This Is Reporting? Fox News Ties Flame Malware To Angry Birds Because Both Use Lua
from the wow dept
We’re often told that the big media companies need to be saved because of all the important expensive reporting work they do. And then we see something absolutely ridiculous, such as Fox News linking the infamous Flame malware to Angry Birds… because both use the Lua computing language (found via Slashdot):
This is, of course, a complete pointless linkage, which seems to serve no purpose whatsoever, other than (perhaps) to attract the attention of those who are obsessed with Angry Birds (an admittedly large group of people). But just because two programs are written in the same language, it doesn’t mean… well, it doesn’t mean anything of importance whatsoever. Instead, it just seems like Fox News and its “Chief Intelligence Correspondent” Catherine Herridge needed to fill some space and came up with something entirely pointless. But, you know, we need those big professional news companies because of deep, hard-hitting stories like this one.
Filed Under: angry birds, flame, lua, malware, news
Companies: fox news
Comments on “This Is Reporting? Fox News Ties Flame Malware To Angry Birds Because Both Use Lua”
Ya know, I was going to try and come up with a witty comment, but I won’t. I just won’t. Not after reading this. There’s a tie because…they’re both written in LUA? Okay how about this
“Controversial ‘Mein Kampf’ book tied to Erich Kaestner children’s stories”.
It's A Legitimate Point
If their writing legitimate software, why don’t they use a legitimate, accepted language, like Microsoft Visual Basic? The mere fact that there choosing to use something obscure like Lua shows that they must have something to hide!
This is why I love Fox News. They ask the tricky questions that nobody else dares to contemplate! You’re site could learn something from them, Mike!
Don’t let them know World of Warcraft uses LUA, or their heads will ‘splode.
Catherine Herridge needed to fill some space and came up with something entirely pointless. But, you know, we need those big professional news companies because of deep, hard-hitting stories like this one.
LMAO @ Pirate Mike! Priceless. Mike, who does nothing but post pointless nonsense (including this very article) whining about others doing the same. Too funny. Nobody’s coming to TechTurd for “hard-hitting stories” either, Pirate Mike. You’re all surface and no depth. I love it–the guy who runs one of the most idiotic, whiny blogs on the ‘net is upset at other people’s fluff pieces. Awesome!
Literal-Minded Here
Hard-hitting stories? You mean: head + wall = new hole in wall?
Really, that’s what I feel like doing right now, only minus the wall with my desk.
obviously someone at Fox News doesn’t like/cant play/keeps getting beaten by Angry Birds!!
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What?
It's A Legitimate Point
Your homophones are killing me. Just a little bit and very slowly, but killing me nonetheless.
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pointless????
Keeps you occupied, doesn’t he? He provides something that you state, categorically, “I love it” and “Awesome”.
High praise indeed.
It’s Fox News. To think they know what they are talking about when it comes to evidence is ridiculous. They’re all experts in lying.
Well, at least they didn't try to "sex it up", like during sweeps...
The mendacity of the news is appalling: “Angry Birds” made from same programming language as new “Flame” virus.
For most people, this is a non-story and thus it has to use “Angry Birds” to get anyone to pay attention at all. I’m kind of surprised that they didn’t use “World of Warcraft”, as their user modifications are written in the same language. Oh, my god…
Tomorrows News Today: “Flame” virus writers practiced writing virus code with “World of Warcraft”! (Film at 11.)
I saw this story posted elsewhere and I honestly thought it was from The Onion.
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There is a difference between what Mike writes and what Fox reports. What Mike writes on this site is free to read, you have to pay for the drivel reported by Fox. Yet, somehow I trust Techdirt more than Fox.
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What.
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haha… almost got me there. Whew! I was just about to lose my will to do anything productive today!
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The irony of your comment about Mike and his whining is completely lost on you I bet.
