robotmonkeys

the monkeys know all

  • RIP SJ Night Market

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    So the San Jose Night Market has shutdown. It’s a bit of a shame too. Ming and I went to the second one back in late July or early August. It was interesting, but also a bit disappointing. I knew it was going to be a bunch of food trucks since Movable Feast was organizing it, but I expected a bit more. A bunch of crappy fair t-shirts being sold out of tents wasn’t what I was hoping for, but it was kind of what was there, and what I kind of feared would be there. I don’t regret going, and we talked about going again, but then the market was suspended as they “re-vamped”.

    Still, the reason why they shut down is just pathetic, and I blame San Jose. Essentially, the city got upset that someone had the audacity to sell food at night, and to use &endash; gasp! &endash; tents! This is “Hello City Planner!”* all over again.

    I guess this means that next time Ming and I want food trucks, we’ll have to go to Willow Glenn on Fridays.

    *: It always shocks me that this is an official San Francisco City Planning video.

  • Vote Crazy! Vote Coward!

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    God damn it.

  • tumblr

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    I have a tumblr.

    Yes, tumblr is annoying in how it’s basically just photos removed from context, but it is great source for, and an easy way to share random photos from the web. I’m not cross-posting between there and here, but there’s the little widget on the side that give you a flavor of whatever it is I’m into at the moment.

  • Buddha Among Rubble

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    A statue of Hotei Buddha sits in the debris in the tsunami-destroyed town of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan Friday, April 1, 2011. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

  • Death Watch: Neil Armstrong

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    First man to walk on moon “dead”.

    I’m sure he’s actually living it up in Woodland Hills.

  • Same As It Ever Was

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    1981

    As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry S. Dent, Sr. and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. […] You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger” — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me — because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”

    – Lee Atwater, former Republican strategist and national chairman

    2012

    I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban — read African-American — voter-turnout machine. Let’s be fair and reasonable.

    – Doug Preisse, chairman of the Franklin county or Ohio Republican Party

    The voter suppression tactics to disenfranchise minorities and the elderly across Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida is just so goddamn transparent it’s not even funny.

  • Zoe “Pablo” Smith Takes on the Internet

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    British olympian Zoe “Pablo” Smith takes on the Internet:

    As Hannah pointed out earlier, we don’t lift weights in order to look hot, especially for the likes of men like that. What makes them think that we even WANT them to find us attractive? If you do, thanks very much, we’re flattered. But if you don’t, why do you really need to voice this opinion in the first place, and what makes you think we actually give a toss that you, personally, do not find us attractive? What do you want us to do? Shall we stop weightlifting, amend our diet in order to completely get rid of our ‘manly’ muscles, and become housewives in the sheer hope that one day you will look more favourably upon us and we might actually have a shot with you?! Cause you are clearly the kindest, most attractive type of man to grace the earth with your presence.

  • TV Bar

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    The liquor cabinet looks pretty cool in that 60s retro look, but I can’t imagine actually wanting a room decorated like that.

  • No Really. We suck.

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    From CNN:

    Eight female badminton players were disqualified from the Olympics on Wednesday for trying to lose matches the day before, the Badminton World Federation announced after a disciplinary hearing.

    The players from China, South Korea and Indonesia were accused of playing to lose in order to face easier opponents in future matches, drawing boos from spectators and warnings from match officials Tuesday night.

    All four pairs of players were charged with not doing their best to win a match and abusing or demeaning the sport.

    The Indonesian and South Korean pairs appealed the decision, the BWF said, and a decision on their appeals is expected later Wednesday.

    According to reports, the players were intentionally hitting the shuttlecock into the net.

    South Korea’s a appeal was rejected, and Indonesia later withdrew theirs.

  • Competitively Priced With Ketchup

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    In the new book, Marijuana Legalization What Everyone Needs to Know – operations research(!) and public policy professors from CMU, Pepperdine, and UCLA – attempt to determine what the price of marijuana if production was legalized. Using Canada’s industrial hemp industry as a guide, they estimate a price of about $5 per pound for mid-grade ganja, and a price of about $20 for good stuff. That’s 800 joints for a quarter. (But then again, who smokes joints when you can smoke a bowl?) As Matt Yglesias points out, this puts in the ketchup and sugar packet territory.

    Of course, I don’t believe that the price would ever actually go that low. First, cannabis would taxed quite aggressively. Sin taxes and all that. Also there’s such a huge disconnect between the potential $3 per ounce price and the $300 per ounce price that consumers are conditioned to expect. While prices will no doubt fall, I wonder to what the profit margin would end up being? 10x? 50x?