flammable - Comments + Likes

Haggis (Sean) favorited a video on YouTube

Mythbuster Adam Savage drunk on a treadmill

3 hours ago - Link

flammable, Josh Haley and Sprague D liked this

◄ Chris Nixon ► posted a link

Steal This Comic

15 hours ago - via Bookmarklet - Link

Lindsey Smith, flammable, Yolanda and 5 other people liked this

Robert Scoble shared an item on Google Reader

Hanged for being a Christian in Iran

18 hours ago - Link

Susan Beebe, Kol Tregaskes, Justin Long and 19 other people liked this

Another reason why I resist religious people putting their beliefs into our social code. - Robert Scoble

40 more comments

The American Founding Fathers had this all figured out over two centuries ago. They were coastal elitists. - Sean McBride

Robert +++ for this comment. - Ryo

Correction: He wasn't hanged for being a Christian. He was hanged for converting away from Islam (apostasy) which is a punishable offense under Sharia (Islamic) Law - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A... - Mo J.

propaganda, not remotely true .. mo j's correction is important, and further, there had to be some cross-over of a social/political norm ... just doing this quietly does not incur threat of death in iran ... the source seems to have a pro-christian agenda ... and the title here is very misleading ... - Gregory Lent

Pro-christian and a "Friend of Israel" as shown in the image on the original post. - Mo J.

Good spot Robert - I agree that while principles should be adopted, beliefs should not be forced upon anybody through any form of legislation. However, this happens in the West just as in the Muslim world. - Paul Johnston via twhirl

Apostasy should not be punishable anywhere. And no, this is not limited to Iran, or to the Muslim world (or even to the religious world - think John Connally and Joe Lieberman, who were denied Vice Presidential nominations). Even in the US, changing your religion (or lack thereof) can be difficult if your family or community shares the belief that you are leaving. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

They also hate gay people: http://tinyurl.com/4lf4cd Sound familiar? - Rick Powell

Thank you for sharing, Robert. - ChangeForge | Ken Stewart

The worlds biggest scam - Religion, we need to get rid of it for good. It IS the cause of the majority of the worlds issues. - SoN9ne

Thanks for correcting the record, Mo J. and G. Lent. I'm feeling warmer towards the Iranian government and less shocked that an individual soul was exterminated for their beliefs. - Christopher Galtenberg

Wow, that's horrible. Has anyone seen Religulous? the new movie? Makes some good points about religion being dangerous. - Sarah Perez

Correcting the record? A month ago, the Iranian parliament voted 196 to 7 in favour of a bill entitled "Islamic Penal Code" which imposes the death penalty for any male Iranian who leaves his Islamic faith ... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new... - Joel Bennett

I don't think religion is dangerous, but extremism certainly is. You can be an extremist without being religious. Just look at the Soviet Union....? And while I sort of agree with Scoble's comment about beliefs in a social code (e.g. I agree with 1st Amendment) many people's moral beliefs (e.g. do not lie, do not steal, do not murder, etc) come out of their religious beliefs....! - Justin Long

Article on hanged... in Telegraph as well http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new... - Justin Long

Religion tends to create and fuel extremism, though, in the way that only a "my God says you are UNCLEAN" can do... - Jason Carreira

For the record, Ramtin Soodmand was a Christian from birth. It was his father who was an apostate from Islam. - Ontario Emperor

Religion is neither dangerous nor is it the cause of the majority of the worlds issues. The danger and cause is directly related to people who use religion to generate fear and hate for control and power. The same things that have allowed a person think it's ok to kill a gay person in the name of religion are the same thing that has allowed someone to think it's ok to kill a muslim in the name of national security. We should be prompting understanding and not blaming. BTW the link story is sad. - Shawn McCollum

Some religions seem to be xenophobic, intolerant, violent and imperialistic at the very core, at the root. The evil that they do is not a deviation from or perversion of their core message, but an expression of their innermost nature. - Sean McBride

A person's moral code does not come from their religion. But rather their faith comes from their moral code. - Alex "Lasagna" Scoble

Two way street, I'm afraid, Alex. That's proven everyday. - Michael W. May via twhirl

when you think you know how things should be there is something terribly wrong - adolfo foronda

Thing is, Robert, people put thier beliefs into 'our social code'. Each person has a 'religion' or better put, a world view. no one, should ever be persucuted for thier beliefs. period. - Josh via twhirl

