A.M. Links: Over Two Million Being Kicked Off Health Insurance Plans, Rep. King Wants Obama To Stop Apologizing For NSA Surveillance Abroad, Polio Outbreak Confirmed in Syria

Matthew Feeney | 10.29.2013 9:00 AM

(Jim.henderson/wikimedia)

May soon be a thing of the past — Credit: Jim.henderson/wikimedia

Remember all of those times that you were told that you could keep your health insurance plan if you liked it under Obamacare? Well, turns out that more than two million Americans are finding out the hard way that's not the case.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) thinks that President Obama should stop apologizing to our allies about NSA snooping, saying that the surveillance saved thousands of lives. Would King change his mind if it was revealed that NSA activities prevented an IRA attack?
The Department of Homeland Security is considering lifting a ban on Libyans getting aviation and nuclear training in the U.S.
The World Health Organization has confirmed a polio outbreak among young children in Syria.
At least eight people have been killed after a hurricane-strength storm hit northern Europe.
New York City mayoral candidates Democrat Bill de Blasio and Republican Joe Lhota support a bill before city lawmakers that would ban horse-drawn rides, which could result in more than 200 horses being slaughtered.

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Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) thinks that President Obama should stop apologizing to our allies about NSA snooping...

The Peter King knows that foreigners are no better than any given American, and Obama spies on them all the time.
1. robc 11 years ago
  
  Peter King is a terrorist.
  
  You would think a Long Island district would be close enough to NYC that they would vote a terrorist out of office.
  1. Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago
    
    Uh, he's a terrorist hunter. He's the last line of defense between you and Angela Merkel the suicide bomber.
2. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
  
  Peter King is a tool who really needs to STFU. That New Yorkers continue to elect this fucking guy is a testament to their character.
  1. GILMORE 11 years ago
    
    long island, dude. "nyc'rs" vote for progtards. be fair.
Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago

The World Health Organization has confirmed a polio outbreak among young children in Syria.

The CIA is handing out polio infested blankets.
1. Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic! 11 years ago
  
  But the Great White Father....hey, wait a minute?!
2. Restoras 11 years ago
  
  Maybe they should hand out polio infested AK-47's instead?
3. OldMexican 11 years ago
  
  Re: Fist of Etiquette,
  
  The CIA is handing out polio infested blankets.
  
  They must be very wet blankets, because polio is a water-borne disease.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Lightning Strikes Clown Twice On Same Day

e sheltered under a tree and was struck by lightning.

"What I remember is just a loud boom and it dropped me to my knees - and then it hit me again," he told CBS News.

"When I got hit, it was just two big old flashes and then sparks went everywhere."

Mr Wagner said he felt electricity shoot up through his right boot and into his body.

The 31-year-old dropped to his knees when he was struck again.
1. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
  
  Just desserts. Friggin' clowns.
2. Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic! 11 years ago
  
  Jehovah does no care fer clowns...
3. Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago
  
  "It all started last year during a terrible thunderstorm, when I locked myself out of the house. Sheltering myself with a large piece of sheet metal, I ran for cover under the tallest tree I could find..."
  1. trshmnstr 11 years ago
    
    "unfortunately there were no trees in the area (due to lightning strikes), so i took shelter under the radio mast in my backyard"
    1. Lord Humungus 11 years ago
      
      while wearing my plate armor.
      1. Restoras 11 years ago
        
        And holding my 1-iron aloft.
        
        Bobarian 11 years ago
        
        Crying out "There is no God!"
  2. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
    
    A procedure also known as summoning the ghost of Charles Darwin.
4. Byron 11 years ago
  
  Sheltering under a tree in a thunderstorm is a bad idea?!?! Huh, who knew???
sarcasmic 11 years ago

The 'prostitute training course': Leaked video 'shows Chinese sex workers being taught how to use social media to make more money'
The two-minute clip was apparently filmed on a prostitute's mobile phone
Shows a smart lecturer saying social media is best way to market services
Says she wants to teach girls something 'practical' to make more money
She says they should stay in touch with rich clients and siphon off 'losers'
She also teaches girls importance of good online photos to attract clients

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....money.html
1. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  Leaked video 'shows Chinese sex workers being taught how to use social media to make more money'
  
  They say this as though it were a bad thing.
2. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Consultant to the whores. Man, why didn't I think of that.
3. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
  
  Bill Clinton approves
4. Zeb 11 years ago
  
  And? Having more business and making more money allows them to be more selective and take better care of themselves and can only make prostitution safer.
5. Ornithorhynchus 11 years ago
  
  Anything that helps prostitutes sounds like a great idea to me.
  
  Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March!
SugarFree 11 years ago

Check out the Dadaist tone poem that is paragraph 4.

We see the dark and sweet Patsey, doubly enslaved by virtue of her race and beauty, sway for a moment, let go like a girl, do a slow twirl. She is loose trying to lose herself, and she slips, for a moment, into a trance induced by the sound of her only friend Solomon's (Chiwetel Ejiofor) sad singing violin. His is almost music. She is almost dancing. It is all almost a human moment. All of a sudden she goes limp, drops, knocked back into the terror of her life, by a heavy crystal decanter hurled at her head by Mistress Epps. All of a sudden, she is once again a battered pile of dirty black woman parts wrapped in rags down on the floor. Mistress Epps is hate, full, guided and preserved by it. Patsey, the object, the affliction. She is, in Mistress Epps molested mind, literally the mistress. Her husband Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender) is addicted to Patsey, a deadly habit he will not kick, not for his wife, not for her dignity nor her sanity. The Mistress publicly demands Edwin rid himself and her home of the disease that is Patsey. He not only refuses his wife, he comfortably humiliates her, claiming his desire for the puddle of nasty nigger wench at their feet. The Mistress is frozen, stunned powerless by her husbands white male supremacy while Patsey is dragged away into darkness.
1. Warty 11 years ago
  
  "knocked back into the terror of her life"
  
  ...What?
2. wwhorton 11 years ago
  
  Oh, shit. I thought this was just bad poetry, not an actual movie review.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

Forget going for a stroll - try sexercise: Average session burns more calories than a walk - but less than a jog
Men burn 4.2 calories a minute and women 3.1, say Canadian researchers
With the average session lasting 24.7 minutes, this equates to 104 calories for men and 69 for women
This makes it better exercise than a walk - but not as good as jogging

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/hea.....gging.html
24.7 minutes?

David Allison, a biostatistician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, found that the average person burns a mere 21 calories during the average session.
He discovered that sex lasted six minutes on average - 'disappointing, isn't it?' - and that the energy output equated to a paltry 20 or so calories - about the same as walking.

That seems a bit more realistic.
1. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  1st man: When I was young, I was a member of the 4-H club.
  
  2nd man: When I was young, I joined the Mile High Club, but I could never last four hours.
2. Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
  
  69 for women
  
  Aww yeah!
3. Zeb 11 years ago
  
  24.7 minutes of intercourse is perhaps a bit optimistic in most cases. But I don't think "Session" necessarily means just that.
  1. Bobarian 11 years ago
    
    The whips and chains add some strength training, too.
    
    It's like cross-fit.
    1. Bobarian 11 years ago
      
      And STEVE SMITH can make 24.7 Minutes seem like a marathon.
  2. DontShootMe 11 years ago
    
    20 minutes of begging, followed by...
Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago

...which could result in more than 200 horses being slaughtered.

Carriage horses are high in transportationfats.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

It really works! Katy Perry jumps rope on stage while flashing toned midriff in a crop top as she performs Down Under

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....ralia.html
Boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing, boing...
1. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  It really works! Katy Perry jumps rope on stage while flashing toned midriff in a crop top as she performs Down Under
  
  IFH just smiled and gave her a Vegemite sandwich.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Democrat on Obamacare: 'We Will Own This Problem Forever.'

I suspect that if there is no miraculous solution to the woes of Obamacare, and the issue is a liability heading into November 2014, Democrats will attempt the shameless maneuver of insisting the problems with Obamacare ? both the web site and the policy ? are the fault of Republicans and that handy perennial scapegoat, health insurance companies. Picture television commercials like this:

"Obamacare was supposed to help expand care for everyone. But Republicans and the big insurance companies stood in the way, and now millions are losing coverage because of their obstructionism. We need someone to stand up to the powerful interests in Washington so that all of us get the care we need! Vote for [insert name of Democrat incumbent or challenger here]!"
1. radar 11 years ago
  
  Pffffft. The media will see to it that the Democrats bear no responsibility for their avalanche of failures. It's their entire reason for being.
  1. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
    
    Pffffft. The media will see to it that the Democrats bear no responsibility for their avalanche of failures. It's their entire reason for being.
    
    This.
    
    To expect that the media will do anything but provide cover the Team BLUE is naive. It is their way.
2. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
  
  That will play well in New York and California, but not purple states like Virginia.
  1. radar 11 years ago
    
    Virginia is about to elect the slimiest motherfucker ever to win a major election in this state because woar on wimmenz or something. This isn't a purple state anymore. Northern Virginia and its ever-multiplying hordes of leftist federal employees have made this a reliably Dem state.
    
    God I wish we could force Fairfax and Prince William counties to leave the state and go be part of Maryland, where they belong.
    1. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
      
      Never underestimate the capability of the Virginia GOP to fuck up and nominate a sure loser.
    2. Drake 11 years ago
      
      I am shocked McAuliffe could be taken seriously as a candidate for anything, anywhere. Virginia is really gone. DC has absorbed it like a spreading cancer.
      1. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
        
        The GOP could have run just about anybody except Cuccinelli against McAuliffe and won. But nooooooo, they had to nominate the guy who wants to recriminalize blowjobs and make colleges drop anti-discrimination clauses for homosexuals.
        
        wwhorton 11 years ago
        
        But haven't you heard? Tim Carney says he's a big ol' libertarian!
        
        Raston Bot 11 years ago
        
        Except the libertarian is polling 10% in nova and 20% in southwest VA.
        
        MacAuliffe will win but not with a majority of votes.
        
        radar 11 years ago
        
        Sarvis is a damned good candidate.
        
        radar 11 years ago
        
        Eh, Bill Bolling's no prize either. Plus, he's a pussy. He didn't have the stomach to fight McDonnell in 2009 or Cuccinelli this year.
        
        I'm not a fan of the Cooch, but he's much less likely to spend a shitload more money than Bolling. Or McAuliffe for that matter.
        
        Governor Terry McAuliffe. That shit's actually going to happen. What a fucking disaster. I guess I know how people in Minnesota felt with Jessie Ventura and Al Franken.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        Sure they could have. Or everyone could stop giving a shit about the culture war and vote on another issue. This is why the government loves the culture war. It keeps people voting on issues beyond the things that matter.
        
        I don't give a shit what Cuc thinks about the gaz or sodomy or porn or any of that shit. I care what he thinks about taxes and spending and civil rights that as governor he might actually be able to fuck up like gun rights. I don't vote on the culture war one way or another. he could be a fucking satanist who plans to stream porn into grade schools for all I care.
    3. Restoras 11 years ago
      
      Maybe the western counties could apply to join West Virginia?
      1. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
        
        Only if they rename it Meth Virginia.
      2. PD Scott 11 years ago
        
        East West Virginia.
    4. wwhorton 11 years ago
      
      Hey, we got our own problems, pal. If we take Fairfax you get Prince George's. Or Baltimore City.
    5. some guy 11 years ago
      
      But look at the House of Delegates. The GOP has a 2/3 majority there. They can create gridlock at the state level just like they (kind of) have at the Federal level. I just hope Sarvis hits 10%.
      1. Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
        
        What's wrong with gridlock?
        
        mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
        
        What's wrong with gridlock?
        
