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silveradeptAfter a half-day’s weeding like a workaholic, I remember that I really don’t like doing it. But it’s almost done for this month. But we’re making progress hacking through the overgrowth, and there actually is some free space on those shelves after I’m all done. There’s also usually a stack of crates to be sent out for final processing and discarding. I think that’s just how it’s going to be for the rest of this year. Speaking of new years, for those celebrating the Spring Festival, welcome to the Year of the Rat. Xīnnián kuàilè. Hopefully Master Lo's predictions of bad things for the upcoming year don’t come to pass.
Anyway, onward to news. In the election primaries of the United States, Willard “Mitt” Romney has suspended his campaign for President, ceding the nomination of the Republican party to Senator McCain, unless by some strange turn of events, Mr. Huckabee should capture the nomination. According to Daniel Henninger, that doesn't make conservatives happy.
On the Democratic side, Senators Obama and Clinton hunker down to sweet-talking the remainder of the delegates. While there may be a decision before the convention, there’s a good chance it could run all the way there. At least the candidates for the Democrats only have newspaper press operators perpetuating myths about Barack Obama's religious beliefs. Senator Obama also gains props from the Slacktivist by answering a boilerplate question with some honesty, rather than sticking to a script. All told, in this sequence, weird times, weirder election.
Of course, there are always those who believe that democracy and elections are a method for oligarchs to control the masses, and that what are billed as increased communication abilities are really increased control schemes. With spies and intelligence agents going on-line and into virtual three-dimensional worlds to track and catch criminals, perhaps there is a kernel of truth to the above statement. More compelling evidence for the whole participatory process being a sham involves an Attorney General who seems very reluctant to investigate federal crimes, in other words, to do his job.
Rebel Yell suggests perhaps getting priorities straight would be good for our fellow Americans. Instead of that, though, Michelle Malkin is concentrating on Berkeley's interactions with Marine recruiters, and La Shawn Barber tries to pull forward into the present the historical fact that a lot of politicians unconcerned with racial equality campaigned under the Democratic Party's name. And in the past, and today, there are a lot of politicians unconcerned with racial equality, or actively trying to work against it, in the Republican ranks. Regardless of which party they run under, if one of the politicians is against racial equality, and racial equality is one of your strong issues, then they should get voted against and/or smacked around politically. Same for gender issues, or religious freedom issues, or economic issues, or... well, you get the point. Pointing fingers at party affiliations only serves to try and have that tar spread to others who may not deserve it.
More fines for the Red Cross over unsuitable blood products. Luckily, it still looks like the only damage from the incident will be the fines.
In News of the Strange, the United Kingsom's navy has agreed to cease experiments on decompression sickness that involved exposing goats to the condition. With no animals to test on, and apparently having gathered the data they wanted to, it appears that computer simulations will take over as the test objects.
Further news of the strange, and expensive, Wired has a look at 10 Sci-Fi Technologies we could build... if they weren't so damn expensive. IF you just want to kill people, however, a cotton swab will do, and do so inexpensively.
Something that will raise the hackles of every parent and person who works with young children - when stopped for running a red light, a motorist had buckled in a 24-pack of beer, but let a 16 month-old girl roam about without a seatbelt on in the back seat. That person has his priorities set, and they’re definitely not set the right way. For more of children appearing in situations that aren’t that safe for them, Jesus’ General gives us compaison shots of children training with weapons in grainy terror-style photos and very clear photos of young children with semiautomatic weapons.
And something that should have never made it out of the first planning stage -![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ldragoon recounts an encounter with a simulated news bulletin about a rapist that turns out to be an advertisement for a book. Whomever approved the idea for that kind of radio segment needs to research the Mercury Theater in the Air, circa 1938, to see why doing stuff like that is a Bad Idea.
More from our great friends in Wahabism, the authorities of Saudi Arabia, who arrested, strip-searched, and abused an American mother for sitting with a male colleague. It’s pretty obvious that Saudi Arabia has a repressive regime toward women. If an American president were concerned about the fate of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia would be an excellent place to start leaning very hard on the government to get with the program the rest of the world has been running on for a while now.
Next to last for tonight - footie mods.
