All the Nudes that’s Fit to Print — except on Facebook where No Nudes is Good Nudes

Mar 102013
 

After censoring a Gerhard Richter nude on the Pompidou Center’s page last summer, Facebook is at it again. The social network removed a 1940 photograph of a partially nude woman from the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume’s page and even disabled the museum’s account for 24 hours because of its infringement of Facebook community standards.

The image, from the Paris museum’s current exhibition of photographs by Laure Albin Guillot, was removed on Friday. Afterwards, the Jeu de Paume reposted the photo with a black square covering the breasts and related what happened, adding that “we have already committed other violations previously, when posting nudes by Willy Ronis and Manuel Álvarez Bravo. With another warning from Facebook, our account is at risk of being permanently deactivated.” The museum’s solution? “Therefore we will post no more nudes, even if we think that their artistic value is great and that these photographs — which are not at all pornographic — respect ‘the right to publish content of a personal nature.’”

via Facebook Censors Paris’s Jeu de Paume, Threatens To Deactivate the Museum’s Account | In the Air: Art News & Gossip | ARTINFO.com.

You can’t get good help anymore

Mar 102013
 

…but guns and bullets are easily available and, really, swords are inefficient, old technology.

Ed. Note: Saudi Arabia is a remarkably lenient country. Here at NC we call out the headsman for comma splices, ambiguous antecedents, dangling modifiers, the abuse of parataxis and, of course, good old copula spiders. In fact, there is an old NC joke — ah, well, perhaps another time, not for the squeamish.

A joint Saudi committee composed of representatives of the ministries of interior, justice and health is mulling the replacement of beheading with firing squads for capital sentences due to shortages in government swordsmen, Saudi daily Al-Youm reported on Sunday.

via Saudi Arabia may stop beheading due to swordsmen shortages – Region – World – Ahram Online.

Sneak preview of the new NC company car (for the masthead only)

Mar 102013
 

It’s somewhat tedious, having to replace the old fleet so quickly, but Richard Farrell’s dog Petunia destroyed the interior upholstry.

dg

On Monday, Italian carmaker Lamborghini introduced its Veneno supercar, a 750-horsepower beast whose $3.9 million price tag immediately makes it one of the most expensive cars ever produced, putting the $2.4 million Bugatti Veyron and the McLaren F1 (a mere $1 million, although they’re tough to find) in the shade.

via PHOTOS: Lamborghini’s New $3.9 Million Veneno Supercar | TIME.com.

The great student loan scam, er, bubble, er megacatastrophe

Mar 092013
 

…heard screaming as he runs towards the exit.

dg

An analysis last month by Donghoon Lee, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, found that “student debt is the only kind of household debt that continued to rise through the Great Recession” and is now the “second largest balance after mortgage debt.”

According to Mr. Lee, student loan debt is fast approaching a trillion dollars, up from less than $400 billion in 2004, and both the number of borrowers and the average balance per borrower have “increased by 70 percent between 2004 and 2012 (7 percent per year).”A September Pew Research Center report found that “a record one-in-five households now owe student loan debt.”

via A Dangerous ‘New Normal’ in College Debt – NYTimes.com.

Good to know; now we can sit on the deck drinking mojitos again

Mar 082013
 

“Dear Senator Paul,” Attorney General Eric Holder began, in a letter he sent to Rand Paul this morning. Paul might have read it with tired eyes, since he’d spent almost thirteen hours yesterday filibustering the nomination of John Brennan as director of the C.I.A. He had said Holder’s name many times in those hours. But the letter would not have required much focus: it reads, in its entirety,

It has come to my attention that you have now asked an additional question: “Does the President have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on American soil?” The answer to that question is no.

Sincerely,

Eric H. Holder, Jr.

via Rand Paul Gets a Letter from Eric Holder : The New Yorker.

Not sure what to make of this. Can anyone think of a funny line? Target practice?

Feb 182013
 

The Department of Homeland Security is set to purchase a further 21.6 million rounds of ammunition to add to the 1.6 billion bullets it has already obtained over the course of the last 10 months alone, figures which have stoked concerns that the federal agency is preparing for civil unrest.

via » DHS Purchases 21.6 Million More Rounds of Ammunition Alex Jones’ Infowars: There’s a war on for your mind!.

