Silver Adept (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silveradept) wrote2007-10-23 11:02 pm
silveradept) wrote2007-10-23 11:02 pm
Right, and more - 23 October 2007
Today was today, not good, not bad, mostly normal - except that whole stuffed up nose thing. Which is a pain in the butt. Wish it would go away.
I have fallen back into the curse of receiving no comments, so if I am slow or nonresponsive, this is why. If it’s something properly important, draw it to my attention with regular e-mail or other communication methods, please.
Leading with a positive thing for once, Cranking Widgets offers six simple ways to be a nicer person. I hope I’ve got most of those internalized, especially on the job.
The good mood is crushed swiftly, however, A possible system of flagging LiveJournal entries for "inappropriate" content may be coming soon. As it is described in the post, it looks bad and pretty easy for someone to abuse-spam and troll those who they don’t agree with. (Although, wasn’t there already a flagging system implemented somewhere? Or are those still hypotheticals?)
Even worse (for some of us), The Japanese government has made an official appeal to United States authorities to suppress fansubs. Which could kill the licensing companies’ best inexpensive market research.
(Another) report saying that peak oil has already arrived. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this before, at other times, but the fact that it’s even making it into the news indicates that it would be a good idea to find a method to generate the required amounts of energy from a source that is renewable... while we can still generate the cheap power to manufacture the expensive stuff with.
Atari's founder calls current video games "trash". Well, to each their own opinion - it’s true that a lot of games get published that probably shouldn’t. I’d like to see more in-depth reasoning, but the founder doesn’t have any specifics on the record.
Before we get into quiche, the CIA gets special mention for pure, unmalicious stupidity. Feast your eyes on the "Terrorist Busters" logo. This has apparently been in existence for a while. (And Keith made it his Worst Person in the World for today.) Perhaps following suit, or trying to appeal to the same demographic is the National Security Agency’s Cryptokids. Teaching cryptology with young, attempting to be hip anthropomorphs. Think this strategy will work or backfire horribly? Or worse, will it be co-opted as a resource to work through if and when such a unit should appear in their schoolwork?
On the fringes of quiche territory, yet another dittohead saying that every time things go well in Iraq, Democrats are ready to slit their political wrists. You know, if Iraq turns out well, everyone will give credit where it is due - to the people who managed to rebuild it and keep it safe until the domestic powers took over - or those who brought it back from the depths of civil war into a stable democracy. The people who will try to take credit for it, however, are likely the people who will least deserve any of it, regardless of which side of the aisle they sit on.
It’s quiche time, as the graphic above notes. Our leading SSRC says that the people who are having their homes burned in California are the people who hate America. Luckily, the rest of the country does not hold the same opinion, and has mobilized the National guard and fire teams, as well as declaring a state of emergency. Having learned a bit about disasters with the hurricane one, hopefully this one will be controlled better.
In a different style of insensitivity, Angry Asian Man has a roundup of "Asian" Halloween costumes, all aiming for sexuality. Yeah. There’s plenty of costumes that you can do - or, if you’re going to go for that aim, find yourself an anime character so that you can do the makeup in the drawing style and be accurate. Between that and Hogwarts Headmasters, you could easily offend every fundamentalist Christian within your neighborhood. You may want someone who’s a copy of Dungeons and Dragons to drive the point home, however.
Moving in toward our quiche criteria, the Pentagon co-opted an "editorially independent" newspaper as part of a PR campaign for Mr. Bush's war in Iraq, transferring funds away from the paper into the coffers of a PR firm hired to do the selling to Americans. Without notifying the editors. I’d hate to believe that this sort of thing is turtles all the way down, though.
Different malevolence, different result, but environmental regs were suspended to permit the construction of a fence through a national conservation area, under the auspices of the director of homeland security. The wall to keep out the immigrants is more important than the preservation of what little natural scenery and land we have left.And even better, said director actually has the authority to do so.
But, deserving and earning a quiche to the face for being the most Stupid, Stupid Rat Creature in this entry is a mult-quiche winner, Michelle Malkin, who derides and dismisses those objecting to the "Islamo-Facism Awareness Week" project of David Horowitz. If you want, you can have a look at the student's guide to IFAW.
To clear your mind of this (and perhaps to instill a different line of questioning), PETA has convinced an Australian model to appear nude for a campaign poster extolling vegetarianism. How, precisely, does PETA manage this, with their general perception as a fringe group?
My professional self once again hopes that the books used in these art projects are old, withdrawn, and have no interest in being preserved in an archival collection. That said, MonkeyFilter links to several artists that use books as their medium.
Staying in the cool stuff department, Fire Ants Versus... pits fire ants versus other insects, with the fire ants winning a least one bout.
