AdamSmith

That would seem to be about as personal as it gets. One can envision MsGuy's Patented Vegetable-Juice Enemas making a big splash.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/nsa-collects-millions-text-messages-daily-untargeted-global-sweep

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet-security/10573573/NSA-can-eavesdrop-on-your-PC-even-if-it-is-not-on-internet.html

Russell Johnson, the Professor on ‘Gilligan’s Island,’ Dies at 89 By BRUCE WEBER JAN. 16, 2014THE NEW YORK TIMES Russell Johnson during filming of a 1978 “Gilligan’s Island” reunion show. Wally Fong/Associated Press Russell Johnson, an actor who made a living by mostly playing villains in westerns until he was cast as the Professor, the brains of a bunch of sweetly clueless, self-involved, hopelessly naïve island castaways, on the hit sitcom “Gilligan’s Island,” died on Thursday at his home in Bainbridge Island, Wash. He was 89. His agent, Michael Eisenstadt, confirmed the death. “Gilligan’s Island,” which was seen on CBS from 1964 to 1967 and still lives on in reruns, starred Bob Denver as Gilligan, the witless first mate of the S.S. Minnow, a small touring boat that runs aground on an uncharted island after a storm. Besides Gilligan and the Professor, five others were on board: the Skipper (Alan Hale Jr.); Ginger, a va-va-voom movie star (Tina Louise); the snobbish wealthy couple Thurston Howell III (Jim Backus) and his wife, known as Lovey (Natalie Schafer); and Mary Ann, a girl-next-door type (Dawn Wells). In the show’s first season, Mr. Johnson and Ms. Wells were left out of the opening credits and their characters were ignored in the theme song, which named the other castaways but dismissed the two of them with the phrase “and the rest.” The snub was rectified for the second season, at the same time that the show went from black-and-white to color. The Professor was a good-looking but nerdy academic, an exaggerated stereotype of the man of capacious intelligence with little or no social awareness. Occasionally approached romantically by Ginger (and guest stars, including Zsa Zsa Gabor), he remained chaste and unaffected. But he was pretty much the only character on the show who possessed anything resembling actual knowledge, and he was forever inventing methods to increase the castaways’ chance of rescue. Still, among the show’s many lapses of logic was the fact — often noted by Mr. Johnson in interviews — that although the Professor could build a shortwave radio out of a coconut shell, he couldn’t figure out how to patch a hole in a boat hull. Avid fans — very avid — are probably the only ones to remember that the character’s name was actually Dr. Roy Hinkley, or that his academic résumé was explicitly spelled out. “Professor, what exactly are your degrees?” Mr. Howell asked once. “Well,” the Professor replied, “I have a B.A. from U.S.C., a B.S. from U.C.L.A., an M.A. from S.M.U. and a Ph.D. from T.C.U.” Mr. Howell clucked in return: “Well, I don’t know much about your education, but it sounds like a marvelous recipe for alphabet soup.” Russell David Johnson was born on Nov. 10, 1924, near Wilkes-Barre, Pa., the oldest of six children. His father died when Russell was not yet 10, and his mother sent him and two brothers to Girard College, then a school for poor orphan boys, in Philadelphia, where he finished high school. He served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, winning a Purple Heart, and after his discharge studied on the G.I. Bill at the Actors’ Laboratory in Hollywood. His first film role was in a 1952 drama about fraternity hazing, “For Men Only,” in which he played a sadistic fraternity leader; that led to a contract with Universal-International, which led to roles in a series of movies, mostly westerns (including “Law and Order,” in which he played Ronald Reagan’s no-good brother) and science fiction films, including “It Came From Outer Space.” Later in the decade he began appearing frequently on television, often in western shows in the role of the black hat, even though he was a poor horseman. (When he played a marshal in the series “Black Saddle,” he suggested to the producer — “semi-seriously,” he said in an interview in 2004 — that the character be seen walking his horse into town and that he chase down the bad guys on foot.) He also appeared in two episodes of “The Twilight Zone” involving time travel. In one, he tries to prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; in the other, about a time machine that accidentally rescues a 19th-century murderer from a hanging, he plays the inventor, a professor. Mr. Johnson’s survivors include his wife, Connie; a daughter, Kim; a stepson, Court Dane; and a grandson. Ms. Louise and Ms. Wells are the only surviving “Gilligan’s Island” cast members. After “Gilligan’s Island,” Mr. Johnson made a career guest-starring in television series, including the dramas “Mannix,” “Cannon” and “Lou Grant” and the comedies “Bosom Buddies” and “The Jeffersons,” usually as an upright character with smarts. He also reprised the Professor role in the 1970s and 1980s in the cartoon series “The New Adventures of Gilligan” and “Gilligan’s Planet” and in three made-for-television “Gilligan” movies. “ ‘Gunsmoke,’ ‘Wagon Train,’ ‘The Dakotas,’ you name a western, I did it,” he said of his career before “Gilligan.” He added: “I was always the bad guy in westerns. I played more bad guys than you can shake a stick at until I played the Professor. Then I couldn’t get a job being a bad guy.” http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/17/arts/television/russell-johnson-the-professor-on-gilligans-island-dies-at-89.html?_r=0

TMZ says cops also took the Bieb's cell phone... http://m.tmz.com/#Article/2014/01/16/justin-bieber-cell-phone-naked-pics-photos-drug-references-texts

http://m.wpbf.com/entertainment/reports-gilligans-professor-russell-johnson-dies-at-89/-/17441440/23965186/-/3vpksg/-/index.html http://m.tmz.com/#Article/2014/01/16/professor-gilligans-island-died-dead-russell-johnson

I resemble that remark.

I also find it biologically challenging to pass recipes that I have not personally tried.

Interesting that Bieber would seem not to have rushed to bail the kid out. Good way to be rid of annoying house guests.

I do. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/index.php?/topic/17245-fart-filtering-underwear/ Actually after breakfast.

"Jacob's Dream," c. 1691, Michael Willman

Sketch: Francois Hollande et son alleged bit sur le side The French president gives a press conference in Paris as rumours continue to circulate about his alleged affair with Julie Gayet, an actress By Michael Deacon, Parliamentary Sketchwriter telegraph.co.uk 7:50AM GMT 15 Jan 2014 François Hollande est dans un spot de bother. Il est dans un pickle. Franchement, il est dans l’eau chaud. Selon un magazine français, le président a been having une affaire très steamy avec une femme improbably belle. Et hier, slap bang dans le middle de cette scandale, il devait give un grand press conference. Quel luck rotten! Mais il y avait un peu de bon news pour le pauvre homme: il est français. Et les français, apparently, ne care pas about les affaires steamy. En fait, un nouveau poll shows que depuis la scandale broke, le président a become plus populaire! En France, vous voyez, c’est seulement une scandale si un homme n’a pas une affaire. En Paris, le press conference était complètement packed. En angleterre, les journalistes anglais ont regardé l’action à la télévision. Ils n’ont pas pu wait to écouter le gossip juicy about l’homme important et son bit sur le side. En fin, le président – un petit fellow qui apparently a seulement un pair des chaussures – est arrivé. Pour once, il n’a pas porter son motorcycle helmet. Sans further ado, il a commencé parler about l’économie. Il a parlé about it pour un très long temps. Cinq minutes, dix minutes, vingt minutes, trente minutes – tout sour l’économie! C’était tout terribly intéressant, mais je n’ai pas pu help but feel qu’il y avait un éléphant dans la salle. Mais still il a continué de parler about l’économie, et le banking, et le social security, et so on et so on. Zut alors! Monsieur le Président certainement avait beaucoup à dire about sujets that a rien to do avec le steamy hot shagging. “Je suis desolé pour going into such detail,” a dit le président. Il est such un tease. Finalement il a fini parler about son dratted économie. Donc! C’était temps pour some questions about les sujets plus importants, such as le hanky-panky! Naughty Monsieur le Président a been jouer au Cachez le Saucisse! Les journalistes français would avoir beaucoup de choses à dire about ça! “Excusez-moi, Monsieur le Président,” a dit un petit journaliste, très politely, “mais pouvez-vous possiblement tell nous, si ce n’est pas trop much trouble, qui at le moment est la ‘Première Femme’?” “Non, je ne jolly well could pas,” a dit le président. Et ça, apparently, était ça. Pas de further questions sur le rumpy-pumpy. Les journalistes français just voulaient to ask about le silly économie. Quel waste de temps ça was. FIN. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/francois-hollande/10573002/Sketch-Francois-Hollande-et-son-alleged-bit-sur-le-side.html

