BitWrench

EC Is For Me, See? "EC is for me, see?  You bet your sweet ass you don't!  Look at you... Your eyeballs protruding, your tongue gently lolling, the cappuccino slowly encrusting on your lips... You, the knowledgeable hipster!  You might know all about percussion ensembles from Senagal, but what do you know from EC Comics?" Originally shared by Ben Towle I scanned and posted James Lloyd's excellent 2001 essay on history of EC comics & the 2000 EC reunion the San Diego Comic-Con. #ECcomics   #sdcc   http://www.benzilla.com/?p=5506

The Daily Grind Little Feat-The Daily Grind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwRzGwfL86U Originally shared by ****

Moonlighting One hundred and ten years ago, on June 29, 1905, Fayetteville, NC native Archie "Moonlight" Graham, made his first and only appearance in a Major League Baseball Game. He was the second player to make one appearance in The Show without a chance to hit.  There have been 61 to date. W.P. Kinsella's 1982 novel "Shoeless Joe," brought Graham's brief career into the spotlight, especially after the novel was adapted for the 1989 big screen hit, "Field Of Dreams", starring Kevin Costner and Burt Lancaster. http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2015-06-29/moonlight-graham-anniversary-field-of-dreams-burt-lancaster-shoeless-joe http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/a054b3d6

Excruciatingly Ephemeral Remember the old days, when computers would crash before you could save your work? Thanks, Google Plus/Chrome, for giving me a taste of that, just now. Pfui.

Predator

Swear Jar If USA Cycling had a dollar for every time someone cursed them, they'd be rich. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/usac-official-denies-riders-fine-was-over-twitter-complaints

The End Originally shared by Alvin Stearns Every human story ultimately ends with, "Then s/he died. The personal ending has been on my mind since about age 11. The age when I understood not just the fact of death, but its universality. Not long after that realization I learned that the dead have a kind of afterlife, though not the ones taught to me in years of Southern Baptist Sunday School. We mythologize the dead. The perfect mother. The world's greatest dad. The brother who had courage and talent and such possibilities. We tend to idealize the (safely) dead, refining their history down to those parts we consider most essential to their memory, to serve the living. A few we vilify, the bogeymen among the (thankfully) dead, like Hitler and Stalin and Pol Pot. None of them ever come back. Our dead. Unless you believe in reincarnation or ghosts, which are other forms of mythologizing the dead to serve a need among some of the living. We all die. A common ending to our...

The Other Ray Originally shared by The Cloberth "That's why I never became a director. I never had patience with people.” Monster Man Born in Los Angeles, California on this date in 1920, American special effects artist and film producer Ray Harryhausen.  Long before Computer Generated Imagery provided the ‘realism’ in the fantasy and science fiction movies of today, animators labored long hours to create mythical creatures. Harryhausen was the undisputed master of stop-motion animation. As a young man, he was influenced by many of the early pioneering films, in particular King Kong, and produced a few ambitious projects independently. In the early 1940s, he worked on some of George Pal's Puppetoons. His big break came in 1949 with the opportunity to animate Mighty Joe Young, alongside Willis O’Brien, the animator of King Kong.  In 1952, with his work on Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, he introduced his animation technique know as Dynamation, in which two separate footages of l...

Gun Moll Originally shared by Henry Ian Dare, Velma. Velma Dare was created by C.B. Yorke (Queen Sue Carlton) and appeared in three stories in Gangland Stories in 1931, beginning with “Mob Murder” (Gangland Stories, Mar. 1931). Velma Dare is a Gun Moll. Velma Dare is a stick-up woman fresh from a two-year stint in the joint. She was framed for a crime she didn’t commit: “Buck and I had pulled some jobs the cops never got wise to, but we hadn’t been near the Gladstone Theatre.” A “yellow-bellied stoolie and a crooked dick” sent Dare and her partner Buck Evans away, but before she’d gone she had uttered a threat to get even with the stoolie and the dick. She changed her mind about the threat (“women do that–often”) and when she is released from prison she is “determined to mind my own business and keep out of any jams with the cops.” But people begin dying, and the police blame Dare, and she finds it more difficult than she’d intended to break free of the underworld. Fortunately, she has...

