Three new kittens...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 03:55:58 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Support Transracial Rights!

I can SO get behind this:

Did not Michael Jackson become the first trans-ethnic person?  Why can’t others aspire to achieve such a state of being?  Or in feminist speak, why should my children be oppressed by the tyranny of racial assignment?

And besides, its only fair!

(Via:  Instapundit)

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 17:12:50 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Tropes Tabled

Beware!  DeviantArtist "Computer Sherpa” has made it even easier to get sucked into the infamous TV Tropes time sink.  Here are 188 (more or less) of its characters, plot devices, tropes, and subtropes... nicely systematized.

So if you have trouble recalling the 22 primary "Call to Adventure” subtropes (or the fourth member of the Five Man Band), you’ll find them all there for you.  What more could an aspiring writer want?

HT (Yeah, thanks a BUNCH!) to Joanna, who says

Man, this’ll come in handy come NaNoWriMo time.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:41:08 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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When Anything Is “a Religion,” Then...?

Mark Steyn:

An employment tribunal in Britain has ruled that a belief in public service broadcasting is equivalent to religious faith...

Only following precedent...

Two years ago, a tribunal found that company executive Tim Nicholson, a firm believer in climate change, was wrongly dismissed after objecting to his company’s use of flights and cars.

That case set a precedent and, this year, animal rights activist Joe Hashman successfully argued that he was wrongly sacked from his garden centre job after his activities were discovered.

Steyn:

If you look at these decisions in toto — from "climate change” to "public service broadcasting” — we are about two judges away from having the entire program of leftist conventional wisdom ruled a state church.

You mean it isn’t, already?

Via:  Blair

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 19:09:06 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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73-note keyboard, 8-bit sampling, floppy memory: Only £27,000

Excellent reminiscence of the 80s-vintage Fairlight synthesizer.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 19:21:51 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Piling on

Instapundit linked this, but wotthehel...

New Dell Support Policy: Hang Up On Customers Who Ask to Talk To Your Supervisor

Oh, Dell.  I thought since Jeff kicked you around the block way-back-when, you had learned your lesson.  I thought you had changed.  But here you go, breaking my heart again.

Read on, for a blow-by-blow report.

One of his commenters suggested writing Michael Dell. Who is probably too busy making money off the taxpayers with George Soros to reply.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 16:56:19 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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I’ll bet Retrotechnologist wouldn’t mind having this...

The Register:

One of Britain's oldest tellies - set to go under the hammer later this month - is 75 years old and surprisingly still in working order.

When the Marconi Type 702 was made, in 1936, the BBC had only been broadcasting television shows for three weeks, offering just two hours of programming a day on one channel.

The set has a 12in screen wrapped in a oversized walnut and mahogany cabinet, with a mirror-fitted lid that pops open to reflect the upward facing display out toward the viewer.

It has the original 240/405-line selector switch in place... Around a third of the TV's parts are not original, however, though they were replaced with parts identical to the originals.

A 12" TV, in a cabinet the size of a small refrigerator.  Serial number 1007.

Included in the package, the original bill of sale, the owner’s manual, and a 625-to-405-line standards converter which brings the set’s capability up to the 1964 transmission standard (however, you’ll need an additional converter after 2012).  Excellent condition (maintained, not rebuilt), only two owners... estimated sale price £3,000 - £5,800.
Details (and more pictures) here.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 02:23:09 GMT | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Available in assorted sizes

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 15:56:25 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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“Snow,” all pink and white

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 18:39:53 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Dammit, I’m tired of all those posts about the Indiana legislature

One side is totally blocked, no flow at all.  The other side, it ends up in my throat.

What... you mean that’s not...??
Oh, wait...

Ahem,
Elsewhere:

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 17:46:58 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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