Animosity Between Germany and U.S. After Caught Spy, UT Austin President Holds On, George R.R. Martin Doesn't Need You Breathing Down His Neck: P.M. Links

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  Jeffery Schwartz / Flickr

  The fallout from the discovery of two U.S. spies within the German government is creating bad blood between the two nations. Germany has asked the U.S.'s CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country.

• University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers does not have to resign, after all. Allies of Republican Gov. Rick Perry had pressured Powers to quit after a scandal over law school admissions, but an outpouring of support from faculty and students persuaded administrators to let him keep his job.
• "Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin had choice words for fans worried that he will die before finishing the series: "Fuck you." The Washington Free Beacon's Sonny Bunch writes that Martin should calm down, before he hurts himself.
• Ex-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for numerous corruption charges. "I've been targeted, smeared, and tarnished," he said.
• Millennials are not the government-loving Democrats they are made out to be, according to a Reason-Rupe survey.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

"Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin had choice words for fans worried that he will die before finishing the series: "Fuck you."

In the game of Game of Thrones, you write or you, uh, don't.

[Ted S.]

Perhaps people should just stop reading the books and watching the TV show, and see how he responds.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm on it.

But no spoilers, please.

[Live Free Or Diet]

What's funny to me about this is the guy who started me on GRRM books back expressed this very concern, then died two years ago himself.

[Pro Libertate]

I predict that, in such event, he will say, "Fuck you."

[Sudden]

He is well known for being a "progressive" so FYTW is sort of a reflexive statement from him.

[Steve G]

Has anyone checked on him? Maybe he died in mid-phrase...

[C. Anacreon]

Is anyone else here at Freedom Fest in Las Vegas? Reply to this post so I can buy you a drink.

Tonight the Stossel show will be done live from here, look for me in the audience.

Wish you all could be here, it's nice to be around a lot of libertarians.

[Fist of Etiquette]

And yet reason won't put up a game day post for live blogging.

[Sudden]

I suddenly have a strong temptation to make the four hour drive just for a free drink.

BUt I gotta be out there in a couple weeks anyhow, so I don't think I will.

[Corning]

I imagine Ruth Bader Ginsburg feels the same way.

[Corning]

Gawker has one upped the NYTs:

But fantasy nerds have been burned before?R.I.P. Robert Jordan

"Robert Jordan died, women, minorities and fantasy nerds hurt most."

[Mickey Rat]

Jordan's passing put a temporary stop to the ubiquitous spanking of females in his universe, so of those things is not true.

[Mickey Rat]

The problem is Martin is writing everything but the conclusion to his own epic.

[Injun, as in from India]

AFSCME Government Employee Union butthurt because the United Negro College Fund took evil Koch money.

I'm sure a Warren Buffet or Tom Steyer donation would have been kosher.

[PD Scott]

Why does AFSCME hate educated African-Americans?

[Injun, as in from India]

The same reason the Taliban hates educated muslim women?

[Fist of Etiquette]

University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers does not have to resign, after all.

Surprise!

[Brett L]

Now I'm certain Powers should go.

[Brett L]

Now I'm certain Powers should go.

[Brett L]

Goddammit. Of course the squirrels would be on the side of corruptocrats and Aggies.

[Pro Libertate]

Austin [President Bill] Powers. Curious.

[Stormy Dragon]

Austin President Bill Powers

Now I'm picturing a school run by the Mike Meyers character.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Millennials are not the government-loving Democrats they are made out to be, according to a Reason-Rupe survey.

I hadn't heard.

[Swiss Servator, Alles Klar]

Survey? Did any of this make in on to H&R?

[Libertymike]

See the first post on the latest article.

[Ted S.]

**** you for being first. :-p

[Corning]

To quote G R R Martin, Fuck you.

[Andrew S.]

Ex-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for numerous corruption charges. "I've been targeted, smeared, and tarnished," he said.

Damn racists bringing the head of the chocolate city down. I blame the Koch Brothers.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

To win voters, conservatives can't just jump out of the woodwork at election time; persuasion is a long and complicated process:

"This gets to something important about persuasion. People have to be ready to be persuaded. In his excellent biography of longtime National Review publisher William Rusher, David Frisk explains Rusher's useful understanding of the process of persuasion. People don't change their minds until they are ready to change their mind and "a powerful argument's first effect was to shake him [the person who heard it]." Those arguments "rattle around at the base of their brains, unforgettable and unassimilable, long after the pablum that preceded and followed it has been eliminated from their memories." Rusher described the process as "outrage, silence, assent, enthusiasm. In that order." The nature of persuasion and the constraints of campaigning mean that only the very best candidates can hope to produce that process within the few months of a general election contest. These candidates come very rarely indeed, and are not always on our side."

http://www.firstthings.com/web.....ic-opinion

[Caleb Turberville]

http://freethoughtblogs.com/ph.....uch-bread/

I posted this in an early thread, but it is an enjoyable example of the stupidity of people overly concerns with income inequality.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Pharyngula - No thank you.

