If I could stand up and cheer, I would. Wait, what am I talking about. Of course I can stand up and cheer. In response to a takedown by Six Apart, the parent company of LiveJournal of various incest/pedophilia fiction (disgusting, I know, stay with me folks), they said the following:

While there are stories, essays, and discussions that include discussion of these issues in an effort to understand and prevent them, others use a pretext to promote these activities. It’s often very hard to tell the difference.

One reader took issue with that quote, and rightly nailed a perfectly worded response:

Well, yeah. That’s the entire reason ideals like freedom of speech exist: because it’s not just *hard* to tell the difference between good and bad speech — it’s *impossible* to set an objective standard that everyone agrees on. So the only policy that’s safe from turning into tyranny is to allow all speech, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you. Yes, people could be harmed; yes, even children. Freedom is more important.

Well said, Dan. That is 100% correct.

Yes there’s all kinds of stuff that kids shouldn’t see, but what if I like my kids to see porn and you don’t? Whose standards do we abide by? You can’t just reflexively say the most restrictive one because who are you to make standards for everyone?

Yes, sometimes your kids will see something that hurts them. You can try and shield your kids and I will help you do that. I’m all for parents controlling their own destinies, but I’m also all about you keeping your standards inside your four walls and behind your front door. Once your standards start impeding my right to view content I want, then your standards are oppressive and tyrannical, content notwithstanding.

It really is that simple.

via Boing Boing

Verizon, bastions of all that is good and right with the world of de-regulated telecom and company with solid ethics, moral fiber, and business integrity, are now about to start chariging you $4 a month instead of $2 a month for the mere crime of not using your fucking long distance.

No, I’m not kidding. They’re going to charge you for not using a service.

Consumerist is ripe with indignation over this:

In case you weren’t aware, Verizon charges you a $2 fee for the “ability” to make long-distance calls. The only way to get this fee removed is to have your long-distance service blocked or to make more than $2 worth of calls every month. Sound stupid? Well, according to the bill that reader Troy just got, that stupid fee is about to double.

This has to be the dumbest thing ever. Seriously.

At a recent economic development summit, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs resolved to negotiate revenue sharing with MTS for transmissions signals that cross the land, water and air space of their reserves and traditional territories.

“[The request is] based on the understanding that we do have some fundamental rights as indigenous people to land, water and airspace,” said Chief Ovide Mercredi of the Grand Rapids First Nation.

“When it comes to using airspace, it’s like using our water and simply because there’s no precedent doesn’t mean that it’s not the right thing to do,” he said.

I want payment, too. His bullshit is invading my airspace and I can it all the way down here. Hopefully the Canadian Government will give him a right ole middle finger in the face, eh?

I almost want to try this to see if I can replicate the result…

My husband has been dealing with a particularly nasty summer cold and it’s making it difficult for him to fall asleep. Shortly after midnight one evening, he asked me to run to the store and pick him up some medicine. I agreed because I’m nice like that.

After selecting a bottle of Nyquil and my Husband’s favorite brand of ice cream, it was time to check-out. I elected to go through the self check-out lane because the group of kids who normally jockeyed the registers looked thoroughly engrossed in a conversation about their parents sucking or their jobs sucking or who de-friended them on myspace recently or whatever and I didn’t want to interrupt them. Besides, I have two fully functioning arms. I am capable of scanning and bagging my own ice cream.

However, after I scanned my items, the computer started beeping.

“You have selected an age restricted item. Please wait for a cashier,” it said.

“What the Hell?” I mused, “Ice cream and Nyquil is age restricted now?”

A teenager with a lip piercing and bad dye job came rushing over. “Can I see your ID?” she chirped.

“What did I order that needs ID?” I asked.

She looked over my purchases and shrugged. “I guess it’s the Nyquil.”

Read the rest. If it ended there, it would be hysterical enough, but of course it doesn’t which is why I actually posted it.

Enough of me. Go read her.

The Democrats and the most ethical congress in history march on. You may remember this as the fight that got Murtha in a bit of hot water with no one and had him threatening to remove all earmarks from Mike Rogers’ future bills (a clear violation of House rules that warranted zero response or reprimand from the impotent and uneffective Speaker, Nancy Pelosi).

Here’s CNN on where $39,000,000 almost went (hint: Murtha’s back yard) and how Rogers caught this “oversight.”

Naturally, Murtha’s response is that he won’t do a CNN interview about it and that he won’t share his other earmark requests. Guess he doesn’t want anyone finding any more “oversights.”

via Hotair.com

Here’s the post office’s schedule for the branch near my office. See if you see anything odd about it.

