Some artists only have one really big hit.
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Archive of entries posted on 13th November 2019
You Keep Using That Word “Inadvertently” . . .
I’m just surprised that CNN reported this at all.
Facebook Bug Accesses iPhone’s Camera While User Scrolls Through News Feed
CNN | 11/12/2019 | Allen KimFacebook says a bug that inadvertently accesses a user’s iPhone camera while they’re scrolling through the News Feed will be fixed sometime today.
The bug, which was discovered by Joshua Maddux, owner of web design firm 95Visual, appears to be exclusive to iOS and does not affect Android devices.
Maddux took to Twitter to report his discovery, where he posted a video that showed his camera, pointing forward, was running in the background while he was scrolling Facebook.
“I thought I had opened the camera by accident,” Maddux wrote in an email to CNN of the discovery. “Then, on Saturday evening as I closed out a video on Facebook saw the camera again on the left side.”
Jerry Gamblin, principal security engineer at Kenna Security, was able to replicate the bug and told CNN “there is no indication that the data actually is transmitted to Facebook.”
Reached for comment, Facebook confirmed the bug was “inadvertently introduced” and promised a fix was in the works.
. . .
A security firm also discovered that hundreds of millions of Facebook records were left exposed on Amazon cloud servers earlier this year.
Eerily similar to how Hillary inadvertently had a home-based email server with tens of thousands of classified documents on it!
Well, no reasonable prosecutor would indict; so this Facebook thing must fall under the same heading: Demmunity.
And Press-de-digitation.
IMAO Time Machine: Fun Facts About the 50 States: Georgia
This is a reposting of one of Harvey’s classics. There’s a link to the book in the sidebar. — The Editors
Welcome to Fun Facts About the 50 States, where – week by week – I’ll be taking you on a tour around this great nation of ours, providing you with interesting, yet completely useless and probably untrue, information about each of the 50 states.
This week, it’s time to realize too late that the fuzzy thing you’re eating isn’t a peach, it’s just been in the fridge too long as we visit Georgia, so let’s get started…
- Georgia became the 4th state on January 2nd, 1788, and its citizens commemorate this day each year by shooting British people with muskets.
- Contrary to popular myth, not everyone who lives in Georgia is a redneck. There’s plenty of toothless, moonshine-swilling hillbillies, too.
- Coca-Cola was invented in Columbus, Georgia, in 1885, and first sold to the public in Atlanta in 1886. The original formula has changed since then, and the drink no longer contains actual cocaine or the blood of virgins.
- “Georgia” is a Cherokee Indian word meaning, “Are those rednecks or hillbillies?”
- Despite the way natives pronounce the state’s name, “Jawjah” is NOT spelled with a “W.”
- Unlike the word “dawg.”
- Since it almost never snows in Georgia, children there spend winters having cotton ball fights.
- While having a cotton ball fight, it’s considered cheating to stuff a peach pit in the cotton.
- In Georgia, everything is made out of cotton. Except the peaches, which are made out of okra.
- Atlanta, Georgia, has the worst traffic of any city in the U.S., since every street in the city is named “Peachtree Road.”
- The last time it snowed in Georgia, the confused natives thought it was ash from the Yankees burning Atlanta again.
- The state motto of Georgia is “Wisdom, Justice, Moderation,” which replaced the old motto of “Whiskey, Hookers, NASCAR.”
- In Georgia, every soft drink is referred to as “Coke.” Except for Pepsi, which is referred to as “Damn Yankee Poison.”
- After Jimmy Carter left the presidency in 1981, he returned to his home town of Plains, Georgia, and went on a bloody shooting rampage.
- Wait… I meant to type “worked for Habitat for Humanity.” Stupid autocorrect.
- The only way to get to Florida from Georgia is by sea, since the Georgia-Florida border is heavily defended by landmines and alligators.
- The Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon, Georgia, celebrates the careers of all the talented musicians who were born in Georgia, and is currently empty.
- They WERE going to put in a Ray Charles exhibit, but they figured there was no point, since he wouldn’t see it anyway.
- Saint Marys, Georgia, is the second-oldest city in the US, and will soon be moving to Florida to retire.
- If it can make it past the landmines and alligators, that is.
- The state fish of Georgia is the largemouth bass, which shouldn’t be confused with the much more common loudmouth drunk.
- The name of Georgia’s largest swamp, the Okefenokee, comes from a Shawnee Indian word meaning “I’d rather live in a swamp than eat okra.”
- Georgia was originally populated by settlers from England and drunk people from Alabama who couldn’t find their way home.
