BBQ Pulled Pork Cupcake

Serious Eats recently featured this BBQ Pulled Pork Cupcake found on the menu of Bourbon Steak Lounge in Washington, D.C. This savory cupcake is made with cheddar scallion biscuit batter & barbequed smoked pork shoulder and is said to be worth its 20 minute preparation wait.

photos by

worst job ever?

Sewer hunters of Victorian London

Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities. On Instagram, I'm @pescovitz

In 1851, Henry Mayhew published the four volume London Labour and the London Poor, an influential work of sociology/journalism that documented the life of working class Victorians. He wrote of "bone grubbers," basically dumpster divers seeking food and bits of household detritus, individuals who spent their days seeking cigar-ends for reselling, and scores of others with strange, sad, dirty, and curious jobs. One of the most interesting groups were the "toshers," sewer hunters who traveled the tunnels and sieved the waste for bones, metal, coins, cutlery, or other valuable goods, all the while avoiding the supernatural "Queen Rat" and "race of wild hogs" (predating NYC's alligators!) that roamed the shafts, according to other historians. Apparently, toshers could earn as much as six shillings (approximately $50 today) for their work. Drawing from Mayhew's work and others, Smithsonian offers a fascinating description of what they call "quite likely the worst job ever":

Even after the tunnels deteriorated and they became increasingly dangerous, though, what a tosher feared more than anything else was not death by suffocation or explosion, but attacks by rats. The bite of a sewer rat was a serious business, as another of Mayhew's informants, Jack Black - the "Rat and Mole Destroyer to Her Majesty" - explained.
"When the bite is a bad one," Black said, "it festers and forms a hard core in the ulcer, which throbs very much indeed. This core is as big as a boiled fish's eye, and as hard as stone. I generally cuts the bite out clean with a lancet and squeezes… I've been bitten nearly everywhere, even where I can't name to you, sir

finally...............

I challenge you to un-see this

The Savage weiner.. (his real name is michael weiner..)

Bookcase that cunningly stores a table and chairs

HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!

I'll say 6-3 dropp the mandate and keeps pre-existing conditions.......

Fleetwood Mac's Rumours at 35

.

I'm a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac's California cocaine trilogy of Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and Tusk. It's amazing that this year Rumours turns 35. Ken Caillat, who co-produced and engineered the record, has just written a new book that I'm really looking forward to reading titled "Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album." From a CNN interview with Caillat

finally something useful on this stupid f**kin blog.................

after all these years, still brillant.........................,,

Like Tears in the Rain, by Gareth Branwyn

In fact no guns walked. The Arizona guns laws are so anemic that a man on food stamps could buy $300000 worth of guns and not be arrested due to gun rights fanatics......

need it.......

Hitchens, Galloway debate

80 Teddy Ruxpins with robot voices tell you how the Internet feels

Wee Turtle vs. Raspberry (VIDEO)

Amy worked in the record business at Enigma, Elektra, Virgin and Sub Pop before she got sucked into the technology vortex. She co-founded the Backwards Beekeepers, a chemical-free urban beekeeping collective in Los Angeles. She runs digital marketing for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and The Hollywood Bowl.

No berry is safe from Peanut the turtlet

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Louisiana? I am shocked (not really)

a embarrassment..........

a embarrassment..........

Hitchens/blair priceless

Landing on Mars: seven minutes of TERROR!

the good ole days..........

Creeptastic video of Bolaj Badejo rehearsing in his Alien mask

 

Collector of anomalies, esoterica, and curiosities.

Deeply creepy test footage from Alien (1979) of alien actor Bolaji Badejo slithering around The Nostromo in a prototype costume head. Posts one YouTube commenter: "movie about a tall skinny black serial killer in space that wears an oblong black mask would be awesome"

totally unnecessary and obscene (but I want it.)

OK...i'm sorry it sucked.......it blew......now just leave me alone so I can go watch Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter ...

I knew it........

the four horsemen.........

Mickey Mouse on Mercury

gotta luv it.............

Infinite Schwarzenegger "Gear Up" scene

.

Fond as all civilized people are of 1980s action movie "gear up" scenes, it is often noted that Mark Lester's Commando contains the genre's highest point of achievement. In the 1985 classic, Arnold Schwarzenegger's protagonist conducts an amphibious landing on a tropical beach. Unbundling his cargo, it is revealed to be an astounding collection of weapons, all of which he attaches to his person in a perfectly edited montage of exaggerated gestures and sound effects. So excellent is it that its influence was felt immediately from B-movies to arcade games — and yet it lasts but 30 seconds

Michele Bachmann for VP? (oh please...oh please...)

Bacigalupi: cyberpunk saved sf

royale w/t cheese M**ha F**ker

Lead Breakfast (and how Pogo makes 'em)

Follow me on Twitter.

From Pogo, of Alice fame. [Video Link]
Update: Pogo has a howto explaining his methods, so you can learn to make your own mashups

damn................

yikes.....