[Caleb Turberville]

It really is a hoot. He claims that cell phone bills are making people poorer.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

PZ is an angry, emotional child when it comes to anything other than mushy marine creatures.

[Gene]

That dude can make me irate quicker the any other writer, as loathsome as Marcotte.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

I used to read PZ pre-libertarianism (before I turned 22). I got fed up with the "skeptics" pretty quickly once I came to my senses.

[Tonio]

Not all skeptics are proggie ideologues, but they predominate in the skeptic movement. Which is annoying.

[Pi Guy]

Same here.

On the other hand, it was actually Freethoughts co-blogger Ed Brayton who linked a Balko article on Hit and Run c2002 that brought me here. And completed my conversion.

I now consider myself a recovering Democrat.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

He claims that cell phone bills are making people poorer.

Every time my neighbor accepts my tomatoes in exchange for his cantaloupes, I emerge from the transaction a bit poorer.

And they call Randians solipsistic.

[robc]

I agree, but only because tomatoes can be used in sauces and condiments, but cantaloupe is entirely useless.

[Bobarian]

Is this why Kennedy called Kmele a cantaloupe last night?

[Injun, as in from India]

The smart are getting smarter because they get better education. Maybe it's time for some lobotomies to redistribute intelligence to the less smart. All in the name of IQ equality.

[Homple]

Diana Moon Glampers pick up any white courtesy phone.

[Pi Guy]

"Wow. That one must have been a doozy."

[MJGreen]

I don't know, that sounds kinda st--*buzz in the ear*

What were we talking about?

[croaker]

Wasn't that the plot of a Phillip K Dick short story? The federal government had an official handicapping agency. Those too pretty had to be surgically disfigured, those who were superior athletes had to wear lead weights, those who were too smart got earphones that screamed noise into your ears to disrupt thinking.

[paranoid android]

You're thinking of Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut.

[SugarFree]

"Harrison Bergerson" by Kurt Vonnegut.

[Tonio]

Myers is an idiot outside of his specialty. Years back when I was hanging out there (mea culpa...) he posted that his fixed-rate mortgage was now being serviced by someone different, and asked if they could change the rate on him...

[grrizzly]

They totally can, if he refinances.

[Tonio]

Just reread my post and realize it wasn't as clearly phrased as it should have been. He hadn't refinanced or anything, his mortgage had been sold.

Survivability of contracts (though not named as such) was covered in at least one of my classes in high school. And Myers presumes to pontificate on matters legal.

[Injun, as in from India]

If you are a progressive, you would understand that there is no such thing as "fixed" or "goalpost". Everything is movable.

[SugarFree]

A fever swamp of nonsense gibberish.

[Jerry on the sea]

La tremenda confesi?n de Mascherano en la jugada de Robben: "Me abr? el ano"
http://tn.com.ar/deportes/afte.....ano_514677

[Jordan]

Dude, we speak American here, not Mexican.

[Ted S.]

Oh, stewardess, I speak jive.

[Andrew S.]

Que?

[Ted S.]

I ran it through Google Translate, and the result is funnier:

The tremendous confession of Mascherano's move on Robben: "I made my anus"

The wheel selection explained what happened when he saved heroically to attack the Dutch selection.

There was a second fatal in almost all Argentines hearts quickened. It was at the end of the second half, when it was almost all set to Argentina and the Netherlands ended 0-0 and spend the extra time. Robben overflowed, to Robben to the left. But there was Javier Mascherano , as any close reading and covering her body with the Dutch goal. "I opened the year," he confessed, in the mixed zone, the wheel of the team.

"That's why I had so much pain. Not to be rude, but that was. Believe that more than one of my virtue, he gave me a chance when he plays, he loses a second, and I win. What did I do any "he said, humbly, one of the high points of the team.

Mascherano also had time to analyze team play, and some criticisms made whole before World Sabella. "To me it give me this computer. Maybe people do not like, but I put a ten. Was quiet on the court today. Was proud because everyone was doing what he had to do," defined.

[MJGreen]

It makes more sense than a Marcotte post.

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

What's with the no-Americano talk?

You sound like a furrener.

[Brett L]

Google Translate has two different translations for 'Me abri el ano".

[Brett L]

The tremendous confession of Mascherano's move on Robben: "I made my anus"

[Obama's Buttplug]

Google Translator turns this into English gibberish.