- The Governor’s mansion in Georgia is the only quadruple-wide trailer in America.
- Some people are offended by the fact that three Confederate leaders are carved into the side of Georgia’s Stone Mountain. Other people figure it’s ok, since the back ends of the horses point north.
- In Georgia, it’s considered ungentlemanly to stare at a woman’s breasts while talking to her.
- Unless she’s REALLY hot.
- In the year 2227, Dr. Leonard McCoy will be born in Atlanta, Georgia and will go on to become Chief Medical Officer of the USS Enterprise. If you already knew this, then you’re a pathetic nerd who will never kiss a girl.
- The most common cause of death in Georgia is getting murdered in a fight over the proper way to pronounce the word “pecan.”
- Georgia is the state most likely to be invaded by Jane Fonda and have its peanut oil stolen to power her tour bus.
- The official state prepared food of Georgia is grits, which consists of coarsely ground bits of corn and shouldn’t be confused with hog slop, which is made from coarsely ground bits of corn.
- Although Georgia is already America’s #1 grower of peanuts, farmers there are working to develop a “super-peanut” which will be twice as large and shoot laser beams out of its eyes.
- They hope to use it to stop Jane Fonda.
That wraps up the Georgia edition of Fun Facts About the 50 States. Next week we’ll be slipping into a grass skirt for our trip to Hawaii.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go murder someone who said “PEE-can”
[The complete e-book version of “Fun Facts About the 50 States” is now available at Amazon.com. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download free Kindle apps for your web browser, smartphone, computer, or tablet from Amazon.com]
Economics: Boring. Trump Talking About Economics? Hardly.
“In 2016, I stood before you supremely confident in what our people could achieve if government stopped punishing American workers and started promoting American workers and American companies. Our middle class was being crushed under the weight of a punitive tax code, oppressive regulations, one-sided trade deals, and an economic policy that put America’s interest last, and a very deep last at that.
“I knew that if we lifted these burdens from our economy, and unleashed our people to pursue their ambitions and realize their limitless potential, then economic prosperity would come thundering back to our country at a record speed. And that’s what’s happening.
“Today, I’m proud to stand before you as President of the United States to report that we have delivered on our promises and exceeded our expectations by a very wide margin. We have ended — (applause) — thank you. I was waiting for that. Thank you. I was waiting for that. (Laughter.) I almost didn’t get it.
“We have ended the war on American workers, we have stopped the assault on American industry, and we have launched an economic boom the likes of which we have never seen before.
“I did this despite a near-record number of rate increases and quantitative tightening by the Federal Reserve since I won the election — eight increases in total — which were, in my opinion, far too fast an increase and far too slow a decrease. Because remember, we are actively competing with nations who openly cut interest rates so that now many are actually getting paid when they pay off their loan — known as negative interest. Who ever heard of such a thing? Give me some of that. (Laughter.) Give me some of that money. I want some of that money. Our Federal Reserve doesn’t let us do it.
“I don’t say — (applause) — thank you. Thank you. The smart people are clapping. Only the smart people are clapping.
“I don’t say that’s good for the world — I’m not President of the world; I’m President of our country — but we are competing against these other countries nonetheless, and the Federal Reserve doesn’t let us play at that game. It puts us at a competitive disadvantage to other countries.”
— Remarks by President Trump at the Economic Club of New York, November 12, 2019
Yay! We Can Have Our Appetite Back For Thanksgiving!
Protesters Vow Hunger Strike To Push U.S. on Climate Change
Reuters via Yahoo | 11/12/19 | Ellen WulfhorstClimate change opponents plan to stage a hunger strike to demand a meeting with U.S. Congressional leader Nancy Pelosi, they said on Tuesday, in the political battle over global warming.
The protesters said they want a one-hour on-camera meeting with Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to discuss reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2025.
“You have yet to pass even symbolic legislation recognizing the climate crisis as a national emergency. With all due respect, you have failed,” they said in an open letter.
“Meet with us or leave us to starve while you jet to your Thanksgiving feasts and cocktail parties in the glow of a burning world.”
What a difficult freaking choice!! “The Lady or the Triggered.”
The protesters said they will launch a week-long hunger strike on November 18, 10 days before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, at Pelosi’s Washington offices, elsewhere in the United States and in other countries. They are part of Extinction Rebellion, a grassroots green movement launched in London in 2018.
Oh; and a meh-ry Christmas to them.