If technology is your thing, try building your own 50s-era satellite, like the Russian one that went up. Components and housing for such would be pretty inexpensive. Getting sufficient lift to put it up into orbit might take a bit more expense. So, instead, it might be better-utilized for some other purpose here on Gaia.
Almost taking top honors tonight as the best thing in this entry is a page that has Christopher Walken reading Poe's The Raven. Of course, there’s also all sorts of background sound effects and an echo effect on Walken’s reading. Still good, and would work well for your Halloween parties. And if you’re in the are, perhaps seeing the all-female version of the Dreaded Scottish Play is good for getting into the right mood.
Our far-and-away winner of Best in Show tonight goes to josh g.‘s notes, for coming up with the rules to Escalating Office-isms, a game that not only requires a good knowledge of buzzword bingo, but requires the players to play a bit of a game of one-upmanship while around the water cooler. Wins are counted by laughs from your opponents, losses when people have to go back to work. Try it yourself.
Since I have to get up early again, bedtime is on the horizon. There’s been another study that says sleep is excellent for your memory and learning, and that REM sleep and dreaming is a great place for all that association to take place in, so make sure you get sufficient amounts of it to stay smart. I’m going to try for some so that I can stay healthy. Or get healthy, rather.
I have fallen back into the curse of receiving no comments, so if I am slow or nonresponsive, this is why. If it’s something properly important, draw it to my attention with regular e-mail or other communication methods, please.
Leading with a positive thing for once, Cranking Widgets offers six simple ways to be a nicer person. I hope I’ve got most of those internalized, especially on the job.
The good mood is crushed swiftly, however, A possible system of flagging LiveJournal entries for "inappropriate" content may be coming soon. As it is described in the post, it looks bad and pretty easy for someone to abuse-spam and troll those who they don’t agree with. (Although, wasn’t there already a flagging system implemented somewhere? Or are those still hypotheticals?)
Even worse (for some of us), The Japanese government has made an official appeal to United States authorities to suppress fansubs. Which could kill the licensing companies’ best inexpensive market research.
(Another) report saying that peak oil has already arrived. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this before, at other times, but the fact that it’s even making it into the news indicates that it would be a good idea to find a method to generate the required amounts of energy from a source that is renewable... while we can still generate the cheap power to manufacture the expensive stuff with.
Atari's founder calls current video games "trash". Well, to each their own opinion - it’s true that a lot of games get published that probably shouldn’t. I’d like to see more in-depth reasoning, but the founder doesn’t have any specifics on the record.
Before we get into quiche, the CIA gets special mention for pure, unmalicious stupidity. Feast your eyes on the "Terrorist Busters" logo. This has apparently been in existence for a while. (And Keith made it his Worst Person in the World for today.) Perhaps following suit, or trying to appeal to the same demographic is the National Security Agency’s Cryptokids. Teaching cryptology with young, attempting to be hip anthropomorphs. Think this strategy will work or backfire horribly? Or worse, will it be co-opted as a resource to work through if and when such a unit should appear in their schoolwork?
On the fringes of quiche territory, yet another dittohead saying that every time things go well in Iraq, Democrats are ready to slit their political wrists. You know, if Iraq turns out well, everyone will give credit where it is due - to the people who managed to rebuild it and keep it safe until the domestic powers took over - or those who brought it back from the depths of civil war into a stable democracy. The people who will try to take credit for it, however, are likely the people who will least deserve any of it, regardless of which side of the aisle they sit on.
It’s quiche time, as the graphic above notes. Our leading SSRC says that the people who are having their homes burned in California are the people who hate America. Luckily, the rest of the country does not hold the same opinion, and has mobilized the National guard and fire teams, as well as declaring a state of emergency. Having learned a bit about disasters with the hurricane one, hopefully this one will be controlled better.
In a different style of insensitivity, Angry Asian Man has a roundup of "Asian" Halloween costumes, all aiming for sexuality. Yeah. There’s plenty of costumes that you can do - or, if you’re going to go for that aim, find yourself an anime character so that you can do the makeup in the drawing style and be accurate. Between that and Hogwarts Headmasters, you could easily offend every fundamentalist Christian within your neighborhood. You may want someone who’s a copy of Dungeons and Dragons to drive the point home, however.
Moving in toward our quiche criteria, the Pentagon co-opted an "editorially independent" newspaper as part of a PR campaign for Mr. Bush's war in Iraq, transferring funds away from the paper into the coffers of a PR firm hired to do the selling to Americans. Without notifying the editors. I’d hate to believe that this sort of thing is turtles all the way down, though.
Different malevolence, different result, but environmental regs were suspended to permit the construction of a fence through a national conservation area, under the auspices of the director of homeland security. The wall to keep out the immigrants is more important than the preservation of what little natural scenery and land we have left.And even better, said director actually has the authority to do so.
