Early December 07

w00t!
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 5:41pm | Edit Note | Delete
Expect cheers among hardcore online game enthusiasts when they learn Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year. Or, more accurately, expect them to "w00t."

"W00t," a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness, topped all other terms in the Springfield dictionary publisher's online poll for the word that best sums up 2007.

Merriam-Webster's president, John Morse, said "w00t" was an ideal choice because it blends whimsy and new technology.

"It shows a really interesting thing that's going on in language. It's a term that's arrived only because we're now communicating electronically with each other," Morse said.

Gamers commonly substitute numbers and symbols for the letters they resemble, Morse says, creating what they call "l33t speak" - that's "leet" when spoken, short for "elite" to the rest of the world.

For technophobes, the word also is familiar from the 1990 movie "Pretty Woman," in which Julia Roberts startles her date's upper-crust friends with a hearty "Woot, woot, woot!" at a polo match.

The 2006 pick, "truthiness," also has its roots in pop culture. It was popularized by Comedy Central satirical political commentator Stephen Colbert.

Some also-rans in the 2007 list: the use of "facebook" as a verb to signify using the website by that name; nuanced terms such as "quixotic" and "hypocrite"; and "blamestorm," a meeting in which mistakes are aired, fingers are pointed and much discomfort is had by all.
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People, You Are on the Internet, Look It Up.
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 5:29pm | Edit Note | Delete
Just about every heinous warning, horror story and tragic tale making the rounds as a forward on the net is a hoax. It takes about 1 minute to type the subject into a search engine and find this out. From missing kids to the latest Progesterex hoax, the truth is just a click away. Heard about Progesterex ladies? It's the date rape drug that doesn't exist. From Wikipedia:

Progesterex is a fictitious date rape drug. It is part of a hoax that began to circulate in 1999 via e-mail on the internet. No actual drug by this name or even with these properties exists, and no such incident has ever been documented or confirmed.

Typical contents of the e-mail hoax are as follows, although different versions tend to turn up over time:

"A woman at a nightclub called _______ on Saturday night was taken by 5 men, who according to hospital and police reports, gang raped her before dumping her. Unable to remember the events of the evening, tests later confirmed the repeat rapes along with traces of Rohypnol in her blood and Progesterex, essentially a small sterilization pill. The drug is now being used by rapists at parties to rape AND sterilize their victims. Progesterex is available to vets to sterilize large animals. Progesterex is being used together with Rohypnol, the date rape drug. As with Rohypnol, all they have to do is drop it into the girl's drink. The girl can't remember a thing the next morning, of all that had taken place the night before. Progesterex, which dissolves in drinks just as easily, is such that the victim doesn't conceive from the rape and the rapist needn't worry about having a paternity test identifying him months later. The drug's effects ARE NOT TEMPORARY - Progesterex was designed to sterilize horses. Any female who takes it WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO CONCEIVE.. The weasels can get this drug from anyone who is in the vet school or any university. It's that easy, and Progesterex is about to break out big on campuses everywhere. Believe it or not, there are even sites on the Internet telling people how to use it. Please forward this to everyone you know, especially girls. Be careful when you're out and don't leave your drink unattended. Please make the effort to forward this on to all you know... Guys, please inform all your female friends and relatives."

A version of this hoax has also recently made the rounds via bulletins on MySpace.com (July 2006). It made it to Bebo in September-October 2006.

A version of this hoax has been seen on Facebook, in the form of a group named "Heads Up Ladies", and sports the same story as listed above.

According to the Spanish language website VSAntirus.com at least two versions in Spanish have made the rounds since 2001 as well.

Furthermore, no sterilization pill for horses exists. Sterilization is done via gelding of stallions. Mares are usually left unaltered.

In addition to this vet students do not have access to drugs. Drugs can only be prescribed by a qualified, registered veterinarian (Member of the Royal Collage of Veterinary Surgeons - MRCVS - in UK).

