If you’d like to watch a sad sack rant into a camera perched on the dash of his parked car about the end of womenkind’s preternatural ability to spot his self-loathing and axemurderiness from a mile away — and if you’re looking to stay positive about humanity, you’re not — then Steve Hoca’s powerful VoiceThoughts™ will edify and enlighten. Steve’s part of a movement called “True Forced Loneliness,” in which angry men get back at all those women who wouldn’t date them by choosing to live a life of solitude. That’ll show them hussies!

Seriously, don’t be this guy.

Embedded is disabled on this video, so have a link: “The ‘Pussy Renaissance’ is coming to an end!” [YouTube]

Cracked, one of the only site that can actually pull off a decent “Top X” list, traumatizes your inner, speckled teen with five horrible rites of manhood from other countries. But do any of them trump…middle school gym class? [Cracked]

L.E. Leone on killing the chickens she raised herself:

I can vouch for “essential.” I can vouch for “omnivore.” My brain and my body crave meat with my salad. In fact, I think I might die without it. For sure I’d go crazy. But, personally, I don’t know about “evil.” I’ll own it: There’s a part of me that likes to kill. When I do what I do with a hatchet and a chicken, I feel like crap, and I feel like God. I feel alive and in love and closer than ever to death. So I guess that is, for me, mixed feelings, yes. And the mix itself is welcome and intensely gratifying. In fact, it’s almost too much. Too swirly, too soupy. I can tell you that the part of this swirl which seems “good,” as opposed to “evil,” has absolutely nothing to do with foiling the chicken industry or saving the environment or taking personal responsibility for my role in the food chain. It has to do with getting a little bit bloody and gross, like the complicated, hungry animal that I am.

There Will Be Chicken Blood [Slate]

Must have.

I’d chide this man for his imprudence, but I think he already knows his hobbies aren’t exactly the most practical thing you can do with a roll of toilet paper.

“ShaveWorld.com” delivers razor blades to your home on a schedule by mail, ensuring you always have a fresh blade. (You can also just order one-offs, but what’s the point?) [Shaveworld] (Thanks, John!)

Amazing — a 400MB HDD that as on-board the Columbia during her disasterous 2003 re-entry was recovered and the data has been used to complete the project. Completely amazing.

The Kroll people managed to recover 90 percent or so of the 400MB of data from the drive with its cracked and burned casing. Now, a few years on, Berg and his team have analysed the data and reported the experiment and its results in the April edition of the Physical Review E journal. These showed that, rather liked whipped cream which changes from a fluid to a near-solid after being whipped or stirred vigorously, the gas Xenon change its viscosity from gas to liquid when similarly treated in very low gravity. The phenomenon of a sudden change in viscosity is called shear thinnin

Data recovered from Seagate drive in Columbia shuttle disaster [Blocks and Files]
Thanks Koz

Wow. I wrote a bad review of Cameta Camera and they offered to PAY ME to take it down.

Really the depths these guys will sink to knows no bounds. I recently purchased a Nikon D3 from Cameta Camera, via Amazon. I trust Amazon with these purchases and they’ve never really let me down. The one decent local camera store in Marin never has much in stock and I wanted this camera body to arrive in time for a special event (plus I just hate the city.)

I know NY area camera stores are notorious, but this one had the D3 in stock and said it’d arrive on time. How bad could it be?

Well for an extra $75 in shipping they basically tossed the D3’s box from Nikon loose in a larger box and sent it along. It got here on time but the box looked like a cow had sat on it. I was kind of shocked — but the D3 was fine. Nikon’s packaging was pretty good.

I called Cameta, they were just flat out rude to me. Grumpy and bitchy like an Amazon buyer didn’t count and if I had the camera and it worked, why was I called. I decided to leave an Amazon review. The text of which is in the email I am about to block-quote. I was shocked, within 1 day of leaving this review to get back the following response from Cameta. Know ye this — they sent it AGAIN 1 day later as if I may have missed it.

Bullshit. $75 back is nothing compared to the risk they took with a $5000 camera that is likely to become an extension of my arm. This thing is going to be my best friend — I’ll carry it everywhere. If the D3 had shown up broken, I’d have been so sad AND the hassle of sending it back and waiting for a new one would have made me extra sad.

From: Auctions On Behalf Of maryann
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 11:18 AM
To: ‘jweisberger@***.com’
Subject: Amazon Order 103-2015980-719****

Dear Jason,

We are writing you in regards to the recent order placed through Amazon, shipped from our company Cameta Camera. We have become aware that you had an unpleasant experience with our company according to the feedback that you left as seen below:

“Rude on the phone. Really, Really, poorly packaged. I think they could have used enough bubble wrap or packing materials when sending a $5k camera. It was shifting around in the box. Would not buy from again.”

After looking into the said situation, we are not sure who you spoke to. However, we are looking into the situation as customer service is our number one priority here at Cameta Camera. In addition, we are also going to be speaking to the shipping manager in regards to how the unit was packaged and shipped. We also have the following option to offer you as a remedy.

We are ready to issue you a credit for $75.00 back to your Amazon account (which is the original freight paid). Our’ only concern is that in the past we have made an accommodation for a customer but they have left us negative feedback anyway. If you would be willing to remove your negative feedback remark to our account (and then email me to let me know that it has been done) I will issue the credit right away. We pride ourselves on good customer service and we are willing to work with you.

If you do decide to remove the feedback left in exchange for the refund please follow the instructions below.

Removing Feedback You’ve Left

If you’ve left feedback on a Marketplace or Merchant seller and would like to remove it, you can do this through Your Account. Please note that feedback cannot be edited, only removed; once you have removed feedback for a seller, you will not be able to post new feedback for that seller.

Go to http://www.amazon.com/your-account.

Find the pull-down menu next to “View by Order.” Select “Orders placed in the past 6 months”, and hit the “go” button.

After you sign in, you’ll find a listing of your recent orders. Select the relevant order and click the “View order” button.

You will find a feedback section 2/3rds of the way down the page. To remove feedback, click on the “Remove” link in the feedback section of the order summary.

You may only remove feedback if it is 60 days or less since you left the feedback.

We thank you for your time and consideration and hope that you can resolve the issue as soon as possible.

Kindest Regards,

Maryann

Customer Service

Cameta Camera

Clicking the Photo opens a screenshot of the email.

Carolyn and I saw it passing through the SF bay with 2 black tugs. No name visible on the ship. This was the sharpest I was able to grab with my D70. I didn’t have a cable release handy, sigh.

**UPDATE**

BoatingSF shows two tugs leaving the bay at the same time I saw this ship with two tugs — the Lynne Marie and the Narragansett listed as TUG-WITHOUT-A-TOW. Strange.

It appears to be an LHA Amphibious Assault Ship — but whats on its deck and where is it going?

Even more: there are only 5 of them and 2 are decommed. One of those two? Can’t be the one under construction…

The answer is in comment 3!

Albert and Otis go to pick up their friend Euripedes.