Mango Lassi Naked Turtle 'Nuff Said...

Soon Many Mighty Mojitos...

Wench Handler

Capture The Flag http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/06/27/woman-takes-down-confederate-flag-in-front-of-south-carolina-statehouse/

Scattered, Smothered and Covered Y'all can take the Stars and Bars, if'n you want. But you'll only pry the Waffle House from my cold, dead fingers.

Pay To Play Being hit with the money stick for violating Rules #5 and #83. Could be worse... Could have had to pay in CHF... http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/officials-fine-rider-after-twitter-comments-critical-of-usa-cycling-amateur-national-championships

Full Bore Crazy The sad thing is that his cited example, laws against drunk or reckless driving, are not well enforced, and therefore not so effective. But I'd agree that making the NRA's rules into law, with penalties, would be a good first step. http://www.stonekettle.com/2015/06/bang-bang-sanity.html?m=1

Bowled Over Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh "As gentleman secret agent John Steed in The Avengers and the New Avengers, Patrick Macnee was synonymous with his character's trademark Savile Row suits, umbrella and, of course, his bowler hat. The hat wasn't just for show. It was, along with his sword-concealing umbrella, Steed's main weapon of choice and was regularly lobbed at villains. Lined with chainmail, at various times it also served as a flashlight, a place to conceal a gun and even as a radio transmitter. It became - along with the catsuits of Steed's female assistants - the key visual motif of the show. In France, The Avengers was known as Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir - Bowler hat and leather boots." http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33285870

(Not) Blue Plate Special The Daughters of the Confederacy, despite being championed, at one time, by Senator No, did not get their own license plates. http://www.wral.com/requests-for-confederate-plates-see-uptick-amid-debate/14740002/

Green Leader http://www.space-mullet.com/2015/06/05/green-leader/

Whole Paycheck #NotTheOnion http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/11698079/Whole-Foods-accused-of-overcharging-customers.html

Magical Pixie Dust Originally shared by Irina T. Junonium, Victorium, Occultum, Hibernium, etc.   "In the popular imagination, science proceeds with great leaps of discovery — new planets, new cures, new elements. In reality, though, science is a long, grueling process of trial and error, in which tantalizing false discoveries constantly arise and vanish on further examination. These failures can teach us as much — or more — than its successes. The field of chemistry is littered with them. Today only 118 elements have been documented, but hundreds more have been “discovered” over the years — named, publicly trumpeted, and sometimes even included in textbooks — only to be exposed as bogus with better tools, or when a fraud was sniffed out. Their stories, sprinkled with stubborn pride, analytical incompetency, precipitate haste, amateurish error, and even practical joking, read like a catalog of the ways science can go awry, and how it moves forward nonetheless. Here are some illust...

All About The Shooz Originally shared by Davide Protti great...a genius!

Printer's Devil Originally shared by The Cloberth “History is an account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.” Printer’s Devil Born at Horse Cave Creek on this date in 1842, Ambrose Bierce, American critic, satirist and short story writer. Bierce came into this world in an Ohio log cabin. His parents, poor but educated, “instilled in him a deep love for books and writing”. Following service in the Union army, Bierce began his literary career writing for San Francisco periodicals. During the 1870s, he spent four years in England, where his first book was published. He returned to San Francisco, where he worked for William Randolph Hearst’s newspapers until 1906.  As a journalist he gained a national reputation with his muckraking expose of secret government agreements with the railroad industry. He disappeared in 1913, accompanying Pancho Villa's army, as an observer, during the Mexican Revolu...