To be clear, you are doing what you’re ridiculing Mike of. And you do it much more often than would be considered acceptable and much more often than Mike. But in your eyes pointing out problems with laws and overreaching and whatnot is considered whining. Which is hilarious considering it would be just whining, if Mike also didn’t point out how they can do better and offer suggestions on exactly that.
Whiny Troll is whiny. That’s your new nickname, Whiny Troll. You are no longer just a troll. Guys let’s all start calling him this and flagging his ad hom comments (since that’s all they ever are).
Flame
I hear flame works on x86 platforms, the a platform that the Windows Kernel runs on.
I don’t think Fox News counts as one of the big news companies we need to keep around because of their investigative reporting. They are a propaganda outfit disguised as news.
Flame
Dun Dun Dun!!!!
😉
Exclusive...read it here first.
Fox News is reported in English, the same language used to report on CNN/MSNBC!
*GASP*
I bet you will all be thinking twice now!
(hardly)
Re: Exclusive...read it here first.
That’s almost as shocking as the FOX news article I just read about Obama being the same species as suspected terrorists! Can you believe it!?
“It just seems like Fox News … needed to fill some space and came up with something entirely pointless.”
That’s what Faux News does 24/7. You just summed up the entire news channel in one sentence.
Fixed Noise….. I mean Fox News, enough said.
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“They are a propaganda outfit disguised as news.”
Not just FOX but all the others as well.
No offense Mike, but who cares. I dunno why so many comments agree with you here either. It seems like you are making ‘news’ out of non-news here.
Your link doesn’t link to the entire article so I’m not exactly sure if the article does say anything suspect but from the picture the article only seems to say that the language that was used to write this ‘cyberweapon’ was the same language used to write Angry Birds. OK, so the title maybe a bit confusing, even misleading, but anyone who reads the article will quickly find it’s just a title to grab attention. It’s not like Techdirt (and every blog and newspaper) has never made somewhat catchy titles that are somewhat confusing and hyperbole and most don’t fault much you for it (well, except the trolls, though I admit that I have looked at some of the Techdirt titles with confusion after reading the article and I may have complained about it before but it’s really no big deal). It seems like the confusion is cleared upon reading the article.
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don’t fault you much for it *
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and your post is even more pointless, way to set a good example by showing how to waste everyone’s, including your own, time.
This just in, all Supreme Court justices, all members of Congress, the Vice President, and even the President himself, and millions more all tied to Jerry Sandusky because they all speak English.
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I remember when trolls had class… sure that was a long time ago… but serriously now? I know I haven’t cruised to the comments section in a long time but this looks like this guy ate a bucket of hate, crapped it out, ate that crap and this is the crap that came out after that.
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Oh, and let me add, never judge an article by its title 😉
It's A Legitimate Point
Reverse-trolling at its best. Funny as trolls (stupid ones) count you as one of them!
Everything should be written in Microsoft visual basic!
help with a witty comment.
LUA is a interpreted scripting language.
Flame Malware was written in LUA.
F-Secure couldn’t detect Flame.
Script kiddies: 1 … AV companies: 0
Breaking news! Fox news tied to this English translated copy of mein kampf!! Fox = nazis?!? News at 11
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How…
Pathetic.
And I’m not sure if I’m talking about Fox News, you, or both right now.
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This just in… Fox News tied to the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda as both use devices called “video cameras” to create their broadcasts…
/so what’s this sarc mark look like anyway… 🙂
Only cyber-terrorists play Angry Birds. Playing Angry Birds is un-American!
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Crap. There goes my morning.
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Only those that claim to be news.
It’s funny, because the ones that DON’T claim to be news is where you find the real news.
Jon Stewart
Stephen Colbert
Bill Maher
All three are comedians first and reporters second.
Sad thing is, they’re far more reliable than traditional media.
Mostly because they call out both sides for their stupidity.
I remember when Stewart was yelling at Democrats for being p**sies and the Republicans for being ***holes.
