Author: Richard

Casey Anthony Verdict Reaction

If I ever get really pissed off at my mom, I’m gonna kill myself and then duct tape my mouth and transport my body so it looks like she did it. Way to go Caylee! you totally Punk’d yo momma.

what if the person who killed Nichole Brown Simpson, JonBenet Ramsey and Caylee Anthony was all the same guy. and it was Andy Kaufman?

Think before you judge… LET HE who has never found a family member unexplainably drowned, put duct tape over their mouth, transported and hid the body and then lied about it to the police CAST HE FIRST STONE…

Instead of going to real news sources, I’ll share the best of my Facebook feed:

Hope she’ll make enough money from her book/movie/interview deals to get plastic surgery to completely change her face. She’s gonna need it. -Tracie Lynn Rainwater

Casey Anthony is to receive an honorary MD and medal from NOW for the first successfully executed extreme late term abortion… Meanwhile, children all over Florida are miraculously acting like little angels today. -Chris Loesch

Shit! -Michael Buckley 

should we even call it the justice system anymore? -Kari Lyn

Casey Anthony and O.J. should share a cell. -Amanda Jordan Harris

Via Twitter: @EliBraden ME TOO!! ITS LIKE WHEN YOUR DAD HELPED GET O.J. OFF!! RT @KimKardashian: WHAT!!??!! CASEY ANTHONY NOT GUILTY!!!! I’m speechless!!! 

The court system didn’t fail today, the jury didn’t fail today. The prosecution failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Casey Anthony murdered her child. This is how our court systems work. It isn’t ‘what happened’, but what you can prove happened. Casey Anthony is a convicted liar and she has four charges of ‘misleading law enforcement’ to prove it. -Nick Lashbrook

brb guys. i’m off to go be the next Tot Dad for three years and lie my way back to freedom! wish me luck! #ihatecaseyanthony -Greg Breeden

casey anthony shows what I learned in my divorce. Woman can lie, steal, cheat and murder and get away with it all day long on this planet. -Matthew Callahan

Guilty people lie~she was charged with more than one count of “lying” to the police and withholding evidence~but I guess aside from torture to get her to talk there isn’t much more we can do; I say water board the bitch~Too bad she can admit it now and just walk away; double jeopardy~?~She walks and no one will ever know until someone else comes out with it. -Danielle Dressell

Damn, glad I didn’t get my law degree, with the number of self-proclaimed lawyers on facebook alone I don’t think I’d ever find a job -Rylan Maddox

argh.. opinion… argh… casey anthony.. argh argh… something something… argh… exclamation point, exclamation point.. argh. burp. -Kat Ballard

Casey Anthony is living the AMERICAN DREAM!!!!! Shook herself loose of all her responsibilities like they were fleas, and will now get to sell that horrific story for millions! God Bless America!!! -Michelle Phillips

God bless Caylee. Casey Anthony, hell awaits. Nobody puts duct tape on their daughter’s mouth after she has “accidentally” drowned in the pool. Nobody in their right damned mind hides the fact that her daughter has died if it was an “accident.” This judicial system is just sick. I am disgusted beyond belief. -Chelsea Reneé Gregg

Who Owns Facebook

China wants a piece of the Facebook pie. A piece “that matters“:

The cocky Chinese are not the only parties deluding themselves.  Zuckerberg, in the words of one reporter, “believes that Facebook can be an agent of change in China, as it has been in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia.”  After the disastrous China experiences of Yahoo and Google and the troubled history of Microsoft there—not to mention Beijing’s recent tirade against foreign social media—the Facebook founder appears both arrogant and naïve.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg is reportedly “wary about the compromises Facebook would have to make to do business there.”  If she loses her argument with Zuckerberg and Facebook enters China, the company will eventually be subject to demands to censor its sites, those both inside and outside China.  That’s apparently why the Chinese want to own a big stake in Facebook.  They are, in short, looking for control in the long run.  No other explanation is consistent with the Party’s other media and “educational” initiatives.

Of course, a Beijing-influenced Facebook will be hit by even more bad publicity—and inevitably defections.  Other social networking sites will spring up to capture fleeing users.  The genius of America is that its open and broad market eventually punishes the arrogant and the naïve by allowing choice.

So who says MySpace is dead?  Perhaps Rupert Murdoch sold it too soon.

The closest thing to an accurate representation

Stakeholders shown in this pie chart:

  • Facebook staff: 30%
  • Co-founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg: 24%
  • Co-founder Dustin Moskovitz: 6%
  • Co-founder Eduardo Saverin: 5%
  • Napster’s Sean Parker, Founding President of Facebook: 4%
  • Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm: ~10%
  • Goldman Sachs: ~0.8%
  • Goldman Sachs’ clients: ~3%
  • Greylock Partners, a venture capital firm: ~1.5%
  • Meritech Capital Partners: ~1.5%
  • Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder and Clarium Capital president: ~3%
  • Elevation Partners (that’s U2?s Bono among others): ~1.5%
  • Other investors: ~9.7%

I know Microsoft owns some too though, so this chart is incomplete. Upon Googling I can report that  Microsoft has a 1.6% stake and the chart is also missing Hong Kong billionaire Li-Ka Shing’s 0.8%, TriplePoint Capital (though as a debt provider they own nothing), and Accel Partners’ investment which I don’t have a number for.

chart by http://learngraph.com

 

Daisychain your USB Port

I didn’t understand this image at first cuz I didn’t see how it split 1 port into more until I realized at the end of each of those strings is – duh – a device that plugs into them, thereby using multiple devices in a chain that uses one port. I wouldn’t have thought a single USB space could handle several devices but you know what they say – if it’s in a picture I saw on the internet, it must be true. So…cool. now where do I get a set?

