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silveradeptToday was an up-and-down day. The thing that caused me to exclaim MotherF***er resolved as best as such things could resolve. And then I was reminded of my own absentmindedness, being the only branch of the library to not book a particular program. Too late to change it now, of course. Chalk it up to experience and move on - and start keeping a To-Do List for work. I guess I have to resign myself to the fact that I have to write down everything, or I’ll forget something important.
Most people are well aware of this by now, but the underlying cause of the “stroke” Terry Pratchett suffered not too long ago has been found. Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with an early onset form of Alzheimer's, but assures his readership that he’s not going senile any time soon.
Getting the obligatory countdown item out of the way early, Time offers the top ten scientific discoveries of 2007, in their opinion. From stem cells and mapping genes to the world’s currently oldest animal species and the discovery of jadarite, a compound that matches the fictional kryptonite of Superman, it’s been a good year for science (SCIENCE!) The account of cloned cats that just happen to glow in the dark as wellcats that are biofluorescent happened too late to make press, I guess.
In Russia, Putin and Medvedev appears to be the ticket of choice, with current-President Putin endorsing Medvedev for president, and Medvedev endorsing Putin for prime minister. Succeeding in the appropriate elections might permit Mr. Putin to stay in power without having to tinker with the constitution, according to some speculation.
Another possible letter to send to one's Senators on S 1959, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. Whatever the case may be, a large part of said bill could be used against a lot of people who aren’t terrorists or anywhere close to the designation.
Rupert Murdoch, best known for his ownership of NewsCorp (which lists Fox among its children), is already making changes to the Wall Street Journal, even before his takeover of the Dow Jones company is official. For some, this is putting his friendly people in place, or at least neutralizing and helping to escort out the old guard, and others wonder whether the Wall Street Journal will become much like Fox and reflect Mr. Murdoch’s personal persuasions.
Speaking of potential Faux talking points, now that there’s been a line drawn in the sand with regard to war funding, and the Pentagon has responded with its own threats, more rhetoric about how the "surge" has worked is probably on the horizon. Yes, most of it is probably going to be “We won. It’s working - even your big anti-war Congresspeople said so! So why not just give us what we want?” or “If we don’t get what we want, these hundreds of thousands of people at the Pentagon are going to be laid off and it’s all your fault!” To some of the anti-war left, 100,000 or more jobs lost at the Pentagon is either a shrug or “Good! We need to divest ourselves from the military-industrial complex. Go Dems.” Ah, and expect plenty of people to declare the latest NIE to be a fraud, or shaoddy workmanship, or any one of a hundred other things just so they don't have to accept its conclusions and can keep doing what they’re supposed to be doing - beating the drums for war with Iran. Finally, some enterprising individual will note that the Republicans, even though in the minority, seem to be controlling spending bills and packages because the Democrats cannot muster various veto-proofing measures to stop a hostile president in addition to a hostile segment of the legislature. Everyone’s feeling a little nervous as the appropriations are ticking down towards a government shutdown. Someone’s going to give, but on what?
If one wishes (or has relatives who wish) to send mail to those wounded in the military, recall sending mail to "Any Wounded Soldier" will have your mail bounce or be thrown away, according to current regulations. Mail must be addressed specifically to be delivered, for the sensible reason that someone who does not wish to send the soldiers good will would have an avenue to have their message delivered.
Lucky us - federal judges are now allowed to reduce crack cocaine sentences to that of powder cocaine, at their discretion. So when caught with stuff you probably shouldn’t have, you might be sentenced the same if you have a rock than if you have powder. Equal justice for all?
Doing a much better job of at least trying to improve everyone’s living conditions, organized bands of homeless families, in cooperation with a group called the Downtown Homeless Movement, are reclaiming buildings in São Paulo and turning them into living quarters. No running water or electricity yet, but there is a library, education opportunities, and a cinema in the building already. Now, with a little help so that they can earn a living, this stands to be a great model for success. Might translate well to say... Detroit?
Leading off tonight’s odder and possibly more infuriating news, Looking Good for Jesus cosmetics. I don’t know where it is, but there’s got to be something in the Christian Foundational Writings that says something like this is missing the teachings entirely. Unless there’s some weird “Bride of Christ” thing going on here... or maybe someone’s just having a great joke at all our expenses. Which is just as possible.
