The Watering Hole, Monday, August 26th, 2013: “…Chad Everett?”

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Way back when Comedy Central was just starting out as The Comedy Channel, The Higgins Boys and Gruber was one of the fledgling comedy shows (along with Short Attention Span Theater, hosted by a very young Jon Stewart, and Mystery Science Theater 3000* aka MST3K, with the inimitable Joel Hodgson.)   [*FYI, good news for MST3K fans at this link.]

One of the sketches on The Higgins Boys and Gruber that Wayne and I always remembered – well, besides the “Sex Survey” sketch – was their game-show spoof “$99,000 Pyramid.” They’re down to the last category in the Pyramid, and the clock is ticking down while one contestant is giving the other clues like “stars”, “suns”, “comets”, etc. The clock runs out while the contestant sputters without an answer. The host says to the disappointed contestant, “Now wait, before you turn around…what if I said…“Chad Everett“?” The contestant, who obviously had a light bulb go on inside his head, nods and responds with the correct answer, “Things in the Universe?”

[…smooth segue…]

So here’s a fabulous photo of another one of those “Things in the Universe”, the “Cinderella’s Slipper Galaxy”, part of a ‘space photo of the day‘ series [scroll down past the picture on the link for hundreds more amazing photos, as well as commentary about the photo] from wired.com. Slate’s Phil Plait wrote about it back on April 2nd, and apparently one of Plait’s Twitter followers suggested the “Cinderella’ Slipper” name.

Cinderella's Slipper Galaxy--Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Hayes

Cinderella’s Slipper Galaxy–Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Hayes

I like what Phil Plait says at the end of his article:

“I find it fascinating that the Universe is so accommodating to our inquisitive nature. It leaves clues everywhere about itself, and all you need to learn about it is a bit of math and physics, technology, and above all curiosity. With those features in combination, the entire cosmos can be revealed.”

This is our daily open thread — talk away now, don’t be shy!

63 thoughts on “The Watering Hole, Monday, August 26th, 2013: “…Chad Everett?””

  1. The folks at MST3K left me with the habit of editorializing bad movies and making up lines for scenes.
    They taught me how to truly enjoy a movie.
    The habit is yet to be broken.

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  3. I see Frugal has a new avatar, that looks like the crack in Amy Pond’s wall, after it opened up.

    Prisoner Zero has escaped!

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  4. 6 Filthy Facts About the Rich

    1. Accumulating almost all the wealth
    As evidence of the extremes between the very rich and the rest of us, the average household net worth for the top 1% in 2009 was almost $14 million, while the average household net worth for the bottom 47% was almost ZERO.

    2. Creating their own wealth
    In another alarming testament to wealth at the top, the richest 10% own almost 90 percent of stocks excluding pensions. Consider what that means. The stock market has historically risen three times faster than the GDP itself.

    3. Taking ALL the income gains
    If the richest 1% had taken the same percentage of total U.S. income in 2006 as they did in 1980, they would have taken a trillion dollars less out of the economy. Instead they tripled their share of post-tax income. And then they captured ALL the income gains in the first two years of the post-recession recovery.

    4. Donating a smaller share than the poorest Americans
    Two dependable sources provide pretty much the same information. Barclays reported that those with earnings in the top 20% donated on average 1.3 percent of their income, whereas those in the bottom 20% donated 3.2 percent. And according to the New York Times, the nonprofit Independent Sector found that households earning less than $25,000 a year gave away an average of 4.2 percent of their incomes, while those with earnings of more than $75,000 gave away 2.7 percent.

    5. Making enough to feed 800 million people
    India just approved a program to spend $4 billion a year to feed 800 million people. Half of Indian children under 5 are malnourished.
    In 2012, three members of the Walton family each made over $4 billion just from stocks and other investments. So did Charles Koch, and David Koch, and Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison, and Michael Bloomberg, and Jeff Bezos.

    6. Taking two-thirds of a trillion dollars in subsidies
    Even all that is not enough for the very rich. About two-thirds of nearly $1 trillion in individual “tax expenditures” (tax subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes) goes to the top quintile of taxpayers. An astounding 75 percent of dividend and capital gain subsidies go to the richest 1%.

    And that doesn’t include business subsidies, like the $16.8 billion per year in agricultural benefits paid out to big companies and to wealthy individuals who happen to have farms in their portfolios. The filthiest fact, in terms of detestable extremes, is that much of Congress wants to cut the $4.35 a day food benefit to hungry Americans, almost half of them children, so that money can keep flowing to the top.

