Single Boob Theory

If you look closely, you can see Lee Harvey Oswald standing by the dingy holding his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle.

From The Smoking Gun:

TMZ Falls For JFK Photo Hoax

Photo that "could have changed history" actually from a Playboy shoot

In a colossal screw-up, the gossip web site TMZ today published a photo purporting to show John F. Kennedy frolicking on a yacht with a harem of naked women--except that the image actually appeared as part of a November 1967 Playboy photo spread, The Smoking Gun has learned. The TMZ hoax was billed as an "exclusive" featuring a photo that "could have altered world events" had it surfaced prior to JFK's presidential campaign. "It could have torpedoed his run, and changed world history," the site added. In reality, the photo appeared in story about Playboy's "Charter Yacht Party: How to Have a Ball on the Briny with an Able-Bodied Complement of Ship's Belles."

Now that the photo has been so easily debunked, it's fun to watch TMZ's "expert" testify to its authenticity.


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Handle With Care

This is really funny (more details below video).



From Dave Carroll's website:

In the spring of 2008, Sons of Maxwell were traveling to Nebraska for a one-week tour and my Taylor guitar was witnessed being thrown by United Airlines baggage handlers in Chicago. I discovered later that the $3500 guitar was severely damaged. They didn’t deny the experience occurred but for nine months the various people I communicated with put the responsibility for dealing with the damage on everyone other than themselves and finally said they would do nothing to compensate me for my loss. So I promised the last person to finally say “no” to compensation (Ms. Irlweg) that I would write and produce three songs about my experience with United Airlines and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. United: Song 1 is the first of those songs. United: Song 2 has been written and video production is underway. United: Song 3 is coming. I omise.

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Mite Got Your Tongue?

A Jersey Shore joke is in here somewhere...

From Treehugger:

Bizarre Tongue-Eating Parasite Discovered Off the Jersey Coast

There's been a spate of amazing animal discoveries recently--the giant rat-eating plants found in the Philippines, a huge woolly rat discovered in a volcanic crater--and now, yet another creature has emerged that could be right out of a sci-fi film. It's a bizarre creature that survives by eating its hosts' tongue and then attaching itself inside the mouth.

The sea-dwelling parasite attacks fish, burrows into it, and then devours its tongue. After eating the tongue, the parasite proceeds to live inside the fish's mouth. There's a horror film waiting to be made about this thing. Surprisingly, the fish doesn't seem to suffer any severe impediment--just the loss of its tongue--and seems to have no trouble surviving with its new, far uglier tongue.

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Iraq, Paper, Scissors

You've got to be f'n kidding me. A billion dollar Defense project penetrated by a $26 software program available on the Internet.

One of my more high-tech coworkers remarked that what the insurgents were doing technically wasn't "hacking" since the drone feeds weren't encrypted to begin with. So, it's more like "listening in."

That's just peachy.

From The Guardian:

US drones hacked by Iraqi insurgents

One of America's most sophisticated weapons in the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the unmanned drone, has been successfully penetrated by insurgents using software available on the internet for $26 (£16).

Insurgents in Iraq intercepted live video feeds from the drones being relayed back to a US controller and revealing potential targets. A US official said the flaw was identified and fixed in the past 12 months.

...The US air force is responsible for drones in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the CIA for those in Pakistan. The CIA video feeds are reported to have been encrypted, while some of the air forces ones were not.

The Pentagon had been aware of the problem for many years, but had assumed the insurgents would not have the technical knowledge to intercept the feeds.

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Iconoclastic

I haven't seen Avatar yet. Nonetheless, here's my pick for the best animated battle of 2009! (click here)

Animator Vs. Animation
by Alan Becker

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The New Y2K Problem

Once again, we've rested on our laurels and let another Y2K bug sneak up on us. This issue could loom large over the 2010's, 2020's, 2030's. Only the 2040's seem to offer some hope.

From Crunchgear.com:

How best to solve the problem of Happy 2010 New Year’s Eve glasses?

We have a problem, Internet. You know how on New Year’s Eve everyone walks around with Happy 2009 (or whatever) glasses? That bunk ain’t gonna fly this year. Try wearing a 2010 pair of glasses: where are you going to look through, the 1? This is a serious situation that demands the attention of our best engineers.

