In a car. I think they do this with motorcycles all the time. Heck, they do it with bicycles.

Still. It's very neat.

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Posted by: Ace at 09:56 AM | Comments (98)
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No one bothered to report it.

The CBO now estimates that the subsidies, which are to be offered through exchanges beginning in 2014, will cost 29 percent more than the CBO initially projected in 2010. The projected 10-year cost has increased by $233 billion.

via @davidhogberg

Posted by: Ace at 09:42 AM | Comments (124)
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Their teaser, which reveals nothing except for the Feb 20th date, below.

steve_in_hb just gave me the background he'd gathered. The plan is for a rollout this year (mostly likely by Christmas, of course, if not Thanksgiving). The new chip will be more PC-like (and more XBOX-like) which should reduce the PS3 penalty for development -- that is, as the PS3 took a lot more work to develop for, fewer games were developed for it; as the PS4 will be more like developing for the XBOX or the PC, there should be more games converted.

Sony is still playing with the price point but apparently they've said they're thinking about going with a price about 25% under the PS3's price at its original launch (which, if you remember, was controversially high for a console -- I think just under $600). Some blog guessed at around $450. Which is still pretty high, considering you can now get the PS3 for, basically, $250 (assuming you want the $50 game they package it with).

Eh, meh. Uncharted and the Arkham series are barely in the concepting phase so none of this affects me.

Oh: The controller has a new wrinkle. In the middle of it is a thumb-operated touch-pad, like on notebook computer. That could be useful. I always liked the PC's mouse-and-button combination better than the console-type controllers. But any touch-pad will be very small. I wonder if it will overly difficult to use. more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:40 AM | Comments (256)
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I say bizarre but not "wrong" -- Obama did, after all, win reelection, in about the same range the economocentric models predicted.

The idea is that people don't vote on absolute numbers (8% unemployment) but rather on change/directionality of numbers (10% to 8%).

Apparently they are not sophisticated enough to take that to the next level -- figuring out the average (natural) rate of growth and judging a president harshly if his figures nominally change in the right direction but to a lesser extent than they would have under virtually any other hypothetical president.

But then, people are dumb and getting dumber. It's Science (TM).

Ever canÂ’t help but think youÂ’re surrounded by idiots? A leading scientist at Stanford University thinks he has the answer, and the bad news is things arenÂ’t likely to get any better.

Dr. Gerald Crabtree, a geneticist at Stanford, has published a study that he conducted to try and identify the progression of modern manÂ’s intelligence. As it turns out, however, Dr. CrabtreeÂ’s research led him to believe that the collective mind of mankind has been on more or a less a downhill trajectory for quite some time.

...

“I would wager that if an average citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our colleagues and companions, with a good memory, a broad range of ideas, and a clear-sighted view of important issues. Furthermore, I would guess that he or she would be among the most emotionally stable of our friends and colleagues. I would also make this wager for the ancient inhabitants of Africa, Asia, India or the Americas, of perhaps 2000–6000 years ago. The basis for my wager comes from new developments in genetics, anthropology, and neurobiology that make a clear prediction that our intellectual and emotional abilities are genetically surprisingly fragile, and that a situation in which intelligence is not constantly being favored over stupidity results, within a span of a century, in David Frum.”

I added that last part, after "fragile."

His basic idea -- if I understand it right -- is that man formerly faced life-or-death situations an awful lot, and intelligence played a role in whether he survived. Thus, intelligence tended to become more prevalent in a population, and stupidity less prevalent.

And now that our world is idiot proof (well, nothing's idiot proof, but more idiot proof at least) populations' collective average IQ is on the fall.

Thanks for the Stupid Link to @tkarpis

Posted by: Ace at 08:04 AM | Comments (318)
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See THIS is exactly what the GOP and conservatives need now...the rehashing of nut job Mark Sandford's history.

Sanford, who you'll recall famously "hiked the Appalachian Trail" which is as we all know is a euphemism for "cut out on my wife, kids an the state I'm Governor of to screw my mistress in Argentina". I think it makes more sense in Spanish but there you have it.

With Tim Scott's appointment to the Senate, Sanford sees this as a golden opportunity to get back on the public payroll. Some, including Erick Erickson, are even supporting this ridiculous notion.

I really don't care much about Sanford's marital infidelities. Stuff happens in life and people fail. I get that and I hope they and those they hurt can put their lives back together. What I have ZERO interest in rewarding or forgiving is a gross dereliction of public duty. Sanford wasn't some one in 435 member of the House when he had his personal crisis, he was the chief executive of a state. For better or worse, that's a 24/7/365 on call thing. You can't simply disappear and render yourself unavailable. That type of behavior permanently disqualifies from holing any office of public trust again. End of story.