The ratings picture is getting worse for CBS’ “Evening News With Katie Couric.”

Last week, the network’s flagship newscast drew its smallest audience since 1987, according to Nielsen Media Research.

ABC’s “World News With Charles Gibson,” on the other hand, recorded its fifth straight week as the most-watched evening newscast on the air.

The weekly win comes just as Gibson is marking his first year as the sole anchor of ABC’s news.

Last week, “World News” averaged 7.78 million viewers.

NBC’s “Nightly News With Brian Williams,” once the dominant evening newscast, was second, with 7.19 million viewers. CBS’ “Evening News” averaged 5.96 million viewers.

“World News” has been No. 1 12 times in the past 16 weeks, according to Nielsen.

Based on an analysis of the ratings for the 2006-2007 season, the period in which Couric has been the face of CBS News, the “Evening News” has lost ground compared with the year before. Most of the decline has come among men aged 25 to 54 (off 11%) and adults older than 55 (10%).

So personality-driven news doesn’t work either…

You have to wonder what idiot in the head offices of CBS (and God knows there are plenty of ‘em) thought that hiring a glorified feature reporter as a news reader would actually raise ratings. There is a certain portion of people in this country who turns on their news to get news by someone who does more than read off a teleprompter.

Say what you want about Bob Schieffer, but he was the prototypical evening news anchor. So are Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson. Katie Couric? Daytime host who’s shockingly out of her element and it shows both in her broadcast and in the response thereto.

Source: NY Daily News

Reuters: Straight pub wins right to ban gays

An Australian hotel catering for hetrosexuals has won the right to ban homosexuals from its bars so as to provide a comfortable venue for straight men not wanting to associate with homosexuals.

In what is believed to be a first for Australia, the Victorian state civil and administrative tribunal ruled last week that the Peel Hotel in the southern city of Melbourne could exclude patrons based on their sexuality.

Australia’s equal opportunity laws prevent people being discriminated against based on race, religion or sexuality.

But Peel Hotel owner Tom McFeely said the ruling was necessary to provide straight men with a homosexual-free atmosphere where they may be free of increasingly aggressive advances by emboldened homsexuals.

“If I can limit the number of homosexuals entering the Peel, then that helps me keep the safe balance,” Peel told Australian radio on Monday.

McFeely said that, while the hotel welcomed everyone, its straight clientele had expressed discomfort over the number of homosexuals coming to the venue in the past year.

He said there were more than 2,000 venues in Melbourne that catered to homosexuals, but his hotel was the only one marketing itself exclusively to heterosexuals.

Tone down the outrage-o-meter… It didn’t quite happen that way…

via Stop the ACLU

(Amazing how it suddenly became okay after you followed the link explaining it, huh?)

What? You mean people don’t care about a whiny little has-been? Color me stunned…

It’s been five months, so it’s time to see how it’s going: It’s been a complete joke and colossal waste of time and space. FM didn’t sell a single ad for me, (apparently, I’m not the only person to have this problem, so caveat emptor, bloggers) and while I’ve been running Google ads where the FM ads should have been, that was more trouble than it was worth. It’s just not worth less than $200 a month to deal with Bill O’Reilly and John McCain ads sitting there neo-conning the place up. I tried to take a hands off approach to advertising, but it left a really bad taste in my mouth, and since my blog is sort of an extension of me, what I still believe is a good business decision (content agnostic advertising) just isn’t right for me personally.

Yeah… It’s all Federated Media’s fault that no one wants an ad on your stupid blog. When was the last time Wil Wheaton was relevant again? Oh right… Never…

Now this part really gets me…

I decided over the weekend that it’s just not right for me. My focus here needs to be on enjoying writing in my blog (the whole reason I started it) instead of worrying whether the ads are running and earning and not being lame. While I feel like I may be leaving a bit of money on the table, a cost/benefit analysis says it’s not worth the constant headaches to try and make it work.

What constant headaches? You throw the ads up and if they make money, they make money. If they don’t, they don’t. It’s one thing to wonder about the content of the ads, but saying that having them at all is a hassle is just flat out dumb.

He wraps it up with an even bigger whopper…

I’m very happy with the RSS advertising that Feedburner puts into my RSS stream, and those are actually returning a meaningful amount of college fund revenue, so that’s going to stick around, but for the foreseeable future, there won’t be any actual advertising on my blog.

Oh yeah… Because they were beating a path to your door to advertise there to begin with.

Get a grip dude.

via Valleywag

WTF Podshow? Is Adam Curry’s pink jumper too tight?

