Overnight Open Thread ( 10-4-2018 ) - Revenant Edition

Quote of the Day I

By smearing the ultimate Boy Scout, the Democrats signal that they are determined to go lower than anyone has ever gone in American history. They intend to deter normal people from serving in Republican administrations, or accepting appointments from Republican presidents, or, ultimately, from identifying themselves with the Republican party. Given that strategy, the fact that they are smearing a man of obviously sterling character on absurdly flimsy grounds is not a bug, it is a feature. The fact that the Democrats' smears are so patently false is ultimately their main point,

The Democrats are telling us: Republicans, beware - if this can happen to Brett Kavanaugh, it can happen to anyone. You'd better go quietly and cede power to us.

-- John Hinderaker in Why the Brett Kavanaugh Smear?

Quote of the Day II

The people who gave us raunchy sex comedies like Porky's in the 80s and American Pie in the 00's are now telling us that anything remotely like that behavior totally disqualifies you from public service, let alone private life.

The people who told us "love the one you're with" and "if her daddy's rich take her out for a meal, if her daddy's poor, just do what you feel" are now telling us that you have to get signed proof for every stage of sexual contact and even if you do, if she regrets it later, it was rape.  The people who created Animal House are now wondering if its even okay to laugh at it.  People routinely say "that could never get made today" about films like Blazing Saddles, but could you even make Pretty in Pink?  Not according to its star Molly Ringwald.

-- Christopher Taylor in The New Prudes

Quote of the Day III

"Devil's Triangle" was a drinking game we came up with in high school. It was a variation on the game "Quarters." When we played "Devil's Triangle," four people sat at a table. On the table, three small glasses of beer were arranged next to one another to form a triangle. Each of the four participants took turns being the "shooter." The shooter attempted to bounce a quarter into one of the glasses.

-- excerpt from the not yet published 'Drinking Games of the 80s Volume IV' by Georgetown Press

Quote of the Day IV

Sometimes we just thought a nutty or inhumane idea up and ran with it. What if we write a paper saying we should train men like we do dogs - to prevent rape culture? Hence came the "Dog Park" paper. What if we write a paper claiming that when a guy privately masturbates while thinking about a woman (without her consent - in fact, without her ever finding out about it) that he's committing sexual violence against her? That gave us the "Masturbation" paper. What if we argue that the reason superintelligent AI is potentially dangerous is because it is being programmed to be masculinist and imperialist using Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Lacanian psychoanalysis? That's our "Feminist AI" paper.

...Another tough one for us was, "I wonder if they'd publish a feminist rewrite of a chapter from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf." The answer to that question also turns out to be "yes," given that the feminist social work journal Affilia has just accepted it. As we progressed, we started to realize that just about anything can be made to work, so long as it falls within the moral orthodoxy and demonstrates understanding of the existing literature.

-- Academics Helen Pluckrose, James A. Lindsay and Peter Boghossian on exposing the utter intellectual emptiness of feminist and grievance journals. Sadly the paper 'Rubbing One Out: Defining Metasexual Violence of Objectification Through Nonconsensual Masturbation' is not available online.

Security Nightmare: How China Used a Tiny Stealth Chip to Infiltrate 30 U.S. Companies Plus An Unknown Number of Government Agencies

For several years factories in China have been secretly placing tiny chips in common server hardware sold by Super Micro and used by many companies and some government agencies. The chips are smaller than a grain of rice and are disguised as common innocuous chips. Some are so small that they can be embedded between PCB layers and are only detectable via x-rays. Their purpose is to block security measures at the CPU level and to phone home to anonymous servers that a backdoor is available.

The chips on Elemental servers were designed to be as inconspicuous as possible, according to one person who saw a detailed report prepared for Amazon by its third-party security contractor, as well as a second person who saw digital photos and X-ray images of the chips incorporated into a later report prepared by Amazon's security team. Gray or off-white in color, they looked more like signal conditioning couplers, another common motherboard component, than microchips, and so they were unlikely to be detectable without specialized equipment.

Since the implants were small, the amount of code they contained was small as well. But they were capable of doing two very important things: telling the device to communicate with one of several anonymous computers elsewhere on the internet that were loaded with more complex code; and preparing the device's operating system to accept this new code. The illicit chips could do all this because they were connected to the baseboard management controller, a kind of superchip that administrators use to remotely log in to problematic servers, giving them access to the most sensitive code even on machines that have crashed or are turned off.

