insignificant thoughts

This is the woman Jesse James cheated on Sandra Bullock with (allegedly).

I know Sandra ain’t lookin’ as good as she did in Speed or The Net these days, but honestly, I’d take Sandra at her worst over this thing.

It’s been a bad Sunshine Week for President Obama.

First, the Associated Press reports that the Obama administration blocked Freedom of Information Act requests at a higher rate than the Bush administration.

And today, the president signed the HIRE Act — which passed the Senate yesterday. So much for Obama’s promise to post bills online for Americans to review for five days after they pass before signing them.

Yet another bill passes without the five day review we were promised.

Not that I expected him to keep his promises, but it’s insane that the media who touted his promises as reasons to elect him are not holding his feet to the fire for not keeping them.

Because content owners large and small use YouTube in so many different ways, determining a particular copyright holder’s preference or a particular uploader’s authority over a given video on YouTube is difficult at best. And in this case, it was made even harder by Viacom’s own practices.

For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately “roughed up” the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko’s to upload clips from computers that couldn’t be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt “very strongly” that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.

Viacom’s efforts to disguise its promotional use of YouTube worked so well that even its own employees could not keep track of everything it was posting or leaving up on the site. As a result, on countless occasions Viacom demanded the removal of clips that it had uploaded to YouTube, only to return later to sheepishly ask for their reinstatement. In fact, some of the very clips that Viacom is suing us over were actually uploaded by Viacom itself.

Given Viacom’s own actions, there is no way YouTube could ever have known which Viacom content was and was not authorized to be on the site. But Viacom thinks YouTube should somehow have figured it out. The legal rule that Viacom seeks would require YouTube — and every Web platform — to investigate and police all content users upload, and would subject those web sites to crushing liability if they get it wrong.

Frankly, Viacom’s behavior should be enough to get this whole thing thrown out. I hope YouTube has locked down proof that the uploads were done by Viacom and embarrasses the hell out of them with that revelation.

As for Viacom? Wow, what a bunch of scumbags.

Councilwoman Letitia “Tish” James (D-Fort Greene) is suing a day laborer for causing “serious, severe and permanent [injuries] to her limbs and body” after she walked into a four-inch trailer hitch protruding from the back of his parked car. According to court documents cited in the Brooklyn Paper, James says she suffered “great physical and mental pain” when she brushed against the hitch and cut her leg in Fort Greene last July.

After parking behind the itinerant worker’s car on Fulton Street between S. Portland Avenue and S. Oxford Street, James says she hurt her leg while walking between the vehicles. “It’s a public safety issue,” said James, who claims the incident left her with a seven-inch scar. “My car was parked and his car was parked. His hitch was exposed.”

Jesus Christ on a pony, really?

Wow…

So you’re a clumsy dope and he has to pay for it?

*facepalm*

Along the same lines, quit denouncing lawyers who were representing suspected terrorists. Legal representation is essential to our justice system. There’s no way an alleged terrorist can defend himself otherwise. If they can’t defend themselves are we to believe that our government won’t imprison innocent people? The reason we live in a free society is that we have checks against government power. We make sure (as best we can) that the government is locking up real criminals. Taking this away means reducing freedom in America.

Yep. That pretty much sums it up for me and I agree 100%.

His other point, that Eric Holder should not back down on civilian trials, is also 100% correct, so go read and enlighten yourself.

Oh. My. God.

Now that I’ve seen her face, I wish I didn’t know what she did.

Dear Microsoft, you did a good job at out-Appling Apple with the Windows Phone 7. At least on paper. But instead of trying to beat them completely, it seems that you want to screw it all with two stupid decisions.

The first one: Eliminate application multitasking. After making fun of Apple’s iPhone for not supporting multitasking, you are exactly following Apple’s task model… just when it seems that they are bringing multitasking with iPhone OS 4.0.

Let me get this straight: The biggest smartphone on the planet, the one you are trying desperately to beat, may implement multitasking in its next revision, and you decide not to do it? Even if multitasking doesn’t materialize in the iPhone OS 4.0, don’t you think it would be good to come up with a way to allow it, and introduce your smartphone as the better alternative? No? Yes? Maybe? Come on.

And then… then there is copy and paste.

You and your fans didn’t just make fun of the iPhone’s lack of copy and paste—which lasted until iPhone OS 3.0. You just couldn’t stop laughing and pointing your finger at it and doing faces and sticking your tongue out. But now, when it’s your turn, you are not including copy and paste. Please, allow me to try to put this to you as mildly as possible:

Are you out of your fucking mind? What kind of fuckassery is this, Microsoft?

Mind you, I didn’t think any of these things were dealbreakers with iPhone OS 1.0 and I don’t think they’re any more of a dealbreaker with Windows Mobile 7. I just find it hysterical that Windows fanbois are apt to ignore their criticisms of the iPhone (many of them said that without these two features, the iPhone wasn’t even a smartphone at all) and run screaming to the greatness that is Microsoft with the same shortcomings.

In reality, most of them have just proven what Apple people have said all along: that most criticisms levied against Apple were from people who are rabid Apple hating Microsoft coattail riders.

Now, that being said, I’m looking forward to Windows Mobile 7. Apple needs some competition to wake it up. Android, despite its large number of handset installs, doesn’t seem to be doing it, Palm is practically out of business, and a recent survey said 40% of RIM customers would switch to iPhones if they could.

