Coty's Weblog

10 Years

I don't really do much posting of a terribly personal nature here. However, I thought I would mention that today marks 10 years of marriage for me and my lovely wife. Given the homosexual assault on marriage that we've endured during that time, I think that is something.

Sure, it was nip and tuck when an activist judge thwarted the will of the majority and struck down a state amendment banning same sex marriage. (I mean, seriously, this is Atlanta. There is a lot of temptation here if that option is open.) Just in time, though, our Supreme Court overruled that judge and upheld the amendment.

Life, The Universe, and Jackie Robinson

Given the geeky tone of this weblog, it probably won't come as a surprise for me to reveal that I'm not much of a sports fan. What little awareness I have of current events in sports comes via NPR.

So, today I heard the end of a report on the anniversary tomorrow of Jackie Robinson's breaking the color barrier in baseball. The report mentioned that Jackie Robinson's number was being retired not only by his team but by every major league team. That number was 42. Being the geek I am, I couldn't help thinking of the other significance of that number.

BTW, though it isn't surprising, I didn't know until researching this a bit that Google's calculator knows the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

The President believes many things...

I somehow doubt "morphological regularization of toponymic adjectives" is among them, but it was charitable of Language Log to attribute such belief based on his use of "Great British" to describe the (former) nationality of the port management company that is now part of Dubai Ports World and at the center of the controversy over foreign (particularly Arab/Muslim) ownership of U.S. port operations.

Further analysis of the linguistic issue can be found in this Language Log post: W's Conundrum.

As for the political issue, I think Thomas Friedman's War of the Worlds piece has one of the better assessments. The security issues is bogus, but the administration is reaping what they have sown.

How I love Language Log. How I hate this administration.

And so it begins...

TY: Robot demonstrates self awareness, ability to find Sarah Connor

Seriously, though, I think there is a long way to go, yet.

Best T-Shirt Ever

You can buy it here.

Given this news, perhaps He is listening.

Retrospective Irony

As Sanjay notes in his Funny Movie Quote About the NSA post, Sneakers is so 1990s:

Dick Gordon (Timothy Busfield’s character who works for the NSA): National Security Agency.

Martin Bishop (Robert Redford’s character who is a security expert): Ah. You’re the guys I hear breathing on the other end of my phone.

Dick Gordon: No, that’s the FBI. We’re not chartered for domestic surveillance.

Martin Bishop: Oh, I see. You just overthrow governments. Set up friendly dictators.

Dick Gordon: No, that’s the CIA. We protect our government’s communications, we try to break the other fella’s codes. We’re the good guys, Marty.

Martin Bishop: Gee, I can’t tell you what a relief that is, Dick.

(emphasis added by Sanjay and seconded by me)

Ah, the irony. The sad, sad irony.

It is funny on The Office...

when Dwight Schrute tries to blur the distinction between being an assistant to the regional manager and being Assistant Regional Manager on NBC's The Office. It is not even a little funny that Michael Brown seems to have done something similar on his resumé.

Even leaving aside what the real nature of the position was, it was a job he had in college. How long do you keep that on your resumé?

Can you even do that with a cheeseburger?

"Boondocks: Lovin' it?

It is an old one that I found on WorkingForChange, but it made me laugh so hard that I had to post.

In other Boondocks news, I'd missed the announcement that an animated version would be coming to Adult Swim in October. I'll put it into the TiVo tonight.

Chief Justice Karl Rove?

From the Daily Show the night before last (I think.): Hot Karl

My favorite bit (other than Chief Justice Karl Rove, of course):

Whistleblowers that expose corruption are protected by law, but guys like Rove who are out there just talking shit about another guy's wife as political payback, they leave themselves wide open.

Yeah. It's a shame.

that (redacted) is yours

Catching up on reading Language Log, I ran across this in the Language, trade and sex post:

Dubner and Levitt start their article with the famous quote from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations about how "Nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog. Nobody ever saw one animal by its gestures and natural cries signify to another, this is mine, that yours; I am willing to give this for that" [Wealth of Nations, Book 1, Chapter 2]. What seems to contradict Smith is that capuchins sometimes trade food for sex: "this (marshmallow) is mine, that (redacted) is yours; I am willing to give this for that".

The "that (redacted) is yours" just made me chuckle. I don't know particularly why, but I thought I'd pass it along.

I also liked the first sentence in the post, "The orthographically diverse Ste(x)ens of 'Freakonomics' -- Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt..."