Straight Line of the Day: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Tearfully Says “Not Many People Have Asked If I’m OK.” To Cheer Her Up, …
Straight Line of the Day: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, tearfully says “Not many people have asked if I’m OK.” To cheer her up, …
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Holding Back Tears: “Not Many People Have Asked if I’m OK”
CNN | October 18, 2019
Maybe If I Think About It . . .
FrankJ, Harvey, Basil, or any of those other posters can look at a news item like this and make a terrifically sarcastic post. But I just can’t see the humor in it.
Democrats Vow To Insulate Impeachment Inquiry From “Sham Investigations”
Reuters | 11/12/2019 | Patricia ZengerleWASHINGTON (Reuters) – The impeachment inquiry into U.S. President Donald Trump will not be allowed to become a venue for “sham investigations” into Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son, the head of a congressional committee leading the probe said on Tuesday.
The Illustrated Walrus: Down on the Bayeaux
Random Thoughts: Billionaires and Laws
If you’re only job was to learn for the next 16 years, you’d expect to come out of that like Batman. For kids, we’re happy if after K-12 plus college they have one marketable skill. Most of the school time is already just wasted busy work, but they want to increase it?
Seems like it would be cheaper and more honest to just abolish schools and just give parents guaranteed daycare until their kids are 30.
What percentage of women in the workforce would rather be a stay at home mom if given the option?
It’s strangely hard for a lot of “feminists” to accept that most women don’t want to be like men.
A society that values women wouldn’t look back at history and say all the important figures were men and women need to be more like them. It would say women have always done the most important job and it needs to be recognized more.
Some people have noticed that Superego is not available anymore as anything other than audiobook (well, some sellers have the paperback for like $1000). It will return with a new cover and a sequel.
And if you’re going to pay $1000 for a paperback, buy it from me. I still have like a box of them.
That thing where you push a button and someone you don’t know dies but you get $1 million is a great government spending metaphor.
It’s a free country. That means you can complain about billionaires and call them the worst things you can think of all you want, but if you try to plunder even one of their dollars, you should be thrown in Azkaban forever.
Billionaires don’t deserve their money. You deserve it even less. The government deserves it least of all.
People who think billionaires shouldn’t exist shouldn’t exist.
It’s called Ford vs Ferrari, but you know in the end they both team up to fight Lex Luthor.
Trillionaires should not exist. Cut the federal government.
You live in the most prosperous nation in a time in human history where you luxuries and opportunities unimaginable just a hundred years ago. If you spend any time angry someone has more than you, you’re extremely greedy.
Remember when Megyn Kelly was fired for mentioning blackface? Have we gone forwards or backwards since then?
Just like firefighters run to the fire, reporters run to the news to extinguish the news before anyone sees it.
Can you imagine a world without billionaires?
You can’t, because you’d be dead from the Joker’s laughing gas since there’s no Batman.
“Billionaires shouldn’t exist!”
gets rid of billionaires; somehow everyone becomes poorer
“Millionaires shouldn’t exist!”
gets rid of millionaires; everyone becomes poorer
“Thousandaires shouldn’t exist!”
…
“People with more than five sticks shouldn’t exist!”
My perfect president would be someone who doesn’t really care whether the American people lives or dies and thus won’t be interfering with them to harm them or because he thinks he’s being helpful.
I’m glad it gets narrowed down to just two choices in November 2020 because I am completely overwhelmed by all these great options for president.
I don’t understand exactly what’s “guaranteed” about Amazon’s guaranteed delivery dates.
“We guarantee it will arrive by this day or otherwise we’ll email you telling you it’s going to be late.”
I didn’t see The Simpsons Stranger Things Halloween episode, but I was think the weird thing about 80s nostalgia with The Simpsons is when the series first started, Bart grew up in the 80s, but now that would be Homer.
I think it was over a decade ago they had a joke on The Simpsons sliding time scale, with Homer starting a flashback narration with “Back when I was a kid in the late 50s… or was it the 60s? Or maybe the early 70s.”
You know, The Simpsons was only in its 14th season when South Park did its “Simpsons did it!” episode. South Park just completed its 23rd season. A difference with South Park, though, is I still hear people talk about South Park episodes.
End observation dump. I have no point.
It doesn’t matter how much money someone has; you don’t have a right to decide how to spend a single dollar of it.
All the people complaining about billionaires also don’t deserve whatever wealth they have. If they somehow succeeded in summoning economic “justice,” they would not like it.
For how much of human history did people subsist on what would be the equivalent of $1 a day? No one “needs” $20,000.
We were all born into incredible wealth and luxury, yet so many just focus on people with more and make themselves miserable. You all deserve less than you have.