Why orwell matters......

dig it.......

Datamancer's Seafarer keyboard: brassy, nautical steampunk confection

By Cory Doctorow at 11:48 am Sunday, Jun 17 • 8 Comments • Share

The latest Datamancer keyboard is the Seafarer:
Coming Soon! We recently decided to try our hands at some brass-casting and this is the first result, "The Seafarer", an intensely ornate, nautically-themed keyboard with a worn-in, weather-beaten aesthetic. It features a gold foil map faceplate, protected by thick acrylic, spiral cut rods, and engraved gold metallic keys.
We plan to make several more cast brass designs in the near future, so feel free to join the mailing list to stay informed of their availability

HOWTO think like Alan Turing

By Cory Doctorow at 8:01 am Monday, Jun 18 • 2 Comments • Share

In early celebration of the Turing centenary this week, Ars Technica's Matthew Lasar has a lovely list of seven of Alan Turing's habits of thought, including this one: Be Playful.
There was something about Turing that made his friends and family want to compose rhymes. His proud father openly admitted that he hadn't the vaguest idea what his son's mathematical inquiries were about, but it was all good anyway. "I don't know what the 'ell 'e meant / But that is what 'e said 'e meant," John wrote to Alan, who took delight in reading the couplet to friends.
His fellow students sang songs about him at the dinner table: "The maths brain lies often awake in his bed / Doing logs to ten places and trig in his head."
His gym class colleagues even sang his praises as a linesman: "Turing's fond of the football field / For geometric problems the touch-lines yield."
Turing's favorite physical activity, however, was running, especially the long-distance variety. "He would amaze his colleagues by running to scientific meetings," Hodges writes, "beating the travelers by public transport." He even came close to a shot at the 1948 Olympic Games, a bid cut short by an injury

hitchens/fry catholic debate (a thing of beauty)

Michigan leads the way.....

Michigan state rep Rep. Lisa Brown intervened in a debate about a pending abortion bill in which she used the word "vagina," for which she was censured, and prohibited from participating in some future, unrelated debates. She was not the only woman legislator prohibited from speaking during the debate. Rep. Barb Byrum was barred from introducing her amendment requiring men to prove that their lives were at risk before they were allowed to have a vasectomy.

Brown, a Democrat, argued that her Jewish faith allowed for therapeutic abortions when the mother's life is in danger without regard to length of pregnancy.
"I have not asked you to adopt and adhere to my religious beliefs. Why are you asking me to adopt yours?" she said. But what came next is what got her in trouble: "And finally, Mr. Speaker, I'm flattered that you're all so interested my vagina, but 'no' means 'no.'"
The Detroit News reports today the House Republican leadership did not allow Brown to speak on a bill about the retirement of school employees.

the elegantape recognizes excellence at all levels...........

I'm sure the tinhat rightwing crowd will find a bibical objection somewhere...

Carved Book Landscape Sculptures by Guy Laramee

screw that meth addled b**tch

a lot of these are popping up as the first choice on you tube searches (hmmmmmm....)

the ebst chance Obama has is they keep letting this "scholar" in front of a hot mike.....

Giant Metal Mosquito Sculpture

Funny "Lost Wormhole" sign

amazing

wow........

what the worst that could happen? (bush 2000)

all I ever find is change............

WTF was that? prequel? sequel? a mess.....

hmmmmmmm..........

Reagan Was a Keynesian ( a bit obvious that)

tommorow 1130 am (thank god)

very cool..........

why? oh why?

Terry Gilliam's Brazil letter to Universal (1985): "I feel every cut, especially the ones that sever the balls."

French "Beetle" experimental aircraft of the 1950s

mel gibson (wingnut)

really??

sweet.............

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh... This is what a colon-stapler looks like

dig it...Dead catcopter in flight

Wisconsin Recall (DAMN!!!) Vote: Exit Poll Shows Key To Scott Walker Victory

WASHINGTON -- The published exit poll points to a reasonably clear explanation for how Scott Walker prevailed in the Wisconsin recall election. Walker held much of the vote he received in 2010, and while Democratic challenger Tom Barrett prevailed narrowly among the new voters, it was not enough to overcome Walker's support.
The final unofficial turnout (2.5 million) exceeded the 2.16 million who voted in the 2010 race that elected Walker as governor, but fell short of the 2.98 million that gave President Barack Obama a 14-point victory in the state in 2008.
The exit poll, conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool consortium, shows that 13 percent of the 2012 voters did not participate in 2010, and they favored Barrett by a 53 percent to 45 percent margin. That result was positive for Barrett. Unfortunately, these self-reports also imply that Walker did a better job than Barrett of turning out 2010 supporters. Those who voted this year reported supporting Walker in 2010 by a larger margin (47 percent to 34 percent) than Walker actually enjoyed. According to the exit polls, both candidates held over 94 percent of their 2010 vote.
Consistent with that turnout pattern, the percentage of the 2012 voters who identified as conservative (36 percent) fell slightly short of the levels of the 2010 election (37 percent), but ran ahead of what voters reported in 2008 (31 percent) and 2006 (26 percent).
The recall was often framed by both sides as a battle between Walker and Wisconsin's labor unions, but those lines were somewhat blurred on voting day. Walker won 38 percent of the vote among members of union households, exit polling shows, roughly reflecting the partisan breakdown among union members.
Those numbers are nearly identical to 2010, when Walker won among 37 percent of union household members in his race against Barrett for governor. Walker's foes had hoped that number would shrink. "If that doesn't change, then congratulations, they will have formed their own suicide squad," former Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.) told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentin

So it was the hand that started it all . . . His hands had been infected, and soon it would be his arms . . . His hands were ravenous

Ray Bradbury Dead: 'Fahrenheit 451' Author Dies At 91

Author Ray Bradbury died this morning in Los Angeles at the age of 91, confirms io9. Bradbury's family and biographer Sam Weller confirmed the news. The author's work spanned genres of science fiction, horror and mystery, and his classic dystopian novel "Fahrenheit 451," has been a contested staple of school reading lists since its publication in 1953

Trinity: the birth of nuclear weapons in graphic novel form

By Cory Doctorow at 6:19 am Wednesday, Jun 6 • 0 Comments • Share

Jonathan Fetter-Vorm's Trinity is a nonfiction book-length comic for adults about the birth of nuclear weapons. It covers the wartime events that spawned the idea of a nuclear weapons program, the intense period of wrangling that gave rise to the Manhattan Project, the strange scientific town in the New Mexico desert that created the A-bomb, the tactical and political decision-making process that led to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the unspeakable horror experienced by the people in those cities and the existential crises the Nuclear Age triggered for scientists, politicians, and the world at large. Though this is primarily a history book, Trinity is also a pretty good nuclear physics primer, making good use of the graphic novel form to literally illustrate the violence of atoms tearing themselves apart, and the weird, ingenious, improvised mechanisms for triggering and controlling that violence.

it was only a matter of time (bacon armor)

Zombie Apocalypse: CDC Denies Existence Of Zombies Despite Cannibal Incidents

 

 

The horrific face-eating arrest in Miami and several other seemingly subhuman acts has many people wondering what's behind this flesh-munching wave of terror.
A zombie apocalypse, however, is not what we should be worried about, at least according to the federal government.

Over the years the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released a couple of tongue-in-cheek "zombie warnings," which really are just disaster-preparedness stunts. But on Thursday, the agency made it official: Zombies don't exist.

"CDC does not know of a virus or condition that would reanimate the dead (or one that would present zombie-like symptoms)," wrote agency spokesman David Daigle in an email to The Huffington Post.

Nevertheless, recent incidents in which humans reportedly ate human flesh have the Internet in a firestorm, with "zombie apocalypse" being Google's third most popular search term by Friday morning.

The zombie craze seemed to start with an attack in Miami on Saturday, when Rudy Eugene, 31, was killed by cops while in the process of eating almost the entirety of a homeless man's face off. The victim, Ronald Poppo, miraculously survived, but doctors are having a hard time figuring out how to put his face back together.

ZOM-BIE: n. also ZOM-BIES pl. 1. An animated corpse that feeds on living human flesh. 2. A voodoo spell that raises the dead. 3. A Voodoo snake god. 4. One who moves or acts in a daze "like a zombie." [a word of West African origin] - Max Brooks, "The Zombie Survival Guide"

Then, on Tuesday, 21-year-old Alexander Kinyua of Maryland allegedly admitted to dismembering his roommate and then eating his heart and brain.

Cops in Canada are also searching for a low-budget porn actor who allegedly killed a young man with an ice pick, dismembered the body and then raped and ate flesh from the corpse. Luka Rocco Magnotta is being hunted after he allegedly mailed some of the body parts to Ottawa. He's also accused of killing cats on video and posting the footage online.

Gawker fingered a "mysterious rash" breakout at a high school in Hollywood and other parts of Florida -- which hazmat and disease control teams still can't explain -- as further proof that zombies are taking over.

Zombie-like characteristics have been confirmed in the animal kingdom, just not in humans. A newfound fungus in a Brazilian rain forest -- called Ophiocordyceps camponoti-balzani -- is known to infect an ant, take over its brain so as to move the body to a good location for growth, and then kill the insect.

Yet Daigle dismissed "fictional viruses" like Ataxic Neurodegenrative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome, noting that other triggers have been alleged to cause zombie-like symptoms.

"Films have included radiation as well as mutations of existing conditions such as prions, mad-cow disease, measles, and rabies," he said.
But recently, some have found truth stranger than fiction.
"Action must be taken now before an outbreak!" an anonymous reader told The Huffington Post. "Zombies may be subdued by destroying the brain or removing the head. It is now your responsibility to prevent the apocalypse."