        Team-playing assholes like you will turn it around and yell RethugliKKKAN Obstrukshunizmz?
        
        some guy 11 years ago
        
        Nothing's wrong with gridlock. With a governor like Cucinelli/McAuliffe it is the best possible scenario.
3. Lord Humungus 11 years ago
  
  related:
  
  Valerie Jarrett:
  
  FACT: Nothing in #Obamacare forces people out of their health plans. No change is required unless insurance companies change existing plans.
  1. Jordan 11 years ago
    
    And taxes are voluntary.
  2. Brett L 11 years ago
    
    No change is required unless insurance companies change existing plans.
    
    So, the Obamacare law mandated changes in coverage, but the companies complying with the law are in no way the fault of the law? Fuck you with a rusty chainsaw.
    1. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
      
      It's the law's fault that the coverage has to change, but it's the evil insurance companies' fault they want to charge more for it!
      1. some guy 11 years ago
        
        It's the customers fault for wanting sub-standard "insurance" in the first place!
        
        mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
        
        It's the customers fault for wanting sub-standard "insurance" in the first place!
        
        This is the most annoying meme of all. That people were willingly choosing sub-standard insurance plans and it's their fault.
        
        You know, because men are shrifted and shooting themselves in the foot for not buying a plan that includes coverage for birth control pills and maternity. People who use insurance and expect that it will work like insurance is supposed to work, rather than a simple health care cost pooling exercise, have no idea what they need.
        
        some guy 11 years ago
        
        The plebes never know what's best for them. They must be told by their betters. Didn't you get the tweet?
  3. Raston Bot 11 years ago
    
    Good to read she's getting her ass handed to her on that twit feed.
    1. PD Scott 11 years ago
      
      I'm sure that distresses the personal assistant she uses for social media no end.
    2. Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago
      
      The NSA is transferring the information on all those negative tweeters to the IRS as we speak.
  4. wwhorton 11 years ago
    
    So...Obamacare doesn't force people out of health plans. It institutes regulations which phase out those plans, forcing the insurance companies to stop offering them, resulting in people losing their plans... Are we not splitting hairs a smidge, here, Valerie?
    
    I'm not forcing a person to leave his house, I'm just setting it on fire; it's up to him whether he stays or doesn't.
    1. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
      
      Are we not splitting hairs a smidge, here, Valerie?
      
      Nope.
      
      She's technically right, and we all know there is no better right than technically right.
4. Gbob 11 years ago
  
  I think it will be hard to accuse the insurance companies when the whole plan is to force people to purchase services, under state sanctioned penalty, from from those same companies.
waffles 11 years ago

At least eight people have been killed after a hurricane-strength storm hit northern Europe.

Yet no hurricanes in the Gulf...and they say our exports are dwindling!
1. gaijin 11 years ago
  
  a hurricane-strength storm
  
  Another superstorm?It blows like a hurricane, but it isn't a hurricane. More inventive work from extreme weatherists.
  1. Zeb 11 years ago
    
    You know that "hurricane-strength" does have a well defined and specific meaning, right?
    1. gaijin 11 years ago
      
      You mean "hurricane strength" winds as measured by average sustained windspeed? Or some other measure?
      
      If a storm that has gusts up to hurricane-level winds (the minimum of which is 74 miles per hour), then it strikes me we should be hearing more about hurricane-strength storms. Most of the coverage I've seen for Europe mentions winds up to 70 mph. There was a storm nearby in Highland, IL with 70 mph winds just a couple of years ago. I don't recall any coverage of hurricane strength storms in the heartland. But I may be missing something.
      1. Zeb 11 years ago
        
        It is annoying and frustrating how deeply many meteorologists have gone in for the most extreme alarmist climate change stuff. But I really don't care if they want to call a hurricane that combines with an extra-tropical low to form a very large storm a "superstorm" or if they want to call a large extra-tropical storm with hurricane force winds a "hurricane strength storm".
2. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Good thing the Spanish didn't have an Armada heading for England, eh?
  1. mr simple 11 years ago
    
    +1 kamikaze
sarcasmic 11 years ago

Police chief suspended for having a pricey steak meal at a STRIP CLUB while on duty and asking to be reimbursed
Arkansas police chief Mark Kizer claims he didn't see any naked women while dining at a popular gentlemen's club in Orlando
Kizer submitted his receipt for reimbursement to the Arkansas police department
Kizer insisted he was in the dining hall and his server was a middle aged man who is identified on the receipt as David

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....d-for.html
Shame? What does that mean?
1. Steve G 11 years ago
  
  All I can think of is, "like a boss"
2. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  SLD That this shouldn't be illegal.
  
  Kizer insisted he was in the dining hall and his server was a middle aged man who is identified on the receipt as David
  
  And what's wrong with men who prefer to go to gay strip clubs anyway?
3. Raven Nation 11 years ago
  
  "claims he didn't see any naked women while dining"
  
  So, he went there to read the articles?
4. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Meh. He should be smart enough to just get a better per diem and skip the receipt submission.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

A thigh gap is NOT necessary to be deemed attractive: Plus size model Robyn Lawley hits back at 'thinspiration' trend

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/fem.....ation.html
John says SHA-WING!
1. Jordan 11 years ago
  
  If that's plus-size, then put me in the John camp.
  1. wwhorton 11 years ago
    
    Agreed. There's a lot of attractive grey area between skeletal and sloppy-fat. Personally, I'm not attracted to chicks that look like 12-year-old boys. Then again, the fashion industry isn't really interested in the opinion of heterosexual American men, I think.
    1. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
      
      Then again, the fashion industry isn't really interested in the opinion of heterosexual American men, I think.
      
      Ding ding ding!
      
      There is virtually no overlap in the venn diagram between what I find attractive and what the modeling industry has deemed as attractive.
  2. Lord Humungus 11 years ago
    
    when I was 16, I dated a 19yo woman who was on the plus size. I normally like the thinner ones, but this girl was no fatty.
2. mr simple 11 years ago
  
  Men should stop thinking they like what they're attracted to and just let the harpies and nannies tell them what to like.
3. Restoras 11 years ago
  
  No FUPAs
Fist of Etiquette 11 years ago

Remember all of those times that you were told that you could keep your health insurance plan if you liked it under Obamacare?

Look, the White House can spend all its time going over every little blatant lie, or it can get back to the business of cancelling your health insurance.
1. Rich 11 years ago
  
  LOL
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

What Schools Can Do to Help Boys Succeed
If boys are restive and unfocused, we must look for ways to help them do better. Here are three suggestions

Being a boy can be a serious liability in today's classroom. As a group, boys are noisy, rowdy and hard to manage. Many are messy, disorganized and won't sit still. Young male rambunctiousness, according to a recent study, leads teachers to underestimate their intellectual and academic abilities. "Girl behavior is the gold standard in schools," says psychologist Michael Thompson. "Boys are treated like defective girls."

These "defective girls" are not faring well academically. Compared with girls, boys earn lower grades, win fewer honors and are less likely to go to college. One education expert has quipped that, if current trends continue, the last male will graduate from college in 2068. In today's knowledge-based economy, success in the classroom has never been more crucial to a young person's life prospects. Women are adapting; men are not.
1. WTF 11 years ago
  
  Women are adapting; men are not.
  
  Actually, women are being catered to; men are being disadvantaged. Which the writer actually pointed out in the opening paragraph.
  1. Brandon 11 years ago
    
    But you can't say that, it's sexist.
2. Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
  
  Of course, there is also zero tolerance for boy behavior in school.
  
  Do not rough house on the playground! Stop it!
  
  Your son wrote a poem about a violent video game. He has been suspended.
  1. Blinded by the Derp 11 years ago
    
    Teachers don't let boys roughhouse or have any fun at recess because if they get hurt they have to write fucking annoying medical incident reports and call home. Obviously, the boys always get hurt at the end of recess.
    Medical incident reports were one of the worst parts of teaching.
3. CatoTheElder 11 years ago
  
  In today's knowledge-based economy, success in the classroom has never been more crucial to a young person's life prospects. Women are adapting; men are not.
  
  Time has certainly become one seriously retarded publication.
  
  Institutions are supposed to serve people and adapt to their changing needs. People are not supposed to adapt to the needs of institutions.
  1. John 11 years ago
    
    Boys are totally unfit for the knowledge and tech based economy. That must be why women dominate the IT and STEM fields right?
    
    It is almost uncanny how every bit of liberal dogma is totally the opposite of the truth. The workers who are most in danger from the coming collapse of big government and the increase of outsourcing and development of better and better IT and artificial intelligence is women. The jobs that are going to go away in the next 30 years are the sort of soft skill office jobs that women currently dominate.
    1. Doctor Whom 11 years ago
      
      You just don't get it, do you? Whenever women do better than men at anything, the only possible explanation is innate female superiority, while whenever men do better than women at anything, the only possible explanation is patriarchy.
  2. Doctor Whom 11 years ago
    
    Time has certainly become one seriously retarded publication.
    
    Has certainly become? When wasn't it? My father had a subscription when I was a kid in the se-- uh, a little while ago, and I kept thinking, "What is wrong with these people?"
4. trshmnstr 11 years ago
  
  Women are adapting; men are not.
  
  Other way around... The classroom adapted to women.
  
  I distinctly remember having to do a bunch of craftsy projects in high school that i knew i'd get a C on at best, because i had big hands and no artistry in my blood. These were science and math classes.
  1. Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
    
    In my Chem II class, I had to write a poem about something either hot or cold. No fucking joke.
    
    Naturally, I wrote a poem about being locked outside naked. I referenced "needing a drink."
    
    My poem was not read to the class by the teacher.
    1. John 11 years ago
      
      Did you do any chemistry? You know where that came from. Chemistry discriminates against those who don't do well in science. So we need to put some non-science stuff in there so the grades equal out. Of course the science minded who can't write poetry won't be asked to balance any equations in English class because that would be them just showing their privilege.
      1. Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
        
        We made peanut brittle. Does that count?
        
        Lord Humungus 11 years ago
        
        WTF?
        
        Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
        
        With beakers and bunsen burners. Like real chemists!
        
        Raston Bot 11 years ago
        
        You should've made wort. Highest OG gets the A.
        
        Brett L 11 years ago
        
        I'm actually considering sitting through an AICHE webinar on chocolate manufacture, just for fun, so I won't be laughing at you.
    2. Night Elf Mohawk 11 years ago
      
      Hot things are red
      Cold things are blue
      Poetry is stupid
      And so are you
      1. Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
        
        I didn't get my poem back, otherwise I would have framed it and hung it in my house.
        
        When writing a snarky poem about shrinkage, I was quite the poet.
5. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Not make teaching while male a societal crime?
  1. Lord Humungus 11 years ago
    
    is this from a Caveman lawyer sketch?
  2. Zeb 11 years ago
    
    There seem to be plenty of men teaching high school at least.
    1. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
      
      There seem to be plenty of men teaching high school at least.
      
      It's too late by then. The derp has already been beaten in to students by high school.
    2. trshmnstr 11 years ago
      
      That didn't help my male english 11 teacher. The female dept head was known for dropping in and "correcting" students' subjective interpretations of writing.
      
