A rather out of place note on the bottom of the screen claims no connection between Yellow 1 and Neurocam, which anyone who has read the Black Report will know is false.

Yellow-1.  The Black Report.

Ubik by Phillip K. Dick

The whole half-life/cold-pac setup was very Matrix-y.  Jory is a fairly accurate analog to Agent Smith, especially when he first reveals himself to Joe Chip (who makes a terrible Neo).The end of the book, where Runciter finds a Joe Chip quarter, left the reader still uncertain about the reality of the situation he characters found themselves in, as well as mightily pissed off.

Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle

May Day Mystery quote: “‘Religion must necessarily produce industry and frugality,’ Methodism’s founder, John Wesley, proclaimed, ‘and these cannot but produce riches.’” (Boyle, Kevin. Arc of Justice. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2004. pg 50)

On January 1st 1923, a white mob from Sumner, Florida attacked the black town of Rosewood, killed 17 of its citizens, and forced the rest to flee before the town was put to the torch. (pg 123) This is not something they teach you in history class.

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

Funny the whole way through.

The Truth, with Jokes by Al Franken

Also funny the whole way through, as well as insightful. His line about “[t]he ‘I will stop you from doing good because I don’t want you to get the credit’ thing” was particularly resonant. (pg 142)

The System of the World by Neil Stephenson

Entertaining. Of particular note is the scene on pgs 485-6 where Saturn (Peter Hoxton) tells the rest of his Clubb the difference between what he told the innkeeper, what the publican thinks, what he told the patrons, and the “conclusions” the patrons drew. “That’s not what they think. They think that you are Sodomites.”

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

This book was depressing as hell, but compelling. It brought a new paradigm to the post-apocalyptic  society, one in so few people are actually killed in whatever vague event it was the ended the world that the majority of the suffering was caused by the flood of people who descended like locusts upon the land. (This is, or course, my interpretation. Usually in post-apocalyptic fiction, society reverts to some prior stage of human progress. That supposes that the number of people in urban areas were killed and the food that is available in the remainder cities is enough to prevent the urbanites from swamping the agricultural areas.)

Next on the Reading List:

The text of the Frank-Dodd bail-out.

The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank

The Dark Side by Jane Mayer

Law and the Long War by Benjamin Wittes

China: From the 1911 Revolution to Liberation

I was sorting bottles one day, clear in one bin, colored in another. In my collating, I sighted up a clear glass bottle, probably of Parrot Bay, that looked like it had some sort of translucent object in it. I thought it was a tissue someone had jammed in the bottle. (People tend to jam all sorts of things in glass bottles before they recycle them. DO NOT DO THIS.) As I picked up the bottle, the translucent object–which was as big around as the base of the bottle–came alive. Where I had only before seen blurry white, I now saw legs, spines, a pair of claws or pincers, and other things that make you go “eww…” It contracted itself enough that it could slither through the neck of the bottle, eject itself onto the cover of the clear-bottle bin, and scurry under the lid.

I was able to get a better look at it in the fraction of a second it was in the air. It looked somewhat like a scorpion without a tail, or an albino porcupine-lobster. Either way, I wasn’t fucking going near that bin until it was changed. I initially thought I was hallucinating, but I wasn’t going to take any chances.
I never saw that creature again, but it lives in my mind ever still.  That night, I went up north with some friends, and recounted the story to them. They had about the same reaction I did. It’s been about a month since I saw Lucifer’s spawn itself, yet the whole incident still chills me to the bone.

Oh, before I forget, a friend suggested that what I saw might be a silverfish. While it does have the same Satanic vibe about it, neither the silverfish or the house centipede have the claws/pincers I think I saw.

And what-the-fuck row 2 picture 4?

Isaac Hayes

Running Tally

Straight Dope Message Board Celebrity Death Pool

This shit is getting morbid. I feel like I should be creating a “death” category.

And I’m being ironic in the last half of the title.

I’ve got a list of titles stocked up:

Raiders of SDB #668. (A play on Raiders of the Lost Ark.)
Bryan Hance and the Last Crusade. (A play on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.)
The Wildcat Code. (Based on The DaVinici Code.)
Luther’s Pendulum. (Foucault’s Pendulum.)
Historical Madness. (The subtitle to the “official” May Day Mystery website.)
Methods of Madness: A Simplified Approach to the May Day Mystery. (Something  my friend Ryan suggested.)

This is going to be a huge project, and we all know how I am with projects…

I promise I will not fail you this time, though we all know how I am with promises…

THE COST OF FREEDOM
LA Plans to Ban New Fast Food Chains: Threat to Free Society?

I was speechless. This is a threat to a free society? Not illegal surveilance of Americans? Not politicization of the Justice Department? Not telecom companies clamoring to censor the internet?

Fox seems to be using the tactic of whipping people into a frenzy about something small to distract them from what’s actually the problem. A standard Republican tactic.

The moral of this story: Not only are political predictions nearly meaningless, but most people don’t have the attention span to notice.

Do better. I dare you.

Breakdown:

Debt: $8,400,000,000,000.00 –> 2,500,000,000,000.00

Budget Bust: 2033 –> 2070

Size of Government: 20.0% of GDP –> 19.5% of GDP

Badges: Health and Wellness (Achieved), Green (Achieved), Safety Net (Achieved)

Policies:

Defense and Diplomacy: Bring troops home soon, More for diplomacy and foreign aid, Spend more to fight AIDS overseas, End spending on missile defense.

Schools and Kids: Spend to educate disabled children, Fully fund NCLB, Educate disadvantaged children, More help to needy college students, More for after-school learning.

Science and Nature: Increase NASA funds by 50%, Double funds for weather science, Increase EPA budget by 50%, Increase NSF grants by 50%, Double funds for alternative energy.

Housing and Living: More rental assistance for poor, Increase food stamp benefits, More money for child care.

Misc.: Eliminate pork barrel projects (as if that would ever happen), Double FDA funding, Tighten production oversignt.

Infrastructure: Increase mass transit funding, Increase funding for Amtrak.

Health Care: Offer government health plan to all, Computerize health information, Increase Medicare costs for wealthy, Open Medicare to people 62 to 64.

Social Security: More low-income worker benefits, Cut SS for wealthy.

Taxes: Repeal Bush tax cuts/tax the rich, Add 50 cents to the gas tax, Increase SS taxes for wealthy, Cap and limit greenhouse gases, Reform and hike corporate taxes, Raise tobacco taxes, Raise taxes on multinationals, No breaks for extractive industries, Tax toxic industries, End breaks for big oil, Let everyone deduct property taxes (raise money by betting on people being too lazy to itemize), Tax private equity/hedge fund managers.

I bet it’s pretty aparent how I spent all that money and still managed to get the debt down.

1. Rinse the fucking things out. There’s nothing worse than having to crawl on the floor, getting the cans and bottles that overflowed from the recepticle, in a puddle of four or five different sodas/beers.

2. If it came with a cap, return it with a cap. (Yes, even if you washed it out.) Helps prevent the above. I’ve noticed that the only glass bottles that come in with caps on them are the big 40s and the non-alcoholic beverages. (The latter being a pretty small percentage of the total. The former not so much.)

3. Bottles are not mini-garbage cans. Nobody should have to deal with any cigarettes, used fireworks, or mutant space aliens you decide to shove in there.

That’s all I got. Mostly a set up for another post.