[Pi Guy]

Genuine frontier gibberish is easier to understand.

[Mock-star]

+1 Gabby Johnson

[Injun, as in from India]

Ex-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was sentenced to 10 years in prison for numerous corruption charges. "I've been targeted, smeared, and tarnished," he said.

There will be 10 fine years of introspection.

[Bobarian]

"I've been targeted, smeared, and tarnished,"

"and they don't even know about the really bad stuff I've done!" you could almost hear Nagin thinking out loud.

[Libertymike]

Ray, who fault is it?

[Furburguesa]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Name that party!

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/m.....z374vRrz1P

[Injun, as in from India]

Tea Party!

[Rich]

"Party in Ray's cell!"

[MJGreen]

"I've been targeted, smeared, and tarnished,"

These charges are outrageous, egregious, preposterous.

[Ska]

Jackie Chiles has way more charisma.

[SugarFree]

Nagin will run that place like a king. They might as well just sentence him to live in Detroit for 10 years; the cold would be more of a punishment.

[croaker]

It should be ten years consecutive for every gun his bully boys "secured" and refused to return.

And he's going to get Club Fed, not the PMITA Federal Prison he so richly deserves. Fuck him. Hope he has a stroke in prison.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Germany has asked the U.S.'s CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country.

President Barack Chamberlain better nip this in the bud before the Krauts get out of hand!

[Swiss Servator, Alles Klar]

Indeed - if only we had been informed of this situation before!

http://reason.com/blog/2014/07.....hief-to-le

[Sansos]

I wonder which 'attache' will get recalled due to 'family issues,' will it be the economics attache or the cultural attache?

[It's a wagon wheel!]

Millennials are not the government-loving Democrats they are made out to be, according to a Reason-Rupe survey.

How do they vote.

[Injun, as in from India]

We should ask Sandra Fluke, perhaps?

[jesse.in.mb]

I dunno, I can write her a letter when she's my goddamned state senator.

[Injun, as in from India]

You live in California? I thought all along that you were a Canadian from Manitoba.

[Mad Scientist]

Don't be fooled by the lumberjack beard he's sporting.

[Rich]

Aw, MS -- He's OK.

[Mad Scientist]

It's true that sleeps all night and works all day.

[jesse.in.mb]

I thought all along that you were a Canadian from Manitoba.

I know. I think some of the Canadians here assumed the same thing. Cali born and raised. Although I've been mistaken for a Canadian IRL a few times.

[grrizzly]

Canada and USA have standardized state/province abbreviations, which is a good thing. But too often Canada is abbreviated as CA, very annoying.

[jesse.in.mb]

Yeah. I'd thought about going to jesse.in.ca after a Archduke and someone else asked whether I was in Manitoba, but realized that'd only be slightly less confusing, and I'd be biting sloopy's style.

[Injun, as in from India]

Sloopy should consider changing his handle to Sloppy-in-VA, where VA might refer to some female body part.

[sloopyinva (previously -inca)]

Go for it Jesse. I got no claim on -inca anymore.

Btw, met up with Los Doyers last nite for several pitchers of beer. Good times.

[Pi Guy]

Ah. So Los D's in the are too.

Vacation next week then I'll start trying to round up some MD-DC-VA HyR-ers for some drinking.

[Los Doyers (prev. RannedPall)]

I'm here. And am pleasantly surprised that there are bars in NoVa that allow smoking inside.

[Wasteland Wanderer]

Well, since Sloopy has moved to Virginia and is now "inva", "inca" is open.

[robc]

I should have changed mine to robc-inbg when I moved.

[jesse.in.mb]

robc-inbg

That has a nice cadence to it.

[Sudden]

With my handle, I leave the "in" part up to the reading public. Sudden, Sudd in where?

[Sudden]

WHEN DOES MAYA OPEN UP DAMNIT!?!?!

[Ted S.]

Damn you ISO 3166!

[Fist of Etiquette]

"I've been targeted, smeared, and tarnished," he said.

I'm pretty sure you're the one guilty of those, too, Ray.

[Suthenboy]

The Katrina tragedy is the best example, to my knowledge, of how corrupt and incompetent TOP. MEN. are to look after people's interests. The list of their crimes included theft, tyrannical violation of rights, rape, murder, indifference to suffering, arrogance and just plain stupidity and incompetence.

There were some govt agents, the boots on the ground type, not the ones with any power, who showed the best that human beings can be. Those were in the minority.

If you are unprepared to look after yourself, if you are counting on authorities to help you, you are going to be raped and preyed upon when disaster strikes.

Ten years is too short for 'ol Ray.

