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Good day, everyone! We're going to start today with a letter from Benjamin Franklin to a younger counterpart advising him to get married, or, if he won't get married, to take an older woman as his mistress/consort/sexual partner, with a list of reasons why mature women are better.
Elsewhere, The Internet Archive and partnering libraries have developed a collection of several tens of thousands of books all loaded onto an e-reader that can be checked out for use. Many of the books will be helpful to geneaologists, while others are simply unable to circulate as physical books due to their condition.
The Slacktivist reminds us that insanity in your own thinking is fairly easy to spot - when you start justifying evil purposes as being ideologically pure, or endorsing evil outcomes because the philosophy led you there, you've strayed into insanity. This seems rather appropriate context for the continuing litany of leaders actively trying to quash their people's demands for freedom and life, or at least stop them from turning into full-scale demonstrations and revolts. The army in Libya continued their attacks on the revolt and accused their opposition of being in league with al-Qaeda. Additionally, Estern journalists are also supposedly in league with al-Qaeda, according to Gaddafi forces. As is standard by now, because the United States has not done a Team America: World Police in Libya, the conservative comment squad assumes that the President plans on doing nothing at all about what's going on there.
On the Wisconsin union situation, Mr. Rove accuses the President of bullying the Governor as a way of building political capital for 2012, in addition to the usual "evul unions with their bloated salaries, benefits, and pensions" material, and so if the unions are eventually defeated, Obama's re-election chances will be severely hurt. As opposed to, y'know, the unions being unable to raise and spend enough money to counter the blanketing of the airwaves by corporations and corporate-backed groups. What Mr. Rove continues to do, however, is to denigrate the very people he's trying to appeal to, considering that just about everyone is part of the working class now.
The police chief of the city of Madison would like better explanations on Governor Walker's plans and opinions of the protesting people expressed during the call from the fake David Koch.
And much like the protest in Tahrir, the protesters have created a city of their own inside a space normally used for something else. We used to call these things Temporary Autonomous Zones or something like that - spaces where the normal rules stopped applying. There's even a small library stocked with zines and other materials.
Outside, however, Fox News continues to do their share of the anti-union lifting, "accidentally" reversing the results of a poll to make it look like an overwhelming majority of people want unions stripped of their barganing powers, when the poll found the opposite position to be the one with large popular support. Not that this is new - higher-ups at Fox News are alleged to have repeatedly told their subordinates to lie about all sorts of things to investigators.
Out in the world today, the death and injury tolls from the Chirstchurch earthquake in New Zealand have been revised upward.
Syria is suspected of having a second nuclear missile installation in the country.
And finally, the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest continues at a highly accelerated rate, which continues to rob us of means to keep the environment balanced.
Inside the United States, well, emboldened by the way their national representatives are doing their best to shred the rights of women, A Georgia lawmaker has introduced a bill that would make it a death penalty offense to the mother for any fertilized egg to die, whether by miscarriage or abortion, and it ensures that all women are to be treated as pre-pregnant, requiring them to protect the cell from the moment of fertilization. In Nebraska, the bill that South Dakota shelved pops up, with an insistence that killing abortion providers is justifiable homicide to protect a fetus. And unlike the South Dakota bill, which limited it to close relatives or husbands, the Nebraska bill would let anyone kill to protect the fetus and get away with it.
The Kentucky Museum of Creation denied entry to two men who had purchased tickets to see the museum together. After they had said they were a couple, they were apparently denied entry and their money was not refunded. One would have thought they would want those people to come in, if only to show them the POWER of JESUS which will CURE THEM.
In technology, the design for a "Castle of Shadows" by which one might project images onto the walls to generate an immersive experience, both a nod to the Platonic Cave of Shadows idea and perhaps the forerunner to our own designs for virtual reality projected on a room.
If one wished to replicate the Watson Question Answering System that was recently displayed on Jeopardy!, it's possible on a smaller scale with three computers and some know-how.
The United States Pentagon wants critical private sector networks to use their security suite, implying they would otherwise be unprotected and potentially put the country's infrastructure at risk from attack.
In science, a group of monkeys have demonstrated the capacity to be aware of their limitations, with the ability to select an indeterminate option when presented rather than always choosing between two polar choices.
In opinions, Mr. Sowell leads the charge against moderation for moderation's sake, because Barack Obama is still an extremist ideologue out to destroy the country, like Stalin and Hitler, even if his rhetoric is more moderate. And assassinations and attacks are always acting alone on insanity, and the climate of violent rhetoric and Godwinian associations hasa nothing to do with it.
Mr. Williams has found contempt for pure democracy in the Tyranny of the Majority, claiming the Founders were against it and that such things mean the over-reaching Congress should be checked, rather than forcing him to do things he doesn't like with the majority votes they can muster, like follow an individual health care mandate. If Mr. Williams's position stays consistent, than the next thing a conservative/Republican Congress does that they claim the will of the majority on should be just as repugnant to him. I'm doubtful that will be the case. Besides, the people don't really matter these days - the corporations do, and so we have no danger of becoming a pure democracy any time soon. Our Corporate Overlords would never let it happen.
Last out, Mr. Stossel advocates for allowing prediction markets using real money for things like movie box-office takes or Academy Award winners, because the information revealed in such is valuable and more accurate than any other. Mr. Stossel only tacitly acknowledges that such a market is not any different than other gambling and prediction games, like betting on sports, lotteries, or other regulated gaming mechanisms. He can complain about it being an aberration that this one isn't allowed while others are, but trying to say that the information provided by speculation of that sort is necessary is overstretching his argument significantly.
Last for tonight, a letter from one Tim Burton to the Disney corporation about a children's picture book, and their polite but encouraging rejection and encouragement for him to study his art and writing more to develop his talent. And The Geek A Week cards are getting a physical printing, thanks to ThinkGeek.
Elsewhere, The Internet Archive and partnering libraries have developed a collection of several tens of thousands of books all loaded onto an e-reader that can be checked out for use. Many of the books will be helpful to geneaologists, while others are simply unable to circulate as physical books due to their condition.
The Slacktivist reminds us that insanity in your own thinking is fairly easy to spot - when you start justifying evil purposes as being ideologically pure, or endorsing evil outcomes because the philosophy led you there, you've strayed into insanity. This seems rather appropriate context for the continuing litany of leaders actively trying to quash their people's demands for freedom and life, or at least stop them from turning into full-scale demonstrations and revolts. The army in Libya continued their attacks on the revolt and accused their opposition of being in league with al-Qaeda. Additionally, Estern journalists are also supposedly in league with al-Qaeda, according to Gaddafi forces. As is standard by now, because the United States has not done a Team America: World Police in Libya, the conservative comment squad assumes that the President plans on doing nothing at all about what's going on there.
On the Wisconsin union situation, Mr. Rove accuses the President of bullying the Governor as a way of building political capital for 2012, in addition to the usual "evul unions with their bloated salaries, benefits, and pensions" material, and so if the unions are eventually defeated, Obama's re-election chances will be severely hurt. As opposed to, y'know, the unions being unable to raise and spend enough money to counter the blanketing of the airwaves by corporations and corporate-backed groups. What Mr. Rove continues to do, however, is to denigrate the very people he's trying to appeal to, considering that just about everyone is part of the working class now.
The police chief of the city of Madison would like better explanations on Governor Walker's plans and opinions of the protesting people expressed during the call from the fake David Koch.
And much like the protest in Tahrir, the protesters have created a city of their own inside a space normally used for something else. We used to call these things Temporary Autonomous Zones or something like that - spaces where the normal rules stopped applying. There's even a small library stocked with zines and other materials.
Outside, however, Fox News continues to do their share of the anti-union lifting, "accidentally" reversing the results of a poll to make it look like an overwhelming majority of people want unions stripped of their barganing powers, when the poll found the opposite position to be the one with large popular support. Not that this is new - higher-ups at Fox News are alleged to have repeatedly told their subordinates to lie about all sorts of things to investigators.
Out in the world today, the death and injury tolls from the Chirstchurch earthquake in New Zealand have been revised upward.
Syria is suspected of having a second nuclear missile installation in the country.
And finally, the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest continues at a highly accelerated rate, which continues to rob us of means to keep the environment balanced.
Inside the United States, well, emboldened by the way their national representatives are doing their best to shred the rights of women, A Georgia lawmaker has introduced a bill that would make it a death penalty offense to the mother for any fertilized egg to die, whether by miscarriage or abortion, and it ensures that all women are to be treated as pre-pregnant, requiring them to protect the cell from the moment of fertilization. In Nebraska, the bill that South Dakota shelved pops up, with an insistence that killing abortion providers is justifiable homicide to protect a fetus. And unlike the South Dakota bill, which limited it to close relatives or husbands, the Nebraska bill would let anyone kill to protect the fetus and get away with it.
The Kentucky Museum of Creation denied entry to two men who had purchased tickets to see the museum together. After they had said they were a couple, they were apparently denied entry and their money was not refunded. One would have thought they would want those people to come in, if only to show them the POWER of JESUS which will CURE THEM.
In technology, the design for a "Castle of Shadows" by which one might project images onto the walls to generate an immersive experience, both a nod to the Platonic Cave of Shadows idea and perhaps the forerunner to our own designs for virtual reality projected on a room.
If one wished to replicate the Watson Question Answering System that was recently displayed on Jeopardy!, it's possible on a smaller scale with three computers and some know-how.
The United States Pentagon wants critical private sector networks to use their security suite, implying they would otherwise be unprotected and potentially put the country's infrastructure at risk from attack.
In science, a group of monkeys have demonstrated the capacity to be aware of their limitations, with the ability to select an indeterminate option when presented rather than always choosing between two polar choices.
In opinions, Mr. Sowell leads the charge against moderation for moderation's sake, because Barack Obama is still an extremist ideologue out to destroy the country, like Stalin and Hitler, even if his rhetoric is more moderate. And assassinations and attacks are always acting alone on insanity, and the climate of violent rhetoric and Godwinian associations hasa nothing to do with it.
Mr. Williams has found contempt for pure democracy in the Tyranny of the Majority, claiming the Founders were against it and that such things mean the over-reaching Congress should be checked, rather than forcing him to do things he doesn't like with the majority votes they can muster, like follow an individual health care mandate. If Mr. Williams's position stays consistent, than the next thing a conservative/Republican Congress does that they claim the will of the majority on should be just as repugnant to him. I'm doubtful that will be the case. Besides, the people don't really matter these days - the corporations do, and so we have no danger of becoming a pure democracy any time soon. Our Corporate Overlords would never let it happen.
Last out, Mr. Stossel advocates for allowing prediction markets using real money for things like movie box-office takes or Academy Award winners, because the information revealed in such is valuable and more accurate than any other. Mr. Stossel only tacitly acknowledges that such a market is not any different than other gambling and prediction games, like betting on sports, lotteries, or other regulated gaming mechanisms. He can complain about it being an aberration that this one isn't allowed while others are, but trying to say that the information provided by speculation of that sort is necessary is overstretching his argument significantly.
Last for tonight, a letter from one Tim Burton to the Disney corporation about a children's picture book, and their polite but encouraging rejection and encouragement for him to study his art and writing more to develop his talent. And The Geek A Week cards are getting a physical printing, thanks to ThinkGeek.
