DYSPEPSIA GENERATION

We have seen the future, and it sucks.

Archive for November, 2008

Nanotech polyester fabric never gets wet, brings back the leisure suit in a big way

24th November 2008

Read it.

Boogie down.

Posted in News You Can Use. | 1 Comment »

NICT researchers develop new method to make holography more practical

24th November 2008

Read it.

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Aspiring footballer died eating noodles

24th November 2008

Read it.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

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UK brought to standstill as five inches of snow falls in an hour

24th November 2008

Read it.

Is AlGore in town?

Gotta love that Global Warming.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on UK brought to standstill as five inches of snow falls in an hour

Barack Obama, Savior of the Gun Industry

24th November 2008

The Hog isn’t blogging on politics any more. Nope, not a bit. Wouldn’t even think about it.

The gun-haters among us don’t like sporting guns much. But they truly, TRULY hate self-defense guns. And there are a lot of Americans who will stand up for hunters, yet who will abandon people who own guns strictly for self-defense. This is what the Obama regime is counting on. Politically, it’s much easier to take away a Bushmaster than a squirrel gun. So Obama says he sympathizes with “sportsmen.” And Americans who aren’t bright or attentive assume he is referring to all gun owners. It’s a sleazy tactic. It’s obvious to smart people. But most Americans are not geniuses; they can’t see it.

See? No politics here.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Barack Obama, Savior of the Gun Industry

How To Make A Bunch Of New Friends In Any New City

24th November 2008

Read it.

I have a simpler way:

  1. Offer to buy.
  2. Offer to lend.
  3. Offer to drive.

This will guarantee you more “friends” than a rational person would want to have.

Having friends is vastly overrated. Mostly they wind up owing you money, and when you need help there’s always something that they need to do instead. Can’t see that having friends gets you anything.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on How To Make A Bunch Of New Friends In Any New City

Taco Hell

24th November 2008

The Hog has odd opinions about food.

I don’t understand why the British would avoid Mexican food. It’s not like eating Mexican food requires especially healthy teeth.

If I were Rachel, I just flat wouldn’t go. Not until I located some Mexican joints or confirmed that I could fix my own, using ingredients from English grocery stores. And I’d be scouting out places that serve Indian food. It’s not an ideal substitute, but it comes closer than toad in the hole.

And other subjects.

I used to watch Horatio Hornblower DVDs and marvel at the bravery of the sailors. Cannonballs would come flying into their ships, ripping off arms and legs, and the sailors stayed at their posts, shooting back and calling the French fairies. But bravery had nothing to do with it. They were plastered. Get me drunk enough, and I’ll fight the French, too. Well, okay, I see how ridiculous that looks. Replace “French” with a nationality that fights back. … A stint in the navy would be like climbing into a portal and experiencing the Seventies as Dennis Hopper. Or like going to a typical American college.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Taco Hell

Man sues McDonald’s after nude photos go online

24th November 2008

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What sort of peckerwood has nude photos of his wife on his cellphone? I think this is God’s way of telling him to grow up.

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Kuwaiti Cleric: ‘Death is Too Good for Homosexuals’

24th November 2008

Read it.

Puzzled by the leftoid love affair with Islam? Me too.

Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Kuwaiti Cleric: ‘Death is Too Good for Homosexuals’

What a massive fiscal boost can and cannot accomplish

24th November 2008

Tyler Cowen explains it all to you.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on What a massive fiscal boost can and cannot accomplish

Obama Aides Suggest Rollback of Bush Tax Cuts Could Be Delayed

24th November 2008

Change We Can Believe In.

Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on Obama Aides Suggest Rollback of Bush Tax Cuts Could Be Delayed

How to make moonshine

24th November 2008

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In light of how far we’ve come from our Red State, non-White People roots, this ought to prove amusing, if not useful. Read it with a glass of pretentious Chardonnay and some overpriced Brie.

Posted in Is this a great country, or what? | Comments Off on How to make moonshine

Outer Hebrides’ sniffer dog finds £120,000 of drugs in a year

23rd November 2008

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Not the sort of news you would expect to find concerning the Outer Hebrides.

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Schools fined for expelling violent pupils

22nd November 2008

Read it.

  1. Thank God you don’t live in Britain.
  2. Without eternal vigilance, it could happen here. Probably in California.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Schools fined for expelling violent pupils

Diplomats dash to rescue 15-year-old British girl from threat of forced marriage in Pakistan

22nd November 2008

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Your future under Islam. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on Diplomats dash to rescue 15-year-old British girl from threat of forced marriage in Pakistan

In Our Genes, Old Fossils Take On New Roles

22nd November 2008

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It turns out that about 8 percent of the human genome is made up of viruses that once attacked our ancestors. The viruses lost. What remains are the molecular equivalents of mounted trophies, insects preserved in genomic amber, DNA fossils.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on In Our Genes, Old Fossils Take On New Roles

New Concentrated Solar Tech: Simple, Cheap and Efficient

22nd November 2008

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While other companies are working to make solar cheaper by using mirrors or lenses to magnify sunlight that is directed into solar cells, Morgan Solar takes a different approach. Their system uses a thin sheet of acrylic to concentrate sunlight 750 times. The sunlight is directed to a tiny cell on the edge of the plastic, greatly reducing the amount of material needed.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on New Concentrated Solar Tech: Simple, Cheap and Efficient

Stuff White People Like addendum: Obsessing about trivial shit that doesn’t matter

22nd November 2008

Slate has a perfect example.

