Saving the world with appropriate technology.
As you may know, Eliot Spitzer's favorite escort got her pseudonym from the stolen driver's license she used to fake being 18 for a spot on Girls Gone Wild. The real owner of that license has sued for the besmirching of her name. I sympathize with her but it's a weak case: Among other things there's not a very good foreseeability argument.
If this is how they treat their customers, you may want to avoid Boots (a chain I'd previously never heard of).
I Don't Have Time For Noncontroversial Art Exhibits (The Onion)
An artist's video game that is being exhibited at a free-speech exhibit in Chicago challenges players to kill the president. The video game is part of a "confrontational art" exhibit by Chicago-based artist Wafaa Bilal.
--Instapundit
This isn't actually the next New Yorker cover, just a creative rebuttal. I'm quite skeptical that this would actually offend anyone, notwithstanding the spectacular degree of missing the point on the part of commenters here.
This column led me to this blog and in particular this post.
He's dead-on about both the anecdote in the opening paragraph and the fifth item on his list. Especially the fifth item on his list. That video singlehandedly delayed my Metallica acceptance/appreciation by at least five years.
...in which a frequent commenter vanquishes me. (No surprise that a Sudoku champion is very good at rook endings!) Moves 55-60 don't work out for me as well as I'd have hoped: I thought as of my 54th move that this line forced a draw, but one move later it was obvious from the chat widget that we both knew better.
White can safely resign after move 55; the rest is for show. (In theory Black could hilariously blunder move 61.) The final position is amusing because if you saw it from scratch (without the A-H/1-8 grid key) you'd guess wrong about which player was going which direction.
As usual I present, you annotate (if you wish).
[Event "Online Chess"]
[Site "Chess.com"]
[Date "2008.07.09"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Matt B."]
[Black "Jason Z."]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1640"]
[BlackElo "1705"]
[TimeControl "1 in 3 days"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. Bf4 Nc6 4. e3 e6 5. c3 Bd6 6. Bg3 Ne4 7. Nbd2 Nxg3 8. hxg3 f5 9. Bb5 Qf6 10. Nb3 Bd7 11. Nc5 Rb8 12. Nxd7 Kxd7 13. Bxc6+ bxc6 14. b4 e5 15. dxe5 Bxe5 16. Nxe5+ Qxe5 17. Qd4 Qxd4 18. exd4 Rhe8+ 19. Kd2 h6 20. Rhe1 g5 21. Re5 Rxe5 22. dxe5 Ke6 23. f4 gxf4 24. gxf4 Rg8 25. Rg1 Rg3 26. c4 dxc4 27. Ke2 Ra3 28. Rh1 Rxa2+ 29. Kf3 h5 30. Rc1 Ra3+ 31. Kf2 c3 32. Ke3 Rb3 33. g3 c2+ 34. Kd4 Rxb4+ 35. Kc5 Rb3 36. Rxc2 Rxg3 37. Kxc6 Rf3 38. Rc4 h4 39. Kxc7 h3 40. Rc6+ Ke7 41. Rh6 Rxf4 42. Kc6 Rf3 43. Kd5 a5 44. Rh7+ Kf8 45. e6 Re3 46. Kd6 Kg8 47. Rh5 Rd3+ 48. Ke7 Kg7 49. Rxf5 h2 50. Rf1 Rd2 51. Ke8 a4 52. e7 a3 53. Rf7+ Kg6 54. Kf8 h1=Q 55. Rg7+ Kf5 56. Rf7+ Kg4 57. Rg7+ Kf3 58. Rf7+ Kg2 59. Rg7+ Kf1 60. Rf7+ Rf2 61. e8=Q Qh8+ 0-1
Has everyone gone shat-bit crazy?
(Oddly I first heard of the controversy myself from the Glenn Reynolds bon mot: SO IT JUST STRUCK ME AS FUNNY that supporters of Barack "I'm really not a Muslim" Obama are now getting upset about a cartoon.)
Don't even attempt to feed me the "but the public will actually take it seriously!" line. The readers of this blog are better than that (I'd like to think); certainly less patronizing.
Ta-Nehisi Coates says to "Expect that image to be on tee-shirts within two weeks" -- I agree, but because I think it will be pro-Obama people who (rightfully) recapture that image and the satire behind it.