Forgot to say
Fox News +9001, for trolling Old people and racists by “connecting non connections”.
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It’s not the nature of the title, but the way the article is attempting to use irrelevant references to mobile games.
IF you were intelligent, you’d have seen it but alas, your vision is obscured by a grade school analysis.
In other news, criminals share the same DNA as non-criminals.
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The retard AC whining about Mike whining about Faux “News”
Feed the troll nom, nom, nom.
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What do you expect? It’s made up of them durn furrin pixuls!
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The headline is completely false. Was someone who was involved with the creation of Angry Birds also responsible in some fashion for the creation of Flame? No.
The headline falsely proclaims a connection where NONE exists. As in my comment up above, Fox News might as well have a headline showing the connection between Mein Kamp and Erich Kaestner because both are written in German. It’s a meaningless headline that is entirely unrelated to the article.
As for Mike making a non-story, I have to disagree with you there. If no-one ever bothered to tell me that Fox News is actually Faux News, I wouldn’t know about it. So kudos to Mike for letting us know. Keep on reporting that Fox News is full of crap! Let us hold on to hope that someday Fox News will actually live up to its catchprase of “Fair and Balanced”.
FOX really, really?
Fox News is full of pigs.
Exclusive...read it here first.
splode.gif
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No we don’t.
Oh I get it, she doesn’t like the game or she doesn’t like birds.
Oh the bird jokes this lady will have to endure may be punishment enough.
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Fox and the other mainstream media.
Balancing “crazy and extreme” with reasonable ( to be “fair” )
Two online news shows with sense….
NOT to BALANCE (aSide +999999) & (bSide-1) as being equally opposite.
TYT AND The Alyona Show
Charles Manson spoke English. We speak English. Therefore we’re all serial killers.
grow up
You’re OVER-reacting. The connection to Angry Birds was only made to give the average ‘grown-up’something to relate to, such as “Angry Birds written in some language”. For them computer conversation past ‘Microsoft’ or ‘Dell’ or lost. Remember, most didn’t grow up with computers.
FYI; if you’re using Colbert, Maher, or Stewart for your news YOU’RE a comedian and with the exception of Stewart neither you or them is even funny. You’ll understand this better when dragged into the “Deathly Hollow” called ‘maturity’, kicking and screaming no doubt..
Re: grow up
You’re OVER-reacting. The connection to Angry Birds was only made to give the average ‘grown-up’something to relate to, such as “Angry Birds written in some language”.
Why not give something RELEVANT to relate to? They might as well just say “Flame was created by a person, and so was Angry Birds!” What they’ve done is less informative and more irresponsible journalism than if they’d given no comparison at all.
What do you expect from a propaganda network that HAS to focus on some new daily outrage for their viewers to get angry about?
It’s stories like this that cause some people (including Fox News viewers) to score WORSE then those who don’t watch any news when asked about current events.
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All day on the nations only all terror network. All terror all the time. FOXSNBCNN.
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That will de 14.35 ?, please. I own the copyright on that “What?”
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Don’t forget Adam Kokesh
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yeah , forgot to add him, don’t see him much since he was booted off RT for…
“WE ARE LEGIOoooooooooN !”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y6H_dDTisg
Pity
Ya gotta take pity on Fox. They really just have no clue whatsoever about why this “story” is absolutely stupid. And remember, most of what’s called “News” these days is made up, misreported, “managed” or otherwise cooked to seem important.
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Oh…
NOOOOOOOO!
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I have a horn. Do you have a bicycle to go with it?
I’ll Ring you.
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And that’s why I like Plants vs. Zombies. Hey, at least I’m learning how to defend myself against the impending zombie apocalypse coming soon.
And speaking of that…
Fox News
Fox News
Military Intelligence
pianoforte
Living Dead
Honest Government
Open Secret
—
You get the picture.