The Dumbest Idea In The World http://www.cringely.com/2015/06/24/the-u-s-computer-industry-is-dying-and-ill-tell-you-exactly-who-is-killing-it-and-why/

Stereotypical Originally shared by G.K. Nelson ❝ Last month, my labmates and I had to burn our female coworker at the stake for witchcraft because we saw her holding an unwrapped tampon. Between building the stake, lighting an adequate fire, and waiting for her to die, we lost an entire day that we could otherwise have spent working. ❞ This made me howl with laughter. https://medium.com/@a_rubin/i-m-a-female-scientist-and-i-agree-with-tim-hunt-8158bb657349

Calloo! Callay! Perhaps Hadrian's Wall could be refurbished, and everyone could retreat to the Scottish Lowlands... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11695208/Calais-crisis-enters-second-day-live.html

#WordlessWednesday #wordlessonwednesday

"Silence Of The Tenured" And not just in Academia... Originally shared by **** In March, I started a retail job. Last week, a friend came in to shop, saw me, and exclaimed, loud enough for all to hear: “What are you doing here?” Friends who know I hold two law degrees and teach at a university can’t fathom that my teaching doesn’t cover rent. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/22/adjunct-professor-earn-less-than-pet-sitter

Whistler Past The Graveyard Originally shared by Alex Scrivener Despite reaching its official end of life over a year ago, Microsoft's Windows XP is still bringing the company some significant revenue—largely because Department of Defense and government customers can't seem to get rid of it. And the Navy is one of Microsoft's best custom-support customers. The US Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) has closed a $9.1 million contract extension with Microsoft that the agency originally announced in April to further extend custom support for the venerable Windows XP operating system, as well as the Office 2003 suite and Exchange 2003 e-mail. According to a Navy contracting announcement, "Across the United States Navy, approximately 100,000 workstations currently use these applications. Support for this software can no longer be obtained under existing agreements with Microsoft because the software has reached the end of maintenance period." ht...

Everyday Cosmic Truth It's In Yer Head.  But You Gotta Open Da Book.

Java Jive Field Modifications As Required. http://evil-inc.com/comic/coffee-2/ The Manhattan Transfer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XxsasUHzaQ

Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow... Funkadelic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXLJpaZDAVc Originally shared by Tim O'Brien

Breakfast Bun

In The World, But Not Of It http://www.highschoolot.com/some-wcpss-schools-boycotting-private-schools-including-nchsaa-members/14726066/

Superlatives "Twenty years ago, when Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in Oklahoma City, killing a hundred and sixty-eight people, the act was quickly understood as terrorism. The F.B.I. Web page on the Murrah bombing lists it as “the worst act of homegrown terrorism in the nation’s history.” That designation overlooks the Tulsa riots of 1921, in which a white mob, enraged by a spurious allegation that a black teen-ager had attempted to assault a young white woman, was deputized and given carte blanche to attack the city’s prosperous black Greenwood section, resulting in as many as three hundred black fatalities. From one perspective, the Murrah bombing was the worst act of domestic terrorism in our history, but, as the descendants of the Greenwood survivors know, it was likely not even the worst incident in Oklahoma’s history." Probably worth mentioning the "only successful coup d'etat in American history", the 1898 race riots in Wil...

TL:DR I think that Peter Strempel makes some good points here... But I also think he gets lost in the weeds... Or lost me in the weeds... I actually enjoy long reads and extended examinations and dissections of things, generally... I am not convinced that the ephermerality of "online engagement" merits that kind of effort... Ref: The Rise and Fall of Kibology via M Sinclair Stevens  Originally shared by Peter Strempel TECHNO-NARCISSISM: DELUSIONS ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA Looking at media coverage of Edward Snowden’s allegations, what is surprising is not their content, but that we are shocked by the close links between Silicon Valley companies and state intelligence agencies.  Our dismay suggests that we have credulously accepted the fairy-tale reporting of firms like Facebook and Google as ‘tech’ or ‘social media’ outfits rather than seeing them for what they really are: intelligence gathering, manipulation and sales corporations. Using Google as our example here, let’s have a clo...