Think about it: these glasses mean big business. Unless you’re prepared to wear wacky glasses like these, where the 2 and 1 are extra small, and the 1 rests on the bridge of your nose. And this isn’t even very elegant: the 2 is going to tilt those glasses to the right like nobody’s business.

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Sour Note

The 219th New Yorker "Cartoon Caption Contest" results seemed out of tune this week.

My entry was

"I saw these in a discount bin next to the check-out counter and just couldn't help myself. "

The winners were:

• "Well, where did you think baby grands came from?" - lame
  


• "We buy everything in bulk." - really close to mine, but less wordy
  


• "I don't play. I just really hate elephants." - this sucks on so many levels

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Man's Best Friend

During the dog food focus group Sterling Cooper stages for Caldecott Farms in The Gypsy and the Hobo, Peggy says an interesting thing. When asked why the man conducting the interviews with the test subjects isn't wearing a lab coat, she states that dogs "don't like uniforms."



There had to be some other significance to the remark. I'm sure that Peggy wasn’t citing a real 1960's study which demonstrated that canines had an adverse reaction to uniforms. Okay, maybe she was. But it seems like more than a passing remark.

Following Peggy's comment, there's a quick exchange between Don and Smitty which establishes that, when describing some object (in this case their dog), people in focus groups are really describing themselves. So, in effect Peggy was saying that people don't like uniforms.

Read More at Basket of Kisses...
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Down with PC OPP

When I first heard about this, I thought it was a joke. But no. Eugene Robinson is most disappointed at Tiger Woods for not having a diverse stable of mistresses.

From the Washington Post:

Tiger's validation complex

...Here's my real question, though: What's with the whole Barbie thing?

No offense to anyone who actually looks like Barbie, but it really is striking how much the women who've been linked to Woods resemble one another. I'm talking about the long hair, the specific body type, even the facial features. Mattel could sue for trademark infringement.

This may be the most interesting aspect of the whole Tiger Woods story -- and one of the most disappointing. He seems to have been bent on proving to himself that he could have any woman he wanted. But from the evidence, his aim wasn't variety but some kind of validation.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

From the "Who the Hell Cares" Department:
Today, while following the restitution hearing for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, I was struck by how jury rigged the microphone set up looked. Couldn't they have at least put on some fresh duct tape?


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A Boy and His Dad: The Road

Of course, I’m stating the obvious when I point out that turning a well-known literary work into a film can be a tricky thing. There’s always a dedicated group of fans that will balk at any changes made to migrate the work from one medium to another. I tend to fall into that category. Certainly, a lengthy written piece will have to be adjusted to fit into the typical two-hour running time of a film. And this reality may result in taking artistic licenses with other aspects of the narrative. Steven Spielberg didn’t have time in include the scene in Jaws where Matt Hooper shtupps Mrs. Brody. Thus, it’s understandable why he gets a reprieve from a gory death in the shark cage. But I still struggle to discern a reasonable artistic argument for having Hobbs hit a game winning home run at the end of The Natural rather than deliberately strike out as he does in Bernard Malamud’s novel.

Granted, a willingness to judge each respective effort on its own merits is a perfectly reasonable approach too. I get it. I’m just not wired that way.

So, hearing that Charlize Theron was cast in The Road—the film version of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel set in a post-apocalyptic society—gave me pause...

Read the full post at The House Next Door...
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David vs. Goliath

Lil' Jimmy Norton pwn's Jesse "The Body." I think Ventura has been the victim of one too many pile-drivers.


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Tip One: Duck

Proving that timing is everything, the January 2010 issue of Gold Digest will feature Tiger Woods, who is currently going through some very volatile (and public) marital woes, and President Obama under the headline: “10 Tips Obama Can Take From Tiger.”

Tee hee.

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Method to their Madness?

Method, the maker of natural cleaning products touted as NOT containing harsh chemicals such as ammonia or optical brighteners, had to take down it's recent viral video after receiving complaints that the piece trivialized sexual assault.

From Advertising Age :

Method Pulls 'Shiny Suds' Ad After Sexism Complaints

Household cleaner marketer Method has pulled down a viral video roundly applauded by marketers at the Association of National Advertisers annual conference last month and by most viewers who've seen it because of heated complaints from some women who view it as sexist and even condoning rape.

...The video got more than 700,000 views in a week on YouTube and a five-star rating from viewers before Method pulled the plug.

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