Andrew Breitbart, loved by conservatives and at times feared by progressives, passed away early Thursday morning. He was only 43 years old.

Breitbart was walking near his house in California’s Brentwood neighborhood shortly after midnight when he collapsed, his father-in-law the actor Orson Bean told the Associated Press. Someone who saw Breitbart fall called paramedics and revival attempts were made, the AP reports. He was taken to the emergency room at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in L.A.

I realize Breitbart ignited great passion on both sides of the aisle and there may be a rehash of those issues in the days ahead. I just want people to know that behind the scenes, Andrew had a wicked, irreverant sense of humor and boundless, infectious energy for his opponents, his friends, and this new medium he helped create. Let’s give the man his due, he made a difference and that’s a legacy anyone would want.

Austin based Strategic Forecasting, more commonly known as Statfor and compared at times to a private, shadowey CIA, has had a trove of emails stolen and published on Wikileaks by the hacker coalition known as anonymous. One rumor going around about the stolen data is it was not encrypted. If that turns out to be the case, it could spell real financial trouble for an agency that depends on secrecy and security. Fox News link below, with my apologies: [Read more…]

I see a little brouhaha has formed here among the godless over cats vs dogs. It’s an issue that does elicit surprisingly strong feelings among pet owners. Of course, no one can settle the question of which is better, that’s a subjective call. But we can look at why dog and cats behave so differently. We just need to start at the beginning, with a little evolution and a dash of natural history! [Read more…]

Move over John Glenn, I’m a half century old today. So I’m taking it easy. Maybe that would be cause for the blues, but considering the crazy shit I’ve done over the years, from heads down vertical relative work skydiving to broken bones right and left, to a decade and a half of technical rock climbing half the classic routes in North America including El Capitan and then some, I’m fortunate to be alive and in one piece. This would be an off day in celebration, except it’s a holiday which means if I do work, I get double pay. Can’t pass that up in this dismal day and age.

Riffing off Ed’s post about reality TV, there are some shows that fall under the taxon that aren’t half bad. COPS, Survivorman, and Pawn Stars, just to name a few. They aren’t my top favorite shows, but they’re decent, interesting things happen, you might even learn something. And while there’s little doubt some of the scenes are staged or close to it, those three shows and others in the same vein really include some measure of reality.

But so many of the genera feature anything but reality. [Read more…]

Continuing in my quest for ever greater injury stories, I happened to fall off my second story balcony this weekend and hit the ground hard. I’ll give more details later, maybe a few days … typing with a broken collar-bone is painful.

If you made it this far, grats! Fabulous prizes await! Alas, new content on The Zingularity is not among the prizes as I will be standing in support with my cyber comrades on SOPA/PIPA. BTW, the Daily Kos idea was pretty cool. We put a stamp on the site that does not interfere, too much, with viewing and does not redirect to other sites, and used FOIA redaction formatting to drive it home.

Outside of that, please take this opportunity to visit other FTB sites. There’s a ton of them, I read everyone, every day, and learn something new and interestng every time; one of my fave daily reads and one of our best kept secrets imo is Hank Fox’s Blue Collar Athiest. I worked with Hank on another project years ago, he’s not only a terrific writer, he was among the first people to encourage me to blog, but who took the time to give key editorial/copy wrier tips and content devices which made me an immeasurably better writer almost overnight. Still not as good as he is though … :)