The Free Lance

The Late Late Show Video - 5/22/2013

Fri, 24 May 2013 10:33:00 -0400

The Late Late Show Video - 5/22/2013:

Craig welcomes actor Stephen Fry. (TV-14 D, L)

Great, lucid conversation about life and morality. Starts around 12 min. mark.

Bank's Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills

Fri, 24 May 2013 08:02:14 -0400

Bank's Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills:

Citigroup’s ideas were reflected in more than 70 lines of one 85-line bill.

Sure, makes perfect sense. What could go wrong?

Cop Charged in Firebombing of NJ Captain's Home

Fri, 24 May 2013 08:00:05 -0400

Cop Charged in Firebombing of NJ Captain's Home:

A New Jersey police officer is accused of firebombing a police captain’s home where the captain was inside with his wife, two children and elderly mother, prosecutors said.

Thin blue lie.

"Uh, I don’t have anybody to send out there,” the 911 dispatcher told the woman. “You know,..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 17:18:40 -0400

““Uh, I don’t have anybody to send out there,” the 911 dispatcher told the woman. “You know, obviously, if he comes inside the residence and assaults you, can you ask him to go away? Do you know if he’s intoxicated or anything?””

- 911 Dispatcher Tells Woman About To Be Sexually Assaulted There Are No Cops To Help Her Due To Budget Cuts « CBS Seattle (via paleolibertarian)

Yumblr? What Some Of Tumblr’s Best Bloggers Think About Yahoo’s $1.1 Billion Purchase

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:36:27 -0400

Yumblr? What Some Of Tumblr’s Best Bloggers Think About Yahoo’s $1.1 Billion Purchase:

hipsterlibertarian:

Mediaite was generous enough to count me on that list, and here’s what I said:

I definitely find the news concerning. I mean, there’s a reason I haven’t visited Yahoo since about 2002: It’s incredibly busy and outdated. If Yahoo were a place instead of a website, I’d imagine it as a nursing home. If I get an email from a Yahoo email address, I assume (correctly, as a recent study showed) that they’re probably older and not very internet literate.

Tumblr, by contrast, is streamlined, user-friendly, and appealing to a young demographic. It doesn’t try to be all things to all people. If Yahoo tries — even a little bit — to remake Tumblr in its own image, I don’t see that as a potential improvement.

That said, I’m certainly not leaving Tumblr any time soon. The network is established enough that I think it could take quite a beating from Yahoo before people would abandon the followings and friendships they’ve worked to build. I just hope that beating doesn’t happen.

This contribution to the piece was fantastic:

As I’ve patiently tried to explain Mayer’s legion of fanboys, Tumblr is essentially a free hosting service with very user-friendly scripts riding on top of HTML — no tagging experience required.

This means that end-users control content. Period. I even have a few Google ad scripts rattling around, when I remember to update them.

Yahoo cannot just “insert ads” into feeds — they don’t control the feeds. Then you have precisely the compensation issue you’ve outlined. What — exactly — will Tumblr users get in return for monetizing their traffic for Yahoo?

I could go on and on, but the disconnects should be obvious to anyone reading this — you are a Tumblr user afterall!

"With an assist from an overly ambitious psychiatry, all human difference is being transmuted into..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 15:25:00 -0400

“

With an assist from an overly ambitious psychiatry, all human difference is being transmuted into chemical imbalance meant to be treated with a handy pill. Turning difference into illness was among the great strokes of marketing genius accomplished in our time.

All the great characters in myths, novels, and plays have endured the test of time precisely because they drift so colorfully away from the mean. Do we really want to put Oedipus on the couch, give Hamlet a quick course of behavior therapy, start Lear on antipsychotics?

”

- Allen Frances, chairman of the task force behind the previous edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, on the new DSM.

richkidsofinstagram: LV madness!!! to st barth #toomuchluggage...

Wed, 22 May 2013 23:14:10 -0400

richkidsofinstagram:

LV madness!!! to st barth #toomuchluggage #stbarth #louisvuitton by alexmintzberg

The Strange Case of Ibragim Todashev

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:53:56 -0400

Very simple — someone needs to get fired.

You do not so botch an investigation into the Boston bombing that your lead winds up dead. Ever.

But here we are.

"He called me a whiner. He’s probably right. But that’s also probably the first thing he’s told you..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 15:17:37 -0400

““He called me a whiner. He’s probably right. But that’s also probably the first thing he’s told you guys that’s true in 15 years. I know what he’s like. You guys are finding out.””

- Sergio Garcia continues to publicly blast Tiger Woods (via sbnation)
Nice.

College in Georgia Sues for Right to Post Billboard in Tennessee

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:22:00 -0400

College in Georgia Sues for Right to Post Billboard in Tennessee:

Exactly the sort of scrap you’d expect to see as the college cartel begins to break down. Remember, colleges want you to think there is scarcity. There is not — and the excess capacity will soon start to contract despite state action to prevent it.

"I was a prisoner of war in the Second World War. If the Japanese couldn’t kill me, no one else..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:21:03 -0400

“I was a prisoner of war in the Second World War. If the Japanese couldn’t kill me, no one else can. That’s my philosophy. If something is unfair, I will fight to the death.”

- 83-year-old great-grandmother Marianne Chiffelle on being targeted by the IRS due to her conservative political activities in New Mexico.

nineinchnails: Nine Inch Nails: Halo Thirteen: The Day The...

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:26:39 -0400

nineinchnails:

Nine Inch Nails: Halo Thirteen: The Day The World Went Away. Single cover + alternate covers, designed by Robert Hales. 1999.

"Laws are like cobwebs which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through."

Tue, 21 May 2013 08:25:56 -0400

“Laws are like cobwebs which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.”

- Jonathan Swift (via hipsterlibertarian)

Behold, the breathtaking stupidity of the modern American TV...

Tue, 21 May 2013 07:27:00 -0400

Behold, the breathtaking stupidity of the modern American TV reporter and crew. The pointless nattering, the idiotic questions, then having to be asked for help. Not a human reaction among them. Shameful. But common.

Damn.

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:04:32 -0400

Damn.

Nicely done.

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:27:36 -0400

Nicely done.

"Everyone, I’m elated to tell you that Tumblr will be joining Yahoo. Before touching on how awesome..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:06:12 -0400

“Everyone, I’m elated to tell you that Tumblr will be joining Yahoo.
Before touching on how awesome this is, let me try to allay any concerns: We’re not turning purple. Our headquarters isn’t moving. Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. And our mission – to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve – certainly isn’t changing.
So what’s new? Simply, Tumblr gets better faster. The work ahead of us remains the same – and we still have a long way to go! – but with more resources to draw from.
Yahoo is the original Internet company, and Marissa and her team share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. I couldn’t be more excited to have her help. We also share a vision for Tumblr’s business that doesn’t compromise the community and product we love. Plus both our logos end with punctuation!
As always, everything that Tumblr is, we owe to this unbelievable community. We won’t let you down.
Fuck yeah,
David”

- Clip-n-save, from David Karp. Remember this when the hentai Tumblrs start going poof.

Rome protest turns up heat on new PM Letta

Sun, 19 May 2013 13:04:26 -0400

Rome protest turns up heat on new PM Letta:

ROME (Reuters) - Thousands of people protested in Rome on Saturday against austerity policies and high unemployment, urging new Prime Minister Enrico Letta to focus on creating jobs to help pull the country

Of course, there is no such thing as “austerity,” just the banks soaking up any and all available credit to balance past bad bets, leaving nothing for any actual productive investment. No productivity, no velocity of money, no credit expansion. Keep printing, you are doing nothing.

EU to ban olive oil jugs from restaurants

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:15:17 -0400

EU to ban olive oil jugs from restaurants:

The European Union is to ban olive oil jugs and dipping bowls from restaurant tables in a move described by one of Britain’s top cooks as authoritarian and damaging to artisanal food makers.

WTF? Can’t even wrap my head around this one.

"The French holistic, psycho-social approach also allows for considering nutritional causes for..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:18:18 -0400

“The French holistic, psycho-social approach also allows for considering nutritional causes for ADHD-type symptoms—specifically the fact that the behavior of some children is worsened after eating foods with artificial colors, certain preservatives, and/or allergens. Clinicians who work with troubled children in this country—not to mention parents of many ADHD kids—are well aware that dietary interventions can sometimes help a child’s problem. In the United States, the strict focus on pharmaceutical treatment of ADHD, however, encourages clinicians to ignore the influence of dietary factors on children’s behavior.”

- Marilyn Wedge, Ph.D.