The Economist ups the ante with manipulation of numbers and disapproval of a minority group in their article Believe it or not. Supposedly detailing why the American populace would never elect an atheist to President, the article implies that the 30 million people who claim “no religion” on a 2001 survey are all atheists. If there really were 30 million atheists in this country, that would be 10% of the populace or so. Which could easily make for a voting demographic, or put some people into positions of political importance. There’s always the chance that “no religion” means just that - no religion. Doesn’t mean no faith, no philosophy, no belief. Just no institution. And then after that, the Economist tries to offer advice on how atheists can make themselves more palatable - stop fighting battles against the pervasive assumption that everyone is religious and monotheistic, but you can keep fighting the ones where you’ve got science on your side or something that you can tangibly bring to the table. Go sit in the back of the bus, rather than marching in the streets, and don’t provoke the sheriff with the fire hoses and dogs. Riiight.
Getting into the places what simply scream “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!”, we’ll warm up with a polling company releasing results that claim 60% of respondents agree the government should regulate video games - after the ESRB turned them down on becoming a client. The ESRB thinks there was some very convenient timing on the matter, and that they’re advertising certain parts heavily in retribution. The polling company denies vengeance as a motivator.
I wonder what the other side of the following story is - supposedly, a library consultant was dismissed from his post after he refused to discuss the appropriateness of a book that he read to elementary students. The consultant said that the administrator asked him in for the discussion after reading synopses on-line, and the consultant refused to discuss things until the administrator had read the actual book itself. It was recommended by the publisher for middle-high school ages, and the consultant was reading to sixth graders.
Last in the mostly harmless department, more about what the Disney Princesses are teaching to young girls - going past Dora, the Explorer, to girls with wands and tiaras and pink and waiting for Godot, err, the Prince. Sort of. Because, if you look at them, a lot of the more recent Princess additions are more likely to go out and get what they’re looking for, rather than waiting. Of course, they still all look good in formal clothes and do find their Prince... or at least a Captain of the Guard.
Moving from there to matters where death really is involved, Michelle Malkin wants the New Jersey legislature to keep the death penalty. Her offering is an account of a high school friends who wrote to her from New Jersey describing the conditions of her grandparents’ death, as a justification for keeping the death penalty, rather than having it be abolished and replaced with... life without parole. Malkin and her writer are wondering what the hold up regarding condemned people dying is, once they’ve exhausted their appeals. I was hoping for some statistics, or some science, or, well, anything that might actually justify why our country believes that some people should be put to death, rather than incarcerated for their lives without the possibility of parole. Unfortunately, all there are is tugs at the heartstrings over what is a horrible death. Other than visceral satisfaction, what good does it do to put someone to death who has killed another. Unless you worry they will escape and kill again?
The abolishment of the death penalty may not actually have any effect at all, though - especially if one gets put on the sex offender registry. Considering that such data is freely available to the public, if someone on dies violently because his neighbor finds out he’s been listed on a sex offense site, and then thinks he’s a pedophile, when he’s not convicted for anything involving minors, it makes you wonder just how much data should be available, and to whom at any given time. This assumes that the data is always accurate. As the case is, not every offender's address is current and correct, and this menas innocent people get harassed by vigilantes when they discover what they think is the address of a sex offender. Those maintaining the websites are not exactly the fastest when it comes to updating their information, either because it’s self-reporting and the offender doesn’t report when he moves, or it’s not high-priority at the places that do the updating. Of course, they can disclaim all they like about possible inaccuracies and caution people not to take law into their own hands, but people are a bit funny when it comes to registries like that, and otherwise sensible people start raving like lunatics, and possibly causing terror and violence to innocent people.
There may be light at the end of the tunnel (unless one denies Darwin, of course) - a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says humans are evolving faster than their predecessors, with a significant uptick in evolution speed once agriculture became dominant. And, getting something very akin to the last laugh, when James Watson made remarks about the inequality of intelligence between Africans and Europeans or Americans, according to his genome, he might be speaking from a position of self-knowledge. His sequenced genome, according to deCODE Genetics, has about 16% material that is from African origin. For comparison, the average European-descended person has about 1% African-ancestry genes in their genome. Of course, what that actually means is probably squat, but there’s the joke for you.
Tonight’s last, though, requests that you look carefully at the following picture and discern how to pose. If that doesn’t work, have a look at the redesigned KITT. Spoilers? Really? Those kind of look like the fins on older cars, to me. Besides, if you want to make something cooler, take an example from a possible redesign of the United Kingdom Union Jack - add on a dragon skull, aflame, wearing sunglasses.
And we slide into home with the following - The Best Librarian T-Shirt of 2007. Using the phrasing of the Word of the Year for 2007, according to Merriam-Webster, w00t! Used in a sentence: “W00t! I dont’ have to read any more of this blasted entry, because it’s done!”