But, deserving and earning a quiche to the face for being the most Stupid, Stupid Rat Creature in this entry is a mult-quiche winner, Michelle Malkin, who derides and dismisses those objecting to the "Islamo-Facism Awareness Week" project of David Horowitz. If you want, you can have a look at the student's guide to IFAW.
To clear your mind of this (and perhaps to instill a different line of questioning), PETA has convinced an Australian model to appear nude for a campaign poster extolling vegetarianism. How, precisely, does PETA manage this, with their general perception as a fringe group?
My professional self once again hopes that the books used in these art projects are old, withdrawn, and have no interest in being preserved in an archival collection. That said, MonkeyFilter links to several artists that use books as their medium.
Staying in the cool stuff department, Fire Ants Versus... pits fire ants versus other insects, with the fire ants winning a least one bout.
If technology is your thing, try building your own 50s-era satellite, like the Russian one that went up. Components and housing for such would be pretty inexpensive. Getting sufficient lift to put it up into orbit might take a bit more expense. So, instead, it might be better-utilized for some other purpose here on Gaia.
Almost taking top honors tonight as the best thing in this entry is a page that has Christopher Walken reading Poe's The Raven. Of course, there’s also all sorts of background sound effects and an echo effect on Walken’s reading. Still good, and would work well for your Halloween parties. And if you’re in the are, perhaps seeing the all-female version of the Dreaded Scottish Play is good for getting into the right mood.
Our far-and-away winner of Best in Show tonight goes to josh g.‘s notes, for coming up with the rules to Escalating Office-isms, a game that not only requires a good knowledge of buzzword bingo, but requires the players to play a bit of a game of one-upmanship while around the water cooler. Wins are counted by laughs from your opponents, losses when people have to go back to work. Try it yourself.
Since I have to get up early again, bedtime is on the horizon. There’s been another study that says sleep is excellent for your memory and learning, and that REM sleep and dreaming is a great place for all that association to take place in, so make sure you get sufficient amounts of it to stay smart. I’m going to try for some so that I can stay healthy. Or get healthy, rather.
no subject
Which probably doesn't actually address anything you've said. I agree that it's a matter of people thinking others should think the same way they think they think ("We are the ones who are setting you free,
now you can share our beliefs and be just like we") at the most benign, and that there are several potential levels of malevolence, as the abstraction gets more distorted (perhaps to become understandable to people who don't want to investigate the complexities of the matter).
no subject
(Anonymous) 2007-10-25 02:17 pm (UTC)(link)The comments did bring up the point that the reason it's called Islamo-Facism Week is to differentiate between Muslims and radical Muslims. Someone said "If we believed all Muslims were terrorists, we'd call it Muslim Awareness Week", or something similar. While this was one of the comments that humanized the argument for me...
that particular point is poTAYto/poTAHto argument. Conservatism has shown time and time again it isn't good at seeing shades of gray. If you have an abortion you are WRONG WRONG WRONG no matter what the circumstances. There ARE NO circumstances because empathy is the for the WEAK, there is black and white and it's MY black and white...
*cough* uh, sorry, we return you to your regularly scheduled critical analysis.
I think that your casual person who would be inclined to go to these events isn't going to see the distinction between "Islamo-Fascist" and "Muslim", and even if they did, I agree with your commentary that they already believe it's just a matter of time before all of Islam jumps on board. watershed got attacked in the comments for continually saying "These comments already show that it's a short step to paint all of Islam as evil", and no one adequately refuted the claim of broadbased bigotry on the thread. It was mostly just "no, we're discussing the nuances, no one here is pointing fingers broadly, you're the one without facts, neener neener."
Here's my challenge to you - find a blog that has commentary on this from individuals that identify themselves as Muslim, a Muslim equivalent of Michelle's blog, if you will. Bonus points if it's the blog of someone Muslim who actually went to an event. Maybe it's me showing my own racial assumptions, but the comments on Michelle's blog didn't have anyone identifying themselves as Muslim, and I tend to feel no one was. It was a lot of speculation about that "other", be it the radicals or the MSA members. What do the people that this is actually affecting have to say? They are the ones that have the experience that counts, IMHO.
And OT, I'm sorry my comments are always so after-the-fact. I read your blog on my lunch break, which means I'm reading the previous night's post the next day. I appreciate you still engaging me, even if i'm still commenting on a previous post.
no subject
The chance of finding a Muslim blogging about this after having attended it is probably pretty small. Those who have already conflated Muslim with facism are looking for confirmation of their ideas, and those who already know the difference between moderate Islam and the fundamentalist version are probably pretty well aware of what the fundamentalist branch does. Or they know that those nutters don't really speak for the rest of them.