“We believe technology is ready for primetime, and Dvorak is the man for the job,” said Ron Bloom, CEO and Co founder of PodShow. “Typical technology channels are really just listings of programming, featuring boring talking heads or uninformed rants. PodShow TECH will feature personality driven content with a healthy dose of attitude… fair, but not necessarily impartial… accurate but also exciting.”

Personality driven content? Holy crap what a load of bullshit that is.

First of all, the idea that “technology is ready for primetime” isn’t a new one. ZDTV / TechTV / G4-TechTV / G4 thought that and look how well that worked out.

Secondly, to say most tech channels are listings and boring talking heads is bullshit. TWiT has done more for podcasting and technology than anything Curry has ever touched including the most popular shows on Podshow, GeekBrief (which I love) and whatever the hell Adam Curry’s podcast is. None of Leo’s shows are boring or uninformed.

Cali, as much as I love her, sells herself as a cute perky host with a jones for tech. That’s her niche and I think she does it well. She’s quite informed and knowledgeable. Let’s not kid ourselves, though. GeekBrief is as much about style as it is about substance. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the idea that suddenly Podshow is going to move from the flamboyant Curry and the perky Cali to a more “edgy” and “personality-driven” format and that the person who’s going to lead that personality charge is JOHN C. FUCKING DVORAK (who I also love) is ludicrous. You don’t go “old media” to create revolutionary new media. Dvorak is as “old media” as it gets, and despite his knowledge of the industry, he’s not the kind of guy I’d want leading my new media technology venture.

The minute I heard this, I thought that Dvorak was hired for who he knows more than who he is. Adam Curry may have unintentionally said the same exact thing in a quote on the news release:

“In life, technology is no longer in the back row seat; it is now taking center stage… PodShow TECH will reflect that change,” says PodShow President and Co founder Adam Curry. “John is the perfect anchor, combining his legendary insight, on-camera personality and extensive rolodex to help us keep the channel fresh, informative, entertaining and relevant.”

Uh huh… That rolodex is a secondary thing.

Podshow has done right by its content creators, but Curry and Bloom have proven themselves to be a bunch of delusional asses with this release.

I did want to hit on one other thing, though. Personality-driven niche content doesn’t always play well. I brought up the comparison to Food Network in the title of this post. Here’s why.

In February, a notoriously brilliant man named Anthony Bourdain (if you don’t know him, wake the fuck up people) wrote the following…

I actually WATCH Food Network now and again, more often than not drawn in by the progressive horrors on screen. I find myself riveted by its awfulness, like watching a multi-car accident in slow motion. Mesmerized at the ascent of the Ready-Made bobblehead personalities, and the not-so-subtle shunting aside of the Old School chefs, I find myself de-constructing the not-terrible shows, imagining behind the scenes struggles and frustrations, and obsessing unhealthily on the Truly Awful ones. Screaming out loud at Sandra Lee in disbelief as she massacres another dish, then sits grinning, her face stretched into a terrifying rictus of faux cheer for the final triumphant presentation. I mourn for Mario..and Alton…Bobby and yes–even Emeril, nobly holding the fort while the TV empire he helped build crumbles like undercooked Bundt cake into a goo of Cheez Wiz around him.

Imagine Tech shows with cute girls, “edgy” content (think guitar riffs as that’s said) and “big” personalities.

It’s been done, guys, and it never works.

via Podshow.com

Not that all politicians don’t do this, but it’s interesting that it’s still happening because we heard in November about what a change we would be seeing with Democrats in charge.

The only thing that has changed, apparently, are party lines.

via Hotair.com

From my favorite cranky curmudgeon:

No one under the age of 70 needs self-esteem. It does teenagers no good, every high school is Lord of the Flies writ large and illegibly, and once they’ve achieved adulthood it’s more trouble to maintain than it’s worth. Besides, the little shits can’t add.

Talking about why kids hate school, and what should be taught there. Go read the whole thing. You’ll be doing a lot of nodding.

• Pocket PC Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves
  (tags: windowsmobile youtube flash flv tcpmp)

Dyslexia is a social fig leaf used by middle-class parents who fear their children will be labelled as low achievers, a professor has claimed.

Julian Elliott, a leading educational psychologist at Durham University, says he has found no evidence to identify dyslexia as a medical condition after more than 30 years of research.

“There is a huge stigma attached to low intelligence,” he said.

“After years of working with parents, I have seen how they don’t want their child to be considered lazy, thick or stupid.

“If they get called this medically diagnosed term, dyslexic, then it is a signal to all that it’s not to do with intelligence.”

