t3knomanser's Fustian Deposits

Drugs may be bad for you, but the "War" on drugs is worse for you.

This story, in particular is tragic. The summary: college hippie sells pot and ecstasy to friends. Gets busted. The cops offer a deal: be an informant, and we'll go easy on you. Girl falls for it. They wire her up and send her to buy way more drugs than ever before, a gun, and other such out-of-character behaviors.

A few days later, the police find her body.

Reason's blog often runs stories about the "isolated incidents" wherein "drug warrior" thugs break into homes with "no knock warrants", harass, abuse, and sometimes kill the residents, then realize that it was the wrong house. Sadly, Reason can't be arsed to tag their entries, so I can't link to the library of "isolated" incidents that they've collected.

Worst of all from this point of view are those more uncivilized forms of eating, like licking an ice cream cone--a catlike activity that has been made acceptable in informal America but that still offends those who know eating in public is offensive. ... Eating on the street--even when undertaken, say, because one is between appointments and has no other time to eat--displays [a] lack of self-control: It beckons enslavement to the belly. ... Lacking utensils for cutting and lifting to mouth, he will often be seen using his teeth for tearing off chewable portions, just like any animal. ... This doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to be kept from public view, where, even if we feel no shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful behavior.

What maniac said this, you ask? Why, George W. Bush's adviser on bioethics. This same man ranted against test tube babies and organ transplants.

Classy, classy guy. Read more about "The Stupidity of Dignity"

This is pretty much the textbook example of awesome.

Filmed in Skelorama!

I'm really tempted to buy this. If nothing else, for the music.

Ms. Venkatesan lectured in freshman composition, intended to introduce undergraduates to the rigors of expository argument. "My students were very bully-ish, very aggressive, and very disrespectful," she told Tyler Brace of the Dartmouth Review. "They'd argue with your ideas." This caused "subversiveness," a principle English professors usually favor.

This is pretty much a comedy goldmine of idiocy.

There's a general irony of people who argue against reason- and let's be honest, that's what she was doing. "Science" is nothing more than the primary tool of reason. To argue against reason, you must use reason, thus invalidating your argument. You could try and use nonsense to argue against reason, but that's... well, nonsense.

This professor seemed to excel at using nonsense.

CCTV cameras remain a waste of money for stopping crime on the streets.

Go download and read this, and buy it maybe too. This book, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is incredibly awesome. If you hunt for it in a bookstore, look in the Young Adult section. That seems to be where all the best subversive literature ends up these days.

I love the fact that he tries to continue the lesson after destroying any kind of authority he had.

• 16:46 So now, we officially have a couch. Rochester loves it. #

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Watch as this Detroit Councilwoman gets owned by an eighth grade girl.

So, birthday. Lowlight, as previously twittered was busting my inner tube before even getting a chance to try out my unicycle. Still pissed about that.

On the balance though, it was a nice day. Mostly sat at home with Minna, doing the sorts of things we usually do. Had some venison and pork sausages (with cherries!) for dinner. They were about as awesome as they sound like they should be. And of course, birthday tiramisu, made by Minna. Because, seriously- tiramisu is awesome. So's Minna.

• 15:12 Seriously pissed. I've been excited for DAYS to finally get out on this damn thing. Before I even get on it, I blow the damn tube. #
• 15:20 No, really. Pissed. This is what I get for trusting a PSI gauge on a pump that's bending and falling apart as I use it. #

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• 20:11 Pens just went from losing 0-3 to winning 4-3. WOO! #
• 20:37 Pens win it, 5-4. Lots of back and forth and crazy goals. Awesome game. #

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Hundreds of thousands of Web sites - including several at the United Nations and in the U.K. government -- have been hacked recently and seeded with code that tries to exploit security flaws in Microsoft Windows to install malicious software on visitors' machines.

Baaalmer! You gots some 'splainin' to do.

• 15:27 Whaddaweek. Man... totally needed this week to end. AND IT DID! #
• 16:06 @metaphorge:CMU is right down the street from me. I shall find a mellon farmer so that I may have mellons. And melons. #
• 16:30 As I prepare to learn to unicycle, I see this: tinyurl.com/5dgxth WANT! #

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• 07:13 Yay for a work from home day! #

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• 13:23 tinyurl.com/5gx5mg #

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• 10:35 After some shopping around, I've decided to buy a unicycle. Hopefully, I'm more successful with this than skateboarding. #
• 10:36 @tyrsalvia : your tweet about seeing a unicycle parked at your work was the final push that got me off the fence. #
• 13:43 Today, Minna and I stumbled across the turkish convenience store. Baklava and halva ensued. #
• 13:43 Also: we have a couch. Yes, these two events are related. #

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A long time ago, I predicted that if you had always-connected mobile devices, your cellphone could act as a barcode scanner and perform a search while you're out shopping:"show me all the stores with related products within x miles."

Well, I got one-upped. It doesn't just scan barcodes, but the products themselves. Coming to always on devices, like the iPhone.

I'm halfway to being a pundit!

• 20:36 Penguins sweep the Senators! w00t! #
• 13:47 I am recently returned from the dentist. Fillings, scrapings, and general novacaineage. I am all drooly on myself. #

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• 19:12 God, hearing that the geekhouse may be dying has made me very sad. #

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There is a bar giving away free bacon every Tuesday just down the street from me.

Bonus: "Sponsored by Lipitor"!

The Geekhouse may be closing for good.

My memories of the geekhouse are mixed, sadly. With the news of its possible demise, I actually find myself regretting not being smarter about that time in my life- of course, if I were smarter, it might never have happened! That's the way of things, I guess.

The bad side of things really stems from where I was at the time. Unemployed, in a bad relationship- it wasn't a good scene for me. But it still ranks as a great time in my life.

The house is garbage, the landlord is an incompetent loser, it's just down the street from the sewage treatment plant. At points, we crammed well over the maximum occupancy into that building. But that's the stuff that really brings friends together. Living cheek to jowl like that makes you a kind of family, and in the end- those were some good times.

The thought that the Geekhouse might be dying- well, that's sad. There have been so many generations of geeks through that place; Ben and James anchored the place through Me, Cate and Tim. Cate and I leave, Apples comes on. Then Mark. Alison and then Apples's little brother. And when you expand that net to the "honorary residents", there are dozens of people that used that place as a second home. For awhile, there was always someone there, no matter what time of day.

There's a lot of memories in that crappy little building.

It makes me sad to see that end.

So let's not. My parent's house, a hop skip and a jump from the Geekhouse, is for sale. It's pretty affordable, and my parents are eager to sell- they won't cut the price down much more, but they will work out deals to help with down payment and the like. Ben, James, Apples- give me a call. Email me for my parents number. If you need help with anything- down payment, binder money, getting an inspection or even the occasional mortgage payment, I'm there to spot for you guys. It's a little smaller that the current Geekhouse, but it's got a yard, it's in much better condition- and it'd be yours.

C'mon. It'd be awesome!