Want my old domain?
Attention. My old domain, mortalengine.com, is expiring April 1 and I have decided not to renew it. Once it expires you can pick it up if you want it. It’s about $10 to $20 per year to have it registered. If you are still using one of my old mortalengine.com email addresses, please stop using it and contact me through the form on this website for a newer address. That is all.
Don't piss off comedians
When John McCain canceled an appearance on David Letterman, Dave spent pretty much the whole show ripping him a new one. It was bad PR for McCain and you would think that people would have learned a lesson. Not CNBC’s Rick Santelli, oh no! He canceled an appearance on The Daily Show. The host, Jon Stewart, was not fazed and spent the 8 minutes he would have spent on the interview bashing Santelli and CNBC. Have a look.
Video no longer available!
H/T to the Consumerist
Best YouTuber ever
This guy has to be the best YouTuber ever. Here is a video of his Slaymaker L&N padlock. It’s pretty sweet. Check out his channel called dieselducy (it’s a real engine!) for more padlock, elevator, and florescent bulb action.
Personally I can’t think of a better way to spend a day than sitting in my car, listening to ABBA while I make videos of myself unlocking and locking padlocks.
Oh yeah… That’s the stuff.
Weird fish
Macropinna microstoma is the weirdest fish I’ve seen to date. I wonder what it tastes like served with rice and soy sauce.
For more about this fish, check out this article at Pharyngula.
Studies show stereotypical results about homophobes
I recently came across an article at Scientific American discussing studies about homophobes and their reactions to gay people. The long and the short of it is that amongst “straight” male homophobes, sexual arousal occurs at a higher rate than amongst straight, non-homophobic men. Other studies also show that anger and violent tendencies are greatly increased amongst “straight” male homophobes after they are exposed to hardcore gay porn.
So here’s a tip, if you don’t want to get your ass beaten (or otherwise abused), don’t show hardcore gay porn to homophobes.
H/T Friendy Atheist
Caturday 5
Here’s a picture of a cute kitty. I wonder what it is thinking. Click on the image to find out what your cat is thinking.
Meow.
Iranian satellite launched into orbit
Iran recently launched a small communications and research satellite into orbit. To most this might be just another country entering the space race, but to me it sets off alarm bells. The ability to put things in orbit also gives you the ability to bring that orbital object down pretty much anywhere on the face of the planet. This is a disturbing development. Hopefully the Obama administration will take steps to ensure that future generations of Iranians use this technology for peace instead of war.
I wondered this myself
TN Democrats are smarter than you
By hook and crook and sheer luck, the Democrats of the Tennessee General Assembly have managed to scuttle the candidacy of Jason Mumpower for Assembly Speaker. Instead the post was won by Republican Kent Williams of Carter County. The Dems approached the moderate Williams over the Thanksgiving holiday and asked if he’d be interested in the position should they not be able to garner enough support for Jimmy Naifeh who was speaker at the time.
Williams was interested and when it became apparent that Naifeh would not be able to get the 50 votes he needed, the Democrats nominated and voted for Kent Williams. Williams sealed the deal by voting for himself and thus became the first Republican Speaker in Tennessee in a coon’s age. Needless to say, the Republicans are pissed since Williams intends to share power with the Democrats who helped him get elected.
Complete details can be had in this article at nashvillepost.com.
Some noteworthy WordPress changes
While doing some research on a new WordPress theme I am developing, I stumbled across some recent changes to the wp-config.php file that I thought were interesting. Most noteworthy is the fact that you can move the wp-config.php file itself up one directory from the WordPress root directory. Since I have WordPress installed in the root of my web server, I can actually move my wp-config.php out of the public_html directory altogether. This is a much more secure home for wp-config.php since the file contains my database username and password in plain text.
The other change allows me to move the wp-content directory to another directory within my web structure. Instead of it being in my root directory, I can house it in its own sub-directory which should make re-installing WordPress much less of a pain in the future.
If you are a user of WordPress, or any self-hosted blogging platform for that matter, it pays to stay updated with the latest version and abreast of the security features in those versions. Happy blogging!
