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Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

G’day, GN!

Heh, Mac.

Anyone else noticed that a half gallon of ice cream is now 1.5 quarts?

Discovered that recently after having not purchased any in at least 18 months. Also beware products touting “New Look, Same Great Taste!”

Just Sven
Editor
8 years ago

Hey Fatwa!

If we just switched over to the metric system, we could get ripped off with smaller measures of everything and never even notice.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist
Reply to  Just Sven

Hai, Sven --

That’s marketing genius!

Just Sven
Editor
8 years ago

Indeed, it’s insights such as that that makes me a valuable contributor at the greatest place to work ever.

For some reason this morning, I woke up thinking about a book I read like 20 years ago: The End of Work by Jeremy Rifkin. Checking Amazon, I see he has a new one out: The Zero Marginal Cost Society

“In The Zero Marginal Cost Society, New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin describes how the emerging Internet of Things is speeding us to an era of nearly free goods and services, precipitating the meteoric rise of a global Collaborative Commons and the eclipse of capitalism.”

The”Internet of Things”???? WTF???? Apparently that’s a “real” thing that learned people discuss. Gee, I need to get out more.

But free goods and services sound good. I can now face Tuesday with a happy optimistic outlook knowing that utopia is near.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

“The Internet Of Things” seems to consist, in part, of web-enabled kitchen appliances. I don’t want -- or need -- my freaking fridge telling me I’m almost out of eggs. Or to be able to turn the oven on from my phone.

Especially as that also provides a way for some Latvian hacker to turn up the fridge’s temperature from Riga. Or for the kid down the street I yelled at to get off my lawn to burn the house down by turning on the broiler when I’m not home.

Just Sven
Editor
8 years ago

Don’t be a Luddite, Fatwa: embrace the Internet of Things! How can you be against free stuff?

Just Sven
Editor
8 years ago

Over at AoS in the ONT, there’s a video of Geraldo Rivera and Greg Gutfeld arguing over gun control.

Geraldo is an idiot which makes him amusing, but with all the hoopla again over gun control after last week’s killings, I was looking at the murder stats for 2013. About 25% of all murders in America are committed by weapons other than firearms--so if you eliminated all guns--and therefore all murders committed by people with guns--our murder rate would still exceed 95% of the rest of the countries around the world.

Just Sven
Editor
8 years ago

Well, time to get a move on. Happy 9/1 to all of us!

Poof.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

How can you be against free stuff?

In part because someone’s going to be unhappy that they have to pay for my free stuff.

Even moreso ’cause I’m sick of paying for other peoples’ free stuff.

Guess I am not a giver. 🙂

My two favorite Geraldo moments were Al Capone’s empty vault and when his nose got broken by the chair-wielding white supremacist.

X_LA_Native
Admin
8 years ago

“The Internet Of Things” seems to consist, in part, of web-enabled kitchen appliances. I don’t want — or need — my freaking fridge telling me I’m almost out of eggs. Or to be able to turn the oven on from my phone.

“The Internet of Things” sounds like something my buddy Bob would say, which flies in the face of it being a “thing” for me.

Fatwa, in terms of appliances, I think this will just about hit every trigger you have (it did me, anyway): https://www.cookmellow.com/

Coffee anyone?

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Hai, TeX!!!1!

WiFi-enabled sous vide device?!? I’m likelier to purchase a deep fryer. (Which I probably never will, because dangerous weight gain.)

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
8 years ago

Good morning, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, TeX, Fatwa, and Sven!

Rethinking sous-vide

No thanks, I never thought sous-vide in the first place.

I saw the video of Geraldo last night. I do love the expression on Gutfeld’s face as Geraldo drones on.

Speaking of homicide statistics, in 2011 (the latest year for which data is available), there were more murders committed with blunt objects (hammers, clubs, etc.) than with all types of rifles, including those dreaded assault rifles.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Hai, Paddy!

Best Man told me last night he’s finally been able to take possession of the M16 he purchased nearly a year ago.

X_LA_Native
Admin
8 years ago

WiFi-enabled sous vide device?!?

Rethinking sous-vide
No thanks, I never thought sous-vide in the first place.

:: snicker ::
I had a feeling y’all might agree.

Now, I can’t get on any high horse and claim I don’t have any foodie snobberies, I do.
I’ve actually bought the weirdo “finishing salts”.

And I gotta tell ya, what a pinch of Kilauea Black can do to cheap-sh!t Wal-Mart decaf is freakin’ amazing. It’s smooth as silk.

But a several hundred dollar machine with no manual controls?

Yeah, right, and I’ll get the push-button start on my car, and the keyless fob too.
More sh!t to #FAIL.
No thanks.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
8 years ago
Reply to  X_LA_Native

I had a car with a push-button start. It was a ’47 Chrysler.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
8 years ago
Reply to  Mac

I had a couple of friends with Triumphs -- they were push starters, as well. I don’t think they had a button on the dash, though.

Fatwa Arbuckle: Misanthropologist

Drive-by:

The first car I remember my folks having was a black ’53 (IIRC) Packard Cavalier with a push button automatic transmission.

When that carped the bed in late ’61, we got an ill-used ’58 Lincoln Continental; white on turquoise and christened “The Queen Mary”. That lasted just long enough for Dad to buy his first new car: a black ’64 GTO with two options: AC and and an AM radio (with the Civil Defense logo in two spots on the dial).

Rabbit
Editor
Rabbit
8 years ago

Greetings!
There’s an old B movie called “Burnt Offerings”. Stars Karen Black as the mother. She rents an old, decrepit house in the woods with her husband & son. The house kills them off except for KB, who becomes the new caretaker. As the people die, the house repairs and renews itself, new landscaping, etc.

This may or may not have anything to do with how I’m feeling about TMP today.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
8 years ago
Reply to  Rabbit

Before:

After: