Huh...

Massachusetts Set to Offer Universal Health Insurance

Massachusetts is poised to become the first state to provide nearly universal health care coverage after the state legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill today that Gov. Mitt Romney says he will sign.

The bill does what health experts say no other state has yet been able to do: provide a mechanism for all of its citizens to obtain health insurance. It accomplishes that in a way that experts say combines several different methods and proposals from across the political spectrum, apportioning the cost among businesses, individuals and the government.

Just posting real quick for The Wife to see... Haven't read it, so no opinion. Perhaps our New England libertarian correspondents have some info?

Stream of Media Consciousness

So, I'm reading Penn Jillette's novel Sock, and a certain passage brings up the band Cop Shoot Cop. Penn posits that the name isn't about police violence. Rather it is a junkie's to-do list (You have to cop so you can shoot, which makes you need to cop so you can shoot again, etc.). Turns out this isn't the official line:

Puleo reports their name was inspired by both the band members' shared dislike of police officers, and a newspaper headline about a botched police raid, reading "'Cop Shot Cop' or maybe it was 'Cop Shoots Cop.'"

[This gets long...]

When I read it, though, it was like an epiphany. I mean, there's a Spritualized song called "Cop Shoot Cop" (featured on the excellent Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space) and it's all about the smack (Spiritualized is a progeny of Spacemen 3, one of the original Brit-smack-rock bands (The Perfect Prescription is highly recommended, though Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To has the most apropos title.)). Check the words, yo:

Hey man there's a hole in my arm where all the money goes Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose

Cop shoot cop I believe I believe that I have been reborn Cop shoot cop I haven't got the time no more

Yep, that's the horse talking, alright. It even borrows a theme from John Prine's "Sam Stone", a feel-good hit if ever there was one.

There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes, Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose. Little pitchers have big ears, Don't stop to count the years, Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.

So, back to Cop Shoot Cop... I've never sampled their wares, though I've known of them for some time. Then I read that one of the founding members is also the main creative force behind another favorite of mine, Firewater (check out Get Off the Cross, We Need the Wood for the Fire - their first and best):

After Tod left his previous group, Cop Shoot Cop, he quickly regrouped and formed Firewater to explore the styles of music Cop Shoot Cop had only hinted at, including klezmer, cabaret, ska, jazz, and gypsy forms. More than one source described the original Firewater lineup as an "indie rock supergroup", based on members such as Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard, Yuval Gabay of Soul Coughing, Jennifer Charles of Elysian Fields, and Hahn Rowe.

Looks like I have some downloading to do. Especially considering Cop Shoot Cop seems to play to a particular weekness of mine:

The trio added Jack Natz on bass guitar, and Tod briefly sang without playing bass. They missed Tod's distinctive "high end" bass playing, however, and they realized only popular convention required a single bass guitarist in a rock band, and both Tod and Natz decided to play the instrument with the group. The relative novelty of a dual-bass, no-guitar rock group certainly helped gather attention.

I'm a sucker for unique intrumentalization. Consider the Boston/Cambridge-based Morphine (Back to the opiates! Yes is my fave.) which consisted of drums, sax, and a two-string slide bass. Or even the Presidents of the United States of America (Their eponymous debut was the perfect antidote for the whole Seattle grunge scene.), whose Chris Ballew worked with Morphine's Mark Sandman and borrowed the basitar and/or guitbass idea. Or even the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (I still stand by Orange, but I love them all.) who just used two guitars, with one tuned way low.

I love interesting minimalism in rock music.

And I guess I really dig the narcotics references, too... Go figure, eh? ;)

How Autistic Are You?

Take The AQ Test

Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher.

I scored a 21, but I'd be really curious to see how someone else (say, The Wife) would score me.

Update: Turns out I score a 24 with The Wife answering for me. I'll take it.

Oh, snap!

An open letter to Larry The Cable Guy In which David Cross tears Larry the Cable Guy apart to humorous effect:

About being Anti-Gay. I honestly take that back. I do not think that you are anti-gay, I didn't choose those words wisely. Your stuff isn't necessarily anti-gay but rather stupid and easy. "Madder than a queer with lock jaw on Valentines Day." That's not that funny, I don't care who you are. It's just sooo easy. I mean, over half the planet sucks dick so why gays? Why not truck stop whores, or Hollywood Starlets or housewives? Because when you say "queer" you get an easy laugh. End of story.

...

The reason you feel the need to "Larry" something up? Because you are not that dumb. I mean you, Dan Whitney, the guy who's name the bank account is under. You were born and raised in Nebraska (hardly The South), went to private school and moved to Florida when you were 16. This is when you developed your accent?! Not exactly the developmental years are they? At age 16 that's the kind of thing you have to make a concerted effort to adopt. Did you hire a voice coach? Or were you like one of those people who go to England for a week and come back sounding like an extra from "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels"?

Oh, my stars, that's good.

(Props to Rod for this.)

Lucky Thirteen?

All Aboard (Mostly) for "Ocean's Thirteen"

Warner Bros. announced Monday that Clooney, Pitt, Damon and most of the usual suspects from the first two Ocean pics will return for next year's threequel, Ocean's Thirteen. Steven Soderbergh will be on hand to direct for the third time.

...

"The odds were long on this happening, and it would not have been possible were it not for those actors and director moving other projects out of the way," Weintraub told Variety. "The five of us [Weintraub, Clooney, Pitt, Damon and Soderbergh] are all great friends, and we decided we were going to kill ourselves to get this done."

Funny. Not a week ago I heard from my Hollywood sources that they were having a hell of a time getting Pitt to sign on. It seemed like he might have to beg off due to his baby-having with Miss Angelina. I'm man enough admit I was more than a little bothered by the news -- my feeling being that the Clooney-Pitt chemistry is the main reason to watch these things, though I do wish Damon's "Linus" would get more play.

But yeah, the vibe for this instalment of Ocean's 11+n is supposed to be as "back to basics" as this kind of thing can be (at least partly, that translates to "No Girls!", I guess). Now let's see if they can actually manage to get the film in the can without a three ring circus. Odds are actually better than they had been previously, since they seem to be eliminating most of the jet-setting tomfoolery by shooting in the LA area.

While I will certainly watch it (and most likely enjoy it), I hope it turns out better than Twelve.

Wookiee Yawns

Hi, my name is Jake, and I yawn like a wookiee. This hasn't always been the case, but for the past couple years my yawns (and still not all of the time, but it seems to be more often than not nowadays) have born an erie similarity to Chewbacca's throaty growl/howl.

I wish I could claim this as a "talent", but it only works for me involuntarily. I can recognize the onset of a Chewie yawn and play it up or prolong it a bit, but I cannot for the life of me produce the sound on command. I know there are many people on this planet who can; I'm just not one of them.

It baffles me as much as it amuses my co-workers.

Whoa! Whoa! WHOA!!!

Monkey menace? Simply cook and eat them!

Fed up by an army of monkeys that has made life miserable in rural Uganda, a minister has come out with a simple solution: eat the animal!

Junior Agriculture Minister Israel Kibirige Sebunnya has warned that crops would be wiped out if the problem was not addressed. And he has suggested a novel solution to the problem.

'I wish we could adopt the habit of eating monkeys like they do in West Africa,' junior Agriculture Minister Israel Kibirige Sebunnya said here.

Haven't we already established that monkeys are far to similar to us biologically to be consumed? I mean, seriously... How does this seem like a good idea to anyone?

Lockbox Brain

Woman With Perfect Memory Baffles Scientists

That level of recall suggests another hypothesis. Some people are able to recall past events by categorizing them. Certain events, or facts, are associated with others, and filed away together so that they may be easier to access. That's a trick that is often used by entertainers who use feats of memory to wow their audience.

AJ does have "some sort of compulsive tendencies. She wants order in her life," McGaugh says. "As a child, she would get upset if her mother changed anything in her room because she had a place for everything and wanted everything in its place.

"So she does categorize events by the date, but that doesn't explain why she remembers it."

Fascinating... She remembers when tax inititatives were passed in her childhood, for crying out loud!

Call It a Night

BU is currently trailing BC in the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Northeast Regional Finals by a 4-0 score after two periods, which includes a couple of shorthanded goals allowed. *sigh*

Update: 5-0 final

''We were dominated tonight," said BU coach Jack Parker, who admitted he was ''flabbergasted" by the outcome. ''We picked a bad night to have a not so good game for ourselves. And Boston College really jacked it up a notch or two. We didn't control any of this game."

Ed was right...

When Miracle Ed came to visit he bought us Firefly and Serenity. To get me to watch it, he told me "You'll like it. You're in it." Meaning the Captain Malcom Reynolds character reminded him of me.

It turns out he was right:

You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.

Serenity (Firefly)
 
94%
Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)
 
81%
Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)
 
75%
Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)
 
69%
SG-1 (Stargate)
 
69%
Moya (Farscape)
 
69%
Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)
 
69%
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)
 
63%
Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)
 
63%
FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)
 
44%
Enterprise D (Star Trek)
 
38%
Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)
 
31%

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

For the record, Ed's in it, too (in the form of Jayne). At one point I turned to him and asked "How did they make a show with both of us in it?" He answered, "How could they not?"