      In my case, she walked in 5 minutes into our pleading for points on an assignment based on this Robert Frost poem , and declared that our interpretation (the chainsaw represented the Industrial Revolution's supplanting of the prior agrarian lifestyle) was absolutely wrong. According to her "the chainsaw only represents the dangers of technology"
      
      Still torques me off to this day, 8 years later.
6. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
  
  Young male rambunctiousness, according to a recent study, leads teachers to underestimate their intellectual and academic abilities.
  
  This couldn't sum up my experience in government schools any more if it tried. And I wasn't even rambunctious. I was simply talkative because I had the nerve to be bored when I finished class work in half the time it took most others.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

Father builds prosthetic hand for son with 3-D printer after watching online DIY video
Paul McCarthy made the inexpensive prosthetic hand for his son Leon
Leon was born without fingers on one of his hands
The new hand means he can now pick up a water bottle and ride a bike

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....video.html
My favorite part:

'This thing costs us $5-$10, it was nothing,' said Mr McCarthy.
He said a prosthesis would have cost the family in upwards of $30,000.
1. gaijin 11 years ago
  
  I saw that. All that's good about about human ingenuity. 3-D printing is going to change the business model for a lot of industries...unless Washington screws it up because of GUNZ.
  1. sarcasmic 11 years ago
    
    He's making unregulated medical devices! How do we know that they are safe if the design has not been approved by government regulators! He must be stopped! For the children!
    1. gaijin 11 years ago
      
      He's making unregulated medical devices!
      
      Something tells me that is exactly what companies like Stryker will be telling their bought and paid for reps in DC.
      1. DJF 11 years ago
        
        Plus he did not pay the Obamacare tax on medical devices, send in the IRS Swat Team
        
        Kid Xenocles 11 years ago
        
        Damn you!
    2. Kid Xenocles 11 years ago
      
      Don't forget the new medical devices tax!
      1. country bumpkin 11 years ago
        
        Before you pay the tax make sure to ask for permission to buy the plastic hand...... certificate of need bitches
        
        country bumpkin 11 years ago
        
        comma after need
        
        Clich? Bandit 11 years ago
        
        no comma needed, I could use some bitches.
      2. Rasilio 11 years ago
        
        And the imputed income.
        
        A prosthetic costs $30,000 he paid $10 for it therefore it is the same as his having earned $29,990 and must pay income taxes on that value.
  2. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
    
    unless Washington screws it up because of GUNZ.
    
    Unless? There's a question?
    
    Washington will screw it up, but GUNZ will only be the cover provided by the media. The real driver behind action in DC will be their business protectionism scam.
2. John 11 years ago
  
  'This thing costs us $5-$10, it was nothing,' said Mr McCarthy.
  He said a prosthesis would have cost the family in upwards of $30,000.
  
  This sounds like a job for patent law. Quick alert the SWAT team and make sure no one is doing anything on their own and violating our patents.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

TMI:

Kim Kardashian: I'm looking better than ever after giving birth

The reality TV star boasted about her nether regions on the latest episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, which was filmed just after she went through childbirth.

'When I came back from the hospital the first thing I did was go and look at my vagina in the mirror,' she told her younger sister Khloe. 'It looks better looking than before.'
1. Raston Bot 11 years ago
  
  bullllllllllshit.
Rich 11 years ago

NHS pulls the plug on its ?11bn IT system

After nine years and with billions already spent, doomed computer system is abandoned

Those Brits need some good ol' Yankee stick-to-itiveness!
sarcasmic 11 years ago

How your bag-for-life could POISON you: Expert warns that reusable carriers could become contaminated with E.coli

Professor Hugh Pennington, professor of bacteriology, says 'bags-for-life' should never be used to carry raw meat or vegetables with soil on them
He says bacteria can be transferred from the meat to the bag and then onto other products which are eaten raw - such as fruit - causing food poisoning
Says raw meat should be carried in plastic bags which are then binned
He claims washing the bags or cleaning them with antibacterial sprays is not sufficient to remove the bacteria

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/hea.....-coli.html
Ha ha!
1. Anomalous 11 years ago
  
  They've been linked to norovirus also.
  
  http://www.webmd.com/news/2012.....rocery-bag
2. Apatheist ?_?? 11 years ago
  
  Or, I donno, clean them, throw them away when they get gross and make sure raw meat is always wrapped up extra.
3. Zeb 11 years ago
  
  Well duh.
  
  I actually like using the reusable bags because you can load them up and they wont break. Though i do need to make sure we get enough plastic bags to line small trash cans and to collect cat shit.
  1. Enough About Palin 11 years ago
    
    "collect cat shit"
    
    What an odd hobby.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

Most U.S. libertarians do not identify with Tea Party: survey

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/most-.....52318.html

"Libertarians are not part of the Democratic Party's base, that's for sure, but they're not a reliable part of the Republican Party's vote," said Lindsey, who

saw the survey. "Republicans can scare away libertarian voters."

But, but, but...
1. SugarFree 11 years ago
  
  Just vote as you are told, dammit!
2. Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic! 11 years ago
  
  "Republicans can scare away libertarian voters."
  
  Can? Shouldn't that be "often do"?
3. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  Lindsey is probably too thin for John, too.
  1. sarcasmic 11 years ago
    
    Lindsey is a dude.
    1. Ted S. 11 years ago
      
      What's wrong with John swinging both ways?
    2. gaijin 11 years ago
      
      is he wearing khakis?
      1. Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic! 11 years ago
        
        +1 State Farm?
4. Rufus J. Firefly 11 years ago
  
  That's not what Captain Classical Liberal (Palin) says!
5. Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
  
  The Peanut Gallery is more Tea Party than libertarian.
  1. WTF 11 years ago
    
    CHRISTFAGS!!!1111!BUSHPIGS!!11!!!
    1. Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
      
      It is true.
      
      Look at the SoCon boners around here. Cuchinelli, a proto-fascist, is getting some serious man love from the Tea Party activists here.
      
      (does not apply to everyone)
      1. John 11 years ago
        
        There is not single SOCON on here you little retard. But since you have an IQ of around 70, it is understandable you would think that.
        
        Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
        
        Hilarious.
        
        Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic! 11 years ago
        
        OK, name them and cite their support for SOCON means/measures.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        You are retard. No one on here supports restricting porn or gambling or any other blue laws and most people are libertines. There is nothing SOCON about this board.
        
        You are just a fucking retarded brown shirt who thinks that anyone who is not a hardcore leftist is a SOCON. Just because you are stupid Shreek, doesn't mean we are. Go grief somewhere where someone might be dumb enough to believe you.
        
        Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
        
        There are quite a few aborto-freaks and Bible in the classroom moralist types.
        
        You are one of them.
        
        Night Elf Mohawk 11 years ago
        
        You don't think reasonable people can disagree about how to evaluate liberty as between the two entities, especially as time passes, without being an aborto-freak or socon?
        
        trshmnstr 11 years ago
        
        There are quite a few aborto-freaks and Bible in the classroom moralist types.
        
        Gaw, you're just boring now. Not even a mention of those "homophobic socons" who hate gays by wanting to get rid of government control of marriage? Nothing about the rampant support for denying Suzy contraception? Nothing about how we perpetuate the patriarchy and rape culture? You need to check the date on your response sheet. I think you grabbed the one from October 2003 by mistake.
        
        Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic! 11 years ago
        
        Point to an example.
      2. radar 11 years ago
        
        Are you still pretending to be anything other than an Obama-throating leftist? That's just so precious!
  2. Brandon 11 years ago
    
    Peanut gallery is racist now. Report to re-education camp.
    
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....lp00000009
6. wwhorton 11 years ago
  
  Better send out a memo to the Virginia GOP. They seem to think that VA Libertarians are some sort of Republican auxiliary. They're pissed, like real pissed, that people are talking about voting for Sarvis when Cuccinelli is so obviously the only thing standing between a freedom-filled paradise and a Marxist dystopia, allegedly.
  1. sarcasmic 11 years ago
    
    There's a lot of Republican animosity towards libertarians. They feel like we owe them our votes, and they hate it when we don't vote as we are told.
    1. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
      
      There's a lot of Republican animosity towards libertarians. They feel like we owe them our votes, and they hate it when we don't vote as we are told.
      
      Don't tell Tulpa or any of the others who advocated the theory that by refusing to vote for Romney meant that we wanted Obama.
  2. Raston Bot 11 years ago
    
    The recall effort's going to be a bitch after MacAuliffe mistakes his plurality win for a mandate to raise taxes.
7. KPres 11 years ago
  
  This is pretty interesting....
  
  The PRRI survey identified libertarians through questions about their views on taxes and other policies, and by self-identification. A total of 13 percent of those surveyed called themselves libertarians - while 7 percent were inferred as consistent libertarians by how they answered certain questions. An additional 15 percent were seen as leaning libertarian.
  
  So 35% of the population is either libertarian or leans libertarian. Remember that next time they tell we're too few and fringy to matter.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

'Iran two weeks away from weapons-grade uranium'
Tehran already reached point of no return, and is installing new centrifuges all the time, yet there is room for optimism about current talks, ex-IAEA deputy chief says

http://www.timesofisrael.com/i.....e-uranium/
Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran...
1. Raven Nation 11 years ago
  
  "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran."
  
  Actual song by socialist Australian band Redgum in the 1980s:
  
  http://redgumlyrics.weebly.com/bomb-iran.html
2. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  Voyager is two weeks away from leaving the solar system, too.
  
  And we're two weeks away from workable fusion reactors.
  1. waffles 11 years ago
    
    A fortnight is always two weeks away.
  2. PD Scott 11 years ago
    
    Voyager is just about to meet the aliens who will give us the secrets to workable fusion reactors in exchange for the galactic distribution rights for Ginsu knives. They've been seeing the ads on old TV for a long time.
    1. Kid Xenocles 11 years ago
      
      The best part? Voyager gets a data rate on the order of maybe a couple hundred bps these days, and only for part of the day.
      1. Zeb 11 years ago
        
        I still find it pretty amazing that you can get any kind of reliable data transmission from that far away.
        
        Kid Xenocles 11 years ago
        
        Oh, sure. I was just wondering how long it would take to transmit fusion secrets back at that rate, and if it would even arrive reliably.
3. Steve G 11 years ago
  
  ...and nothing else (might) happened
4. Smilin' Joe Fission 11 years ago
  
  As much as I would rather nuclear bomb tech not proliferate to these unstable, radical countries, I feel that it is inevitable as technology progresses. It will continue to become simpler and simpler to perform isotope enrichment as time goes on. I don't know what that means for the world, but hopefully we do not come to a point where this material is actually used in a bomb.
  1. robc 11 years ago
    
    Israel knows how to take of this if they think its a problem.
gaijin 11 years ago

Over Two Million Being Kicked Off Health Insurance Plans

I am one of the two million! My wife always said I was one in a million.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

Pictured: Nasa satellite images reveal the terrifying extent of China's air pollution
Smog is visible as murky grey colour shown in Suomi NPP satellite image
Brightest areas are fog which has a tinge of yellow due to the air pollution
It engulfed the city of Harbin causing visibility to be reduced to 10 metres

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sci.....ution.html
1. WTF 11 years ago
  
  This is why it's more important than ever that we cripple our own economy by imposing strict regulations on CO2!
  /progtard
2. Smilin' Joe Fission 11 years ago
  
  This is why I laugh at Western CO2 fighters. We could get rid of all fossil fuel combustion in NA and it wouldn't change much in terms of CO2 production. China and India are not slowing down their use of fossil fuels.
3. Brandon 11 years ago
  
  Has anyone asked Kristof about this?
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

How does the Obamacare website compare to other programs/websites:

Millions of Lines of Code - a Graph
1. Rich 11 years ago
  
  Very nice, but what are "lines of code"?
  1. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
    
    Assuming this is a serious question...
    
