Patty Hearst at CES?

An email had a link to CES.  Following the link I was struck by the striking resemblance of the eye candy to Patty Hearst.  (For those too young to remember or too lazy to do a web search, Patty Hearst was the heiress to the Hearst fortune who was kidnapped  ("dragged naked and screaming") from her boyfriend's apartment by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army.  Go look up the rest.)

Here is the CES image:

and here are pictures of an older Patty Hearst:

More quotes

Blackmail is such an ugly word. Consider it coerced behavioral modification for the stubborn. - from "10 less-than-ethical ways to get ahead" by Alan Norton http://http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-less-than-ethical-ways-to-get-ahead/2988

I found this scrawled on a business reply envelope to the World Wildlife Fund:
Christina Monet "Sleep It Off" might have been something I liked.  Below it there was a quote I haven't been able to place: "The wedding present was a horse named cocaine."  It might have been from Bernardo Bertolucci's 4-hour opus, 1900, at least that's what a web search turned up for "wedding present was a horse named cocaine".

Also on the envelope: "Consultant: self-unemployed"

This just in (2/7/2012) from a link from CodeProject ® some DBA jokes (http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=4147624#xx4147624xx):

"Give a man a mug, he drinks for a day. Teach a man to mug..."

"The difference between an ostrich and the average voter is where they stick their heads."

And from an article on "21^st Century Skills" in the March 2012 issue of Campus Technology: Our schools are still generally organized around answers rather than questions." Michael Wesch, Kansas State University.

Castalon Frying Pans or Looking the Gift Horse in the Mouth

Two Castalon frying pans were offered on a Freecycle site. I didn't recognize the brand.  A quick search of the web and well, well, a product recall.

The pans were made in China.  A meaningless observation or yet another indication that product from China should be suspect?

Howard Halpern & "The Other"

In his obit, a letter Howard Halpern wrote to the NY Times shortly after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 was quoted:

“we are unlikely to harm a friendly neighbor because she has strong views about equal rights for women, but if we call her a ‘femi-Nazi,’ she becomes ‘the other’ — evil, dangerous, hated.”

I'll remember this the next time someone uses a similar term.  I doubt it will have much effect, though it may throw someone off their stride to have someone else tell them that their choice of terms is to consciously paint someone they don't like as the other. 

It seemed to work in the short term for the Nazis against Jews and gypsies, Idi Amin against ethnic Indians, Hutu Power Hutus describing the Tutsi as cockroaches (and those of their own who wanted co-existence as traitors), and any Balkin ethnic group of your choice.

How would it be phrased?  "Are you trying to paint them as one of Howard Halpern's 'Others'?"  Would there be a pause for an explanation? 

Raindance Imperial 600 Air Showerhead

A link lead to a site on  money.MSN for items which are illegal to sell in the United States.  Besides Cuban cigars I learned that showerheads in America have been legally constrained from delivering more than 2.5 gallons of water per minute since 1992.

I haven't investigated whether that means that shower heads which exceed that limit can't be manufactured, imported, sold, installed, or used. There's a big difference especially because the Hansgrohe Raindance Imperial 600 Air Showerhead (the "28403001" to the cognoscenti) currently offered for $3,383.34 at homeclick.com, (in stock and "will ship in 24 to 48 hours").

At that price someone might want to buy the 28403001 as outre sculpture.

I don't remember this generating howls of protest against government regulation, but what with the New Hampshire primary just days away I look forward to this being part of a response to a question about specific regulations preventing America from assume it's rightful position in the world.