On 18 April 2006 UK Member of Parliament Lynne Featherstone submitted a Written Question to the Home Secretary on whether the Home Office had calculated the number of date rape incidences that had been connected with Progesterex. Home Office Minister Paul Goggins replied that the drug did not exist.
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Flatland Grinder: Not All Sunshine and Smiles
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 4:23pm | Delete
"We Germans aren't all sunshine and smiles you know." -German guy on the Simpsons.
Well neither are poker players. Particularly when we're losing our shirts. I have said it before that these posts are valueless if all I ever do is report my wins. I've been on a terrible losing streak. I've seen my 20k hand win rate chopped in half by my last 3000 hands. It's been brutal. My flushes don't seem to be holding up, my sets always run into trouble and I don't even want to talk about my pairs. This is why they call it gambling. Had this bad streak hit me in my first weeks back I would have lost my entire deposit. I've dropped about 10-15 buy ins, which is pretty damn extreme. I'm still plus ev, but instead of winning 10bb/100 I'm down to just over 4bb/100. That's a good win rate at any limit, and my losses are just the reckoning of the hot run I had initially. And that's me rationalizing. Where are the rest of the losses coming from? The site I've been playing at has a pretty limited pool of players. I play 6 tables or more at a time, and often I'll have 5 or 6 of the same people at every table. My HUD tells me in a lot of cases that I have a 3k hand history on these players. Consequently, any of them that might be using HUD will have a similar history on me. They know that I'm only raising hands like Broadway pairs AK and AQ most of the time. They know that I"m only calling raises with pairs and AK or better. So when I'm showing strength, they know to get the hell out of the way. This has meant that it's getting more and more difficult to get paid off, and that my opposition is playing a higher quality hand when coming into a pot with me. In a live game I'd be mixing up my play, but that's just not feasible online. Online your best bet is to play it straight. So today I took another beating at the tables and decided that I needed to change sites. Checking over my play, I'm not making a lot of mistakes. But I'm failing to get paid off when I get a hand. I switched over to pokerstars (no bonus though so it's a $2/hr pay cut) and instantly I started making money. It was great because it illustrated that my theory was right. I have been playing well, just having a tough time finding action. Now that I'm new to the tables, I'm cleaning up again. I think I'm going to stick with Stars now. No bonus is better than no action, plus there is a lot more room to move up through the limits as my bankroll grows. Thanks for listening.
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Lies, All Lies!
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007 at 1:05pm | Edit Note | Delete
I have recently discovered what is perhaps the greatest snow job of all time. I'm talking about the myth of bears hibernating. That's right I said 'myth'. They don't hibernate, they 'estivate'. While similar to hibernation it has a few differences. For instance, the bear remains somewhat active during this long period of estivation. Estivation is a hypometabolic state characterized by decreased metabolism, increased dormancy and a general malaise. Not a whole lot different than Seasonal Affective Disorder if you ask me. I was unable to find any research on the similarities between the 2, but I'm pretty sure SAD is nothing more than human estivation. It tends to occur only in northern climates and is easily remedied by increased exposure to light. To heck with popular opinion. I don't have SAD, I'm estivating.
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You know there's a problem when...
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Monday, December 10, 2007 at 9:21pm | Edit Note | Delete
whether or not to torture people is a divisive political issue. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video_log/2007/12/prominent_republicans_support.html
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Judy and David's Boombox
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Monday, December 10, 2007 at 8:36am | Edit Note | Delete
Parents, you know who I'm talking about. Somebody needs to talk to Judy and David. Somebody needs to tell them that they're autumns. Failing that someone at least needs to suggest that they have their colors done. That's all I have to say about Judy and David.
The red and yellow thing is just not working.
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I'm not a big sports fan...
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Sunday, December 9, 2007 at 9:02pm | Edit Note | Delete
couldn't care less about the Riders or hockey or anything like that. But I'll tell you what does get me worked up with a fanatical fervor. Politics. I like to speculate. And right now there is a lot going on in the Excited States of America as both parties attempt to choose new presidential candidates. I'm particularly interested in the race for leader of the Democrats. Mainly because I put 5 bucks on it! I put 5 bucks on Obama being the next president of the USA, even though current polling indicates that he is far behind Hillary. I had to make my bet now or I wouldn't get any action when he tears into the lead. Here's my logic. The USA might as well change it's name to the USTV because they seem to put a lot of faith in their media personalities down there. Recently the most incorruptible human being in all their land has come out swinging for Obama, and she just might be able to mobilize millions of voters. I'm talkin' about the Big O, Oprah Winfrey. She's drawing tens of thousands of people to Obama rallies, and they're signing up everyone they meet. I see this Obama thing snowballing; Oprah makes people cry and love. Now, my bet wasn't that Obama would just win the democrat nomination, but that he would be the next president. Here's my thinking on that one. And it gets conspiracy theory-ish.
I don't think the Republicans want to win the next election. I think they want to lose. The next government will have to start paying for the Bush wars, and that won't be pretty. The health care crisis will escalate, retaliations for Bush's aggression will become more frequent. It's going to be an ugly time to be president, and even though it's all due to the neocons, whoever is in power will take the blame. Hence the Reps. wanting out, and giving the election to the Dems. That's my early take on 08.
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Updated about 9 months ago