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  8. Only 9% of the American people want to go to war with Syria. Even when chemical weapons are mentioned, a growing plurality is against intervention. But a “surgical air strike” is an act of war.

    How does Obama think this will end? If only he had some history to learn from…..

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    • And fewer than 30% can find Syria on a map….just a guess. Was it Batshit Bachmann who thought that Syria was Ahmedinnerjacket’s ‘way to the sea’?

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  9. Don’t forget: The Ed Schultz Show is on MSNBC today at 5pm eastern!

    Ed just called Alabama a third world country, based on his townhall Friday night. 😀

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  12. oh bejesus!!…Meet the Press is stooping too low…..

    Not to put too fine a point on it, but WTF??? The figures that Meet the Press think can best speak to the civil rights fight are Snoop Lion and Mitt Romney?

    The Mitt Romney who lied about seeing his dad march with MLK?

    The Mitt Romney who claimed that Obama support was high because black people wanted more free stuff?

    The Mitt Romney whose campaign was filled with racist dog-whistles?

    The Mitt Romney who pandered to the racist birther movement?

    The Mitt Romney who was a prominent member of a church that for the first 31 years of his life taught that black people were “cursed” and barred from the priesthood?

    The mind reels, NBC.

    ~C&L~

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  13. just for shits and grins:

    A security lab, delivering a report to the makers of software for a luxury Japanese toilet, warned that a flaw in their Android program renders the toilet hackable—even while a user sits on it. The Satis (which retails for the equivalent of about $5,600) includes automatic flushing, bidet spray, fragrance-spritzing, and music, according to an August BBC News report, and is controllable by a “My Satis” cellphone app. However, the PIN to operate the app is unalterably “0000”

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  14. Support the troops? Steven Salaita hates the phrase:

    “A nation that continuously publicizes appeals to “support our troops” is explicitly asking its citizens not to think. It is the ideal slogan for suppressing the practice of democracy, presented to us in the guise of democratic preservation. …

    Who, for instance, are “the troops”? Do they include those safely on bases in Hawaii and Germany? Those guarding and torturing prisoners at Bagram and Guantánamo? The ones who murder people by remote control? The legions of mercenaries in Iraq? The ones I’ve seen many times in the Arab world acting like an Adam Sandler character? “The troops” traverse vast sociological, geographical, economic and ideological categories. It does neither military personnel nor their fans any good to romanticize them as a singular organism.”

    http://www.salon.com/2013/08/25/no_thanks_i_wont_support_the_troops/

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    • Its a call for abject submission to the military no matter what they do – less about the individuals in the forces and more the percpetion that with the SPOTUS as C-in-C, that you should just shut up get into line and stop asking questions. Frankly, if you are not asking questions then you are *not* supporting the troops at all – who with the oath to obey orders cannot be afforded that luxury.

      Those stupid magnets – Made in China of course – take them off the back of the cars and stick them over the gas cap …. maybe a flicker of thought will penetrate the dull mind of those who crave for authority to tell them what to think. /turtlerantoff

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  16. Adult “swinger” clubs occasionally rent commercial facilities like restaurants for an evening in which randy couples can mingle, but a club in Melbourne, Australia, struck a deal with the Casey Kids Play House Cranbourne, where frolickers could enjoy the playtime equipment—until parents of children who play there found out in June. The parents were especially concerned about the partiers cavorting among the plastic balls in the giant ball pit. One parent told the Herald Sun, “My son is one (who) puts balls in his mouth.”

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  17. Manayunk Cleaners in Philadelphia has been testing delivery of customers’ clothing via its own drone (a converted four-blade DJI Phantom quadcopter originally used for aerial photography), guided by GPS. Said one bemused customer, “I was wondering what the hell that was, to be honest.” So far, the payload is limited to a shirt or towel, to be picked off the hovering aircraft by the customer, but owner Harout Vartanian hopes to buy a bigger drone soon. Agence France-Presse news service reported an even bolder drone program in August: delivering beer to music festival-goers in South Africa. The director of the Oppikoppi festival in Limpopo province attested to the drone’s success. A reveler places an order by cellphone, which marks the location, and the drone is dispatched to lower the beer by parachute—usually in the midst of a cheering crowd.

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    • Pro-life Kooki? Remember how Jesus was always fingerprinting the folk he healed so he could be certain to bill them later? He also always picked the worthiest among the populace to heal, drug tested them, inquired as to their citizenship status and employment history, made sure He was only healing folks who by God deserved it. I cannot imagine what church you attend where the parishioners do not rise up and repudiate your conduct and indeed your entire view of the world and your fellow humans. I feel bad for saying this, but you make me want to run outside and vomit off my front porch.

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