rubbercat.net

yahoo! newsroom

2013-05-21T11:48:35Z

Scroll to the bottom of this press release about the Yahoo!-Tumblr deal.

Yahoo! still has sharing buttons for del.icio.us, (a product it hasn't owned since 2011 and has been known as "Delicious" since 2007), Digg (which relaunched last year and doesn't let you add details to submitted links anymore), and Yahoo! Buzz (which no longer exists).

buzzfeed for bonzo

2013-05-16T19:59:55Z

Hahahaha... who needs a nakedly cynical Republican version of BuzzFeed when the Koch-supported BuzzFeed Politics vertical is doing such a great job of it themselves???

SEE ALSO: The 21 fiercest things Richard Nixon ever did by Alex Pareene and BuzzFeed writer Benny Johnson's 20 Most YOLO Moments from FeedBuzz

As an aside, why has the GOP's youth outreach/social media team failed to capitalize on the Epic Randomness and Viral Meme Potential of Ronald Reagan co-starring in a movie with a chimp? They should own it, and upload a bunch of Bedtime for Bonzo gifs to Tumblr or something. Hashtag winning hashtag yolo hashtag paulryan2016

progressive canon

2013-05-13T17:43:00Z

Check out Progressive Insurance's latest commercial, featuring Flo running for class president back in 1986, which means she was born sometime in the 1970s:

There's just one itty bitty problem. Last year, Flo herself claimed to have not gone outside since 1926. That means she had to have been born sometime before then, and is possibly immortal. Check it out for yourself at 3:25 in this Google+ Hangout video:

As Albus Dumbledore would say, "the evidence is incontrovertible." The commercial CLEARLY contradicts the continuity of the Hangout.

Nice try, Progressive, but your misguided attempt to pull the wool over our eyes has failed. This glaring continuity error is a slap in the face to your audience. You obviously do not respect canon, and therefore do not deserve our business. In order to redeem yourselves, I see only two options: re-editing the commercial to adhere to established Flo canon (if that's even possible at this stage), or removing the commercial altogether.

Respect canon, and it shall respect you.

sources

2013-05-12T19:33:54Z

Mallard Fillmore Watch

05/11/2013

*SOURCE: UNREADABLE SCRIBBLE

TNRI 15

2013-05-09T22:11:31Z

TECH NEWS RUMOR INSIDER

A while ago, I was looking at the original version of Tech News Rumor Insider and noticed that, according to the archives, the site started in June 1998 (coincidentally, the same year rubbercat.net/simpsons launched). Since that means the fifteenth anniversary is coming up, we'll be commemorating the occasion by reposting highlights from the site's extensive archives. You'll be able to find them all under the "TNRI15" tag.

How To Wink

2013-05-05T10:21:55Z

Helpful reminder of how to wink

Next week: breathing

operating system

2013-04-27T04:30:03Z

I'm really glad I upgraded my operating system, because I just love having caps lock turned on by keys that aren't the caps lock key and having keyboard input disabled at random intervals when I'm trying to type something. It is a real joy discovering these unexpected surprises and I hope it continues.

the lurker

2013-04-26T01:28:36Z

adam

]]>

/r/findbostonbombers

2013-04-22T04:00:23Z

Washington Post:

In an investigative forum of Reddit.com, since removed from the site, users compiled thousands of photos, studied them for suspicious backpacks and sent their favorite theories spinning out into the wider Internet.
"Find people carrying black bags," wrote the Reddit forum's unnamed moderator. "If they look suspicious, then post them. Then people will try and follow their movements using all the images."

The moderator defended this strategy by arguing that "it's been proven that a crowd of thousands can do things like this much quicker and better. ... I'd take thousands of people over a select few very smart investigators any day."

In addition to being almost universally wrong, the theories developed via social media complicated the official investigation, according to law enforcement officials. Those officials said Saturday that the decision on Thursday to release photos of the two men in baseball caps was meant in part to limit the damage being done to people who were wrongly being targeted as suspects in the news media and on the Internet.

Don't forget to vote in Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as President of the Internet!

yahooligans

2013-04-19T22:57:41Z

RIP Yahoo! Kids, formerly Yahooligans!, which was probably the first website I ever visited during computer lab. That or AOL Keyword: Nick, I'm not really sure. Who cares.

It really fell into disrepair over the years, so no big loss

One Nation, Uninsured

2013-04-18T21:58:38Z

I'm reading this book about the history of health care reform in the 20th century and there's a couple fascinating quotes in there:

As a result of the Republican gains in 1946, [Ohio senator Robert] Taft now chaired the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee, which he used as a forum to convince the public of the dangers of national health insurance and to promote his alternative plan for federal aid to the states for medical care for the poor. During committee hearings, Taft called 29 friendly witnesses but only a single opposition witness, a representative of the International Workers Order, a well-known communist organization. The hearings became an inquisition into "socialized medicine."

Sick trolling skills

Although Eisenhower made a nationally televised plea for the reinsurance proposal and appeared personally before the National Association of Insurance Commissioners to assure them that he had no desire to regulate their products, his efforts were to no avail. The AMA, ever watchful of government intervention, immediately denounced reinsurance as socialism and lobbied against it in Congress.