    It's a (somewhat poor) way of counting how big/complex a software program is. It's how many lines of text the software is. Each line is an individual instruction/step.
    
    So this:
    
    if a==3
    b=2;
    end
    
    Would be 3 lines of code.
    1. Rasilio 11 years ago
      
      It wouldn't surprise me that at least some of these contracts had at least part of their reimbursment tied to the number of lines of code written meaning you could take that same statement and translate it into...
      
      if a (greater than) 2
      if a less than) 4
      if a.isInteger == true
      b=2
      end
      end
      end
      
      same logic 4 extra lines of code
2. Jordan 11 years ago
  
  These estimates seem incredibly high.
3. Kid Xenocles 11 years ago
  
  If I'm reading this right, fixing the bugs in the LHC took it from 300 KLOC to 50 MLOC. That seems to indicate a terrible failure somewhere in the process.
4. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Where are all the hardware "lines of code"? How many embedded instruction sets do the IC chips in everything that isn't the car run?
5. Generic Stranger 11 years ago
  
  So, the number of estimated lines of code needed to fix the Obamacare website is about the same size as World of Warcraft. And they're going to have it done by the end of November.
  
  Riiiiggghhhhtttt...
  1. DontShootMe 11 years ago
    
    You farm it out to 5 million Indian developers, and they each write one line of code. There. Done.
    1. Brett L 11 years ago
      
      Ah, I see your company manages by the mythical man-month as well.
  2. Clich? Bandit 11 years ago
    
    +1 LEEERRRROOYYYYYYY JENKINS!!!!!
sarcasmic 11 years ago

River of CARAMEL threatens to engulf Brazilian town after warehouse fire melts 30,000 tonnes of sugar
Firefighters are still battling blaze at sugar warehouse in Santa Adelia, Brazil
River of caramel flowing out of building, onto roads and towards homes
Hundreds of locals have been moved into hotels for fear of being engulfed

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....delia.html
1. radar 11 years ago
  
  Well, you gotta die one way or another - drowning in caramel beats most of them.
2. SugarFree 11 years ago
  
  Boston Molasses Disaster
  
  Molten sugar will kill us all!
  1. waffles 11 years ago
    
    In your case molten is gratuitous.
  2. John 11 years ago
    
    My wife read a book about that. It really was horrible. The book contained a very interesting side note. Wilson inflated the currency so much that by 1919 all of the standard of living gains since the civil war had been reversed. No kidding. Wilson basically erased the entire Gilded Age from the average American standard of living.
    
    There is a reason why "Progressive" became such a dirty word they had to start calling themselves liberals.
    1. SugarFree 11 years ago
      
      It first encountered it in a novel that used it as a plot point and have read a few things about it since. Sounds like a particularly horrible way to die.
      1. Citizen Nothing 11 years ago
        
        And then the ants arrived...
      2. John 11 years ago
        
        I never knew molasses had so many industrial uses.
      3. Zeb 11 years ago
        
        You're referring to yourself as "it" now?
        
        SugarFree 11 years ago
        
        PUT THE LOTION IN THE FUCKING BASKET!
        
        Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic! 11 years ago
        
        +1 hose
    2. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
      
      There is a reason why "Progressive" became such a dirty word they had to start calling themselves liberals.
      
      Yep.
      
      And they've sullied the word liberal so much over the last 40 years that they've gone back to calling themselves progressives.
      1. Rasilio 11 years ago
        
        But did they start calling themselves liberals? I thought that originated with the Republican party using it as a negative epithet
  3. robc 11 years ago
    
    London Beer Flood
3. Eduard van Haalen 11 years ago
  
  "Young man, did you ask for a river of caramel?
  
  "Yss, father"
  
  "What did I tell you about wish ing on that monkey's paw?"
4. mr simple 11 years ago
  
  These Snickers commercials and promotions are getting out of hand.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

Confident China unveils its secretive nuclear submarine fleet for the first time in four decades
Nuclear submarine fleet is one of China's most secretive military programs
Revealed for first time in four decades as sign of country's confidence

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....cades.html
1. WTF 11 years ago
  
  I'm sure those subs work just as well as their high speed trains.
  1. OldMexican 11 years ago
    
    Much better than their hi-speed rail! Those damned trains stubbornly refuse to sink!
Steve G 11 years ago

Chubby military personnel are getting liposuction to pass Pentagon's body fat test

Such BS. a) the numbers doing this are quite small since the article can't even muster them; "a number". and b) I hear this all the time about these mythical human beings who are so muscular they can't pass a tape test w/ a 39 in waist. Nonsense. You're fat... and you continue to be fat because you're told to eat a low-fat diet and run more.
1. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  "Hold on there, perfesser. We 'fixed' the problem."
  1. Steve G 11 years ago
    
    +1 avoiding confrontation
2. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  Zero is a number.
3. Flatulent Monkey 11 years ago
  
  This doesn't make the various service weight control programs, as currently applied, any less inaccurate. Taping is just not a reliable means of measuring body composition.
  
  But, the relative effectiveness of the measurements is completely irrelevant. Performance should be the only measure of fitness. If your performance standards are such that unacceptably "fat" Soldiers/Airmen/Marines/Sailors can still pass their respective fitness evaluations. Change the performance standard so that you can't be a fat body and pass.
  
  Normally the cart goes after the horse. Looking spiffy a dress uniform is a far cry less important than a service member's ability to physically perform.
  1. John 11 years ago
    
    Yes. The fact that the military has to obsess about weight, tells me that their fitness standards are not high enough. The other thing is I have seen several soldiers who were kicked out for being fat despite scoring in the high 200s on the PT test. If you are scoring over 250 on the PT test, who cares if you are fat? But the Army at least loves skinny people who can run but would be lucky to dead lift their own weight and max push ups by doing so many of them so badly that the grader usually doesn't have the guts to call shenanigans and send them to the back of the line. I really hate the "barely move the arm get to maybe 120 degrees instead of the proper 90" push up guy.
    1. Flatulent Monkey 11 years ago
      
      ... and don't get me started on PRT. When I was doing "traditional" PT mixed with CrossFit-ish work outs (sans most of the Olympic lifting) I was a running in the low 14s and scoring in 260-280 range. Not too bad for a guy in his late 30s and a decidedly non-svelte build. After doing a year of PRT I am barely hanging on to 220s.
      1. John 11 years ago
        
        I was thinking today that the Army and the Marine Corps needs to get rid of the situp and crunch, which are both stupid and worthless exercises, and in the case of the situp bad for your health, and replace it with the squat. Just have people do two minutes of squats, no stopping, as fast as they can. It would be easy to grade, would measure pretty much the same muscle group the sit up does, but actually be a good exercise that would get people to work on their core in a healthy way.
        
        Steve G 11 years ago
        
        ooo, good idea. I actually use squats to train folks who suck at the run since I subscribe to the theory that they lack basic leg strength/strength-endurance that can't be (easily) gained simply by running more. ...but as it's own component, it'd be brutal.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        I did an ancient P90 workout tape for a few months. Not even P90X but the original P90 from like 2001. I never ran a single time. I just did the tape 45 minutes a day six days a week. I did fine on the run. Didn't run a personal best. But got a decent score and felt good doing it. I would have never believed you could train for the run without running but you can. Just get your heart rate up and work your core and hip flexers.
        
        Steve G 11 years ago
        
        I took a group of borderline PT fails, 3 sessions/week, sometimes less than 10 min per, for 90 days with little to no running and they shaved on average over 2 mins of their 1.5 mile time.
        
        http://www.edwards.af.mil/news.....=123196506
        
        ...didn't make a dent in the orthodoxy.
        
        Bobarian 11 years ago
        
        Doing two minutes of squats (probably to near muscle failure), followed by the two mile run would be horrible.
        
        Not that the two milwe run is really all that great a physical test of military competence. A five mile ruck march with full field gear, a buddy carry, some agility and strength tests would be best, but nobody can stop tweaking.
      2. Steve G 11 years ago
        
        Same results here and I'm in my early 40s now. Although crossfit has influenced many of the changes we're seeing, it's been watered downt to make it more palatable to the sick/lame/lazy.
  2. Steve G 11 years ago
    
    - Taping sucks, but it's better than BMI.
    - Looking good is less important than performing good, but doesn't get a 'pass'. There is still a strong personal appearance argument for an maximum waistline.
    - I've always believed in the "remove all doubt" method of preparing for a PT test. If you're left quibbling after the fact about a half-inch on your waist or a single push-up or a single sit-up or 5 seconds on the run, you failed to prepare adequately and remove all doubt.
    1. Flatulent Monkey 11 years ago
      
      Totally with you on preparing so that you clear the bar by a wide margin IOT as you say, remove all doubt.
      
      But I'm not buying the personal appearance argument, raising the standard is the answer, not instituting an arbitrary standard applied using an unreliable means of measurement. If you can have a 39+" waist and still run 13 flat who gives a damn? In this, admittedly rare, circumstance, maybe you should be excluded from assignment to the Old Guard but it shouldn't exclude you from service.
      1. Steve G 11 years ago
        
        I hear you but the Old Guard and Embassy Marines and the like, IMHO, aren't exceptions to the rule, but are just the most visible examples on a continuum where all service members intentionally or unintentionally represent "the military" and can tarnish our entire reputation by being visibly obese. To me it's just as bad as a poster boy who's too weak/skinny to pick up his injured buddy or a sandbag a couple hundred times.
  3. Kid Xenocles 11 years ago
    
    " Looking spiffy a dress uniform is a far cry less important than a service member's ability to physically perform."
    
    Whoa there! Good thing you aren't in charge with priorities like that.
  4. Drake 11 years ago
    
    The PFT is just a fast way to see if a Soldier or Marine is in shape. Having doubts - then do a real fitness test.
    
    Require a long march (30 miles maybe) in full combat gear. Then push-ups and an obstacle course to simulate combat.
    
    The Canadian Army has a kind of combat fitness test although the standards are laughably low.
4. Brandon 11 years ago
  
  Slimy fucking walrus-looking pieces of shit!
  1. Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic! 11 years ago
    
    +1 climbing like old people fuck
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

The Single-Payer Fantasy
Obamacare isn't a Republican idea, and liberals could never get their dream of single-payer.

Whatever historical weight the Left chooses to attribute to the Heritage proposal, it cannot change the salient fact that "Heritage" is synonymous with neither "Republican party" nor "conservative movement," nor that, even if it were, such a link would serve only to confuse matters. As Avik Roy notes over at Forbes, the so-called "Heritage plan" was actually "killed" by another Heritage employee, Peter Ferrara, whose first act after leaving the organization was to campaign vehemently against the idea and to "[convince] 37 leaders of the conservative movement, including Phyllis Schlafly, Grover Norquist, and Paul Weyrich, to sign a petition opposing" it. Ferrara was joined in his opposition by the Cato Institute, the Galen Institute, and almost everybody on the Republican side of Congress.

