Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Good for Shaq. "Daryl Morey was right."

- Interesting perspective on the situation in Syria and our handling of Turkey.

- CRISPR gene editing just got a major upgrade (but it's still not perfect)

- Interesting - what it's like to take an investment meeting with Naval Ravikant

- Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin announces plan to get back to the Moon by 2024. In my opinion the USA only gets back to the Moon in a timely fashion if Blue Origin or Elon Musk's SpaceX is involved.

- 15 habits of "lucky" people.

- So how close are we to the almost unlimited energy of nuclear fusion - at least 15-years away.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Drug wars are good and easy to win... South Korea has a robot crab called the "crabster" that can be used to explore the ocean floor... Am I the only one suffering serious football withdrawal right now?... Along with being a pretty unique person Shaq is a pretty astute businessman... Not sure what bothered me more as a kid - learning there's no Easter Bunny or learning Erik Estrada's first name is actually Henry... Can you imagine how awful it would to be for a girl or guy in college or high school with a nickname like "the crabster"?... Pretty strong words from Alan Dershowitz about the hard left and tenured university professors...

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Think I'm over the Patriots loss on Sunday. I will be avoiding Boston sports talk radio until after the Super Bowl though... Heh heh - best take I've seen on the GOP Iowa debate... Oh and for the Super Bowl - I will be rooting for the Panthers to crush Denver... Vengeance Quakers would be a good name for a band (or for rational Patriots fans rooting for Carolina in the Super Bowl)...  Heh heh... Am I the only one who reads Peter King's columns but hears them in my head in the voice of Fat Bastard from Austin Powers?... The 30 players listed in this article would make very good fantasy baseball targets (many will probably be bargains)... Speaking of fantasy baseball - Schtup With People may be my fantasy team this year... If you've seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens then this is pretty funny... I have always had a problem with the Fleetwood Mac song You Make Loving Fun. as opposed to what? You Make Loving Feel Like Working in a Coal Mine?...WTF?...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- Ray Guy's Super Bowl rings sell for nearly $100K at bankruptcy auction. My first reaction was to feel bad for Ray Guy but some of the comments made me wonder if my sympathy is misplaced

- A picture of Shaq and his girlfriend presented without comment

- Ouch - "Obama is still saying, 'Yes, we can.' But he never explains why we haven't."

- How to improve WIFI signal with a beer can. Information in Spanish but pictures are pretty self-explanatory.

- 4 Regular People Who Negotiated High-Profile Surrenders. The first guy had balls of steel.

An Unbelieveable Story?

Bill Clinton and Shaq using the same Las Vegas prostitution ring? Man this story is almost too funny to be true.

There I was - reading my man Dr. Pauly for my WSOP updates when he drops this nugget:

And how about the three hookers getting busted at the Rio? They were a part of a bigger prostitution ring involving a cheerleading coach who moonlights as a Madame. She ran a high end hooker business that allegedly serviced high profile clients such as Bill Clinton and Shaq. I always knew Slick Willy liked high end pussy. The ladies for hire cost at least $10,000 and they only got a meager 15% cut. It pays to be a pimp.

My first thought was that Pauly has to be careful saying things like that. I mean bloggers like Neate Sager are getting sued for libel. Then I saw in the comments that the story about Clinton and the hookers was supposedly on Drudge. I checked Drudge but my search didn't come up with the story (it did unearth a great headline though - "BILL CLINTON COMES OUT TO CELEBRATE ELTON'S 60TH"). I did a Google search and found that the story was legit. Some points I'd like to make:

- The "Madame" who was arrested had a first name of Esperanza. I know that means "hope" in Spanish but I just found it amusing to see it as a first name. But it turns out that her first name is the least bizarre thing about the story.

- Supposedly Madame Brooks had never done anything like this before and she was only doing it because her husband was having trouble selling cars. Am I the only one who finds that claim really hysterical? "Sorry honey I didn't make my quota this month so you are going to have to go out and pimp out some of your cheerleaders."

- Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy?

- On one hand Madame Esperanza Brooks had never done anything like this but on the other hand she claims to have a stable of 40 girls and high end clients like Bill Clinton and Shaq. Maybe it was just beginners luck snagging some big name clients the first time out of the box?

- I actually find the claim that Shaq used a prostitution service more unbelievable than the claim that Bill Clinton did. Personally - I'm giving both Clinton and Shaq the benefit of the doubt. I wouldn't be shocked in the least if was true but I think we all have to take the word of a pimp named Esperanza who is married to a car salesman with more than a grain of salt.