So, if some of the more "extremist" Islamic countries view Obama as someone who has left the faith, how effective will he, and by extension, the USA, be in peaceful negotiations with these countries? http://www.danielpipes.org/art... - Mark VandenBerg

god I wish people would just abandon religion altogether already. I'm to the point where I honestly can't say that religion actually brings ANY good into this world. - LarchOye via twhirl

It's not religions that are xenophobic, intolerant, etc... It's people. This is a trait of people. People often misinterpret the teachings of the religions to which they belong and use their religion as a facade to hide their hatred and bigotry behind. Attacking the religion for the people's problems is problematic, b/c it empowers them to fight back by saying that you're being anti-religious. - C. K. Sample III via Alert Thingy

C.K. Sample III: I would argue that some ideologies, both religious and secular, are manifestations of the worst parts of human nature. Their xenophobia and hatred of cult outsiders expresses their innermost essence. Ideologies of this kind are essentially tools of domination and control. Any ideology which rigidly divides the world in a fundamental (and fundamentalist) way into us vs. them is probably a scam run by a power mad self-appointed priesthood. - Sean McBride

Alex, I'm not sure I agree with that. Many people are born into a religion and inculturated into it, and develop their moral code on the basis of their religion (e.g. The Bible or the Quran or whatever says...). I remember my first faith moment when I was quite young, about 5 years old. Every moral element of my code originated from religious teaching... - Justin Long

@justin "do not lie/steal/murder" are so very generic concepts. Religion framed those concepts and gave context to common sense ideas, which could have happened without religion as well. In the past if you killed the man who killed your brother was it murder or justice? A religious belief system should have as much right as a non-religious belief system, the problem is that when they clash it turns into a fight rather then understanding. - Shawn McCollum

LarchOye, people of faith do plenty of good things in the world, as a result of their faith. Unfortunately there are also people of faith who do plenty of bad things. And people are not going to abandon their religion. The majority of the world is religious in outlook.... - Justin Long

all: i find Jonathon Haidt's [http://bit.ly/4DAyN8] work on 'inborn moral values' pretty interesting. his TED talk [http://bit.ly/OFIjO] gives a quick summation of what his research sez are the five moral values built into our genetic code. - MikeAmundsen

Shawn, I agree they are generic concepts. My point was that I was taught them by my parents on the basis of our religious code. In my personal life, my moral code came FROM my religious teaching, not vice-versa. Granted that they might have originally come TO my religion FROM an earlier source, I was only talking about me personally. Maybe I misunderstood Alex's comment. - Justin Long

@C. K. Sample III - “I believe that nobody has a clue what really happens after you die. Not the Pope, not the preacher at my folk’s church, not some Tibetan monk who has meditated and pondered all his life - no one! I believe that religion is personal and is for every individual to decide for his or herself. Mostly it’s none of anybody’s business what I believe. I believe that public prayer is for show. It should be done in private and kept between you and your supreme deity, whomever or whatever it may be. I believe that maybe one day we might find some of these answers through scientific experimentation and observation.” - Tabitha Ames, from Travis S. Taylor's "Warp Speed" - LarchOye via twhirl

@LarchOye, I would generally agree with a lot of that! as a Christian I'd say that I take the afterlife on faith, that I don't have anything that conclusively proves it to me. I believe - as did Jesus - that faith is personal and a matter of personal decision. I do believe there is a place for public, corporate worship as a way of fellowship, but a lot of public prayer can be for show, as Jesus criticized the Pharisees for (and I could criticize a number of people today)..... - Justin Long

why is there evil in the world? "If there's evil, there is good, if there is good, there you posit a moral law to diferintiate between good and evil, if there is a moral law you must posit a moral law giver..... if there's no moral law giver, there's no moral law, if there's no moral law, there's no good, if there's now good, there is no evil. what is your question?" [ravi zacharias] - Josh via twhirl

And there is evidently evil, or Google would just say "Don't be bad" :) - Justin Long

Despite what we think of the current administration, there's one thing we should all be able to agree on: Iran scares the crap out of me. - Fleagle

Iran doesn't scare me. If Ahmadinejad was the Supreme Leader maybe. What scares me is america's posture towards Iran. - Shawn McCollum

Fleagle - why are religious fundamentalists in Iran scarier than religious fundamentalists in the United States, Israel and other nations who are deliberately trying to provoke World War IV and Armageddon? John Hagee is a close adviser to Joseph Lieberman, and Lieberman is a high-level adviser to John McCain and Sarah Palin. Judeo-Christian fundamentalists in the U.S. have access to a huge array of WMDs. I have often heard them declare that we should use them against entire nations in a first strike. - Sean McBride

