Classic Sexism

Buzzfeed has a contribution of several vintage ads that are all sexist in some way or another. Most all of them are offensive, but I have to say I found this one kind of funny...

Reading Habits

Slate shows us the latest issues of Time Magazine in 4 different places, and asks if Time thinks Americans are stupid.

It might be that Time thinks we are stupid. But from these two examples, it certainly also seems that Time might just think we couldn't care less about anything happening outside the U.S. of A.

Maybe That Moon Base is a Good Idea

Rick Santorum is deeply and sincerely stupid:

“When you have a worldview that elevates the Earth above man and says that we can’t take those resources because we’re going to harm the Earth; by things that frankly are just not scientifically proven, for example, the politicization of the whole global warming debate — this is all an attempt to, you know, to centralize power and to give more power to the government,” Santorum said.

Fortunately, if we do harm the Earth then we can just.... damn.

Where Entitlement Spending Goes

The next time your right wing blowhard uncle, or co-worker, or buddy tells you that the problem with the U.S.A. is that we have created a welfare state where everyone is dependent on the Feds and has no motivation to work, you can show them this chart:

For the record, the 10% left is about 5% of the total federal budget. Please share with said blowhards.
(via Kevin Drum)

Gulf of America

I admit, I am a sucker for stories like this:

A lawmaker in Mississippi is pushing to change the name of “the body of water located directly south” of the state, the Gulf of Mexico, to the “Gulf of America.” 

State Rep. Steve Holland (D) has introduced HB 150, which says that “for all official purposes within the state of Mississippi, the body of water located directly south of Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties shall be known as the ‘Gulf Of America’; and for related purposes.”

The Gulf of America, birthplace of Freedom Fries.

A Warning

If you wake up sometime in the next week with missing patches of skin, or bleeding eyes, or your brain draining from your ear; something from this project has probably escaped and made its way around the world:

On Sunday, February 5 at approximately 11:25 am ET, a Russian drill broke through to a prehistoric subglacial lake located more than 2 miles below the surface of Antarctica, Russian state news outlet Ria Novosti reported... 

...Even more exciting is the prospect that the lake contains perfectly preserved or independently evolved life forms, likely microbial, giving hope to the idea that similar or analogous lifeforms could be found in outer space under the frozen lakes on Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus.

What could possibly go wrong when humans come into contact with microbial lifeforms that haven't been in our environment in the entirety of our existence? Probably nuthin.

Friday Song Day

This may not last, but I think I may make an effort at sharing some good music on Fridays.

Let's start with a song I have been listening to all week. It's by a couple of Swedes that go by First Aid Kit, and it is called Lion's Roar.

Depraved Indifference

As Mitt Romney recently reminded us, corporations are people too. That includes the NBA. So I am wondering whether the league, in possession of its personhood, could be charged with depraved indifference over what it did earlier this season to the New Orleans Hornets. To review, David Stern and company allowed a group of jealous and petty owners to block a three-way trade between the Hornets, Rockets, and Lakers that would have put Chris Paul in L.A.

In damage control mode, they then approved a trade between the Clippers and Hornets that caused a whole host of interesting things to happen, but none of those included anything happening in New Orleans. Bill Simmons covered this in a recent column by citing a reader from New Orleans who said this:

"Eric Gordon, our main get in the CP3 trade to the Clips, has played two games (TWO!) this season and may not be back until mid-March. He also turned down an extension, making him a restricted free agent come July. Are the Hornets now covered in the blood of the murdered Lakers-Rockets deal? Has David Stern effectively killed basketball in New Orleans?"

And yes, Eric Gordon has played only two games. But to understand the whole magnitude of what has happened, let's look at the results this season from what the Hornets would have received in the scuttled trade and what they ultimately received.

Denied Trade
Luis Scola
14.6ppg, 5.6rpg, 22 games

Kevin Martin
21.0ppg, 3.3rpg, 2.7apg, 20 games

Goran Dragic
7.9ppg, 3.7apg, 22 games

2012 First Round Pick (Knicks pick)
Currently Pick #15

Accepted Trade
Eric Gordon
21.0ppg, 5.0rpg, 2.0apg, 2 games

Chris Kaman
9.2 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.2 bpg, 17 games

Al Farouq-Aminu
4.7ppg, 4.3 rpg, 22 games

2012 First Round Pick (T-Wolves pick)
Currently Pick #12

I'm not even sure these numbers tell the whole story because the Rockets have been far better than the Hornets. The Rockets are 12-10 to the Hornets 4-18. So it isn't like Aminu and Kaman aren't getting opportunites to put up better numbers. If basketball folds in New Orleans, this trade will be the bullet that does it. And it won't be hard to find the suspect that fired it.