[jesse.in.mb]

Wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.

Optical illusion that causes the world around you to briefly look more fluid than it actually is.

[Brandon]

Is that really all people who don't take drugs think drugs do?

[Mad Scientist]

Drugs are bad, mmmkay?

[Brandon]

Not mmmkay. Drugs are generally awesome.

[Rich]

I know H&R posted on this earlier, but it's, um, amusing to contemplate the wonderful language in S.J.Res.19: "To advance the fundamental principle of political equality for all, and to protect the integrity of the legislative and electoral processes, Congress shall have power to regulate the raising and spending of money and in-kind equivalents with respect to Federal elections

[The Last American Hero]

In kind equivalents - does that include celebrity endorsements?

[Rich]

Let me answer that question by posing another: Do celebrity endorsements cross state lines?

[Suthenboy]

And pronouncements, pro and con, by 'the press'.

These fucking idiots are signaling to their bases. They don't have a chance in hell of passing that and they know it.

[Rich]

These fucking idiots are signaling to their bases.

Like a -- dare I say it -- "dog whistle"?

[Monkey's Uncle]

All your base are belong to us. Just sayin'

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Section 3. Nothing in this article shall be construed to grant
Congress the power to abridge the freedom of the press.

Of course, press is how we choose to define it.

[Rich]

"'Nothing', we say -- 'NOTHING!'"

[MJGreen]

Why shouldn't elected officials get to control the electoral process? Could anything go wrong?

[Injun, as in from India]

I still can't f****** believe this. The scumbags want to change what is quite conceivably one of the important texts in the history of humanity.

I hope it dies a quick, immediate death.

[Rich]

I'm pretty sure it will, but ...

"I'll be back." 8-(

[croaker]

I hope everyone who voted for it gets pancreatic cancer and is denied any pain medication stronger than Tylenol.

[Brandon]

"Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin had choice words for fans worried that he will die before finishing the series: "Fuck you." The Washington Free Beacon's Sonny Bunch writes that Martin should calm down, before he hurts himself.

Everybody else is going to die before the series is over, why should he be any different?

[BiMonSciFiCon]

It'd be the ultimate fuck you to the fans.

Definitely going to happen.

[The Last American Hero]

He's just mad because he has no idea how to bring the storylines together and wrap it up in a satisfying way.

C'mon Georgie, you've already exceeded the combined length of War and Peace and Lord of the Rings by 50 percent. Let's wrap it up.

[Stormy Dragon]

how to bring the storylines together

Four words: secret Targaryen Warg assassin

[BiMonSciFiCon]

He just needs to introduce a few more new characters and storylines only tangentially related to the storylines in the first three books, and then everything will come together perfectly.

[CE]

He could always start work on the prequels before wrapping up, just to make people nervous.

[Ted S.]

He's just mad because he has no idea how to bring the storylines together

It's called deus ex machina

[Dr. Fronkensteen]

**Spoliter**

The comet hits the planet and kills everyone.

[paranoid android]

Predictions for possible endings:

Jon Snow goes north of the Wall and finds the head of the Statue of Liberty buried in snow

Tyrion wakes up to go to his job as a janitor and finds his retarded son playing with a snowglobe depicting a land called Westeros

Jaime was Keyser Soze the whole time

[Stormy Dragon]

Rickon's direwolf ends up on the iron throne: it was all just a Shaggy Dog story.

[Sudden]

Is the second one from the movie Family Man? It sounds familiar but I can't place it.

[paranoid android]

St. Elsewhere.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.....ast_One.22

[paranoid android]

For the record, upon refreshing my memory with that article, I had forgotten the kid was actually autistic, not mentally disabled. I don't want people thinking I think they are the same thing.

I think I can get some slack since that show actually finished airing before I was even born.

[CE]

Or Ned Stark, Tywin Lannister, The Hound, The Viper, Joffrey, Drogo, Robb Stark, Renly, Ygritte, Shae and Catelyn could all file into a church, and learn that they were really dead at the bottom of the ocean all along, but that they weren't really in purgatory somehow.

[Bobarian]

Even if he was immortal, we'd all die before he finished.

[Suthenboy]

Heh.

[Stormy Dragon]

Discarded blanket found in desert causes conservative freakout over possibility there may be a muslim somewhere in Arizona:

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-G.....ontractors

[Rich]

Aren't the environmentalists all down with preventing plastic contamination of the oceans cloth contamination of the deserts?

[Palin's Buttplug]

You know Muslin terr-rists sneak across the Southern border all the time, right?

[Andrew S.]

Is it trying to make a joke? Is it trying to be sarcastic? Does it think it's on a right-wing blog again? I can never figure out its programming.