In India, there are groups (both Hindu and Muslim) that advocate killing of members of the other religion, and often commit those crimes as well. At the same time, there are people of both faiths who would like nothing better than such dickheads to get out of their lives and just let everyone live in peace. These extremists have political representation and the country has had to face communal riots time and again. But once you look at it closely, you see it is not at all about religion. It's just crime. - Vijayendra Mohanty

For me, religious fundamentalists are "scarier" in Iran because (1) there are more of them, (2) they have more instances of mob violence killing individual believers, (3) there is less of a chance of someone in our govt provoking WW4 (checks-and-balances) than there is of Iran instituting draconian anti-religious persecution. What has to happen for us to actually use a WMD? They have to be authorized, and they can't just be authorized by a president - there is a system of confirmations required. - Justin Long

sigh. killing in the name of religion. When will we ever get along? I hope we can all do something to stop this. - Dave Q

flammable bookmarked a page on delicious

Daily Kos: State of the Nation

16 hours ago - Link

"The Republican Party is dead. An ugly doppleganger has risen in its place." - flammable

Robert Scoble shared an item on Google Reader

Palin Charged Taxpayers $13k to Attend Her Church

yesterday at 12:34 am - Link

Ingo, Dru Kelly, Josiah Lau and 22 other people liked this

I really hope all the religious wackos get kicked out of the Republican party. Amazing. - Robert Scoble

28 more comments

You know that will never happen. At least Blair here kept his religious conversion to after he left office! - Rachel Clarke

Rachel: I wouldn't be so sure. At some point they will see the errors of their ways. Focusing on abortion while the economy burns like Palin did today in front of her audiences? Please do be serious. - Robert Scoble

My Guess is that the Palin Party will separate from the Repubs when/if this campaign hugely goes down in flames. - Bored

Bored: that would be awesome because the religious wackos would never win without another group like the fiscal conservatives (who should never have joined up with them in the first place, it turns out. Bush proved that). - Robert Scoble

Um... it would be interesting to know if taxpayers pick up airplane fees and per diem fees etc. for other politicians to speak at other events, maybe not religious events? Ex. Jimmy Carter, Democrat + Baptist? or the Clintons? or the Bushes? college commencement addresses? charities? red cross? etc? - Justin Long

@Justin - all modern presidential campaigns do this. This is the anti-theist movement on FF using any excuse to beat up Christianity. That Palin is involved is a bonus. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

Mark: you're sort of right. I'm not beating up all of Christianity, though. Not all Christians believe what Palin does. Not all Christians use their religion as a litmus test for who they'll vote for. Not all Christians believe it's more important today to talk about abortion than the economy. Not all Christians believe McCain would make a better President than Obama. So, clearly, I'm not beating up Christianity here. I'm beating up religious wackos who control the Republican Party. - Robert Scoble

+1 Robert - Jeff P. Henderson

See the update at bottom. This isn't a religion issue so much as a travel expenses issue, since she charged taxpayers more to travel to her own home. - Bruce Lewis

Maybe you didn't read the article, Mark, this is something Palin did as Governor. When a _Presidential_ candidate like Obama spends money to speak somewhere, he's spending campaign money, that is, from supporters. However, what this article, and her other statements and positions, do is further delineate that she doesn't think much of the establishment clause of The First Amendment. Nor do many in her wing of the party. Which means, in my mind, she's a fundamentalist, not a conservative. - Rick Powell

I think many of those people might be happier in some Christian version of Islamist theocracies, complete with rabble-rousing, kill the heretic rallies such as we've been seeing from their campaign. That seems to be their goal. Which is why, if for nothing else, they must be defeated. - Rick Powell

What I meant was, it would be interesting to know if people in office (not in election campaigns) spend public money to speak at events - religious or otherwise - e.g. some of those I listed. I do believe it's okay to use your religion as a litmus test; i think a voter can use any qualification he or she desires. On the other hand, I think that someone in office should NOT use religion as a litmus test for their decisions, generally speaking. - Justin Long

And I for one do think the economy is more important than abortion simply because the economy is more likely to see some progress. We have had plenty of Republicans in office who have done nothing about abortion, largely because it's politically impossible at the moment. Although generally I wouldn't vote for a pro-choice candidate. What a difficult line to walk, between what is *possible* and what one *feels is important*. Sometimes we just get angry. I think a lot of Americans on both sides are angry... - Justin Long