Even a big-time Republican war hero like Dwight D. Eisenhower got called a socialist

Then the elderly took to the streets, an attention-getting move since people 65 and older are the least likely of all age groups to protest or take part in a demonstration. In a scene replayed over and over on the nightly news, several dozen angry seniors accosted Representative Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, as he attempted to drive away from a meeting. [...] The demonstrators surrounded Rostenkowski's car, beating it with picket signs, pounding on the windows, and shouting "Coward!" "Recall!" and "Impeach!" A shaken Rostenkowski abandoned his car and fled the scene on foot.

Here's a video of it, but it's not quite as awesomely dramatic as the quote makes it:

republican buzzfeed

2013-04-10T21:08:38Z

I wrote a small piece for Something Awful about the Republican version of BuzzFeed. Consider it the latest salvo in the horrifying meme-fication of elections, a theme I've been sorta harping about over the past year.

On a related note, check out my e-migo vrunt's newest project, FeedBuzz

rip roger ebert

2013-04-04T20:40:38Z

adam ]]>

BANG

2013-03-30T22:44:39Z

If you live in the Portland area, please go out and get yourself a copy of the newest (#4) issue of BANG when it comes out April 2ndish. It's free! They were really nice and approached me about running part of my Simpsons episode guide, and I did some new doodles for it.

Here's a list of locations where you can get it. You can buy a digital PDF version too.

If all goes according to plan, rubbercat.net/simpsons will be print-only by 2016.

doug's chubby buddy

2013-03-22T09:16:38Z

I've been meaning to post this for a while... I heard there was an episode of the Disney version of Doug that tackled the subject of eating disorders with Patti as the main character. Since I already liveblogged the anti-tobacco episode I figured I should review this one too. It's called "Doug's Chubby Buddy" (even though the whole point is that Patti isn't chubby...?) and it's on YouTube (part two), though probably not for long.

Here's some observations, adapted from my Twitter liveblog of it:

It's so weird that Doug was tackling big social issues when the most vexing issue of the day was once "a frisbee landed on someone's roof."

The theme song is less... fun I suppose? One underappreciated thing about Doug (and Rugrats) was that the music was somewhat experimental. The Disney version essentially ironed out all the quirks that made Doug "Doug".

I like this guy's head when he's interviewing the nerd:

It kinda reminds me of a Paper Rad character. I was Googling for an example but found this instead:

I get it... "Waist Away"... good satire,,,

I forgot that for most of the series Skeeter was saddled with a dumb story arc about searching for the Lucky Duck Monster that would segue into the movie. This episode has a dumb subplot about Doug & Skeeter creating a mate for the monster that pretty much exists solely so boys won't change the channel.

Patti mistakes Doug's clearly sarcastic "Yeah, you're huge!" comment as sincere. The real lesson of the episode is the importance of understanding irony.

I didn't really notice it until later but this episode does a fairly good job shifting the focus to Patti in a rather seamless way. I'm pretty positive this is the first episode with zero Doug fantasies, wow

Now there's a Gone with the Wind homage all the kids in the audience will surely appreciate

The girls decide to lose weight. Beebe Bluff decides to rely on technology (which has never helped anyone in any story ever), Patti decides to eat less and exercise more (hmm...), and Connie - who used to be "chubby" but is said to have gone to a fat camp over the summer - is clearly positioned as the smart one with modest goals who eats healthy and stays fit but doesn't overdo it.

Bebee has a computer thing that she stuffs food in and it tells her how many calories it has and if it's healthy to eat. Judging from the way it says "gorgeous!" it's clearly supposed to be gay. Possibly the first gay Disney character...? Making some real progress here.

Guy (the editor of the school newspaper) got a whole pizza at school, somehow.

It turns out the gay computer was programmed wrong so it was giving Beebe bad advice. Beebe is so distraught that she says she's going to depress eat ("Now I'm all depressed. Get me a sandwich."). This is presented as a joke. In an eating disorder episode.

I can't believe a student as upstanding as Chalky Studebaker would forget his Buddy Badge. C'mon, man.

The show was doing a pretty good job keeping things light and funny despite the subject matter until Patti started yelling at people with schmaltzy after-school special music playing in the background and it got all dramatic. Reminder: there was a whole episode where Doug freaked out over the prospect of buying new shoes.

Doug finally realizes something's wrong with the girl he's been creepily obsessed with for the past few years. Skeeter, on the other hand, doesn't care one iota about Patti's well-being. He just wants to see a monster make out with garbage (seriously). Also, Roger Klotz wants a construction guy to build him a sexy girl. This whole subplot is weird as hell.

Mr. Dink has one line and it's about being aroused by a fake monster lady rolling through town.

Patti collapsed in front of everyone and gets lectured about eating disorders by some youngish teacher who I guess replaced Mrs. Wingo, while spectators stare motionlessly in the background.

I thought the message was essentially "yeah, it's rad to stay fit, but don't overdo it." But then Patti, on a non-date with Doug, decides to order an entire pizza for herself. Hella mixed messages in this episode.

Speaking of which, Connie basically disappeared halfway through. What was the point of all that setup, then?

DATEDNESS ALERT: Patti urges the audience to learn more about eating disorders by going to members.aol.com/edapinc