BunkBlog

I’ve finally pinned down the problem with ugly fonts that I first noticed on BlooJanuary’s journal last year. I seem to have ugly Lucida fonts on my system. Check out the screenshot and tell me if anyone else has Lucida fonts that are ugly below 12 points or if there is something wrong with my fonts.
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Britain is running low on beer. Shoot, they may get so desperate they may even buy American pilsner soon. Nah, they’d rather drink water.

I’m impressed as usual with Jason’s writing today, and his piece on
Religion as a mental illness is particularly good. When you think of how many wars have been waged in the name of a deity, you’d think someday we’d learn better.

I find it interesting that I hadn’t heard anything of this on the national news the past few days. You’d think if Iraqi Trailers were for making hydrogen, not biological arms, someone would have made a big deal of it.

Not saying that the Bush administration’s dissembling, misdirection, and outright lying is malicious, of course. It’s all just the normal way of doing business for neoconservative ideologs.

The rest of this entry is from the FAS Secrecy News mailing for today. Forgive the redundancy.

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You just cannot beat the Internet Toilet Roll Browser for bizarre idea of the day. Amazing what people will build, isn’t it?

I wonder, though – TP tough enough to print on I wouldn’t want near my bum. Just sayin’.

the friday five

# What’s the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country? Since I really don’t have a home state, I’ll have to say Nogales Mexico last June or July.
# What’s the most bizarre/unusual thing that’s ever happened to you while traveling? Snow storm in New Mexico desert.
# If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go? Cadiz, Spain – followed by the rest of Europe as desired.
# Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car? Gonna have to say plane if First Class or Business Class, otherwise car.
# What’s the next place on your list to visit? Um, Fredericksburg? Otherwise, a Cali trip in 2005 for Disneyland’s 50th Birthday.

Hypothetically, say you build a web page as a quick one-off. When you look at it and test it every which way, it works just fine. When others look at it, many of them tell you it doesn’t work completely and even tell you specifically what is broken and why.

Do you:
a. Believe that 5 different people getting the same result are a statistically valid sample and change your page to be bulletproof, or
b. Assume that since you can see it, everyone else is a fucking moron and begin to insult them for trying to help you fix your page.

Just thinking. Hypothetically.

Gourmet Cat Food is remarkably similar to MREs.

On occasion, as I have spent so many years in association with the military, I encounter people whose names make them obvious focii of humor. For example, there was the soldier with the last name of Sargent, who would one day become Sergeant Sargent (assuming he stuck around long enough). I met an Army O-3 named Minor – that’s Major Minor.

Today, as I was leaving work, there was a saucy little blonde Navy woman in front of me. As she was wearing that silly Naval uniform with the family name stitched above the rear pocket, I was amused to note that her last name is Creamer. Yes, that would be Seaman Creamer. That’s not quite as bad as the (possibly apocryphal) Seaman Swallow that I’ve heard about, but still a very unfortunate name for a junior Naval person to have.

Stolen from PartyWhipple, who stole it from Janke…
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Gotta love this particular juxtaposition on the CNN page today:

Watch out for those electronic devices, now!

Another great example of the Transportation Security Agency being a bunch of ill-trained idiots. A teenager had a note in his luggage which caused him to be charged with making a threat endangering the safety of airline travel. A note, folks.

So he’s 17 and writes a note, which he keeps in his checked bag, saying basically, “Keep out of my bag and go find bombs where they might actually be.” Oooh! He said “bomb” – he’s a terrorist!

Gotta love Sinfest. Gettin’ his wand on…hehe
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# What time do you wake up on weekday mornings? 5:30
# Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late? If the boy lets me, maybe 8:00.
# Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning? Pee.
# How long does it take to get ready for your day? About 15 minutes.
# When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast? IHOP rules.

Watched 2001 again tonight, for the first time in years. Honestly, I think it’s the first time I’ve watched it since 2010 came to the theaters about 15 years ago.

With a runtime of 156 minutes, there can’t be more than 300 words of speech in the whole thing. It’s amazing how much Kubrick implied and indicated and left off-screen. I can’t help but think there’s no way in hell Hollywood would greenlight this movie today.

Not many people wan to see this, but it’s sure unique.

Update: Since that site was listed on Dave Barry’s Blog today, it has been nuked from the web. I’m sure you’ll be thrilled to know that I’ve archived the images (okay, I looked in my cache for them). For your further edification:
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The Price of ‘Man’ and ‘Woman’: A Hedonic Pricing Model of Avatar Attributes in a Synthethic World

This is a working paper for the CSU Fullerton Economics Department, detailing how pricing for avatars traded to use in EverQuest varies by gender. Too much time on his hands, maybe?

A Reuters story, Marriott Giving Free Web, Though Not at Top Hotels, says Marriott is planning to give away WiFi access in their mid-range hotels, but still charge extra for it in the expensive hotels. This reminds me of the strangeness in telecom I noticed while traveling on business the past few years.
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According to ABC News, the TSA is planning to reduce the number of Air Marshals on flights, in order to save money.

According to CNN, though, that’s not true at all. I wonder if it was true until someone leaked it to the press and then it became untrue. wink wink
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Employers are handing out the smallest raises since the mid-70s. I’m sure that is no indication of any economic trouble we’re in as a country, though.