Washington Free Beacon: New York Times Falls for Parody North Korea Twitter Account

New York Times Falls for Parody North Korea Twitter Account
BY: Alex Griswold. July 5, 2017 12:23 pm

The New York Times reported Tuesday that a statement from a parody North Korea Twitter account was an actual statement from the North Korean government.

The Times story on a joint military exercise between the United States and South Korea noted that "the North Korean government belittled the joint exercise as ‘demonstrating near total ignorance of ballistic science.'"

But that statement came from the parody @DPRK_News account, in what was evidently a satirical tweet.

I know this isn't the first time, and it won't be the last, but it seems significant to me. If the Times can't be bothered to fact-check something as trivial as this (to make sure a tweet claiming to be from the North Korean government actually is from them) then how can they be trusted with any other "facts" they report?

$70 hackintosh outperforms new laptop

Snazzy Labs builds a $70 hackintosh—or, as he calls it, crapintosh—computer for those who want a super tight budget PC build. Can a $70 hackintosh be any good? Can a cheap hackintosh outbench a MacBook Pro? Do Apple's iMac, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro blow this 5-year-old computer into outer space or does the hackintosh give it a run for its money?

Fascinating. Scrounge used parts (government surplus, Craigslist, etc.) to assemble a PC for $70, hack macOS 10.12 "Sierra" onto it and find that it outperforms Apple's low-end laptops and is surprisingly good at just about everything other than high-end gaming.

Now, clearly, the pricing is not realistic. Used and surplus equipment is cheap because the seller's goal is to get rid of it, not to make a profit. And it is sold as-is with no warranty, support or anything else. A company like Apple selling new equipment with the same specs would have to charge a lot more, but it is still a fascinating experiment nonetheless.

Actually, it sounds like a fun hobby project for me if I can clear out some space in my office :-)

JapanSauce: Japan’s Cute Barricades

Japan’s Cute Barricades
May 24, 2016

Japan is known for having many cute and cool things, but I was still surprised to learn that Japanese construction sites are now being guarded by Hello Kitty.

Click through to the main article to see lots of other cute Japanese safety barriers.

Circa: Did the FBI retaliate against Michael Flynn by launching Russia probe?

Did the FBI retaliate against Michael Flynn by launching Russia probe?
by John Solomon and Sara Carter

...
The FBI launched a criminal probe against former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn two years after the retired Army general roiled the bureau’s leadership by intervening on behalf of a decorated counterterrorism agent who accused now-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and other top officials of sexual discrimination, according to documents and interviews.

Flynn’s intervention on behalf of Supervisory Special Agent Robyn Gritz was highly unusual, and included a letter in 2014 on his official Pentagon stationary, a public interview in 2015 supporting Gritz’s case and an offer to testify on her behalf. His offer put him as a hostile witness in a case against McCabe, who was soaring through the bureau’s leadership ranks.

The FBI sought to block Flynn’s support for the agent, asking a federal administrative law judge in May 2014 to keep Flynn and others from becoming a witness in her Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) case, memos obtained by Circa show. Two years later, the FBI opened its inquiry of Flynn.

The EEOC case, which is still pending, was serious enough to require McCabe to submit to a sworn statement to investigators, the documents show.

The deputy director’s testimony provided some of the strongest evidence in the case of possible retaliation, because he admitted the FBI opened an internal investigation into Gritz’s personal conduct after learning the agent “had filed or intended to file” a sex discrimination complaint against her supervisors.

McCabe eventually became the bureau’s No. 2 executive and emerged as a central player in the FBI’s Russia election tampering investigation, putting him in a position to impact the criminal inquiry against Flynn.

Three FBI employees told Circa they personally witnessed McCabe make disparaging remarks about Flynn before and during the time the retired Army general emerged as a figure in the Russia case.
...

So now the truth starts to come out. The FBI director (formerly deputy director) was accused of sexual discrimination. Flynn wrote a memo supporting the accusation. The FBI retaliated by initiating investigations against both and by filing bogus criminal charges against Flynn.

And that's about it. Everything else we've been told for the past six months is just political grandstanding. Read the rest of the article here.

Washington Free Beacon: Joy Behar Doesn’t Want Trump to Be Impeached Until Her Book Comes Out

Joy Behar Doesn’t Want Trump to Be Impeached Until Her Book Comes Out
BY: Jack Heretik
June 23, 2017 12:07 pm

...
Behar, who criticizes Trump and Republicans daily, has been vocally opposed to Trump and has wanted him to be impeached since he entered office.

"I don't want him to get impeached until after my book comes out," Behar said...

Always good to know that the TV personalities that shape American political thought have their priorities straight. Right, wrong, good, evil are all less important than cashing in on a book deal.

Washington Free Beacon: Canadian Sniper Takes Out ISIS Terrorist From Over 2 Miles Away

Canadian Sniper Takes Out ISIS Terrorist From Over 2 Miles Away
BY: Stephen Gutowski
June 22, 2017 12:08 pm

Sets new world record for longest confirmed kill

A Canadian sniper in Iraq took out an ISIS terrorist from more than 2 miles away, Canadian Armed Forces confirmed on Thursday.

"The Canadian Special Operations Command can confirm that a member of Joint Task Force 2 successfully hit a target at 3,540 metres," the forces told the Globe and Mail.
...
War stories are notoriously unreliable, but the Globe and Mail said its sources confirmed there is video evidence of the shot confirming it was made at 3,540 meters or about 2.1 miles.

All I can say is "Wow!".

Happy Apple ][ Day!

Apple II Day

Today in 1977, the Apple II was released, joining the ranks of the TRS-80 and the Commodore PET in home computing power. Best known as the adorable lovechild of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, the Apple II came in two forms: fully functional, with all the bells and whistles of a color monitor, power supply, keyboard and case, or just the brain in circuitboard form so you could have all the fun of building it yourself. The computer operated on BASIC programming, so you could go totally off the reservation and even build your own applications.

The Apple II became hugely popular, especially since it had a spreadsheet program people could use instead of lugging around ledgers. Within ten years, the computer would evolve into the Apple IIe and end up in schools across the country because of some brilliant and crafty marketing. Whether you were one of those geeks building it in your own garage or a later generation learning the joys of dot-matrix graphics and programming, Apple II still has a place in your solder-covered heart.

I'll be celebrating tonight with a game of Spare Change or maybe Hard Hat Mack on my (still working beautifully) Apple IIGS.

Washington Free Beacon: Prominent Democratic Feminist Camille Paglia Says Hillary Clinton 'Exploits Feminism'

Prominent Democratic Feminist Camille Paglia Says Hillary Clinton 'Exploits Feminism'
Sam Dorman. May 15, 2017 10:00 pm

Camille Paglia is a woman of seeming contradictions. She’s a lesbian who thinks homosexuality is not normal, a Democrat who often criticizes the party’s 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, a self-described "transgender being" who calls sex changes for children "abuse," and a feminist who says abortion is "murder."

Decades after she burst onto the scene with her best-selling book Sexual Personae, Paglia is back with a timely commentary on sex and gender. Her recent book Free Women, Free Men argues, among other things, that feminism is "stunting the maturation of both girls and boys" and that "if women seek freedom, they must let men too be free."

Paglia talked to the Washington Free Beacon about a variety of topics including Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D., Mass.) alleged populism, Megyn Kelly's performance as a moderator during the first Republican presidential primary debate, and whether misogyny played a role in Hillary Clinton's failed 2016 presidential bid.

Paglia is a liberal Democrat, make no mistake, but she's one of the few that I respect. She does not blindly accept the dogma of the activists in the Democrat party but forms her own, often controversial, opinions based on facts and careful reasoning without regard to what the rest of the world may think of her as a result.

Read the entire interview for very interesting and not-commonly-discussed opinions on many of the issues in today's political scene. Whether or not you agree, it is a very good read.

xkcd: Lunch Order

Lunch Order

Sort of reminds me of the premise of Sid & Marty Krofft's Far Out Space Nuts.

May The Fourth Be With You

Yeah, it's May 4th again. I'm not doing anything special, but GoComic put together a page full of comics related to Star Wars.

Enjoy