Microsoft has a chance, as Diaz says, to be the better alternative for a lot of people. The question is will they pull it off, or will they end up looking like they’re trying to “out-Apple apple.”

Either way, Diaz’s rant left me with a warm fuzzy feeling. Big time.

Stephanie Seymour is better looking than your mom.

That’s okay, though.

She’s better looking than 99.9% of moms on earth.

Humanists Prepare to Hold LGBT-Inclusive Prom in Mississippi

For Immediate Release

(Washington, DC, March 12, 2010) The American Humanist Association (AHA) stepped forward today and offered to plan and fund a prom for the Itawamba County Agricultural High School in Mississippi. The Itawamba County School District made headlines earlier this week by cancelling their prom rather than letting a lesbian student, Constance McMillen, bring her girlfriend as her date.

“It’s shameful that closed-minded members of the school board are prepared to deprive an entire class of students their prom over their outdated religious mores.” said Roy Speckhardt, Executive Director of the AHA. “People can hold to any belief or no belief in this nation, but the school board misuses their position when they try to impose their beliefs on the student population in Itawamba.”

McMillen was barred from the prom after making it known that she intended to bring a same-sex date. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Mississippi became involved and demanded the school reverse its policy. The school board responded by cancelling the prom.

“The ACLU is doing good work in Mississippi, and we humanists can also bring resources to the table that will defend students from a repressive school board,” added Speckhardt. “Prom is a special event for teens across America; we’ll make sure it’s a special night for these students as well.”

AHA members Todd and Diana Stiefel made a $20,000 grant available to the AHA for the purpose of holding a prom in Itawamba County. The AHA will be discussing logistics with the pertinent parties today.

Humanists and freethinkers have a history of speaking up for the rights of all. The AHA was among the first to support civil rights, equal pay for equal work, and the right of same-sex couples to marry. Recently the AHA launched the LGBT Humanist Council to advance equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their families. (www.lgbthumanists.org).

The American Humanist Association (www.americanhumanist.org) advocates for the rights and viewpoints of humanists. Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., its work is extended through more than 100 local chapters and affiliates across America.

Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism, affirms our responsibility to lead ethical lives of value to self and humanity.

Have a great time kids!

Company officials are reviewing security tapes after an announcement was made for “all black people” to leave a southern New Jersey Walmart store.

Shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday, a male voice came over the public-address system at the Route 42 store in Washington Township and calmly announced: “Attention Walmart customers: All black people leave the store now.”

Management later apologized.

Washington Township police and the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office are investigating the incident as a possible bias crime.

Alright, it’s a joke. A prank. A not so funny one but a prank nonetheless.

A bias crime? Really?

“Nearly 40% of the new housing created from 1990 to 2005 were illegal apartments. Many of them are in basements or cellars. These units exist because there isn’t enough affordable housing in NYC.” -Seema Agnani, Executive Director, Chhaya Community Development Corporation

No, they exist because owners are greedy and/or mortgages are ridiculously inflated in this city. There is plenty of “affordable” housing here. Of course if all you can afford is to split your rent with 4 other people because you are here illegally and work for less than minimum wage, then perhaps not.

Oh, the rest is just as good, too. As it always is.

I love Queens Crap. One of the best local blogs in my fair city.

The Blog Prof links to Chris Horner’s article at Pajamas Media that details how Barack Obama, George Soros, and wind energy lobbyists colluded to hide the details of two economic studies that showed the wind energy programs in Spain and Denmark didn’t help the economy and create jobs as the president said they did. I’m only including a small portion of Chris’s article, but it’s chock full of very interesting nuggets of information about how the Obama administration tried to undermine the credibility of the two studies:

Lots of red meat in this one, folks. Just start reading, follow the links, and enjoy.

Teenagers who looked for work last summer were out of luck. The teen unemployment rate rose to a record high of 25.5 percent in August of 2009, up from 23.8 percent in July. This was more than ten points higher than the record 9.7 percent national unemployment rate announced in September of 2009. The teenage unemployment rate last year was at its highest level since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began keeping track of such data in 1948.

This chart comes from The Wall Street Journal via Carpe Diem

That’s a pretty stark chart, isn’t it?

Of course, people will argue that correlation isn’t causation and to a degree they’re right, but the numbers don’t lie and that logical fallacy argument only looks like trying to explain away the obvious.

A quick Yahoo! search on “longest word in English language” led me to this page from the Oxford Dictionary. The language enthusiasts listed a slew of candidates for the longest word in the English language. Some contenders: radioimmunoelectrophoresis (length: 26 letters; definition: no clue, but probably something medical), floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters; “the estimation of something as valueless“), and antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters; “opposition to the withdrawal of state support or recognition from an established church“).

All hilariously long words, but according to the Oxford Dictionary, one word trumps ‘em all: the little used “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.” That’s 45 letters, kids. Dictionary.com explains that it refers to “a lung disease caused by silica dust.” The word is, thankfully, quite obscure, so some might argue that it doesn’t count. However, Oxford explains that the word (which I refuse to re-type) is included in its dictionaries. So, I say the title belongs to it.

And there you have it.

I honestly have never heard that word in my life, although looking at it, I don’t even know how one would even pronounce it anyway.