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And a new month begins - 01 April 2008
Apr. 2nd, 2008 12:03 amI have no idea if any of the following material is true or false, and I’ve tried my best to winnow out the stuff that can’t be true. That said, if there’s some pranks in here, let me know. We do recommend, of course, using the latest browser to view these pages.
International matters kick off with a doomsday cult that holed itself up in a cave with a faulty roof. They might have something going for them, though, as Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates are meeting with Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev over missile defense systems. No danger of things being launched, as far as I know, but there’s still been serious retargeting threats.
Regarding Iraq, Cybercast News searches hard for the silver lining in noting deaths in March 2008 were much fewer than deaths in 2007. See? Progress? Honest. Never mind that the Pentagon's running rampantly over budget,
Oh, and married couples can sleep together while they're on tour, if they’re both stationed in the same place. But they have to be completely professional while on the clock. Domestic partners flying to see their spouses? Nope, no room at the inn.
I suppose it was only a matter of time before the argument boomeranged on the climate change believers. Now both sides can say “Well, there’s lots of money riding on your position”. Alan Caruba accuses the environmental movement of making itself richer by forcing solutions to the "non-existent" global warming problem. So we can see both sides pointing fingers at each other and accusing that they’re in the pockets of rich interests. Great. Probably getting lost in all the posturing is that concern for the environment is actually a good thing, and working toward that would probably be best.
Did we also mention that food prices are continuing to rocket up, making it even harder to feed the hungry? Sounds like there’s still a lot of work to be done.
Is it the suit? Questions start to surface whether it's skill or technology behind swim records being broken. With a Summer Games coming up, we’ll have to see what becomes of the matter.
In domestic-ish matters, the United States has laid down nine charges for an al-Qaeda leader based on attacks that happened more than a decade ago. Even given that the man was captured in 2004, that’s a really slow process for gathering information, much less finally laying down charges that could have death penalty consequences. Whatever happened to the idea of a speedy trial? A Marine accused of killings at Haditha just had charges dropped, so why did it take so long for this al-Qaeda leader?
Following up on the story about the praying parents, no charges have been filed at all, but the other children are living with other relatives. So this seems to be a decent response, if not one that might make it more likely for other praying parents to seek medical help in additional to spiritual help.
Ezra Klein takes issue with the way that prisons are allowed to become violent and rapacious, and that the American populace is okay with this. Prison rape jokes and the expectation that those who go up the river to do hard time are going to have a hard time makes for recidivism and money spent controlling rather than rehabilitating, according to Klein. With the growing prison population, this is serious expense. So maybe we can cut back on locking up small drug offenses for long times, then?
Regarding candidates for the United States general election, it's a dead heat in the Democratic elections, according to several polls conducted. This will make for quite the interesting convention, I’m sure.
North Dakota State University students put on a blackface show as a warm-up, and then a couple of cowboys supposedly having teh buttsecks, both intended as parodies. The blackface show used an Obama sign as a prop, and the students who put on those acts met get the hook in more ways than one, once the investigation gets finished. Which could take a while.
More directly related, Donald Lambro analyzes the "Favorable/unfavorable" impressions that people have of the candidates, concluding that the impression people have of candidates influences their decisions more. If those impressions are based on policy and reasons that can be backed up, then yeah, that’s true. It doesn’t sound like that’s what Lambro is getting at, but that people see their “impressions” on more nebulous factors than those.
The almost worst out of this segment, though is that one in ten voters still think Barack Obama is a Muslim, despite the flap over a Christian pastor, his attendance at a Christian church for many years, and his own statements that he is not a Muslim. Some rumors just won’t die like they should.
The actual worst, however, is that Senator McCain has been caught fibbing by having two different opinions about Muqtada al-Sadr’s influence in Iraq. Two weeks apart. Probably prompted by al-Sadr’s ability to hang in and keep his power in the face of government incursions.
In other materials, David Tennant is a gentleman and a scholar, whether as The Doctor, his other roles, or off-screen. I wish someone could record the performance of Hamlet the RSC is doing that has Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius. That should be one helluva good show.
General JC Christian got introduced to a whole new audience on Air America's blog today. Today would have been the perfect day for The General to play things absolutely straight, considering his normal demeanor.
The FunSmith helps us with our listmania tonight, giving six reasons not to have fun that can be six ways to get more fun in your life. Speaking of fun for many, since the baseball season has gotten underway, some statisticians with computer programs ran the history of baseball some 10,000 times to see how rare Joe Dimaggio's 56-game hitting streak really is, and found out that something like it was mathematically likely to happen. Just not Dimaggio, nor in 1941, in most cases. Not that this matters for anything.
Our art department has some interesting curiosities - two-way pictures, that change their expression, or even who they are, depending on which way you look at them. It also offers For the Love of Opera Gloves, which is devoted to the long hand coverings.
The Science department puts up suggestions that humans may need to augment themselves if they want to take on space missions of any seriousness. Because people don’t travel well through the deep reaches of space. Other science suggests Tai Chi may help diabetics control their sugar levels - hrm. Could it be the exercise thing? It’s not going to cause a blood sugar crash, and it helps strengthen muscles and exercise the body. OR maybe I’m thinking about this in a wholly wrong way. Any ideas? Also, any ideas why a couple days of fasting helps normal cells survive better against chemotherapy?
Last out of Science, a reminder - not all that looks like science is actual science. Being able to tell the difference between junk that reinforces cultural prejudices and actual science that can prove that some of those cultural prejudices might actually have a scientific or evolutionary advantage is important. Actually, just being able to tell the difference between junk and real science and to ask important questions would be a giant step up from what we have right now. For an example on how things can be twisted, observe - a study shows that women who are depressed tend to have more sexual intercourse. It’s a small study, of 107 women, but watch the conclusion that Allecto draws out of it - "This is small study with 107 (presumable heterosexual) women showing that women who are being sexed more often are more depressed than women who are being sexed less often." Notice the inversion? The study said that depressed women have more sex. Allecto says women who have more sex are depressed. Although in the comments she says that it’s cyclical, that more sex leads to depression which leads to more sex, and so forth, the conclusion being drawn here is not in accord with the data.
Bridging across the gap, same blogger, different subject. By way of introduction to the following, note that Allecto has no use for men on her blog, due to the XY populous being firmly entrenched as agents of oppression, and (perpetually, I guess) requiring education about feminism. (She's not too friendly to women, either.) Thus, hopefully adequately warned, have her take on Firefly and Joss Whedon: Firefly is apparently very anti-female, from Zoe's respect for Mal to Inara's profession and the prevalence of men characters speaking. Context be damned, Joss apparently was not writing in a manner that empowered women at all. There’s more promised down the pipe on the subject, although Allecto did take time out to cherry-pick an idiot's response and straw-man it into an exemplar of all Joss Whedon's fans. The heat from the flames that have been thrown here is enough to cook more than a few meals to perfection. And I guess I had enough of Willing Suspension of Disbelief to say that in this particular future, things that plagued us today would be fixed, mitigated, or at least not nearly as much as an issue then. Inara and the Companions always struck me as more geisha than streetwalker, anyway. As things are, hat tips to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
starkruzr for reminding me that there are all types of persons in the world, with differing opinions on everything.
That’s the show for tonight, folks. Time for bed. Tomorrow, the Fremont Philharmonic is back in action at the Moisture Festival for an evening show. Then again on Thursday, and twice more on Friday. And then my sisters visit for the weekend, and I’m going to be waaaay too busy showing them around to do a whole lot.
International matters kick off with a doomsday cult that holed itself up in a cave with a faulty roof. They might have something going for them, though, as Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates are meeting with Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev over missile defense systems. No danger of things being launched, as far as I know, but there’s still been serious retargeting threats.
Regarding Iraq, Cybercast News searches hard for the silver lining in noting deaths in March 2008 were much fewer than deaths in 2007. See? Progress? Honest. Never mind that the Pentagon's running rampantly over budget,
Oh, and married couples can sleep together while they're on tour, if they’re both stationed in the same place. But they have to be completely professional while on the clock. Domestic partners flying to see their spouses? Nope, no room at the inn.
I suppose it was only a matter of time before the argument boomeranged on the climate change believers. Now both sides can say “Well, there’s lots of money riding on your position”. Alan Caruba accuses the environmental movement of making itself richer by forcing solutions to the "non-existent" global warming problem. So we can see both sides pointing fingers at each other and accusing that they’re in the pockets of rich interests. Great. Probably getting lost in all the posturing is that concern for the environment is actually a good thing, and working toward that would probably be best.
Did we also mention that food prices are continuing to rocket up, making it even harder to feed the hungry? Sounds like there’s still a lot of work to be done.
Is it the suit? Questions start to surface whether it's skill or technology behind swim records being broken. With a Summer Games coming up, we’ll have to see what becomes of the matter.
In domestic-ish matters, the United States has laid down nine charges for an al-Qaeda leader based on attacks that happened more than a decade ago. Even given that the man was captured in 2004, that’s a really slow process for gathering information, much less finally laying down charges that could have death penalty consequences. Whatever happened to the idea of a speedy trial? A Marine accused of killings at Haditha just had charges dropped, so why did it take so long for this al-Qaeda leader?
Following up on the story about the praying parents, no charges have been filed at all, but the other children are living with other relatives. So this seems to be a decent response, if not one that might make it more likely for other praying parents to seek medical help in additional to spiritual help.
Ezra Klein takes issue with the way that prisons are allowed to become violent and rapacious, and that the American populace is okay with this. Prison rape jokes and the expectation that those who go up the river to do hard time are going to have a hard time makes for recidivism and money spent controlling rather than rehabilitating, according to Klein. With the growing prison population, this is serious expense. So maybe we can cut back on locking up small drug offenses for long times, then?
Regarding candidates for the United States general election, it's a dead heat in the Democratic elections, according to several polls conducted. This will make for quite the interesting convention, I’m sure.
North Dakota State University students put on a blackface show as a warm-up, and then a couple of cowboys supposedly having teh buttsecks, both intended as parodies. The blackface show used an Obama sign as a prop, and the students who put on those acts met get the hook in more ways than one, once the investigation gets finished. Which could take a while.
More directly related, Donald Lambro analyzes the "Favorable/unfavorable" impressions that people have of the candidates, concluding that the impression people have of candidates influences their decisions more. If those impressions are based on policy and reasons that can be backed up, then yeah, that’s true. It doesn’t sound like that’s what Lambro is getting at, but that people see their “impressions” on more nebulous factors than those.
The almost worst out of this segment, though is that one in ten voters still think Barack Obama is a Muslim, despite the flap over a Christian pastor, his attendance at a Christian church for many years, and his own statements that he is not a Muslim. Some rumors just won’t die like they should.
The actual worst, however, is that Senator McCain has been caught fibbing by having two different opinions about Muqtada al-Sadr’s influence in Iraq. Two weeks apart. Probably prompted by al-Sadr’s ability to hang in and keep his power in the face of government incursions.
In other materials, David Tennant is a gentleman and a scholar, whether as The Doctor, his other roles, or off-screen. I wish someone could record the performance of Hamlet the RSC is doing that has Tennant as Hamlet and Patrick Stewart as Claudius. That should be one helluva good show.
General JC Christian got introduced to a whole new audience on Air America's blog today. Today would have been the perfect day for The General to play things absolutely straight, considering his normal demeanor.
The FunSmith helps us with our listmania tonight, giving six reasons not to have fun that can be six ways to get more fun in your life. Speaking of fun for many, since the baseball season has gotten underway, some statisticians with computer programs ran the history of baseball some 10,000 times to see how rare Joe Dimaggio's 56-game hitting streak really is, and found out that something like it was mathematically likely to happen. Just not Dimaggio, nor in 1941, in most cases. Not that this matters for anything.
Our art department has some interesting curiosities - two-way pictures, that change their expression, or even who they are, depending on which way you look at them. It also offers For the Love of Opera Gloves, which is devoted to the long hand coverings.
The Science department puts up suggestions that humans may need to augment themselves if they want to take on space missions of any seriousness. Because people don’t travel well through the deep reaches of space. Other science suggests Tai Chi may help diabetics control their sugar levels - hrm. Could it be the exercise thing? It’s not going to cause a blood sugar crash, and it helps strengthen muscles and exercise the body. OR maybe I’m thinking about this in a wholly wrong way. Any ideas? Also, any ideas why a couple days of fasting helps normal cells survive better against chemotherapy?
Last out of Science, a reminder - not all that looks like science is actual science. Being able to tell the difference between junk that reinforces cultural prejudices and actual science that can prove that some of those cultural prejudices might actually have a scientific or evolutionary advantage is important. Actually, just being able to tell the difference between junk and real science and to ask important questions would be a giant step up from what we have right now. For an example on how things can be twisted, observe - a study shows that women who are depressed tend to have more sexual intercourse. It’s a small study, of 107 women, but watch the conclusion that Allecto draws out of it - "This is small study with 107 (presumable heterosexual) women showing that women who are being sexed more often are more depressed than women who are being sexed less often." Notice the inversion? The study said that depressed women have more sex. Allecto says women who have more sex are depressed. Although in the comments she says that it’s cyclical, that more sex leads to depression which leads to more sex, and so forth, the conclusion being drawn here is not in accord with the data.
Bridging across the gap, same blogger, different subject. By way of introduction to the following, note that Allecto has no use for men on her blog, due to the XY populous being firmly entrenched as agents of oppression, and (perpetually, I guess) requiring education about feminism. (She's not too friendly to women, either.) Thus, hopefully adequately warned, have her take on Firefly and Joss Whedon: Firefly is apparently very anti-female, from Zoe's respect for Mal to Inara's profession and the prevalence of men characters speaking. Context be damned, Joss apparently was not writing in a manner that empowered women at all. There’s more promised down the pipe on the subject, although Allecto did take time out to cherry-pick an idiot's response and straw-man it into an exemplar of all Joss Whedon's fans. The heat from the flames that have been thrown here is enough to cook more than a few meals to perfection. And I guess I had enough of Willing Suspension of Disbelief to say that in this particular future, things that plagued us today would be fixed, mitigated, or at least not nearly as much as an issue then. Inara and the Companions always struck me as more geisha than streetwalker, anyway. As things are, hat tips to
starkruzr for reminding me that there are all types of persons in the world, with differing opinions on everything. That’s the show for tonight, folks. Time for bed. Tomorrow, the Fremont Philharmonic is back in action at the Moisture Festival for an evening show. Then again on Thursday, and twice more on Friday. And then my sisters visit for the weekend, and I’m going to be waaaay too busy showing them around to do a whole lot.
