Up top, remember that thing about social media being all about sharing? Well, for some people, they're sharing stuff that could be very useful to thieves and burglars. Be aware of what you’re sharing. That includes personal data and data files - remember, you have public libraries if you want to try stuff out or read it without buying it - book piracy not all that helpful. (Neither, really, is video or music piracy, for that matter, in terms of artists getting fair compensation for their work.)
Disney acquires Marvel for $4 billion USD. I’m torn between “Well, now we can really see some interesting crossover work” or “Nothing good can come of this.” Then I thought for a moment, and realized that it’s mostly DC and its spinoffs that have the reputation for grittier, edgier stories as a percentage of their series, whereas Marvel has plenty of things that stay reasonably safe. Plus, Marvel is profitable and is currently on a good movie kick. Makes sense for Disney to want to make money.
A sad note for librarians - because nobody is willing to pick up the tab for another broadcast season, Reading Rainbow will be finishing after this season. It’s really too bad, because Reading Rainbow was a really good way to convince kids that reading is worthwhile, especially when you have other kids talking about the books.
Out in the world today, a member of the Saudi royal family, the counterterror expert for the government, was injured in an attack al-Qaeda claims responsibility for, an aide to a prominent Iraqi politician was tied to terrorists, and a revamp of the Afghanistan strategy is on the table.
In the domestic sphere, a moment of silence (times many millions) for Ted Kennedy. Already, the calls come forward to make and pass a real health care bill in his name. And those that met him tell us their stories.
Mr. Rangel discovers he has a lot more worth than he previously reported, which we can only hope brings the wrath of penalties upon him.
Wildfires in California rage on, get bigger, get even more threatening. This sounds like a familiar refrain, not that it’s no less terrorizing, but haven’t we had serious wildfire rage in California for the last...decade? Something is clearly changing to produce these things year in and year out.
Fact Check does what they do best - debunking claims that the health care bill H.R. 3200 will lead to government takeovers, death panels, and mandates requiring everyone be on the government's care. Out of a list made, only four claims are true, and they all have to do with accountability. For something a little less text-heavy, an alpha-political verse for this current year.
Also, a reminder that your boss can see your work e-mail, regardless of whether you're in public service or privately employed.
Elsewhere in the country, a school tried to stop a Gay-Straight Alliance from forming because it used the word "gay" in the title, or that it violated the school's abstinence-only curriculum (because every GSA is realy a front group for orgies of all sorts between the gays and the straights), got told it couldn't discriminate against them meeting, retaliated by saying that no extracurricular group could meet, then, got sued by the ACLU and a judge told them they couldn't discriminate against the GSA meeting. Thus, end result? A GSA in the school, bad press and the money wasted on legal fees trying to justify discrimination.
Following on that line, a homosexual man sued his employer for harrassment because he did not conform to gender stereotypes, which, although the article makes unclear, I’m guessing means deep voice, “masculine” walk, et cetera. The potentially interesting part of the case is that while it’s legal to discriinate based on sexual orientation (still), it may be illegal to harrass someone based on their mannerisms, regardless of their sexual orientation.
Third along this spectrum, at a sort of pivot point of these five, a female firefighter is suing the fire district she transferred into for harrassment and disrimination, claiming her male co-workers were making inapropriate jokes and touches, and that she was being paid less that men with inferior qualifications.
Now, though, the boomerang comes back. Namely, ex-Miss California, Carrie Prejean, fired for breach of contract by not showing up to required events, has sued that she suffered religious discrimination in her firing, believing it to be all about the gay marriage response. Well, that’s now up to the court to decide, but working against Miss Prejean is taht the pageant kept her on, even after the flap, and then only fired her later. It will make it harder to prove the case (not to mention that proving discrimination cases are usually pretty difficult in the first place, especially against an organization that knows how to fire people without it seeming like you fired them for the things you fired them for.
And finally, a Missouri School has recalled band shirts that feature the iconic image of evolution suitably altered to make them band members because of complaints form parents that the shirts were expressing a religious point of view. Except, as Mr. Turley notes, Evolution is science, not religion, and the action of the administrator did the very thing he said it was preventing, letting a religious viewpoint shape a school decision. Again, evolution is a scientific theory, not a religious belief. Furthermore, some parents in that area are particularly paranoid, if they see some sort of evolution agenda in a band tee-shirt that was wittily going along with the thematic of the year, “Brass Evolutions.” Remedial instruction for the administration, pronto. I’m sure there’s a local of the ACLU that would happily take the chance to instruct.
Loading up the opinions, Mr. Cline speaks on the guns showing up at town halls, and their significance as a message of intimidation to the opposition, and as a reassurance to those who carry them that they are still in control, that the change they fear can be and should be fought, instead of embraced, and that denial is a useful solution to the problem of things changing.
