Schedule for Week 4 of tournament

Tuesday, April 26, 9pm
El Camino Real
1040 N. 2nd St.
(2nd St. below Girard Ave.)
Subject Round: THE 1960s

Wednesday, April 27, 7:30pm
12 Steps Down
9th & Christian Sts.
Subject Round: THE 1970s

Thursday, April 28, 9pm
The Draught Horse
Broad St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.
Subject Round: THE 1980s

All points earned this week will be entered automatically into the five-week tournament.

Schedule for Week 3 of tournament

Tuesday, April 19, 9pm
El Camino Real
1040 N. 2nd St.
(2nd St. below Girard Ave.)
Subject Round: THE 1930s

Wednesday, April 20, 7:30pm
12 Steps Down
9th & Christian Sts.
Subject Round: THE 1940s

Thursday, April 21, 9pm
The Draught Horse
Broad St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.
Subject Round: THE 1950s

All points earned this week will be entered automatically into the five-week tournament.

2011 Tournament standings Week 2

A smaller than normal turnout and relatively low scores in Week 1 mean that your squad still stands a good chance in the five-week tourney even having missed a game, or from a purely mathematical standpoint two games.  Urban Homestead had the highest overall score in a tough Week 2 quiz with an impressive 153, but didn't play Week 1.  Luckily for most of you as well I'm not so sure that Anpan Man will get in all 5 weeks... possibly not even 4.

I'm going to keep team scores up until people drop out of possible contention in absolute terms, no matter how low they are present.  In fairness some teams at the bottom of the list arrived late or went home / gave up early.

Teams are color-coded by bar:

El Camino Real

12 Steps Down

The Draught Horse

Lil' Roy Rogers Hornsby 283

Send Shane Back to San Diego (For Real) 267
Anpan Man 260

Nudist Balloonists 254

Westboro Baptist Church 235

LadySnark 186

Dudes Abide 166

Urban Homestead 153

Bunnies Are Coot! 143

El 129

The Golden Jeedz 121 

Magna Farta 107

Michael Thinks... 101

Buddy Bunbar 100

No Means Anal 92

Team Canada 85

Thelma & Ruiz 80

Perplexed Erection 79

Run for It, Marty, It's the Libyans! 74

Tiger Blood 73

El Guapo 67
Team Scola 67
We're Trying But We're Old 67
Anita Dickinme 66

The Corner Couple 65

Itchy Itchy Elbow 63

The Clap 59
(Not) Focused 57
Team Dignity 53

Dixie Wrecked 51
S & M 50
TU Nation 45

Number One 44

Phuk You 42
Jo & Ace 37
Green Apple Splatters 32

Disinformation's ... um... *disinformation* ... they create an involuntary Facebook account for you... plus how to delete a Facebook account

Earlier this week I stumbled across the Disinfo.com site, which has a number of interesting stories attached to it. Disinformation published a series of eyebrow-raising books, including Everything You Know Is Wrong and 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know.

I wanted to comment on a piece, which required registration.  No biggie, right?  We all know the drill.  Enter your name, email address and a little blurb about yourself if you like and you've got a comment account and can leave a comment.  Some sites require you to visit your email first to confirm.

I did the usual, entering a minimal amount of personal information, and BANG! automatically found myself on Facebook having just started an account.  At no point in the registration process for Disinfo.com commenting was it made clear that registering to leave a comment was an agreement to open a Facebook account, which is at the very least a serious breach of netiquette.  (It is possible that somewhere in the fine print of the site's bowels this information is available, but it most certainly is not made evident in the registration process that you are opening a Facebook and not just a Disinfo account; it dumps you into right into Facebook proper after entering your email address and name.)

Some of us can't stand Facebook (this could be the subject of a whole other post), and are aware of the difficulties in ending a Facebook account.  I was happy to have come this far without any of my email addresses linked to a site that I consider one of the Great Satans of the modern age, and there's some irony in the fact that a website that claims to be against "the Man" and in favor of the open flow of information is what tricked me into opening an account.

This would be in the same league as trying to post a comment on Wikileaks and finding out that you entered your name with the local draft board.

When attempting to use the Help page on Facebook to learn how to delete an account, one is confronted with bullshit messages that Facebook Help "can't find" what you're looking for, even if/when clicking on the phrase "How can I delete my Facebook account?"  Clearly we're dealing with a shady organization.

Fortunately one can use an independent search engine to find out what to do.  Ironically the top reference is on a guy's Facebook page, a Catch-22 which will become evident in a moment.

