A half-entry - 29 April - 1 May 02011
May. 1st, 2011 05:01 pmGood day again to all of you. We start with image analysis - what's wrong with this picture and the message it conveys?
From image analysis to textual analysis -![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rho points out the difficulties of "offensive language" - your reclaimed term is someone else's n-word, and while it's good to let your preferences be known, trying to impose your reality on someone else is usually offensive to them.
And from there to full-motion video - have a look at a pretty awful bullying PSA. Cliched messages, unhip slogans, and a clear inability to relate to teenagers doom that video from the start. Here are more good and bad videos to make comparisons with.
Elsewhere, the Man of Steel declares his intent to renounce his United States citizenship in an upcoming issue, having finally fessed up to what has been obvious the whole time - Truth, Justice, and The American Way is often perceived as the Policy of The United States Government, which is something Superman doesn't want to be seen as.
Finally, The Congressional Progressive Caucus talks about its own budget proposal, entitled The People's Budget, that claims to achieve the same budget parity and eventual surplus as the Ryan plan, but without the crippling cuts made to social services and assistance to the poor.
Out in the world today, governemnt forces fire on protesters in Syria, killing at least 50, leading to mass resignations from teh government's political party in protest.
In Uganda, a rebellion movement continues to gather strength even as it is battered by government crackdowns. The protest involves walking to one's workplace as a means of speaking out againt high gas and food prices, as well as the government's decision to purchase fighter planes with some of their funds.
Egypt's government has decided to open a previously closed border, allowing supplies, material, and people to flow freely in and out of the Gaza region.
Protests in Maldives meet prolice opposition, while the United Kingdom used the excuse of the wedding of a member of the royal family to crack down hard on protesters.
Last out, when the axe falls in the UK for arts funding, a disproportionate amount of minority groups are on the block.
Domestically, the placement of Petraeus at the head of the CIA will shake up the organization and weed out the idiots, at least according to Beltway common wisdom.
Also, a situation where the new head of an organization wanted to change things for the better, and inertia and resistance from the people he was trying to lead swallowed him whole, such that now he's still trying to generate change, but he's doing it in the old office politics way of finding the people with the real power and convincing them to side with him. This is a great example of how institutions kill their own innovations by forcing the new people to adapt themselves to the old paradigm, instead of being willing to try on some new paradigms that the addition and/or change of staff are supposed to spur. Thus, they'll then spend more money on consultants to do the same thing the previous hires were supposed to do, and give the consultants the fiat of The Boss to make old ways get broken.
The Supreme Court of the United States continues to display their pro-corporate majority, ruling that companies can force their customers into binding arbitration in their contracts rather than requiring that things such as class-action lawsuits be allowed to proceed.
In technology, an infographic about the history of web browsers and their relative popularity over time - most interesting to note is that Opera has held a fairly regular share of popularity ever since its first release.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation for the United States will be sending a KILL command to a botnet they managed to seize the command and control computers of, once an infected user signs their consent to having the malware removed.
Elsewhere, Sony continues to reel from the stealing of a significant amounts of personal and private data from their business partners...not too soon after they announced a switch, actually. Begin the speculation as to who might have done such a thing.
TomTom GPSes routinely send data about position and speed to local police as well as the main company, although the company claims it is anonoymized and aggregate data. Still, the police can proabbly use it to target certain areas for extra patrols and ticket-writing. And despite their claims, Apple's patents make it look like tracking and stalking has been part of their game plan from the start.
An underclass in the Googleplex, centered around the book-scanning project?
The Voyager spacecraft, out in the heilosheath, continue to tell us lots about the Sol system. Yet again, marvels of engineering.
In opinions, the final phase of the war of the rich against the rest - the beginning of class genocide.
The WSJ continues to insist that liberals only want to tax oil companies because they want people to suffer and pay higher gas prices, and not at all out of any desire to stop subsidizing companies that report billions of dollars in profits quarterly on top of their subsidized profits.
Mr. Ahlet buries the lead fantastically in decrying the way liberals have attacked Allen West, leading with all the personal politiics and accusations of racism before quietly mentioning that Mr. West has some far-right views about immigrants, "government dependency", and "Islamic jihad". The "character assassination" angle kind of falls apart when you reveal that the man's political positions are worth mentioning and debating.