This alone is reason enough to slap severe tariffs if not complete embargoes on some Chinese-made products. And if they want to have a trade war, well so be it.

Flashback: Waitress Sandwiches Kennedy-Dodd Style

How San Francisco Planned Its Own Housing Crisis

It didn't just happen - it was the expected result of choices made back in 1978.

It's clear that many San Franciscans were well aware this rezoning would lead the city toward a housing crisis. The planning commissioners, however, were not moved. Their testimony throughout the hearings made it clear they valued maintaining the city's predominately suburban layout over affordability. In response to a homeowner who was unhappy that his property would be downzoned to allow fewer units, commissioner Sue Bierman gave a quintessential anti-growth response - countering that San Franciscans were concerned about parking, traffic, and sunlight reaching their backyards, embracing a shift toward zoning that would preserve "more comfortable neighborhoods." Instead of listening to those folks worried about becoming homeless, the commissioners focused on the single-family homeowners worried about shadows on their yards and parking for their cars.

In the final minutes of the June 27, 1978, meeting, San Francisco's planning commissioners prepared to approve the EIR, along with its damning final clause, which explained that the project would reduce the amount of housing that could legally be built in San Francisco. "As a result the cost of housing may increase, and that with increasing housing costs, some population groups may find it difficult to live in San Francisco. The proposed zoning will affect the low- and moderate-income households more than any other group and mitigation measures are proposed to help alleviate this impact."

The Bro Do You Even Lift Flowchart

Nah you don't lift bro.

The Emperor of Japan Recently Published a Scientific Paper on Fish Speciation

Apparently he's had a life-long interest in marine biology and as emperor he only uses a single name, Akihito. His brother, Prince Masahito, has also published papers on cancers in amphibians.

Recipe: Low-Carb Almond Flour Bread

Before this I had no idea that almond flour even existed but I've already bought all the ingredients and will give it a try when I have some time and am in the cooking mood.

The following recipe is something I'm making right now, for about the fourth time - and it has been a delight every time. I'll warn you: it does not rise and become fluffy like a yeasty bread. It much more resembles banana bread in thickness and texture: somewhat squat and a bit moist inside. But it slices like bread. You can toast it (although be careful as the crust can get very hot and can burn). My favorite thing to do, other than eat it by itself, is to use it for almond butter or peanut butter sandwiches (using all natural nut butters with no salt).

Warning: because it's basically a giant soft almond, this is a very calorific bread. I calculate a 3/4 inch slice as having fully 183 calories, with about 16 grams of fat and 3.3 grams of carbs (3 grams of which are dietary fiber, leaving you net carbs of only .3 grams). If you have an almond butter sandwich with two 3/4 inch slices, you're looking at about 450 calories with about 40 grams of fat. But oh! the taste!

Polk County, FL Sheriff: Uber Shooting Video Shows How Fast You Decide to Live or Die

Here Sheriff Grady Judd narrates what happens when you run someone off the road, threaten to kill them, and then bring a pretend gun to a gunfight and the other guy happens to be a CCW holder who is armed with a real gun. Short answer: You get shot. A lot. God I love this man.

News: Man Bites Dog, Pleads Guilty To Felony Rap

Your Two Least Favorite Candies Have Combined to Form a Deliciously Disgusting Candy Alliance

True Fact: There Are Now More $100 Bills Than $1 Bills in the World

Three Words: Florida. Super. Snakes.

You've got the core of a screenplay right there. Just need to attach the right star and fill in some details. And of course give Sheriff Judd a cameo.

PSA: Do Not Taunt Happy Fun Sea Lion

Huh - Did Someone Alter the Timeline While I Wasn't Looking?

The Secret Life of Married Porn Stars

All I know is that if you ever want to make an activity tedious and tiring, just try filming a long scene of it with a single camera and multiple setups.

"The controlled environment really changes everything, even if you are having sex with your own husband on set.
"If you are in bed in the morning and you surprise him, that's spontaneous sex.
"That's not the way it happens on set. It's still him but it's a different version of him. And being a guy in porn, you are an athlete. You have to do something that is not natural."

A shout-out to all the bros in the Nevada Department of Corrections Alumni Association - Ely Chapter. Block D 4life!

Tonight's post brought to you by Sept. 25, 1947, a kinder, simpler time:

Notice: Posted by implied permission of AceCorp LLC. You can send overnight open thread tips to someonewhocares at nothere.net. Otherwise just keep your tips to yourself and be all passive-aggressive about it.

posted by Maetenloch at 10:40 PM

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