"Good riddance, DST" edition.

(For the most part. Some sites still cling to it)

Posted by: andy at 04:00 AM | Comments (224)
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Yesterday kicked off Extra Life 2013, where people get to the Twitch for gaming marathons to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network. Can't believe how fast this thing has grown in just a few years. Will be interesting in seeing how much they raise this year, hopefully $5 million plus.

Find a stream, watch and donate

stuff below more...

Posted by: Gang of Gaming Morons! at 11:52 AM | Comments (101)
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A Happy Family

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to AoSHQ's prestigious Sunday Morning Book Thread.

If It Walks Like A Duck

I've become a big fan of the reality TV series Duck Dynasty, which airs on A&E. Unlike the harder-edged TV shows I watch, DD is light-hearted, funny, and, what I like best, it is a very conservative show featuring some very conservative men and women and the conservative values come through very strongly. Each episode concludes with the entire family all together at the table saying grace over the evening meal, while Willie, the main DD character and CEO of the company, narrates the lesson to be learned from the episode. It's cheesy and sappy and corny and I enjoy it very much.

The Robertson clan has put together quite a successful merchandising business based around the show, including not only their signature duck calls, but also DVDs, clothing, condiments, coffee mugs, posters, and, of course, books.

In last week's book thread, moronette mama winger tipped me on the upcoming publication of Miss Kay's Duck Commander Kitchen: Faith, Family, and Food--Bringing Our Home to Your Table , which I wish I had known about a couple of weeks ago so I could have included it in the cookbook thread. Which should go well with their original cookbook, The Commander's Kitchen.

Do an Amazon book search for 'Duck Dynasty' and you'll get a ton of stuff. Like, for example, Si-cology 1: Tales and Wisdom from Duck Dynasty's Favorite Uncle. Or Happy, Happy, Happy: My Life and Legacy as the Duck Commander by family patriarch Phil Robertson.

I like the show and all, but I don't know if I like it enough to buy any of the books, or merchandise.

However...

I watched some interviews on Youtube with the DD cast and was pleasantly surprised to discover that they are serious Christians, and some of them even have ministerial training. This gets muted somewhat in the show, but comes through very strongly in the interviews. So along these lines there's Faith in the Duck Blind by Jase Robertson and The Duck Commander Devotional by Alan Robertson, the one brother who is not on the show.

Here's something funny: The 'Duck Dynasty' search on Amazon will bring up Uncle Si's Secret, a mystery novel about a completely different, and completely fictional, Uncle Si, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Duck Dynasty. So a number of one-star reviews are complaints from purchasers who didn't read the blurb and who are angry because they thought they were getting a Duck Dynasty book.

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:20 AM | Comments (111)
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This is something I've remarked on in comments previously. Its possible to have too much information if the retention selection criteria are too loose.

... In a world of ballooning communications, the agency is sometimes simply overwhelmed. In 2008, the N.S.A.’s Middle East and North Africa group set about updating its Sigint collection capabilities. The “ambitious scrub” of selectors — essentially search terms — cut the number of terms automatically searched from 21,177 to 7,795 and the number of messages added to the agency’s Pinwale database from 850,000 a day to 450,000 a day.

The reduction in volume was treated as a major achievement, opening the way for new collection on Iranian leadership and Saudi and Syrian diplomats, the report said...

***Put stuff here about combinatorial explosion
***Put stuff here about curse of dimensionality

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 07:01 AM | Comments (146)
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...but mostly because its getting lonely out on this quivering little twig and the ground looks far away.What a difference a week of media pummeling makes, eh?

The ValJar tweet of

"FACT: Nothing in #Obamacare forces people out of their health plans."

Pre-ONT Open Thread

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 05:02 PM | Comments (173)
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"he's a real piece of work" is the description that leaps to mind

One of the key things you need to know, is he has trouble standing up while holding a football. This can happen when there's a sudden unexpected gravity shift. more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 02:41 PM | Comments (177)
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This old 2005 vintage Ace post is worth a re-read.

The OSM notion of which Ace wrote back in 2005 morphed into something else with the rise of blogs, Breitbart, etc, but it does seem like alt-media has gotten way more respect and ad dollars since 2005, and has seen a number of its personalities break into old-media gaining wider audience (ex. Malkin)

The right side of alt-media was respected enough that Axlerod sent swarms of trolls out to attack it. When you took fire from the Whitehouse itself, you were over the target. Trolls, annoying as they are, mean you're HAVING AN EFFECT. You ARE worth attacking. They validate you.

The MSM and politicians have always dismissed new-media as a bunch of yappy ankle biters, but now, in 2013, they're doing it with pretty bloody ankles.

Alternative commentary is still our stock in trade, but original reporting is happening (ex Zombie, shutdown theater, etc). People are out there digging deep into things that never got dug into before - dry IG reports, and all manner of other government documents that were selectively filtered by old-media previously. Leakage of previously sequestered stories has risen from a trickle to a small but steady stream.

We're still evolving daily. Its been a wild ride. It promises to get wilder. more...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 01:12 PM | Comments (176)
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For those lucky East Coast morons and ettes who are early birds, a partial solar eclipse will greet you at sunrise tomorrow:

Posted by: CAC at 11:05 AM | Comments (80)
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Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour before you hit the rack as daylight savings ends tomorrow.

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Posted by: CDR M at 06:20 PM | Comments (714)
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First weekend in November!

Top ten games today, all times EST (don't forget to set your clocks back an hour unless you're in Arizona, y'all have to set yours forward an hour.)

(4) Ohio State at Purdue, 12pm
( Clemson at Virginia, 3pm
Tennessee at (9) Missouri, 7pm
(7) Miami (Fl.) at (3) Florida State, 8pm

College pickem update from @MikeTalley73

1. Jay in Ames - 97
2. Knightbrigade - 93
3. BigBoy - 90
4. Boyz in da Hoodies - 89
5. Syrias You Guys - 87
6. Gator Nation - 86
7. WVhokie - 85
8. MikeTalley73 - 84
9. The Douchebag Collective - 83
10. Murph - 83

Have a great weekend morons!

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 08:22 AM | Comments (77)
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