Stars with mental disorders

Not Tom Cruise… real stars… like big balls of gas stars.

New media douchebags

Guilty. But ok with it.

(Danke: Matthew Yglesias)

Harry Reid = political dunce, continued

Hilarious post by Jane Hamsher on the subject. To wet the appetite:

I want to play poker with Harry Reid. Really I do.

Rather than call for a special election in Illinois, Reid sends a letter to Blagojevich signed by everyone in the Democratic caucus asking him to step down. They assert that they will not seat anyone he appoints.

Harumph.

Blago wipes his ass with it and appoints Burris anyway.

(Danke: John Cole)

New business plan: buy old electronics, recycle them

Companies are making money through “e-waste” buy-back recycling programs. Good for business. Good for the environment. Good from consumers (who get a little green in their wallets, too).

More on reverse logistics here.

Ygelsias has robophobia

He predicts a self-wrought Armageddon per iRobot/The Matrix/Terminator. It was all sparked yesterday by Eliot Spitzer condoning robot education:

After the human race is enslaved by robots, there are going to be small rebel groups hiding out somewhere and Elliot Spitzer’s going to be writing op-eds about how “no one could have predicted” that the robots would rebel and overthrow their masters. And it’ll be left to DFH bloggers to observe that this is in fact one of the most widely predicted scenarios in all of science fiction. From the proto-SF of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein through to Karel Capek’s R.U.R. and The War Against the Newts all the way up through Terminator and The Matrix. Yes, yes, yes eventually the Butlerian Jihad will allow us to re-overthrow the Thinking Machines and establish human rule but do we really want to fall into that trap?

Just say no to robots. And certainly say no to robots in our schools.

Maybe we’ll get lucky and develop a joyous, laughable and loving sort of AI and end up with Robin Williams in Bicentenial Man. I mean, hey, it could happen… right?

MTV VJ Kennedy for Clinton’s Senate seat

She already has one important endorsement.

Appointing Caroline Kennedy to the Senate would make the Hillary-haters happy, but I’m afraid it won’t annoy Hillary enough. The few abbreviated press conferences Caroline has had, before her aides cut them off, showed that she isn’t the most articulate Kennedy in the world. In a Senate committee hearing, Hillary would make mincemeat of her. But former MTV VJ Kennedy has had quite a lot of experience in the spotlight and is quite articulate. The woman who once simulated fellatio with her microphone while interviewing former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani would have no problem taking Hillary on. Who knows what she might do with a Senate microphone. In comparison, Caroline Kennedy seems just too nice and polite and would wilt in Hillary’s glare.

Woah

It’s amazing to watch the pace of the ever-shrinking size of technology. Soon to be: 2TB memory cards.

Too cool…

G-G… always entertaining.

Half full or half empty?

According to Yglesias, it depends on your politics.

One noteworthy trend over the past five years or so has been a marked tendency in left-of-center commentators to be more pessimistic about the economic outlook than right-of-center commentators have been. I see three factors at work here:

1. I believe left-wing politics and pessimism are generally correlated traits.
2. Left-of-center commentators are generally smarter than right-of-center ones and pessimism was the correct position.
3. People inclined to be hostile to the incumbent administration are naturally disposed to believe that disaster looms around the corner.

Balloon Juice insomnia

Leads to John Cole finding an interesting poll…

Long and short: Harry Reid = Political dunce.

More here and here.

AoM reviews men’s magazines

Haven’t seen anything like this before… actually quite useful. Very brief, yet to-the-point. Quantifies characteristics of magazines that you want to know, but hadn’t directly thought to ask for before such as the percentage of pages that are advertisements, how attainable the promoted lifestyle is, etc. Very good overviews/reviews. As always, Art of Manliness is on the ball.