Overnight Open Thread (8-9-2012)

Congratulations - You Bought a New 2012 BMW M3 Coupe

Only you didn't get the car - just the debt.

The national debt has now increased by more than $64,000 per federal taxpayer since Barack Obama was inaugurated president.

By the close of business on July 10, 2012, that debt had climbed to $15,885,854,755,351.47-an increase of $5,258,977,706,438.39.

In "Statistics of Income-2009 Individual Income Tax Returns," which was published this year and is the Internal Revenue Service's most recent statistical report on individual income tax data, the IRS reported that there were 81,890,189 tax returns filed in 2009 that reported taxable income.

If each of these 81,890,189 federal taxpayers were given responsibility for paying off an equal share of the new federal debt added since Obama was inaugurated, they would each need to pay about $64,219.88.

So here's picture of what you could've had. But no doubt the $64K the federal government spent on your behalf in 'investment' and 'green shoots' will give you just as much of a warm feeling. Chicks dig actual taxpayers, right?

How To Play in Someone Else's Band

Even if you're not a touring musician, there's still a lot of good advice here. And of course if you're familiar the Anka Rules, it's nothing new. These also apply to any situation where you're working and traveling with the same people for weeks at a time.

to determine if this article might apply to you, go out and look at the marquee of the club where you are playing tonight. is that your own name up there? if not, this article is probably for you. have you found yourself in a musical version of death of a salesman, and you're not playing the part of willie loman? is the act you are working with called stumpy bill mcknucklehead and you don't happen to be stumpy bill? read on.

the principle rule to remember: your number one job above all else is to make the leader sound good, look good and feel good. {read that again. we will come back to it over and over. we will refer to this as the rule.}

...your path for achieving success is two fold: 1. play great. 2. in all things, be easy to deal with.

reconcile yourself to these facts every waking moment of a tour, or other business engagement of any kind within this scenario. if you forget the rule for even a very short time span, there's going to be static.

l. touring is a series of "what's nexts."

after the show, guess what? you will soon be going to the hotel. after that guess what? travel. and then.i don't know, a load-in, a sound check, dinner, and a gig. what's next in the series. while you are finishing up one thing, get your stuff ready for the next thing. move with ease. a,b,c, what's next in this series? d.

m. don't make others work harder through your own inaction, or inattention to detail or inability to grasp the overall schema.

when it doubt, stop talking and just look.

Oh and the guys get all get shirts. Always. And where the fuck is Joe?

The Flipside of 'You Didn't Build It'

Here Oleg Atbashian points out that there's a dark converse to Obama's 'You Didn't Build It' quote. Not only does it claim credit for people's success but it also implies that people's failures were caused by someone else as well. Here's the subtext of the quote:

If you have failed, somebody along the line ruined it for you. There was a lousy teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unfair American system that caused you to fail. Somebody benefitted from your demise. If you're a loser, it's not your fault. Somebody else made that happen. The Titanic didn't sink on its own. Corporations and insurance companies made a lot of money off of it, so they must be complicit. The point is, when we fail, we fail not only because of our individual shortcomings, but also because others have teamed up behind your backs. Vote for me - I'll punish the guilty and give you what's rightfully yours.

Can a 3 Year-old Open a Gun Safe?

Scarily yes - if it's one of the brands that uses common components with major flaws. Now the guy in the video may have coached his son on some of the techniques but still a gun safe should not be this easy to open.

We are providing a detailed report  and analysis of eleven different popular gun safes produced by Stack-On, GunVault, and Bulldog to warn the public of the dangers inherent in some of these products because the manufacturers nor their major retailers will do so. In that report you can view eight different Stack-On models, one produced by Bulldog, and one manufactured by GunVault. A similar design defect is demonstrated in an inexpensive safe for storing valuables that is sold by AMSEC, a very reputable safe manufacturer in the United States. Unfortunately, their digital safe with their claim of a "state-of-the-art electronic lock" can also be opened (literally) by a three year old because of a common mechanism used in the industry that is subject to circumvention.

This is my son. He speaks Greek.

In 1957 while a freshman at Brown University future founder of CNN, Ted Turner, informed his father that he was going to major in Classics after being inspired by a professor. His father was not pleased, not pleased at all and responded with this letter. Now his father was no dummy and makes some good points in the letter. The fact that Turner later switched majors to Economics suggests he did take his father's advice after all.

My dear son,

I am appalled, even horrified, that you have adopted Classics as a major. As a matter of fact, I almost puked on the way home today. I suppose that I am old-fashioned enough to believe that the purpose of an education is to enable one to develop a community of interest with his fellow men, to learn to know them, and to learn how to get along with them. In order to do this, of course, he must learn what motivates them, and how to impel them to be pleased with his objectives and desires.

I am a practical man, and for the life of me I cannot possibly understand why you should wish to speak Greek. With whom will you communicate in Greek? I have read, in recent years, the deliberations of Plato and Aristotle, and was interested to learn that the old bastards had minds which worked very similarly to the way our minds work today.

...There is no question but this type of useless information will distinguish you, set you apart from the doers of the world. If I leave you enough money, you can retire to an ivory tower, and contemplate for the rest of your days the influence that the hieroglyphics of prehistoric man had upon the writings of William Faulkner. Incidentally, he was a contemporary of mine in Mississippi. We speak the same language-whores, sluts, strong words, and strong deeds.

...Oh, I know everybody says that a college education is a must. Well, I console myself by saying that everybody said the world was square, except Columbus. You go ahead and go with the world, and I'll go it alone.

I hope I am right. You are in the hands of the Philistines, and dammit, I sent you there. I am sorry.

Devotedly,

Dad

Slicing Vegetables Ricky Jay-style

If you're familiar with Ricky Jay's 1977 classic book "Cards As Weapons", you'll appreciate this.

35 Modern Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

11. Illiterati (n): People who are not well educated or well informed about a particular subject or sphere of activity.
12. Infomania (n): The compulsive desire to check or accumulate news and information, typically via mobile phone or computer.
13. Jeggings (n): Tight-fitting stretch trousers for women, styled to resemble a pair of denim jeans.
...
22. OMG (ex): Used to express surprise, excitement, or disbelief. (Dates back to 1917.)
23. Po-po (n): The police.

Yahoo group. That is all.

And my Twitter spew.

Tonight's post brought to you by Cyd:

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posted by Maetenloch at 08:58 PM

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