I have a terrible confession, kiddies: The kitty above isn’t mine. But she illustrates the concept of “short ‘n’ stubby” perfectly, being a
Manx. It’s a natural breed originating on the Isle of Man in Britain; it probably began as a random mutation that just “took”, being confined to a relatively small cat population. They’re born with either no tail at all, or just a short stub or longish partial tail (and are designated as “rumpies”, “stumpies” and “longies”, accordingly). The trait is autosomal dominant and lethal, meaning that if you try to breed two Rumpies, you get dead kitties everywhere. But if you mate a Rumpy to a regular tailed kitty of whatever kind, you’re full of win and tailless cuteness. (I’d really like to see a Rumpy with Siamese color-points–a Manx-a-mese!)
Anyway. Today is Internautic Trivia Day here, so on with it:
Apple, Inc. has just rolled out its latest Next Great Thing, and already it’s a hit with the ladies:
The best part?
No tampon backup necessary.Chavecito
advocates using Twitter! Oh
noes! Now the tweeter will be rojo rojito for sure.
BTW, I learned a new Spanish verb the other night–
tuitear, meaning either “to use Twitter” or “to tweet”. To my knowledge, ’twas
Mario Silva what coined it. And no, it’s not Mario himself who manages La Hojilla’s
twit-stream. (Love the Henry VIII costume!)
Nik Kozloff
thinks Chavecito said the moon was made of green cheese. Already been debunked by not
one, but
two of my compañeros. How embarrassing!
Also,
Daniel Drezner is a douchey dumbass, and the Venezuelan ambassador to the US has called him on it (scroll to the bottom, the pwnage is a joy to behold!)
But hey: When it comes to nutty conspiracy theories, turnabout is apparently fair play. More than a decade ago, the Yanks
thought the Russkies had created a nuclear “earthquake weapon”. Now, it’s the Russkies
blaming the Yanks, the “earthquake weapon” is an ionospheric research project called
HAARP (located in Alaska, which, as the Paliness can tell you, is within easy hollering distance of Russkyland), and both sides are putting their wacky words in Chavecito’s mouth.
And no, HAARP
can’t cause earthquakes; it only “talks” to the ionosphere, not the ground. Being located in Alaska, it’s actually more in danger of being demolished by an earthquake itself than it is of causing one. It sits near the
Pacific “Ring of Fire”, which is the largest and most active
subduction zone in the world. In fact, despite its formidable appearance and the web of tinfoil hattery that’s grown up around it,
HAARP’s actual use is quite benign. (A pity they don’t offer tours!)
And if you really wanna go off the deep end, here’s a shocking bit of news: You’ll never guess
what the Internets are REALLY made of! (Warning: The truth will not only set you free, it is also
insufferably cute!)
HAARP is also the name of the live album by Brit ultra-cool rock band MUSE. They are into the conspiracy theories, but the music is awesome.
I saw that when I was googling. I should check them out. Do they have anything on YouTube?
You are a Rojo Rojito and one of my favs.
Thanks once again for all you do!
Cort
Aw, shucks!
God, ‘Bina, you are in RARE form today!
First a little primer on Manx cats, their genetic difficulties and breeding requirements. Then, on to douching the new Apple whatever it is and whatever it does. A brief lesson in Spanglish verbs and the latest uses thereof, including our red-shirted hero’s advocacy of the new verb’s subject (try that one on all you uptight grammarians). And finally on to all the wingnuts in tinfoil hats, caps, chapeaus, tam o’shanter, bowler, ten-gallon or stove pipe. I’m surprised you let Jackson Diehl off the hook so lightly since he seems to be the origin of this asinine Village reporting.
I can’t wait for the Festive Friday and the Wanker of the Week. There should be a great deal to choose from, so much in fact that the column may just write itself (Hah! Just wait for that to happen! I’m still waiting and nothing has appeared.).
Jim, being an Apple-head myself, I’ll probably end up getting that gadget sooner or later (probably later; sooner is always too expensive.)
I’m rather fond of Manx cats, because my grandpa, who was a POW in Scotland after WWII, had heard that they cut their cats’ tails off to save them time running in and out of doors (it’s a fuel-saving thing.) Well, by sheer coincidence, the first cat he saw in Scotland happened to be a Manx, since the Isle of Man is not far from there–and since he’d never heard of the breed, he wondered if the old wives’ tale (I almost wrote “tail”!) were really true. It was one of the few funny things to happen to him during his three-year captivity.
Not to worry, Jackson Diehl is on the wank-list. I’ll spank him with my old hairbrush (lord knows it’s no good for curly hair, anyway.)
As for FLFB–shhh! It’s a surprise…
So Bina, what are the “social responsibility” thingies for Canadian broadcast media? The Canadians seem to be harassing Vzla on the RCTV thing?
Canadians? If that’s the case, they’re doing it from a US standpoint, which is certainly not ours. Press freedom isn’t absolute up here:
http://www.journalismethics.ca/media_law/index.htm