Jay Townsend, GOP Spokesman: 'Let's Hurl Some Acid At Those Female Democratic Senators'

Elevating the debate........ 

 

 

A spokesman for Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.) is facing criticism after advocating violence against female Democratic senators in a Facebook post.
Jay Townsend, the official campaign spokesman for the freshman representative, went on a vicious online rant on Saturday, which he began by taunting a constituent who voiced criticism about an earlier post on gas prices. "Listen to Tom. What a little bee he has in his bonnet. Buzz Buzz," Townsend wrote.
"My question today... when is Tommy boy going to weigh in on all the Lilly Ledbetter hypocrites who claim to be fighting the War on Women? Let’s hurl some acid at those female democratic Senators who won’t abide the mandates they want to impose on the private sector."

He attached a link to a Free Beacon article that claims female senators pay their male staffers more than their female staffers.

A moderator of the NY19 U.S. House of Representatives Civil Discussion Center page responded to Townsend, asking him to "please refrain from calling our members names." The unnamed moderator also asked if Hayworth knew about his comments or whether he had "gone rogue."

Comments from outraged constituents quickly followed. "‎'Hurl some acid' Jay Townsend? Do you realize what that means?" wrote one person. "Acid attacks are particularly brutal, aimed almost solely at women, with the intent to maim and disfigure. I couldn't imagine a worse piece of invective from someone who puts the Republican war on women in quotes."
Another commenter: "Mr. Townsend, do you think we live in Afghanistan?"

In his defense the food at the grinder sucked.......

Alexander Kinyua Ate Kujoe Agyei-Kodie's Brain, Heart In Maryland, Cops Say

Alexander Kinyua allegedly admitted to killing his roommate, then eating his heart and portions of his brain.

In yet another horrifying incident of human flesh-eating this week, a student in Maryland allegedly admitted to devouring his roommate's brain and heart.

Alexander Kinyua, a 21-year-old Morgan State University student, admitted to murdering his roommate Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie, who was reported missing last Friday, cops told the Baltimore Sun.

Kinyua's father called police late Tuesday night when Kinyua's brother reportedly found human remains -- a head and two hands -- in a metal tin in the basement. The brother and father left the room for a short time, but when they came back, the body parts had been moved and Kinyua was washing out the tin, the paper reported.
Officers searched the house and arrested Kinyua. The man allegedly confessed a shocking revelation: not only had he killed Agyei-Kodie by cutting him up with a knife and then dismembered him, he ingested parts of the victim's brain and all of his heart. He then allegedly dropped most of the remains in a Dumpster behind a church in Joppatowne.
It's yet unclear what Kinyua's motive may have been, but he was charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday. In another incident on May 20, he was charged with first-degree assault when he allegedly beat a fellow student randomly with a baseball bat and then fled into the woods.

The gruesome case comes on the heels of a similar attack in Miami on Saturday, in which Rudy Eugene, 31, was killed by cops while in the process of chewing off most of a homeless man's face.

Ronald Poppo, 65, is alive, but the bizarre flesh-eating attack left doctors with a literal puzzle in how to put his face back together.

Things That Would Be Preferable To Dinner With Donald And Mitt, According To Twitter