There is a devastatingly dull reason the bulletproof Democratic majority of 2008 didn't build "comprehensive health insurance on Social Security and Medicare," and that is that it didn't have the votes. Indeed, with full control of the government, Democrats didn't even have the votes to set up a public insurance option, let alone to take over the whole system.
1. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
  
  Whatever historical weight the Left chooses to attribute to the Heritage proposal, it cannot change the salient fact that "Heritage" is synonymous with neither "Republican party" nor "conservative movement," nor that, even if it were, such a link would serve only to confuse matters.
  
  Don't tell ass plug; his head might explode.
Jordan 11 years ago

The Department of Homeland Security is considering lifting a ban on Libyans getting aviation and nuclear training in the U.S.

-1 Doc Brown
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) thinks that President Obama should stop apologizing to our allies about NSA snooping, saying that the surveillance saved thousands of lives.

Rep Peter King, sworn enemy of freedom, should be hung from a lamppost.
1. SugarFree 11 years ago
  
  He's a Republican, so just shut up and vote for him!
2. Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic! 11 years ago
  
  Droned.
3. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  robc thinks we should attach the epithet "Terrorist" to Rep. King's name, I think "Terrorist Fundraiser" Peter King is both more accurate and less likely to be ignored.
  1. CatoTheElder 11 years ago
    
    Brett is absolutely correct about this.
    
    "Terrorist" is often used in a non-literal sense, and when used to insult a Republican is very likely to lead to wrong conclusion about the Terrorist Fundraiser Peter King.
    
    "Terrorist fundraiser" is much more specific.
    1. robc 11 years ago
      
      If you raise money for a terrorist organization, you are a terrorist.
      
      I stand behind my shortening of the term.
Rich 11 years ago

'Iran two weeks away from weapons-grade uranium'

When the Israelis attack, concerns about Democratcare will go the way of Benghazi.
1. Tonio 11 years ago
  
  Meh. I'd expect them to use the confusion and attention to foreign affairs to do yet more mischief. Also, flip side - people could actually stop caring about the middle east and focus on domestic concerns.
  1. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
    
    I watched a few minutes of our former Lich in Chief, Dick Cheney, last night. Predictably, he was pushing for even more military involvement in the Middle East. I think his brain broke somewhere in the mid-90's.
    1. Red Rocks Rockin 11 years ago
      
      I think his brain broke somewhere in the mid-90's.
      
      That actually wouldn't surprise me. I suspect he smarted so much from the program cuts he wasn't able to make in the early 90s that he did a 180 and decided to run with the "all-military, all the time" tactic his colleagues in Congress practiced.
  2. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
    
    Also, flip side - people could actually stop caring about the middle east and focus on domestic concerns.
    
    ISOLATSHUNIST!!!!!!
2. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  That's news to me!
  1. Rich 11 years ago
    
    To me and the President, too!
    1. WTF 11 years ago
      
      He didn't know about it until he read it in the paper!
3. OldMexican 11 years ago
  
  'Iran two weeks away from weapons-grade uranium'
  
  What is it now, like the 15th or 18th Anniversary of the "two-week away" scare, isn't it?
  
  Let's open the champagne!
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

BLS: Gov't Workers 'Absent' 50% More Than Private-Sector Workers

A government worker is 38 percent more likely to be absent from work for personal reasons or illnesses than a private-sector worker, and government workers miss 50 percent more of their usual work hours as a result of such absences than do private sector workers, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

best and brightest!
1. gaijin 11 years ago
  
  absent from work for personal reasons or illnesses
  
  This just shows how heartless the private sector is.
  
  /UnionYes
  1. Lord Humungus 11 years ago
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3mw49mk_x0
2. CatoTheElder 11 years ago
  
  Government employees understand very well how important their work is and act accordingly.
3. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
  
  I'm home sick today. First time in about 2 years.
4. Steve G 11 years ago
  
  "use or lose" leave certainly doesn't help either. I actually work w/ a guy who's getting verbally beat up about using his excess leave before the end of the CY. I find that an excess leave balance is actually a pretty good indicator of a person's work ethic ... and/or inverse indicator of the state of his/her marriage.
5. Kid Xenocles 11 years ago
  
  You should be thanking them.
Bee Tagger 11 years ago

The Department of Homeland Security is considering lifting a ban on Libyans getting aviation and nuclear training in the U.S.

Hopefully, Doc Brown travels back from the future quickly enough to stop this.
1. Steve G 11 years ago
  
  Jordan beat you to it...
  1. Bee Tagger 11 years ago
    
    It was below freezing here this morning, I had to warm up the flux capacitor in the driveway for a few minutes.
    1. Steve G 11 years ago
      
      If you've got a time machine, why is my comment still here?!?!
      1. Bobarian 11 years ago
        
        That new thread is the start of an alternate reality
        
        Steve G 11 years ago
        
        "Whoa!" ~Keanu Reeves
  2. Gbob 11 years ago
    
    He only got there faster because of time travel. It doesn't count.
Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago

Finance/frugality blogger declares, Obamacare: Friend of the Entrepreneur and Early Retiree:

We just got the renewal notice for the plan. I was frightened to open it, expecting a doubling of premiums. And indeed it was a premium increase notice. Our costs are rising $4.24 per month, or 1.8%. One penny of this is the "standard increase" and the other $4.23 is the "age increase"

Snip

the option for a $10,000 deductible fades away after 2014. The new limit seems to be $5,000, which seems silly to a Mustachian (after all, who couldn't rustle up $10k in a rare medical emergency!?), but necessary in a country where most people don't even have a grand. Running through ehealthinsurance.com again for a 2014-compliant plan, I see this as my best option:

$460 per month (his plan currently costs $237)

He then says:

And just to maintain this country's libertarian principles, you still retain the choice of opting out of the whole program.

So there you have it. He determines his costs are going up, but it is still good somehow.
1. Spoonman. 11 years ago
  
  MMM makes a lot of good points, but he really goes off the deep end sometimes. For example, he buys organic food. That's his right of course, but what the fuck? It's incredibly wasteful.
  1. Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
    
    Yeah I like reading his blog, but sometimes, especially in this case, I lose my mind.
    
    He determines his costs are going up, but then continues to defend the law!
    1. Fatty Bolger 11 years ago
      
      "Thank you sir, may I have another?"
  2. trshmnstr 11 years ago
    
    Yeah, and he gets off on his "you own a car, so you're the devil" rants, too. This article was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.
    
    There's a lot of talent in personal finance blogging, and there are plenty of blogs ready to step up and take his place.
2. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Jesus Christ. This person gives people financial advice? I mean... I guess its probably not worse than what idiots would do without advice, but...
  1. Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
    
    The gist of his blog is he retired at 30, after working for 8 years, by living on roughly $25k per year and saving the rest (he was an engineer, so he did make good money).
    1. Brett L 11 years ago
      
      Good on him.
    2. Smilin' Joe Fission 11 years ago
      
      That doesn't seem like enough to retire on at 30...
      1. trshmnstr 11 years ago
        
        It's not, unless you set up hella tons of supplemental income streams.
        
        I found his story and information very interesting, but his style is quite abrasive and obnoxious, and he has some very "out there" thoughts on things like owning a car.
        
        It's one thing to challenge your thought that you must own a car, it's another to call you a moron for owning one, no matter the situation.
        
        Brett L 11 years ago
        
        Yeah, the multiple income streams is always key in these stories. Which, good for him, but not everyone wants to free-lance for peanuts.
      2. Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
        
        I would have to click around his blog to find out, but I think he determines you need 25X your annual spending to retire.
        
        In his case he had more, something like 800k+ saved. Of course, I am not sure how he thinks he will survive on 25k in perpetuity, but he does still earn income through the blog and side projects.
        
        Brett L 11 years ago
        
        4% + inflation + taxes seems like an optimistic long-term return rate for someone with less than $1M.
        
        Citizen Nothing 11 years ago
        
        I admit to thinking like he does, only about new cars. If you're rolling in dough and want a new vehicle, knock yourself out. But for most of us slobs, a used vehicle is a much better financial decision. There's a "public service" radio commercial playing now about a state program that apparently gives people money to meet their mortgage payments. One of the lines goes something like "Now we don't have to choose between staying in our house, putting food on the table, or making our car payment."
        I haven't paid more than $2k or had a car payment in 20 years, mutherfuckers! Yet I'm paying for your car payment?
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        Buying a new car is nuts. Beyond even the financial concerns, if you buy a late model used car, you can afford a much nicer car for the money. For the price of a new Camry or some other soulless boring car, you can get something cool and just a few years old.
        
        Brett L 11 years ago
        
        Eh. The CRV we bought has a less than $2000 depreciation over the first 25k miles, which is 2 years driving for us. So for $2k plus $2k we got a 7 year bumper-to-bumper warranty and all the miles are ours. And financing cost me $625 over 3 years. People may disagree with me about the warranty or whatnot, but we are very likely to own the car for 7-10 years, so I guess I'm paying not more than $500/year for greater certainty that my car will be fixed of any defect for twice the length of my loan. I value that, other people can disagree.
        
        Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
        
        If you keep it for 10 years you are good.
        
        Most people seem to pay their car off, just in time to buy a new one.
        
        Brett L 11 years ago
        
        Most people seem to pay their car off, just in time to buy a new one.
        
        Yeah, or worse, get just about right-side up on it and trade in for a new one where they give you essentially $0 for your trade.
        
        Bobarian 11 years ago
        
        Car manufacturers design their cars to start to break down about the time the loan runs out.
        
        Brandon 11 years ago
        
        This is ridiculous bullshit. One of the dumbest statements I've seen on this site, including the crap WI, Tony and Shreek have spouted.
        
        Rasilio 11 years ago
        
        Thanks to Cash for Clunkers this is not actually true in all cases anymore.
        
        Our 8 year old minivan with 250k miles on it (we drive A LOT) had reached the point where it needed more repairs than it's blue book value ($6000 value, and thanks to a fender bender needed $8000 in work) so we had to replace it earlier this year.
        
        As always we looked for 2-3 year old cars coming in from leases problem was that the sticker prices were within $2 - $3k of the sticker price on new minivans and higher than the sale price after factoring in dealer incentives and the discounted interest rate on a new vs used vehicle.
        
        The problem is that a VERY large percentage of the mid 2000's minivans and SUV's were traded in and destroyed during cash for clunkers creating a shortage of this class of vehicle on the used market driving up the price.
        
        Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
        
        A teacher "friend" is having her second kid, so...MOMMA NEEDS A BRAND NEW MINIVAN!
        
        This dumb bitch financed it over 75 months. And people wonder why they never have enough savings. Sigh.
        
        Certified Public Asskicker 11 years ago
        
        And she teaches math.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        I saw on one of these restaurant rescue shows where the new thing in hip bars now is "bottle service". Table service involves paying upwards of $400 for a bottle of upscale liquor like Grey Goose or Crown or a Single Malt, and a special roped off table to drink it in. That is is. $400 for a bottle of maybe $50 booze. And no it doesn't come with a stripper to sit on your lap and give you a blowjob.
        
        When I heard that these sorts of things are totally the rage among bars that cater to 20 somethings, I knew the current generation is retarded and has no concept of money or wealth. I don't know if it was the helicopter parenting or the riddlin or what. But something went very wrong with this generation.
        
        SugarFree 11 years ago
        
        You aren't really paying more for the booze, you are paying for the table and the ropes and the ability to bypass the line to get into the club.
        
        Still a waste of money, but it keeps the poors out while giving them no recourse to sue under the accommodation laws.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        That makes some sense Sugar Free. But if a bar is so full of trash that I need to pay $400 to get behind a rope to get away from them, I think I might find a new bar.
        