[Palin's Buttplug]

I am referencing perma-dumbass Louis Gohmert and his claim that Muslim baby terrorists sneak into Texas from Mexico.

[Ted S.]

People pay attention to what it posts?

[Monkey's Uncle]

Shrike bot gonna shrike . . .

[Cytotoxic]

Breitbart is full of retard no question there.

[PD Scott]

Apparently khat is becoming popular on the west coast.

According to Vice, there has been a boom in khat usage on the West Coast, particularly around the Bay Area. Last year, police reportedly seized two large quantities of khat ? about eight metric tons each ? during a mail inspection and had nearly 60 smaller finds of between ten and 50 kilos each, according to DEA data obtained by the publication.
The plant's effects have been compared to strong coffee, a less addictive cocaine, and (of course) green tea; "mild euphoria and excitement" are the desired outcomes. Generally, khat is consumed fresh because the strongest chemical ? cathinone, a schedule I drug in the U.S. as of 1993 ? breaks down within 48 hours, leaving only the milder cathine behind.

[Mad Scientist]

police reportedly seized two large quantities of khat ? about eight metric tons each ? during a mail inspection

A mail inspection? Someone mailed an 8-ton package? And the post office accepted it? I, uh, have my doubts.

[PD Scott]

Frankly the USPS should be glad for the business and look the other way.

[Rich]

LOL

[Ted S.]

Heaven forbid anybody wish to alter their brain chemistry in a way the government doesn't approve of.

[Palin's Buttplug]

ABC: Rosie O'Donnell Is Back On 'The View' -- and Sista Sarah is making noise about becoming a host?

That would be awesome and I have never watched that henfest. Two of the nastiest caricatures ever butting heads? Awesome.

[jesse.in.mb]

Zach Weinersmith, of SMBC fame, has an op-ed "The Laughing Muggers: What's a little violation of privacy between friends?"

He's critical of the contemporary handling of the 4th amendment, and of comedians who abet this.

Perhaps gentleness is a fine criterion for whether something is unreasonable or not. After all, if the copying of my secret collection of David Bowie fan fiction can help prevent a terrorist attack, it's a small price to pay, no? And yet, it is hard to imagine James Madison or Thomas Jefferson consenting to a Fourth Amendment Exception Clause, so long as the unsecuring of papers and effects was performed by, let's imagine, a team of trained ninjas. One visualizes an 18th century American gentleman, roused briefly from slumber by a soft rustling at the window. He does not know if it is the wind or the feline motion of the trained shinobi, but he sleeps better knowing that the President's Intelligencers are keeping tabs on the Foul Mohammedans.

I am a comedian. My job is to write jokes. There is a notion, especially popular among comedians, that comedy is a force for social good. Horseshit. Comedy is no more a force for good than a knife is. It cuts well when made well, yes, but it obeys the hilt-holder.

[Christophe]

He's right. But he's also on a list now.

[Jordan]

Damn, that was good.

[MJGreen]

Yep. That was excellent. He got me really riled up, but I'm glad.

[PD Scott]

DARPA researching electronic memory-restoring implants under the Restoring Active Memory program. It's aimed at using implantable "neuroprosthetics" to help army veterans and other people recover from memory deficits caused by brain injury or disease.

The project will start with an attempt to build computer models that replicate the fashion in which neurons code declarative memories, or "parcels of knowledge that can be consciously recalled and described in words, such as events, times, and places." Additionally, the researchers will try to establish methods of electrically stimulating targeted regions of the brain, in order to help it encode new memories in cases where damage has been preventing it from doing so.
Once those goals have been achieved, the next step will involve developing actual devices that utilize the computer models to deliver the memory-forming stimulation.

[Stormy Dragon]

WHOA... I know Kung Fu...

[Bobarian]

Nice Chuck reference.

+1 http://www.bing.com/images/sea.....ORM=IQFRBA

[Ted S.]

The government will try to use this to change people's memories.

[Mad Scientist]

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

[Sudden]

Or they'll use it to make us think we've never been ar war with Eastasia. Therefore, we all of sudden think "hey, we could totally win a war in Eastasia."

[Rich]

Hey, Ted -- Ever seen the film "Brainstorm"?

[Ted S.]

Not in quite some time. But it reminds me of a tasteless joke:

Q: What's the only kind of wood that doesn't float?
A: Natalie Wood.

[PD Scott]

Been a very long time, I recall (or do I?) it was pretty good. The misappropriation of the tech for experiential sexual purposes seems very accurate, given the way the internet has developed. If only they'd been prescient enough to throw in a funny cat video...

[Injun, as in from India]

+1 Total Recall

[croaker]

Gives new meaning to the phrase "memory hole"...

