Nec Hoc Nec Ilud

* Looks like no one's rushing to recognize the Tuareg as their own country, but the guys who overthrew the government during the recent coup aren't impressing the international community. A group of North African countries are considering military intervention.

* Rachel Maddow on that Republican Caterpillar thing: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46973033

( Embed: )

* The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster continues to get worse. It's now at the point we have no idea how to fix it. Meanwhile, a Rick Perry donor plans to use a major aquifer as a nuclear waste dump and as he gave so much money, they have decide the aquifer magically moved. Coincidentally, he gave a huge amount of money to the officials who decided this. He claims President Obama "is the most dangerous man in America." Riiiight. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46981461

( Embed: )

* I think I got allergen exposure at the Big Gay potluck. I'm also pretty sure which dish it was. Luckily, it wasn't pork, egg yolk, or fig. Hector only did a couple of hours of drama, so I got four or five hours of sleep before he woke me up. Better, but still no enough.

* Sometimes I wonder how often my web searches ping with the Federal web monitoring programs. After all, I periodically search al-Qaeda leaders and dictator names to get them spelled right. I periodically search global conflicts, disasters, political leaders, assassinations, diseases.....

* Tom Leher's "Who's Next" because even though India and Pakistan weren't on the list then, they were when I was growing up: http://youtu.be/8FgMTAj4f_o

( Embed: )

* I have an embarrassing confession: I was charmed by Death Comes to Pemberly. I know, I know, I've hated pretty much everything the latest Austin craze has produced as far as fiction goes, from that Jane Austin as a vampire novel to Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. I've not been all that fond of P.D James either. So take this from someone who has both loved Austin since adolescence, but who was also predisposed not to like this: this is seriously good. It's clever in that rather than try to exactly mimic or plagiarize *cough* PP&Z *cough* it gives the back story from the perspective of malicious gossips. I really does work both as a mystery and as an extension of the books. (Seriously, the brief peek at what the characters from Persuasion, my favorite Austin book, were up too made me smile.) The book manages to be simultaneously irreverent and respectful of the source material, something that sounds contradictory and impossible, but turns out not to be. I think of Austin herself taking the piss out of Gothic Novels in Northanger Abbey, or her quietly wicked sense of humor in books like Pride and Prejudice itself, and it seems to me that that straight faced sense of humor is much in evidence here. If you had asked me, I'd had have said a murder mystery sequel to P&P was a terrible idea, but in the right hands it turned out to be a brilliant idea.

* Aeslin Mice are cool. Jut saying. how can one not like a species that celebrates the Festival of "Come on, Enid, We're Getting Out of Here Before These Bastards Make Us Kill Another Innocent Creature" and the Holy Feast of "I Swear, Daddy, I'll Kiss the Next Man That Walks Through That Door." Yes, I pretty much guessed all the twists, but that didn't make ready Discount Armageddon any less fun.

* Zazzle has 40% off on t-shirts until Sunday with the code FINDSHIRT4ME at checkout. Here are some zazzle offerings some friends made:
Cute animals and monsters and things: http://www.zazzle.com/ninjahijinx/clothing?st=popularity#products
That cool trans symbol thing I'm still enamored of: http://www.zazzle.com/celtic_knotwork_transgender_symbol_tshirt-235035011006062317

I know more of you have zazzle designs. Want to toss links in the comments?

* I want this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/e557/

* Three das, no bids: THE LADY OF LAKE RONKONKOMA 2010 (New York Comic-Con, LE): (Company says:. Balsamic, reedy water, sweetgrass, algae, loosestrife, and lady’s slipper.) To label top. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300690104582

* BPAL listed a Quincey Morris on ebay. When I checked after dinner, it was at 122.50. In one day. Not that I can be buying BPAL right now, but if it's that high it means I'll never get a bottle unless they resurrect. Sigh. It's unique and exquisite. Storyville was at 280.00. I've come to terms with it being forever out of reach long ago, but each time it sells higher it makes me sadder.

* Dalek Relaxation: http://youtu.be/tJSQFzw1pEE

( Embed: )

* Rear Window time lapse: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/04/a-mesmerizing-time-lapse-composite-of-all-the-views-in-rear-window/255385/

* I had a nightmare they remade Animal House with Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Will Jarrell, Jack Black, and Adam Sandlar. *shudder* It's extra horrible because I could totally see Hollywood doing it because it would be redone with the exactly right combo of unimaginative remake, inappropriate nostalgia, and unfunny parody that appeals to studio execs; and now I can't get Jonah Hill's Flounder out of my head. Please, please, please let's hope this doesn't happen.

* The President's speech got a 91% approval rate. O.o That's pretty much unheard of. For most of my adult life, viewership numbers have been dropping and the State of the Union speeches have been mostly irrelevant. For the first time in ages, the speech has caused a major bump in the President's approval numbers, and has had something like a twenty point bump in swing voter approval. He has made the SoU speech relevant again! Wow!

* Last night, just before the speech, Seal Team Six successfully rescued two hostages from Somalia: two women aid workers, one American and one Dutch.

* Mitt Romney wants you to know that "banks aren't bad people" and banks are scared to death too." He made this speech in front of a foreclosed house. O.o He has empathy for corporate "people," but can't muster any for mere humans who work for a living or his own dog. I think that says volumes, really.

* Tim Pawlenty, on Romney's behalf, wants to remind you that asking the rich to pay taxes like everyone else is "class warfare" and "divisive." His argument amounts to the idea that instead, they deserve the much lower rate as a reward for having been rich for decades. Good to know.

* It looks like Mitt Romney only paid 13.9% on his income in 2010. He is not releasing the 2009 return and there is some speculation that this is because it may be even lower because of some of the things on the 2010 return. Remember, both Romney and Gingrich, believe that they as people with over three million in income every year need a tax rate even lower than than this, because them not having to pay taxes will magically create jobs, even though every time the tax on the top 1% was lowered, the economy got worse. They are both claiming that them having to pay taxes like everyone else constitutes class warfare. I still maintain that by shifting the tax burden onto folks who work for a living is the real class warefare, which they have already won.

* Newt Gingrich basically claimed the President was not bright enough to understand his own economic policies, which is some serious condescending bullshit, and it amazes me that anyone buys this, given how much thought the President gives to his policies and all he has specifically achieved by being intelligent, educated, hard working, and thoughtful. I can only assume this is riff on the bullshit racist claims Perry was floating early in the election.

These things always remind me of that time a certain boy accused me of cheating on the PSATs because "girls aren't bright enough to do well on standardized tests" and my scores made me a merit finalist and he didn't make the cut off.

* GM is currently the number one auto maker in the world. Mitt Romney said, "Let Detroit Die." Instead, thanks to the president, all those jobs have been saved and we still have an auto industry. At least Hoover felt sorry for the humans who lost their jobs in the Great Depression, even if his policies did nothing to help them. (He favored private charity, to which he contributed, over government action designed to actually improve the economy. Sound familiar? At least he didn't favour taxing the poor and middle class to give to the rich.) Mitt Romney doesn't even have that much empathy or interest in the welfare of mere humans.

* Happy 22nd Birthday to Daniel Hernandez of Arizona!

* This thing where I get 4-6 phone calls during my sleep cycle really needs to stop. This goes extra for the woman who keeps calling to insist that a man I never met is hiding in my apartment and I need to pay his bills. She had the audacity to claim I never answered previous calls when we had the exact same argument about how there is no "Scott" living here and how I've had this phone number fourteen years and she needs to stop calling me just a week or two ago. Admittedly, I was politer that time, but that does not justify her pretending I hadn't already told her I am not Scott, nor do I know him.

* I keep fantasizing about this baked goods idea I've thought up, thinking of little elaborations and details. Odds are, I won't have the stuff I need to try it until Thursday or Friday. If it works out, I'll likely tell y'all about it.

* "Handy map of LGBT rights/penalties around the world:" http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/16429735787/handy-map-of-lgbt-rights-penalties-around-the

* The Gay Panic: http://neo-prodigy.livejournal.com/1047516.html

* Oooo! http://lettersfromtitan.tumblr.com/post/16407388514/dontbearuiner-ladyatheist-zorascreation

* crotalus_atrox found, Movies from another universe: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Movies-From-An-Alternate-Universe/2783319

* It amuses me that the "Soft Kitty" song is now a Thing.

* And a comic: http://www.dorktower.com/2012/01/24/dork-tower-tuesday-january-24-2012/

* The Clutch: