Category: Uncategorized

Create Your Own Visited States Map

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Being the fanboy that I am, I wasn’t going to let the fact that Apple’s unveiling of its new shiny a week ago left me nonplussed stand in the way of an opportunity to take said new shiny out for a test drive.

This time however, I was going to do it the right way. After a crash and burn disaster I experienced with one of the Yosemite betas last year that forced me to wipe everything and reload from scratch (I went into it with my eyes open, so I have no one to blame but myself for loading it onto my main partition), I swore I wasn’t going to run any more…at least not off my main drive.

So says the guy who’s currently running the 10.10.4 beta as his main OS. (But hey, that’s different. Right?)

Anyhow…that being said, at first blush El Capitan is wicked fast; so much faster than Yosemite—even running via USB3.0 on an external SSD. There’s none of the screen lag that permeates Yosemite. Safari pages come up instantly. I’m very impressed. It will be interesting to see how the system matures over the next several months.

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• • • • SNOW
      • bipolar weather
      • Denver drivers
      • cracked, broken, concrete streets
      • suspension-destroying potholes everywhere
      • not being able to keep my car clean for more than 24 hours
      • stop lights that impede the flow of traffic rather than facilitate it
      • Colorado Boulevard
      • the constant smell of burning garbage…I mean pot
      • continually dry, cracked skin
      • being totally winded after climbing two flights of stairs
      • dealing with a horrible commute going to a job I absolutely loathe
      • grooved pavement that makes me think my steering is going out
      • all of my coworkers except two
      • people who don’t know—or don’t care—what a solid stripe of whatever color on a road means
      • tornado watches/warnings
      • Canadian flying rats…er…geese
      • daylight fucking savings time
      • fast food restaurants that have no clue about what “fast” means
      • water at every public restroom faucet being freezing cold
      • the intersection of Abeline and Alameda in Aurora
      • freeway onramps designed like a drag race (no, not the RuPaul kind)
      • traffic lights that have no consistent pattern (sometimes left turn before green, sometimes after) (red light, followed by red light, followed by red light)
      • a stop light at every intersection on a street
      • businesses with only one entrance to their parking lots
      • parking lots where you can’t get from one side or the other, requiring you to exit the parking lot to get back in, or drive in front of the store to get across (Target on Havana, I’m pointing my finger at you)
      • every street being curved and hilly
      • one way streets (yes, i know Phoenix has some, but not like Denver)
      • dreading the arrival of autumn instead of celebrating it

And lastly…working for DISH.

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Source.

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Even though I am an unapologetic fanboy, Apple’s WWDC keynote today—unlike in years past—left me unenthused. I saw nothing that had me screaming, “I need this now.”

I’m glad, however, that this year they aren’t adding another 200 features to OS X. I’m relieved to see them finally focusing on under the hood fixes and improvements. But El Capitan? Really? With the entire state of California to choose from, this is the best name they could come up with?

Whatever. After being plagued with problems big and small in OS X for the last several years, Apple could really use some Snow Leopard stability at this point, and I hope this release finally addresses that. I want to be able to tell people again, “it just works” and actually mean it.

As for iOS, I’m pretty nonchalant. Unlike OS X, there isn’t really a whole lot I’ve found myself getting excited about during its the various iterations. It runs my phone. As long as it works, that’s good enough for me. Unlike some people who are absolutely dependent upon their phones for their entire online existence, I’m still very old school, preferring to do all my serious work on my laptop. Maybe that explains it.

As for the Apple Watch and it’s upcoming OS upgrade, all I can say is I’ve yet to find a single compelling reason to buy one. Perhaps a few years down the road I’ll get one and find myself saying (like I have with other tech) “OH MY GOD, WHY DIDN’T I GET THIS YEARS AGO?!?”

We’ll see.

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“You may not have heard it here first, but hear it now: the 2016 GOP primary season is going to be a mind-killing bloodbath of legendary proportions, primarily because almost everyone involved so far has no business being in a national conversation about the tallest seat in the land, and there is still space on the clown bus waiting to be filled.” ~ William Rivers Pitt, Truthout

Read the whole thing here.

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You go, girl.

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Childhood’s End is one of my all-time favorite sci-fi books. So many other stories have borrowed (or outright stolen) images and ideas that Arthur C. Clarke came up with decades earlier.

It also doesn’t hurt that easy-on-the-eyes Mike Vogel is in a starring role.

I’m looking forward to December!

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Dear Christians,

No disrespect, but…

How could you possibly believe in Christianity?

Forget about the woman from a rib, the walking-talking snake, the burning bush, the man trapped in a whale, Noah’s Ark, and the tower of Babel. I get that not everyone believes that. After all, that is obviously ridiculous. But what about the virgin birth, water to wine, zombies, resurrections, ancient prophecies, and eternal paradise and/or torture? Are those things any less ridiculous?

I mean, what kind of God needs this kind of elaborate scheme to “save” humanity. Do you really believe God sent his holy sperm – I mean spirit – to impregnate a virgin, wait 33 years and then allow his only “begotten” son (whatever that means) to be tortured and die for three days so that he could resurrect him and then demand through the words of flawed humans over the course of 66 poorly written books that people worship him or be tortured for all eternity? What is God’s obsession with blood all about?

Think about it for a minute. If I told you that story you would laugh your ass off and send me to a mental institute. Look, I get that our culture reinforces your belief and that you were taught this stuff all your life from before you could walk and talk, but you were also taught about Santa Claus and now we can all admit that is just a make-believe story. I mean flying reindeer, right? Only a five-year-old would buy that shit — but a virgin woman popping out the son of God? Totally legit.

I’m not talking about belief in a god in general here. I get why someone might find the concept of some vague higher power alluring despite the complete lack of evidence, but when we are talking about the specific beliefs and claims of Christianity, we have to take a moment and really think about just how ridiculous those beliefs are.

Can we all just admit that the Bible is fiction and move on with our lives?

I mean, how is it that we are entertaining a serious debate about whether there was a historical magic man/deity? We might as well be debating the historicity of Hercules or Darth Vader.

I’m not angry at you or your imaginary deity; I’m just confused and maybe even a little frustrated. Just imagine one day waking up in a world where everyone worshiped Voldemort and quoted the Harry Potter books as if they were historical and inerrant. One might point out that they are obviously fictional books written by J.K. Rawling, but believers would be quick to claim that she wrote them while under Harry Potter’s spell and that these books were absolutely true. The Ministry of Magic just made her think that she was writing fiction in order to hide the world of magic from Muggles. Whatever criticism, plot hole, argument, or point against the “Truth” of the Harry Potter books one come up with, the believers will have some sort of rationalization for them.

If you met one person who believed that, you could easily dismiss them as crazy but when millions or billions of people believe it, then what? Does it make it any less crazy? I don’t think it does.

This is the case with Christianity. It is a crazy belief system that simply does not match up with the evidence we see every day. If the God of the Bible existed, he wouldn’t need you to tell everyone about him. He could do his own damn dirty work. There would be no need for threats of eternal Hell or promises of eternal paradise. God wouldn’t need to sacrifice his own son or anyone else. If God wanted people “saved” from himself, then poof… done. There would be no need to shed holy blood or for any elaborate schemes.

There would be no hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, or diseases. And if they did exist, they would only affect those God wanted to punish. We certainly wouldn’t see believers and non-believers affected at exactly the same rate. Please face reality, your religion isn’t true, the Bible is fiction, and God is imaginary. Then we can move past all this ancient superstition and start working toward making a brighter future for everyone. Just think about it. Thanks.

Source.

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Last night Ben and I saw Bianca Del Rio’s perform her Rolodex of Hate at the Paramount Theater. It was fabulous. I can’t recall the last time I laughed so hard. The girl is brilliant. It’s no wonder she won the last season of Drag Race, and why this season’s contestants all seem so…unremarkable.

If you have a chance to see her in person, by all means make the effort. You won’t be disappointed.

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Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made a statement on Facebook Friday addressing the revelations that eldest son Josh Duggar admitted to sexually molesting “girls,” presumably his own sisters, as a teenager.

The former Arkansas governor largely defended the actions of the family since the abuse and said he wanted to “affirm” support for the family. “Josh’s actions when he was an underage teen are as he described them himself, ‘inexcusable,’ but that doesn’t mean ‘unforgivable,’” Huckabee’s statement said. The Duggar family endorsed former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum in the 2012 election, but have backed Huckabee for the Republican presidential nomination this time around.