Mr. Fund sees another part of Mr. Obama where he is like his predecessor - the use of signing statements to sidestep parts of laws he doesn't like. At this point, I don't think anyone's surprised, considering how much emulation has already happened.
Mr. Rove believes that Presidential campaigning to the wings and then moving back to the center will hurt Obama's re-election chances, when he could have just turned striaght conservative and done what the Republicans wanted and theoretically been rewarded for it. Except those Republicans, "independents" and others Mr. Rove thinks the President could capture have usually been poisoned with the idea that Mr. Obama is a fringe leftist, no matter what he does, and so tacking to the center won't actually bring in any of them.
A slightly tongue-in-cheek way of checking to see if you send out so much information that nobody's reading you...uh-oh. Maybe that's why I don't get any comments to my entries? I'm the equivalent of "tl:dr"?
Last for tonight, a note from one Mr. George Carlin expressing his love for the woman he courted and eventually married, and a reason why people who think highly of nature should remember that nature is capricious and prone to ruining plans.
As a postscript, a suggestion of thirty items, passed along in a chain letter style (anyone have an original source? I'd love it.) for a woman to have done by the age of thirty...upon reading the list, I think it's just as good for whatever post-teenage age you like, men could use a lot of this advice, and there are certain social assumptions made about women that may or may not fit you, personally. (Thanks,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
songtocecilia for pointing out some of the ways it doesn't fit.)
From image analysis to textual analysis -
rho points out the difficulties of "offensive language" - your reclaimed term is someone else's n-word, and while it's good to let your preferences be known, trying to impose your reality on someone else is usually offensive to them.And from there to full-motion video - have a look at a pretty awful bullying PSA. Cliched messages, unhip slogans, and a clear inability to relate to teenagers doom that video from the start. Here are more good and bad videos to make comparisons with.
Elsewhere, the Man of Steel declares his intent to renounce his United States citizenship in an upcoming issue, having finally fessed up to what has been obvious the whole time - Truth, Justice, and The American Way is often perceived as the Policy of The United States Government, which is something Superman doesn't want to be seen as.
Finally, The Congressional Progressive Caucus talks about its own budget proposal, entitled The People's Budget, that claims to achieve the same budget parity and eventual surplus as the Ryan plan, but without the crippling cuts made to social services and assistance to the poor.
Out in the world today, governemnt forces fire on protesters in Syria, killing at least 50, leading to mass resignations from teh government's political party in protest.
In Uganda, a rebellion movement continues to gather strength even as it is battered by government crackdowns. The protest involves walking to one's workplace as a means of speaking out againt high gas and food prices, as well as the government's decision to purchase fighter planes with some of their funds.
Egypt's government has decided to open a previously closed border, allowing supplies, material, and people to flow freely in and out of the Gaza region.
Protests in Maldives meet prolice opposition, while the United Kingdom used the excuse of the wedding of a member of the royal family to crack down hard on protesters.
Last out, when the axe falls in the UK for arts funding, a disproportionate amount of minority groups are on the block.
Domestically, the placement of Petraeus at the head of the CIA will shake up the organization and weed out the idiots, at least according to Beltway common wisdom.
Also, a situation where the new head of an organization wanted to change things for the better, and inertia and resistance from the people he was trying to lead swallowed him whole, such that now he's still trying to generate change, but he's doing it in the old office politics way of finding the people with the real power and convincing them to side with him. This is a great example of how institutions kill their own innovations by forcing the new people to adapt themselves to the old paradigm, instead of being willing to try on some new paradigms that the addition and/or change of staff are supposed to spur. Thus, they'll then spend more money on consultants to do the same thing the previous hires were supposed to do, and give the consultants the fiat of The Boss to make old ways get broken.
The Supreme Court of the United States continues to display their pro-corporate majority, ruling that companies can force their customers into binding arbitration in their contracts rather than requiring that things such as class-action lawsuits be allowed to proceed.