Neat. The British Museum's top five masterpieces On the day the British Museum celebrates its 255th anniversary – and also a Google Doodle – here's our pick of the top five objects in its collection Happy birthday: The façade of the British Museum, which turns 255 today By Telegraph Reporters 12:52PM GMT 15 Jan 2014 The British Museum has today been celebrated with a Google Doodle, 255 years to the day after it first opened its doors. Back in 1759, it was housed in the Bloomsbury mansion, Montagu House (on the same site as today's building), with a collection based on the bequest of the physician, naturalist and collector Sir Hans Sloane. Initially, it attracted 5,000 visitors per year. How times have changed. Yesterday, the museum announced that a record 6.7 million people flocked through its doors in 2013 (beating the previous annual record of 5.9 million in 2008). This was partly attributed to a string of superb exhibitions – including Ice Age Art and Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, the latter of which was seen by 471,000 people (the third most popular show in the BM’s history, behind 1972’s Treasures of Tutankhamun and 2007’s The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army.) As well as the temporary blockbusters, though, the British Museum has a first-rate collection on permanent display. Here below we pick our top five items. 1) The Parthenon Sculptures Aka, the Elgin Marbles. Purchased by Lord Elgin in 1816, these sculptures survive from the ruin of the Parthenon, the fifth-century BC temple to Athena set high above Athens on the rock of the Acropolis. They are a source of continued diplomatic dispute with Greece, the British Museum refusing to countenance repatriation – and with good reason. These 75 metres of sculpted frieze are arguably the BM’s greatest treasure. 2) The Oxus Treasure This hoard of 180 gold and silver items, dating from the Persian empire of the Fifth century BC, is perhaps the finest surviving collection of Achaemenid metalwork. One of its prize pieces is the glitteringly intricate model of a manned, four-horse chariot. Not really until the Renaissance creations of Cellini would goldsmithery reach such peaks of sophistication again. 3) The Rosetta Stone The key to the decipherment of hieroglyphs after countless centuries of head-scratching and bemusement. The inscription on the stone isn’t especially exciting in itself: a decree affirming the royal cult of the 13-year-old Ptolemy V on the first anniversary of his coronation in 196 BC. But the fact it was written in three different scripts – hieroglyphs, demotic Egyptian and Greek – allowed modern scholars to begin to decipher hieroglyphs for the first time. 4) The Lewis Chessmen These 82 chess pieces were carved (rather marvellously) from walrus ivory and whale tooth in the late 12th-century, and found on a beach on the windswept Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides, in 1831. The pieces represent the highest classes of society and may well have been made for a medieval Norwegian king, as a symbolic display of his sovereign power (the Isle of Lewis then being part of the Kingdom of Norway). 5) Mummy of Katebet It’s not easy picking one from the BM’s fine collection of Egyptian mummies, but this particular example from Late 18th Dynasty Thebes (1250 BC to you and me) is a longstanding favourite. It preserves the body of 'The Chantress of Amun’, a well-regarded singer who performed at temple rituals. Her mummy's rich outer trappings include a gilded mask, elaborate wig and real rings on the fingers of her carved hands. The British Museum is open daily from 10.00 to 17.30 and is free to enter; britishmuseum.org http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/10573788/The-British-Museums-top-five-masterpieces.html

Home What are Buttcoins? Why should I invest in bitcoins? Contact History What is a Buttcoin?Buttcoin is a peer-to-peer butt. Peer-to-peer means that no central authority issues new butts or tracks butts. These tasks are managed collectively by the network. It’s like a bitcoin, but with butts instead. Why call it Buttcoin?Because butts are funny. And it kinda sounds like Bitcoin. (more…) http://buttcoin.org/

I've worked hard and I've become rich and friendless and mean. In America, that's about as far as you can go. -- Horace Vandergelder

This is great. deathandtaxesmag.com In News by Alex Moore Jan 15, 2014 CNN reporter is visibly stoned after report on Colorado’s legal marijuana CNN reporter Randi Kaye is a stoner and a terrible liar. In a recent field report on marijuana legalization in Colorado, Kaye took a ride around the Mile High City with some local so-called Ganjaprenneurs who are renting out a party limo for “weed tours” of the city’s newly legal hot spots. Weed-lover Barbara Harvey hot-boxes the thing with a couple joints that a very blazed Kaye describes to Anderson Cooper as “the size of small cannons.” But Kaye clearly didn’t limit indulging to the second-hand variety—you can almost see her nose growing as she tells Anderson that her “very extensive research” only included a contact high. She also laughs uncontrollably and describes a joint saying, “this one is a blueberry one.” Being called out by Anderson Cooper for being clearly baked on national news would be enough to send me into a full-blown panic attack. You have to admit—she handles it like a champ. Start at 4:30 below for the choice bit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xXW6IeeiQ8g http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/213102/cnn-reporter-is-visibly-stoned-after-report-on-colorados-legal-marijuana/

How could I have done without this invaluable concept all these years?! Also known apparently as the utility, hedonistic or hedonic calculus: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felicific_calculus