Kara & Michael’s Blog

There’s a $60-per-month diet pill being advertised online, the ingredient label for which reads:
Active ingredient: 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine 100mg (pharmaceutical grade)
Those who aren’t organic chemistry hobbyists, please follow the link above for an explanation.
The best part is the one review website I found that’s full of statements from satisfied customers like “special weight loss compound”, “closest you [...]

I was reading through blogs the other day because it’s what I do when I run out of work and don’t feel like doing my schoolwork.  And something struck me about blogging, it was this:
Many women bloggers have social anxiety.
I relate to them, at least on that bit. When I wasn’t on medication, my symptoms [...]

Maybe you guys have been following the upheaval in the light of Palin’s email being “hacked” last week. Maybe you’ve been watching Oprah discuss anonymous, describing it as a terrorist network of child molesters. Maybe you’ve been on 4chan laughing your ass off to a video of Oprah reading an obviously sarcastic comment posted on [...]

A collection of popular Google search terms, in poem form.
why do dogs eat grass
why do cats purr
why do men cheat
why do we yawn
why do divers shower
why do mosquito bites itch
why is the sky blue
why is russia attacking georgia
why is my computer so slow
why is a raven like a writing desk
why is my poop green
why is [...]

I have a mildly irritating little application called Pocket Express on my smartphone. Pocket Express delivers news, movie showtimes, and lots and lots of advertisements, and it’s apparently pretty ubiquitous in the world of PDA phones.
One of the items offered by Pocket Express is a travel blog. I read through it the other day, finding [...]

I’ve spoken a few times about how I fell victim to a phishing scam as a direct result of my utter and complete stupidity and lack of forethought. I was not so much threatened by the internet as by my own sleep-deprived decision making skills. I was angry and I was also pretty embarrassed because… [...]

From the NYT about “Trolls“.
I am sick of people saying this is shocking or frightening. You’re an idiot who shouldn’t be on the internet.
The internet is this grand dance of anarchy and humanity. It’s extraordinary. People do awful things without fear of repercussion on the internet. Isn’t that amazing and educational? I say this as [...]

Warning: Geekery.
Also, an update (7/25): I was concerned when I initally posted this that what I describe as the last portion of my hypothetical attack (taking over as the authoritative NS for an entire domain) would not be possible. The most recent exploit for this vulnerability, published today, appears to do exactly this. At the [...]

It’s time for my weekly trawl through the 4d2.org spam quarantine. This time I thought I would critically review spam messages, in the interest of improving the quality of future spam.
So without further ado, here are my favorite spams of the week:
Spam subject line: “SEXUALLY-EXPLICIT: breaking japan finish woods spot blake federer xA1gzbq3ug8gNfgN9u63oQ”
Why it is [...]

Washington Post has a feature this week about obese children, or, pejoratively, “fat kids.”
I think this feature has been remarkably well done thus far, and it’s pretty interesting. Check out your nutritional knowledge on their quiz. I got a 65%, which isn’t great, but I guess I can be glad I don’t have [...]