Research and learning on a variety of topics, from health to computers, parenting to cooking, brewing to politics.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
If I were Crafty
If I ever took up making stained glass, I'd be sorely tempted to do something like this:
Perhaps it's for the best I'm not terribly handcraft inclined.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Sandy, Gays and Snookie
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
The Femitheist
All of these people pale in comparison to The Femitheist. I know, she may be a troll, but she presents herself as a deeply damaged woman who is sincere in her beliefs. If she's not acting mad to get attention, then I think it's only a matter of time before she kills someone. I'm not sure which is more horrifying, the scope of what she desires, or the fact that she claims that what she intends isn't REALLY violence or evil, because she thinks it's for the greater good, and because she doesn't consider her intended victims to be fully human.
Krista Heflin, The Femitheist, wants to castrate or murder all men, murder all women who object, and execute everyone who is developmentally disabled. But don't take my word for it, check out how The Femitheist introduces herself to the SGU Forum.
Her current youtube channel: F.C. Season 1
Her current blog: The New Era of Feminism
This is her second incarnation. I first heard of her a few months back when she had a different blog. Her youtube videos kept getting pulled because she was advocating the murder of a few Billion people. Even Youtube has limits. Before her brief disappearance, she posted a picture of her infant daughter with the word "Bitch" scrawled across the child's forehead. At one point the rumor started that she fatally shot herself.
I exchanged a number of e-mails and PMs with her during her peak. It was surreal to have a civil conversation with someone about how they wanted me dead. Around the time she deleted her old blog, she was claiming to have been physically assaulted and that child services had been called to investigate her. If the rumors circulating about her are to be believed, she was her high school valedictorian, got pregnant in high school and may or may not be pursuing a degree in education. The circumstance of her daughter's conception may shed quite a bit of light on her current misandry. The concept of this woman teaching children of any age for a living is, frankly, terrifying, even if she is a troll.
Here are some choice quotes from the deleted blog
Her old blog is, sadly, not in the Wayback Machine.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Rep. Joe Walsh New Contender for Coveted 'Most Ignorant Republican' Prize
"With modern technology and science, you can't find one instance," Walsh said. "There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing."
I'm sure the research minded folks inclined to read my blog can find ample scientifically backed examples and statistics on maternal mortality to correct him on this tiny error. One of the comments on the article "More Junk Science: GOP Congressman Says Abortion Is Never Necessary To Save A Woman’s Life" provides an excellent starter list. The Wikipedia article on Maternal Death is also an excellent resource.
Rep Walsh even makes it easy to get in touch with him, as behooves a member of Congress. As an upstanding Christian man, I'm sure he'll appreciate respectful correction.
http://walsh.house.gov/contact-joe/
432 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3711
Fax: (202) 225-7830
Hours: Monday-Friday
9:00AM-5:00PM Eastern time
Thursday, October 18, 2012
"Polkattack!" - Weird Al Yankovic's polka medleys from 1984-2011
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Dale Nierode is a Shoddy Apologist
They say there's nothing new under the sun, and "Why Evolution is Not True - The Puzzle of Life Finally Comes Together" by Dale Nierode seems determined to do its best to apply that adage to Creationism. Instead of an honest attempt at examining the real data, the book ignores anything that contradicts it's fundamental premise. Even the abstract contains outright misinformation, insisting, for example, that no transitional fossils have been found. This nonsense ignores the well documented evolution of whales, the pre-human transitional fossils and all the others that have been uncovered. One is left wondering if Dale Nierode is deliberately lying, or merely an incompetent, lazy researcher.
The book is an embarrassment to Creationists and Apologetic writing. If I were conspiracy minded, I'd accuse Nierode of being a deep cover humanist out to mock and ridicule Creationism by depicting Biblical literalists as developmentally disabled idiots incapable of cracking open a book.
If you want a well written, thoughtful, insightful, well researched book supporting Creationism, this volume is the exact opposite of what you're seeking. If you want to get a Creationist to seriously consider Evolution as a feasible explanation for the variety of living creatures on Earth, give them this book, as it sets up a chain of shoddy arguments and straw men that are unsportingly easy to knock down. Follow up by giving them a copy of Why Evolution Is True to show them what happens when a competent writer does actual research.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
home grown hops
My wife and son harvested some of my hops. Sadly I noticed aphids all over them this morning. There's also some mold on the leaves. I laid them out on a screen before taking Caleb to school this morning. Hopefully they'll dry out and the aphids will leave.
Friday, September 21, 2012
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Sunday, September 9, 2012
The finished beef jerky
The thing that amazed me most about the process was how incredibly easy it was. Buy some thin sliced beef, marinate it overnight, put it on skewers and dry it in the over for a few hours.
I started with an Oven Beef Jerky recipe I found online. I made a few adjustments. I added a bit of smoked paprika to the marinade. I was out of Worcestershire sauce so I substituted six tablespoons of rice wine vinegar. I figured an acid would be a better substitute than more soy sauce.