Christians should try and remember the passage "Be angry and sin not" - or "he who says to 'You fool' is in danger of hell fire" - etc. I'm off my soap box now. - Justin Long

Yawn. Do 0bama supporters have anything else to do besides be obsessed with Palin? - Spencer Scott

Obama secured $100,000 in federal pork for Rev. Pfleger's church in Chicago. Where's the outrage? The title of the article implies taxpayers sent money to the church whereas they just payed for travel which is what taxpayers usually do for governors, mayors, and presidents. Here is source: http://www.suntimes.com/news/p... - Edmundo

and recession - adolfo foronda

+1 to Edmundo for using the phrase "Where's the outrage" - MikeAmundsen

Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins just tried to claim that disagreements with Sarah Palin's brand of religious extremism are attacks on Christianity, religion and theism as a whole. See what I mean about the generally low level of intelligence among Sarah Palin supporters? Barack Obama himself is a Christian, religionist and theist, as are most Sarah Palin opponents. What causes this kind of mental meltdown? - Sean McBride

We non-believers shouldn't forget Obama supports faith-based initiatives being supported with tax dollars. - Jack Carlson

Either religious extremists will be expelled and expunged from the Republican Party, and perhaps it will recover its health, or the extremists will be permitted to take over the party entirely and drive it into irrelevance and extinction. My personal assessment is that the Republican Party is beyond saving at this point -- neoconservatives and religious fundamentalists have damaged it beyond repair. - Sean McBride

speaking of "anti-theist movement", I just watched Religulous last night. it just floors me to see elected officials be so anti-intellectual and too much faith based. and I thought that leaders in developing nations are lightyears behind when it comes to psychosocial development. - ~C4Chaos

Is this actually against illegal or is it just being stated that way? - Jeff Layton

+1 to Jack Carlson. Obama is *very* religious and we could see several initiatives that bring attempt to bring churches into gov't activities. - MikeAmundsen

Welcome to FriendFeed Edmundo, that was an interesting first comment. What you failed to point out was that the $100,000 in "federal pork" that went to "Rev. Pfleger's church in Chicago" actually went to the COMMUNITY YOUTH CENTER *attached* to the church. You know, the place where kids can play basketball after school, get homework help, learn karate or golf, get help finding a summer job, prepare for college, or use the computer lab if they don't have a computer at home. - Karim

But God forbid poor black kids should learn how to play golf, eh? Because then where would you be? lol EDIT: they also have some kind of nutritional snack program. So it's possible some of that $100,000 is literally "federal pork." - Karim

Jeff, good question. If you drill down to the Yahoo! News article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...) it says "Experts say those trips fall into an ethically gray area, since Democrats and Republicans alike often visit religious venues for personal and official reasons." - Karim

Also from the article: "'Politicians are entitled to freely exercise their religion while in office, but ethically if not legally that part of her trip ought to not be charged to taxpayers,' said Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. 'It's still fundamentally a religious and spiritual experience she is having.'" So again, gray area. Between this and Troopergate, it looks like Palin is good at worming into ethical gray areas. - Karim

this is really about ethics, not legality. in gov't, corporate, and volunteer orgs, it is *always* best to steer clear of anything that might look like your'e taking advantage of taxpayers, shareholders, and donors. any chance you get to charge the group for a trip, a meal, a conference is a chance to express your ethical standards to everyone associated w/ the org. and you can bet that folks w/ in the orgs take their cues from leadership. and they judge you accordingly. - MikeAmundsen

Just who are these tax payers, exactly? Alaska has no sales or income tax so I'd expect most of their funds come from oil companies and government subsidies. - Gabe

Cyndy posted an entry on Industry Standard Unique Content

Twitter waves white flag on IM functionality

Saturday at 3:54 pm - Link

Steve, Franklin Pettit, Mike Fruchter and 6 other people liked this

This is sad, really. - Jason Carreira

13 more comments

Good use of TweetStats. Some more charts at the end of July I did are here: http://louisgray.com/live/2008... - Louis Gray

twitterspy (YIM and GTalk) does almost all of it with some small delay. - Sam Pullara

Really sad. - Pete Gilbert

@Louis great stats there... remember that due to network effects of the number of followers of those very popular twitterers, those reductions are actually exponential. - Jason Carreira

I remember those, Louis. The June numbers were a mess. I probably should have looked at Erin and Susan Reynolds as well to see if their numbers were impacted, but I hate how the layout looks when I toss in too many images. I realized today that they weren't kidding... added two more folks from Rochester and I can't add "device notification" at all since mine is IM. - Cyndy

Since IM doesn't work and they scrapped SMS in Europe, I use Twitter far less - Andy Davies

Crap. :( - Mavericks of A-sauce!