I tend to feel the same way about ADD or ADHD or whatever condition they’ve assigned to being a kid these days.

Supporters of the condition argue that dyslexics are intelligent people who have difficulties processing information and need extra help and time than others who are poor readers.

But Professor Elliott has claimed that the symptoms of dyslexia - such as clumsiness and letter reversal - are similar to those seen in those who simply cannot read.

He argues that the condition should be rediagnosed as a reading difficulty.

Difficulties processing information?

I’m not bagging on people but no one seems to have ever proven that dyslexia actually exists as anything more than an excuse for people not being able to read. Something tells me if you held a book up to someone known to be illiterate and someone who’s been “diagnosed” as dyslexic, the number of similarities would be startling.

However, other experts have suggested that parents are putting their children forward for reading ability assessments to “get them off the hook”.

Dr Michael Rice, a dyslexia and literacy expert at Cambridge University, said: “There is a sense of justification when children are diagnosed.

“It gets them off the hook of great embarrassment and personal inadequacy.”

Again, it sounds like ADD / ADHD. If your kid is a chronic misbehavor or an antsy hyperactive kid, you can name it a condition, get a drug to sedate them, and call yourself a great parent. I think these guys are right on, frankly.

Finally, this stat…

“On one degree course I teach, about one quarter of the students get help with their coursework and other assistance because they have this label. You become quite cynical.”

The number of students who receive disability allowances at university has risen to a record 35,500 at a cost of £78.4million a year.

Nice.

One more quote from a commenter on the story who really nails it:

I can recall only one person from my schooldays, at both Junior and Grammar, who had difficulty with their reading. During my working life I encountered one or two - so why are there so many now? I could read a little and write my name when I started school at four, so perhaps parents no longer read with their children. Everything now has to have a name or, worse, a syndrome which excuses everything from poor reading to bad behaviour.

- Jill, Valencia, Spain

Maybe it’s all the homework

Technorati Tags: dyslexia, bullshit

Many people have asked me why I paid for Calico when I also paid for Photoshop CS3 and CS3 has a great panorama tool. Now that is true, and the pano tool in Photoshop is enormously improved, but let’s not kid ourselves. There’s no comparison between what Calico does versus what Photoshop CS3 does.

Here’s Photoshop CS2:

Note the unevenly exposed sky and the discontinuity in the building and on the fence (some of the fence was broken, but it’s less than what’s here.

Here’s Photoshop CS3:

Note how the exposure in the sky is more even, but the building looks like it’s about to collapse to the right.

Here’s Calico:

Aside from the lens correction that Photoshop does the blending is significantly better in the Calico version. It seems better at finding details and matching points. CS3 is probably fine for most people, but even though Calico isn’t free, it’s a no-brainer as far as I’m concerned.

Technorati Tags: calico, photoshop, panorama, photomerge

So you would think that Google would’ve capitulated to the right-wing pressure after last year (and the year before, and the year before that) with the whole “You didn’t update your logo for Memorial Day, therefore you’re unpatriotic” bullshit. Thankfully, they didn’t, and they didn’t just update their logo to appease the right-wing patriotism police.

The funniest part, of course, is that they seem almost beside themselves about it.

Here’s a clip from Newsbusters:

Well, citizens, America’s leading search engine, and one of the most powerful forces on the Internet, has once again ignored Memorial Day.

As NewsBusters reported last year:

I’m sure most Googlers are extremely aware of how Google will dress up its logo at its web search or news pages in honor of holidays or special occasions…Yet, if you go to Google’s home page here, or its news page here, you will see nothing commemorating today’s national holiday.

One might have thought that after last year’s scrutiny, Google might have capitulated. Not so.

How dare they not take us seriously and simply give in to our bullying! HOW DARE THEY!

Do I think Google should celebrate Memorial Day? Probably. They have lots of holidays in there that mean nothing to most people. That being said, omission is not a slap of any kind. They don’t change their logo for Labor Day (ever see a union lose their shit?), Columbus Day, Father’s Day (that’s right folks, they change it for Mother’s Day, even though they haven’t changed it for Father’s day in 2 years), Washington’s Birthday, Lincoln’s Birthday, or the birthday of the Constitution.

Seriously, folks get a grip.

It hasn’t escaped me that most of the people who think Google is unpatriotic for not changing their logo have no problem with a President who’s leaving our soldiers in a shithole indefinitely to get shot at by terrorists while vetoing spending to make political statements about getting those guys out of there and lighting a fire under the asses of the Iraqis to actually start cleaning up their country.

