Hanlon’s Razor, which I first encountered in the Murphy’s Laws Book 2 listed at the link, goes something like this: “Never attribute to malice that which can adequately explained by stupidity.”   Other words can go in place of “stupidity.”  “Incompetence” and “ignorance” also work.  The gist of it is that human failure is more likely than human malice, so we’d rather assume that someone made a mistake, instead of deliberately slipping us the knife.

Political opponents often prefer to jump on malice, becuase it makes their enemies look worse, so it’s sometimes hard to separate malice and stupidity.  Secrecy can make it hard to do, and the recent resurgence of the voting machine debacle that was Diebold (and is now Premier Election Solutions) points to one of those cases.  The problem, according to Premier, occurred when a district with many memory cards tried to update a central repository.  In this case, votes can be lost.  This flaw had been in the system for a decade.

Of course, there was no way to actually know about the error.  There was no paper audit, nothing to compare against. Possibly the original memory cards, but I know how government works — if these machines were certified by the state, then the counties assumed they worked, and had been tested.  Perhaps they were, but it shouldn’t escape notice, that until recently, Premier had a factory just outside of Columbus, Ohio.  And now, Ohio is suing them over the losses.

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Noticed this Fail today in my browser:

The image in Firefox. Note the ad in the upper left.

The image in IE, now you can read the title, and see the fail.

The problem, of course, is that the css for that flash animation (which will not go away in firefox) is supposed to be in the bottom right gutter, but is fubarred in firefox. I’d never have noticed the ad if it wasn’t in the wrong place. And totally wrong for the article, of course.

And it might be interesting to read the article, which is about how carbohydrates kill off the neurons which regulate our feeling of fullness.

In honor of the zombie rhyming joke page, linked by BoingBoing, I offer this (there are 8, in honor of the day):

Q1: What do zombies eat?
A: BRAAAAIIINNNS!!!!!

Q2: What do vegetarian zombies eat?
A: GRAAAAIIIINNNSS!!!!

Q3: What do zombies get on their shirts, first thing in the morning?
A: STAAAIIIINS!!!!

Q4: Why does a zombie’s head get wet?
A: It RAAAAIIIINNNSS!!!!

Q5: How does a zombie play dead?
A: He FEEEIIIGGNNNSS!!!

Q6: What can you find zombie snakes?
A: On a PLAAAANNNE!!!!

Q7: What is a zombie’s favorite ground-based transport??
A: A TRAAAAIINN!!!!

Q8: What is a zombie’s favorite presdiential candidate?
A: Obama.

SexyWife requires me to note that he’s a zombie, not dumb.  I think it’s all the brains (or BRAAAIIINNNSS!!!), they must be some sort of IQ snackfood

My new image, They Will Know, is up at StoriesOnline.net. It’s a short FemDom story about a woman who has become obsessed with asphyxiating her partner. In terms of my codes it’s (MF Fdom Msub Breath).

I’ll be posting my stories there from now on, and will be moving some stuff from my ASSTR site to there, as well. (I won’t be taking down ASSTR, just not updating it as much).

Feel free to vote on the story at SOL, or to leave comments here or there.

Thanks!

My lover, J (aka, Ozymandus), turned me onto Walter Jon Williams with the book Aristoi.  I’ve read several of his works, and picked up Implied Spaces at the library recently.  I’m started it this morning, so this bit of text comes near the beginning, and confirms something about the main character, Aristide, that I’d thought.  He’s a wanderer through an “Arabian Nights” style space that includes caravanseries, ogres, trolls, horses and lizard mounts.  He has a talking cat, Bitsy, which is evidently unusual.

Aristide turned to Grax and his command.

“Now!” he called. “Charge them!”

Grax took three steps and hurled himself onto his riding-lizard. He pulled his lance from the ground and shook it.

“Grax the Troll!” he shouted.

“Grax the Troll!” his riders echoed, and spurred forward.

“Not exactly ‘Leeroy Jenkins!‘” remarked Bitsy, “but I suppose it will do.”

Tee hee!

(No I don’t consider this a big spoiler, it’s on page 40, and doesn’t really tell me that much about the character, except that more is going on than I know — which the sideflaps told me anyway)

Girl and I did finish The Endless Setlist on Medium (the lowest setting).  I took us another hour and a half on Sunday morning to do the final 18 songs, for a grand total of just over 5 hours.   I’ve got a lot to say about RB, RB2, and GH in general, but I’ve been slaving away at my budget, and that takes my writing priority.

For now, check out GamePolitics’s shaving of a video of the Today Show anchors playing Rock Band 2 (on easy).

My favorite part is where most of them refuse to quit playing, even though their time is up.

We’re taking a break, pausing it for the night.  40 Songs in 3.5 hours.  We’re making better time than the info we found online.  But we haven’t done “Green Grass and High Tides” yet either.

Don’t Fear the Reaper is an okay warmup for tomorrow morning.

If there’s a power outage, there might be a death.  So, keep us in your thoughts.

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22 songs.  Not quite halfway

29 Fingers
Say It Ain’t So
In Bloom
I Think I’m Paranoid
Time We Had
Mississippi Queen
Here It Goes Again
Creep
Blood Doll
Wave Of Mutilation
Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Maps
Gimme Shelter
Brainpower
Sabotage
Blitzkrieg Bop
Celebrity Skin
I’m So Sick
When You Were Young
Black Hole Sun
Wanted Dead Or Alive
Learn To Fly
Seven
Orange Crush
Main Offender
The Hand That Feeds
Day Late, Dollar Short
Epic
Suffregate City
Ballroom Blitz
Dead On Arrival
Pleasure (Pleasure)
Train Kept A Rollin’
Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Paranoid
Timmy & The Lords Of The Underworld
Welcome Home
Go With The Flow
Dani California
Nightmare
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper
Reptilia
Electric Version
Vasoline
Detroit Rock City
Can’t Let Go
Next To You
Cherub Rock
Tom Sawyer
Enter Sandman
Green Grass And High Tides
Outside
Highway Star
Foreplay/Long Time
Flirtin’ With Disaster
I Get By
Run To The Hills
Won’t Get Fooled Again

Quick break after 8 songs.  We found a site that said it took them 6.5 hours.  We’re at 40 minutes.

29 Fingers
Say It Ain’t So
In Bloom
I Think I’m Paranoid
Time We Had
Mississippi Queen
Here It Goes Again
Creep
Blood Doll
Wave Of Mutilation
Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Maps
Gimme Shelter
Brainpower
Sabotage
Blitzkrieg Bop
Celebrity Skin
I’m So Sick
When You Were Young
Black Hole Sun
Wanted Dead Or Alive
Learn To Fly
Seven
Orange Crush
Main Offender
The Hand That Feeds
Day Late, Dollar Short
Epic
Suffregate City
Ballroom Blitz
Dead On Arrival
Pleasure (Pleasure)
Train Kept A Rollin’
Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Paranoid
Timmy & The Lords Of The Underworld
Welcome Home
Go With The Flow
Dani California
Nightmare
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper
Reptilia
Electric Version
Vasoline
Detroit Rock City
Can’t Let Go
Next To You
Cherub Rock
Tom Sawyer
Enter Sandman
Green Grass And High Tides
Outside
Highway Star
Foreplay/Long Time
Flirtin’ With Disaster
I Get By
Run To The Hills
Won’t Get Fooled Again

Girl and I are the starting the Endless Setlist Right now.

Pray for us.

Harmonix is.