Add one to this thought - 19 July 2007
Jul. 19th, 2007 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptOkay, resettled and such. As such, I now have time to organize my thoughts. Theoretically, anyway. Wandered about the Art Fair today, bought nothing, spoke with a few people, beat the rain home, paid my bills. All in all, an excellent day, although I need a golf-size umbrella, I guess, if I want to actually avoid having rain fall on my person. Even the bigger umbrella from the vehicle was insufficient. Tomorrow is a day where Great Things Will Be Done, or something.
Perhaps as a sinister way of sneaking things in while people are avoiding the Intarwebs for fear of spoilers, perhaps just as a coincidentally-timed announcement, and causing much more confusion, most likely, than resolving, a post in lj_biz "clarifying" policies about what is and isn't permitted on LiveJournal. As the comments will show, bring forth the firestorm. Specifics are requested on the relevant laws and court citations backing these decisions and the like. At this point, there’s been one clarification on the clarification, and there may yet be more to come. In any case, it would probably be best holding off on writing anything about someone under the age of consent while this matter continues to bubble. Hiding behind things such as obscenity laws may be useful for linguistic flexibility, but it tends to make a lot of people awfully suspicious.An icon about Liberty and Justice is acceptable, of course.
Regarding the incoming release of Mr. Potter’s seventh book of adventures, the weddingplans community was apparently visited by a spoiler fairy, resulting in a backlash from the moderators. Which, of course, brought forth a blacklash from those who want to mock that decision and the general sensitivity of book fans to things that may spoil their experience. I am hearing the term “Potterdämmerung” being slung about. Were I a better Teutonic speaker, I suspect this would make more sense to me, but I am unaware of the origins of such a phrase. Enlighten us, please?
Turning away from reading to writing, and writing science fiction, Rudy Rucker has a few thoughts about "mundane" science fiction, which likes plausible, possible futures rather than things that may not be achievable on our present course. What he correctly notes, though, is that a good story has good storytelling, regardless of whether it touches on or avoids some of the genre tropes. Which is true for any writing, I would guess.
Want to sell your soul for cash? Write yourself a song for Wendy's. Okay, so maybe selling your soul might be a bit harsh, but this is basically the corporation asking you to make their next big commercial, for a mere $5,000 and a studio session. Okay, and the playing of the jingle everywhere. Still, that probably favors Wendy’s quite a bit.
Sliding into politics, Vanity Fair’s online portal has a column from Katherine Bean describing how the United States abandoned working rapport-building interrogation techniques for torture, sacrificing both credibility and effectiveness. In January, if things aren’t blocked for whatever reason, an account of a German citizen who was detained and "interrogated" in Guantanamo will appear, and we’ll get even more first-hand accounts of the new interrogation scheme.
The United States claims to have arrested the Iraqi leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which no doubt will give more fuel to those who want to point at success in Iraq. Jesus’ General notes there was much more to the information than previously thought. Success in Iraq is coming quickly, indeed.
An earthquake-rattled nuclear power plant is a bit more damaged than had originally been said, which does not make the populace around the plant happy. They definitely do not want to have something serious happen to them and to have the corporations and governments telling them that things are fine. There are enough problems with radiation in Japan’s past to not need any further ones.
For those of our readership that have newborns, or are considering getting some of their own, please read So you've gone and made a baby! first, to acclimate yourself to the process of what child-rearing will be like. Now that we’re acclimated to child life, let’s see how clothing corporations are selling bikinis and such for your one-year old. Taking adult fashions and shrinking them to toddler size. Because, you know, we want our children to look like miniature versions of bikini-wearing models.
Unless there’s some hidden reason for why this is important that I didn’t pick up from the article, apparently "Americans don't understand others". The experiment, though, is a matter of there being two blocks visible to the participants, and one to the “director”, and Americans taking more time to move the correct block when the director requests the block be moved. I think the matter may more be that Americans may not immediately observe the way the director’s line of sight is set up, and thus be confused when the director asks for a block to be moved, because, after all, there are two blocks visible to the participant. Maybe the director knows about the second block, after all.
