Overnight Open Thread

Welcome to the Monday.

Facebook Friends And How Come You Tawk So Funneh

Does your dialect determine your Facebook connections?

Well here's a map of US dialects:

And here's an analysis of the geography of Facebook friend links by Pete Warden:

So you can see quite a bit of overlap but also a lot of areas where roughly equivalent dialects didn't cluster together and different dialects did. So there's more going on than just nearness and accents.

It's interesting to note that there are also distinct social borders in some places. For instance as Pete points out Columbus, OH and Charleston, WV are only 162 miles apart but by dialect and social connections they might as well be a 1000 miles away from each other.

Congress's Declining Popularity
It's been on a downward trend for almost the last 40 years. By my calculations it will actually reach 0% by 2023. I'm not sure what happens at that point.

‘U.S. and China are Headed for a Generational Crisis War’
No one wants to talk about it but all indicators point to an upcoming military conflict with China. Part of this is due to China's long term goal of neutralizing the US and dominating the region, but there's also their internal dynamics which will force them to act sooner than later. Millions of unmarried nationalistic young men = TROUBLE. The good news is that China historically tends to fall apart before they can quite attack outsiders. But that could still mean a very dicey upcoming thirty years.

U.S. Senate passes 'libel tourism' bill
If passed, this means that British libel judgments are unenforceable in the US if there is no direct connection to the UK. This prevents wealthy Saudis and repressive regimes from filing libel suits in the UK against people in the US in order to get default judgments. The standards for libel in the Britain are much lower than in the US and truth is not always an absolute defense.

Improvised Weapons
They may look like crappy junk but they can still ruin your entire weekend.

Capitalism Comes Through: Anna Chapman Topless Doll Now Available
Just $29.99. Secret spy lingerie sold separately.

50 Things a Man Should Be Able To Do
He right about the bow tie thing - the number of time I've tied a bow tie in my life: maybe 3 times. It just ain't that important unless you're George Will. I did like these ones:

33. Grow food—even if you never owned a vegetable garden, you need to understand the basic theory of how to grow food. When the zombie apocalypse happens, you’re going to be hungry.

36. Wash a load of white clothes without turning everything pink.
37. Load, shoot, and clean a firearm.

Breast Coverage: What the Hell is Breast ironing?
and Who Has The World's Largest Breasts?

Houston Corpse Flower Finally Blooms
If you're not familiar with Amorphophallus titanum, it's a flowering plant from Indonesia that when blooms emits the overwhelming odor of rotting flesh in order to attract flies. Thanks to M80B.

99 Cent Store Sued For Raising Prices to 99.99 Cents
Well given that they've been at 99¢ for at least 20 years, this just seemed inevitable.

The group thingy. You can figure out the rest.

Tonight's post brought to you by the Presleys:

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to maetenloch at gmail. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

posted by Maetenloch at 09:26 PM

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