Month: September 2018

Click to see the horror at full size.

The picture just got a lot less pretty.

Click the photo to see it at full size.

Found via @CoolPics.

Four years ago this week, conservative pundits lost their minds over the fact that Barack Obama saluted two marines while holding a coffee cup.

(Oddly enough, overinflated fratboy Sean Hannity, who was shocked and appalled by the “latte salute”, had nothing to say when Trump saluted a North Korean general.)

And how is the current President doing?

Recommended reading

As always, there’s a pre-presidency Trump tweet that’s the complete opposite of what he’s doing now:

I’m trying to listen to the audiobook version of Peterson’s book, 12 Rules for Life, but I need to take frequent breaks from that “Evil Kermit” voice of his:

You’ve probably heard of “inbox zero”, but have you heard of “sink zero”? It’s an idea that got spread about with this recent tweet:

if someone rebranded “doing the dishes” as “Sink Zero” there would be a lot more guys in Silicon Valley with clean kitchens

— jenny (@fvrmvn) September 13, 2018

I think it’s a good idea. Think about it — taking out the trash could be rebranded as:

And why stop with repurposing the “inbox zero” idea? How about taking some cues from test-driven development?

And now that most developers have at least heard of agile development techniques, it should be possible to apply them to household chores. There’ve already been a number of articles and tweets on using Kanban for that purpose:

From Jamie Arnold’s tweet on October 27, 2012. Click to see the source.

A screenshot of the original version of the article. Click to see the Google cache of the article.

The original version of Benjamin Hart’s article for New York Magazine, Report: U.S. Official Met With Rebel Venezuelans Who Wanted to Overthrow Maduro, contains this nonsensical sentence (the emphasis is mine):

The U.S. has a long history of meddling in Latin American countries to promote democracy, often siding with brutal dictators in Chile, Nicaragua, and elsewhere to achieve its ends.

This kind of doublethink is nothing new, and familiar to me. I still remember hearing about George H. W. Bush’s toast when he was Reagan’s VP and visiting my birth country — the Philippines — which was then under Ferdinand Marcos’ iron-fisted rule:

“We stand with the Philippines. We love your adherence to democratic principles and democratic processes. We will not leave you in isolation.”

What. A. Crock. Of. Shit.

What the American government really loved was Clark Air Force Base and U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay, both of which were located in the Philippines. They weren’t too concerned about the political situation there, as long as they could check the boxes labeled “Not communist”, “Holds reasonable-looking fake elections”, “Supports our interests”. But in the end, even the U.S. government had to cut their ties with Marcos.

Thankfully, the terrible sentence in New York Magazine’s article did not go unnoticed:

This sentence appears in @NYMag & I don’t think it’s meant as satire: “The U.S. has a long history of meddling in Latin American countries to promote democracy, often siding with brutal dictators in Chile, Nicaragua, and elsewhere to achieve its ends.” 🤔 https://t.co/tdAJR9Edk3 pic.twitter.com/UxqAf14h2N

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) September 10, 2018

I’m pleased to report that the article has since been corrected:

Now that’s more accurate.