 Access to birth control
Acid bath
Alien invasion
Aneurysm
Answering this question
Anything
Athletes' Foot
Athletes' Foot, on armpits
Bankruptcy
Baptism, posthumous
Bathtub of maggots
Beard ripped off by force
Bedbugs
Being eaten, by lions, by man high on bath salts, by pack of wild dogs, by pack of wolves, by rattlesnakes
Black Eyed Peas, mandatory annual Super Bowl Halftime show
Bleeding, in shark infested waters
Blunt force trauma
Body cavity search
Breakdancing, in skinny jeans
Breathing
Castration
Cervical cancer
Cholera
Circumcision, sans anaesthetic
Cleaning, a cat box, rest stop toilets with hands
Clubbing baby seals
Colitis
Colorectal cancer
Colonoscopy, by Edward Scissorhands, by live python, sans sedation, via chainsaw
Colostomy
Constipation
Cracked rib
Crohn's disease
Crucifixion
Death
Diarrhea
Drinking, colonoscopy prep fluid, contents of WetVac, five year old milk, hemlock, Playboy Mansion grotto water
Drought
Drowning
Dying
Dysentery
Eating, bag of thumbtacks, cat litter, cold mac and cheese whilst in underwear, dog feces, eel sushi by force, Ex-Lax brownies, ghost pepper, hot Frosted Flakes, off floor of Waffle House, Olive Garden, own vomit, rat poison, real New York City pizza, shards of glass, toenails, unrefrigerated pink slime, warm mayonnaise pie, with Dominique Strauss-Kahn, with Hannibal Lecter, with Jerry Sandusky, with Josef Stalin, with just Mitt Romney, with Justin Bieber, with Kardashians, with Westboro Baptist Church
Ebola
Elevator, trapped with gassy Karl Rove
Emergency tracheotomy
Enema, with bath salts, with hot lead, with Tabasco
Erectile dysfunction
Everything
Eyeballs, forked, icepicked, knitting needled, sporked, tattooed
Expressing one's dog's anal glands
Face, punched
Falling, into hole with glass shards
Food poisoning
Gangrene
Gargling, razorblades
Genital mutilation, by ants, by barbed wire, by battery acid, by hammer and burning log, by hot poker, by icepick, by pickle slicer, by pitchfork, by sandblaster, by shoe, by toothpicks, by zipper, in farming accident, on L Train
Getting shot
Gingrich, Newt, in tutu whilst singing "Working In A Coal Mine"
Gonorrhea
Hades/Hell
Hands, ironed, slammed in car door
Hemorrhoids
Hepatitis C
Herpes
Hitting yourself, in face with hammer
Huffing, paint at family reunion
Human centipede
Hunger strike
Ingesting, Comet, fatal amount of Sweet-N-Low, propane (anally)
Jar of farts
Jogging, post-vasectomy
Keelhauling
Kidney stone
Koala Bear, dead and lashed to backside
Lego, stepped upon
Leprosy
Listed, on White House "kill list"
Listening, to Ke$ha performing "Subterranean Homesick Blues," to Nickelback performing the works of Creed, to Octomom lecturing on parenting, to Rebecca Black covering "Chocolate Rain"
Locusts
Losing money in Facebook IPO
Malaria
Nipple, third
Nuclear winter
Papercuts, thousands (followed by lemon juice bath), millions (followed by rubbing alcohol bath)
Pelvic exam
Planking, in traffic
Poison Ivy, anal
Prison
Probe, transvaginal
Ptomaine
Pubic lice
Rectal exam
Root canal
Santorum, Google it
Scurvy
Self immolation
Self-pleasuring, with buzzsaw, with cheese grater, with Icy Hot, with sword
Showering, in molten lava
Sliding, on barbed wire, on dry sandpaper
Sound engineering, with Khloe Kardashian
Sparrow, nailed to forehead
Spiders, sprung from a popped boil
Spinal tap
Staring, at 2012 Chicago Cubs, at 24-hour webinar about personal branding and Klout, at "Battlefield Earth" sequel, at "Benson," at "Cabin Boy," at complete season of "The Apprentice," at Japanese eel porn, at "Leonard Part Six," at Mitt's tax returns, at Mitt/Trump sexual encounter, at a pornographic movie starring one's parents, at "Showgirls, at "The Time Traveler's Wife," at a "Twilight Zone" marathon, at Thomas Kinkade paintings for eternity, at Trump's actual hairline
Starvation
Sucking, on ET's fingers
Swimming, with alligators
Syphillis
Teeth-pulling
Toilet training quituplets
Toupee, Trump's on one's entire back
Trapped, in closet with Victoria Jackson
Universal health care
Unwanted sexual encounter, with buffalo, with corpse, with crocodile, with Dom Deluise in jacuzzi filled with stew, with family, with fifty dollars worth of nickels, with garden tools, with grandmother, with grandmother (dead), with in-laws, with Ravi Shankar's sitar, with Roman Polanski, with Sasquatch, with wall outlet, with wild boars
Urinary tract infection
Vas deferens, destroyed in failed gymnastic feat
Violent encounter, with cheese grater, with Chris Christie over last cupcake, with Dick Cheney, with direwolf, with lawnmower, with piranhas, with rabid bat, with tweezers, with tweezers and back hair and intoxicated chimpanzees, with wakened bear, with Zdeno Chara slap shot
War
Waterboarding
Working on a chain gang
Year without toilet paper
Yeast infection
Zombies, attack, face eaten by

well done,,,,,,,,,,,

With a splash, the (SpaceX) Dragon has landed

The first picture of the Dragon spacecraft as it floats in the ocean awaiting recovery ships. (SpaceX)

At 8:42AM Pacific/11:42 AM Eastern this morning, SpaceX completed an historic mission as the business end of the Dragon capsule splashed down safely in the Pacific ocean, to be recovered by boats and head for land. From the SpaceX announcement:

Last week, SpaceX made history when its Dragon spacecraft became the first commercial vehicle in history to successfully attach to the International Space Station. Previously only four governments – the United States, Russia, Japan and the European Space Agency – had achieved this challenging technical feat. Dragon departed the space station this morning. This is SpaceX's second demonstration flight under a 2006 Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) agreement with NASA to develop the capability to carry cargo to and from the International Space Station.

Right-wingers hate spending—unless they pocket the cash.