On the opposite end, Mr. Hanson feels the Obama presidency has been all about equalizing the field, regardless of the cost and dangers involved, and returning to the idea that Obama and liberals are pushing through their agenda now before the people wake up and realize they've been turned into socialists, with lasting damage to the economy and the American way of life. Mr. Gerson sys the President misread the people, thinking he could pass something great on his own popularity, while the populace continued to distrust the government and is now riding a wave fo fiscal responsibility on top of that. Mr. Tyrell, instead, considers the entire high-level administrative staff at the Whtoe House to be a carousel of incompetents, with outdated ideas and no real org chart to follow.
Mr. Boortz raises the possibility that clunker rebates are being taxes, based on paying sales tax on the full value of the vehicle, not the reduced price, and that the rebate might be considered income and thus subject to an income tax. Which would make them...just like any other rebate, just in bigger amounts instead of smaller ones. You can crusade for tax-freeness on it, but you’re probably not going to get anywhere.
Ms. Strassel leads the way into the valleys, stopping to rest at the bronze signpost for repeating the talking point about how much the CIA will be damaged by the White House going forward with limited prosecutions against the CIA, because they will become risk-averse in their intelligence and interrogation methods (and thus, will not be able to stop the next terror attack). How much clearer does it have to be - people may have violated the law, even when the law was the Baybee memo. There must be an investigation into that, unless we want our intelligence officials to act outside the law.
Mr. Thomas goes to the silver pint and then requests a break, ranting on about how terrorists will attack on whether we're strong or weak, paints all Muslims as honor killing terrorists, and then defends Dick Cheney as someone speaking the truth adding on his belief “That we gained critical information by firing a gun in an adjacent interrogation room, or by displaying a chainsaw, or even choking a detainee thought to possess critical information ought to be a lesser concern than the number of lives saved because of information these men gave up.” The ends justify the means has returned, and it is still as wrong now as it was then.
But going one step further off into the abyss, The Post basically repeats Richard Cheney, alleging that Kalid Sheik Mohammed gave no data until after he was waterboarded, and then he was more than happy to talk about everything, despite that KSM himself said some of the information he gave was just to stop the torture, and the person who did the report said he couldn’t make a definitive conclusion about effectiveness either way. So where do you get to claim that it worked according to Dick Cheney’s plan when none of the supporting evidence says one way of another? We'll get Mr. Greenwald tell you why this is a sorry excuse for an opinion column, much less a news column, and what sort of effects it will have on discourse, now that the “facts” have been parroted in a publication that supposedly has credibility. For totally not doing their jobs as journalists, even when the evidence was starting them in teh face (and is in their own article), the writers for this article, and the editors that let it get through, are the Worst People in the World.
A triumph of SCIENCE! leads the section - this is the picture of a single molecule. Beyond this, research indicating gravity may be necessary to have successful conception-to-birth development, although how much isn’t known, because the research was testing conception in microgravity. Down here on Terra, IVF is possible in poorer areas of the world, using less expensive elements to produce potentially the same results.
On the matter of our world, droughts hurt rare elephant herds, genome studies posing a possible theory behind colony collapse disorder in bees, even as humans steal the idea of bee stings and venom to kill cancerous growths, a bright spot - lots of species discovery in the Himalayas, and the question of whether all the climate change debate is hijacking funds and people away from the thigns happening right now that are destroying the world. Things that are intimately involved with us, like the destructive way that we get lots of food for cheap in America. More optimistically, a robot that's programmed to scope out the best plant-growing spaces on Mars. If they thrive and survive, is this the beginning of some osrt of terraform? Most optimistically out of all this stuff, we can always try to adapt to the increasingly changing encvironment by becoming smarter, and this time, instead of having to evolve it ourselves, we can get a boost from the machines.
Not on our world, we have found another exception to the rules - a planet that orbits too close to exist.
Also, quantum cryptography may now be ready for the masses, as technology could introduce the ability to do so over regular fiber already laid down, instead of new stuff. And a part of the mitochondria considered to be irreducibly complex by ID persons has ancestors that could have evolved into what we have now, making it merely complex.
Finishing out the science section, the placebo effect is getting stronger on us. Pharma compnies, naturally, want to know why, and the need to produce more basic scientific research - not only so that we can create jobs, but so we can create innovation, which then leads to a whole lot more dividends from that basic research.
Last for tonight, tea with the British royals, sidewalk advertisement, thanks to the tricycle printing press, and pictures of the winners of the Good Design contest. For those interested in the music of the spheres, Moonbell generates music from the orbit of the Kaguya lunar orbiter.
And for those looking for study materials for tonight, enjoy the timelines, and note the paradoxes. For thsoe looking for blue boxes, they are reprsented by the color black.
Disney acquires Marvel for $4 billion USD. I’m torn between “Well, now we can really see some interesting crossover work” or “Nothing good can come of this.” Then I thought for a moment, and realized that it’s mostly DC and its spinoffs that have the reputation for grittier, edgier stories as a percentage of their series, whereas Marvel has plenty of things that stay reasonably safe. Plus, Marvel is profitable and is currently on a good movie kick. Makes sense for Disney to want to make money.
A sad note for librarians - because nobody is willing to pick up the tab for another broadcast season, Reading Rainbow will be finishing after this season. It’s really too bad, because Reading Rainbow was a really good way to convince kids that reading is worthwhile, especially when you have other kids talking about the books.
Out in the world today, a member of the Saudi royal family, the counterterror expert for the government, was injured in an attack al-Qaeda claims responsibility for, an aide to a prominent Iraqi politician was tied to terrorists, and a revamp of the Afghanistan strategy is on the table.
In the domestic sphere, a moment of silence (times many millions) for Ted Kennedy. Already, the calls come forward to make and pass a real health care bill in his name. And those that met him tell us their stories.
Mr. Rangel discovers he has a lot more worth than he previously reported, which we can only hope brings the wrath of penalties upon him.
Wildfires in California rage on, get bigger, get even more threatening. This sounds like a familiar refrain, not that it’s no less terrorizing, but haven’t we had serious wildfire rage in California for the last...decade? Something is clearly changing to produce these things year in and year out.
Fact Check does what they do best - debunking claims that the health care bill H.R. 3200 will lead to government takeovers, death panels, and mandates requiring everyone be on the government's care. Out of a list made, only four claims are true, and they all have to do with accountability. For something a little less text-heavy, an alpha-political verse for this current year.
Also, a reminder that your boss can see your work e-mail, regardless of whether you're in public service or privately employed.
Elsewhere in the country, a school tried to stop a Gay-Straight Alliance from forming because it used the word "gay" in the title, or that it violated the school's abstinence-only curriculum (because every GSA is realy a front group for orgies of all sorts between the gays and the straights), got told it couldn't discriminate against them meeting, retaliated by saying that no extracurricular group could meet, then, got sued by the ACLU and a judge told them they couldn't discriminate against the GSA meeting. Thus, end result? A GSA in the school, bad press and the money wasted on legal fees trying to justify discrimination.
Following on that line, a homosexual man sued his employer for harrassment because he did not conform to gender stereotypes, which, although the article makes unclear, I’m guessing means deep voice, “masculine” walk, et cetera. The potentially interesting part of the case is that while it’s legal to discriinate based on sexual orientation (still), it may be illegal to harrass someone based on their mannerisms, regardless of their sexual orientation.
Third along this spectrum, at a sort of pivot point of these five, a female firefighter is suing the fire district she transferred into for harrassment and disrimination, claiming her male co-workers were making inapropriate jokes and touches, and that she was being paid less that men with inferior qualifications.
Now, though, the boomerang comes back. Namely, ex-Miss California, Carrie Prejean, fired for breach of contract by not showing up to required events, has sued that she suffered religious discrimination in her firing, believing it to be all about the gay marriage response. Well, that’s now up to the court to decide, but working against Miss Prejean is taht the pageant kept her on, even after the flap, and then only fired her later. It will make it harder to prove the case (not to mention that proving discrimination cases are usually pretty difficult in the first place, especially against an organization that knows how to fire people without it seeming like you fired them for the things you fired them for.
And finally, a Missouri School has recalled band shirts that feature the iconic image of evolution suitably altered to make them band members because of complaints form parents that the shirts were expressing a religious point of view. Except, as Mr. Turley notes, Evolution is science, not religion, and the action of the administrator did the very thing he said it was preventing, letting a religious viewpoint shape a school decision. Again, evolution is a scientific theory, not a religious belief. Furthermore, some parents in that area are particularly paranoid, if they see some sort of evolution agenda in a band tee-shirt that was wittily going along with the thematic of the year, “Brass Evolutions.” Remedial instruction for the administration, pronto. I’m sure there’s a local of the ACLU that would happily take the chance to instruct.
Loading up the opinions, Mr. Cline speaks on the guns showing up at town halls, and their significance as a message of intimidation to the opposition, and as a reassurance to those who carry them that they are still in control, that the change they fear can be and should be fought, instead of embraced, and that denial is a useful solution to the problem of things changing.
On the opposite end, Mr. Hanson feels the Obama presidency has been all about equalizing the field, regardless of the cost and dangers involved, and returning to the idea that Obama and liberals are pushing through their agenda now before the people wake up and realize they've been turned into socialists, with lasting damage to the economy and the American way of life. Mr. Gerson sys the President misread the people, thinking he could pass something great on his own popularity, while the populace continued to distrust the government and is now riding a wave fo fiscal responsibility on top of that. Mr. Tyrell, instead, considers the entire high-level administrative staff at the Whtoe House to be a carousel of incompetents, with outdated ideas and no real org chart to follow.
Mr. Boortz raises the possibility that clunker rebates are being taxes, based on paying sales tax on the full value of the vehicle, not the reduced price, and that the rebate might be considered income and thus subject to an income tax. Which would make them...just like any other rebate, just in bigger amounts instead of smaller ones. You can crusade for tax-freeness on it, but you’re probably not going to get anywhere.
Ms. Strassel leads the way into the valleys, stopping to rest at the bronze signpost for repeating the talking point about how much the CIA will be damaged by the White House going forward with limited prosecutions against the CIA, because they will become risk-averse in their intelligence and interrogation methods (and thus, will not be able to stop the next terror attack). How much clearer does it have to be - people may have violated the law, even when the law was the Baybee memo. There must be an investigation into that, unless we want our intelligence officials to act outside the law.
Mr. Thomas goes to the silver pint and then requests a break, ranting on about how terrorists will attack on whether we're strong or weak, paints all Muslims as honor killing terrorists, and then defends Dick Cheney as someone speaking the truth adding on his belief “That we gained critical information by firing a gun in an adjacent interrogation room, or by displaying a chainsaw, or even choking a detainee thought to possess critical information ought to be a lesser concern than the number of lives saved because of information these men gave up.” The ends justify the means has returned, and it is still as wrong now as it was then.
But going one step further off into the abyss, The Post basically repeats Richard Cheney, alleging that Kalid Sheik Mohammed gave no data until after he was waterboarded, and then he was more than happy to talk about everything, despite that KSM himself said some of the information he gave was just to stop the torture, and the person who did the report said he couldn’t make a definitive conclusion about effectiveness either way. So where do you get to claim that it worked according to Dick Cheney’s plan when none of the supporting evidence says one way of another? We'll get Mr. Greenwald tell you why this is a sorry excuse for an opinion column, much less a news column, and what sort of effects it will have on discourse, now that the “facts” have been parroted in a publication that supposedly has credibility. For totally not doing their jobs as journalists, even when the evidence was starting them in teh face (and is in their own article), the writers for this article, and the editors that let it get through, are the Worst People in the World.
A triumph of SCIENCE! leads the section - this is the picture of a single molecule. Beyond this, research indicating gravity may be necessary to have successful conception-to-birth development, although how much isn’t known, because the research was testing conception in microgravity. Down here on Terra, IVF is possible in poorer areas of the world, using less expensive elements to produce potentially the same results.
On the matter of our world, droughts hurt rare elephant herds, genome studies posing a possible theory behind colony collapse disorder in bees, even as humans steal the idea of bee stings and venom to kill cancerous growths, a bright spot - lots of species discovery in the Himalayas, and the question of whether all the climate change debate is hijacking funds and people away from the thigns happening right now that are destroying the world. Things that are intimately involved with us, like the destructive way that we get lots of food for cheap in America. More optimistically, a robot that's programmed to scope out the best plant-growing spaces on Mars. If they thrive and survive, is this the beginning of some osrt of terraform? Most optimistically out of all this stuff, we can always try to adapt to the increasingly changing encvironment by becoming smarter, and this time, instead of having to evolve it ourselves, we can get a boost from the machines.
Not on our world, we have found another exception to the rules - a planet that orbits too close to exist.
Also, quantum cryptography may now be ready for the masses, as technology could introduce the ability to do so over regular fiber already laid down, instead of new stuff. And a part of the mitochondria considered to be irreducibly complex by ID persons has ancestors that could have evolved into what we have now, making it merely complex.
Finishing out the science section, the placebo effect is getting stronger on us. Pharma compnies, naturally, want to know why, and the need to produce more basic scientific research - not only so that we can create jobs, but so we can create innovation, which then leads to a whole lot more dividends from that basic research.
Last for tonight, tea with the British royals, sidewalk advertisement, thanks to the tricycle printing press, and pictures of the winners of the Good Design contest. For those interested in the music of the spheres, Moonbell generates music from the orbit of the Kaguya lunar orbiter.
And for those looking for study materials for tonight, enjoy the timelines, and note the paradoxes. For thsoe looking for blue boxes, they are reprsented by the color black.