As a new middle-school teacher, I’m facing a challenge I never thought about before: assigning a list of school supplies for my students. My colleagues tell me that there’s a real downside to wooden pencils, since it gives students an excuse to get up every few minutes and use the pencil sharpener. But am I being environmentally irresponsible by asking parents to buy plastic mechanical pencils?

That’s the question. Answer at your leisure. Use both sides of the toilet paper if necessary.

Posted in Axis of Drivel -- Adventures in Narrative Media | Comments Off on Stuff White People Like addendum: Obsessing about trivial shit that doesn’t matter

Gravity is not the main obstacle for America’s space business. Government is.

22nd November 2008

The Economist gets it right.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Gravity is not the main obstacle for America’s space business. Government is.

Fiscal Stimulus

22nd November 2008

Steve Sailer is not afraid to ask the hard questions.

But nobody is talking about the obvious: Will the public works jobs be restricted to American citizens? To American citizens plus legal residents? Or will they just suck in more millions from south of the border as the Housing Bubble did, who will send tens of billions back home, depriving America of Larry’s promised Multiplier Effect?

The real economic collapse is happening in the four sand states, California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida. Sending billions to them for infrastructure projects would mean a large fraction of the public works payroll would go to illegal and legal aliens.

The one sure way to keep the unemployment rate in California (now 8.2%) from growing so fast is to have illegal immigrants go home. It’s a lot cheaper for all concerned if ex-construction workers are unemployed in Mexico or Guatemala than if they are unemployed in California. But nobody is mentioning that.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Fiscal Stimulus

Every secondary school should have sex clinic on site, says charity

22nd November 2008

Read it.

  1. Thank God you don’t live in Britain.
  2. Without eternal vigilance, it could happen here. Probably in California.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on Every secondary school should have sex clinic on site, says charity

Suing Over Being Called A Douchebag Might Just Get More People To Think You’re A Douchebag

22nd November 2008

Read it.

There’s a universal truth for you.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Suing Over Being Called A Douchebag Might Just Get More People To Think You’re A Douchebag

Slow Boats From China

22nd November 2008

The Hog looks at current economic affairs.

The Japanese used to make bad cars. They improved. The Koreans make good cars. The Chinese are going to make good cars, too, and they’re going to be dirt cheap. And it’s going to happen right when our bloated car industry is supposed to start paying off on our giant welfare check. Am I the only person who sees a problem here? Would you invest in a failing Burger King, if you knew the Chinese were going to open a similar restaurant next door, charging half as much for the same food?

No.

The UAW needs to get a grip. Their wages are going to plummet, with or without a bailout. That is a certainty. They can’t compete with the Japanese, and when the Chinese show up in force, they’re going to be annihilated. They should be working with the carmakers to increase efficiency and get wages in line with revenues. The free punch and pie are things of the past. The fifty-year-long frat party is OVER.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on Slow Boats From China

Giant chicken skeleton artwork succeeds in repelling unenlightened public

22nd November 2008

Steve Sailer is always worth reading.

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Mullet tops list of worst crazes of all time

22nd November 2008

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Yeah, that sounds about right.

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Boy told he could only cycle to school if mum followed in car

22nd November 2008

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Sam O’Shea told his mother Angela that he wanted to take the ‘green’ option and ride the two miles to St Paul’s Primary School, in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

However, staff told Sam and Mrs O’Shea that she would have to follow him to school and pick up his bike because there was nowhere to store it.

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British playboy threw model girlfriend off cliff in Australia to her death ‘like a spear’

22nd November 2008

Read it.

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Zimbabwe army guns down 12 people searching for diamonds

22nd November 2008

Read it.

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Disabled man leaves 84-year-old mother outside council offices

22nd November 2008

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Well, that’s what happens when the government tries to run your life — you let it do your work as well. People dumping their unwanted kids off in Nebraska is an illustration of the same situation.

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Police helicopter avoids colliding with UFO, report claims

22nd November 2008

Read it.

Certainly better than running into one.

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He’s our president too

22nd November 2008

Megan McArdle looks at the one-way left, who demand concessions for their side’s guy that they never gave (or will give) to the other side’s guy.

But beyond the tautological, what does this demand that conservatives recognize that Obama is their president mean?  Are they supposed to root for him to succeed?  One hopes that we are all hoping he will not run the country into the ground.  But since most conservatives believe that Obama’s agenda will, in fact, run the country into the ground, it would not be reasonable to demand that they actually hope he passes it.