[Knarf Yenrab!]

This is memory implantation, as memories can't be "restored." Every memory you have is a memory of a memory, all the way back to the original memory that referenced an action. That's why your dad and uncle fight about something that happened 50 years before--they both know in their heart of hearts that they're right because they're accessing the 1000th generation of the original memory. Also why eyewitness testimony is absolute bullshit, especially once you're a few months or media reports removed from the instance. Every memory is fundamentally a narrative, and it changes every time you access it.

That said, this would be really interesting research if I had any clue what the neuroscientists were physically doing.

[PD Scott]

My understanding is they are hoping for a technological solution to the problem of memory encoding failure. Instead of tattooing one's self Memento-style you'd have a gizmo in your head encoding for you.

From the linked IEEE article:
If a person has a brain injury that knocks out some of those neurons, the whole circuit may malfunction, and the person will experience memory problems. But if electrodes can pick up the signal in the neurons upstream from the problem spot, and then convey that signal around the damage to intact neurons downstream, then the memory should function as normal.

[paranoid android]

My understanding is they are hoping for a technological solution to the problem of memory encoding failure. Instead of tattooing one's self Memento-style you'd have a gizmo in your head encoding for you.

Of course, if you remember how that movie ended/began, you'll hit upon the potential problem here--how do you know that what it's encoding is real?

[Protagoronus]

Hippocampus replacement/enhancement. They have tested this on rats already and successfully restored damaged memory function... with a computer!

I am studying up on this subject as a hobby. Here is a good paper:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm.....MC3141091/

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Thanks. I'm getting the transhumanist shivers just reading the abstract.

[Protagoronus]

Check out Ramez Naam for good fiction on the subject (he also has non-fiction out which I have not read yet).

Kurzweil - How to Create a Mind
and
Hawkins - On Intelligence
are great.

[Protagoronus]

(Kurzweil and Hawkins for non-fiction)

[Palin's Buttplug]

Slow news day again. This stupid fake "border crisis" has sucked all the crazy out of the right.

BUILD THAT WALL OBAMA! REAGAN WOULD!

(wingnut accent)

[jesse.in.mb]

We could talk about the tiny-eyed ginger who shot up his ex's sister's family in Texas while dressed as a delivery man, would that make you feel better?

Guns, gingers and Texans.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Shootings don't do a whole lot for me. I prefer political sleaze.

The toe-tapper Larry Craig? That had it all. Weiner was good but not close to Senator Craig and his "wide stance".

[Michael]

Ah, ha! I get it! It's because Craig was trolling for the buttseks, and homosexuality is something to truly be ashamed of, right?

[SugarFree]

It's not the first time he's emitted a foul cloud of homo-hate, Michael. Not even the 10th time.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Remember the Bergdahl fake scandal? That just fell like a lead balloon off the news.

[Cytotoxic]

That's okay. Benghazi won't. It's always going to be there.

[Sudden]

True story: I got cut off by the bartender during the US world cup match against Belgium because I kept saying awful things about the ginger that was dominating the pitch for Belgium.

The bartender was ginger. He also cut off my supply of therapeutic alcohol, a soulless act if ever there was one.

Way to confirm the stereotype, buddy.

[jesse.in.mb]

Gotta be careful with gingers, they bite. Sometimes it's all fun and playful, and sometimes you end up with salad-plate-sized bruises on every limb that last for two weeks.

I'm still a little disappointed I didn't turn into a were-ginger, although I'm glad I can still walk in the sunshine without bursting into flames.

[Obama's Buttplug]

Foul Mohammedans

For some reason, I read that as Ful Medames. Must be due to that damned hallucinogenic YouTube thingy I looked at.

[Palin's Buttplug]

Ahh, another imitator. I am the one and only true buttplug. It is in the scriptures.

[SusanM]

that last sentence has never been typed before.

[SusanM]

that penultimate sentence, i mean

[Obama's Buttplug]

Ahh, another imitator. I am the one and only true buttplug. It is in the scriptures.

Fuck off you useless cunt.

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Valar morghulis, motherfucker. Hurry up and finish the series.

[Jordan]

Somewhere, Brandon Sanderson is laughing maniacally...

[Bobarian]

Found out today that Anthony Cumia was fired from XM radio for some tweets after getting punched in face by black woman.

I'm a gonna cancel XM, just because he refused to apologize.

[Bobarian]

You know who else is an OnA Anthony fan?

This Guy

[Cytotoxic]

Zogby poll: Rand Paul leads the GOP field, by a lot, and in most subgroups. People with much more name recognition are well behind.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jo.....-a-little/

On the Dem side, Hillary dominates-and Warren barely registers. Bonus: "Sen. Warren is well behind among self-described liberals."