The smoking crater in my backyard explained

Feb 162013
 

I had assumed it was an errant drone…

According to scientists, five to 10 smaller meteorites hit the planet each year. Larger events like the one over Russia are more rare, and some experts said it may have been the biggest such blast since another meteor hit Siberia in 1908.

Also Friday, residents of the San Francisco Bay Area reported seeing a fireball in the sky that scientists said was likely a piece of space rock. Another meteor in the same area last October caused a loud sonic boom.

via Cuban media report meteorite explosion this week akin to Russia’s, but no damage reported – The Washington Post.

End Times: Meteor strike injures hundreds in central Russia OR alien invasion OR drone off course OR the Rapture

Feb 152013
 

Something else to be hysterical about. Note the bold text below. A MUCH LARGER object is coming near TODAY. I expect this will suck people and things not sufficiently anchored to the ground right off the face of the earth. I am keeping the dog inside. If you are caught outside, try to hold onto a tree. Just FYI from NC where we deliver practical scientific tips that could save your life.

dg

A meteor crashing in Russia’s Ural mountains has injured at least 950 people, as the shockwave blew out windows and rocked buildings.

A fireball streaked through the clear morning sky, followed by loud bangs.

President Vladimir Putin said he thanked God no big fragments had fallen in populated areas.

“It was quite extraordinary,” Chelyabinsk resident Polina Zolotarevskaya told BBC News. “We saw a very bright light and then there was a kind of a track, white and yellow in the sky. “

Scientists have played down suggestions that there is any link between the event in the Urals and 2012 DA14, an asteroid expected to race past the Earth on Friday at a distance of just 27,700km (17,200 miles) – the closest ever predicted for an object of that size.

via BBC News – Meteor strike injures hundreds in central Russia.

Stunning new insight into the disposable penis situation

Feb 132013
 

Parental Warning: Click on the link below for explicit photos of sea slug sex.

I read this article before I had coffee this morning. At first I found it deeply disturbing. Disposable penises! Nudibranchs! Simultaneous hermaphrodites! I was unprepared to read the following sentence: “This means they have both male and female sexual organs and can use them both at the same time.” I have read it several times now and am still unprepared. The mind whirls. What happened to Family Values?

The wave of the future? Or an evolutionary niche, possibly a dead end? So far sea slugs have not shown up much on the cultural radar.

But then I was reminded of Plato’s parable of sex and love, the original Ur-beings, half female and half male, each gender facing away from the other (so that group sex was always in the cards). Then they split and we are forever searching for our other half (the current state of things). Are the sea slugs Plato’s Ur-beings, the original happy little COMPLETE souls for whom all is LOVE?

“The genital apparatus is on the right hand side of the body. So two nudibranchs come together and one faces one way and one faces the other way, with the right hand side of their bodies touching. The penis from one fits into the female opening of the other one, and the penis from that one fits into the female opening of the first one, if you see what I mean. They are both donating sperm to the other one.”

Filthy, disgusting, I know. Obviously, sea slugs have not evolved a notable literature because they spend too much time trying to figure out how to have sex.

I am still wincing at the idea of disposable penises. I am going to have bad dreams tonight.

 

Japanese researchers observed the bizarre mating behaviour in a species called Chromodoris reticulata, which is found in the Pacific Ocean. They believe this is the first creature known that can repeatedly copulate with what they describe as a “disposable penis”.

via BBC News – Sea slug’s ‘disposable penis’ surprises.

Once again Texas leads in developing new methods for social engineering population control — fewer mothers mean a lower birthrate

Feb 112013
 

Yes, so we’re behind Croatia. Eventually, in Croatia people will be packed in like tuna while America will once again be a sparsely-populated land of wide open spaces and roaming bison being hunted by billionaire sportsmen. Something to look forward to.

The maternal mortality rate for Texas has quadrupled over the last 15 years to 24.6 out of 100,000 births in 2010, from 6.1 per 100,000 live births in 1996, according to a report last year from the state’s Department of Health Services.

Many counties report no maternal deaths. But two scarcely populated Texan counties report maternal mortality rates of over 900 per 100,000 births, or nearly 1 percent of all births, according to the report. The state also has 15 counties that have maternal mortality rates higher than 100 deaths per 100,000 births and not all of them are rural.

