I was amazed by how many people eschew basic courtesy just because it’s Twitter.

Testing the iPhone Tumble app.

Testing the iPhone Tumble app.

"A bank customer shot a robber after an armed confrontation in a Kansas City parking lot Saturday. The robber was wounded in the head and was in stable condition at a hospital, police said. The shooting happened about 9 a.m. when a man and a woman were in a car using the automated teller machine at the Bank of America at North Oak Trafficway and Barry Road. They were robbed at gunpoint, but as the gunman walked away, the man in the car got out armed with his own gun, said Sgt. Chris Lantz of the department’s robbery unit. The man yelled for the robber to stop. When the robber turned around and pointed his gun, the man fired at him, hitting him in the head, Lantz said […] The robbery victim had a permit to carry a concealed gun, Lantz said. Under the circumstances, Lantz said, that would not matter because he could legally carry the weapon in his car."

Bank customer shoots gunman after robbery

Sds writes, “Responsible citizens with guns deter crime and contribute to the public safety.”

I think he’s crazy to choose this case as an example of responsibility, deterrance and public safety.  The crime happened.  But the “responsible” gun owner shot the fleeing suspect in the head over whatever he’d withdrawn from the ATM.

In this case, gun-ownership made a relatively simple robbery into a much more serious situation.  If the robber actually turned around and aimed his weapon, the “responsible citizen” has a legitimate self-defense claim.  Otherwise, he’s looking at attempted murder, assuming the robber pulls though.

In other words, the presence of the extra gun led to more violence.  Had the gun not been there, nobody would have been shot in the head.

(via squashed)

I can’t imagine living somewhere where my neighbour or any random person on the street could be legally carrying a gun or keep one in their closet for no good reason, just because they felt like it. The very idea does not compute.

As an aside, I’ve lived in countries where there is no right to bear arms all my life and there is no more murder and violence than in those where the opposite is true.

via squashed
"the movie works like thrillers used to work, before they were required to contain villains the size of buildings."
The X-Files: I Want to Believe :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews
Yum.

Yum.

squeleton orchestra 1 (via jm_frappier)

squeleton orchestra 1 (via jm_frappier)

Uhm. A development podcast. With a logo that depicts the silhouette of a woman who’s bending over. This stuff just mocks itself.

Uhm. A development podcast. With a logo that depicts the silhouette of a woman who’s bending over.

This stuff just mocks itself.

"There is a strong case to be made that, in recent years, it is with good reason that the English-speaking cultures of the world have lost interest in France. Certainly, French writers no longer enjoy the world standing they once had - the most prominent figure in French letters is probably the novelist Michel Houellebecq, known outside France mainly for peddling a stew of gloomy and sensationalist filth.
Meanwhile, French philosophy has become a quaint relic when it is not a joke (the name of Jacques Derrida, to cite only the most recently dead, already evokes, in the style of Life on Mars, the far-off era of early-Seventies prog rock and Maoism). French politics are a model of duplicity and corruption. French cinema has not produced anything worth watching in decades. French cooking is said to be in terminal decline. Even Paris - the crucible of European modernity - wears an old-fashioned air, a fact acknowledged by its young people, who flock to New York and London in search of employment. It seems that only the age-old sport of French-bashing, now equally popular on both sides of the Atlantic, reminds us of the existence of the French at all."

Andrew Hussey’s Observer review of Graham Robb’s The Discovery of France. English swine. Also, wrong on so very many counts. (via czupcaks)

That whole article? Written by somebody who’s never set foot in France. 

 The following quote: “It is, however, one of the lingering ironies of this book that although the ‘discovery’ of this defining dynamic of French history is clear to an English historian such as Robb, it is yet to be discovered by the French themselves.”?

 Written by somebody who’s never talked to a French person. 

via czupcaks

jakoblodwick:

rickyv:

I’m shorting the word “douche.”

After a strong resurgence in 2005 and showing strong staying power through 2007, its day has come. Lately most of the people I’ve seen use it fit into two categories, or a combination of both:

1) people over 40 who have finally had the word passed down the cool chain from their younger friends and co-workers

2) the “douches” originally being described themselves

Pretty soon even the douches won’t be calling people douches, which is when the stock will completely crash.

The worst thing about “douche” is that it lacks a clear meaning. Calling someone an “asshole” means something. So do “loser” and “jerk”. But when someone says “douche”, it just means “I don’t like them, but am too lazy to articulate why”. Maybe that person is a violent, alcoholic banker on trial for rape, or maybe he’s a pot head from the midwest who writes about conspiracies on his blog.

“I don’t like ‘em and I’m not sayin’ why.”

 Well, to me “douche” means despicable. For any reason. However,the word “despicable” has something of a moustache twirling James Bond villain from the Seventies implication to it, which is why I use the word douche.

Also, and this is a big part of the appeal for me, it sounds right. Much like “fuck”, the sound carries and complements the meaning well.