So, instead, I’ll inflict Phillip K. Dick talking about his writing process and the creation of universes, which actually gets quickly into the underlying philosophy, spiritual experiences, and synchronicity-like experiences of his life. Plenty more there for you to read. Time for bed for me.
Most people are well aware of this by now, but the underlying cause of the “stroke” Terry Pratchett suffered not too long ago has been found. Terry Pratchett has been diagnosed with an early onset form of Alzheimer's, but assures his readership that he’s not going senile any time soon.
Getting the obligatory countdown item out of the way early, Time offers the top ten scientific discoveries of 2007, in their opinion. From stem cells and mapping genes to the world’s currently oldest animal species and the discovery of jadarite, a compound that matches the fictional kryptonite of Superman, it’s been a good year for science (SCIENCE!) The account of cloned cats that just happen to glow in the dark as well
In Russia, Putin and Medvedev appears to be the ticket of choice, with current-President Putin endorsing Medvedev for president, and Medvedev endorsing Putin for prime minister. Succeeding in the appropriate elections might permit Mr. Putin to stay in power without having to tinker with the constitution, according to some speculation.
Another possible letter to send to one's Senators on S 1959, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. Whatever the case may be, a large part of said bill could be used against a lot of people who aren’t terrorists or anywhere close to the designation.
Rupert Murdoch, best known for his ownership of NewsCorp (which lists Fox among its children), is already making changes to the Wall Street Journal, even before his takeover of the Dow Jones company is official. For some, this is putting his friendly people in place, or at least neutralizing and helping to escort out the old guard, and others wonder whether the Wall Street Journal will become much like Fox and reflect Mr. Murdoch’s personal persuasions.
Speaking of potential Faux talking points, now that there’s been a line drawn in the sand with regard to war funding, and the Pentagon has responded with its own threats, more rhetoric about how the "surge" has worked is probably on the horizon. Yes, most of it is probably going to be “We won. It’s working - even your big anti-war Congresspeople said so! So why not just give us what we want?” or “If we don’t get what we want, these hundreds of thousands of people at the Pentagon are going to be laid off and it’s all your fault!” To some of the anti-war left, 100,000 or more jobs lost at the Pentagon is either a shrug or “Good! We need to divest ourselves from the military-industrial complex. Go Dems.” Ah, and expect plenty of people to declare the latest NIE to be a fraud, or shaoddy workmanship, or any one of a hundred other things just so they don't have to accept its conclusions and can keep doing what they’re supposed to be doing - beating the drums for war with Iran. Finally, some enterprising individual will note that the Republicans, even though in the minority, seem to be controlling spending bills and packages because the Democrats cannot muster various veto-proofing measures to stop a hostile president in addition to a hostile segment of the legislature. Everyone’s feeling a little nervous as the appropriations are ticking down towards a government shutdown. Someone’s going to give, but on what?
If one wishes (or has relatives who wish) to send mail to those wounded in the military, recall sending mail to "Any Wounded Soldier" will have your mail bounce or be thrown away, according to current regulations. Mail must be addressed specifically to be delivered, for the sensible reason that someone who does not wish to send the soldiers good will would have an avenue to have their message delivered.
Lucky us - federal judges are now allowed to reduce crack cocaine sentences to that of powder cocaine, at their discretion. So when caught with stuff you probably shouldn’t have, you might be sentenced the same if you have a rock than if you have powder. Equal justice for all?
Doing a much better job of at least trying to improve everyone’s living conditions, organized bands of homeless families, in cooperation with a group called the Downtown Homeless Movement, are reclaiming buildings in São Paulo and turning them into living quarters. No running water or electricity yet, but there is a library, education opportunities, and a cinema in the building already. Now, with a little help so that they can earn a living, this stands to be a great model for success. Might translate well to say... Detroit?
Leading off tonight’s odder and possibly more infuriating news, Looking Good for Jesus cosmetics. I don’t know where it is, but there’s got to be something in the Christian Foundational Writings that says something like this is missing the teachings entirely. Unless there’s some weird “Bride of Christ” thing going on here... or maybe someone’s just having a great joke at all our expenses. Which is just as possible.
The Economist ups the ante with manipulation of numbers and disapproval of a minority group in their article Believe it or not. Supposedly detailing why the American populace would never elect an atheist to President, the article implies that the 30 million people who claim “no religion” on a 2001 survey are all atheists. If there really were 30 million atheists in this country, that would be 10% of the populace or so. Which could easily make for a voting demographic, or put some people into positions of political importance. There’s always the chance that “no religion” means just that - no religion. Doesn’t mean no faith, no philosophy, no belief. Just no institution. And then after that, the Economist tries to offer advice on how atheists can make themselves more palatable - stop fighting battles against the pervasive assumption that everyone is religious and monotheistic, but you can keep fighting the ones where you’ve got science on your side or something that you can tangibly bring to the table. Go sit in the back of the bus, rather than marching in the streets, and don’t provoke the sheriff with the fire hoses and dogs. Riiight.
Getting into the places what simply scream “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!”, we’ll warm up with a polling company releasing results that claim 60% of respondents agree the government should regulate video games - after the ESRB turned them down on becoming a client. The ESRB thinks there was some very convenient timing on the matter, and that they’re advertising certain parts heavily in retribution. The polling company denies vengeance as a motivator.
I wonder what the other side of the following story is - supposedly, a library consultant was dismissed from his post after he refused to discuss the appropriateness of a book that he read to elementary students. The consultant said that the administrator asked him in for the discussion after reading synopses on-line, and the consultant refused to discuss things until the administrator had read the actual book itself. It was recommended by the publisher for middle-high school ages, and the consultant was reading to sixth graders.
Last in the mostly harmless department, more about what the Disney Princesses are teaching to young girls - going past Dora, the Explorer, to girls with wands and tiaras and pink and waiting for Godot, err, the Prince. Sort of. Because, if you look at them, a lot of the more recent Princess additions are more likely to go out and get what they’re looking for, rather than waiting. Of course, they still all look good in formal clothes and do find their Prince... or at least a Captain of the Guard.
Moving from there to matters where death really is involved, Michelle Malkin wants the New Jersey legislature to keep the death penalty. Her offering is an account of a high school friends who wrote to her from New Jersey describing the conditions of her grandparents’ death, as a justification for keeping the death penalty, rather than having it be abolished and replaced with... life without parole. Malkin and her writer are wondering what the hold up regarding condemned people dying is, once they’ve exhausted their appeals. I was hoping for some statistics, or some science, or, well, anything that might actually justify why our country believes that some people should be put to death, rather than incarcerated for their lives without the possibility of parole. Unfortunately, all there are is tugs at the heartstrings over what is a horrible death. Other than visceral satisfaction, what good does it do to put someone to death who has killed another. Unless you worry they will escape and kill again?
The abolishment of the death penalty may not actually have any effect at all, though - especially if one gets put on the sex offender registry. Considering that such data is freely available to the public, if someone on dies violently because his neighbor finds out he’s been listed on a sex offense site, and then thinks he’s a pedophile, when he’s not convicted for anything involving minors, it makes you wonder just how much data should be available, and to whom at any given time. This assumes that the data is always accurate. As the case is, not every offender's address is current and correct, and this menas innocent people get harassed by vigilantes when they discover what they think is the address of a sex offender. Those maintaining the websites are not exactly the fastest when it comes to updating their information, either because it’s self-reporting and the offender doesn’t report when he moves, or it’s not high-priority at the places that do the updating. Of course, they can disclaim all they like about possible inaccuracies and caution people not to take law into their own hands, but people are a bit funny when it comes to registries like that, and otherwise sensible people start raving like lunatics, and possibly causing terror and violence to innocent people.
There may be light at the end of the tunnel (unless one denies Darwin, of course) - a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says humans are evolving faster than their predecessors, with a significant uptick in evolution speed once agriculture became dominant. And, getting something very akin to the last laugh, when James Watson made remarks about the inequality of intelligence between Africans and Europeans or Americans, according to his genome, he might be speaking from a position of self-knowledge. His sequenced genome, according to deCODE Genetics, has about 16% material that is from African origin. For comparison, the average European-descended person has about 1% African-ancestry genes in their genome. Of course, what that actually means is probably squat, but there’s the joke for you.
Tonight’s last, though, requests that you look carefully at the following picture and discern how to pose. If that doesn’t work, have a look at the redesigned KITT. Spoilers? Really? Those kind of look like the fins on older cars, to me. Besides, if you want to make something cooler, take an example from a possible redesign of the United Kingdom Union Jack - add on a dragon skull, aflame, wearing sunglasses.
And we slide into home with the following - The Best Librarian T-Shirt of 2007. Using the phrasing of the Word of the Year for 2007, according to Merriam-Webster, w00t! Used in a sentence: “W00t! I dont’ have to read any more of this blasted entry, because it’s done!”
So, instead, I’ll inflict Phillip K. Dick talking about his writing process and the creation of universes, which actually gets quickly into the underlying philosophy, spiritual experiences, and synchronicity-like experiences of his life. Plenty more there for you to read. Time for bed for me.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-13 03:54 pm (UTC)