![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Segment One - 14-17 July 2007
Jul. 18th, 2007 02:44 pmThe weekend was great - got to eat plenty, talk with relatives, and play games with the family. Then, it was off to the interview, after spending a night at a friend’s house. I don’t know how well it went, so we’ll find out. There was some movie-watching and game-playing, and because of the rather relaxed pace of things, I ended up staying on an extra day just to get all the cool stuff done, which included being able to get up close and pet some very gentle and well-taken care of horses. Quite the interesting times there. Then I finally made it back here, and by virtue of arriving rather late, I avoided any traffic or problems with construction. I’m probably not moving for a day or two while the Art Fair happens around me.
In the space of that happening, there have been reported spoilers of the last Potter book, along with some problems over a Saturday launch date from those who observe the Sabbath strictly, $55-a-bottle water, super-sized Simpsons marketing, proof that cell phones are the prime thing in our lives, something that looks like a diamond skull out in the trash, Ikea beginning to provide hostels, (although their advertising department could use some work) and a possible misstep for Mr. Gore's envrinomental message. Of course, nobody’s perfect. Joe Bageant would have you believe, however, that all intellectuals serve at the pleasure of the concentrated rich, perpetuating whatever the rich decide is what the people must believe.
I’m sure this has been mentioned before, but it bears reinforcing. Sending people who are ostensibly the home defence squadron overseas weakens public safety and first responder forces here . You know, the people who will save Dick Cheney from another heart attack?
Large radiation doses increase risk of cancer . This on a particular procedure, sure, but the general gist of the matter is that above. I believe we know this already. Now it’s a matter of finding ways to achieve what we need with the lowest risks. Of course, that news article was fairly bland. If you like color with your commentary, observe Mike Adams rant on the evils of aspartame and how the FDA is turning a blind eye to an obvious carcinogen. If that was too spicy, we can go back to something a little blander, like people tend not to change their ways unless they want to, even in matters that could complicate their health more.
Locally, three Eastern Michigan University administrators were sacked for lying to a student's parents and the campus about the cause of her death, a murder and rape, not asphyxiation as they had originally claimed. Covering up on this could have had even more disastrous results, and Eastern is lucky that there weren’t more killed while they lied about what happened.
Internationally, beheadings are becoming popular again in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, while the United States officially makes nice to them, not only engages in things like this, but also happens to have its citizens making up nearly half of the "foreign fighter" component of the Iraq insurgency. It’s apparently good policy to look the other way on this ally in the Middle East, I guess. We’re more concerned about rogue Lieutennants in the Iraqi police force.
An interesting thought to pursue - terrorism fails because we mistake "Go home, damn Yankee" as meaning "They hate our freedoms and want to kill us all".
A slew of sex-related articles, like how shameful it is that Fox and CBS won't air condom ads aimed at reducing pregnancy (something mentioned earlier, with an NYTimes article describing the Trojan one), why it's best for women to always have a condom, and when boobs can get a woman thrown off a bus.
...and one parody, deserving of special attention. Welcome to Houseplants of Gor. (There is one topless woman right near the end, which probably makes it not safe for work)
Last for this segment, though is a peek inside what console hardware and software testing is like. A lot of work, sometimes in 24-hour shifts, for what may or may not be a lot of money. And looking over this article, I might need to take a refresher on the usage of punctuation in the English language. Maybe not. I don’t know.
In the space of that happening, there have been reported spoilers of the last Potter book, along with some problems over a Saturday launch date from those who observe the Sabbath strictly, $55-a-bottle water, super-sized Simpsons marketing, proof that cell phones are the prime thing in our lives, something that looks like a diamond skull out in the trash, Ikea beginning to provide hostels, (although their advertising department could use some work) and a possible misstep for Mr. Gore's envrinomental message. Of course, nobody’s perfect. Joe Bageant would have you believe, however, that all intellectuals serve at the pleasure of the concentrated rich, perpetuating whatever the rich decide is what the people must believe.
I’m sure this has been mentioned before, but it bears reinforcing. Sending people who are ostensibly the home defence squadron overseas weakens public safety and first responder forces here . You know, the people who will save Dick Cheney from another heart attack?
Large radiation doses increase risk of cancer . This on a particular procedure, sure, but the general gist of the matter is that above. I believe we know this already. Now it’s a matter of finding ways to achieve what we need with the lowest risks. Of course, that news article was fairly bland. If you like color with your commentary, observe Mike Adams rant on the evils of aspartame and how the FDA is turning a blind eye to an obvious carcinogen. If that was too spicy, we can go back to something a little blander, like people tend not to change their ways unless they want to, even in matters that could complicate their health more.
Locally, three Eastern Michigan University administrators were sacked for lying to a student's parents and the campus about the cause of her death, a murder and rape, not asphyxiation as they had originally claimed. Covering up on this could have had even more disastrous results, and Eastern is lucky that there weren’t more killed while they lied about what happened.
Internationally, beheadings are becoming popular again in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, while the United States officially makes nice to them, not only engages in things like this, but also happens to have its citizens making up nearly half of the "foreign fighter" component of the Iraq insurgency. It’s apparently good policy to look the other way on this ally in the Middle East, I guess. We’re more concerned about rogue Lieutennants in the Iraqi police force.
An interesting thought to pursue - terrorism fails because we mistake "Go home, damn Yankee" as meaning "They hate our freedoms and want to kill us all".
A slew of sex-related articles, like how shameful it is that Fox and CBS won't air condom ads aimed at reducing pregnancy (something mentioned earlier, with an NYTimes article describing the Trojan one), why it's best for women to always have a condom, and when boobs can get a woman thrown off a bus.
...and one parody, deserving of special attention. Welcome to Houseplants of Gor. (There is one topless woman right near the end, which probably makes it not safe for work)
Last for this segment, though is a peek inside what console hardware and software testing is like. A lot of work, sometimes in 24-hour shifts, for what may or may not be a lot of money. And looking over this article, I might need to take a refresher on the usage of punctuation in the English language. Maybe not. I don’t know.