Andy, I hear you. I just don't check Twhirl as much as IM notifications. - Cyndy

the battle was lost long time ago, @sam is right twitterspy is around anyway - Dobromir Hadzhiev

Dobromir, there's two problems with that, though. Relying on TwitterSpy means relying on a third-party application that's subject to all the issues Twitter puts developers through, and it also doesn't seem to have a revenue stream. - Cyndy

@Cyndy I wrote twitterspy for myself and open sourced it so others can run their own instances if they don't want to run their own (I know some people do run their own instances, I've got just under 500 users on mine). But yeah, the whole twitter response is pretty poor here -- something is up. That their blog cited another service that hasn't been around as much and doesn't do all the same stuff says something... - Dustin Sallings

I have to admit I don't tweet a lot these days days, but seem like third-party apps are doing fine after the tough months for twitter, as for the revenue stream - I still find it hard to see the twitter model. It may go down at some point, but if it's badly needed another will pop up - Dobromir Hadzhiev

Agreed, Dustin, and it's a cool thing you did, but how many users can you afford to host? And the average user isn't going to figure out, much less actually run their own instance, so it's a stop-gap, at best. I'm still boggled that months later they still don't get seem to understand their users, nor how to talk to them. - Cyndy

Dobromir, Twitter has taken on mega funding, which is what most of the Web 2.0 crowd seems to think of as a revenue stream. /sarcasm Seriously, though, funding makes a huge difference between running something without taking in any money and running something as an independent who just happened to build something cool. - Cyndy

sure, but as many have asked before, They have the money... now what?! the sarcasm was spot on - Dobromir Hadzhiev

flammable bookmarked a page on delicious

YouTube - Sarah Palin Remixed

yesterday at 10:41 am - Link

I'm liking these Sarah Palin remixes. Good stuff. - flammable

Robert Scoble posted a message

“My son Patrick says that people don't like the truth, they just want to be entertained. Especially when the truth is bad. I predict he's going to be a great marketer. Understands human behavior better than I do a lot of times.”

Saturday at 8:10 pm - Link

Michael J. Cohen (mjc), Betsy Weber, Steve and 62 other people liked this

He also just asked for his Christmas and Birthday money early so that he could buy a rifle. Hmmm. Damn, he's been reading my negative FriendFeed posts. :-) - Robert Scoble

30 more comments

Browning is always festive this time of year.... - Glen C

That Glen: he wants a German Karabiner 98 Kurz BCD4. Hmmm. - Robert Scoble

Unfortunately, he's sooo correct, but that stinks doesn't it?! (You can't handle the Truth!) ... awesome scene - Susan Beebe

Susan: nothing worse than 14-year-old who speaks the truth. - Robert Scoble

Would you consider Patrick's asking for Christmas and Birthday money early a run on the bank? - Michael Hussein Markman

A rifle? I predict a scene like in A Christmas Story. - Rochelle

no marketer has that maturity of understanding ... except to take advantage of it for personal benefit ... patrick has a higher calling, to prepare people for truth, to mature the social processes ... that career category has a name we don't know yet, but he will know .... please do not encourage marketing ... let him go into human transformation - Gregory Lent

My kid runs runs rings around me. Every time I see her, I realize it more. Yours sounds brilliant! - Charlie Anzman

I once asked a Sunday school teacher why she does it. Her answer "They're the only honest people left in the world" .... - Charlie Anzman

Wow...smart kid - Rah™

Appealing to the lowest in humans is more a disease than a talent. - todd

No pressure on Patrick, of course ;) - MiniMage LightBlueRanger

Knowledge of how people can me manipulated can also be used for good. - Rah™

Rah, that is the way of the dark side. It will consume and use you as you think you are using it. - todd

Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Therefore, having knowledge of anything gives you power, which can end up corrupting you. The secret ingredient, I think, is fear. As long as you can control that, you can balance along the edge of the darkside instead of getting swallowed by it. - Rah™

Famous Jack Nicholson Line comes to mind " You Cant Handle The Truth " - johnpiercy

The force that controls fear is the light side. The force that feeds fear is the dark side. - todd

My take would be: People don't like the truth when that parcel of truthiness might mean A) Accepting it entails pressure to change a comfortable habit, B) The Risk/Reward of embracing it is not clear cut or C) You'd rather be happy than right. I could go on, but then my hope for entertainment value would completely evaporate. Anyway, this may be interesting: http://www.philosophytalk.org/... - Micah Wittman

