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Greetings, riders of the cultural waves! We start today with two letters written in the time of Before They Were Famous - Freddie Mercury, of the band Queen, expressing his thanks to the person that got them on the charts in the United States, hoping that he enjoys their second album offering that is upcoming, and the response, from one Hugh M. Hefner, to a collector who offered him the sum of $5 USD in 1955 for a copy of the first issue of his then-still-young magazine, Playboy. Imagine what it would take these days for someone to obtain a #1 of the magazine.
Oh, and speaking of women in literature, "chick lit" is a useless term now used for dismissing writing by women, so could we not use that any more? I like the more informative "shoe lit" or, when describing the Clique novels, "brand advertising book" so that we can distinguish good female-written stuff from stuff that's supposed to make them think that new shoes, body modification, or an impossibly square-jawed 1950s-fantasy man is what they need to be happy.
Last in the matter of books, the publishers of the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary indicate their next release may never be seen in codex form, citing the market for such things as having fallen off and the on-line version providing far better revenue.
And then one about libraries - The American Library Association needs to fess up about job prospects in libraries - there aren't any - and tell the truth to young people who want to get into the profession about the likelihood of their finding a job in that profession after graduation.
And your potential "very NO!" in fandom for today - Warner Brothers is talking with DC about exercising television rights to the Sandman series of comics, by Gaiman and published under the Vertigo imprint. The technical challenges of doing such a thing justice would be immense at best, plus the additional questions of casting, effects, and the subject matter of the later novels. Sandman is relatively unfliching about a lot of horrible things happening right from the get-go, and it only gets less flinching about it as time goes by. I don't know that we have anyone with the talent to be able to bring a faithful representation of the material to the small screen. Thus, there's a big potential for very NO, but the talks are still in very early stages, so someone might get headed off at the pass.
However, a very real very NO comes from an advertisement in Women's Day for Summer's Eve that recommended the #1 way to get yourself a raise is to use their products to keep your vagina smelling clean. #8 is, of course, to tell people about all the work you've done and your value to the company. Because your a woman, of course, nobody really thinks you're worth anything, they just want to know if you're going to be hot enough to be ogled in your new office.
Out in the world today, making miniature food that is not plastic and actually "bakes" with miniature tools.
Nurses whose English is perfect require additional language immersion courses, so that they can understand the localized dialect and euphemisms of the populace tehy are serving.
And now that we've done the official ending of combat missions by the United States in Iraq, we can get back to being the people advising and assisting Iraqis in their combat missions, which includes, yes, combat. The King Is Dead, Long Live the King, as it were.
Inside the United States, a gunman who took hostages at the headquarters of the Discovery Channel apparently did his actions because he wished for the channel to stop putting on shows that promoted the idea of population growth, such as "Kate Plus 8", and that promoted products and things to buy instead of talking truly about what would save the planet, such as mass sterilization and severe population reduction through infertility. The gunman was shot by police, and no employee of the Discovery Channel was harmed in the incident.
Antoher oil rig explodes in the Gulf area, containment is underway. While not at the Deepwater Horizon depth, this is still a bad thing to happen, especially since all the cleanup from the Deepwater Horizon well isn't finished.
A group of consumer advocates have taken to checking and suing companies that print expired or nonexistent patent numbers on their products. this would not normally be news, excepting that a court ruled that the $500 fine could be applied to each instance of the product with the wrong number on it. Which adds up very fast when you think about it.
Last for tonight, something positive - Hilda Yao just funded an entire wish list for the teachers of California school districts, to the cost of a bit more than $1.3 million USD, which is awesome! Would that we didn't need wish lists and could just fund our schools with what they needed to teach well.
In science and tech, water is in planets that wouldn't normally look like they had any.
The government of India asserts that it has a right to intercept and read all telecommunications data that any company operating in India uses, including Blackberry communications, Google services, private company VPNs, or Skype VoIP, for example. So if you were hoping for private communications, you might want to invest in some encryption at the very least. They'll still get the data, but hopefully they'll have to get lawful orders to decrypt it.
And then the cool stuff - the approximation of supercomputing through the use of a smartphone - preloaded with applications that have already done the legwork in determining what is actually needed to solve the general form of a problem with very little error. The models thus generated are then loaded onto the phone, which runs them and generates answers based on inputs.
In opinions, we start with more of the paranoia that seems to be infecting the conservative movement. (Or was already there and they're giving voice to it.) The Department of Justice changes its color scheme and the lead quote on the website, and now they're apparently showing their Marxist, internationalist, socialist roots. Apparently, the only acceptable colors are the ones before, of red, white, and blue, and the only acceptable quotes are from the founders of the country. Screw justice, Justice, you have to show your jingoism before we'll take you seriously.
Infecting doctor's offices around the nation are Dear Patient letters urging them to vote against the Democratic Party that passed the health care bill and promises to fix it, rattling off the standard litany of reasons to oppose and want the bill repealed - "government takeover" of health care that apparently prevents doctors from making decisions with their patients, raises costs, kills innovation, and sacrifices old people to the god of rationed care, the bill was passed despite huge majorities (ginned up with money from interests that are very opposed to health care reform) opposing it (with scare tactics that don't pass the smell test), and that it would mess with and destroy "the best health care system in the world" (that regularly tells its sufferers that if they don't have insurance or are independently wealthy, they can either suffer, die, or sell themselves and their children to the hospital to pay the bills).
And then, for the cherry on top, Ms. Malkin claims the President is not doing his duty according to his Oath of Office - because he indicates that America does in fact violate human rights, passes problematic legislation like SB 1070, and then submitted such a report to the United Nations, where everyone knows all the evil people chair the UNHRC. Apparently, the proper course of action is to declare America exceptional and perfect, far better than anyone else in the world, and pointedly, if not with a middle finger upraised, ignore the international community and stop admitting that America has its problems, too. Because there are no shades of grey in this world - to admit to any fault is tantamount to saying "we're just like you, countries that stone women, disappear political dissidents, and keep our power through ruthless oppression." Once one domino falls, they all fall. Now, I know I've heard that theory expressed before. I wonder how it turned out?
To interject some sanity into the proceedings, and to point out to the willfully ignorant that there are Muslims who are not extremists, six short pieces about the superiority of the Islam that does not send its children to blow themselves up.
Closing out, an open letter to conservative women, asking them to join up and start demanding their voices be heard when politics, social issues, and domestic issues are discussed, and that when female candidates appear, they be evaluated on the strength of their positions, not on whether their ass looks good in a skirt or on camera.
Last for tonight, a primer on how to treat your volunteers, regardless of what organization you belong to.
And a spinal injury patient told he would not walk will lead the University of Michigan football team onto the field this Saturday for their opening game, after intense sessions of rehabilitation and therapy with the trainers at the University.
Oh, and speaking of women in literature, "chick lit" is a useless term now used for dismissing writing by women, so could we not use that any more? I like the more informative "shoe lit" or, when describing the Clique novels, "brand advertising book" so that we can distinguish good female-written stuff from stuff that's supposed to make them think that new shoes, body modification, or an impossibly square-jawed 1950s-fantasy man is what they need to be happy.
Last in the matter of books, the publishers of the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary indicate their next release may never be seen in codex form, citing the market for such things as having fallen off and the on-line version providing far better revenue.
And then one about libraries - The American Library Association needs to fess up about job prospects in libraries - there aren't any - and tell the truth to young people who want to get into the profession about the likelihood of their finding a job in that profession after graduation.
And your potential "very NO!" in fandom for today - Warner Brothers is talking with DC about exercising television rights to the Sandman series of comics, by Gaiman and published under the Vertigo imprint. The technical challenges of doing such a thing justice would be immense at best, plus the additional questions of casting, effects, and the subject matter of the later novels. Sandman is relatively unfliching about a lot of horrible things happening right from the get-go, and it only gets less flinching about it as time goes by. I don't know that we have anyone with the talent to be able to bring a faithful representation of the material to the small screen. Thus, there's a big potential for very NO, but the talks are still in very early stages, so someone might get headed off at the pass.
However, a very real very NO comes from an advertisement in Women's Day for Summer's Eve that recommended the #1 way to get yourself a raise is to use their products to keep your vagina smelling clean. #8 is, of course, to tell people about all the work you've done and your value to the company. Because your a woman, of course, nobody really thinks you're worth anything, they just want to know if you're going to be hot enough to be ogled in your new office.
Out in the world today, making miniature food that is not plastic and actually "bakes" with miniature tools.
Nurses whose English is perfect require additional language immersion courses, so that they can understand the localized dialect and euphemisms of the populace tehy are serving.
And now that we've done the official ending of combat missions by the United States in Iraq, we can get back to being the people advising and assisting Iraqis in their combat missions, which includes, yes, combat. The King Is Dead, Long Live the King, as it were.
Inside the United States, a gunman who took hostages at the headquarters of the Discovery Channel apparently did his actions because he wished for the channel to stop putting on shows that promoted the idea of population growth, such as "Kate Plus 8", and that promoted products and things to buy instead of talking truly about what would save the planet, such as mass sterilization and severe population reduction through infertility. The gunman was shot by police, and no employee of the Discovery Channel was harmed in the incident.
Antoher oil rig explodes in the Gulf area, containment is underway. While not at the Deepwater Horizon depth, this is still a bad thing to happen, especially since all the cleanup from the Deepwater Horizon well isn't finished.
A group of consumer advocates have taken to checking and suing companies that print expired or nonexistent patent numbers on their products. this would not normally be news, excepting that a court ruled that the $500 fine could be applied to each instance of the product with the wrong number on it. Which adds up very fast when you think about it.
Last for tonight, something positive - Hilda Yao just funded an entire wish list for the teachers of California school districts, to the cost of a bit more than $1.3 million USD, which is awesome! Would that we didn't need wish lists and could just fund our schools with what they needed to teach well.
In science and tech, water is in planets that wouldn't normally look like they had any.
The government of India asserts that it has a right to intercept and read all telecommunications data that any company operating in India uses, including Blackberry communications, Google services, private company VPNs, or Skype VoIP, for example. So if you were hoping for private communications, you might want to invest in some encryption at the very least. They'll still get the data, but hopefully they'll have to get lawful orders to decrypt it.
And then the cool stuff - the approximation of supercomputing through the use of a smartphone - preloaded with applications that have already done the legwork in determining what is actually needed to solve the general form of a problem with very little error. The models thus generated are then loaded onto the phone, which runs them and generates answers based on inputs.
In opinions, we start with more of the paranoia that seems to be infecting the conservative movement. (Or was already there and they're giving voice to it.) The Department of Justice changes its color scheme and the lead quote on the website, and now they're apparently showing their Marxist, internationalist, socialist roots. Apparently, the only acceptable colors are the ones before, of red, white, and blue, and the only acceptable quotes are from the founders of the country. Screw justice, Justice, you have to show your jingoism before we'll take you seriously.
Infecting doctor's offices around the nation are Dear Patient letters urging them to vote against the Democratic Party that passed the health care bill and promises to fix it, rattling off the standard litany of reasons to oppose and want the bill repealed - "government takeover" of health care that apparently prevents doctors from making decisions with their patients, raises costs, kills innovation, and sacrifices old people to the god of rationed care, the bill was passed despite huge majorities (ginned up with money from interests that are very opposed to health care reform) opposing it (with scare tactics that don't pass the smell test), and that it would mess with and destroy "the best health care system in the world" (that regularly tells its sufferers that if they don't have insurance or are independently wealthy, they can either suffer, die, or sell themselves and their children to the hospital to pay the bills).
And then, for the cherry on top, Ms. Malkin claims the President is not doing his duty according to his Oath of Office - because he indicates that America does in fact violate human rights, passes problematic legislation like SB 1070, and then submitted such a report to the United Nations, where everyone knows all the evil people chair the UNHRC. Apparently, the proper course of action is to declare America exceptional and perfect, far better than anyone else in the world, and pointedly, if not with a middle finger upraised, ignore the international community and stop admitting that America has its problems, too. Because there are no shades of grey in this world - to admit to any fault is tantamount to saying "we're just like you, countries that stone women, disappear political dissidents, and keep our power through ruthless oppression." Once one domino falls, they all fall. Now, I know I've heard that theory expressed before. I wonder how it turned out?
To interject some sanity into the proceedings, and to point out to the willfully ignorant that there are Muslims who are not extremists, six short pieces about the superiority of the Islam that does not send its children to blow themselves up.
Closing out, an open letter to conservative women, asking them to join up and start demanding their voices be heard when politics, social issues, and domestic issues are discussed, and that when female candidates appear, they be evaluated on the strength of their positions, not on whether their ass looks good in a skirt or on camera.
Last for tonight, a primer on how to treat your volunteers, regardless of what organization you belong to.
And a spinal injury patient told he would not walk will lead the University of Michigan football team onto the field this Saturday for their opening game, after intense sessions of rehabilitation and therapy with the trainers at the University.