Hardy Originally shared by Jean-Pierre Truant Rose "Jude the Obscure" #rose   #flowers   #garden

Station Identification Top of the Hour.

Origin Story

Work Party "...and I got good and drunk the night before, so I would look and feel my very best..."

One Stop 1968

"Shoot Me First" Don't tempt me... "The preacher also claimed that religious leaders should offer themselves up to be shot dead." Originally shared by **** Is it just me or does this sound like a great idea? http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/06/19/texas-pastor-threatens-to-set-himself-on-fire-to-stop-gays-from-marrying/?utm_source=PNFBND&utm_medium=FB&utm_campaign=Texas

No Go Winnebago http://velonews.competitor.com/2015/06/news/no-motorhome-for-sky-as-uci-issues-new-rule_374618

Heaven My Blanket, Earth My Pillow Eeyore walked all round Tigger one way, and then turned and walked round her the other way. "What did you say it was?" she asked. "Tigger." "Ah!" said Eeyore. "She's just come," explained Piglet. "Ah!" said Eeyore again. She thought for a long time and then said: "When is she going?" Tigger is still here, but Eeyore is gone. There won't be another like her.

Been To Brooklyn http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/artsbeat/2015/06/18/paintings-first-time-in-new-york-no-way-no-how-says-brooklyn-man/

Brought To You By The Letter A Originally shared by Gregg Bracke Women here is your candidate for President! http://www.examiner.com/article/jeb-bush-stands-by-comments-that-single-mothers-should-be-publicly-shamed

Check It Out Originally shared by **** "The idea of a Human Library first emerged in Copenhagen about a decade ago, as a way to break down prejudice by bringing people of different backgrounds together for one-on-one conversation. The Toronto Public Library held its first Human Library event at five branches on Nov. 6, attracting more than 200 users who checked out the likes of a police officer, a comedian, a sex-worker-turned-club-owner, a model and a survivor of cancer, homelessness and poverty. They're all volunteers whose lives would make good reading, but even better one-on-one chatting. The library is considering make the program long-term, so a supply of human books will be regularly available to readers." http://www.yongestreetmedia.ca/features/humanbooks1208.aspx

The Road To Hell... ...will be paved by Robots... ...and designed by those who do not believe in Designing For Maintenance... Originally shared by David “not B” A Awesome potential! 'Refined and optimized, such techniques and technologies will ultimately bring down the cost of construction, reduce building waste and help automate worksites. The first real-world application being a bridge is no coincidence, but rather a “fantastic metaphor for connecting the technology of the future with the city’s historic past, in a way which would reveal the best aspects of both worlds.”' #3dprinting   http://weburbanist.com/2015/06/16/cast-in-place-steel-robots-to-3d-print-metal-bridge-in-holland/

Look For... The Union Label... Originally shared by Chris Galardi

Excuse #29 Originally shared by Tim O'Brien

Not Shiny Originally shared by Jennifer Ouellette Engineers Stumble on a Whole New Method of Laser-Based Spacecraft Propulsion http://motherboard.vice.com/read/engineers-stumble-on-a-whole-new-method-of-laser-based-spacecraft-propulsion   "The key, according to the Nankai University-based group, is in swapping out the mirrored sail—which captures photonic energy as radiation pressure in much the same way a regular air-sail captures wind energy—for a pure-black graphene sponge. Rather than reflect off of the sail, light is absorbed by the sponge, which converts that energy into propulsion."  http://motherboard.vice.com/read/engineers-stumble-on-a-whole-new-method-of-laser-based-spacecraft-propulsion

One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor Dutch artist M.C. Escher was born on June 17th, 1898. Paul Simon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIWBl7HE4Ko . Originally shared by The Cloberth M. C. Escher Relativity 1953