Lettin’ off a little steam …

Rush Limbaugh from yesterday …

This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we’re going to ruin people’s lives over it and we’re going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I’m talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?

Should we take a look at the photos again Rush?
[via Talking Points Memo]

UPDATE: A fantastic chronological guide in quotes on the subject: Slate’s ballot box

 I’m going to be leaving for Hong Kong on Saturday and will be there for not quite two weeks. As much of a cultural shock it can be, it falls down when you compare it to the Japanese. I had seen Lost in Translation right before my previous trip to Hong Kong and had really high hopes it would be just-like-that.

Like most people I made a November 1st pledge to myself to step it up next Halloween. Here’s my effort in 2003.

In this spirit I offer this: [link]

(You might need to see the rest of them for the logistics to make sense)

[Via Boing Boing + Geisha Asobi]

 I know Christian Finnegan and he’s quite funny, but given his “host” title, he’s probably only on stage for 10 minutes. I don’t know the other guys.

christian finnegan hosts his monthly show “sob stories“
TONIGHT at the marquee.
come watch your favorite comics talk about this month’s theme:
“tragic drunkeness”
here’s our lineup…
host:
CHRISTIAN FINNEGAN
featuring:
JONATHAN CORBETT (comedy central’s “premium blend”)
EDDIE PEPITONE (“last comic standing”)
JOEY GAY (director of the upcoming comedy documentary,
“the owner heckles”) and more!
here are the details
tuesday may 4
SOB STORIES AT THE MARQUEE
356 bowery (between great jones and e. 4th)
8pm, doors at 730pm
$ 5
call 212.664.5892 for more information. 

From this article

You can imagine the scene: a well publicized funeral featuring a NFL star turned soldier. Flags everywhere, lots of “true-American-hero”, “with God in heaven now” talk.

Then this happened:

Tillman’s youngest brother, Rich, wore a rumpled white T-shirt, no jacket, no tie, no collar, and immediately swore into the microphone. He hadn’t written anything, he said, and with the starkest honesty, he asked mourners to hold their spiritual bromides.

“Pat isn’t with God,” he said. “He’s fucking dead. He wasn’t religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he’s fucking dead.”

Awkward…

Seriously though – I can imagine his brother sitting there seething at all these people attempting to make what is a horrific personal event for his family into a circus. I find it odd that this Tillman story has seemed to fill people with a kind of proud, war hero mentality that makes them feel almost better about war rather than dealing with death directly? Am I wrong on this?

Funny video clip demonstrating why you ought to be careful when you are holding anything that’s “one-of-a-kind” Link.

[Via Chris Pirillo]

Bush recap for the week:

• [Fake] Via The Onion: WASHINGTON, DC – In an internationally televised statement Monday, President Bush modified a July 2003 challenge to Iraqi militants attacking U.S. forces. “Terrorists, Saddam loyalists, and anti-American insurgents: Please stop bringing it on now,” Bush said at a Monday press conference. “Nine months and 500 U.S. casualties ago, I may have invited y’all to bring it on, but as of today, I formally rescind that statement. I would officially like for you to step back.” The president added that the “it” Iraqis should stop bringing includes gunfire, bombings, grenade attacks, and suicide missions of all types.
  
  
  
• [Real] Via Slate’s Today’s Papers: Describing the situation in Fallujah, the Post says, “Observed from a Marine forward operating base in the city, most streets appeared deserted. The roar of fighter jets, the thud of explosions and the sight of massive smoke clouds rising into the air punctuated the afternoon.” Or as President Bush put it, “Most of Fallujah is returning to normal.”
  
  
  
• 
  

  [Real] Via NoCode: Bush advisor and groupie Karen Hughes links Pro-Choice rally participants to terrorists. “…the fundamental issue between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life”
  

  
  
• 
  

  [Real] Great t-shirt, bumper sticker sutff from Maureen Dowd in NYT. “In Bushworld, it’s perfectly natural for the president and vice president to appear before the 9/11 commission like the Olsen twins.”

  
  
• 
  

  [Real] Absolutely bizzare clip of Bush On Letterman 

 

My coworkers and I are among the top erotic photo hunt players in New York City.

Erotic Photo Hunt is a game consisting of two nearly identical images of the cheesiest semi-nude “models” you can imagine set in “classy” backdrops where you must identify five differences in a ever-shortening time period.

We took the step of dividing up the team into specialties – hair, apparel, background, with secondary targets of footwear, breasts, pool balls.

The idea of canvassing the city (Manhattan only) and claiming high score spot domination has been discussed. As has attempting to find an expensibile angle for the $4,000 street cost of a Megatouch Force 2004 so we can practice during breaks at work.

UPDATE: I have added a wiki to track locations for EPH/Word Dojo as well as high scores. http://ephunt.pbwiki.com the password to edit is ‘coreyh’.

See Hollie’s review for her take.

So the skeptics ruled and only Hollie and I made it to the Marquee theater last night. Turns out the experience was great and all y’all were wrong to doubt the Tinkle.

The whole thing is actually run by PSNBC a “performance and development lab”. Essentially it is a workshop for comedians to hone their jokes and showcase their stuff to the NBC ‘suits’ in attendance. A constant distraction for us in the audience trying to sniff out the folks getting paid to be there.

The place was tiny tiny. Maybe seating for 23 people set up in comedy club style around small tables. Drinks were served without the nagging two drink minimum requirement. It even has the (ironic?) shimmery backdrop and solo microphone.

Greg Behrendt had around 40 minutes of generally “old dude who rocks” material – very funny and a good story teller. Nick Swardson did 20 odd minutes of random material, but thankfully all new, non-comedy central material. Demetri Martin starting it off with a guitar and drum machine backed 10 minutes. All very funny.

Apparently they do this every Tuesday and I’ll keep an eye on the lineups.

The CPU for the Xbox 2 is rumored to be designed to be a processor that can decode and execute instructions in Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) while at the same time being able to run x86 code, to remain compatible with Xbox.

Of course this is only a rumor and we’ve heard a few bad ones already, but still. One of my early tasks at my current company was to give a presentation on .NET, where it came from, where its going etc. I had a slide that was all about one of the hidden benefits of .NET was that it untied Microsoft’s hands from x86. Relative old-timers know that NT itself was built on the idea of multi-cpu architecture support (MIPS, Alpha, PPC, x86) but the others just fell off due to competitive, not technical reasons.

Anyway, I’m not surprised at all that MS is looking to implement something along the lines of a lightweight .NET runtime for PPC or possibly even an MSIL specific silicon. Normally I would say that MSIL on silicon wouldn’t be something MS would consider due to upgrade concerns, but since this is an XBOX, almost by definition, a static platform – maybe.

The title refers to Suns perennial MAJC chip design announcements which like many Sun technologies never really succeeded in finding an audience.

[via Early Adopter]