The AB in the OC

Monster's Ball: Feds, Aryan Brotherhood come to paint the OC courthouse white

Based on claims by prosecutor Emmick and Smith, the AB—though much smaller than the Dirty White Boys, Nazi Low Riders, Mexican Mafia and Black Guerrilla Family—is the elite prison-based criminal organization in America. The Brotherhood recruited people who were fiercely loyal and street-smart; more than anything they were “psychopaths,� according to Smith, not excluding himself from that category.

An interesting peak through the window at the Aryan Brotherhood (You all know how fascinated I am with hate groups and gangs...). Purely coincidentally, I watched American History X last weekend while The Wife was away at work. Effing fantastic, that movie.

Also note, this OC Weekly site always seems to have some good stuff. I think I need to add it to the regular rotation.

Take a bite out of Scientology

Matt Stone and Trey Parker rule my world. Even though Isaac Hayes quit the show due to the whole making-fun-of-Scientology thing, they aren't letting that spell and end to his Chef character: 'South Park' Cooks Up Plan For Chef In Season Premiere

Details on the episode were scarce as of press time — Chef returns to town, but his erratic behavior worries Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny — though Comedy Central did confirm that contrary to previous reports, Hayes will provide the voice for Chef, however all his lines will be taken from previously recorded material.

I love it! You just know the "erratic behavior" will consist of every phrase sounding like it comes from a completely different context, making the cut-and-paste job completely obvious.

The very best part, though is the press release from Stone & Parker:

Stone and Parker are refusing to let the whole thing go, issuing a statement to Daily Variety that pokes fun not only at Hayes and Cruise, but Scientology as a whole.

"So, Scientology, you may have won this battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun!" the statement read. "Temporarily anozinizing our episode will not stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"

Absolutely heroic! Personally, I feel a need for the boys to do an Orgazmo-style movie based on all the info at Operation Clambake.

Update: Isaac Hayes may not be the bad guy here.

Tattoo Tidbits

First, an ever-so-vaguely tattoo-related entertainment tidbit: Prison Break makes its comeback tonight!

The return of ''Prison Break" after almost four months is a welcome event, and the next three episodes are good enough, if not great. The hour due on April 3, which flashes back to the pre-prison life of a few of the convicts, is the best of the trio, as it provides a much-needed sense of history and breadth.

I watched a large portion of the FX marathon yesterday, so I'm all jazzed for it. Especially since it's now the lead-off hitter for 24, the best damned show on the tele right now.

For the juicy bits, Marisa has been giving us lots of good tattoo love at Needled lately...

  • First, two posts illustrate conflicting attitudes regarding inkwork in the workplace:
    • On one hand, we have Boston.com's "Visible Ink", which paints a fairly positive picture of acceptance in the white collar world.

      It is part of an ever-increasing openness toward ink that has exploded over the past 15 years. When Dr. Myrna Armstrong at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center began studying tattoos in the late 1980s, attitudes toward them were wound tightly around stereotypes of convicts, sailors, and carny folk. More recently, however, she's found that tattoos have crossed firmly into popular culture. The studies she has conducted have found that nearly 25 percent of subjects are sporting some kind of tattoo, and those numbers are not restricted to bike messengers and indie rockers.

    • But maybe that's just a coastal point of view. Closer to the Heartland, things seem slightly different, as the Daily Herald's "Tattoos in the modern workplace pose culture clash" article shows.

      In a 2001 study done by Vault.com, a research and employment information services company that profiles U.S. companies, almost 60 percent of employers said they would be less likely to hire someone with visible tattoos or piercings. Almost half of those surveyed said they would have a lower opinion of someone they work with or meet who has visible body art.

      The key word in the tattoo issue seems to be "visible." Forty-five percent of the same employers said they had a tattoo or piercing other than pierced ears. When body art is concealed, only 11 percent of employers said it would affect their decision to hire someone.

    This is something I've considered fairly carefully. Currently, the majority of my inkwork falls into the "visible" category -- I have large tattoos on both forearms, with only two others that generally get covered up by everyday clothing. When it first occurred to me to get ink below short-sleeve level (I'm kind of building my sleeves in the opposite direction of most people...) I took a moment to consider the impact it might have in the workplace. Ultimately I decided I'd be willing to wear long-sleeved shirts if I ended up working someplace that had an issue with it. At the same time though, I was making an implicit statement that I'd rather not work for that kind of employer. I've decided to make tattoos a significant part of my life and who I am. I'd much rather work for someone who understands that.

  • Marisa also points us to this article about the Sailor Jerry brand and the trend of tattoo imagery in fashion.

    Until now, Sailor Jerry has sold largely through word of mouth in the fashion community. But with the trend on the upsurge, Grasse says he has turned down licensing agreements with Nokia and a company that wanted to make Sailor Jerry temporary tattoos because, he says, those could never be authentic Sailor Jerry items.

    You all know I love me some Sailor Jerry schwag.