Are conservatives supposed to suddenly like Obama? Or at least give him the benefit of the doubt? As far as I can tell, precisely none of the liberals urging this on conservatives obeyed their dicta when George Bush was supposed to be the object of their affections.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on He’s our president too

How much is a Detroit autoworker really worth?

22nd November 2008

Megan McArdle puts on her economist’s hat and runs some numbers.

The real cost center is retiree health care, and as noted above, this is negotiated as part of the labor contract for the current workers.  Due, I’m told, to the UAW’s slightly strange constitution, retirees have more voting power than current workers.  That’s why GM’s medical costs rose at such a staggering rate; they were sacred to the real power in the union.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on How much is a Detroit autoworker really worth?

As Internet Usage Grows, Sexual Offenses Against Kids Have Decreased

21st November 2008

Read it.

We have the technology.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on As Internet Usage Grows, Sexual Offenses Against Kids Have Decreased

In economic crises, watch out for government expansion.

21st November 2008

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is always worth reading.

Posted in Think about it. | Comments Off on In economic crises, watch out for government expansion.

No Surprise Here: Telco Employees Access Obama’s Phone Records

21st November 2008

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We’ve pointed out plenty of times in the past, that any time there’s a database of info out there, the data is almost certain to be abused.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | Comments Off on No Surprise Here: Telco Employees Access Obama’s Phone Records

The Vegas Decade

21st November 2008

Steve Sailer is always worth reading.

It’s not the particular government program that’s of major interest, it’s the message the Bush Administration was sending. Federal regulators are supposed to take away the punchbowl when the party gets interesting, but announcing that the President hates down payments, that the Chief Executive feels that requiring people with bad credit to put money down on a house is UnAmerican and probably racist, at a homebuilder’s convention in Las Vegas, well, I’ve exhausted all the punchbowl similes … This is liking filling all the nasal decongestant inhalers at the Betty Ford Clinic with pure pharmaceutical cocaine.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | 1 Comment »

Argentina to Nationalize Pension Funds

21st November 2008

Read it.

Senate Approves Plan Aimed at Protecting Savings From Global Crisis

And if you believe that one, they’ll tell you another one.

Posted in Dystopia Watch | 1 Comment »

Office worker dies after pastry-eating contest

21st November 2008

Read it.

Let that be a lesson to us all.

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Greek archaeologists find 6,500-year-old fishing village

20th November 2008

Read it.

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Man caught with penis in pasta jar while driving

20th November 2008

Read it.

Gotta love Australians.

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Real 19th Century Vampire Killing Kit

20th November 2008

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Be the first on your block….

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Britain’s smallest horse

20th November 2008

Read it.

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Stuff White People Like #116 Black Music that Black People Don’t Listen to Anymore

20th November 2008

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Historically speaking, the music that white people have kept on life support for the longest period of time is Jazz.  Thanks largely to public radio, bookstores, and coffee shops, Jazz has carved out a niche in white culture that is not yet ready to be replaced by Indie Rock.  But the biggest role that Jazz plays in white culture is in the white fantasy of leisure. All white people believe that they prefer listening to jazz over watching television.  This is not true.

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Early Indo-Europeans in Xinjiang

20th November 2008

Read it.

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The Muslim Insurgency in India

20th November 2008

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India is subjected to frequent and horrendous terrorist attacks committed by Muslim extremists. If the amount of death and suffering caused by the average Muslim terrorist attack in India were experienced in the West, it would be a crisis of unprecedented magnitude. But such things happen in India all the time.

Posted in Living with Islam. | Comments Off on The Muslim Insurgency in India

Study of Reading Program Finds a Lack of Progress

20th November 2008

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The final version of the study, released yesterday by the U.S. Department of Education, found that students in schools that use Reading First, a program at the core of the No Child Left Behind law, scored no better on comprehension tests than students in similar schools that do not get the funding.

There’s a shocker: Government program doesn’t work while costing a bundle. Stop the presses.

The only surprise here is that they’re actually admitting it.

Posted in Your tax dollars at work - and play. | Comments Off on Study of Reading Program Finds a Lack of Progress

Senators Urge Bush To Halt Job Shifts

20th November 2008

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Yeah, they don’t want any threat to the liberal lock on the Civil Service, and they have judged (and who can say they’re wrong?) that he’s just enough of a pussy to roll over for them on that.

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Secret of the perfect phone call

20th November 2008

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Just in case you were wondering. I know I was.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on Secret of the perfect phone call

New wind turbines at least 30% more efficient, Earth one step closer to salvation

20th November 2008

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I still say we need to hook a wind turbine up to AlGore’s mouth, we’d be able to solve our energy problems for decades. Hey, we’re stuck with all that hot air anyway, we might as well get some use out of it.

Posted in News You Can Use. | Comments Off on New wind turbines at least 30% more efficient, Earth one step closer to salvation

Brazil Hopes to Find Tribes Using Heat-Seeking Cameras but Also Protect Them From the Diseases That Contact Can Bring

20th November 2008

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I have an idea: Why not just leave them the hell alone?

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