sheeple

I love this word. It is so full of righteous hatred and rejection. Also, I first encountered it among crack-addled weirdoes in fandom, so seeing it on the fingertips of political ranters just makes me smile.

It makes you wonder, doesn't it, what Vietnam would have been like if the US hadn't intervened at all. Throw out the French after DPB, and then...? So Southeast Asia goes commie. Really, in the grand scheme -- turned out not to be that big a deal.

I think Iraq, as a symbol for a problematic region, was more of a Big Simmering Issue, but, there are ways to handle a large hot kettle that do not involve scalding people to death with bean soup. Okay, that metaphor got away from me.

From the spam article:

But don’t spammers still have to link to the incriminating Web sites where they sell their disreputable wares? Well, not anymore. Many of the messages in the latest spam wave promote penny stocks — part of a scheme that antispam researchers call the “pump and dump.” Spammers buy the inexpensive stock of an obscure company and send out messages hyping it. They sell their shares when the gullible masses respond and snap up the stock. No links to Web sites are needed in the messages.

Though the scam sounds obvious, a joint study by researchers at Purdue University and Oxford University this summer found that spam stock cons work. Enough recipients buy the stock that spammers can make a 5 percent to 6 percent return in two days, the study concluded.

So in order to make spam go away, we have to kill everyone who buys stuff advertised in spam.

Shouldn't be a problem. We just send out a spam that we're giving away free cars, and when they all show up at the warehouse, we lock the doors and weld them shut. And they'll have nothing to eat but Spam for as long as they survive.

Ewwwwwwwwww, freepers!

I know. Do you know how long it takes to fumigate the board when someone quotes them here? Days. It takes days.

13. Snuggle fabric softener
What does it say about us as a society that we’re obviously completely obsessed with talking, evil-looking stuffed animals? This one should have found its way into a horror movie.

When I was a kid, I used to fantasize about blowing away the Snuggle bear with a shotgun. That proves your point. I think.

ION for DIYers, How to Pan Roast Coffee

Many of the messages in the latest spam wave promote penny stocks

Really, people who buy into schemes like this deserve to lose their money. But it would be more efficient if they would just hand over big wads of cash to me.

Someone from Current called to interview me about fandom. He was asking me what are some of the biggest fandoms.

I grinned and said, "I'd start with Daily Kos."

Seriously. Freepers, Kos, AmericaBlog, they should all have special places at fandom_wank. They make scifi fans look completely sane.

We'll sit in the corner smoking, drinking, and glaring at them.

Woo! Can we dance and grope too?

Other great comments from Jess's link:

23. Chippy Chews cookies Not only do you get the weird combination of an H.R. Pufnstuf atmosphere along with Sammy Davis, Jr.’s “Candyman,” but these cookies, despite their name, completely dispensed with the definition of chocolate “chip” cookies and just filled the whole damn thing with fudge.

43. Small Wonder promo Sure, it’s not much of an ad, but we loved the idiotic show about a robotic little girl. And there’s just something immensely satisfying about seeing a giant robotic little girl drop someone hundreds of feet to their death.

Yeah...some of us are nuts. I hope that my crazy is at least the fun kind. Corwood, I can't understand where the personal responsibility issue comes from in this season. Those boys are twelve. They have no way to take personal responsibility.

Making a robotic infant with self-replicating nanobots that will grow the body structure over time and inserting an advanced neural net of molecular computers running a FreeBSD based OS with extensive self-learning algorithms in your garage is artificially manufacturing a child.

OK, you want to know what is really freaky? Something earlier today pinged a memory and I finally tracked it down in imdb. Then I come here, and there is mention of it in the commercials linked earlier (Small Wonder, in case you were wondering.) And then this, which may or may not have been sparked by the ads. Anyway.

How in the hell do you estimate a "measure" for a chapter of a document? No idea how long it is going to be until I WRITE IT and people stop adding shit. Sheesh.

Annual review documentation, ticket reservations...kind of a sucky day.

Green, out of the way (you will need a car), and a little pricey: Habitat Suites

That looks cool. Screw the price--I'm giving up my spring break in Hawaii to go to the conference.

I will be renting a car in Houston and driving to Austin. San Antonio's not far from there, right? That is, would it make sense to stay the four days in Austin and do SA as a side trip? Is there someplace else I'd want to go in that area? And will you still be around then?