IMAO Time Machine: IMAO Podcast #19 11-14-05

  1. Introduction
  2. Berkeley Law
  3. Vote No on 75
  4. Harvey: Fun Facts About Maine Part 1
  5. Sling Blade: Attorney at Law
  6. Harvey: Fun Facts About Maine Part 2
  7. CSI: Nome
  8. WeHireAliens.com
  9. WeHireIllegals.com
  10. A Very Brady Survivor
  11. Law & Order: Special People’s Unit
  12. Clinton Natural Gas
  13. Hail to the Hottie [Holy crap! It’s Obama!]
  14. Conclusion

One Giant Leap Year for Womankind

Hey! Leave some for the rest of us!

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Old news:

Astronomy Student Discovers Four New Planets
University of British Columbia / May 31, 2016

Michelle Kunimoto’s bachelor degree in physics and astronomy sent her on a journey out of this world—and led to the discovery of four new worlds beyond our solar system.

The planets, designated “planet candidates” until independently confirmed, are exciting discoveries. Two are the size of Earth, one is Mercury-sized, and one is slightly larger than Neptune. But it’s this last one, the largest of the four, that is of special interest.

Officially catalogued as KOI (Kepler Object of Interest) 408.05 and located 3,200 light years away from Earth, the planet occupies the habitable zone of its star where the temperature would allow liquid water and maybe life.

Kunimoto and Matthews have submitted their findings to the Astronomical Journal. In September, she’ll be returning to UBC to begin a master’s degree in physics and astronomy, hunting for more planets and investigating whether they could support life.

In the meantime, the new graduate and Star Trek fan got the chance to meet a real-life star and space explorer. On Saturday, she met William Shatner backstage at the UBC100 What’s Next? event and told him about these possible new destinations for a future Starship Enterprise.

New news:

Astronomy Student Discovers 17 New Planets, Including Earth-Sized World
University of British Columbia / February 28, 2020

University of British Columbia astronomy student Michelle Kunimoto has discovered 17 new planets, including a potentially habitable, Earth-sized world, by combing through data gathered by NASA’s Kepler mission.

Over its original four-year mission, the Kepler satellite looked for planets, especially those that lie in the “Habitable Zones” of their stars, where liquid water could exist on a rocky planet’s surface.

The new findings, published in The Astronomical Journal, include one such particularly rare planet. Officially named KIC-7340288 b, the planet discovered by Kunimoto is just 1 ½ times the size of Earth—small enough to be considered rocky, instead of gaseous like the giant planets of the Solar System—and in the habitable zone of its star.

..

Kunimoto is no stranger to discovering planets: she previously discovered four during her undergraduate degree at UBC. Now working on her Ph.D. at UBC, she used what is known as the “transit method” to look for the planets among the roughly 200,000 stars observed by the Kepler mission.

Boldly going where no man has gone before

Infamous Last Words

All of the following is an exact replay of the arguments I’ve used regarding Walrus, to Basil.

“Biden Is Gonna Kick Ass Here Because This Is a Normal Place”
New York Magazine | February 28, 2020 | Olivia Nuzzi

But I didn’t have any aliens to back me up. And this isn’t a normal place.
Apparently, though, one alien from the planet Harpoot weighed in on Biden’s struggle for relevancy:

“Joe Biden is gonna kick ass here because this is a normal place,” Dick Harpootlian said. A member of the South Carolina State Senate and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, Harpootlian, who has known Biden since the late 1980s, was an early supporter of his third presidential campaign.

To give this curiously-nicknamed alien the benefit of the doubt, let’s assume that reporter Olivia is nice-looking, and that’s his excuse for bloviating:

“He’s a normal guy,” he said, by way of explanation.

… if you have to stress something that much, . . .

“Iowa is like — you watch Game of Thrones?” he asked. I said I didn’t. “Well, that’s too bad,” he said. He took a sip of his latte.

. . . Well, this interview is off to a good start . . .

“Iowa’s like the area north of the wall where the White Walkers and the weird people are, okay?

… dismissively negating the earlier question about whether she would get the reference . . .

I knocked doors out there.”

What’s wrong with doors? Oh, he means he knocked on doors. In the TV show? In the fantasy world? In Iowa? Oh. Iowa.

He gestured to his aide.

A new character is introduced! Where has HE been lurking?

“He knocked doors out there!” he said. “They’re not normal people, okay?”

You’ve totally endeared yourself now to the people on whose doors you so painstakingly knocked.

Harpootlian

— who is neither a character from Ghostbusters, Star Wars, nor Men In Black

tells two stories about Biden to anybody who will listen.

… a dwindling population. . . I hope that Olivia has gotten her drink tab paid.

He prefaces both stories by saying that he never tells the stories, and that if Biden knew he was going around telling the stories, he’d kill him.

Wait. . . . What?

The first story is about a golf outing when Biden was the vice-president. He was driving the golf cart, and Biden told him to move over. “I never get to drive anything,” Harpootlian recalled Biden saying, “I can’t drive a car. When I play golf with Barack, he drives. I’m driving the cart. Move over.” Harpootlian laughed. “So, I move over, and he drives the cart. Not very well, I might add.”

You’re BOOSTING this guy for president?

Later, at lunch, Harpootlian said he apologized to Biden for his bad golf game. “He said, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no, Dick. Don’t worry about it. You know, I learned a lot today.’ I said, ‘Mr. Vice-President, what could you possibly have learned from me today?’ He said, ‘Oh, five new ways to use the word f**k.’”