I wish I was important enough for President Trump to give me a nickname… though it would probably be “Cool Dude Frank.” Even Trump wouldn’t be able to insult me. Because I’m such a cool dude.
I hate billionaires. One lives next door to me and he constantly makes fun of how relatively poor I am and then pelts me in the face with stacks of bills. Those are heavier than you think and they sting.
My billionaire neighbor, Steve, is a huge jerk. He’s always taunting me with things like “Better go save those pennies for your kids’ college. Better save those pennies!”
The other day, he asked me, “Do you even own your house?”
“Well, I have a mortgage…”
“Ha! The bank owns your house! Look at me, I’m Frank: ‘Please Mr. Bank Manager, please give me money so I can buy a house.’”
“Mortgages are pretty common, Steve.”
“Common for losers!”
“How much do you even make, Frank? Like only 7 digits?”
“I don’t earn anywhere near that, Steve.”
“How do you even live? I would kill myself if I were you.”
“I think I make a pretty decent salary. I mean…”
“Sorry! Can’t hear you over the sound of how much money I have!”
I don’t know what to do. He’s out there every time I leave my house. I guess he doesn’t have to work… on account of all the billions he has.
I really like Laffy Taffy as a candy, but I feel compelled to read the terrible terrible jokes on the back before I tear off the wrapper and it just makes them too much work.
I’ve decided “OK Boomer” is what I now say to my kids whenever they whine about something.
“Stop saying that! I don’t know what that means!!!”
“OK Boomer.”
Little Winchester is about 9 and a half months now. He’s doing great, except he’s small… like fell off the growth charts small. It would be really concerning if he weren’t so perfectly health otherwise. He’s hitting all the other milestones and really seems to be thriving.
All the Fleming kids have been on the small side, and when you combine that with Down syndrome, I guess you’d expect really small. Still, we’re hoping he’ll put on some more weight soon.
He’s starting to talk. “Mama” and some syllables that are maybe “dada.” His favorite form of communication, though, is the raspberry. He’s always giving me raspberries. It’s not particularly respectful.
Have you tried not caring about billionaires?
“Jeff Bezos has a net worth over one hundred billion dollars!”
“Interesting.” moves on with his life, dealing with things that actually affect him
And is it just me, or is it perverse all these millionaires complaining about billionaires? It just goes to show you it doesn’t matter how much you have, you can either choose to be happy or miserable about it.
If you don’t like the way police handle law enforcement, here’s a great tip: Stop coming up with new laws for them to enforce.
Instead it’s like: “We don’t like the way police treat minorities. Hey, let’s pass a hate speech law to protect minorities!”
So instead of someone getting strangled for selling loose cigarettes, they’ll get strangled for using the wrong pronoun.
Maybe Politifact should just come up with a “True, but we don’t want to admit that” rating.
Isn’t it hypocritical for people on the left to get angry at that churro lady being arrested? But hey, if you want to support unregulated capitalism, we’ll make room on the bus.
There are basically only 1 ways for an entity to become a trillionaire:
1. Large-scale violent coercion
Renting Hobbs and Shaw. Accidentally got it first through Amazon before I realized it was only a 24 hour rental. I can’t watch 2 hours and 17 minutes in 24 hours; I’m not an unemployed bachelor.
For some reason all the Fast & Furious movies are 24 hour rental on Amazon but 48 on Google Play but the same price. Wonder why that is.
Important to know: If you have a Verizon unlimited data plan, you can get Disney+ free for a year through them. Just log into your account, go to manage add ons ad the bottom of the page, and it should be there.
In politics, there is at least one thing you are absolutely 100% certain you’re right about that you are in fact very wrong about and you should behave accordingly.
Before Disney+ stopped working for me, I was able to show my 9yo daughter the first episode of the original DuckTales and the first episode of The Simpsons (I got in trouble with my wife for that one, but I was my daughter’s age when I first saw it).
Made my 4yo cry by saying “Ok Boomer” to her, but someone needed to take her down a notch.
I hate command line compiling on Windows. It’s the ugliest thing.
Fantasia
One of my favorite Disney films is the 1940 film “Fantasia.” The music is fantastic and the animation is great. Any of the selections — well, not that soundtrack bit in the middle, but any of the rest of it — are wonderful. Here’s just one of them.
Disney received some flack from some people for editing the film to remove some scenes that were criticized as racist. I’ve seen the scenes. The edits don’t take away from the film. You don’t miss anything by seeing the edited version. All the music is there, and the edits fit the scene just fine, so I’m okay with them.