Paul Begala:The Right Hates Spending, Unless It Pockets the Cash

I don’t know if it’s a conservative thing or a wealth thing or just a jerk thing, but I’ve been appalled lately at the complete lack of self-awareness of rich right-wingers. The hypocrisy of Republican millionaires who say they want to cut government spending while simultaneously asking for a government handout is staggering. How can they be that clueless? Are they missing the gene for embarrassment? Or does having your ring kissed dull the shame receptors of the soul?

  Take Joe Ricketts. The billionaire businessman recently landed on the front page of The New York Times for considering a proposal to fund $10 million in ads attacking President Obama’s former minister, Jeremiah Wright. But let’s set aside the content of the ads. Focus, instead, on the stated purpose of Ricketts’s super PAC, which is nicely captured in its name: Ending Spending. That’s right: it doesn’t aim to trim or reduce government spending but to end it. How? In part by outing hypocrites who “say one thing and do another” on the subject.

So imagine my surprise when I heard about how Ricketts and his family have used the beloved Chicago Cubs as a hostage to persuade (a less charitable person would say “extort”) taxpayers to give them welfare. The Cubbies last won a World Series 103 years ago, but during the Ricketts reign they have gone from lovable losers to cynical hypocrites. After hints that the family might move the Cubs’ spring-training home from Arizona to Florida, the panicky people of Mesa handed the owners $99 million of their money.

Now Mr. Ending Spending and his son Tom Ricketts are trying the same trick on the people of Chicago, seeking $150 million of taxpayers’ money to renovate Wrigley Field, plus a share of amusement-tax revenue until the end of time—which, by the way, is coming sooner than a Cubs World Series victory. As the indispensable ThinkProgress blog noted, Joe Ricketts has smugly declared, “I think it’s a crime for our elected officials to borrow money today, to spend money today, and push the repayment of that loan out into the future on people who are not even born yet.” And yet that’s precisely what he is trying to do in Chicago. In Texas we call that chutzpah.

Ricketts, oddly, is not the only right-wing hypocrite in baseball. Former pitcher Curt Schilling should be inducted into the hall of shame as well. The state of Rhode Island has pumped $75 million of taxpayers’ money into Schilling’s unsuccessful 38 Studios, and could flush millions more down Schilling’s commode. Schilling, who earned $114 million in his baseball career, loves to lecture us bleacher bums about government spending. He campaigned for Republicans George W. Bush, John McCain, and Scott Brown because, as he said of Brown, “he’s for smaller government.” Too small to help the poor, but big enough to bail out a multimillionaire.

Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images

Ricketts and Schilling will find a kindred spirit in Mitt Romney. Romney’s wealth is unspeakably vast and his personal consumption grotesquely conspicuous, but that’s his business. What rankles me—and should hurt Romney politically—is that some of that staggering wealth came from taxpayers, through bailouts and subsidies. In 1993 Bain & Co. owed the Bank of New England $38 million. The bank went under, and Romney negotiated a deal with the FDIC that allowed Bain to walk away from $10 million of that debt—sticking the taxpayers with the bill.

When Bain owned Steel Dynamics, Romney and his investors took $37 million in taxpayer subsidies—a sweet deal when they only invested about half that amount themselves. Tad DeHaven of the libertarian Cato Institute told the Los Angeles Times, “This is corporate welfare, an example of the government stepping into the marketplace, picking winners and losers, providing profits to business owners, and leaving taxpayers stuck with the bill.”

Classic crony capitalism: privatize the gain, socialize the risk. When Romney drove GST Steel into bankruptcy, he and his partners made $12 million in profit and another $4.5 million in consulting fees. But Romney stuck the taxpayers with a $44 million tab for the company’s underfunded pensions.

But Romney—like Ricketts and Schilling and so many others—never tires of lecturing the rest of us for being so selfish as to want good teachers, safe streets, and fully-funded fire departments. “Getting our fiscal house in order has become more than just an economic issue,” Romney’s campaign website piously declares. “It’s a moral imperative.”

A moral imperative? Spare me. Most middle-class Americans are tired of sanctimonious right-wingers who preach fiscal chastity after spending the night in the brothel of government bailouts

nice.....

Potato Daddy, A Mr. Potato Head Version of Big Daddy From BioShock

Potato Daddy by Ginger Troll, a wonderful Mr. Potato Head version of Big Daddy from the video game BioShock.

photos

Wayne Carter Threw Intestines At Officers After Stabbing Himself, Police Say

 Got to respect the man's determination...............

Wayne Carter allegedly stabbed himself with a knife (not pictured) and then threw bits of his flesh at cops.

A New Jersey man allegedly cut out his entrails in front of police and then threw bits of his flesh and intestines at them.

The gruesome scene played out at a home in Hackensack, N.J., where 43-year-old Wayne Carter allegedly barricaded himself in on Sunday, NBC New York reported.

