Global Warming Skeptic Proves Global Warming is Real?!

Well, not really. A simple blog post is never going to be much proof of anything. *

However, this blog post has four graphs. Two of the graphs, the third and fourth, are really quite useless. However, despite the author’s assertion, the first two graphs are actually quite a good demonstration that global warming is real. Of course, a longer trend would actually be better. But, even with this 140 year graph, the trend is abundantly obvious. The author has merely misread his own data.

Assorted Quips

I especially love sentences with definitions that really make the point. Here are a couple of my favorites and some other quips that I like for other reasons, sometimes shock value.

• In order to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion.
• In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there often is.
• Mammals suck. Cetaceans blow. [ed. note: The former is mine. The latter was added by a friend. Thanks rit.]
• American Nonsequitur Society: We don’t make sense. But, we love pizza.

Subprime Primer — Hilarious AND Mostly True

Watch the slideshow at this link first. Then read below for a description of a minor inaccuracy.

Subprime Primer

The only very minor inaccuracy I’m aware of is that the “good” the “not so good” and “the ugly” should be renamed into five buckets named A through E tranches. Also, when the bank is left with the E tranches, they group the E tranches together and just cut them into more tranches so that they can sell the A through E tranches of the E tranches. Of course, this doesn’t make it better. It makes it worse.

Thanks to Stephanie for forwarding me the PowerPoint version of this.

Journalism: A Photographic Negative of Reality

That title is a paraphrasing of one important statement out of many in this Skeptic’s Society article by Steve Salerno. Click the link below for the article.

Journalist-Bites-Reality!

Though the article is lengthy, it points out so many things wrong with the state of journalism today that it is a very important read. Since we get so much of our information from the sources discussed in this article and rely on this information for our daily lives, I found it definitely worth the time to read to its conclusion. My personal favorite sections were the sentence paraphrased in my title and the capsule summary near the end.

I choose to believe (i.e. possibly delude myself) that some sources of information are more real than the ones discussed in this article. Mother Jones and The Atlantic come to mind as examples of better reporting. Your mileage may vary.

Let the Voters Decide

Check this out on Democracy for America’s site. For those who were not aware, the Democrap candidate will likely be decided without much input from the voters. If this bugs you more than a tad, you may want to sign the petition.

Let the Voters Decide

I think the whole idea of super delegates is pretty damn disgusting. In case you think you can be less concerned because you’re a registered Repugnican rather than Democrap, check out this wikipedia page that hints at equal problems in the Repug camp and suggests a complete page. In fact, if you know enough about the way the other camp works, you may want to help wikipedia out on the subject.

Seriously Power Walking!!

This is really cool!!

Taking People Power to a New Level

I was expecting at the beginning of the article that the device would require more effort while walking, else where is the power coming from. However, if you read the article, the claim is that it is actually reducing your effort while walking since you need the effort to slow your leg down at the end of the stride.

Managing Senior Developers is Like Herding Cats!!

That was a statement that had already been made for years. Then, EDS did this old stupor bowl commercial. They did a really excellent job on the cat herding theme. Watch for the little details in it. It’s a classic. If you haven’t seen this before, just trust one of the cats that we really do behave this way. Although, EDS did it about various technologies rather than about developers, it still works.

It’s sort of odd to admit it given my anti-corporate bias. But, I do love good advertising … almost as much as I hate bad advertising.

When insults had class…

I got these via email, of course. I had seen many of them before and love them. Since my blog is about ready for some more humor, they came at the perfect time. If you haven’t seen these before, read and enjoy.

These glorious insults are from an era when cleverness with words was still valued, before a great portion of the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words!

The exchange between Winston Churchill & Lady Nancy Astor: She said, “Winston, if I were married to you I’d put poison in your coffee.” Churchill replied, “Nancy, if I were married to you I’d drink it.” [ed. note: This sounded odd from the email I received, so I checked up on the exact wording and corrected it based on the text from The Churchill Center]