The end result was too spicy, as I'd dredged the jerky slices in cracked black pepper before drying them, and I used too much pepper. This was not a major issue, as all I had to do was rub off some of the excess pepper to dial the spice level back down. Next time I'll still add some cracked black pepper, but I'll use far less, more of a spotting than a full dredge.
The bag currently sits in the fridge, offering a quick and easy bite for hungry people. I do not expect it to last much longer. Next, I need to look into what's involved in making it shelf stable enough to ship to a friend overseas, if it isn't already.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Listed specifications for Dinner Dash are a bald faced lie
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
John Rocker Calls for the Nanny State to Protect his Feelings
"Technically, as our Founding Fathers intended, we are all given the undeniable right to voice our thoughts and opinions freely without fear of scorn and/or ridicule derived from non-agreement. I supposedly have the same right to express myself as you do. In a perfect world, my rights should be no different from yours. I’m quite certain that given the current stage of the world’s social climate, however, anyone ascribing to the ridiculous notion that our world is perfect is kidding himself. Our “perfect” world was replaced many moons ago by the defective reality in which we are all forced to reside – and one of the most blatant areas to view the erosion of perfection is seen in the lack of ability many in this great country have to speak freely without fear of chastisement."
Emphasis mine.
Think about this for a second. John Rocker believes that he should have the right to say whatever he wants and be protected from ridicule by the law of the land. He wants his critics to have no freedom of speech of their own, yet he wants the freedom to criticize others. Not only that, but he apparently thinks that this is the way things used to be.
If the first amendment guaranteed protection from ridicule, as Rocker claims, then it would be the OPPOSITE of freedom of speech. It would be censorship, the banning of opposing views altogether. Under Rocker's ignorant, uniformed, fantasy land version of the first amendment, Rush Limbaugh would be jailed for criticizing Obama. I would be jailed for criticizing Rocker. Pat Robertson would be jailed for attacking Planned Parenthood. The cast of Saturday Night Live would be jailed for shredding Sarah Palin.
Is that really the kind of world Rocker wants to live in, a place where the people in power can legally silence anyone they think is ridiculing them? That's a Communist ideal bucko, and this happens to be America.
I recommend checking out the excellent Popehat take on John Rocker's profound ignorance.
Friday, July 13, 2012
2012 Olympics run by thin-skinned children
"a. Links to the Site. You may create your own link to the Site, provided that your link is in a text-only format. You may not use any link to the Site as a method of creating an unauthorised association between an organisation, business, goods or services and London 2012, and agree that no such link shall portray us or any other official London 2012 organisations (or our or their activities, products or services) in a false, misleading, derogatory or otherwise objectionable manner."The Boing-Boing article proceeds to link to www.london2012.com with a variety of derogatory terms. If you follow any of the links, you don't get the London 2012 web site, but a few horizontal bars and the word "advertisement".
That's right folks, it looks like the London 2012 committee is such a thin skied collection of useless cowards, that they block people from following links to their site that hurt their poor little feelings.What a bunch of manky gits.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Baiting a Racist on the MBTA
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Thank you Jenny Lawson
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Friday, June 8, 2012
Bleach Enemas to Treat Autism
The Awful Inhumanity of Using Bleach Enemas to Treat Autistic Children
You read that correctly. Bleach enemas to cure autism. The protocols the members of this trio recommend for the MMS treatment are just… traumatizing even to read. One calls for a "treatment" every two hours for 72 hours, "every possible weekend." Humble writes of overcoming the "nausea barrier" to up the dosage. Evidently, a "therapy" that induces nausea and vomiting and fever and diarrhea is a "good" thing. And if you make up a "baby bottle" of it, that makes it seem even more innocuous—or insidious, depending on your perspective.
Any child who is subjected to this abusive and torturous treatment would find it more than insidious. Orac quotes a parent who writes about her non-speaking autistic teen that the boy can't tell her how he feels as she doses him with the bleach solution. He vomits and has diarrhea "all day"; she writes that he generally has a "sensitive" gut. Another mother set up a blog to describe trying MMS on both her autistic son and herself, a sufferer of rheumatoid arthritis. It's heartbreaking but also enraging to read her posts as they reveal more than she seems to see: Her son develops a sudden extreme fear of the bathtub, and she can't seem to understand why, even though six days earlier, she wrote that they were about to try an "MMS bath" (i.e., a bleach solution bath) on him. Then suddenly, the blog ends with, "I cannot continue this blog. Sorry."
The full article can be found here: Dangerous Interventions: MMS and Autism
You can read a primer on MMS here: Bleaching away what ails you
Here is a petition asking the FDA to ban bleach enemas for autistic children.