Because, after all, supporting the troops is all about letting them rot in a desert while making political statements with their funding and having no exit strategy.

But Google’s logo? Well, that’s the real problem.

Do you think people realize how stupid they sound anymore?

Technorati Tags: google, logo, memorial day, war, iraq, hypocrites

• Lifehacker Code Update: Better Gmail Firefox extension version 0.7 now available - Lifehacker
  A few neat Gmail hacks bundled into one script for Greasemonkey
  (tags: extension firefox gmail greasemonkey)
• The TechCrunch Quick Guide To GrandCentral
  In case you needed one…
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• Boing Boing: Venezuelan media crackdown: the other POV
  Speaking of the idiots at Boing Boing, Xeni sure went out of her way to be fair to oppressive asshole Hugo Chavez. How good of her.
  (tags: media venezuela hugochavez xeni xenijardin)

Yep… Apparently, the Bush administration is to blame for homework.

Yep… Didn’t exist before ole W. took office.

No Child Left Behind has to shoulder some of the blame here. No Child Left Behind and standardized testing not only turns your child into a slave to her test-scores, but they can even affect your property values: a school with low test-scores brings down the neighborhood property values. That means that whatever your approach to your kids, the chances are that the other parents in your neighborhood are busting their asses to get their kids great test scores, drilling them, sending them to tutors, helping them with assignments that they were meant to complete themselves. If you don’t do the same, your kids will suffer by comparison.

The authors report on an elementary school in North Carolina where at least twenty standardized test books have to be replaced after their use because the stressed out elementary school kids working to them have vomited on them.

Pardon my french, but are you fucking kidding me?

When the fuck did schoolkids become such whiney little shitheads that something like a textbook could cause them to vomit? Holy shit, if schools are changing because of shit like this, they deserve to be six feet under a fucking avalanche.

Of course Mr. “I’m against all kinds of authority except money when it’s buying my books” Cory Doctorow who everyone keeps calling brilliant for some reason is all for abolishing homework because some anti-homework advocates have said it cuts into play and family time.

No shit? I mean hell, Cory, what the fuck did you do when you were in school? Oh right, you overcame all of that and no one else can because no one is as fucking strong as you are.

GOD I hate this touchy feely education bullshit. We have to throw more money at education, make classes smaller, abolish tests, abolish homework, teach sexuality to kindergartners, and all the while reading scores aren’t moving, math scores are non-existent, and for some reason girls still don’t bother trying to get into computer science type fields.

One thing Mr. “Smarter than the rest of the room” Doctorow didn’t take into account, or at least didn’t mention is his fellatio of this book is that education budgets were lower when I went to school, tests were harder and scores were much higher, graduation rates were higher, classes were bigger, and homework was much more demanding.

Somehow generation after generation of student went through that system and not only survived, but thrived. In fact, Mr. Professor of DRM Sucktitude is my wife’s age. My wife, who went through a system tougher than the one I went to, somehow managed to graduate Junior High, High School, earn a bachelor’s degree, and at the end of this year a Graduate degree. And no, she didn’t do it by memorization. She’s had multiple internships and externships, clinical hours, practical experience, and so on, and all of this related to her education.

That same system, including homework, that Doctorow says the pussified little shits of today just can’t compete in.

Cory Doctorow is full of shit. So are the authors of this book, and so is anyone who thinks the reason kids aren’t succeeding in school has anything to do with the work being too difficult. Maybe he should do more than teach some bullshit class on DRM and write alien and time travel books at a liberal California school loaded with slackers and potheads and familiarize himself with the educational system in this country like my wife, the teacher and graduate student has.

A wise man once said one should not comment on that which you know nothing about.

In other words, shut the fuck up Cory and stick to what you know about, whatever the fuck that is.

Source: Boing Boing; where the fuck else?

Technorati Tags: cory doctorow, know-nothing, homework, boing boing, fucking morons

HONG KONG (AFP) — Airline Cathay Pacific has limited air crews’ flights on the non-stop Hong Kong-New York route after it was found the journey could increase the likelihood of cancer, a report said Sunday.

Staff of the British-owned, Hong Kong-based airline say they have been limited to just two of the ultra long-haul flights per month since it was found the route exposed passengers and crew to high levels of cosmic radiation when they flew over the North Pole.

via USA Today

Technorati Tags: cathay pacific, hong kong, new york

• How to Clean an Apartment Before Moving Out - WikiHow
  Good to know for all you renters out there…
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• VoIP Watch: WiFi and Wireless Internet It’s Not Really Coming Of Age
  Excellent article describing most carriers’ failed efforts at WiFi lovin’.
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