Well it would be the end of the story except people seem to think having a "fiscal conservative" in office is the end all and be all. As Gabe pointed out on Twitter the other day, the notion that Sanford is a fiscal conservative is undermined by the fact he used tax funds to underwrite his dalliances. Sanford, now on a public rehab tour says he didn't do anything wrong and just paid the money to make it go away. Sure.

Then of course there's the politics of this. How great an advocate can Sanford be for fiscal conservatism when he's always going to be "that guy"? Sometimes a messenger is so flawed he hurts the message.

Sanford is right that people make mistakes and forgiveness is a noble thing. You can forgive a man his sins but you don't have to validate him or his choices with election to the House of Representatives.

Posted by: DrewM at 06:26 AM | Comments (417)
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• Remeber You Stupid Right Wingers, They're Not Trying To Take Your Guns Or Turn This Into A Police State
  
• Fresh Off Another Vacation, News Story Asks If Obama Should Get A Raise
  
• Frothing Racist Alec Baldwin Could Face Hate Crime Charges
  
• Another Day, Another Crack In Obamacare
  
• 50 Million Dollar Diamond Heist
  
• David Frum On Guns
  
• Glenn Reynold: Due Process When Everything Is A Crime
  
• US Business Hit Out At Obamacare Costs
  
• Republicans About To Fold Like A Card Table On Obersturmführer Hagel
  
• I'm Sure This Colorado Lawmaker's Statement Will Get The Akin Treatment
  
• The Federal Government Is Subsidizing Loans So Kids Can Go To Overpriced Colleges To Learn This Kind Of Stuff
  
• Conservatives, Libertarians, And Herding Cats
  
• Hard Hitting News Anchor Hits His Wife
  
• What's News And What Isn't
  
• Our Incorrigible Media
  
• Russian Meteor Largest In 100 Years
  
• EPA Releases Heavily Redacted E-mails From Lisa Jackson's Private Account
  
• Egyptians In Mad Scramble For Dwindling Dollars
  
• Non-Puffy Faced Tea Party Challenger To McConnel Emerging
  
• You Couldn't Pay Us To Swim In A Chinese River
  
• DOJ Researches Conclude AWB Won't Cut Gun Violence
  
• New York Teacher's Pension Fund Divests From Gun Companies
  
• Utterly Routine Horrors In Pakistan
  
• CNN Reporter Gets Schooled By Carnival Cruise Victim
  

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:03 AM | Comments (228)
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Seriously? Really?

Nancy Reagan in her prime is more hittable than Michelle Obama. I don't doubt the veracity of this polling, I do however question the kind of cachet BuzzFeed is trying to ummm...nurture with it.

Doods, Perez Hilton got the trashy turf staked out already. Quit while you're ahead.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 01:04 AM | Comments (272)
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Sorry - no internet until just a few minutes ago which means the AoSHQ Premium members get shortchanged again. :-(

The rest of you freeloaders get the usual slop though.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:29 PM | Comments (577)
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Stupid with a side-order of Women Are Too Paranoid About Sexual Assault.

“It’s why we have call boxes, it’s why we have safe zones, it’s why we have the whistles. Because you just don’t know who you’re gonna be shooting at. And you don’t know if you feel like you’re gonna be raped, or if you feel like someone’s been following you around or if you feel like you’re in trouble when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun and you pop … pop around at somebody.”

We have safe zones.

Ah.

You see, ladies? If you just could keep in the Designated Zones, and not spend too much time in the Authorized Rape Zone, everything would just be jake.

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Posted by: Ace at 05:01 PM | Comments (475)
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Is Social Media Breeding Monsters?

There are days when I dread getting onto Facebook or Twitter. As someone who monitors a very wide variety of feeds for news and information that are outside of just my own select follows, I probably see more than I'd like to. It often devolves out there into a sewage pit of trolls, infighting, harassment, stalking, crime and just generally repulsive behavior. But there are plenty of positives about social media, and it's up to us to be vigilant and help make sure that those positives continue to shine through.

I contributed my thoughts to that, here.

How I hate the endless point-scoring on the internet. I don't mind argument -- argument is about something greater than self. When I knock the Tea Party, and someone argues with me, we're actually discussing something other than ourselves.

But when someone trolls in to play the point-scoring game.... When it's obvious all that's going on is some idiot seeking to prove, in the space of one comment, the perpetual topic A of the Internet -- I'm better than you -- it infuriates me.

I imagine you're not fans of it, either.

This is so obvious that it hardly needs stating, but: The Internet is egalitarian... and that is both its boon and its bane. The downside of the internet's egalitarianism is that people who have no social peers in their own lives -- because, most likely, they are insane or too repulsive in character to attract real-life friends -- flock to the internet. They've alienated everyone they've ever known in real-life; now it's time to try out their off-putting schtick on the millions of new potential victims at their fingertips.

Posted by: Ace at 02:45 PM | Comments (332)
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