This article has some information on a clinic that actually does this: You Can’t Bleach Autism Out of a Child
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Open Letter to the moron who banned Five Wives Vodka
This was my letter to the blithering idiot who banned the Vodka.
to: howard.wasserstein@liquor.idaho.gov
date: Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 1:42 PM
subject: Five Wives Vodka
Mr. Wasserstein,
I want to thank you for banning Five Wives Vodka in Idaho. Were you not such a petty, small minded, control freak, I'd have never heard of it. I had to do some digging but I found some and gave it a try. Your claim that it's not good enough to sit on the shelf beside Absolute is complete rubbish, showing you are not only a prude but incompetent when it comes do discerning the relative quality of different vodkas.
I am particularly amused by your claim that the label would be offensive to the majority of the population because the source of the image on the label is an obscure Vaudeville act. How many people would have recognized the label in the first place, in order to BE offended?
You are a first class ass, but your rank incompetence and terror of the opposite sex have introduced me to a very fine Vodka. For that, I thank you.
Matthew Miller
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Black Salve
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Mississippi lawmaker: Coat hanger abortions might come back. 'But hey, you have to have moral values'
Monday, May 14, 2012
Cornerstonepayday.com Revisited
There were many issues with cornerstonepayday.com:
- Annoying popups trying to prevent you from leaving the site.
- Rip-off fee structure.
- No security or encryption protecting your name, address, social security number and bank details.
- Spam based marketing strategy
- The stolen SSL certificate being used ion the site
- The hard coded submission from making it impossible to submit your data securely even if you wanted to.
- False claims on the site of using encryption to protect your data.
The site has made two major changes since the original article. The annoying popups trying to prevent you from leaving are gone and their fee structure is no longer as readily accessible. That's it. The major security problems remain.
cornerstonepayday.com's facebook page links to needcashpaydaynow.com, which has a slightly different design, but still has NO encryption, despite having the logos of several security vendors on the site. This site is a bit worse, as you get an error message when you try to load the site using HTTPS instead of HTTP. It doesn't even have a stolen security certificate for you to use in submitting your social security number.
needcashpaydaynow.com has links to a few other sites:
- holidaypayday.com
- speedypayday.ca
- eloanadvance.co.uk
To be blunt, you'd have to be a complete idiot to trust any of these sites with your information. They're probably con artists looking to steal your identity. Even if they aren't con artists, they're incompetent when it comes to rudimentary data security. You'll probably have your identity stolen if you give them your information.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Friday, May 4, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Chilling with his Bambi, waiting for school to start
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Karl Giberson, Deception in the name of Chirst
On a side note, I live in Quincy, MA, and have been looking at the local churches. I want to thank Giberson for making it clear I don't have to waste my time on St. Chrysostom's Church. I have no interest in a church that will deliberately lie to me about what others believe in order to encourage the less educated members to circle the wagons. My wife is Jewish, and if St. Chrysostom's Church is as liberal in it's definition of "facts" as Giberson then I really don't want to spend my Sunday mornings being told that the blood libel is real and I married a Christ Killer.
I recommend checking out the excellent article "Uncle Karl says atheists are ignorant of religion" for a breakdown of some of the nonsense and absurdity Giberson spews as if it were based in reality.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Inspired by George Takei, Send Stacey Campfield some hay
Let's start with mailing hay to Senator Stacey Campfield.
http://www.capitol.tn.gov/senate/members/s7.html
District address:
2011 Flagler
Knoxville, TN 37912
Nashville Address:
301 6th Avenue North
Suite 4 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, TN 37243
Phone (615) 741-1766
sen.stacey.campfield@capitol.tn.gov
In the package / envelope include a piece of paper with the URL for Takei's video http://vimeo.com/38068014 and some hay. If you can't find any hay, include a picture of hay, a scarecrow or a straw man.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Racist Jackasses vs a Dead Woman
The subject line of the email, which Cebull sent from his official courthouse email address on Feb. 20 at 3:42 p.m., reads: "A MOM'S MEMORY."
The forwarded text reads as follow:
"Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.
"A little boy said to his mother; 'Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?'" the email joke reads. "His mother replied, 'Don't even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!'"
I decided to check out OpenBook to hunt up anyone passing around the same joke, not to report on it as the news outlets are doing, but because they apparently think it's funny. I searched for the phrase "From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!'"
I was pleasantly surprised that I only got a handful of hits.
The last one illustrated the fact that minority groups have their share of racists who don't think much of .mixed race children.
Former HRN foster bunny Holly lounges during romp time
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Caleb and I made a train. He did the painting, I did the glue.
Caleb and I made a train. He did the painting, I did the glue.
Originally uploaded by flakingnapstich
Monday, February 20, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Rabbits and chickens living together, mass hysteria!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Monday, February 6, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Caleb enjoying a piece of the gigantic gingerbread man he made at a birthday party.
Caleb enjoying a piece of the gigantic gingerbread man he made at a birthday party.
Originally uploaded by flakingnapstich