| Laziest 419er I have ever seen |
[Feb. 17th, 2010|11:26 am] |
So it would appear the 419 scammers are getting lazier:
I need you to assist me to transfer $22,500,000.00
from my country to your country
Regards,
Mr. Chan Patrick
No interesting back story. No convoluted explanation about why I of all people should be picked for this honor (my favorite was being recommended by the "girl who knows computer"). No broken English to convince me I am dealing with a rube who I can easily outsmart. Come on guys. At least put a little effort into your scams. |
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| Interesting claim about the Texas State Constitution |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|10:36 pm] |
A few years back Texas adopted the following amendment to Article 1 (The Bill of Rights) of its State Constitution:
Sec. 32. MARRIAGE.
(a) Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.
(b) This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.
The motivation being to prevent any same sex marriages from being recognized in the state.
Now someone is claiming that this actually prohibits all marriage in the state of Texas.
I don't agree with Radnofsky's take on what Sec. 32 means but if judges do uphold it Texas will become a very interesting place since section 23 of Article 1 states:
Sec. 29. PROVISIONS OF BILL OF RIGHTS EXCEPTED FROM POWERS OF GOVERNMENT; TO FOREVER REMAIN INVIOLATE.
To guard against transgressions of the high powers herein delegated, we declare that everything in this "Bill of Rights" is excepted out of the general powers of government, and shall forever remain inviolate, and all laws contrary thereto, or to the following provisions, shall be void.
Thus whatever it means it is in there for keeps. |
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| Bloodbowl |
[Sep. 25th, 2009|05:19 pm] |
Finally figured out how I wanted to set up my laptop to run Bloodbowl. Tried out a couple of games and then played on line with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) icashizzle. Conclusion: it's a fun game but I have a lot to learn before I will be anything approaching good at it (if I ever do). |
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| Skip the telescreens and go directly to Room 101 |
[Aug. 6th, 2009|04:33 am] |
It is reported that MP in charge of the program I reported on yesterday denies that anyone is putting CCTV into people's home. I've looked into it further and it seems that the wealth of reports trace back to a single newspaper article. The denial is made in an unverified Twitter feed. It's so difficult to get information on this side of the pond. In an effort to get reliable information I poked around some pointers to the UK government site. What I found there does not mention CCTV it is true. Still it hardly inspires confidence. Apparently antisocial behavior will now be "treated" in re-education camps. From the report:
At the most intensive level, families who require supervision and support on a 24 hour basis stay in a core residential unit. Upon satisfactory completion of a programme, the family can move into a managed property.
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| Flaying the Green Chili Cheeseburger |
[Aug. 3rd, 2009|01:35 am] |
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I finally got to see Bobby Flay's defeat at the hands of Buckhorn Tavern. Now I am pining for a green chile cheesburger. |
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| Wedding |
[Jul. 19th, 2009|11:19 pm] |
A couple of my best friends got married Saturday. It was at a Byzantine Catholic church. I have seen a couple of Orthodox weddings before so I had some idea what to expect but I wasn't sure what would be the same and what would be different.
The church itself showed both Greek and Latin influences as you might expect. I didn't really expect a lot of Slavonic influence but I wasn't really surprised when it turned out to have a lot either. The iconostasis struck me as more the simple aesthetic of a Greek church while the onion domes outside were clearly closer to the ornate Slavonic influence than the simple domes of a Greek church. The icon placement seemed pretty similar to an Orthodox church. (Using the Greek Orthodox terminology I am familiar with here. Byzantine Catholics may well call these something else.) There was Platytera behind the altar and Pantokratoros on the ceiling. There was no dome in the ceiling but the Pantokratoros was still circular suggesting one. Icons of the Theotokos and Christ flanked the Holy Doors. (BTW there were more than the usual three doors in the iconostasis. Don't know if that was a practicality issue or had some deeper significance.) There was also an icon of the Theotokos of the Passion but as the church is named Our Lady of Perpetual Help that was hardly surprising.
The liturgy was clearly similar to the Orthodox liturgy. The betrothal was separated from the sacrament (actually I noticed another Eastern tendency to use the term mystery rather than sacrament). They used simple stefana made of cloth (again simple like the Greek rather than the full out ornate crowns I've seen used at a Russian wedding) but I don't think they were joined with a ribbon or anything like that. There was no circular walk around the gospel and cross but the symbolic function of that seemed to be somewhat replaced by a being led into the church together by the priest. The stefana seemed to be placed on their heads once rather than switched back and forth three times. Likewise the rings don't seemed to have been swapped back and forth. (At least I think they weren't. I wasn't in the best position to tell whether this happened or not.) In fact there seemed to be less (although still far from no) triplication in general than in the Orthodox services I have seen. I am also not sure they were given candles but again I didn't have the best of views. |
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| J. J. Abrams' fried egg chutney chili sauce sandwich |
[May. 11th, 2009|10:33 pm] |
In the British comedy Red Dwarf the main character, David Lister, once made a sandwich for his roommate, Arnold Rimmer. Rimmer commented:
I could never invent a sandwich like this, Lister. You see, all the ingredients are wrong. The fried eggs, wrong; the chutney, wrong; the chili sauce, all wrong. But put them together and somehow it works. It becomes right.
The same could be said about J. J. Abrams' new version of Star Trek:
( Spoilers aplenty ) |
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| A new twist on an old conflict of interest |
[May. 7th, 2009|11:21 pm] |
Imagine you found out your doctor was receiving kickbacks from your insurance company. For every test your doctor didn't run the insurance would give the doctor a percentage of what they saved on the test. Would that be a monstrous betrayal? There are already insurance plans that do this. It is called capitation because the insurance company pays the doctor a flat per capita rate. Whatever the doctor doesn't use for tests and referrals he gets to keep. The practice is immoral but has been going on for years.
What is new is that the Massachussetts government is considering making it mandatory for everyone. If this passes the good people of Massachussetts will have every right to eject the tyrants that passed it by force of arms. |
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