The big sequence tonight involves consumer goods of a sort. Namely, those consumer goods and services that would appeal to certain Christian audiences, or provided by such. If I haven’t mentioned it before, Wal-Mart will be carrying tall-size biblical action figures, like the 12-inch talking Jesus. I doubt that Jesus will speak Aramaic, though. There’s also the reprints of 50s Catholic childrens' coloring books , which are now being marketed as excellent homeschooling books to use. Apparently, the 1950s really are the time that several conservative religious would like to return to. Or, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dogemperor weaves in a long trail tracing the back story of Zondervan Publishing, would like to provide a complete "parallel economy" to the rest of us, so that no-one in their worldview ever has to be exposed to an outside thought. From books to dolls to a complete parallel world, it’s rather cult-like, I would say, the way that this is happening.
In the services department, church volunteers in Kentucky are monitoring the courts with regard to how they handle drug abuse cases. The judges themselves say that they’re not intimidated and that no judge should be intimidated by the presence of the volunteers. What I find most interesting is the following quote from one of the church leaders involved - “...we believe in giving people chances, but how many chances do you give them?” I believe the appropriately Biblical answer is “Seven times seventy times.” It’s certainly not the solution proposed by Joe Lawson, who thinks teenage mothers don't deserve medicine or food assistance, wants discipline to be a thrashing rather than Ritalin, and says with full confidence that parents who let their children read Harry Potter are guilty of witchcraft and are hellbound. I’m sure he thinks of himself as a stunning example of Christian mercy, too.
Enterprising youngster - a ten-year-old sells handcrafted cards, turns the profits into purchasing cows. The kid has managed to donate enough to Heifer Project International to purchase four cows (at $500 U.S. each) and is likely to continue to do so. There’s good works for you.
Save the Internet links to a Free Press report on the state of telecom development and competition that decries the lack of competition in broadband access, finding fault with the cable companies’ near lock on providing broadband access.
Our last parts are two-fold. One is Running the Numbers, a project that creates big mosaics out of lots of small objects, based on various consumptions or difficulties in the United States. The other is seven tips for having a creative thought, which might lead to ideas like the one above. Many of the ones mentioned there I’ve tried. Sometimes they work on the problem that I’m thinking about. Other times, some other problem suddenly clicks into place when I do them. They’re all good methods for getting your brain to work on something as a background process. The wonderful Eureka moments that happen at the end are just icing on the cake. I’m probably working on a few problems of my own already as it is.
Perhaps as a sinister way of sneaking things in while people are avoiding the Intarwebs for fear of spoilers, perhaps just as a coincidentally-timed announcement, and causing much more confusion, most likely, than resolving, a post in lj_biz "clarifying" policies about what is and isn't permitted on LiveJournal. As the comments will show, bring forth the firestorm. Specifics are requested on the relevant laws and court citations backing these decisions and the like. At this point, there’s been one clarification on the clarification, and there may yet be more to come. In any case, it would probably be best holding off on writing anything about someone under the age of consent while this matter continues to bubble. Hiding behind things such as obscenity laws may be useful for linguistic flexibility, but it tends to make a lot of people awfully suspicious.An icon about Liberty and Justice is acceptable, of course.
Regarding the incoming release of Mr. Potter’s seventh book of adventures, the weddingplans community was apparently visited by a spoiler fairy, resulting in a backlash from the moderators. Which, of course, brought forth a blacklash from those who want to mock that decision and the general sensitivity of book fans to things that may spoil their experience. I am hearing the term “Potterdämmerung” being slung about. Were I a better Teutonic speaker, I suspect this would make more sense to me, but I am unaware of the origins of such a phrase. Enlighten us, please?
Turning away from reading to writing, and writing science fiction, Rudy Rucker has a few thoughts about "mundane" science fiction, which likes plausible, possible futures rather than things that may not be achievable on our present course. What he correctly notes, though, is that a good story has good storytelling, regardless of whether it touches on or avoids some of the genre tropes. Which is true for any writing, I would guess.
Want to sell your soul for cash? Write yourself a song for Wendy's. Okay, so maybe selling your soul might be a bit harsh, but this is basically the corporation asking you to make their next big commercial, for a mere $5,000 and a studio session. Okay, and the playing of the jingle everywhere. Still, that probably favors Wendy’s quite a bit.
Sliding into politics, Vanity Fair’s online portal has a column from Katherine Bean describing how the United States abandoned working rapport-building interrogation techniques for torture, sacrificing both credibility and effectiveness. In January, if things aren’t blocked for whatever reason, an account of a German citizen who was detained and "interrogated" in Guantanamo will appear, and we’ll get even more first-hand accounts of the new interrogation scheme.
