer of “Everyday Living Bleach” essentially shipped out bombs from its assembly line — exploding bleach being “recalled.”
  (tags: amazing holy_shit horrifying darklyfunny)
• Why is winter flu season? Because the flu virus has a buttery shell protecting it that melts in the respiratory tract.
  (tags: interesting science)
• Neatorama » Blog Archive » Climate Sciencist James Lovelock: We’re All Doomed
  (tags: science darklyfunny)

03 Mar 08 Tumbles from 03/03/08

“Chick Does 21 Different Accents”: in the comments,…

via www.spiegel.de

Even if you’re not interested in World of Warcraft, you…

MC Chris - Nrrrd Grrrl

12 turns in a wheel !!! © My poor hamster…

02 Mar 08 links for 2008-03-03

• “The average size of the American breast has grown from 34B to 36C , according to manufacturers.”
  Not to be too chauvinistic, but woohoo!
  (tags: funny cool homina)
• “When the Assistant Manager informed the Manager that the Red Cross was processing the residents that had been evacuated, according to my source, the manager told her to ask everyone to leave and if they didn’t comply, to call the police. “
  “The Red Cross worker ended up talking to the manager, and a rescue bus was called to the scene.” Jesus Christ, you’d think Burger King would have a little talk with its affiliates about entirely dumbass PR moves!
  (tags: dumbfuck whaddafuck holy_shit)

02 Mar 08 I *STILL* LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE THIS!

02 Mar 08 I’m Evil

02 Mar 08 Tumbles from 03/02/08

scans_daily: Crossovers, crossovers, crossovers.

01 Mar 08 Tumbles from 03/01/08

“I am not a Starfleet commander, or T.J. Hooker. I don’t live on Starship NCC-170…[some…”