Wha . . . . . ? And then what follows is what is called “the second story,” proving that Harpoolians can’t count.

With friends like these . . .

About Your Faith in the American Electorate …

Survey: 38% of Americans Won’t Buy Corona Beer “Under Any Circumstances” Because of Coronavirus Outbreak
KTLA | February 29, 2020

Two surveys released this week show that the Corona’s brand is suffering from negative buzz.

5W Public Relations said that 38% of Americans wouldn’t buy Corona “under any circumstances” because of the outbreak, and another 14% said they wouldn’t order a Corona in public. The survey encompasses polling from 737 beer drinkers in the United States.

What was that percentage of Americans that Mitt Romney said you just have to write off as unreachable?


The Window of Opportunity: Closed, Distant, and Center Stage

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Weirds

Judging by the photo, I’m not the only one wearying of ol’ Joke Biden. He’s going to take a Beto’ing.

Biden’s Hands-Off ‘Naked Woman’ Scenario at Campaign Event Raises Eyebrows
Bizpac Review | February 28, 2020

Speaking at a campaign event in South Carolina on Tuesday, Biden was talking about the Violence Against Women Act, which he drafted as a U.S. senator, when he offered an ill-advised scenario of a woman walking naked to say that “no man has a right to touch her.” 



“No man has a right to lay a hand on a woman for any reason other than self-defense,” Biden said.

“If someone in this room got up, took off all their clothes, and walked out the door, no man has a right to touch her.”

… he studiously avoided the topic of grasping her and sniffing her from behind when fully clothed, though.

Is that lady in the upper right about to shoot up heroin to escape this nightmare?

Can you imagine any thought balloon for anyone in this audience being supportive of this guy?


Straight Line of the Day: One Way To Include Social Justice in the Math Curriculum Is…

Straight Line of the Day: One Way To Include Social Justice in the Math Curriculum Is…

A Williams College professor said he would advocate for social justice to be included in math textbooks.

–Political Bias and Anti-Americanism on College Campuses
Townhall.com | February 19, 2020 | Walter E. Williams

Babesleaga: An Introduction

It has been mentioned before but this is your official welcome and guide to the Babesleaga of IMAO.

We will present 4 weekly matches between two Characters/Celebrities which you, the gentle viewer, must choose one you prefer. Use any criteria, we won’t care. Well, maybe a little but, it won’t matter a 100 years from now.

We will play a round robin so every one gets a fair chance against everyone else. Whomever has the most head to head wins will be the champion of the group. Ties will go to the winner of the individual’s contest. If that was a tie then it will be overall votes in all the contests. If that is still a tie then shoot me.

Here are our contestants for Group A (Science Fiction Characters)

  1. Seven of Nine — Jeri Ryan — Star Trek Voyager
  2. Wilma Deering — Erin Grey — Buck Rodgers
  3. Zev Bellringer — Xenia Seeberg — LEXX
  4. Andromeda — Lexa Doig — Andromeda
  5. T’Pol — Jolene Blalock — Star Trek Enterprise
  6. Aeryn Sun — Claudia Black — Farscape
  7. Inara Serra — Monica Morena Baccarin — Firefly
  8. Number 6 — Tricia Helfer – Battlestar Galactica

There will be more weeks so don’t despair if a favorite isn’t competing this week. In fact if you wish to offer suggested candidates for later groups feel free to do so. We are only limited by finding enough usable pictures.

So dems da rulez. I would add that it would be nice if you all would refrain from adding any other pictures in the comments. They might be ones I want to use in later contests. And no fair trying to influence the election like you were a russki or something.

A thoughtful viewer spotted my error. He will be dealt with appropriately. Grumble, grumble.

Who is the best Bond?

James Bond.

or maybe Jimmy Bond?

Some expanded choices for this poll. As always, choose wisely.

The poll will remain open until March 7, 2020 at 9:00 am.

Sean Connery

George Lazenby

Roger Moore

Timothy Dalton

Pierce Brosnan

Daniel Craig

David Niven

Woody Allen

Who is the best Bond?

  • Sean Connery (65%, 103 Votes)
  • Daniel Craig (13%, 21 Votes)
  • Roger Moore (7%, 11 Votes)
  • Pierce Brosnan (6%, 10 Votes)
  • George Lazenby (3%, 5 Votes)
  • Woody Allen (3%, 5 Votes)
  • David Niven (3%, 4 Votes)
  • Timothy Dalton (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 159

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What’s With All The Crazy Animal News?

Have you noticed there’s a lot of news lately about animals? Monkeys with herpes. Monkeys with Coronavirus. And now an animal that doesn’t need oxygen.

That last one is really weird. I mean, an animal that doesn’t need oxygen? It’s a parasite and it’s related to jellyfish.

I would normally make a joke about Democrats here, but the truth is that while Democrats are parasites and are as spineless as jellyfish, they do suck all the air out of the room, so there is that difference.

It’s just that all this crazy animal news is causing some concern. Is that one of the signs of the Apocalypse? I don’t recall monkeys being mentioned, nor non-oxygen breathing critters anywhere in Revelation. Still, it seems like it could be one, just because it’s so unusual.

Maybe I’m just noticing more odd animal news. Beats reading about Democrats, though, so there is an upside.