The United States claims to have arrested the Iraqi leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which no doubt will give more fuel to those who want to point at success in Iraq. Jesus’ General notes there was much more to the information than previously thought. Success in Iraq is coming quickly, indeed.
An earthquake-rattled nuclear power plant is a bit more damaged than had originally been said, which does not make the populace around the plant happy. They definitely do not want to have something serious happen to them and to have the corporations and governments telling them that things are fine. There are enough problems with radiation in Japan’s past to not need any further ones.
For those of our readership that have newborns, or are considering getting some of their own, please read So you've gone and made a baby! first, to acclimate yourself to the process of what child-rearing will be like. Now that we’re acclimated to child life, let’s see how clothing corporations are selling bikinis and such for your one-year old. Taking adult fashions and shrinking them to toddler size. Because, you know, we want our children to look like miniature versions of bikini-wearing models.
Unless there’s some hidden reason for why this is important that I didn’t pick up from the article, apparently "Americans don't understand others". The experiment, though, is a matter of there being two blocks visible to the participants, and one to the “director”, and Americans taking more time to move the correct block when the director requests the block be moved. I think the matter may more be that Americans may not immediately observe the way the director’s line of sight is set up, and thus be confused when the director asks for a block to be moved, because, after all, there are two blocks visible to the participant. Maybe the director knows about the second block, after all.
The big sequence tonight involves consumer goods of a sort. Namely, those consumer goods and services that would appeal to certain Christian audiences, or provided by such. If I haven’t mentioned it before, Wal-Mart will be carrying tall-size biblical action figures, like the 12-inch talking Jesus. I doubt that Jesus will speak Aramaic, though. There’s also the reprints of 50s Catholic childrens' coloring books , which are now being marketed as excellent homeschooling books to use. Apparently, the 1950s really are the time that several conservative religious would like to return to. Or, as
dogemperor weaves in a long trail tracing the back story of Zondervan Publishing, would like to provide a complete "parallel economy" to the rest of us, so that no-one in their worldview ever has to be exposed to an outside thought. From books to dolls to a complete parallel world, it’s rather cult-like, I would say, the way that this is happening.In the services department, church volunteers in Kentucky are monitoring the courts with regard to how they handle drug abuse cases. The judges themselves say that they’re not intimidated and that no judge should be intimidated by the presence of the volunteers. What I find most interesting is the following quote from one of the church leaders involved - “...we believe in giving people chances, but how many chances do you give them?” I believe the appropriately Biblical answer is “Seven times seventy times.” It’s certainly not the solution proposed by Joe Lawson, who thinks teenage mothers don't deserve medicine or food assistance, wants discipline to be a thrashing rather than Ritalin, and says with full confidence that parents who let their children read Harry Potter are guilty of witchcraft and are hellbound. I’m sure he thinks of himself as a stunning example of Christian mercy, too.
Enterprising youngster - a ten-year-old sells handcrafted cards, turns the profits into purchasing cows. The kid has managed to donate enough to Heifer Project International to purchase four cows (at $500 U.S. each) and is likely to continue to do so. There’s good works for you.
Save the Internet links to a Free Press report on the state of telecom development and competition that decries the lack of competition in broadband access, finding fault with the cable companies’ near lock on providing broadband access.
Our last parts are two-fold. One is Running the Numbers, a project that creates big mosaics out of lots of small objects, based on various consumptions or difficulties in the United States. The other is seven tips for having a creative thought, which might lead to ideas like the one above. Many of the ones mentioned there I’ve tried. Sometimes they work on the problem that I’m thinking about. Other times, some other problem suddenly clicks into place when I do them. They’re all good methods for getting your brain to work on something as a background process. The wonderful Eureka moments that happen at the end are just icing on the cake. I’m probably working on a few problems of my own already as it is.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 03:58 am (UTC)Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods) is the fourth opera in a series called the Ring of the Nibelung by (Richard) Wagner. The Ring is actually a really good opera set - it's all about German Paganism! :D (of course, it's also in German....)
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 08:34 am (UTC)In the end, Wagner decided to create an opera based on the German version of the story and the Ring Cycle is considered one of, if not his best, piece of composing. If all else fails, you can always Wiki it and get a better synopsis...especially knowing your love of the Fire-Breathing Flying Lizards.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 01:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-20 09:55 pm (UTC)