Huckabee continued, “No purpose whatsoever is served by those who are now trying to discredit Josh or his family by sensationalizing the story. Good people make mistakes and do regrettable and even disgusting things. The reason that the law protects disclosure of many actions on the part of a minor is that the society has traditionally understood something that today’s blood-thirsty media does not understand—that being a minor means that one’s judgement is not mature.”

(more)

UPDATE: Absolutely Fucking Unbelievable. And the judge was appointed by Huckabee.

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Although to be perfectly fair, this image pretty much sums up any candidate and their money source these days…

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Just fuck you.

This is what we came home to. Snow. On May Ninth.

63 more days.

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The wheels are in motion!

We have secured a new residence in Phoenix. Now all I need is a job.

T-minus 65 days!

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From Right Wing Watch:

After warning that a Supreme Court decision striking down bans on same-sex marriage could lead to a civil war, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson took to WorldNetDaily yesterday to warn that “barring a miracle, the family that has existed since antiquity will likely crumble, presaging the fall of Western civilization itself.”

Dobson wrote that the “homosexual activist movement” is bent on “overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia” and turning the U.S. into Sodom and Gomorrah.

“Pastors may have to officiate at same-sex marriages, and they could be prohibited from preaching certain passages of Scripture,” Dobson wrote. “Those who refuse to comply will not only be threatened legally, but many will be protested and picketed by activists. Perhaps this is a worst-case scenario, but maybe not. Prison is also a possibility.”

I do not recall a time when the institutions of marriage and the family have faced such peril, or when the forces arrayed against them were more formidable or determined. Barring a miracle, the family that has existed since antiquity will likely crumble, presaging the fall of Western civilization itself. This is a time for concerted prayer, divine wisdom and greater courage than we have ever been called upon to exercise.

For more than 50 years, the homosexual activist movement has sought to implement a master plan that has had as its centerpiece the destruction or redesign of the family. Many of these objectives have largely been realized, including widespread support of the gay lifestyle, discrediting of Scriptures that condemn homosexuality or sexual immorality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, inclusion of gays and lesbians in all branches of the military, granting of special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia, indoctrinating children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies. By promoting what is known as LGBT, we must remember that the “B” stands for bisexuality. That would include acceptance of sexual relations between both genders in groups and among every category of sexual expression outside the bonds of marriage. Now the proponents of LGBT seek to legalize gay and lesbian marriage, which could mean anything or nothing in a few years.

…

Admittedly, there have been various societies in history where homosexuality has flourished, including the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, in ancient Greece and in the Roman Empire. None of these civilizations survived. Furthermore, even where sexual perversion was tolerated or flourished, the institution of marriage continued to be honored in law and custom. Only in the last few years has what is called “gay marriage” been given equal status with biblical male-female unions. In fact, to date only 18 countries in the world recognize the legitimacy of same-sex marriage. America appears on the verge of becoming No. 19. God help us if we throw the divine plan for humankind on the ash heap of history.
…
Let’s get to the bottom line. If the U.S. Supreme Court redefines marriage to include same-sex unions, I guarantee you that it will not be the end of the matter. An avalanche of court cases will be filed on related issues that can’t even be imagined today. Here are a few that we can foresee:

1. Religious liberty will be assaulted from every side. You can be certain that conservative churches will be dragged into court by the hundreds. Their leaders will be required to hire people who don’t share the beliefs of their denominations and constituents. Pastors may have to officiate at same-sex marriages, and they could be prohibited from preaching certain passages of Scripture. Those who refuse to comply will not only be threatened legally, but many will be protested and picketed by activists. Perhaps this is a worst-case scenario, but maybe not. Prison is also a possibility.

2. Christian businesses and ministries will be made to dance to the government’s tune. We’ve all seen examples of photographers, bakeries and florists being required to serve at gay weddings, on penalty of closure or bankruptcy. This kind of legal oppression is coming all across the nation.

3. Christian colleges may be unable to teach scriptural views of marriage. Any nonprofit Christian organization that opposes same-sex unions, including our own, will likely lose its tax-exempt status. Many will be forced to close their doors.

I’m sure the Downfall of Western Civilization will come as a surprise to Canada, Mexico, and most of Europe.

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May the Fourth Be With You.

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