Hillary drives me to despair but I would take her over Warren-or Obama-any day of the week. At least Hillary seems like a clever-ish kind of despot.

[jesse.in.mb]

Haha, oh Russia: A Russian MP has demanded that a naked picture of Apollo on a banknote be removed, in case it turns children gay.

Liberal Democratic Party MP Roman Khudyakov has written to the country's Central Bank, calling for changes under the country's 'gay propaganda' law to the 100 rouble note ? worth about ?1.70 ? which features a statue of Apollo.

He said: "You can see clearly that Apollo is naked, you can see his genitalia.

The real statue of the Greek god ? at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow ? was itself censored in 2011, when it was covered up with a fig leaf.

[SugarFree]

It gives me a bit of a tingle in the bathing suit area. But I'm not choosy, I'll hump pretty much any classical statue.

[Obama's Buttplug]

John Ashcroft is a Russian MP?

[Heroic Mulatto]

Well it is Apollo, we're talking about. Dude, kinda has a point.

[jesse.in.mb]

HYAKINTHOS (or Hyacinthus) was a handsome young Spartan prince loved by the gods Apollon and Zephyros. The West Wind grew jealous of his rival in love, and one day as the pair were playing discus, blew the discus off course causing it to strike Hyakinthos in the head and kill him.

I'm confused why they didn't just spitroast him and call it a day. Greek gods are funny like that.

[Coeus]

SJW lies about a comic and starts a twitter campaign to get the author fired.

Obviously, she is the true victim.

I've been accused of trying to ruin someone's life.

I've been infantilized, condescended to, pat on the head and told that my money doesn't matter, that I was hysterical and irrational, that I was making too much out of nothing, that I was a prude.

I've had to answer the question "did you actually read the book?" more times than I can count, and every time the question's asked with that cruel, invisible "sweetheart" at the end.

I've lost an incredible amount of respect for creators whose art and writing I enjoyed.

all because I had the audacity to raise my voice, to hold an opinion that differs from the norm. because I refused to be silent about the worrying, ever-increasing acceptance of violence against and violation of women in the media I pay to consume.

Horrors. Also mentions rape and death threats. Wonder what she thinks the author she lied about got?

[Coeus]

Wherein she discusses her motivations for lying.

Strangly, nowhere in that bullshit screed does she mention that the guy is a straight white male. I'm sure that had nothing to do with it.

Love this:

It is not the fault of the reader for being offended.

It is the fault of the editorial and creative team for leaving things as serious as this to interpretation.

It is if the reader can't fucking be bothered to read it.

[Coeus]

Jezebel is on the case.

How dare they not abjectily apologize for something they never did. This poor girl is the true victim. All they had to do was apologize.

Bounus, they reference a previous comic rape hoax like it really happened:

He dug his disgusting hole deeper by using the example of the outcry over an issue of Superior Spider-Man where Mary Jane believes she's having sex with Peter Parker, but is in fact bumping uglies Doc Ock in Peter Parker's body (COMICS, everybody). You know what that is? That's rape. MJ consented to sex with Peter Parker, and thats NOT the man she was having sex with. When you impersonate another person in order to have sex with someone, that is rape

Cept it never happened. It was another SJW scam.

[BiMonSciFiCon]

Facts, shmacts. You can prove anything with facts.

[jesse.in.mb]

I'm actually confused. What's the original incident that she's upset about?

[Knarf Yenrab!]

I think somebody failed to click on one of Jezebel's Google ads. But I get confused.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

I'm actually confused. What's the original incident that she's upset about?

What makes a man like Ringo, Doc? What makes him do the things he does?

A man like Ringo has got a great big hole, right in the middle of him. He can never kill enough, or steal enough, or inflict enough pain to ever fill it.

What does he need?

Revenge.

For what?

Bein' born.

[Trouser-Pod]

Damn, DwT! That's a damn fine use of that scene. Modern-day proglodytes really are the new Cowboy clan.

[SugarFree]

jesse,

Captain America #22 features a sexual encounter between two characters. The female of the couple went into a dimension where time runs faster, left 13 and came back 23, and she lived all those years in between. The SJW--who is so passionate about comics she apparently doesn't read them very closely--thought the girl was still 13 and freaked out about statutory rape and demanded that the writer be fired and various other heads to roll.

Everything since then has been her trying to hand-wave away the fact that she was stone wrong about what happened. Rather than retracting or even apologizing about being wrong, she's doubling down on acting like a tard.

[Coeus]

Ahh, yes that's probably what he was asking. I figured he was asking why she lied and what her true motivations were for lying.