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Yeah later the article really digs in with insightful reporting like “But this new weapon is twenty times the size of earlier cyberbombs and far more powerful”
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/30/powerful-flame-cyberweapon-tied-to-powerfully-angry-birds/
grow up
wut? My dad is 68 and he knows more about computers than I do – and I’ve been an IT guy/programmer for 25 years… you’re an idiot.
ohh hog wash
You guys take life way too seriously. Lol.
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In other news, Powerful “Lil’ Slugger” beating mechanism tied to popular national pastime!
Next up
White House senior aide David Axelrod linked to Hitler. They both have mustaches.
grow up
“FYI; if you’re using Colbert, Maher, or Stewart for your news YOU’RE a comedian and with the exception of Stewart neither you or them is even funny. You’ll understand this better when dragged into the “Deathly Hollow” called ‘maturity’, kicking and screaming no doubt..”
I really can’t someone like you seriously. The kind of ‘maturity’ that you’re emphasizing is nothing more than a hallowed out, empty shell of an existence that leads one to drinking nothing but beer and eating greasy foods, getting fatter and fatter, forcing the obesity problem to get worse and more and more stupid laws to get passed simply because your life isn’t worth living.
Well, here’s a little news flash for you, sad sack…
Maturity is what you make of it. Whenever a parent says “act your age” to their child, they really mean “act twice as old as you really are”.
A truly mature person is someone who takes responsibility for their actions.
That’s all it really is. That and being able to read a situation and act accordingly, but that’s rather minor compared to being able to take responsibility for your actions.
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Thanks for the link.
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(Oh, I missed it, I guess it was already in the article. Sorry)
ONLY THE L IS CAPITALIZED
Lua is a proper noun, it means “Moon” in Portuguese. Please spell it correctly, both Fox and TechDirt aren’t spelling it right. Fox News I can understand…but this is a tech web site and I expect better.
http://www.lua.org/about.html
Re: ONLY THE L IS CAPITALIZED
thats okay.
I have not seen one story about this item that actually spelled it right.
No different than anti-virus software banning everything that is based on Autohotkey, AutoIT, or compressed with UPX.
So FoxNes = Just About Every Anti-Virus Software Out There.
ONLY THE L IS CAPITALIZED
Right you are, sir! Fixed
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It’s a big news corporation. To think they know what they are talking about when it comes to evidence is ridiculous. They’re all experts in lying.
FTFY
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OMG! That’s the connection! Anders Breivek killed a whole bunch of people after training in WoW because LUA is the language of terrorists and murderers! If we just profile anyone who uses LUA, we can prevent all terrorist acts and mass murders! I bet that Canadian cannnibal guy models in LUA…
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Worse than that I just realized the Unibomber Manifesto was written in English and FOX News is in English so if one was a terrorist they must both be terrorists.
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Nobody’s coming to TechTurd for “hard-hitting stories” either, Pirate Mike.
You’re right, of course. This site is just a honey-pot for trolls.
techdirt: We keep trolls busy. You’re welcome internet!
It's absurd
A lot of viruses are written in C, the same language as the Windows operating system! This does not mean that Windows is a virus!
Wait, bad example…
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Whiner.
The most sophisticated and powerful cyberweapon uncovered to date was written in the LUA computer language, cyber security experts tell Fox News — the same one used to make the incredibly popular Angry Birds game.
LUA is favored by game programmers because it?s easy to use and easy to embed. Flame is described as enormously powerful and large, containing some 250,000 lines of code, making it far larger than other such cyberweapons. Yet it was built with gamer code, said Cedric Leighton, a retired Air Force Intelligence officer who now consults in the national security arena.
?The people who developed the malware ? found an ingenious way to use a code not part and parcel of a hacker?s normal arsenal, and that made it harder to detect,? he told Fox News.
“Easy to use and easy to embed”, this looks like straight up journalistic writing, with a point of reference that the novice would understand.
So why the Anti Fox News baiting Mike?
Oh that’s right Rupert Murdock is the master of the evil empire.
Just some more of Mikes anti Fox News bashing, nothing to see here move along.
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“Mikes anti Fox News bashing”
Have you ever watched Fox “news”
More like… Fox, news entertainment.
The same man that likes to “shape agendas” at least they tried, supporting the Bush policy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K2pLo8JV5Y
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Wat?
There, fixed that for you.
I’ll even give you CC license for it.
Fox News
In other words…
Fox News – full of Morons using up my oxygen!
LOLOLUA
Annnnnd the metal in my truck fender is the same metal in terrorist weaponry…?
I’m a game developer who uses Lua in my game engine. Guess I’ll have to remove it in order to be able to market to Fox News viewers.
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Everyone is a few days behind on this, but I too went off on a rant about this. Mine wasn’t nearly as nice.
This whole Fox News story just chilled me all the way to my IT bones. How in the hell can they even get away with reporting like that?
As a network administrator and programmer that has been in the industry for over 15 years, I can say that allowing a news station to get away with making such an outlandish comparison just for ratings is dirty journalism at best.
They are blatantly trying to misdirect any education about the IT world to people that need to understand it the most.
I can’t wait till this technology ignorant generation dies off.
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Oh that’s right Rupert Murdock is the master of the evil empire.
Being an Australian I actually agree with this statement, in reference to his business practices, lack of ethics and narcissistic personality. Interestingly so do nearly all other Australians who actually have worked for, known, or encountered Rupert and his family when he was an Aussie citizen..
Fox News is just a small part of an extremely vast egotistic empire that happily is finally beginning to crumble and self implode.
Two words that should never go together: Fox and News.
Much like acids and bases, the combination of the two means brain cells explode.
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Same. Had to tear myself away to get back here. o.o
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Acid-base reactions are ubiquitous. In aqueous solutions acids increase the hydrogen ion (H+) concentration. On the other hand bases increase the hydroxide ion (OH-) concentration. When an acid and a base react in an aqueous solution the H+ and OH- ions combine to form water. These ions thus “neutralize” one another
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Hate to be pedantic, but actually, mixing an acid and base is probably the most peaceful thing you can do. XD
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True, but there is a difference in degree. Fox is batshit-crazy extremist right wing propaganda, everyone else is just varying degrees of ordinary right-wing propaganda.
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Considering that many common acids are Hydrogen based, the end result of acid-base combinations is actually mostly water. Then again, considering how horrible H2O is for you, maybe you have a point I’m not seeing?
This just in!
The Fox website is written in HTML, the same computer language that the Al Qaeda websites are written in!!
Coincidence? I think not.
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*Controlled* mixing of acid and base is. Just throw ’em together and there’s loads of not good spattering.
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Well, we use the same building blocks but not the actual same DNA, no.
Also, this just in – innocent peoples DNA uses same code as criminals.
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Actually, the link to Angry Birds is one of the least comical and egregiously misleading things the article says.
That article is a great example of “anti-news”: a reader is actually left less informed for having read it.
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If you had a ton of each (I mean dozens of gallons, at least), you could get a nice geyser of very hot water…but beyond that, not much else is going to happen. They will neutralize eachother too quickly to get much, if any, acid spraying anywhere.
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If you really think this looks like straight-up journalism, then I don’t even know what to say. This is straight-up propaganda (of the “be afraid!” variety, and is almost entirely composed of factoids that are stitched together to make an unrelated and greatly exaggerated point.
Mentioning Angry Birds is completely baffling to me. Pointing out the two things were written in the same language is relevant to exactly nothing, and clarifies nothing. For people who don’t know anything about programming, it’s even worse in that it encourages people to think the there is some kind of meaningful link between the two.
So? Lua is one of a number of languages that are preferred by game programmers because it’s easy to use and embed.
I have no idea why the article spends any time on how large Flame is, and even measure it according to number of lines of code, which is a meaningless measurement when taken alone. Why is “far larger” relevant? In fact, being far large implies that it might not be terribly sophisticated, as keeping the code small helps to keep it stealthy.
“Gamer code”?? Really?? What does that even mean? It’s meaningless bullshit. Ah, but here we see a clue to the real purpose of the article: this quote comes from a “national security consultant” which means that the more frightened people are, the more money he makes. This article is an advertisement, not news.
This is more meaningless bullshit, and that it was written in Lua does not impact its difficulty to detect.
This is not journalism at all, even in the most generous meaning of the term. This is a press release from a for-profit security firm that markets to the government and major corporations.
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As Obi-Wan Kenobi rhetorically asked of the internet, “who’s the more foolish: the fool or the fool who follows his RSS feed?”
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When are we going to start throwing people in prison for making dihydrogen monoxide? It’s a horrific terrorist weapon.
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LOL. I guess I shouldn’t have used the word “explode”.
When writing this, I was remembering the “Kitchen Chemistry 101” lesson given to us students decades ago about mixing chlorine with ammonia.
I guess brain cells don’t explode in that context, but they sure do end up dead.
Thanks for the reminder. Perhaps this is why I didn’t pass Chem the first time around (or the second, and barely the third).
Ugh. I’m reminding myself why I hate Chemistry.
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One does not simply walk out of TVTropes.
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AND EUROPEAN SOCIALIST COMMIE BASTARDS!!!
I’m terribly sorry for yelling.
It's absurd
See right above for an example of this very thing….
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Can’t: Satan has them bought and paid for in his Murdoch disguise.
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I thought Satan was Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Bin Laden, the U.N., ETC?
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Not quite. Fox has it made because they went to court for their constitutional right to lie to people, starting on a Florida smear campaign.
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THIS JUST IN: YOU MIGHT BE A CRIMINAL!!!!!
[Byline]DNA builds criminality into humans.
grow up
Uhh, they’re all satire, especially Colbert. When the gloves come off him, he’s a vicious bastard.
This is surprising?
Fox is a propaganda outlet for sale to any plutocrat with enough bucks and clout to afford them. It will be interesting to see what the payoff is this time.
Wonder how many viewers on fox associate angry birds with android?
Wonder how many of them might be aware of google ownership?
Fox News Tied to Child Porn ... Both Use Video
Film at 11.
OMG
ALL genocides/murders/bad stuff tied to the alphabet!
Sources say apparently most documents related to criminal activity produced during the past thousand or so years have relied on the letters a through z.
Sources say this link proves that the entire alphabet along with written and spoken language must be banned to stop piracy/terrorists/for the children……
Fox News is my source of entertainment! Their stupidity is just priceless comedy gold!
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I have it on good information that some Terrorists are right handed, the same hand the Fox uses for mental masturbation, and yet some in the mid east use there left hand to wipe their bottoms. Some folks at Fox are left handed as well, just not as many that use the left hand to wipe with in the mid east…..
ergo:
Right handed fox pundits = mental mastubator’s
left handed fox pundits = bottom wipers
🙂 🙂 🙂
Catherine Herridge is just trying to make a living
By being naive and hoping her editors and readers are the same her wish was granted and her ill-informed article was published. She will continue to make false linkages that would give her a failing grade in any essay/paper that was properly graded in any proper university or college.
Give her a break, she is just too uneducated to understand that all Windows/PC viruses, trojans, and other malware is all executed on the Intel x86 instruction set. Obviously, Intel is the sponsor and enabler of all the world’s ill.
If she was really up to her task of a true muckraker, she would be camping out at Santa Clara, demanding to speak to Paul Otellini to get to the bottom of this fiendish scheme.
It's A Legitimate Point
and, just think, if only google had followed this logic when developing android, they never would have been sued!
what is this??? angry birds are amazing! can’t live without them any more)))))