Micah, the On Bullshit guy is always interesting. - todd

excellent - Jeremiah Owyang

one smart son you have, Robert! - Hayk

I don't think it makes it okay. People should be able to face life, be mature, responsible, etc..... but your son IS very smart. Make him be a politician instead. - Patricia

the truth is hate to those who hate the truth. - Jens Christian Freund

It takes a lot of effort to acknowledge and deal with the truth if the truth is not pleasant. Most people don't want to make that effort if it is at all uncomfortable for them. Entertainment is usually pleasurable and when it is an alternative to an uncomfortable truth people prefer it. Patrick has great observational skills. :) - Lindsay Donaghe

Nice one, Patrick! Marketing is an excellent career, I just wish there were more marketers that faced the truth rather than trying to spin things. - Sally Church

I think Americans are experts at denial. From slavery to the cold war, Vietnam to Iraq, we've got a lot of truth we'd rather not think about. There's a shiny Jetsons future from the 50s that we'd rather believe, and anything you can say that suggests an alternate path is called for is insulting to it. "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all". While everyone's giving "advice" to Patrick mine would be: stick with the truth, to heck with marketing. - Jason Wehmhoener

People can't really handle the truth a lot of times. If you tell them the truth usually they get very defensive, because they don't want to see what really is going on. I have had that experience a couple of times when someone told me that I was hanging out with the wrong people, and I got pissed that them, but later found out they were right. - Molly, the Vampy Vampire

I think there are a lot of countries that have been historically engaged in rewriting history because they can't handle the truth. To think that this is just an American trait is just blind stupidity. It's human nature. Looks like your son has given up on the soap box and the ballot box. - Ernie Oporto

Robert - actually something worse: if your Son did NOT know the truth - that is worse! Seriously, I think I would WANT my 14 year old to speak the truth as Patrick does... that mean's he's intelligent, able to discern truth from error and is not intimidated to speak his mind... these are all fantastic attributes for a young adult to acquire!! CONGRATULATIONS Robert, you did a great job of raising him well! :) Now the tricky part is being able to deal with it when he opens his mouth and speaks the truth! - Susan Beebe

Susan (and everyone): thanks, yeah, Patrick is pretty smart about things. I love that he was arguing about porn and censorship with the FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. He'll do just fine in life. Politics? We'll see if he takes to that, I don't sense that he's interested in that yet. - Robert Scoble

John Piercy - we think alike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... - Bill Miranda

Why do you think we have religion? - Jesse McPherson

Robert Scoble shared an item on Google Reader

Focusing your blog content in a storm

yesterday at 2:32 am - Link

ChangeForge | Ken Stewart, flammable, Jeff P. Henderson and Michael J. Cohen (mjc) liked this

Oh, Duncan is now saying "there's worse to come." Fear monger! I get it, he's playing both sides. He gets his new author to attack me for being too negative, then he goes negative himself. That way he gets both audiences: the folks who want just positive news reported, and the folks who want the hard truth. Heheh, brilliant strategy. Me? I'm going to Zig to this Zag. - Robert Scoble

Pete Delucchi posted a link

Robot Chicken - Table be round

Saturday at 8:04 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

flammable, Anna Choi, Rodfather and 6 other people liked this

Mashup: Sir Mix-a-lot vs. King Arthur vs. Robot Chicken - Pete Delucchi via Bookmarklet

13 more comments

there seem to a few more people around now...so, um, BUMP, this is funny(?) - Pete Delucchi

You and I, Molly, we're the ones that find this kind of humor funny, I guess. - Pete Delucchi

Mo! Thank goodness. I hope you watched it, actually, this sketch is comedic genius. - Pete Delucchi

Robot Chicken ++; Thanks Pete. - Ryo

instant subscription, Ryo, +1 - Pete Delucchi

That's catchy. - Andrew Trinh

++++++ RC! Seth Green and Co are awesome! - Bored

Oh, thank goodness, the other side of the world is here to bring this to the forefront, thanks, Andrew. 0:25 in when it gets good, btw. Also, there's a cameo by Perfect Strangers' Balkie, so it can't be all bad, right? - Pete Delucchi

I've only seen a few things from [adult swim] and they always crack me up. I just wish I could watch more of it somewhere, as in the actual show. - Andrew Trinh

