Thirty Helens Agree

An excellent tutorial on how and why to use RoR on OS X from Apple! Check out the article for a good all around introduction: Using Ruby on Rails for Web Development on Mac OS X.

Alright, another good one that came to me through some long chain of email forwards. I’m always a sucker for things like this for Massachusetts and Boston. Sad, I know.

• You think if someone is nice to you they either want something or they are from out of town.
• The public transportation system is known as the “T” and you’d rather drive in bumper to bumper traffic for 4 hours to get to Boston than be caught dead on the “Orange Line”.
• You could own a small town in Iowa for the cost of your house.
• There are 24 Dunkin Donuts shops within 15 minutes of your house and that is how you give directions.
• If you stay on the same road long enough it eventually has three different names.
• 53 degrees is “on the warm side”.
• You’ve walked to Brigham’s for an ice cream cone “to go” in the snow.
• You cringe every time you hear some actor/actress imitate the”Boston Accent” on TV.
• You call chocolate sprinkles “jimmies”.
• A water fountain is called a bubbler. Say it ” bubbla”.
• You can go from one side of town to the other in less than fifteen
  minutes.
• You know how to pronounce towns like Worcester, Haverhill, Peabody, Scituate, Chatham, and Leominster.
• You know what they sell at a “packie”.
• You keep an ice scraper in your car all year round.
• Paranoia sets in when you can’t see a Dunkin Donuts, ATM or CVS.
• You’ve pulled out of a side street and used your car to block oncoming traffic so you can make a left.
• You’ve bragged about saving money at The Christmas Tree Shop.
• You know what a “regular coffee” is!
• You can navigate a rotary without a problem.
• You use the words “wicked”, “pissa”, and “good” in the same sentence.
• You know what a frappe is (or a Fribble).
• Saint Patrick’s Day is your second favorite holiday.
• You drink tonic and would never consider using it on your hair.
• You never say “Cape Cod” you say “The Cape”.
• You went to Old Sturbridge Village and Plymouth Plantation at least
  once, in elementary school, but never to Bunker Hill.
• You know the Mass Pike and 495 create some sort of strange weather
  dividing line.

I’ve always known just enough to get by when dealing with CSS. This online tutorial though really gives an excellent introduction. Good work.

Sent along from my buddy who recently moved back to Norway:

I’m sure you’ve all seen the stupidity and warcry from muslim fundementalists all over the world because of some cartoon drawings of their holy prophet in Danish and Norwegian newspapers. You have to be f’in kidding me. Anyways, this was posted in a danish newspaper from a reader, and I’ll translate for you guys. So f’in true!!

• Sorry, sorry
• We’re sorry for giving you housing and help.
• We’re sorry for giving you an education.
• We’re sorry for helping you financially.
• We’re sorry for letting you freely practice your religion in our country.
• We’re sorry for sending help to your countries.
• We’re sorry for not demanding en eye for en eye for the bloodshed caused by muslims on our countrymen and allies.
• We’re sorry for not running around with explosives tied to our bodies whenever we feel disrespected.
• We’re sorry for not doing the stuff that your religion demands.
• But an apology for writing something in our own country obeying our own laws, that you’ll never receive!

Keep it up Mr. Rasmussen.. I support you at least: Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said repeatedly he cannot apologize for his country’s free press.

I hope the Ebay headquarters are well protected. I can only imagine what will happen when someone starts selling the cartoon of Calvin pissing on Muhammad on Ebay..

Update – 02.05.06: Jeff Jacoby of the Globe once again hitting the nail on the head.
“We Are All Danes Now”:

HINDUS CONSIDER it sacrilegious to eat meat from cows, so when a Danish supermarket ran a sale on beef and veal last fall, Hindus everywhere reacted with outrage. India recalled its ambassador to Copenhagen, and Danish flags were burned in Calcutta, Bombay, and Delhi. A Hindu mob in Sri Lanka severely beat two employees of a Danish-owned firm, and demonstrators in Nepal chanted: ”War on Denmark! Death to Denmark!”In many places, shops selling Dansk china or Lego toys were attacked by rioters, and two Danish embassies were firebombed.

It didn’t happen, of course. Hindus may consider it odious to use cows as food, but they do not resort to boycotts, threats, and violence when non-Hindus eat hamburger or steak. They do not demand that everyone abide by the strictures of Hinduism and avoid words and deeds that Hindus might find upsetting. The same is true of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Mormons: They don’t lash out in violence when their religious sensibilities are offended. They certainly don’t expect their beliefs to be immune from criticism, mockery, or dissent.

But radical Muslims do.

The rest of the article on boston.com or after the jump!

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I was going to comment on the State of the Union address but you’re better off reading from someone who actually knows what they are talking about. The comments from the smartest guy I know when he’s not drinking, taking a trip, or behind the wheel: Comments on Reality.