        But I guess if hip hop music is your thing, any bar that plays that is going to attract a rough crowd and the odd gang banger looking to shoot you for disrespecting him or whatever.
        
        Zeb 11 years ago
        
        I think that a lot of the point of going to clubs like that is to throw money around and look like a big shot.
        
        Brandon 11 years ago
        
        This is not new. Bottle service has been a thing for decades, at least.
        
        Brandon 11 years ago
        
        This is not new. Bottle service has been a thing for decades, at least.
        
        Lord Humungus 11 years ago
        
        my turntable cost more than my current truck.
        
        Of course the wife gets the nice car.
        
        Brett L 11 years ago
        
        Of course the wife gets the nice car.
        
        Contra my upthread feelings on my wife's car, I drive a truck I bought with 100000 miles on it that was 8 years old at the time (and now is 120k and 10 years old). So it depends on whether I'm going to be on the side of the road if I made a poor assessment of how well a used car has been taken care of or how reputable the used car dealer I purchased from is.
3. General Butt Naked 11 years ago
  
  Can we please disabuse ourselves of the notion that if you don't have the deductible on your person in a medical emergency the hospital will kick you out into the street?
  
  Have these people never heard of a payment program?
  1. Brett L 11 years ago
    
    Agreed. Surely these people are as willing to take your future income as car salesmen and banks.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Delaying the individual mandate won't fix Obamacare

With more Democrats joining the mandate-delay caucus, President Obama may have no choice but to go along. But such a delay would do nothing to right the Obamacare train wreck. That's because hundreds of thousands of Americans are getting letters from their insurers informing them that their policies are being canceled because of Obamacare ? and the numbers could soon be in the millions. If you are one of those Americans losing your health insurance on Jan. 1, the last thing you are worried about is some $95 fine. You are furious that you and your family no longer have health insurance because of Obamacare.
Rich 11 years ago

White House OKd spying on allies, U.S. intelligence officials say

NSA and other U.S. intelligence agency staff members are said to be angry at President Obama for denying knowledge of the spying.

*** rising intonation ***

I think I smell another leak ....
1. John 11 years ago
  
  We all joke about Valerie Jerrett being President. If either Bush or Reagan had had that Rasputen anywhere near the Oval Office we would have never heard the end of it.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Man's Best Friend update:

Dog blamed for apartment fire in Wenatchee

Fire officials said a dog reaching for treats started a fire that caused some smoke damage to an apartment in Wenatchee.

Wenatchee Fire Marshal Mark Yaple said it appears that the black Labrador was reaching for a bag of dog food left on a stove top when it turned the stove on with its paw.
1. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Bad Dog! No!
2. WTF 11 years ago
  
  I would say the idiot owner leaving dog food on a stove top is to blame for the fire.
3. wwhorton 11 years ago
  
  This is exactly why we take the knobs off our gas range when we leave. We've got a staffy who views the countertop and all adjacent space as his personal buffet as soon as we leave the house. I'd forgotten my keys one day and ran back into the house to find one burner turned to high and a distinct smell of gas. Bit of a pants-filling moment in my relatively young career as a home owner.
  1. mad libertarian guy 11 years ago
    
    We've got a staffy who views the countertop and all adjacent space as his personal buffet as soon as we leave the house.
    
    You haven't beaten that out of him yet? Some libertarian you are.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Is Glenn Greenwald the Future of News?

Greenwald: There's no question that journalists at establishment media venues, certainly including The New York Times, have produced some superb reporting over the last couple of decades. I don't think anyone contends that what has become (rather recently) the standard model for a reporter ? concealing one's subjective perspectives or what appears to be "opinions" ? precludes good journalism.

But this model has also produced lots of atrocious journalism and some toxic habits that are weakening the profession. A journalist who is petrified of appearing to express any opinions will often steer clear of declarative sentences about what is true, opting instead for a cowardly and unhelpful "here's what both sides sayand I won't resolve theconflicts" formulation. That rewards dishonesty on the part of political and corporate officials who know they can rely on "objective" reporters to amplify their falsehoods without challenge (i.e., reporting is reduced to "X says Y" rather than "X says Y and that's false").
1. John 11 years ago
  
  Whatever the faults of the New York Times are, inability to express personal bias and commitment to objectivity is not one of them. Greenwald will always be a hard leftist.
  1. Bobarian 11 years ago
    
    Trying to pretend to be objective hurts journalism more than being openly slanted. If a journalist is open about their viewpoint, it allows the informed listener to take that bias into account.
    
    When the NY Times claims to be unbiased, it just makes them look like liars.
CatoTheElder 11 years ago

Would King change his mind if it was revealed that NSA activities prevented an IRA attack?

Hard to say.

But would he change his mind if it were revealed that NSA activities had identified a few Real IRA sympathizers who were subsequently arrested by MI5, tortured, interrogated regarding their comrades in the Real IRA, and detained without habeas corpus?
1. John 11 years ago
  
  I would pay one of my paychecks to see a reporter ask King that question.
  1. robc 11 years ago
    
    I would pay ont of mine to see Peter King arrested by MI5, torutured, interrogated, and detained.
    
    Okay, no I wouldnt, but I would enjoy it more than I should.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Japan Bank Executives Knew about Gangster Loans

Mizuho Financial Group executives knew the firm was doing business with gangsters but failed to stop it, a panel said Monday, as Japan's finance minister slammed the banking giant over the affair.

Mizuho, one of Japan's biggest banks, has been under fire since it emerged last month that it processed hundreds of loans worth about $2 million for the country's notorious yakuza crime syndicates.

The scandal has made headlines for weeks in Japanese media and reportedly sparked a police investigation.
1. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
  
  I thought everybody already knew that the banks, the government, the yakuza, and the keiretsu are all in bed together. QE Infinity has been underwriting them for two decades now.
  1. Smilin' Joe Fission 11 years ago
    
    One could say they are all the same people.
radar 11 years ago

I thought Lhota was supposed to be a libertarian - what the hell is he doing advocating to ban horse-drawn carriages?

I also love the picture-perfect representation of the magical thinking of the left in that link - sure, there is a massive glut of unwanted horses that cost insane amounts of money to support, but lots of rich people are just dying to adopt the Central Park horses if we just wish hard enough! What's that? No, we haven't raised much money at all yet, why do you ask?
1. JD the elder 11 years ago
  
  Relatively libertarian. I have no idea why the carriage horse issue is so big here. It seems like a completely emotionally-driven issue.
sarcasmic 11 years ago

Is Lou Reed still dead?
1. Lord Humungus 11 years ago
  
  he's just resting.
  
  and waiting for the man
2. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  I bet he feels like Jesus' son, but I guess I just don't know.
3. Gbob 11 years ago
  
  Pining for the fjords.
Rufus J. Firefly 11 years ago

http://danfromsquirrelhill.wor.....macare-59/

141 reasons why Obamacare is full of it.
Hari Seldon 11 years ago

Neuroscientists develop equation for predicting future disasters

"It means we must first identify all the parts of a system, then assess the relationship between individual nodes and then their causal effect on the whole."

This is why neuroscientists get paid the big bucks.
1. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Simple!
Fatty Bolger 11 years ago

NBCNews: Obama administration knew millions could not keep their health insurance

President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a "cancellation" letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don't meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience "sticker shock."
1. Ted S. 11 years ago
  
  Of course, they didn't really have insurance.
  1. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
    
    Every person in the country could lose their insurance, and it wouldn't prove Obama wrong. It would just prove how brilliant he is, to know that not a single person in the country liked their insurance.
2. Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
  
  THE LAMESTREAM MEDIA IS PROTECTING OBAMA CAUSE HE IS BLACK!
  1. OldMexican 11 years ago
    
    Is there any other reason to protect him that keenly?
  2. Lord Humungus 11 years ago
    
    now you're just mailing it in.
    1. Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
      
      I've actually seen that comment here many times. Of course, NBC is supposed to be one protecting him (they are not).
      
      Now, I will admit that this story has real "scandal" possibilities unless broader data patterns prove the ACA a cost saver overall as projected.
      1. Floridian 11 years ago
        
        Kind of like if you seize all wealth and redistribute it. On the whole more people will be better off so it is good. Pure. Libertarian.
        
        John 11 years ago
        
        This the griefer troll talking points. See the fact the NBC is telling the turth five years too late totally excuses them for lying for the last five years and totally proves that Obama getting a free pass until he couldn't run for office anymore is just a right wing myth.
        
        This is one of the few times where the little retard managed to get the talking point correct. His handlers must be shocked.
    2. John 11 years ago
      
      Pretty much. Shreek doesn't even have talking points anymore on this. He just posts something to hopefully change the subject.
  3. Fatty Bolger 11 years ago
    
    Funny, I thought it was because he was a Democrat. They protect Democrats. Which is why this story is finally getting reported - Democrats are getting very worried about this.
    
    OK, so that's their excuse for protecting him. What's yours?
3. SugarFree 11 years ago
  
  Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a "cancellation" letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don't meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience "sticker shock."
  
  "This is the first that Obama's heard about it."
  1. John 11 years ago
    
    I wonder how many dozen "fact checker" concern troll stories were written in 2009 telling the country how Republicans who were claiming that Obamacare would cause people to lose their insurance was worthy of "four Pinocchios" or whatever?
    
    The Administration knew this was a lie. Yet, our watchdog media never bothered to report such or even look around and ask anyone. They are all about the big scoop you know. A story in the fall of 2009 quoting high administration sources showing that they knew that you wouldn't be able to keep your health plan would have been just a big nothing story. Not the kind of thing that would sell newspapers or anything.
    1. Brett L 11 years ago
      
      Exactly, "remember when I said I opposed the PPACA because there was no way this could be true?"
      1. John 11 years ago
        
        It was all about bending the cost curve and saving money by getting people insurance. The entire Democratic Media establishment went insane. It wasn't so much that they were lying. They just all believed totally stupid and implausible things.
    2. SugarFree 11 years ago
      
      Yup. They go after him now, long after the damage is done.
      
      SNL this weekend threw Sibelius under the bus for the website and barely mentioned Obama at all. It's a good talking points bellwether.
      1. John 11 years ago
        
        I think they realize that this is so bad that they even they can't cover it up. They also realize that Obama can't run again. So now that they have inflicted him on the country for 8 years, they are going to spend the last three years savaging him in hopes no one will remember that they lied to country for five years.
        
        They also understand that there might be a Republican elected in 2016. And if that happens, they can't just overnight stop being a propaganda arm of the government. They have to prep the battlefield a little bit.
        
        It is so fucking predictable. Come about the summer of 2016, there will be a series of thumb sucking pieces in places like the Atlantic and Salon and various other rags talking about how the media may have lost touch with its roots and really needs to get back to being a watch dog again. If it wasn't so insulting and infuriating, it would be funny.
  2. KDN 11 years ago
    
    "This is the first that Obama's heard about it."
    
    Speaking of which, Bret Stephens' WSJ column has a fun rundown of this phenomenon: The Unbearable Lightness of Obama
    
    The essence of Eisenhower's hidden hand, of course, is that there was real work going on that people didn't know at the time. If that's true now, then Obama really is emulating Ike. If, on the other hand, he's simply doing nothing or very little, that would be passivity, not hidden-hand leadership.
    ?Eisenhower biographer Jim Newton, quoted in New York Times, July 15, 2013
Rich 11 years ago

"With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of US allies - including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany - let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed," [Feinstein] said in a statement.