The link is http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account


Also:

"Click "Submit" and follow the instructions.

Your account will be deactivated for two weeks, and if you DO NOT USE FACEBOOK IN ANY WAY during that period, your account is permanently deleted.
I REPEAT: Your profile isn't deleted right away! You must NOT log in to, or interact in any other way with Facebook for at least two weeks, as it will cancel the deletion request. That includes NOT logging in to Facebook using any client (like the iPhone app or IM:s like Pidgin), NOT clicking embedded Like-buttons on other websites, NOT logging in to other services using Facebook Connect (like Digg) etc etc.
Hey, while your're at it, delete all your browsing/forms history and cookies as well, to minimize the risk of accidentally using your account!
If you want out - stay out, mmmkay? ;)"

The tricky bit here is that, like Disinfo, one has to wonder how many sites directly link to Facebook without letting the user know in any obvious way.

I used to have some respect for the Disinfo people, but this stunt really makes them come off like assholes.  I sent a form in telling them as much, lord knows if that will have any effect.

Philadelphia drinking water mildly (?) radioactive

"EPA: New Radiation Highs in Little Rock Milk, Philadelphia Drinking Water"

Milk from Little Rock and drinking water from Philadelphia contained the highest levels of Iodine-131 from Japan yet detected by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to data released by EPA Saturday.

The Philadelphia sample is below the EPA’s maximum contaminant level (MCL) for iodine-131, but the Little Rock sample is almost three times higher.

Nonetheless, the EPA does not consider the milk dangerous because the MCL is set for long-term exposure, and the iodine-131 from Japan’s Fukushima-Daichi nuclear accident is expected to be temporary and deteriorate rapidly. ...

Three drinking water samples collected in Philadelphia on April 4 contained Iodine-131, according to Saturday’s data release:

• A sample from the city’s Queen Lane Treatment Plant showed 2.2 picoCuries per liter—the highest concentration in EPA’s drinking water data so far.
• Water collected at the Belmont Treatment Plant contained 1.3 picocuries, and
• Water collected at the Baxter Treatment Plant contained 0.46 picocuries.

Philadelphia becomes the 14th US city with radioactive fallout detected in its drinking water.

Iodine-131 has a half life of eight days: every eight days, half of its mass decays into a non-radioactive isotope of xenon."

... and if it doesn't deteriorate rapidly..?

Schedule for Week 2 of tournament

Tuesday, April 12, 9pm
El Camino Real
1040 N. 2nd St.
(2nd St. below Girard Ave.)
Subject Round: BRITISH SLANG

Wednesday, April 13, 7:30pm
12 Steps Down
9th & Christian Sts.
Subject Round: PHILOSOPHY

Thursday, April 14, 9pm
The Draught Horse
Broad St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.
Subject Round: CHEMISTRY

All points earned this week will be entered automatically into the five-week tournament.

Tournament standings after Week 1

A smaller than normal turnout and relatively low scores in Week 1 mean that your squad still stands a good chance in the five-week tourney even having missed a game.

Teams are color-coded by bar.

El Camino Real

12 Steps Down

The Draught Horse

Lil' Roy Rogers Hornsby 134

Send Shane Back to San Diego (For Real) 131

Westboro Baptist Church 121

Anpan Man 119

Nudist Balloonists 119

Buddy Bunbar 100

The Dudes Abide 94

No Means Anal 92

LadySnark 91
Team Canada 85

Bunnies Are Coot! 83

Thelma & Ruiz 80

Perplexed Erection 79

Run for It, Marty, It's the Libyans! 74

Tiger Blood 73

El Guapo 67

The Corner Couple 65

Itchy Itchy Elbow 63

The Clap 59

Dixie Wrecked 51
TU Nation 45

Number One 44

Phuk You 42

Michael Thinks... 39

Tournament starts this week; note 12 Steps Down quiz has later start this week only

Tuesday, April 5, 9pm
El Camino Real
1040 N. 2nd St.
(2nd St. below Girard Ave.)
Subject Round: BASEBALL I

Wednesday, April 6, 8:30pm
12 Steps Down
9th & Christian Sts.
Subject Round: BASEBALL II
I have something I need to do Wednesday which will be pushing the quiz back roughly one hour this week only.  My apologies.

Thursday, April 7, 9pm
The Draught Horse
Broad St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.
Subject Round: BASEBALL III

All points earned this week will be entered automatically into the five-week tournament.

Can't fool all of the people all of the time

See also this video from a former nuclear plant executive.  This looks worse than Chernobyl.