Jim › Comments

Holy crap, check out that first armbar. - Jim

"Pokemon world is a world of the demonic, of the Satanic! But while you might not take it quite seriously, I assure you that demons take it seriously!" Wow! That sermon is GOLD. I take it quite seriously! - Jim

I sometimes end up with clean, elegant-ish code, but never through a conscious process like this. It's always through tossing out what comes to mind, followed by a lot of refining. Food for thought. - Jim

'Roosevelt knew that Japan coveted the Korean Peninsula as a springboard to its Asian expansion. Back in 1900, when he was still vice president, Roosevelt had written, “I should like to see Japan have Korea.” When, in February 1904, Japan broke off relations with Russia, President Roosevelt said publicly that he would “maintain the strictest neutrality,” but privately he wrote, “The sympathies of the United States are entirely on Japan’s side.”' - Jim

For those of us still on Leopard/XCode 3.1.2. - Jim

But everything seemed to be going so well! - Jim

Copepods look like tiki totems. - Jim

'This is the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster, an epic mess that started one night when a pesticide plant owned by the American chemical giant Union Carbide leaked a cloud of poisonous gas. Before the sun rose, almost 4,000 human beings capable of love and anguish sank to their knees and did not get up. Half a million more fell ill, many with severely damaged lungs and eyes.' 'Union Carbide sold its Indian subsidiary and pulled out of India. Warren Anderson, the Union Carbide chief executive at the time of the gas leak, lives in luxurious exile in the Hamptons, even though there’s an international arrest warrant out for him for culpable homicide. The Indian government has yet to pursue an extradition request. Imagine if an Indian chief executive had jumped bail for causing an industrial disaster that killed tens of thousands of Americans. What are the chances he’d be sunning himself in Goa? - Jim

'One would think the request would be in charge of creating the response, but the Three20 stuff doesn't.' Ohhh. - Jim

'The Politico reports that Senate Republicans are outraged at Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) due to their votes against an amendment he introduced, to crack down on the rape of employees of military contractors, now being used against them' - Jim

'But charging me an additional $64 in overdrafts for taking CASH out of my account? When there was money in it? ... For people with less stellar credit or reliable income, however, your practice can be ruinous, trapping them in a cycle of debt they can’t get ahead of. That’s why new regulations make it illegal. Those regulations haven’t taken effect yet, but I would have hoped a “progressive” bank would be ahead of the curve on Not Fucking Over Its Poorest Customers.' - Jim

'We recommend air purifiers in certain circumstances, for example, to reduce exposure to cat or dog allergens in the bedroom and to reduce otherwise unavoidable odors. I usually do not use room air cleaners for dust mite reduction, as the breeze generated stirs up more mite allergen than it removes.' 'Now the Ionic Breeze : This product is claimed to be effective without using much electricity or requiring replacement of prefilters. The marketing campaign has been very effective. The product acts by establishing a low-energy charge that precipitates particles on the surface of the charged metal layers. In the process, it emits ozone, which is dangerous for asthmatics and causes headaches in many susceptible people. The ozone has a sweet smell and makes people think that the filter is "cleaning" the air, rather than just emitting a smell into the room.' - Jim

'But today, with sources too numerous to credit, I’ve seen the only piece of Tiger coverage that matters: The Chinese News CG Reenactment.' - Jim

Wow. *MOP* found this guy to be too disrespectful and unruly. - Jim

You're supposed to do all this exhaustive cleaning and airing out if even one fluorescent bulb breaks in your house. - Jim

Tried to tough it out, but I'd be stuck forever without this. - Jim

'"My teammate Yoichi Fukumoto just did something amazing, and I want it recognized. He fought IN THE POURING RAIN, got beat up, and managed to win via arm bar. I was reading the blog of his cornerman Iida and they were saying it was like a nightmare...how the heck do you train for fighting in the rain? I can't imagine!"' - Jim

'To prove his point, Mr. Brahmachari, who was two hours late for an interview scheduled by his office, read from a government guide about decision-making in the organization. Mr. Ayyadurai didn’t follow protocol, he said. “As long as your language is positive for the organization I have no problem,” he added. As the interview was closing, Mr. Brahmachari questioned why anyone would be interested in the situation, and then said he would complain to a reporter’s bosses in New York if she continued to pursue the story.' That's a tragically hilarious ending. - Jim