Those numbers are far worse than the national average maternal mortality rate of 21 per 100,000 live births. But our national statistic offers no pride. It leaves the United States at the bottom of the list of developed nations; meaning, for instance, that more new mothers are dying here than in Croatia.

via Pregnant? Watch Your Risks in Great State of Texas | Womens eNews.

It Also, You Know, Makes You Way Sleepy And Miss The Kardashians On TV

Feb 112013
 

The Texas GOP would like to discourage thought. Numéro Cinq doesn’t know which side of the issue to come down on. Arguably critical thought does waste a lot of energy that could be used more productively keeping up with Justin and Kim. And parental authority is sacrosanct, especially, you know, because the parent is bigger…

Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.

via Texas GOP 2012 platform item – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post.

Uh-oh, Spot the Trend?

Feb 112013
 

Soon we’ll be relegated to a backwater transhipment point. The only jobs will be shifting boxes for someone else. We’ll do nothing but watch FOX-News and Kim Kardashian reruns and eat Freedom Fries. Will we be happy? Hell yes.

China has leapfrogged the US to become the world’s biggest trading nation, bringing an end to the US’s post-war dominance of global commerce. The total value of US exports and imports in 2012 was $3.82 trillion (£2.4 trillion), the US Commerce Department has revealed. China’s customs administration has already announced that the country’s total trade last year was worth $3.87 trillion.

via China trade now bigger than US – Telegraph.

Made in America?

Feb 032013
 

With the fertility rate hovering below replacement level, Americans are depending on foreign countries to supply new, um, Americans, just like Apple making cell phones in China, right? Even Americans aren’t made in America any more.

Which leaves us with outsourcing our fertility. We’ve received a massive influx of immigrants from south of the border since the late 1970s. Immigration has kept America from careening over the demographic cliff. Today, there are roughly 38 million people in the U.S. who were born elsewhere. (Two-thirds of them are here legally.) To put that in perspective, consider that just four million babies are born annually in the U.S.

via America’s Baby Bust – WSJ.com.

The End Of Education As We Know It

Feb 012013
 

The median inflation-adjusted household income fell by 7 percent between 2006 and 2011, while the average real tuition at public four-year colleges increased over that period by over 18 percent. Meanwhile, the average tuition for just one year at a four-year private university in 2011 was almost $33,000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. College tuition has increased at twice the rate of health care costs over the past 25 years.

via My Valuable, Cheap College Degree – NYTimes.com.

The South and the way that conversation is headed

Jan 212013
 

Two pieces expressing somewhat the same line of thought from Garry Wills in the New York Review of Books and George Packer in the New Yorker. In these conversations, voices talking at each other in a darkened room, one hears either the emergence of a new historical transformation, a new lib-intellectual consensus, or a faddish argument. Sometimes you just can’t tell with the people who make their livings writing opinions.

dg

Tradition dies hard, hardest among those who cannot admit to the toll it has taken on them. That is why the worst aspects of the South are resurfacing under Obama’s presidency. It is the dignity. That a black should have not merely rights but prominence, authority, and even awe—that is what many Southerners cannot stomach. They would let him ride on the bus, or get into Ivy League schools. But he must be kept from the altar; he cannot perform the secular equivalent of taking the Lord in his hands. It is the dignity.

via Dumb America by Garry Wills | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books.

Now the South is becoming isolated again. Every demographic and political trend that helped to reëlect Barack Obama runs counter to the region’s self-definition: the emergence of a younger, more diverse, more secular electorate, with a libertarian bias on social issues and immigration; the decline of the exurban life style, following the housing bust; the class politics, anathema to pro-business Southerners, that rose with the recession; the end of America’s protracted wars, with cuts in military spending bound to come. The Solid South speaks less and less for America and more and more for itself alone.

via George Packer: The Political Isolation of the American South : The New Yorker.

And now for some good news: 13 gigawatts of New Wind power in US in 2012 | Informed Comment

Jan 212013
 

I could make a joke about all the blustery weather coming out of Congress, but sometimes one should just take the news straight and applaud a little. It’s better than nothing.

dg

Wind alone now accounts for 6% of US electricity generation!

