The insect Micronecta scholtzi is a fascinating creature. Just two millimeters long, it can create a noise magnitudes greater than its size — “comparable to a passing freight train”, according to scientists who have endured it. Males “try to produce a song as loud as possible, potentially scrambling the song of competitors”, we are told. The insect accomplishes this amazing feat by rubbing its extraordinarily tiny penis against its abdomen.

In related news, today is Glenn Beck’s last day on Fox.

Water insect makes record noise with penis [BBC, via LuxMentis]

• Angry Doves
• Holy Ghost in the Machine
• “I just became the mayor of the Vatican on @foursquare!”

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It might come as a surprise that Arizona has — well, had — one of the more interesting campaign-finance laws in the country. If you signed on, the state would hand you a pile of cash, as is customary. But the state would also hand you more cash if your non-subsidized opponent money-bombed yer ass. And the state would hand you even more cash if a third-party group money-bombed your opponent — or decided to go all Willie Horton on you.

In other words, Arizona served as an aggressive retailer, meeting or beating any opponent’s offer. The more they raised, the more you got.

Until Monday, when the Supreme Court deemed that unfair competition.

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The cruel reality of Popular Entertainment is that it needs to be entertaining before it can be popular. Your mileage may vary with the next tentpole comic-book movie to desecrate your local multiplex, but as the producers of the Spider-Man musical have learned, it’s not as easy as it looks.

Which is why we’ve never had much patience with the Liberal Hollywood Conspiracy complaint. Yes, Norman Lear wore his politics on his sleeve, but All in the Family was funny, and Rob Reiner certainly wasn’t an untouchable youth hero. For that matter, jumping ahead a generation, we thoroughly enjoyed the fourth season of 24, which was so wonderfully over-the-top that we felt deprived if Keefer didn’t shoot somebody in the thigh on a given Monday night.

And hey, we still enjoy Mamet, even if he is a fucking asshole.

All of which is to say, the well-intentioned producers behind a new direct-to-DVD TV series are missing the point:

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So we’re catching up with Conan last night — the TV show, not the bewildering movie remake — and he drops a joke about Rick Perry fending off gay rumors. This is news to us, because we’ve never heard of any Rick Perry gay rumors. (Is he seceding from heterosexuality?) So we rev up the StinquePad, start typing Rick Perry’s name into Google…

…and before we can get to “gay”, before we can even get to g, we get this.

What’s up? Is another wingnut getting rickrolled?

Near as we can figure, Rick Perry’s Rainbow Condition began, as all things do, with a Politico story this week:

If Texas Gov. Rick Perry decides to run for president, his team is more than prepared for a re-airing of unsubstantiated rumors, circulated on and off for years in the Lone Star State, about his personal life.

The crusted-over rumors were in the ether among some attendees at a dinner hosted last week by the Manhattan County GOP, where Perry gave the keynote speech. The rumors, which have never been proven despite repeated review by media outlets, were addressed by the governor himself in a lengthy 2004 American-Statesman story that is sure to see new life if he runs.

The claims, which had made the rounds for months by the time the story was written, included rumors that Perry and his wife Anita had split, and that the governor was gay.

This is classic Politico: “crusted-over rumors in the ether among some attendees” is all the sourcing you get for this story, which could mean that somebody revived an old joke at a back table. But that’s all you need to spark a Google trend and wind up the pawn of a late-night comedian. By comparison, Anthony Weiner is an overachiever.

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Chuck Schumer, levying a bold charge against Republicans in January 2009:

“If they oppose even something so suited to their tastes ideologically, it shows that they’re just opposing anything that helps create jobs,” Schumer added. “It almost makes you wonder if they aren’t trying to slow down the economic recovery for political gain.”

Oops, we’re sorry — that was yesterday. What we meant to say is that Rush Limbaugh showed his hand in January 2009:

“I hope Obama fails.”

The GOP strategy from the start has been no secret: Prevent Barack Obama from scoring any political or practical victory, by any means necessary. The Party of No didn’t emerge from Principled Opposition — that’s no Democrat healthcare reform that barely passed, and that’s no Democrat cap & trade program that failed — but from fear that if Obama actually fixed the economy, his re-election would be guaranteed.

Hell, Mitch McConnell would have taken a bullet for Osama bin Laden, just to stop Obama from getting credit for the hit.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibEdgQJEdTA

We spent ten hours Tuesday on the geek equivalent of disassembling and reassembling a lawnmower engine. This is what it felt like by Hour 6.

[via Nerdist]