Happy Birthday, Nikola Tesla!

Though Edison gets most of the credit for electrifying the early 20th century, Tesla’s inventions have had more lasting impact.  He was the father of alternating current, as well as doing much of the founding research on electromagnetic waves and three-phase motors.  Nearly all the electronic devices in use today are built on principles developed by Tesla.  Happy birthday, you weird genius.

Update:  Here’s a great three minute video that breaks down the highlights of Tesla’s career.

Jimmy Carr’s Most Offensive Jokes Bit

How desensitized am I that none of these would even crack the top ten for most offensive jokes I’ve ever heard?

(Source: youtube.com)

Yeah, that sounds about right.

I laughed myself silly throughout this trailer for the upcoming Saints Row 3 game.  Saints Row has always been the over-the-top sandbox destruction game that Grand Theft Auto didn’t quite have the balls to be, and the third installment takes it to new and hilarious levels.

I don’t always play console games, but when I do, it’s shit like this.

(Source: youtube.com)

Happy Birthday, Alan Turning.

If you’re not particularly geeky, you might not have herd of Alan Turing.  Well you should.  He pioneered the fields of artificial intelligence and cryptography, and was instrumental in breaking the Nazi Enigma code during WWII.  The British government, in thanks for Touring’s efforts, stripped him of his security clearance, chemically castrated him, and persecuted him into committing suicide.  Back then, being one of the world leaders in the new field of computing and designing the code-breaking machine that won the war (or at least shortened it by quite a bit) didn’t mean squat if they found out you were gay.  It’s OK though, because the British government said they were sorry about the whole thing.  They waited until two years ago, but better late than never, right?

In any case, Alan Turing was a visionary who got fucked over by an ignorant, conservative government.  Now you know.

(via HiLobrow)

One of the primary rallying cries of the anti-immigration movement is “Them illeegalz is takin’ our jobs!”.  Of course the rational (and accurate) response to this is the fact that most illegal immigrants do work that legals don’t want to do, for wages that US citizens wouldn’t accept.  Throwing logic to the wind, Georgia recently passed House Bill 87, which made it pretty much impossible to hire illegal migrant workers.

The predictable result?  Millions of dollars worth of crops rotting in the field.  Without cheap labor, farmers can’t afford to harvest blueberries, melons, and other hand-picked produce.  US citizens - even prisoners out on parole - aren’t willing to do the work for the miserable wages (and no health insurance) that the farmers are offering.

And people get all bent out of shape when I make fun of the south for being dumb.  Sometimes stereotypes are well deserved.

Honestly, I can’t fault his logic.  The government refuses to make meaningful and sane health care reforms, but seems to have bottomless pockets for prisons.  I expect to see more of this sort of thing before we finally have a sustainable, socialized health care system like the rest of the developed world.

Happy Fathers’ Day!

Why do republicans have such a hard-on for women who are clearly insane?  The Palin trainwreck three years ago apparently wasn’t enough, so now Michele Bachmann is running for president in 2012.  It’d be hilarious if it weren’t so terrifying.

Just in case you’re not aware of how dangerously unhinged this dingbat is, check out this top ten list of ignorant bullshit that she’s said.  Wow.

Forty fabulous years of wasting billions of dollars, filling the jails with non-violent non-criminals, and getting innocent people killed.  Of all our pointless and expensive wars, you’re the most pointless.  Congratulations, War on Drugs!