'Chang Bunker and Eng Bunker (May 11, 1811 – January 17, 1874) were the conjoined twin brothers whose condition and birthplace became the basis for the term "Siamese Twins". ... Determined to start living a normal life as much as possible, the brothers settled on a plantation, bought slaves, and adopted the name "Bunker". On April 13, 1843, they married two sisters: Chang to Adelaide Yates and Eng to Sarah Anne Yates. Chang and his wife had 10 children; Eng and his wife had 11. In time, the wives squabbled[citation needed] and eventually two separate households were set up just west of Mount Airy, North Carolina in the community of White Plains – the twins would alternate spending three days at each home. During the American Civil War Chang's son Christopher and Eng's son Stephen both fought for the Confederacy.' - Jim

'I had a grandmother, a father and a mother who dedicated their entire lives swearing loyalty to Kim Jong-Il and Korea Labor Party. I have no memory of ever sitting on my father's lap, because he would go to work at 6 in the morning and come back at midnight. He wanted to receive an Effort Hero merit for his hard work. But instead, all he received was invectives, because our ancestors come from South Korea. They said why would a family of shit dogs would receive any award. We could do nothing in our country because of our ancestor, whom we have never met, was from South Korea. Finally, when the crisis [TK Note: the famine in early 1990s] came, our family moved to the mountains to find a way to survive.' - Jim

Wow. This scene makes Rampage look like both a terrible fighter *and* a terrible actor. Plus, he gets hit with the Johnny Cage balls punch. - Jim

A sumo wrestler used a guillotine choke to push his opponent out of the ring. Clever! - Jim

Chuck Liddell doing some "kung fu fighting" dancing. Hypnotic! - Jim

Geez, that's some vulgar ancient writing. NSFW if your coworkers read closely. - Jim

'... were running around parroting that Menace II Society line, I'm white America's worst nightmare: Young, black and just don't give a fuck. I was kid, but even then I used to think, No you're not. You're your momma's worse nightmare. You're your next-door neighbors worse nightmare. White people got expensive jails and cheap graves for niggers like you. I mean, I guess some substantial portion of white people were afraid--but these fools were confusing white fear with some kind of actual black power. This was false for many reasons, among them, many people who weren't white were also afraid, and generally acted accordingly. Likewise, Palin's base confuses "liberal fear" with some kind of populist power, by ignoring the fact that a lot of people who want nothing to do with us pinkos, are afraid of Palin too. People misunderstand fear. It doesn't always cause your foes to cower in a corner. Sometimes it causes them to beat the crap out of you with a bag of rusty nails.' - Jim

So, tarsiers are those guys that always look freaked out. - Jim

Detroit in the thirties. - Jim

'So the compromise was to give all Americans the option of buying into a "Medicare-like plan" that competed with private insurers. Who could be against freedom of choice? Fully 70 percent of Americans polled supported the idea. Open to all Americans, such a plan would have the scale and authority to negotiate low prices with drug companies and other providers, and force private insurers to provide better service at lower costs. But private insurers and Big Pharma wouldn't hear of it, and Republicans and "centrists" thought it would end up too much like what they have up in Canada. So the compromise was to give the public option only to Americans who wouldn't be covered either by their employers or by Medicaid. And give them coverage pegged to Medicare rates. But private insurers and ... you know the rest. So the compromise that ended up in the House bill is to have a mere public option, open only to the 6 million Americans not otherwise covered.' - Jim

'I opened up the case, and it looked like sticky-poop looking muck all over the PC - on top of the processor heat sink (just under the fan) was a layer of this muck. It's like smoke in a solid form. Canned air would not even dint this muck - a screwdriver was about the only thing to work. It finally started to make me sick that I told her it was fried and she needed a new PC - it was beyond fixable.' Lots of anecdotes to the effect of "smoking is also bad for your computer, too." - Jim

'Scramble is here to rescue you from flying skulls, winged skulls, flying winged skulls with top hats on, minotaurs, bulging muscle man, dragons with flying skulls and top hats on them, flying minotaurs with winged skulls and flames, and all the other crap that infests the visual side of the MMA world. I lived for many years in Japan, where I was exposed to some of the coolest designs I've ever seen. They were bright, bold, fresh, and sophisticated in their simplicity. Barely a rippling muscle or a pumped-up minotaur-dragon in sight. T-shirts are emblazoned with barely-English slogans and large, bright characters. At first, I laughed at this English. Wanted to correct it. But now, I realise. It has taken on a life of its own. In the same way that a single, deft brush stroke can inspire the image of a swaying tree or a rippling lake in your mind, so a slightly off Engrish slogan can stir up thoughts and capture an idea better than a perfect sentence can.' Sorely needed. - Jim