Let me put it this way. If I went to the owner of the company and said that I wanted an extended Christmas vacation because my employee review was coming up next week and I had just happened to anger all my fellow employees, I'd probably still have to go to that employee review and I'd probably still get my extended vacation, it'd just start right after that review…

vasyL and I had a conversation today. It is littered with spelling errors and grammar issues. I invite you to read the transcript and comment. Full conversation after the break Read the rest of this entry »

Today's long read comes to you from Scientific American and is on the subject of contaminating groundwater using hydraulic fracturing.

It raised the question in my mind. 'How far would you go to keep your job?'

Would you omit evidence that goes against what you want to prove? Would you write something that you know isn't true? Would you sugar coat it with words like "future monitoring" and "natural uncertainty"?

… I do that everyday, it's what I get paid to do…

Work on Monday, day off on Tuesday, back on Wednesday. This makes Wednesday feel like Monday and has my small brain working overtime on the idea that the week is already pretty much half over.

Ok, enough about that.

Today your long read comes care of the Design Observer, Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

A fascinating read if you have the time.

Remember the Simpsons episode where all the big signs come to life and they start destroying the town? There a whole ton of destruction and craziness and then someone (it has to be Lisa) get the idea that they have to ignore the ads before they will stop and in the end they sing "just don't look" until they finally go away.

Well I'm doingtrying that and it's just not working. Everywhere I look I see this fucking election. I'm so very excited to sit down on Tuesday night with a big bowl of popcorn and watch hockey. Or soccer. Or just watch my spider plant stacey continue on her inevitable path to dying this winter because she's far too close to an outside window and she'll get cold and pissy and lose all her leaves. Seriously, I'd rather watch my plant.

I am just a little excited to see where the first riot will be in the US on Tuesday. Anyone wanna make some bets on the location? I think Chicago might be the first, but L.A. seems to have that whole "angry minority" thing going for them. They might be fashionably late to the party, but they'll make sure it goes until the early morn. Philly is coming off of a celebratory riot (my personal favorite type), so their police will already be seasoned for the trouble. I will say this though, I'll be rather disappointed if nothing burns and I don't see some riot police looking completely useless beside overturned cars.

One more day. One more day. One more day. One more day.

And because I'm a nice guy and I read a lot of random shit online all the time here's what I've been reading today. It's obvious that my hatred for the election hasn't stopped me from reading about it. BECAUSE IT'S THE ONLY THING PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT ONLINE. I'm done yelling now.

• How Much Is Your Vote Worth? - Because one vote per person is too hard for some to figure out, here's a nice explanation why if I was American I'd be flabbergasted that the electoral college is still used.
• Iceland, mired in debt, blames Britain - This one amazes me. Britain used some laws they have to go after terrorists to freeze the assets of a failing bank in Iceland. So yeah, apparently Iceland is now a terrorist state. That's good to know. In other news someone in Britain just influenced a future 7 minute soundscape in a language that doesn't appear to be much more than random yelling and humming with the occasional word or two in Icelandic or whatever. I just hope it won't be from Bjork.
• Happiness and Cyanide explain Halloween - Is there anything you can't explain clearly with a venn diagram?
• The original artwork for License to Ill - I'd never seen the full image before. Although I gotta say the first thing that popped in my head was it's a doobie