[Sudden]

Look, her tumblr page is preferenced with a Bukowski quote at the top.

Charles Bukowski quotes are like a preening leftist symbol that they haven't any taste, wit, or sophistication whatsoever. It is a marker that demonstrates to intelligent and rational people to veer away from the den of derp that accompanies the person who quoted Bukowski.

And mind you, I have nothing against drunks in principle.

[Sudden]

preferenced

prefaced.

I can't type today.

[jesse.in.mb]

left 13 and came back 23, and she lived all those years in between.

Ok, now I understand the scenario, but the comic book authorities fell for that?

"But officer she was in an alternate dimension. Sure her ID says 13...no, I understand her birthday was in 2001...but look at those titties. Those aren't 13 year old titties!"

[Heroic Mulatto]

Comics Code is long gone, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund actually owns the copyright to the seal. Really!

[jesse.in.mb]

Comics Code is long gone, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund actually owns the copyright to the seal. Really!

That's excellent, but I meant in-universe authorities. Who watches the watchmen, and all that.

[Coeus]

It was apparently established for most of the series run. They just made the age explicit before the sex, figuring to avoid an honest misunderstanding.

They didn't anticipate an intentional misunderstanding (though they should've after the spiderman thing).

[It's a wagon wheel!]

Ok, now I understand the scenario, but the comic book authorities fell for that?

I can see it, Steve Rogers is 96 years old.

[Coeus]

I'm actually confused. What's the original incident that she's upset about?

He killed off a female character. Which, as we know, is a crime against all womyn kind.

Also, he's da great white debil. So of course she was completely justified in lying. And anyone who asks her why she didn't read it is a condensing jerk (honestly, that question is too kind, since it's giving her the benefit of the doubt).

[Notorious G.K.C.]

Look, jesse, it's *very* simple:

"Jet Black Zola, genetically engineered daughter of Arnim Zola, resident of Dimension Z, plied Sam Wilson with wine and the two ended up sleeping together, an act that Sam almost immediately regretted."

Geez, do we have to explain *everything* to you?

[Knarf Yenrab!]

and every time the question's asked with that cruel, invisible "sweetheart" at the end.

Every time you people respond to one of my posts, it's with that cruel, invisible "asshole" at the end.

You bunch of pricks!

[Sudden]

I think you might just be fantasizing about shoving things up you

[Sudden]

that should end in your.

damn can i ruin a fucking joke or what.

[Carl ?s his privilege]

Whatever you say,

[Knarf Yenrab!]

Prick.

[Carl ?s his privilege]

wut?

[SugarFree]

My hometown made the news! Sort of.

[Obama's Buttplug]

I refused to be silent about the worrying, ever-increasing acceptance of violence against and violation of women in the media I pay to consume.

Then stop paying for it, bitch.

[Heroic Mulatto]

ever-increasing acceptance of violence against and violation of women in the media I pay to consume.

Ever-increasing? Have you ever read a Bronze-Age comic, sweetheart?

[Knarf Yenrab!]

What part of "invisible" don't you understand?

[Carl ?s his privilege]

I read something about "Tijuana Bibles" or something a while back.

There was some fucked up shit in some of them. One had a chair that came to life and raped the women that sat in in, or something like that.

[Coeus]

You're missing the point. There should only be violence towards men in the comics. That makes the sexes equal.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

I feel tempted to share this Salon piece from February, and since it's Troll Appreciation Thursday, I will:

"I lost my dad to Fox News: How a generation was captured by thrashing hysteria...

"EDWIN LYNGAR...

"My dad is 67 years old, a full year younger than the average Fox viewer, who is 68, according to an analysis in New York magazine by columnist Frank Rich. I've read accounts of people my age ? 40 or so ? losing parents to cancer or Alzheimer's, but just as big a tragedy are the crops of grandmothers and grandfathers debilitated by Fox News-induced hysteria....

"When I finally pulled the handle for Obama in 2012, my father could not believe how far I'd fallen. I have avoided talking politics with him as much as possible ever since. Last week, I invited him to my house for dinner with the express purpose of talking about politics and most especially his Fox News addiction. Since he retired, he only watches Fox. As we started chatting up politics, I repeated one mantra over and over: "Please, please, consume another source of information." I repeated my plea a dozen times. He defended with stridency his choices....

"...To some people the idea of retirees yelling at the television all day may seem funny, but this isn't a joke. We're losing the nation's grandparents, and it's an American tragedy."

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/2....._hysteria/

[jesse.in.mb]

His father should backhand him and tell him that Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart aren't a diverse set of information sources.

[Notorious G.K.C.]

At least it's not a generation watching the Golden Girls.