Case in Point
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Sunday, December 9, 2007 at 10:49am | Edit Note | Delete
Grocery Store Goofs With Hanukkah Ham Ad

NEW YORK (AP) — This was REALLY not kosher.

A grocery store in Manhattan made a food faux pas, advertising hams as "Delicious for Chanukah."

Chanukah — an alternate spelling for Hanukkah — is the eight-day Jewish holiday that began Tuesday evening, and hams — as well as pork and other products from pigs — can't be eaten under Jewish dietary laws.

A woman who saw the mistake over the weekend at the Balducci's store on 14th Street took pictures of the signs and posted them on her blog.

Jennifer Barton, director of marketing, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the signs were changed as soon as the error was noted.

She issued an apology on the company Web site, saying the company would be reviewing its employee training.
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Irked.
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Sunday, December 9, 2007 at 10:42am | Edit Note | Delete
There was a documentary on CBC Newsworld yesterday about Jesus (Christ) called The Pagan Christ. The CBC website describes it thusly:
"So, what if it could be proven that Jesus never existed? What if there was evidence that every word of the New Testament – the cornerstone of Christianity – is based on myth and metaphor?
Based on Tom Harpur’s national bestseller, The Pagan Christ examines these very questions. During his research, Harpur discovered that the New Testament is wholly based on Egyptian mythology, that Jesus Christ never lived, and that – indeed – the text was always meant to be read allegorically. It was the founders of the Church who duped the world into taking a literal approach to the scriptures. And, according to Harpur, this was their fatal error – and the very reason Christianity is struggling today."
My problem isn't that the CBC is turning a critical eye to Christianity. I think it's important for religion to be scrutinized. I do question their timing however. A few weeks before what is the most significant Christian holiday. That in itself isn't quite what bothers me either. I think what bothers me first and foremost is that there is a strong double standard in the media.
For instance, I highly doubt that they would air a documentary claiming that Mohammed was a fictitious character during Ramadan (or at any other time for that matter!). Would they run a special report on muslim fanatics murdering absent minded cartoonists that doodle pictures of the Prophet, or calls for the execution of school teachers who allow their children to name their teddy bear after him during an Islamic holiday ? Probably not. Would they feature a documentary about the abscence of God in Israeli politics during Hanukkah? Again I doubt it. Just irks me, that's all.
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A Rose by Any Other Name.
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Sunday, December 9, 2007 at 1:33am | Edit Note | Delete
See this is what happens when your toddler owns the night. Yeah, I've been kicked awake again. But that's okay. It gives me an opportunity to address an issue that I think is important.
It's come to my attention that a lot of people (and I'm not singling any one out here, cuz EVERYBODY does it) like to send funwall material that consists of a drawing of a rose and then the caption "This is a friendship rose.." etc.
First of all, if it were in fact a rose (and it's not, it's a cheap tawdry .bmp), but if it were a rose it's the wrong color for friendship. The roses that I've been getting as alleged friendship roses are generally red, which is an "I want in your pants" rose.
I know it probably doesn't bother anyone else that this rose isn't the right color (or even an organism for that matter), but it bothers me. I imagine a 15 year old little computer geek in his school's computer lab with his equally geeky 14 year old girlfriend writing up the original of this piece, then giggling over how many people they can sucker into sending the wrong colored rose. I like to think it was a joke to make monkeys of us all, and not that it was an oversight on the part of the creator and the 82million facebook users that have since forwarded it. Sigh. There. Now I can probably get back to sleep.