*cough*bittorrrent*cough* (the only way I'm seeing it, Andrew...) - Pete Delucchi

http://www.adultswim.com/shows... for all your RC Video's - Bored

If Seth Green and I grew up together I would have either been a best bud of his, or probably kicked his ass. Either way, this show is so much win. - Pete Delucchi

*taps nose* Nah, I wish someone would just lend me the whole thing or do they have any box sets available? - Andrew Trinh

*nose tap back* - Caroline

*tap that* - Andrew Trinh

Kevin Fox posted a link

Greatest Engagement Photo Shoot Ever

Saturday at 5:07 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

Brad Washburn, Joey Green, Aaron D'Souza and 50 other people liked this

Okay, that's pretty neat/funny. But am I the only clueless soul who had no idea that people took professional photos for *engagements*? I knew weddings, but... - Adam Lasnik

17 more comments

wow, that 2nd dude must really be into D&D.... - Ňicķ

they look really good together - Alejandro S.

not sure if im sold on the chicken suit idea, but that photographer is awesome - Rob Reed

Sweet pics, but not buying the "engagement" angle. Or if so, predicting divorce. Soon. - John McCrea

She loves the cock!!! - fac287

That woman sure has a big cock! - Jeff P. Henderson

If I get engaged, it will have to be to someone who's cool with that idea. - Morton Fox

it's to mark the start of everything to come. to remember what her body looked like before it goes to hell? b4 the bridezilla thing - Caroline

+1 Jeff.. LOL - Bored

Nice to see strippers and kissograms getting hitched :D - chet

They're awesome. Except the one where there's a concrete wall between the two, which could possibly be the worst feng shui in the history of photography. ;-) - Chris Baskind

@chris lol fengshui.. - Caroline

Certainly, the two are 'engaged'.. - Jagtesh Chadha

But she's breaching the wall, Chris! So symbolically she's coming through to his side... though, upside down... which symbolizes a breach birth... which curiously uses two meanings for "breach"... so, maybe you're right... - Lindsay Donaghe

So Romantics :) - Mahdi Ebrahimi

This one: http://www.tanjalippertphotogr... . But don't take my comment too seriously. I love this couple and the shoot. - Chris Baskind

Nice. But it's too late. She was taken from the free market... ;) - Ryo

Suuuure, it looks fine and happy now, but you just wait... ...sooner or later, he'll give her a bad coupon. - fac287

@Ryo ..or flee market? :P - Jagtesh Chadha

Leo Laporte bookmarked a page on delicious

WiFi is no longer a viable secure connection - SC Magazine UK

Saturday at 12:47 pm - Link

Mitchell Tsai, Mihalcea Razvan, Sergei Kolobov and 4 other people liked this

Global Secure Systems has said that a Russian's firm's use of the latest NVidia graphics cards to accelerate WiFi ‘password recovery' times by up to an astonishing 10,000 per cent proves that WiFi's WPA and WPA2 encryption systems are no longer enough to protect wireless data. David Hobson, managing director of GSS, claimed that companies can no longer view standards-based WiFi transmission as sufficiently secure against eavesdropping to be used with impunity. He also said that the use of VPNs is arguably now mandatory for companies wanting to comply with the Data Protection Act - Leo Laporte

5 more comments

This is probably a stupid question, but why don't WiFi spots just block traffic to those individuals, not already connected, who try too many times to guess a connection's WPA key? And then alert the administrator that it's time to randomize the password again? - Thomas Raymond Tibbitts

Thomas, the problem is, you can't. The Data are in the free air. You have as many tries that you want :). Anyone can get the data packages. There is no way (by now) you can stop this.With this packages, you can crack the connection, if you get enough. With WEP it only takes a few minutes. WPA2 was secure until now. That's shocking. But why did they implement such a weak encryption? AES 1024 would do it for a decade. But what is next? Another 128 Bit step, so we all must buy new devices again? - Ryo

Of course they don't say how a 100x speed-up would make WPA breakable. Nor why the WPA encryptioin would be vulnerable but not the VPN encryption. I guess they are selling VPN solutions? - H Durer via twhirl

H.Durer, VPN has a stronger encryption. Almost anything has a stronger encryption that Wi-Fi. Ask the manufacturers why they don't care about security... - Ryo

Okay, so they are still collecting packets out of the air, and so they still need to collect a huge amount of packets. So systems with more users / traffic, are more vulnerable, as they have more packets 'flying around.' How does using graphics processors make more packets? It doesn't, you still have to collect enough packets, so that they can be analyzed. New method only speeds up the analysis, not the packet collection. - Thomas Raymond Tibbitts

was it ever truly viable, or simp[y acceptable at relative snapshots in time? - David Blumenstein via twhirl

Does that appy to all tandards like wireless standards, like WiMax and LTE? - Michael Fidler via twhirl

Russellreno favorited photos on Flickr

Saturday at 8:35 pm - Link

Mahdi Ebrahimi, flammable, Charlie Anzman and Vox liked this

How do you 'likey' a group like this ... Take the best 4 ? Russell has a 'unique' eye :) - Charlie Anzman

Thanks Charlie - Russellreno

Russellreno posted a link

David Brooks: Sarah Palin "Represents A Fatal Cancer To The Republican Party"

October 8 at 3:49 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

flammable, Bored, Cee Bee and 9 other people liked this

"Brooks praised Palin's natural political talent, but said she is "absolutely not" ready to be president or vice president. He explained, "The more I follow politicians, the more I think experience matters, the ability to have a template of things in your mind that you can refer to on the spot, because believe me, once in office there's no time to think or make decisions."" - Russellreno via Bookmarklet

9 more comments

i love this line -- "the ability to have a template of things in your mind that you can refer to on the spot" -- that's really what experience boils down to...and not just in politics. - .LAG

He may be right, but the way he explained it certainly doesn't prove his assertions. The reasoning breaks down on simple grammatical and logical scans, let alone substance. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

Further reading shows that this breaks down under scrutiny. Biden not a yes-man? He's changed several of his positions to fall in line with the Obama campaign - starting with whether Obama is fit to be president. That may not make him a "yes-man" per se, but it certainly doesn't fit the characterization in the article. - Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins

Yes, it's crap... but think of all the traffic he's building! - Soulhuntre via twhirl

I presume Republicans are having tops made: "We voted to bankrupt our nation and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." - dkb

+1 dkb - Roberto Bonini

sheesh, *repeublicans* represent a fatal cancer to the republican party! - Gregory Lent

@dkb - and the fact that lots and lots of dem votes were involved is meaningless? Oh that's right, who needs facts when you can have partisanship :) - Soulhuntre

Last I checked it was a Republican administration. - dkb

republican anti-intellectualism has been a fairly constant them for brooks for at least the last 6 months. he is far less partisan than mark shields, with whom he appears on newshour, and i find myself respecting him more and more for it - rob zand

I like this quote he makes about Obama: A couple of years ago, I was writing columns attacking the Republican congress for spending too much money. And I throw in a few sentences attacking the Democrats to make myself feel better. And one morning I get an email from Obama saying, 'David, if you wanna attack us, fine, but you're only throwing in those sentences to make yourself feel better.' And it was a perfect description of what was going through my mind. And everybody who knows Obama all have these stories to tell about his capacity for social perception. - Clay Newton

AJ Kohn posted a link

'Hockey Mom' Palin Booed -- At Hockey Game

Saturday at 6:58 pm - via Bookmarklet - Link

flammable, Bora Zivkovic, Bored and 4 other people liked this

"You never know where you are gonna find a political scoop, but Lynn Zinser at her NYT hockey "Slapshot" blog just posted that Sarah Palin, in her much-ballyhooed appearance dropping the puck at the Philly Flyers' opener, was greeted by "resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd." Of course, Fox Sports was kinder, observing on its site, "The crowd reacted with a mixture of cheers and boos at her appearance." The AP was much kinder: The Alaska governor heard a few boos when she walked onto the ice Saturday night. But that soon turned to polite applause as she walked out to center ice." And Politico excused it this way: "The world's most famous 'Hockey Mom' was greeted, like most any politician likely would be at a Philly sporting event, with more boos than cheers."" - AJ Kohn via Bookmarklet

2 more comments

This was expected IMO. Let's face it, Philly fans threw snowballs at Santa Claus! They're a tough crowd, though generally very knowledgeable about sports. I still root for my Philly teams and get to see them at the Shark Tank next weekend! - AJ Kohn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... Man, that is some booing. Obama/Biden sign in the background and a dude doing the double thumbs down. Very disturbing that she brought the kids with her. - AJ Kohn

This warms my heart. Cheap stunt photo-op rebounds badly. Good. I'm a Rangers fan but right now I am a little bit in love with the Flyers fans for not falling for this garbage. Yay Flyers fans! - Abby Martin

definitely warms my cockles - Pete Delucchi

JMakesAwesomeSauce posted a link

Pacman Sugar Cookies (Snack or Die - Video Game Cookies)