There are many theories about how to live a healthy life.
Some still believe there is a fountain of youth in Florida, though even some who are reported to have seen it deny having been there.
Others say you should eat more Kale™.
A recent study says that gay men are less stressed, but someone forgot to tell Kwame Harris.
Some think guns are dangerous, others think they offer much needed protection, but everyone can agree that the rifle with a custom signature series “Willie Bloomquist” floor plate probably won’t do much damage.
On the other hand, being around Phillies fans forced to watch a lineup including Michael Young, Delmon Young, and Yuni might be hazardous to your health.
Any NRAF from Chicago here? Can anyone give me a rough estimate what renting a place in Chicago would cost or a good link? Is that Craig list everyone talks about good for that?
up
I’d try craigslist before I try craiglist. IIRC, the latter is porn.
up
Craigs gone wild!
up
To state the obvious, Chicago is a big place, even bigger if you are considering the greater Chicagoland area. Depends on where you want to rent, I imagine (colin can weigh in, as the most recent ex-Chicago NRAF).
up
I don’t know, somewhere not too far from West Addison Street, I guess
up
Any information that I have about rent is more than 20 years old at this point, so Craigslist and/or colin are probably your best sources of information. As far as location, anywhere within a few blocks of an el station (with a few neighborhoods I would avoid) would make an easy commute, so there wouldn’t be a need to locate near to the prominent landmark on Addison Street.
up
You mean Wrigleyville? Are you going to apply for that Cubs job? I guess that you could get a one bedroom in the neighborhood for $1200/month (warning: I never lived in that neighborhood, so I might be totally wrong). What I do know is that if you live there, you have to put up with tons of drunk twenty-somethings roaming the streets every night. Wrigley is very accessible on public transportation, so there are lots of other neighborhoods that you could look at (cheaper or pricier, but all with fewer drunk frat-boys).
up
How do you know he’s not going there because he’s interested in meeting a nice, young drunk frat-boy?
up
I have no idea. Frankly, I am not really planning on moving from Europe, but it did get me interested. From the information exchange so far, I seem to fit what they are looking for, so now I would have to state my financial requirements. And I have very hard time doing that, not only because of different taxing and costs of living, but also because I would have to measure how much the loss of 25 vacation days a year and proximity to both of our families is worth to me.
up
Having slept on it, I’ll be staying here. I really don’t think I can get a monetary refund valuable enough for all the things I’d be missing, interesting job be damned
up
this
If you know of a cute girl that will smuggle me into the EU please let me know.
up
Sounds prudent. Hold out for Oakland!
up
this this this
up
I spent about 30 seconds on craigslist and I think that my $1200/month for a one bedroom apartment in Wrigleyville is pretty much spot on.
up
Remember that crazy lady from the internet I spent the weekend with in Chicago? Her apartment was a five minute drive from there and it was ~$1100 a month. It was a cute little apartment, too. Nothing fancy. There were probably better ones in the area, though.
up
The magic of elcroata vs. the eternal shittiness of the Cubs.
That would truly be the irresistible force meeting the immovable object.
up
As a law student, I stayed here: http://www.websterhouseapartments.com/w_apttype.html
Sweet building, great location, and for a RAF the rent was shocking low. You can, of course, pay less for places without elevators / doormen / views / etc.
up
Thanks
I haven’t looked at apartments in a long, long time. Now that I do, I love mine even more
up
Just make sure you use the airplane lavatory before you land for your interview.
up
Because the airplane lavatory at the end of a 10-hour flight is so delightfully sanitary.
up
Doodooed if you do, doodooed if you don’t.
up
In general, when looking on craigslist, go back to the third or fourth page of results for a more accurate idea. The site is infested by spammers who list nonexistent apartments at low prices, then when people inquire, the spammer sends a friendly email saying “we’d love to show it to you, but just so we can be sure you’re serious, please fill out this free credit report”. Apparently some people are gullible enough to fall for this, because there are a lot of fake ads in the first page or two. They get flagged off fairly fast, so ads that have stayed up until the third page are usually legit.
“Don’t you dare put soy sauce on that rice. Oh yeah, okay fine. Give me back my underwear damn it!”
up
Soy sauce is not conducive to a healthy life, apparently.
Also, compound facial fractures? That sounds horrible.
up
That’s what happens when you head butt someone’s fist.
up
That story is so weird. Did we know previously that he is gay? Sort of sad that if he wasn’t out previously his coming out isn’t a “hey, this is who I am and I’m proud to sing it loud” but a horrible story about soy sauce, underpants and domestic violence.
up
I don’t think anyone had any idea.
up
Tagline?
up
I’m kind of feeling it.
up
thirded
up
nevermind… I take it back. I don’t want a tagline joking about domestic violence, even if it is kinda funny
You know when you doodle at work and a few days later you look down and realize said doodle is just a touch too phallic? So then you try to cover it up with another doodle with a different pen only to realize the the doodlely fix just made it more pornographic?
up
Is your name Jackie Treehorn, by any chance?
up
I think they had this problem in Superbad.
1. I knew I should have been more suspicious when Ponce De Leon started setting batting records in the Florida State League.
It’s titled Still Too Early and Mostly Useless but Replacement-Level Yankees Weblog has new 2013 predictions up. For people who aren’t familiar, they use a projection system called CAIRO that projects each player based on their last four years (including minor league numbers) with various adjustments for home park and league, aging, etc. Then they make some guesses about playing time (it’s easy to criticize this, but it’s hard and I think they do a pretty good job) and simulate 100000 seasons. Relevant for the A’s is that this version includes Nakajima for the first time.
AL West predicted standings:
LAAAAA 93-69, win division in 43.2% of sims, make the playoffs in 65.1% of sims
TEX 90-72, win division in 31.1% of sims, make the playoffs in 54.7% of sims
OAK 86-76, win division in 22.4% of sims, make the playoffs in 44.1% of sims
SEA 67-95, win division in 2.5% of sims, make the playoffs in 6.3% of sims
LOLAstros 61-101, win division in 0.8% of sims, make the playoffs in 2.5% of sims
Nakajima: 606(!) PA, 254/313/367, 11(!) HR
up
Oh wait, I was misreading that spreadsheet. That line for Nakajima is before playing time projections are included. They actually project him to get 434 PA, with the same triple slash.
up
Their solution to the Oakland OF/1B/DH logjam
Cespedes: 566 PA
Crisp: 563 PA
Reddick: 558 PA
Young: 404 PA
Smith: 356 PA
Carter: 352 PA
Moss: 345 PA
Barton: zilch
Taylor: zilch
up
While this agrees with all the other projections that, despite winning the division, on paper the A’s are still only the third-best team in the division, 86 wins and 44% playoff chance is actually pretty encouraging. (And better than the Yankees or Sawx.) Last year they had us at 76 and 3%.
up
I thought it was pretty encouraging too. Things really broke in our favor last year, but the A’s are still a pretty good team.
Hah hah hah Ray Lewis…deer antler spray?
Also:
Or he’s scared of being known as the colossal sucker who paid thousands for hologram/beam-ray/charged water/antler treatments.
up
My favorite line is this double negative about murdering two people from the Yahoo article: “I truly believe, if you take a 13-year break on anything, as hard as it is for them, as hard as it is about the things for you want me to speak about or you want to report about, I just don’t believe, honestly, that this is not the appropriate time for that,” Lewis said.
up
I don’t know, holographic bandages with Disney characters could probably make a lot of money.
Randy Moss: Greatest Receiver of All Time, except when he wasn’t.
Jim Harbaugh says some weird stuff.
Huh. So Gomer was gay. Whodathunkit.
up
I’ve known this for over 30 years. My mom used to sell real estate when we lived in Hawaii. Once, she had a listing in the Kahala area near Diamond Head, and Jim Nabors’ house was across the street. She told me that during open house hours, she saw Gomer with different men entering and leaving his house. My reaction was simple – SHAZAM!
up
Surprise, surprise, surprise!
up
I mean, it’s not particularly shocking. More… interesting.
Spellcheckers FTW … probably better not to include a description of redshit in my talk.
up
But that’s how you know the distance to the piles of poop that your neighbor’s dog left on the sidewalk.
up
If your shit is red, you should probably consult a medical professional. Jennifer, perhaps. I’m sure she’s seen it before.
up
I had beets last night, it’s not a big deal.
up
Mmm, roasted beets.
up
But it is a fun party trick.
up
I called in sick once and set up a doctors appointment before rememberin that the night before i ate beets.
true fax
up
hah
1. Dutch “fans” FTL
2. Holy misleading headline. I thought this meant that BYU-Hawaii was canceling two seasons of games.
up
#2, I initially thought the same thing when I saw that yesterday.
up
1. The response Altidore gave after the match was amazing. Very, very classy and mature.
up
Yes, it’s great that he refused to stoop to their level.
K-Thug, man of my dreams.
up
That described the founding principals of the GOP.
up
Please don’t insult Abraham Lincoln like that.
up
GOP, not Republicans. Or did they really coin the “GOP” moniker even back then?
up
Though technically isn’t the only fixed rule of Calvinball that you can never play it the same way twice?
up
I thought the only winning move was to not play.
up
…but could you change that rule?
up
Nope.
up
this is how every game is played at the futuredome
up
I’m aware of all
internet traditionsC&H strips. I was intending to ask a more philosophical question.up
Is there anything more philosophical than C&H?
up
Ahah! Now you’re doing it too.
Avenged Sevenfold? Seriously?
up
On some plane flight a few years ago, I was sitting next to this guy who is the grandfather of the Avenged Sevenfold singer. He was talking to the other person in my row, telling them about how his grandson was a nice, hard-working young man who started a band in the garage with his friends. So… not very metal.
up
I’d like them better if their music didn’t suck.
up
sometimes a 13 seed advances to the elite 8.
up
This is NOT a good Cinderella story.
up
ironically Cinderella was a #2
up
Yes, Cinderella certainly was #2.
up
That’s a pretty good reason to not like them.
up
Interesting. I’d like you better if your music didn’t suck. But I like you well enough so it’s all good.
up
Dude, you should hear me sing some time.
up
So what you’re saying is I’d like you even less than I think I would?
up
You’d probably stab me in the throat.
up
It would be my honor.
up
You’ll have to get in line.
up
[looks at ticket number]
up
You’re way back in line right now, trust me.
Kay bait
Incidentally, we divested of cable and are now a hulu plus household.
up
Counterpoint.
up
I basically agree with this one. Yglesias made similar points a few days ago.
up
Interesting. Yglesias gave a better summarization of what’s really going on backed by the math that the other one provided (with a more convoluted explanation).
up
Glibertarian nonsense. IF he’s right about the unbundled costs, THEN he’s right that unbundling won’t help. But I don’t see any argument for the assumption other than a general appeal to rational markets. Which cable TV damn sure ain’t
up
The actual content providers would subject you to those costs one way or another to meet their bottom line. And since nearly every content provider sells a number of channels together, they’re sure as hell not going to offer their channels individually even if they “unbundle” it from the cable supplier. In reality, because of that provider-based bundling, you’d likely pay more to get all that you actually want access to then you would if it was bundled by the cable supplier. That’s assuming you maintain your normal viewing habits including channel surfing and the occasional peek in at various shows.
up
Yes they are. Because they’ll be able to deliver those channels directly to me. And because they’ll be able to reach a larger audience -> more ad revenue.
And any number of reasons that “we pay this, therefore under all circumstances will will continue to pay this” is a dumb argument.
up
Yes they are what? Going to unbundle their popular channel from their less popular channels? All of which they own/operate and want to profit off of? No way in hell would they do that.
up
Sorry, that was a weak sentence. Let me delete it and change to “There is no reason to categorically assume they will subject you to the same costs.”
up
Ah. That wasn’t really my argument. Each individual network-based bundle (for lack of a better term) will likely cost around what they ask for from the cable provider per subscriber. It actually might be more since there’s less subsidization going on, but it’s very true that it may actually be less. What’s certain is that the actual cost for that bundle would be less than what the cable provider charges on the whole. The rub is that in order for the average person to get all the channels they currently view, the cumulative cost of all those bundles could very well be greater than the a la carte bundling. Part of the faulty thinking is that they expect to get, say, USA network without the rest of Universal/NBC’s channels which is extremely unlikely.
up
We appear to be arguing at cross purposes, then. I would expect content providers to provide various options depending on their particular products and needs. MY seems to be arguing that consumers won’t win because the ultimate cost will be equal. I think that’s wrong.
up
Probably. The game is fixed. Content providers won’t do anything that’ll reduce their bottom line and most are directly owned by a cable distributor. Selling for less or unbundling kills their bottom line for no gain, especially when it might encourage more people to leave cable.
up
so yeah that. ComcastCA is not worth $60 a month to me
up
All of the pricing to value really is based on your viewing habits. And yours clearly doesn’t fall into line with what the cable providers provide so you’re not really their target audience. Which, more or less, makes it a lot easier (and cheaper) to get what you actually care to get (sans A’s).
up
Won’t this suck come baseball season?
up
My cable has never held ComcastCA. I have not seen a home broadcast of an A’s game in years. Now I will not be able to watch the giants. I can watch everything else on mlb.tv through the xbox.
I was looking at the lineups in the cable/satellite, there is basically one thing I want that I can’t get from Hulu, that’s the A’s. Is it worth $70 a month to have the A’s on TV when I haven’t had that since 2006? I don’t think so. Maybe when the boys are 8 or so it will be more important to watch the games together, but now, they don’t care, and I am happy with the radio.
Stupidity. Gotta love it.
up
This has to be some kind of performance art, right?
up
Art?
up
It’s a load of BS. They’re just arrogant and stupid. They thought they’d be able to continue to cash in without realizing no one gave a shit about them. Blaming it on the Mayans despite running out of cash 2 years before? Yeah right.
up
What a coincidence! The, uh, Mayan Prophecy is why I didn’t turn in my essay on Charlemagne in seventh grade too!
up
You might have gotten away with it if
your essay was on Guatemalawasn’t for those damn kids.up
I should never have taught those kids how to meddle.
So Chris Culliver is kind of a tool.
up
Yeah, he needs to go.
up
asshole
up
Damn. That’s pretty bad.
up
related
but why I wanted to link it is:
really dude? they don’t know its a gay bar?
up
Nope, nothing unusual about a bar with only dudes there. No sir.
up
have you ever seen gay guys without straight girls
up
At a leather/bear bar, yeah.
up
GP
up
In LA at least, I heard it was fairly common for groups of straight women to hang out at gay bars, since the likelihood of getting harassed is/was considerably lower for them. Some friends report that a few bars occasionally have to face a new challenge: straight dudes who prowl gay bars in search of the straight women who take refuge there.
We live in strange times.
up
What about straight men who like to go to gay bars so that they can feel pretty?
up
Hmm, hadn’t thought about that. I eagerly await your upcoming exposé for Jezebel or Gawker.
up
This is true lots of places. Places like Seattle and SF would be included.
I only go to gay bars when Im with someone who is gay specifically for the reason that I am good at gay bars. Im more than willing to dance with a gay guy and then girls are shocked that Im straight (“You can’t be straight youre too good a dancer!”) and want to make out. I don’t want to degrade the experience too much buy just going by myself. Gay clubs shouldn’t be over run with straight people.
up
You’re like the Rosa Parks of fake gay guys.
up
He didn’t stop at the gay bar because he was too tired to walk to the straight bar.
up
Im not a fake gay guy. I am a straight guy who can shake it.
up
Whooooosh
up
Oh, dear.
up
Honestly i just don’t like being compared to rosa parks, even in jest
up
Add Sopoaga and Brooks to the bad list:
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/two-san-francisco-49ers-we-dont-want-gay-kids-to-think-it-gets-better/news/2013/01/31/59524
up
This seems overblown. I don’t doubt at all that they did that video without knowing it had anything to do with LGBT kids (Donte Whitner is the only one who obviously knew, and good for him). I don’t think they deserve to pilloried for basically saying, “Huh? I didn’t make any video like that.”
up
Agreed. That it was more generic anti-bullying than anti-gay-bullying was our criticism of the video at the time, after all.
up
The A’s video was even more generic, as I recall.
up
yup
up
I mean to me that sounds like that he wasn’t being a dick, he just did what he thought was a video against all bullying not specifically anti gay bullying. Someone and someone asked him if he did a gay rights video and he denied doing the video not because hes against gay people specifically but because he didn’t think of it as a gay rights video.
up
Although I’d guess that homophobic attitudes are probably prevalent among (male) pro athletes, and especially football players.
up
Completely agree.
up
And they’re adding the “rights” assumption too. For all we know he really meant gay “bullying” video.
up
BUT BUT BUT HOW WILL THE MEDIA BLOW IT OUT OF PROPORTION THEN?!??!??!?!
up
Well, this is a good sign: http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2013/02/02/culliver-will-work-with-the-trevor-project-to-learn-more-about-gay-community/
up
Yeah. Hopefully thats more than just a smart publicist.
up
Even if it’s intended merely as good pr, I hope he actually approaches it with an open mind and heart. It may change his attitude.
up
Sensitivity training should be mandatory for NFL players once a year, in training camp.
We are number
11026!up
I’m just going to focus on how terrible the Angels’ system is.
up
totes sucks to be them. I mean, they got nothin.
[refuses to look at major league roster]
up
Pujols and Hamilton are in decline.
I’m not as worried about them as others are. No FKing way do they win 94 games this year. 91, tops.
up
Their rotation is going to suck unless Tommy Hanson gets back on track.
up
In exchange for winning the AL West? I’ll take it.
up
that’s the thing, the graduation of parker milone griffin and perhaps straily, mitigates the low ranking.
up
And Sickels says as much in his summary (same goes for the Nats, one spot ahead of Oakland).
up
Yup. Same thing happened last time when Cahill/Anderson graduated. All of a sudden prospectors were hand wringing about our “thin” pitching system.
up
Take that Angels!
Cat people bait. I cannot decide which one is my favorite. Every time I’d pick one, there would be a later one I liked even more.
up
I’m pretty partial to that Misfits cover. Straight Outta Compton is pretty genius too.
up
Oh man, I just saw Minor Threat.
up
Also, Ride the Lightning and Computer World.
up
The Footloose kitty looks like two of mine.
up
My vote is for the New York Dolls one.
up
I actually have a couple of those (Ramones and Captain Beefheart). My favorite is the
DarkCat Side of the Moon.Couldn’t resist adding to this photo I took earlier. I know, original.
up
Where it’s at?
I’ve got to be able to recycle those
Marlins Win! Marlins Win!
up
I can think of no other situation where being on the hook with Marlins has screwed people over.
up
Very nice.
up
Damn, that fish has some serious sea cred.
Whoever decided to buy clicky pens for the office made a mistake. A biiiiig mistake [click click. click click. click click...]
up
up
I hate dicking around with pen caps.
[waits for argument]
up
Get the twisty pens, then.
up
CLICKY PENS!!!
up
Then have him put the condom on. After all, it IS his dick.
up
That reminds me of when ms.s & I were in Verona and went in to a snazzy modern Italian furniture store, and the entire time we walked around this “salesman” followed us clicking his pen incessantly. Needless to stay, we didn’t stay very long.
up
how was muse?
up
They put on a really good show. It had been ages since I’d been to an arena rock show, and we had nosebleeds, so it was much more of “going to see a show” than going to listen to music, which I’m more used to these days. But they rocked it out, and had a really effective light/stage setup that seemed deceptively simple at first but was really cool. We were all glad we were able to get those last minute tickets and go.
A note from the Slumbeat a few days ago:
A lot of times “the East Bay” in the pro sports context means places like Danville/Blackhawk or Moraga, but looking it up (and no, I’m not posting his home address, but it can be determined from the online public records) the old Golden Bear returns to Berkeley, pretty close to (Oakland’s) Claremont Hotel.
up
Forst lives around there too.
up
Oddly, it looks like Forst and his wife sold the Benvenue house last year, with the sale closing on October 10 (Game 4 of the ALDS). A check of the records in the likely surrounding counties isn’t revealing a replacement purchase.
up
Melvin’s house (if I have found the right place) looks like the kind of place you’d find in Danville/Blackhawk or Moraga.
up
When I lived in Rockridge my usual exercise walk route up into the hills took me past it all the time. It’s a replacement for one that burned in the 1991 fire, and everything built in that area in the early 90s was seemingly twice the size of whatever it replaced. That one is no exception. I don’t think he has a Bay/S.F. view from there though.
up
This is it, viewed from the rear. 5092 sq. ft., was listed at $2.295M. That little building in the foreground with the four square windows is a separate guest house (or servant’s quarters?). I would have to immediately get rid of all that damned cross-hatching framing on the windows.
up
Do you think a lobotomy is a requirement for real estate copywriting?
up
Hmmm…the places I look at are usually described as having “rustic charm” and being a “handyman’s delight”.
up
I’m actually looking FOR that kind of place.
up
+p90x
up
It’s like they wrote something and ran it through Google Translate a few times for kicks.
up
So you saying it can fit an 85 inch tv?
up
85 inches
AROUND
up
LOL
Watch Letterman tonight for Shovels & Rope. You’re welcome.
up
Is that like a knockoff Chutes & Ladders?
up
They’re great. Cary Ann Hearst is amazing.
Live-blogging Letterman: Jason Bateman just said “Nev-ah-dah.”
up
It’s going to be brutal through Sunday night.
up
Alison Brie is cute, but a terrible storyteller.
up
Hey Mattress Firm, why do I have to buy a new mattress every 8 years? Why can’t I just clean the mattress I already have?
Google is celebrating the birth of Jackie Robinson.
Nope. Nothing to see here. Move along.
up
Knowing pretty much nothing about Menendez, I would say that it’s at least 98% likely that he did some bad shit.
up
Fixed.
up
Or not fixed. Damn coding. Let’s try again:
up
Further fixed
Knowing pretty much nothing about
Menendez(insert name of anycongresspersonpolitician from Hudson County, New Jersey here), I would say that it’s at least 98% likely that (name ofcongresspersonpolitician from Hudson County, New Jersey) did some bad shit.up
Further further fixed
Knowing pretty much nothing about
Menendez(insert name of anycongresspersonpolitician fromHudson County, New Jerseyanywhere here), I would say that it’s at least 98% likely that (name ofcongresspersonpolitician fromHudson County, New Jerseyanywhere) did some bad shit.up
Further refined by inserting any locale in South Carolina, Florida, Illinois, DC.
We should just provide our elected officials a monthly hooker stipend and move on.
up
This should be headlined “Florida Doctor Doesn’t Believe in Buying Local.”
up
The FBI loves political corruption cases and will often jump in based on far less evidence than they’d need to investigate, say, banking and investment fraud.
up
Some smart consideration by his counsel to consider the Friendship Exemption. I would have examined the Congressional Mulligan and the Nuh Uh Did Not Defense as well.
up
Except the Friendship exemption is real
http://consumerist.com/2013/01/31/waitress-who-posted-no-tip-receipt-from-pastor-customer-fired-from-job/
up
All my friends in F&B tell me that the post-church Sunday brunch crowd are the worst tippers around.
Also, you don’t give God any money at all. You give it to your church.
up
Seriously. How stupid is that? “I only give god 10%.” 10% of what? Cause it sure ain’t cash. And these fking people get tax exemption. They’re running a fking for profit business prey on people’s faith. Ludicrous.
up
Per one of the linked followups, the pastor in question is a woman who runs her own church. So by “God,” she means herself.
up
What a great scam religion has going.
up
I love that she was surprised that the restaurant charged her an 18% gratuity even though she crossed it out. Um, yeah. It’s their stated policy, idiot.
up
And they preach politics from the pulpit. Churches need to be taxed.
up
Yes. And FK YES.
up
And they fucking park in the god damn street and don’t get ticketed.
up
Yeah, I heard about that. That’s some Grade-A bullshit.
up
yup yup
up
Also, God needs to update his standards. A 20% cut is considered baseline for modern deities.
up
What they need is a progressive tithing system. Or perhaps regressive would be more appropriate.
up
at least the percentage system keeps up with inflation
Win. See the video description as well.
up
This is awesome, but also making me cry because my mom’s dog died on tuesday.
up
:-(
up
:( I’m sorry for your loss. Bronte is 9 now and I wish I could get another 9 years.
up
I’m sorry to hear that.
I think your opinions on Girls are fascinating, but my dad says you don’t work hard enough on defense.
up
what did I just read?
That was a standard TV review. From…uh…does he do that a lot?
And how cool is it that he name checked wonderfalls?
up
It’s quite well written, actually. I’m not going to forget this bit anytime soon:
up
he had a quality education at a quality school
up
More so than the place Wilt went.
/Bed bait
up
Based on extensive research (i.e. I’ve seen him on Celebrity Jeopardy a couple of times), I’ve concluded that Kareem is a pretty smart guy.
up
Agreed. But also kind of prickly and thin-skinned.
up
Its not untrue.
But lets be honest the real problem isn’t the Dunham portrays white hipsters as having no non white friends.
THE PROBLEM IS THAT WHITE HIPSTERS DON’T HAVE BLACK FRIENDS.
up
Am I the only person on earth that’s never seen an episode of this show? (I guess seeing Lena Dunham from across the street doesn’t count)
up
You’re not the only person that never seen an episode, but you are the only person that hasn’t expressed an opinion about it on the internet.
up
Damn it!
up
There are two. I’m the other one.
up
I had never even heard of it until it came up the other day.
up
That is one other day before I did
up
I tried to watch an episode and lasted about 10 minutes.
up
I saw Tiny Furniture a few months ago and really, really hated it, so I’ve used that as a litmus test.
up
Following up:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kareem-abduljabbar/kareem-abdul-jabbar-girls-review_b_2615824.html?utm_hp_ref=tv&ir=TV
Block quote:
What do people expect when an ex-jock discusses pop culture? “Hmmm. Magic light box have good shows. Me like some. Others make me puke Gatorade. Me give it three jock straps.” /Block quote
up
See also: Jose Canseco
Down the rabbit hole from GM’s link
what the what!
up
Rick Perry’s political career is beyond over. I don’t put too much stock in head-to-head trial heats like this where one of the potential candidates has such superior name recognition, but that 50/43 fav/unfav is sort of breathtaking.
up
I don’t buy it. She’s become popular among certain moderates/conservatives as the alternative to Obama. If she won a Democratic primary, it would be all the same Clinton scandals all over again.
up
She will not win Texas. But starting at 50 percent favorability there is an indication that she would be a strong favorite to win nationwide. Also, what Clinton scandals would they tar Hillary with?
up
She killed Vince Foster!
up
“Letting” Bill cheat on her, killing whatshisname, every bullshit scandal during those 8 years, the sniper-fire thing that was a passing issue in 2008, etc. etc.
up
All of that will appeal to some portion of the 40% of the country that no Democrat can win ever, but it’s useless for winning over the voters Republicans would need to beat her. That kind of fringy crap probably plays to her advantage if anything.
up
I’m saying I don’t buy the >50% favorability. I’m not saying winning Texas would be impossible (for the reasons PDX says below).
My only point is a fair bit of that favorability is coming from conservatives. Who would flip in no time were she ever actually the nominee.
up
She may not win Texas in 2016; however, if immigration reform ends up with some sort of road to citizenship, it’s not impossible, depending on who the opponent is. Blacks/Hispanics are now somewhere around 45-47% of the population – that’s probably gonna grow. Unless the GOP finds a way to make some sort of inroads into capturing the Hispanic population, Texas isn’t out of the question.
up
It amazes me that the GOP looks at the fact that they lose every demographic except white males and instead of thinking, “Gee, maybe our policy positions aren’t what those groups support,” they instead assume either that they aren’t getting their existing message out or that those groups only support Democrats because there is an inherent flaw in said groups. Just how far up your ass does your head need to be to not see the obvious truth?
up
1 Hillary is harder to pin something on than tefflon
2 That shit was 20 years ago at this point.
up
It’s hilarious watching conservatives scramble to make an issue out of Benghazi and try to claim that she and Obama are covering up some sort of wrongdoing (probably an evil conspiracy to take away our guns and abort our children while forcing the Koch brothers to pay for everyone’s food, crack, and healthcare).
up
Obama did just fine with the fake sniper fire thing.
up
what fake sniper thing
up
This.
up
Oh I remember that. I thought you were talking about Newtown conspiracy theorists. Again 8 years v 16 years when she also had a career in the Senate and at State. Her shitty Iraq vote wont be a big deal then either.
up
Sinbad?
up
I think shes gained a lot of good will over the last four years. I think you underestimate that.
up
Totally agree. And let’s not forget how popular Bill has become. Judging by the response to his speech at the DNC, there is probably a not insignificant group of persuadable voters that would view a Hillary presidency as a desirable end run around the 22nd Amendment
up
I agree with this.
up
I think you overestimate it. She’s the not-Obama the exact same way McCain was the not-Bush right up until he was the GOP nominee.
up
She’s been in the Obama administration for four years. McCain was actively antagonizing Bush from the Senate for four years.
up
This.
Also McCain got less Mavericky
up
So? She was Sec State, not the VP
up
I’m just saying despite having run against Obama, she’s not exactly in the position for Republicans that McCain was for Democrats from 2000-2003. She’s been loyally working for Obama for four years and her husband was one of Obama’s most important campaign surrogates. McCain, at least before his fateful hug with W, could legitimately be seen as still being a political and ideological adversary to Bush.
up
Also it is unlikely that Obama ends up as unpopular as Bush.
up
That doesn’t really matter.
up
It does because Obama won’t be the albatross slung around her neck.
up
We disagree there.
I think someone linked to the story of the guy who’s squatting in Florida, but if not, here it is. Makes me think that it would be interesting if someone could organize mass squatting in bank-owned properties all across the country. Sort of taking Occupy to the next level.
up
Not bad.
up
Someday, when I’m a property owner (like that’s ever gonna happen), I’m gonna secede from the union.
up
The owner just needs to stand his ground. Someone broke into their home. That’s pretty threatening to me.
up
The owner is BofA. And they’re having quite a bit of trouble getting the guy out. Plus, it sounds like the guy is crazy.
Some soothing ambience.
up
“a nasty, foul river…”
AKA John Jaha Cove.
I wonder if this will post… clicking the “reply” button isn’t working on any comment for me at this time.
In reply to Kay: yes, it posted and I am having the same problem.
Now I’m on my phone. let’s see if this nests as a reply.
up
I can reply through the dashboard but not on the main page.
nope.
Didn’t work when I switched browsers, either. Quick, someone, flash the “nevermoor” signal.
up
Whoops, wrong button.
Soaker seems to make it work. But I can’t.
Reply isn’t working for me in Firefox either.
I’ve also had some strange issues with the site on my Galaxy Nexus. No matter what option I use to try to pick between Standard and Mobile it seems to change the display to an odd combination of the two that doesn’t allow me to navigate well at all. I’ll see if I can add a couple screenshots later.
It’s the nevermoor signal!
Bizarre. No idea what broke.
Something went wrong in the code. The AJAX isn’t working either (and the reply box is missing its buttons)
I tried logging in and out again, and it didn’t fix it. There’s no hope!
WTF… broken on my sandbox too.
“So, nevermoor: Would you say it’s time for everyone to panic?”
“Yes I would, Kent.”
WE’RE FKED.
@Glorious Mundy:
I think one of the (external) plug-ins isn’t working right. Either disabled or moved or altered in some way.
I think it’s a host issue. We should be able to load this file: http://freekraut.net/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-thread-comment/wp-thread-comment.js.php?jsver=common but for some reason it’s saying access forbidden.
It might finally be time to switch hosts to something more expensive.
It’s also having trouble with http://freekraut.net/wp-content/plugins/comment-form-quicktags/quicktags.php. Might check the tree to see if any of the file/folder permissions have been inadvertently changed to not allow external access. I doubt it, but it’s possible.
up
That isn’t it (replying from dashboard).
I don’t know what to do on this one.
up
Ugh. Kind of figured that was a long shot. Assuming no changes had been made to anything in the last 24 hours (likely since you would have likely said something) and assuming the sandbox is hosted on the same server, then you’re probably right in that it’s a host issue. I blame ozzman.
Do not judge me:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/cutest-things-we-saw-behind-the-scenes-at-the-pupp
up
I mostly certainly will judge you. I have yet to decide just how I plan to judge you, but I’m going to damn it!
WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!
OK fine, nm, you can have $5.
@JamesV judge you? Imma be glued to that thing all Sunday long.
Sent a support question. If they did it, I’m ditching them.
Host response:
Moving hosts would be a little over $100 a year, at least if we use these guys, and I’d want to collect at least some of that. It would also be a better service. Should we do it? Are there better hosts to move to?
Also I was getting “Resource limit exceeded” and “Database error” messages for a brief time last night (I think it was around 7.)
May not be related, as the site was working fine for a few hours after that.
They added: “Yes, it is an issue of a security module affecting the network, we are working to address it on the module level.”
@Andeux: I know we sometimes exceed our resource limits, so I would suspect that is not the issue.
up
If you switch hosts you want to be real clear what the usage limitations are on the new account. At our lightly-trafficked phpBB forum which is hosted on Siteground we were running into our “Account Executions” limitations (12000/24 hr). I know the primary admin blocked a lot of the spammer traffic from China etc. and some of the bots and that seemed to get control of the situation. Current cPanel shot showing how close we are to the limits:
WHAT AM I SUPPOSE TO DO AT WORK IF FK IS BROKEN?
I AM JUST SITTING HERE SCARED AND ALONE.
@DFA: Read this. Smile.
No, DFA should read this:
@NM
I had seen that. I did smile.
@DFA I think the safe and logical response in this kind of situation is unhinged hysteria.
Reply button doesn’t work #obamasamerica
So much for selling the thing to the venture capitalists.
You know, if I’m about to (justifiably) have cops throw me to the ground and beat and arrest me, I’d appreciate it if they’d let me do 20 whippets in a row first. Not a bad deal, really.
@NM: I trust your judgement. If you decide to move, I’d be more than happy to contribute to the cause.
I’m leaning towards moving at this point. It’s more about time to work on it than anything else.
up
Is it working again now?
up
I can apparently reply again at least
up
Anything I can do to help, let me know.
up
HEY REPLY WORKED
up
At this point I’m mostly interested in good hosting recs. I don’t even remember where gearhost came from.
up
Do not use site5 or GoDaddy, that’s about all I got.
up
If we can throw a little money at it and permanently lessen the time demands and outages, it seems like money well spent to me.
up
We are talking roughly the cost of a dozen Coliseum beers per year? That’s a no-brainer. When I saw “Error establishing a database connection” this morning I was imagining poor Mrs. nm with the wailing baby in one room and the husband yelling Shit! Fuck! at his monitor in the other.
up
Better get used to that. Baseball season is almost here.
up
LOL
up
Me three!
up
Yep–I’d be happy to contribute.
Replies are working again. Quicktags still not. I contacted gearhost to see what they say about CPU resources.
up
Yay! Great work! I think I can safely disengage caps lock and put the panic away for another day.
up
So I can turn off the 40 watt bulb in the basement and throw away the angry letter to the government?
up
Let’s not be hasty. Just put the letter somewhere safe. Just in case.
up
Good idea. This is why they pay you the big bucks.
up
You mean it’s not for my ravishing good… yeah… you’re right, that’s probably what it’s for.
So My Bloody Valentine announces they are releasing a new album today, the link has 403′d, I has a sad…
up
Website is back up — http://mybloodyvalentine.org
up
Oh man, so fking happy, A year ago Kevin Shields floated the possibility but I never thought it would actually happen.
Love that they just sprang it on the interwebs.
They sure did their best to make it hard to fking buy.
90′s band with 90′s website, eeesh.
Can’t wait to see them come around again, hope they add US dates.
One of my all time favorite bands rides again!
up
It’s not cheap!
up
I lost respect for them a long time ago. Kevin Shields is a terminal noodler and he weighs his work far too highly. Hello, you’re a shoegaze band… a trend that died 20 years ago… and you took 22 years to put out your next album? You make Guns’N'Roses look efficient and timely in comparison!
up
From the archives:
up
I really like Dinosaur Jr.!
up
Me too! Who’d'a thunk they’d outlive Sonic Youth (hiatus notwithstanding)?
up
Who’d'a thunk that Mark E. Smith / The Fall would outlive any/everyone?
up
Though I guess if we open this up to all comers, Jagger/Richards will win handily.
up
Are you absolutely sure they’re not Bernies?
up
me in high school when I was into them
up
Dude is a SERIOUS alcoholic who can’t remember his lyrics, so he brings printouts on stage with him, and then stumbles and drops them, and just starts picking up paper and singing whatever lyric to whatever song. This was in 2003, btw. I’d hate to see how far he’s fallen since then.
Yet, he can still write interesting poetic lyrics and abstract commentaries-in-song-form. I have “their” 2005 and 2010 albums, and they’re almost as good as a lot of the classic material. Nothing will ever top Hex Enduction Hour, tho. “Iceland” still gives me chills whenever I hear it (especially in the dark).
up
I saw them play in maybe 2007 or 2008. It was pretty much the same deal.
up
This seems like a really silly complaint. Who gives a shit if their genre isn’t popular anymore, should we only make music that is popular? Should we not get to have synthy 80s sounding bands because its thirty years later? Should we not have new classical music because theyre hasn’t been super innovative classical for a hundred years?
up
Aren’t synthy 80′s sounding bands super popular right now?
up
No, psht we would never.
Now let me get back to listening to this
up
No super innovative “classical” music? Eye (or ear) of the beholder, I guess.
Anyhoo, there’s nothing inherently wrong with genre revivalism, but we are definitely seeing a lot of older, once-extinct groups popping back up from the grave to cash in on it. (See also: lots and lots of reissued albums floating around in the past few years)
I think the point is that for some (but not all) artists, their heyday has come and gone, and this next MBV thing probably isn’t going to eclipse “Loveless.”
up
Are you mistaking innovative for good? There are plenty of good classical/symphonic pieces that are new, but what’s out there that’s particularly innovative?
up
No, not necessarily. But to the assertion that there’s no innovation or interesting experimentation in “classical” music in the last hundred years is a stretch. Musique concrete and all of that.
up
That might not have been fair. Im not really into classical.
I mean a bunch of greatest hits albums and tours are far more likely to cash you in than releasing one new album every 20 years.
And Bowie’s new album isn’t going to be better than his heyday, doesn’t mean I still don’t want to hear it.
up
I am totally fine with revivalism, as long as the music is good. I posted that Iceage video in the most recent lounge that pretty much sounds like Joy Division but a) it would be a pretty good Joy Division song and b) Joy Division was cut off prematurely, so we never got enough of them in the first place.
up
Do you like the sneaky sound system I posted?
up
yes
up
Awesome. You might want to check out Van She… Also off of Modular
Ive been super into them since they released their EP in like 2006
up
I got more of a 90′s house vibe from them, rather than an 80′s synth vibe.
up
Yeah… I can see that. Its more the Aussie Synth pop which spans those two genres.
up
Aussies make some darn fine music.
up
Yeah. But Im inlove with a Canadian
up
She’s awesome too!
up
I would kill her husband and try to marry her if her husband wasn’t the base player in Dragonette.
up
I’m not crazy about the song, but her hair rules hard.
up
ionno i love that dancey pop.
She is incredibly beautiful and is definitely on my top 10 celebrity bone list.
up
Heh. I thought I was in the SB thread was was worried you were talking about Beyonce.
Phew.
up
@nm her music is meh to bad, but she can shake it like a polaroid picture… HEY YA
up
@nm hold on a sec… are you saying that Beyonce is *not* on your top 10 celebrity bone list?
up
Certainly not today. Almost certainly not ever.
up
Well luckily Loveless is not my favorite album of theirs.
So far really enjoying the new one after a full listen.
up
Kay your killing me, Ok, terminal noodler who inspired countless bands and really brought something new to guitar playing?
I’d say relatively instant fame combined with a paradigm shift in British music ( Oasis ) did them in more than anything.
They were the darlings of the press one month then utterly lambasted the next, gotta be tough.
up
I don’t think that using 37 overdubs every song was new to guitar playing. Robert Fripp and Brian May had that stuff nailed down 15 years earlier. I guess some of the soundscapes Shields created with guitar effects were pretty novel to rock at the time, but many of them are super reminiscent of Philip Glass’ chorus+synthesizer arrangements of the 70′s (Music in 12 Parts, etc.), so it’s not as if they were new to music in general. I see Shields as an adaptor, and eventually, a malcontent and/or head case in the Axl Rose vein, albeit not as obnoxious.
up
I mean I think what Sir Only is saying is that regardless of whether or not it was completely original, the fact that so many bands were influenced by MBV is significant.
Like the Velvet Underground, what they inspired probably is better than what they produced themselves which makes listening to the original even better.
up
Thanks DFA, nailed it.
up
Great, now I have to listen to Music in 12 parts all day. ;)
See where your coming from, no music is created in a vacuum, but to compare “Chinese Democracy” to “MBV” is a crime against humanity, at least Shields delivered.
I’d say it was more press speculation/ badgering than him bringing up the ‘new album’ all the time, I mean the guy hates doing interviews.
Huh, now this is interesting.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/03/republicans-push-tea-party-campaign-fund
Ironic seeing as the last two presidential candidates were once ‘moderates’ were forced to violently veer right slugging it out in the primaries.
Are there any truly high profile moderate republicans left?
Whatever the case seems pretty dire when you need to finance campaigns against your own party.
Something tells me there’s still quite a ways to go for them when I read this.
“Our party has lost six Senate seats over the last two election cycles not because of our ideas but because of undisciplined candidates running weak campaigns.”
Second part of platooning. Much easier on the math and featuring an A or two. And Unicorns!
up
Yeah. Eat it Pujols/Hamilton!
If you’re going to use your police force to infiltrate activist groups, why not use the identities of dead children to provide the cover?
up
Happens here too
up
Yeah, that’s how the Vietnamese guy on “21 Jump Street” ended up with a Japanese name.
up
It’s always how the Korean dude in the new Star Trek movies became Japanese!
Your chance to buy a pair of Bartolo Colon’s used pants is now here. Bid now!
up
Not just any Colon pants – Colon Oakland Oaks pants. Wow.
up
Colon used pants? No thanks. I see enough of that at work.
up
I must say, they look remarkably clean.
I’ve got my travel planner mojo working overtime today … just wrangled the flights for a 10-day trip for 2 from Oakland to Dublin, Yorkshire and New York during July and August for $500.
up
Wow, thats some serious value!
up
Yup – and 60% of the cost was the Dublin (Ireland) – Birmingham (UK) return flights.
The total cost of 2 seats on SFO/FRA/DUB/BOS/LGA:EWR/SFO flying United, Lufthansa, Aer Lingus, US Airways & United and with breaks in Dublin and NYC was $200.
up
Holy shit.
up
And then some.
up
That’s amazing.
up
So how the hell did you do that?
up
These are award flights, but even then you have to pick your routes carefully
- saver awards are 30K miles/leg and standard awards are 55K miles/leg, so it had to be the vary scarce saver awards to get both seats on miles.
- though saver awards are scarce on United it is the standard awards that are scarce on the partner airlines, since they want to minimize their use and the travel has to be at the same level throughout the trip.
- award flights don’t cover airport taxes, which are absurd eg. at Heathrow ($170 per seat) further reducing the options.
I have a grease monkey script that scrapes the United website to locate all award-eligible flights. Then it was just a question of piecing these together to get from A to B by any route necessary.
It was fun to phone the United agent at that point and read off this ridiculous list of flights and slowly have their confusion give way to enlightenment. By the end she was pretty impressed!
up
Bravo, especially to the search script. That is dedication.
up
To be clear, I didn’t write it but just found it online.
up
Wow. That is some craziness. So award flights are based on miles you’ve accrued, right?
up
Yup. I flew over 100K actual miles last year and earned 160K award miles; this trip cost 120K award miles.
up
up
Pfft, sucker. You can drive to Dublin.
up
In that traffic? Fk that.
up
Leaving unanswered the question of why you would wish to go to Dublin in the first place.
up
(I was trying to be polite)
up
Burn the politeness.
up
Cause it’s on the way to me!
up
OAK-DUB-TMcV
up
I used to go there all the time, to visit the jail.
up
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how he met your mother.
up
the federal one?
Did they ever give you a room? I always ended up interviewing people in the day room/
up
County (Santa Rita).
They have rooms in each housing wing, which may well be what you mean by a day room.
up
yeah, santa rita, the hallways are long there.
up
Were you allowed to pass go and collect your $200?
up
Meow!
up
Psh… $200?!?
up
Not via Frankfurt you can’t.
up
Sure you can, though Kentucky seems a bit out of the way.
up
Especially when the next stop is Birmingham.
up
When you cross Arkansas, you can stop in Stuttgart to say hi
up
So my question from all this is why would you name the place you settled after your old home town, since that’s the one thing to guarantee ambiguity in your everyday geographical references?
New England is especially bonkers. In 1800 “Off to Manchester” could mean a day trip or a three month voyage.
up
It was probably clear in context.
up
In some contexts, but surely plenty that weren’t too – as evidenced by the disproportionately American habit-born-of-necessity of adding state or nation qualifiers to towns’ and cities’ names.
up
If we didn’t do that, people would think I was taking a trip to Manhattan, New York, instead of Manhattan, Montana. We couldn’t have that now could we.
up
And I thought you were off to Kansas.
up
I thought he was referring to Nevada.
up
Cocktail hour.
up
Through this line of exploration, I’ve now learned that “Micropolitan” is apparently a word.
up
Frankfurt is the weirdest city, or maybe the city in Germany that doesn’t look like your in Germany.
up
Take BART (boop boop) if you want to be on time.
So basically “Mt. Davis” should never have been built in the first place:
http://www.csnbayarea.com/blog/paul-gutierrez/raiders-block-top-mt-davis?awid=7540827421300277577-765
up
Until reading that link, I was kind of wondering what this was all about:
up
I really have no use for Lick Spittle.
up
This.
up
I find him obnoxious.
up
Can We Just Blow It Up Now?
up
Close it off completely and open the third deck.
up
Nah, tear down Mount Davis and the third & second decks. Just have the lower bowl and an open air concourse. Then you can bring back the outfield bleachers.
up
Frank Thomas could probably still help with that.
up
and Cespedes.
up
I’m thinking back to the ad on the BART trains, but I couldn’t find any pics of it.
up
up
Now we’re talking.
up
this is actually funny
up
It’s just an unbelievable joke, and the joke is on all of us. This whole corrupt pigfuckarama since 1992 is “Chinatown” with stadiums instead of water rights, Oakland instead of LA. I just picture Mark Davis laughing like the Joker (OK, second Jack Nicholson reference in one paragraph, my bad) with the tens of millions he inherited from his dad fleecing the pants off of the idiot City of Oakland to build that monument to deception and greed in the first place. I bet he’ll move the Raiders outta Oakland at the first inkling he can get some poor taxpayers somewhere to foot the bill for a new rich pig’s palace somewhere else and leave the fans — really just willing, Stockholm Syndrome dupes at this point — shitting themselves with rage and agony whilst he cavorts with the largesse he’ll have looted.
I want to break shit right now, just the thought that these cocksuckers ruined our venue in this way and now the concrete monstrosity is going to just stand there idle and disused… OMG someone pack me a bowl the size of the island of Jamaica before I go looking for these people.
up
The seats on top of Mt. Davis are essentially irrelevant to the reasons it was built. It’s about the suites. Certainly it’s OK for A’s fans to hate it, but the Raiders tarping it doesn’t change that equation at all.
Also, Mark Davis didn’t inherit many millions at all from Al, certainly not tens of millions. And the family and team have lost momney since moving to Oakland. Ironically, the only party to the relocation deal who made out well, financially speaking, is the A’s.
up
Pretty much this. Though I’d rephrase that last one to “the only party to make money was the A’s.” Hard to say how much they may have lost as a result of Mt. Davis.
up
I’ve sat in those seats on Mt Davis for football. They suck. Since the season ticket holder prices are dropping everywhere, I’m tempted…this would make me a three-sport STH since I have a partial Quakes plan.
On yahoo.com, “strippers” is trending. It was #2 earlier, but it’s slipped now to #6.
2^257,885,161 – 1 FTW
up
I guess I’d better rewrite all my crypto-algorithms.
up
And move to 32-Mbyte integers.
Heavy:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html
up
I was reading this, thinking it sounded awfully familiar. Then I saw the date.
up
Yeah, I hadn’t seen it before but it was linked from elsewhere. Makes me wonder what else has happened since then. It’s all absolutely disgusting.
up
I wonder too. There’s been very little construction since 2009, so I can only imagine what has happened to all those workers.
up
Nothing good, I suspect.
up
The really horrible part is that they have a low-cost carrier based out of UAE. My sister flies from Sharjah to India all the time, I think the tickets usually come out to less than $100 round-trip.
up
“The people who do the real work are paid next to nothing, while these incompetent managers pay themselves £40,000 a month.”
Remind you of any other countries?
up
Another thing they didn’t mention: a few years back, human rights groups complained about laborers having to work in the heat. So Dubai passed a law banning outdoor work if the temperature exceeds 40C (104F). So now, guess what? The temperature in Dubai almost never officially exceeds 40C. It’s brutal. Drinking water on job sites is brought in trucks that are also used for transporting oil.
Another problem for Emiratis is that in their rush to embrace all things western, they eat incredible amounts of fast food. Obesity and it’s accompanying health problems are rampant and getting worse.
Abu Dhabi is really the only Emirate with any money at all, so they bankroll the other 6. Originally Qatar and I think one other city planned on joining the UAE, but changed their minds.
Oh, and the author never mentioned why the British conquered the region: the other big industry in the area besides pearl diving was piracy. The British wanted to put a stop to that.
up
And people bash unions but this is pretty close to what things were like, long days/ weeks, indentured servitude, child labor, sweatshops…
up
<3
up
This has to do with the author. What do you make of it?
I don’t doubt that there have been major problems in Dubai, but this makes me wonder how accurate the story was.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/bagehot/2011/09/unethical-journalism
up
This guy isn’t the only person to have cited issues in Dubai with human rights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai#Human_rights
up
The ethical issues with the author I didn’t know about. I get the impression that he’s trying to make the words true to the spirit of what his interviewees were trying to express, as he interpreted it. That doesn’t make it right, of course. And it calls into question some of what he wrote. Not that the injustices exist. But I certainly wondered about some of the quotes from the expats and tourists.
There have been human rights issues in Dubai for a long time, but I’d say their government has done quite a job keeping it mostly out of the mainstream press. Plus, as long as
foreignerswesterners were making money and having fun, no one really cared.up
Yeah. The bottom line is that there have been major problems there.
up
Fixed. Plenty of foreigners there making very little money and having very little fun.
up
I hope that more people become aware of the problem. And I believe similar problems exist in Kuwait and Qatar.
up
A couple of our friends moved to Qatar this fall for two years – they’re coming home briefly this summer – interested to here their take, although they are clearly in the “making money and having fun” camp.
up
I’d be interested too.
up
We get some updates on what they are doing through FB and blog posts, but all of those are definitely of the “what fun stuff we are doing” variety. They are both very thoughtful people, though, so to the extent any of the issues are visible, I’m sure they’ll take note. It’s also interesting to see if they’ve come across any issues being Jewish in a very Muslim world.