In technology, an infographic about the history of web browsers and their relative popularity over time - most interesting to note is that Opera has held a fairly regular share of popularity ever since its first release.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation for the United States will be sending a KILL command to a botnet they managed to seize the command and control computers of, once an infected user signs their consent to having the malware removed.
Elsewhere, Sony continues to reel from the stealing of a significant amounts of personal and private data from their business partners...not too soon after they announced a switch, actually. Begin the speculation as to who might have done such a thing.
TomTom GPSes routinely send data about position and speed to local police as well as the main company, although the company claims it is anonoymized and aggregate data. Still, the police can proabbly use it to target certain areas for extra patrols and ticket-writing. And despite their claims, Apple's patents make it look like tracking and stalking has been part of their game plan from the start.
An underclass in the Googleplex, centered around the book-scanning project?
The Voyager spacecraft, out in the heilosheath, continue to tell us lots about the Sol system. Yet again, marvels of engineering.
In opinions, the final phase of the war of the rich against the rest - the beginning of class genocide.
The WSJ continues to insist that liberals only want to tax oil companies because they want people to suffer and pay higher gas prices, and not at all out of any desire to stop subsidizing companies that report billions of dollars in profits quarterly on top of their subsidized profits.
Mr. Ahlet buries the lead fantastically in decrying the way liberals have attacked Allen West, leading with all the personal politiics and accusations of racism before quietly mentioning that Mr. West has some far-right views about immigrants, "government dependency", and "Islamic jihad". The "character assassination" angle kind of falls apart when you reveal that the man's political positions are worth mentioning and debating.
Mr. Fund sees another part of Mr. Obama where he is like his predecessor - the use of signing statements to sidestep parts of laws he doesn't like. At this point, I don't think anyone's surprised, considering how much emulation has already happened.
Mr. Rove believes that Presidential campaigning to the wings and then moving back to the center will hurt Obama's re-election chances, when he could have just turned striaght conservative and done what the Republicans wanted and theoretically been rewarded for it. Except those Republicans, "independents" and others Mr. Rove thinks the President could capture have usually been poisoned with the idea that Mr. Obama is a fringe leftist, no matter what he does, and so tacking to the center won't actually bring in any of them.
A slightly tongue-in-cheek way of checking to see if you send out so much information that nobody's reading you...uh-oh. Maybe that's why I don't get any comments to my entries? I'm the equivalent of "tl:dr"?
Last for tonight, a note from one Mr. George Carlin expressing his love for the woman he courted and eventually married, and a reason why people who think highly of nature should remember that nature is capricious and prone to ruining plans.
As a postscript, a suggestion of thirty items, passed along in a chain letter style (anyone have an original source? I'd love it.) for a woman to have done by the age of thirty...upon reading the list, I think it's just as good for whatever post-teenage age you like, men could use a lot of this advice, and there are certain social assumptions made about women that may or may not fit you, personally. (Thanks,
songtocecilia for pointing out some of the ways it doesn't fit.)- Clothes that fit the size she is now, not the size she was five years ago
- A weekly income that covers the rent (or mortgage payment)
- An orgasm
- Always enough toilet paper
- A hair stylist she trusts
- A favorite song, porn site, image, movie or fantasy that always gets her in the mood
- Health insurance
- A signature drink
- A healthy relationship with her parents
- Bras in the correct size
- Enough alcohol in her home to offer drop-by guests a cocktail
- An emergency hangover remedy
- A voter registration card
- A wardrobe that includes the perfectly flattering little black dress, a great pair of heels, jeans that make her ass look great, and a cute hat that hides a bad hair day
- A yearly appointment with her gynecologist
- The name of reliable movers to give her friends when they ask for help relocating
- The gumption to ask a man out
- A group of girlfriends who get it (Also guy friends)
- A set of tools (and the ability to use them ... even if it’s just to hang a piece of art
- A balanced checkbook
- No interest in men who just aren’t that into her
- A vacation to look forward to at least once a year
- A good bulls**t detector
- The courage to stand up for herself and her beliefs
- A favorite sex position
- A set of hand towels so guests don’t have dry their hands on her bath towel
- Enough self-love to avoid and break off unhealthy friendships and relationships
- A commitment to exercise
- A retirement fund
- A great vibrator