Officers got a call that morning when a witness said Carter was threatening to harm himself with a knife. Two cops responded, kicked in the door and found Carter in the corner, the station reported.
Carter allegedly ignored officers' orders to put down the knife, and instead began stabbing himself in the abdomen, neck and legs.

An attempt to pepper spray the bleeding man had no effect, the Associated Press reported.

That's when Carter -- disemboweled but responsive -- reportedly threw bits of his skin and intestines at the officers.
They decided to retreat and call in the Bergen County SWAT team, Hackensack police Lt. John Heinemann told reporters. The team was able to subdue Carter and get him to a hospital, where he remained in critical condition on Monday.
Heinemann said he believes that drugs or mental illness may have led to the horrific incident, but those details haven't been confirmed.
No charges have yet been filed due to the unusual nature of the incident.

great time to be alive..........

Virgin Galactic spaceship gets FAA's OK for test flights

: xeni@xeni.net.

The Federal Aviation Administration today cleared SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic's six-passenger commercial space vehicle, to begin rocket-powered suborbital test flights.

love it...........

The SpaceX Dragon, having successfully berthed with the International Space Station, is on its way back home. Last week the space vehicle became the first privately-built and operated spacecraft to reach the ISS. Dragon is targeted to land in the Pacific Ocean, about 500 miles west-southwest of Los Angeles, at approximately 8:44 AM PT/11:44 AM ET tomorrow. The vehicle's return voyage, from ISS departure to splashdown, will be webcast on NASA TV starting at 3:30AM ET/12:30 AM PT.

OK....It's not funny (it's a little funny)

hahahaha........

TOM THE DANCING BUG: Obama Sparks Creationism Controversy With "Evolution" of His Gay Marriage Position

By Ruben Bolling at 9:45 am Wednesday, May 30

Support Tom the Dancing Bug and receive untold BENEFITS and PRIVILEGES by joining the brand new INNER HIVE right now!
"$9.99 every six months to support

just a few more days...........

his best work...........

The Cussing Channel has produced a Dark Knight Joker supercut,

dragon capsule docks..............

A SpaceX illustration of the Dragon capsule as it prepares to berth with the International Space Station.

UPDATE: The Dragon capsule was successfully captured at 9:56 a.m. EDT by NASA astronaut Don Pettit, using the International Space Station's (ISS) robotic arm. SpaceX is the first private company to launch and dock a spacecraft at the ISS.

The Dragon capsule, the unmanned spacecraft that was launched on SpaceX's Dragon 9 rocket early Tuesday morning, will attempt to dock with the International Space Station on Friday.

If successful, it will be the first private spacecraft to fly to the ISS.
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Since entering orbit on Tuesday, the capsule has been examined to make sure it is fit to berth with the space station, undergoing tests on its thrusters and Absolute Global Positioning System, among others.

Early Thursday morning, the spacecraft successfully flew 1.6 miles below the space station.

Dragon began its approach to the space station around 3 a.m. EDT on Friday, according to NASA. Running slightly behind course, astronauts aboard the ISS will use the space station's robotic arm to grapple Dragon after 8 a.m. EDT, and the spacecraft will attach to the station.

The astronauts are expected to open Dragon's hatch -- a process that takes two hours -- early Saturday morning.

The Dragon spacecraft is carrying about 1,000 pounds of non-essential rations, including clothing, food, computer equipment and student experiments.

With the retirement of the space shuttle last summer, the United States no longer has a means of transporting astronauts or supplies to space, and currently relies on Russia and its Soyuz rocket and spacecraft to make the trips.

NASA awarded $381 million to SpaceX as part of a 2006 agreement, according to press materials from the company. SpaceX has spent $1 billion over the last decade, the Associated Press reports.

NASA has also awarded $266 million to Orbital Sciences Corp., a Virginia-based space technology company, which has a goal of launching a rocket and spacecraft by the end of the year.

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Digitally-manipulated photos of skinless women

Digitally-manipulated photos of skinless women

 

Digitally-manipulated photos of skinless women

.

two america's

Anderson Cooper quizzes supporter of pastor who proposes concentration camps for gay people

[Video Link] This is as entertaining as it is disconcerting.

Stunningly Life-Like Wooden Figure Sculptures by Bruno Walpoth

Artist

F**kin fantastic

Gary Connery Completes First Successful Wing Suit Landing Without Using a Parachute

Yesterday British stuntman Gary Connery became the first person to successfully land in a wing suit without using a parachute (video). Connery jumped out of a helicopter at an altitude of 2,400 feet and dropped for 40 seconds before landing in a massive “runway” of cardboard boxes laid out for him in the English countryside. He was unharmed

it OK, I'm sure no contraception was used...

Emanuela Orlandi Was 'Kidnapped For Vatican Sex Parties,' Claims Father Gabriele Amorth

An undated file photo showing Italian teenager Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, believed to have been kidnapped after a music lesson in Rome on June 22, 1983, when she was 15-years-old. (AP Photo, File)

The Holy See was directly involved in the disappearance of 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi in 1983, according to a contentious accusation by the Catholic Church's leading exorcist. The Rev. Gabriele Amorth claimed that the girl's kidnapping was a "crime of a sexual nature."