"Collection of intelligence on leaders of US allies should be performed only by the CIA."
1. Scruffy Nerfherder 11 years ago
  
  So they finally found the line which Feinstein was not willing to cross? Wow.
  1. Tim 11 years ago
    
    Spying on our own Senators makes sense. Obama has to know who is disloyal.
2. db 11 years ago
  
  Note that she's only opposed to collection of intelligence on "leaders."
priyanka ahir 11 years ago

I don't care about specs because graphics just aren't that important to me anymore. As long as it's on par with the Wii U I'm fine with it. What's more important is the games, and it looks like the Xbox One has more exclusives I'm interested in, but we'll see in a few years when I'm actually going to buy one of them.
1. Smilin' Joe Fission 11 years ago
  
  The ps4's free online will push me towards that when i buy one in a couple years. Plus it is cheaper to begin with.
  1. Jordan 11 years ago
    
    I think this guy is a more sophisticated spammer. I don't dare click his link.
    1. Smilin' Joe Fission 11 years ago
      
      Yes, you could be correct. I didn't even attempt to try his link, luckily.
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a "cancellation" letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don't meet the standards mandated by the new health care law.

Self-employment is bad, children, mmmkay? Those people should have REAL jobs. They should be working for vast centralized service providers who will, as part of their compensation, offer them bona fide comprehensive coverage approved by the Internal Revenue Service.
1. sarcasmic 11 years ago
  
  Entrepreneurial... spirit.... must.... be... squashed...
2. Fatty Bolger 11 years ago
  
  Yeah, I've been wondering how many sole proprietors will be shutting down their small businesses to look for a job with insurance. That can't be good for the economy.
Fatty Bolger 11 years ago

Facebook researchers are trying to predict when you and your spouse will break up

A Cornell professor and a senior Facebook engineer are claiming to have developed a Facebook algorithm that can accurately identify who you're dating and, especially for new relationships, whether you're in danger of breaking up.
1. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  I'm guessing when you change your profile status from "Married" to "do not display", its a good bet.
  1. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
    
    Oh yeah, where's your peer review, consensus approved model for that?
    1. Brett L 11 years ago
      
      For a $3M grant over 5 years, I can provide that.
      1. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
        
        Here's $20 million. Do it in 4.
        
        Brett L 11 years ago
        
        You drive a hard bargain!
OldMexican 11 years ago

The Department of Homeland Security is considering lifting a ban on Libyans getting aviation and nuclear training in the U.S.

Just for kicks.
1. Tim 11 years ago
  
  Can the Government impose a ban bigger than it can lift?
OldMexican 11 years ago

A Tight Gap Is Not Necessary To Be Deemed Attractive, Says Plus Size Model Robyn Lawley

Plus-size model Robyn Lawley has addressed the 'thigh gap' trend, which demands legs so thin that they do not touch above the knees.

The 24-year-old, who has modeled for Ralph Lauren and Vogue, says she is disturbed by how online, users are posting pictures of thigh gaps to be used as inspiration for weight loss and dieting.

'The last thing I would want for my future daughter would be to starve herself because she thought a "thigh gap" was necessary to be deemed attractive,' she wrote in an essay for The Daily Beast.

And I happen to agree with her.
1. OldMexican 11 years ago
  
  Oh, I fell into the trap. Should be "Thigh", not "Tight"
  1. Bobarian 11 years ago
    
    A tight 'gap' is always to be desired.
Auric Demonocles 11 years ago

Ticketmaster's site sucks. I sit here hitting refresh until the tickets I want become available, then click "buy". Half the time it redirects me to a log in page despite the fact that I am already logged in, and the other half of the time it does one of those bot-screeners, so that by the time I finish typing in the numbers from the picture the tickets are no longer available.

But it's still more functional the Obamacare site.
1. Auric Demonocles 11 years ago
  
  And I have now successfully purchased tickets (though not in hamilton's section like I tried to at one point). It didn't even take a month and $600 million to fix!
Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago

(Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co has agreed to pay $5.1 billion to settle claims that it and firms it bought misled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac about the quality of mortgage securities and home loans it sold to them during the housing boom.

The bank and the agencies' regulator said Friday evening that the settlement was expected to be part of a tentative $13 billion deal that JPMorgan is negotiating with federal and state agencies over its mortgage bond liabilities.

SHAKEDOWN!
Eduard van Haalen 11 years ago

"The lesson began by telling students that ten people shared a serious problem: Without access to a dialysis machine, they would all die.

"Unfortunately, they were told, the local hospital only has enough machines for six of them. The assignment was to decide who got the treatment and who didn't. The students were asked to rank the potential recipients from one, the person they most wanted to receive treatment, to ten, the person they least wanted.

"All they knew about the people was age, race, and occupation or lack thereof: a housewife, doctor, lawyer, disabled person, cop, teacher, minister, college student, ex-convict, and prostitute.

"..The school insists that the assignment was about "social bias," a claim that is belied by the fact that the following lesson was about abortion and when in pregnancy it was permissible.

"...The students' choices reflected the person's social prestige and/or age. The top three were the doctor, lawyer and teacher. The bottom three were the college student, ex-convict, and the disabled person."

http://www.lifenews.com/2013/1.....t-on-kids/
1. WTF 11 years ago
  
  Getting them ready to accept government rationing of health care.
2. waffles 11 years ago
  
  My takeaway is the prostitute ranked better than the college student. I guess at least one of them is engaged is economic activity.
3. OldMexican 11 years ago
  
  The lesson began by telling students that ten people shared a serious problem: Without access to a dialysis machine, they would all die.
  
  "Unfortunately, they were told, the local hospital only has enough machines for six of them. The assignment was to decide who got the treatment and who didn't. The students were asked to rank the potential recipients from one, the person they most wanted to receive treatment, to ten, the person they least wanted.
  
  Seriously, If I were one of his students I would've told the professor that with that kind of demand, I would've gone somewhere to find, buy and then sell to the hospital 4 used dialysis machines for a profit. Then all patients would have a machine to keep them alive.
  
  I got into many interesting discussions with my economics teacher back when I was getting my MBA.
  1. wwhorton 11 years ago
    
    Yeah, these "lifeboat" scenarios annoy the hell out of me. The caveats required for them to work are so strict that they don't really tell you anything, and they actively discourage creative problem-solving because they're really just trying to funnel participants towards expected answers.
    1. SugarFree 11 years ago
      
      And they don't know how dialysis machines work. They aren't iron lungs, you don't have to be on them 24/7.
4. Fatty Bolger 11 years ago
  
  Interesting that the college student ranked lower than the prostitute.
  
  As a practical matter, I would exclude the doctor, lawyer, cop, and teacher. They're the most likely to be able to afford treatment elsewhere.
5. JD the elder 11 years ago
  
  I'm surprised that this is considered new or shocking. In my elementary school we were given problems like this. (Then again, I did go to a touchy-feely elementary school that had 'ethics' classes, no lie.)
  
  The mother who complained annoys the crap out of me: "Freshmen and sophomores in a social studies class at St. Joseph-Ogden High School...Her objection was that the students were too young and their minds weren't developed enough to handle this kind of assignment."
  
  Too young and not developed enough? They're what, 14-16 years old? When the hell are they supposed to start thinking about the moral dimensions of things? Of course, I'm also the kind of cynic who thinks that most people have done most of the moral and intellectual growth they're ever going to do by age 15 or so...
DEG 11 years ago

Interesting, anyone surprised by the actions of NH county attorneys?

In a memorandum issued nearly 10 years ago, former Attorney General Peter Heed directed county attorneys and the AG's office to keep such a list of officers whose credibility might be in question because they may have committed some professional transgression like lying under oath, as an example. Heed also instructed county attorneys to share their lists with prosecutors who handle cases for local police departments, something that, according to a story in last week's New Hampshire Union Leader, almost never happen
1. DEG 11 years ago
  
  I think the Telegraph is referring to this article
2. Eduard van Haalen 11 years ago
  
  And they shared the list with defense attorneys, right? I'm sure the article gets to that part.
Fatty Bolger 11 years ago

Coach seating is getting even worse

Uh-oh: airlines ordering new Dreamliner 787s and Airbus A330s are asking to have them fitted with 16.7"-wide coach seats, a new low for long-haul travel. These are planes intended for intercontinental flights -- six to 14 hours! -- and they're shaving the armrests, squeezing the seats, and otherwise cramming in ways that beggar the imagination. The airlines say it'll all be OK -- they'll just distract you from your terrible circumstances with big meals and TV.

Every time a new plane comes out to glowing preview articles, I just have to laugh - because you know there is absolutely no way the airlines will outfit the plane even close to how it's portrayed in the stories.
1. DEG 11 years ago
  
  Interesting. I thought Boeing was designing planes so that airlines have fewer options for customizations. The reasoning being the banks that issue loans to airlines for airplanes are worried about the amount of work that might need to be done on a repossesed plane. If the plane needs a lot of work for a new owner to use it, the new owner might not be willing to pay a lot for a repossesed plane at auction.
  1. DJF 11 years ago
    
    These days the seats are easily changed out with standard fitting for various configurations.
2. db 11 years ago
  
  I just flew back from China yesterday--business class, fortunately. The coach seats near the forward end of that cabin looked okay but no way would I want to be further back where they're packed together "efficiently."
John 11 years ago

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/d.....t-extended

Insurers tell Congress to be ready for rate shock when and if people are ever able to enroll. See, they are get that website fixed and this whole thing is going to work great.

This thing isn't so much as a train wreck but a series of train wrecks each one worse than the last.
1. waffles 11 years ago
  
  So it's more of a pileup on every interstate at once and rush hour is approaching.
  1. John 11 years ago
    
    More like one of those five hundred car pile ups they get once in a while when there is a freak snow storm or fog.
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

SHAKEDOWN!

Poor Fannie Mae. Those darned old twicksters at J P Morgan and firms it bought took advantage of them. Sheared them like sheep, they did. Thank goodness justice has been served.

Forward!
1. Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
  
  Selling shitty non-conforming loans to Fannie Mae cost us around $80 billion in TARP (mostly repaid with interest).
  1. Fatty Bolger 11 years ago
    
    So you're saying it actually cost nothing.
    
    Thanks for clearing that up.
Eduard van Haalen 11 years ago

Brazilians are bummed out -

"A hugely popular competition to find the most beautiful bottom in Brazil has been shaken by allegations that two contestants paid bribes to judges.

"Miss Bumbum 2013 was plunged in to chaos by claims that Mari Sousa, 25, and Eliana Amaral, 24, paid thousands to judges in a bid to win the contest.

"The claims were made by fellow contstents who said Amaral paid around ?18,000 ($32,000) in a bribe, while Sousa handed over even more than that in a bid to take the crown.

"Doubt was also cast on the natural credentials of Amaral's bottom, with allegations an X-ray which showed her bottom to be implant-free, is actually a fake, reported Brazilian newpaper El Dia."

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/artic.....bottom.htm
Sevo 11 years ago

Calling all flakes!
"Enlightened by tech? Conference says yes"
Thrill as oriental guy writes "beef with broccoli" with a brush! Learn strange dance moves to techno-noise! Act like you have some idea WIH is going on!
With a keynote pile of BS from that charlatan Deepak Chopra!(John Edwards was making too much on the brain-dead circuit)
http://www.sfgate.com/technolo.....933598.php
Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago

NBC "scoop" cites normal turnover in health insurance market.

http://www.politico.com/story/.....html?hp=l1
1. Sevo 11 years ago
  
  Shorter slimy turd:
  'WH press release says nothing wrong'
  1. Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
    
    The old low-benefit plans are grandfathered in. So the insurers are not being "forced" to drop those plans at all.
    