Even the government figures showed that about half of all new energy generation in the US came from renewables in 2012, mostly wind turbines.

The US also put in about 1.5 gigawatts of new solar power last year.

via 13 gigawatts of New Wind power in US in 2012, Renewables Half of all New Energy | Informed Comment.

Even more reasons not to mourn the eventual extinction of the human race

Jan 202013
 

NC wishes we were not all genetically related to these people. Really, what is wrong with the human race? Even worse! One of them is Canadian!

And despite recently going on welfare, it seems that cash-strapped Octomom is once again taking to the stage and pole.

According to sources who told TMZ, the single mother, 38, has signed a deal with a Florida strip club to appear topless on stage.

via More humiliation for Octomom as bankrupt Nadya Suleman ‘signs on to strip topless AGAIN at Miami club’ | Mail Online.

§

Justin Bieber’s been caught with his pants down.

The newly single 18-year-old posted a revealing photo of him mooning on his Instagram on Saturday, then quickly deleted it.

No different from the antics of most boys his age, of course, but before the Biebs could think twice about his revealing snap… the image had been liked 86,000 times.

via Justin Bieber posts picture of his bare bum then deletes it… but not before it’s liked 86,000 times | Mail Online.

US uses lifestyle choices to curb overpopulation; other countries need to catch up

Jan 092013
 

The United States has about six violent deaths per 100,000 residents. None of the 16 other countries included in the review came anywhere close to that ratio. Finland, with slightly more than two violent deaths per 100,000 residents, was closest to the U.S. ranking.

For many years, Americans have been dying at younger ages that people in almost all other wealthy countries. In addition to the impact of gun violence, Americans consume the most calories among peer countries and get involved in more accidents that involve alcohol. The U.S. also suffers higher rates of drug-related deaths, infant mortality and AIDS.

via Gun violence, obesity cut U.S. life expectancy – thestar.com.

Luckily climate change is only happening to other people

Jan 092013
 

Data analyzed on Wednesday by the government Bureau of Meteorology indicated that national heat records had again been set. The average temperature across the country on Tuesday was the highest since statistics began being kept in 1911, at 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit), exceeding a mark set only the day before. Meteorologists have had to add two new color bands to their forecast maps, extending their range up to 129° Fahrenheit.

via Record Heat Fuels Widespread Fires in Australia – NYTimes.com.

Yes, but we still have Viagra…

Jan 072013
 

In the aftermath of the United States’ response to Sputnik, the US had an eruption of innovations: the microprocessor (invented in 1971), the LCD display (1971), the word processor (1972), video games (1972), laser printers (1975), the spreadsheet (1978), personal computers (1981), digital cell phones (1988), the World Wide Web (1990), among others. These items are picked from the inventors’ timeline page at About.com.

What has America invented since 1991? Again, according to About.com, the big items are: the digital answering machine, Web TV, the gas-powered fuel cell, the hybrid car, and, of course, Viagra. According to Professor Robert Gordon of Northwestern University, the world is simply out of ideas; the digital revolution has come and gone, and a technological trough is inevitable.

via Asia Times Online :: The siege of Baghdad and China’s rise.

Party of Gun

Dec 272012
 

Gun ownership has declined over the past 40 years — but almost all of the decrease has come from Democrats. By 2010, according to the General Social Survey, the gun ownership rate among adults that identified as Democrats had fallen to 22 percent. It remained at about 50 percent among Republican adults.

via Party Identity in a Gun Cabinet – NYTimes.com.

America falling behind in the gun violence race

Dec 222012
 

Surprising statistics from the National Post. These are statistics up to 2007. They clearly show that Americans are tops among gun owners but do not get much bang for their buck. Americans murder people with guns (I know this is a dangling modifier, but this early in the morning I can’t figure a way around it) at a rate of 2.9 per 100,000 of population while in Honduras they kill 68.4 per 100,000. Does this mean that Americans can’t shoot as well as people from Honduras? One can only speculate.

Canada is pathetic with a rate of .51. And we all know about the French — in France they manage to kill only .06 people per 100,000 of population, clearly a wan and degraded race.

Gun ownership around the world: Graphic | Graphics | News | National Post.

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