"Parties were organized, with a Vatican gendarme acting as the 'recruiter' of the girls," Amorth told La Stampa, according to a translation by The Telegraph. "The network involved diplomatic personnel from a foreign embassy to the Holy See. I believe Emanuela ended up a victim of this circle."

Amorth, who was appointed by Pope John Paul II and has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms, is no stranger to controversial public statements; according to The Sun, the exorcist has called Harry Potter the "work of the devil," and has claimed "the devil was at work in the Vatican" when discussing the Catholic Church's sex scandals.

Clues to the missing girl's whereabouts had pointed in several directions, including toward a Turkish gunman who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II, The Telegraph reports.

On May 14, one rumor led Italian police to exhume the grave of Enrico De Pedis, a member of Rome's Magliana mob who was killed in 1990, the Associated Press reports. A one-time girlfriend previously said De Pedis committed the kidnapping, and an anonymous call to a television show in 2005 suggested clues on Orlandi's fate lay in the dead mobster's tomb in Basilica of Sant’Apollinaire. A set of bones not belonging to De Pedis were found, but the identity of the remains has yet to be released.

The Vatican insists it has done everything in its power to help solve the mystery of the missing girl.

Really? knock me over with a feather.....

Study Finds Fox News Viewers Least Informed Of All Viewers

Posted: 05/23/2012 8:32 am Updated: 05/24/2012 11:23 am

Another study has concluded that people who only watch Fox News are less informed than all other news consumers.

Researchers at Fairleigh Dickinson University updated a study they had conducted in late 2011. That study only sampled respondents from New Jersey, where the university is located. This time, the researchers conducted a nationwide poll.

The poll asked questions about international news (Iran, Egypt, Syria and Greece were included) and domestic affairs (Republican primaries, Congress, unemployment and the Keystone XL pipeline.)
The pollsters found that people were usually able to answer 1.8 out of 4 questions on foreign news, and 1.6 of 5 questions on domestic news, and that people who don't watch any news were able to get 1.22 of the questions on domestic policy right.
As the study explained, though, people who watched only Fox News fared worse:

The Master’s Voice, A Wonderfully Bizarre Short Film

“The Master’s Voice” is a wonderfully bizarre short film by Guilherme Marcondes about two ghostly inhabitants of M., a futuristic island city that is populated by ghosts. The film is a teaser for Marcondes’ upcoming film project on M. Island

Slinky on a treadmill

   

Abzde set a slinky upon an inclined treadmill and the brave spring proceeded to slink its way down that machine for 3 heart-pounding minutes and 20 unbeatable seconds. Watch as the slinky moves from side to side, nearly -- but not quite -- going over the edge time and again, tempting fate and laughing at danger with its brave non-hands planted upon its heroic non-hips. Oh, slinky

dig it.........

WE HAVE LIFTOFF John Raoux / AP Photo

2. SpaceX Launch Successful

It’s official: Dragon has launched. The private, unmanned space shuttle built by a California’s SpaceX successfully launched early Tuesday morning from Cape Canaveral, Fla.—the first mission by a spacecraft not commissioned by the government. The Dragon capsule blasted atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, and the space station was flying 249 miles above the north Atlantic Ocean as the rocket lifted off, NASA officials said. If the mission is a success, it represents a potential new stage in American space exploration: NASA hopes low-Earth orbits will be privately funded, allowing the space agency to focus on new spacecraft and missions to Mars, as well as asteroids and the moon

Bill Maher: Liberty University Is Not A Real School

 

At the end of "Real Time" Friday night, Bill Maher lambasted Liberty University, the Virginia religious university that has become a mandatory stop for Republican presidential candidates. (Watch above.)
"You can't expect me to believe anything Mitt Romney said last week at Liberty University, because a) he's a liar and b) Liberty University isn't really a university," Maher began. "It's not like an actual statesman visited a real college. It's more like the Tupac hologram visited Disneyland and said what he would do as president during the Main Street Electrical Parade."

Romney delivered Liberty's commencement speech on May 12.

Maher noted that Liberty teaches "creation science," and the idea that earth was created 5,000 years ago. "This is a school you flunk out of when you get the answers right," he joked.
Much as conservatives believe gay marriage cheapens their own vows, "I think a diploma from Liberty cheapens my diploma from a real school," he continued. "I worked really hard for four years and sold a lot of drugs to get that thing."
Liberty's diploma may look real, Maher said, but "when you confuse a church with a school, Maher went on, "it mixes up the things you believe — religion — with the things we know — education. Then you start thinking that creationism is science, and gay aversion is psychology, and praying away hurricanes is meteorology."
Watch the whole clip above