    This is a big stink about nothing.
    1. John 11 years ago
      
      CHRISTFAG!!!
    2. Jordan 11 years ago
      
      And taxes are voluntary, right?
    3. Sevo 11 years ago
      
      Palin's Buttplug|10.29.13 @ 10:36AM|#
      "The old low-benefit plans are grandfathered in"
      
      Lie, shitpile.
2. Lord Humungus 11 years ago
  
  you must have missed this part, shreeky:
  
  The law requires insurance plans to meet basic standards after 2014. If they don't meet those standards, insurers can no longer sell those plans unless they are "grandfathered" ? or they existed before 2010 and haven't changed at all since then.
  
  So, if an insurer changed a premium or a deductible in 2013, the plan is no longer grandfathered under Obamacare and can't be renewed in 2014.
  
  so just normal turnover... gotcha.
  
  There's no sugarcoating it, the Titanic has a slight leakage problem in the bow.
  1. Juice 11 years ago
    
    I wonder if my current insurer changed my premium a couple of times during 2012 and 2013 just so it couldn't be grandfathered.
    1. Brett L 11 years ago
      
      They would NEVER do such a thing! I'd be shocked. Shocked!
  2. GILMORE 11 years ago
    
    " insurers can no longer sell those plans unless they are "grandfathered" ? or they existed before 2010 and haven't changed at all since then""
    
    Uh, AFAIK, every single health plan in existence makes a half dozen small changes to costs, service coverage, co-pay for various side-dish items, etc. every single year. This "at all" provision essentially means, "no one here gets out alive". (apologies, Jim Morisson) Its complete bullshit.
3. trshmnstr 11 years ago
  
  There is no sugarcoating it, PB seems to be having a mild disagreement with the wall about which one of them soiled his pants.
Sevo 11 years ago

Moonbeam, always a day late, tries to spread the poverty around:
"3 states, province sign West Coast climate pact"
Still too many employed people on the west coast.
http://www.sfgate.com/science/.....934319.php
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

Every time a new plane comes out to glowing preview articles, I just have to laugh - because you know there is absolutely no way the airlines will outfit the plane even close to how it's portrayed in the stories.

That reminds me of an "artist's rendering" of a commercialized version of the Northrop Flying Wing I saw a long time ago. It was a beautiful, spacious cocktail lounge, whizzing through the sky at ~400 mph. I wanted to be on it.

Still do.
1. PD Scott 11 years ago
  
  Imagine traveling through the skies Norman Bel Geddes's Airliner No. 4.
  1. PD Scott 11 years ago
    
    "a 9-deck amphibian airliner that incorporated areas for deck-games, an orchestra, a fully equipped gymnasium and a solarium"
Kid Xenocles 11 years ago

I'm just going to assume that the commenter Jon Lester is actually the pitcher and congratulate him on the game last night.
1. Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
  
  The Cards have lost two games in the Series in which their ace pitched well.
  
  You have to give the BoSox credit.
  1. Brett L 11 years ago
    
    Ortiz is batting about .800. Its unreal. They should just walk him on 4 pitches for the next 2 games.
    1. Kid Xenocles 11 years ago
      
      Papi just picked up the team and is carrying them through the whole Series. It's incredible.
Lord Humungus 11 years ago

Richard Cohen: A question of competence

This is a surprise ? at least to me. If Barack Obama has an image, it is of the infinitely cool, cerebral leader. The man can give a rousing speech, but he is, at heart, a planner and a plodder. Both of his presidential campaigns were exercises in micromanagement ? digital all the way. Obama was the better candidate, but he had, by far, the better organization.

Yet this same man has lately so mishandled both domestic and foreign policy that he is in mortal peril of altering his image. This unsettling and uncharacteristic incompetence became shockingly clear when Obama failed to come to grips with the Syrian civil war. I did not agree with the president's do-nothing policy, but at least it was both a policy and intellectually coherent. What followed, though, was both intellectually incoherent and pathetically inconsistent ? a "red line" that came out of nowhere and then mysteriously evaporated and a missile strike that was threatened and then abandoned. It was a policy so wavering that if Obama were driving, he would be forced to take a breathalyzer.
1. Lord Humungus 11 years ago
  
  cont..
  
  The debacle of the Affordable Care Act's Web site raised similar questions about confidence. This was supposed to be Obama's Big Deal. The president has other accomplishments ? navigating out of the Great Recession was no minor feat ? but restoring the status quo does not get your face on Mount Rushmore. It takes achievement, a program ? something new and wonderful. The Affordable Care Act was supposed to be it.
  
  Something went wrong. People could not sign up. Why? Not sure. Who's at fault? Apparently no one. An act of God. Something that could never have been foreseen. Another president might have had someone in the White House calling every day ? no, twice a day ? to make sure the program was going to work. But no, it was a shock to everyone, and when the White House rolled out its gigantic cake ? maestro, some music please ? no one jumped out.
  
  Pathetic.
  1. GILMORE 11 years ago
    
    "'The president has other accomplishments ? navigating out of the Great Recession was no minor feat...
    
    ...What?
    
    http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
    
    Multiply "less people actually working" with "people working making less money doing so"... e.g.
    
    http://www.payscale.com/cms-im.....g?sfvrsn=2
    
    ...yeah. Wicked 'recovery' there, bra.
2. John 11 years ago
  
  Thanks Richard. Nice you notice this after you lied for five years and got the dumb bastard both elected and reelected. You dishonest fucking hack. You never bothered to notice he was a fucking idiot before now? Bengazi, Libya, Fast and Furious, the IRS, the green stimulus, and the rest never gave you a clue?
  
  Fuck you WAPO. And fuck any piece of shit liberal who has the fucking nerve to criticize Obama. You gave him to the country. How fucking dare you have the nerve to turn on him now.
  1. Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
    
    The stench of Bush is still on the GOP, John.
    1. John 11 years ago
      
      BUSHPIG!!!
      
      Face it retard. The guy whose dick you have been sucking and who you have been lying for for the last five years is a moron. Soon, you will be on here fucking up talking points about how Obama was never really a Democrat. Since you are brain dead and don't understand the talking points anyway, that won't bother you. But for your more sentient handlers, writing and feeding you those talking points is going to hurt even worse than watching you fuck them up and post them at the wrong time and in the wrong way as you always do.
      1. OldMexican 11 years ago
        
        Re: John,
        
        Soon, you will be on here fucking up talking points about how Obama was never really a Democrat.
        
        Too bad Intrade was closed by the [Obama-led] Feds, otherwise we could participate in a pool on how fast will the Buttwipe disavow himself from the King of kings.
3. Fatty Bolger 11 years ago
  
  Both of his presidential campaigns were exercises in micromanagement ? digital all the way.
  
  Um.. the use of technology to delegate campaign information to legions of loyal foot soldiers is impressive, but it is not "micromanagement." For reference, Al Gore's 2000 run is an example of truly micromanaged campaign.
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

Imagine traveling through the skies Norman Bel Geddes's Airliner No. 4.

Fucking AWESOME.
Just don't fly on the Carnival Cruise Line version.
1. Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic! 11 years ago
  
  "the Carnival Cruise Line version"
  
  The Flying Petri Dish
Eduard van Haalen 11 years ago

Iraq is now a free country thanks to US intervention - a model for further US involvement in the affairs of other countries! Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Amel Shamon Nona of Mosul explains:

"I came to Mosul on January 16, 2010. The very next day, a series of reprisal murders of Christians began, starting with the killing of the father of a young man who was praying with me in church. For more than ten days, extremists continued to kill, one or two people each day. The faithful left the city to seek refuge in the small towns and villages nearby, or in the monasteries.

"Since then almost half of the faithful have returned. What can we do for these people? What can one do for those who are living the difficult life of persecution?

"...From the moment when we are waiting for death, under threat from someone who may shoot us at any time, we need to know how to live well. The greatest challenge in facing death because of our faith is to continue to know this faith in such a way as to live it constantly and fully ? even in that very brief moment that separates us from death."

http://www.catholicnewsagency......p-advises/
1. Palin's Buttplug 11 years ago
  
  Saddam was friendly to the Iraqi Christians until Bush "liberated" the Islamic extremists there.
  1. Eduard van Haalen 11 years ago
    
    Good thing Obama has shifted to a policy of protecting religious freedom against Islamists, and not supporting their insurgencies agaisnt ME governments.
  2. John 11 years ago
    
    Saddam was full on Islamist post 91 dipshit. The Christians in Iraq, were pretty much fair game under Saddam.
    
    You literally lie about everything. It is kind of amazing if it wasn't so pathetic.
    1. Zeb 11 years ago
      
      I don't know if that necessarily makes him Islamist. Just ruthless, sociopathic dictator who knows how to play various ethnic groups against each other to maintain his position. If it had somehow been useful to let Christians kill Shiites or something, he probably would have done that too.
      1. John 11 years ago
        
        HE went Islamist after 91 because he lost the war and needed the Islamist support. And yes, his main way of staying in power was getting the tribes and ethic groups in Iraq to concentrate on killing each other rather than killing him.
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

Yet this same man has lately so mishandled both domestic and foreign policy that he is in mortal peril of altering his image.

Tee hee hee.

Watch closely; eventually a pattern will emerge.
Eduard van Haalen 11 years ago

Secretary of State Kerry issues un-self-aware proclamation declaring International Religious Freedom Day:

"We call on the international community ? governments, civil society, and citizens alike ? to speak out against religious persecution, and to stand unequivocally for religious freedom.

"We do so humbly, knowing that our own journey as Americans was not without challenge, that the Pilgrims who fled across the ocean to escape religious persecution and landed in my home state of Massachusetts, would soon witness congregations break away and found Connecticut and Rhode Island in search of their own freedom to worship.

"We also know that centuries later, we would see Catholics persecuted simply for being who they were and believing what they believed. But even as we are humble about the challenges of our history, we are proud that no place has ever welcomed so many different faiths to worship so freely as here in the United States of America."

http://www.state.gov/secretary.....215897.htm
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

The old low-benefit plans are grandfathered in. So the insurers are not being "forced" to drop those plans at all.

Get on the horn to Blue Cross. They just informed me my plan is being discontinued due to the Obamacare, but they will be pleased to move me into one costing fifty per cent more.

Also, eat shit and die.
1. John 11 years ago
  
  You hated that plan Brooks. You really did. You just were not smart enough to realize. Aren't you glad you had your betters step in and fix it for you?
  
  I have read any number of liberal trolls in the last week breathlessly inform me that all of these plans that are disappearing are bad plans that needed to go anyway. Don't you feel better now?
  1. robc 11 years ago
    
    Tell them that robc told them to go fuck themselves.
2. Swiss Servator, Yodelriffic! 11 years ago
  
  So, you work for Home Depot?!
The Late P Brooks 11 years ago

The punch line of this joke is since I actually began paying for this faux-insurance policy, at $300/month, the cost is more than I have ever spent in any calendar year in my life for actual medical expenses.

FORWARD!
1. Brett L 11 years ago
  
  Yeah, that was my experience, too. How dare I take advantage of my health privilege.
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