Science recommends not having sex with beings from the future

Via PopSci, comes a study done with tiny shrimp to see the effects of having sex with members of your species from a different time. The study was done between mates that were 160 generations apart and resulted in an earlier death rate:

They found that females that mated with males from the past or future died off sooner than those that mated with their own generation. The longer the time-shift, the earlier they died: The 22-year time difference shortened female lifetimes by 12 percent; the effect was 3 percent for the 11-year time-shift.

Interestingly, this didn’t affect the females’ reproductive success. Those that lived shorter lives produced the same average number of offspring, they just did it at a faster pace. “Females’ life histories are complex and are constantly adjusted,” explains study co-author Thomas Lenormand. These adjustments reflect the trade-offs between survival and reproduction in nature.

Brine shrimp are part of an interesting class of animal whose eggs can survive decades of drought in a form of dormancy known as cryptobiosis. Once the eggs are reintroduced to water—either in nature or in the lab—they hatch. The species therefore makes an ideal subject for a time-traveling experiment like this one.

What makes time-shifting sex hazardous to health is something called antagonistic coevolution, a way that different species (parasites and hosts, for example) or members of the same species (males and females) adapt to each other to promote their own individual reproductive interests. In nature’s sex wars, males campaign for more offspring—the proverbial seed-spreading—while females play hard-to-get because they bear most of the burden of reproduction and parenthood.

 

Amazon terminates California based Affiliates in response to proposed California tax

I’ve been an Amazon.com Affiliate (making money from Amazon ads) since 1997. This morning I received an email that I would no longer be part of the program because I live in California and Californians are assholes. More specifically: Californians are hippie Socialist assholes who elect hippie Socialists to every level of government and look to fix their failed economic system by taxing the people who work so they can give more to those that don’t. In response to what has been called the “Amazon tax”, taxing purchases made online, Amazon.com has decided to terminate all California Affiliate advertising.

Instead cutting the ridiculous entitlements that I have witnessed at least a dozen people take complete illegitimate advantage of or encouraging economic growth, the state is sticking to it’s guns on punishing workers.

It may not completely affect me because I registered my LLC in Texas precisely because of California’s anti-business tax policies so I will just switch my Amazon account to the Texas address – HOWEVER… Texas is currently negotiating the same law. Whaaaat? chyea… It’s been delayed and an alternate deal proposed and there looks like there is hope..maybe…but not definite. Still though: what the f#ck about everyone else who DOESN’T have an option to reassign the state in their accounts? California doesn’t have the same hope that Texas has of this getting reformatted. Californians are screwed. California screwed. Cali-fornicated. Thanks a lot California Liberals. You guys suck.

Here’s the message:

Hello,

For well over a decade, the Amazon Associates Program has worked with thousands of California residents. Unfortunately, a potential new law that may be signed by Governor Brown compels us to terminate this program for California-based participants. It specifically imposes the collection of taxes from consumers on sales by online retailers – including but not limited to those referred by California-based marketing affiliates like you – even if those retailers have no physical presence in the state.

We oppose this bill because it is unconstitutional and counterproductive. It is supported by big-box retailers, most of which are based outside California, that seek to harm the affiliate advertising programs of their competitors. Similar legislation in other states has led to job and income losses, and little, if any, new tax revenue. We deeply regret that we must take this action.

As a result, we will terminate contracts with all California residents that are participants in the Amazon Associates Program as of the date (if any) that the California law becomes effective. We will send a follow-up notice to you confirming the termination date if the California law is enacted. In the event that the California law does not become effective before September 30, 2011, we withdraw this notice. As of the termination date, California residents will no longer receive advertising fees for sales referred to Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned on or before the termination date will be processed and paid in full in accordance with the regular payment schedule.

You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of California. If you are not currently a resident of California, or if you are relocating to another state in the near future, you can manage the details of your Associates account here. And if you relocate to another state in the near future please contact us for reinstatement into the Amazon Associates Program.

To avoid confusion, we would like to clarify that this development will only impact our ability to offer the Associates Program to California residents and will not affect their ability to purchase from Amazon.com, Endless.com, MYHABIT.COM or SmallParts.com.

We have enjoyed working with you and other California-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program and, if this situation is rectified, would very much welcome the opportunity to re-open our Associates Program to California residents. We are also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

Scott Adams on Gettin Educated

The drinking age in those days was 18, and the entire compensation package for the managers of The Coffee House was free beer. That goes a long way toward explaining why the accounting system consisted of seven students trying to remember where all the money went. I thought we could do better.

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert has an interesting article up containing the following advice points:

Combine Skills. The first thing you should learn in a course on entrepreneurship is how to make yourself valuable. It’s unlikely that any average student can develop a world-class skill in one particular area. But it’s easy to learn how to do several different things fairly well. I succeeded as a cartoonist with negligible art talent, some basic writing skills, an ordinary sense of humor and a bit of experience in the business world. The “Dilbert” comic is a combination of all four skills. The world has plenty of better artists, smarter writers, funnier humorists and more experienced business people. The rare part is that each of those modest skills is collected in one person. That’s how value is created.

Fail Forward. If you’re taking risks, and you probably should, you can find yourself failing 90% of the time. The trick is to get paid while you’re doing the failing and to use the experience to gain skills that will be useful later. I failed at my first career in banking. I failed at my second career with the phone company. But you’d be surprised at how many of the skills I learned in those careers can be applied to almost any field, including cartooning. Students should be taught that failure is a process, not an obstacle.

Find the Action. In my senior year of college I asked my adviser how I should pursue my goal of being a banker. He told me to figure out where the most innovation in banking was happening and to move there. And so I did. Banking didn’t work out for me, but the advice still holds: Move to where the action is. Distance is your enemy.

Read the other 4 and the rest of the article here: How to get a real education