To be analagous, if there were a Christo-facism Awareness week, I somehow doubt that Malkin et al. would react to it by saying "Yes, we should support this week and participate to show that we're not those crazy fundies!" or "Yes, our religion has been steeplejacked so much by people who want to take over the world and rule it from the pulpit that we need to warn other people about them." I suspect the reaction would be "How dare you accuse our religion of love and peace as being primarily populated by people who hate and fear and want to control." Yet, in its own past, Christianity did (and still does) just that, pointing to plenty of places in the holy book where that's true, and ignoring other places that say violence against others is definitely not the way of Jesus.
I think that most things being written by Muslims about this will be critical, not kind.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2007-10-25 04:55 pm (UTC)(link)I agree, chances are slim, hence why it's a challenge ;-) I'm not asking you to find a supportive blog - I'm asking you to find a blog that details authentic Muslim experience with this, supportive or no. I just want to hear their voice because their experience with it will always be more meaningful than mine. And probably more meaningful than all of the people that made the 300+ comments on Michelle's blog. Too bad they don't realize that.
And I too had the thought about Christo-facism week, and I agree with your thought on the reaction. There was much in the Michelle-blog comments about how Islam is still in the dark ages of violence, and more people are killed in a year in the name of Islam than in the last 600 years for Christianity, and Christianity got over that YEARS ago and after all, violence then was much more common when Christianity was doing it...yada yada. Tell that to the abortion clinic workers who have their faces on wanted posters. Tell that to the people dying of AIDS in Africa because the Catholic missionaries there won't give out condoms despite overwhelming evidence that condoms would help the problem.
Perhaps I should revise my previous statement - conservatives only see shades of gray when it deals with them and THEIR religion (the true religion after all. Everyone else is going to hell. Fools!). The personal is political when it deals with Christianity, and we wouldn't want to paint broad strokes about a diverse religion. But Islam is a black and white issue and conservatives are definitely the authority on it. No one else, just them, not even the people that are actually affected by conservatism "activism".
no subject
The current running newsbit is that Horwitz has inflated the number of schools that are holding events like that, so it may be even harder to find authentic reactions because some of the places claimed aren't doing anything at all and won't be. The general reaction to the event that I've seen from the blogosphere, Islamic or otherwise, is a yawn.
But so as not to be a total disappointment, and to prove that I spent those many thousands of dollars actually doing something useful for my search skills, how about Ali Eteraz? The Myth of Muslim Condemnation of Terror looks like it addresses the key points of that IFAW is supposed to be about. And from there, if anyone ever wondered, Muslims condemn terror attacks. Srsly.
And recall that Christians, some very prominent ones, endorsed or thought that teroor attacks on our soil were good things, to bring us back to the right religion. Others encourage terrorism for much the same manner. Yet everyone here accepts that most Christians are not like those nuts. Why can't they do the same for Muslims? Is it just a lack of having a peaceful Muslim in their monkeysphere?
no subject
(Anonymous) 2007-10-25 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)Challenge met. Gee, they did teach you some research skeelz, didn't they? Well done.
It makes me both happy and sad to be more informed about this issue - I value expanding my intellect, but as one person recently commented in your blog "Great stuff to read, but I get so damn depressed and want to move to Canada!"
Happy to be more informed wins out, but I am indeed having a mini-pity party about how f-ed up the world is.
That is all.
no subject
My general depressing lineup is probably heavily weighted toward what's wrong with the world and needs fixing, because there are very few stories, news or blog, that are about how things have gone right and people were helped (unless there were explosions, sharp objects, or children involved), and plenty of stories about waht people are doing to actively screw over each other. When those people are in positions of political, temporal, or even spiritual power, they deserve to be talked about, but even with this issue, there's probably a great majority of people who have no problem with believing Islam is a peaceful religion and that it has extremists, or that Horowitz and gang are making lava-spewing volcanoes out of paper-mache, baking soda, and vinegar. Every group has a fringe. We all just happen to hear more from it because the fringe is different and catches people's attention.
A handy example: There are fires in California that are burning homes, forests, and people alike. They're destroying years of hard work, precious mementos, and occasionally, they'll kill people. That's bad.
There are also fire crews mobilized, volunteer organizations running round-the-clock, and donations from all sorts of people and companies in all walks of life to try and help make the displaced life comfortable and to take the peoples' minds off of the tragedy that's befallen them. And there are people who will say that this giant fire was God's will to burn out all the America-haters in the country. Which of those two opinions makes top billing in the news? And which one of them is the opinion of the majority of America?
One idiot can get thirty microphones around him, and want them, and thirty people can refuse to let even one microphone near them, because they believe that what they do is not, and should not be, newsworthy. If we could see all the stories that don't make it to the news or the blogs, I think our opinion of our fellow people would change radically.