Last for tonight, advice for what to do when the day starts with raining on your parade and ends with the marching band having been swept up in a tornado and carted off to Oz. Thirteen tips for dealing with a lousy day, many of which involve not dwelling on the knowledge that you had a lousy day that day.
So let’s have a good day tomorrow. Snoozetime.
Anyway, onward to news. In the election primaries of the United States, Willard “Mitt” Romney has suspended his campaign for President, ceding the nomination of the Republican party to Senator McCain, unless by some strange turn of events, Mr. Huckabee should capture the nomination. According to Daniel Henninger, that doesn't make conservatives happy.
On the Democratic side, Senators Obama and Clinton hunker down to sweet-talking the remainder of the delegates. While there may be a decision before the convention, there’s a good chance it could run all the way there. At least the candidates for the Democrats only have newspaper press operators perpetuating myths about Barack Obama's religious beliefs. Senator Obama also gains props from the Slacktivist by answering a boilerplate question with some honesty, rather than sticking to a script. All told, in this sequence, weird times, weirder election.
Of course, there are always those who believe that democracy and elections are a method for oligarchs to control the masses, and that what are billed as increased communication abilities are really increased control schemes. With spies and intelligence agents going on-line and into virtual three-dimensional worlds to track and catch criminals, perhaps there is a kernel of truth to the above statement. More compelling evidence for the whole participatory process being a sham involves an Attorney General who seems very reluctant to investigate federal crimes, in other words, to do his job.
Rebel Yell suggests perhaps getting priorities straight would be good for our fellow Americans. Instead of that, though, Michelle Malkin is concentrating on Berkeley's interactions with Marine recruiters, and La Shawn Barber tries to pull forward into the present the historical fact that a lot of politicians unconcerned with racial equality campaigned under the Democratic Party's name. And in the past, and today, there are a lot of politicians unconcerned with racial equality, or actively trying to work against it, in the Republican ranks. Regardless of which party they run under, if one of the politicians is against racial equality, and racial equality is one of your strong issues, then they should get voted against and/or smacked around politically. Same for gender issues, or religious freedom issues, or economic issues, or... well, you get the point. Pointing fingers at party affiliations only serves to try and have that tar spread to others who may not deserve it.
More fines for the Red Cross over unsuitable blood products. Luckily, it still looks like the only damage from the incident will be the fines.
In News of the Strange, the United Kingsom's navy has agreed to cease experiments on decompression sickness that involved exposing goats to the condition. With no animals to test on, and apparently having gathered the data they wanted to, it appears that computer simulations will take over as the test objects.
Further news of the strange, and expensive, Wired has a look at 10 Sci-Fi Technologies we could build... if they weren't so damn expensive. IF you just want to kill people, however, a cotton swab will do, and do so inexpensively.
Something that will raise the hackles of every parent and person who works with young children - when stopped for running a red light, a motorist had buckled in a 24-pack of beer, but let a 16 month-old girl roam about without a seatbelt on in the back seat. That person has his priorities set, and they’re definitely not set the right way. For more of children appearing in situations that aren’t that safe for them, Jesus’ General gives us compaison shots of children training with weapons in grainy terror-style photos and very clear photos of young children with semiautomatic weapons.
And something that should have never made it out of the first planning stage -
ldragoon recounts an encounter with a simulated news bulletin about a rapist that turns out to be an advertisement for a book. Whomever approved the idea for that kind of radio segment needs to research the Mercury Theater in the Air, circa 1938, to see why doing stuff like that is a Bad Idea.More from our great friends in Wahabism, the authorities of Saudi Arabia, who arrested, strip-searched, and abused an American mother for sitting with a male colleague. It’s pretty obvious that Saudi Arabia has a repressive regime toward women. If an American president were concerned about the fate of the Middle East, Saudi Arabia would be an excellent place to start leaning very hard on the government to get with the program the rest of the world has been running on for a while now.
Next to last for tonight - footie mods.
Last for tonight, advice for what to do when the day starts with raining on your parade and ends with the marching band having been swept up in a tornado and carted off to Oz. Thirteen tips for dealing with a lousy day, many of which involve not dwelling on the knowledge that you had a lousy day that day.
So let’s have a good day tomorrow. Snoozetime.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-02-08 09:47 am (UTC)???
And this bit:
...thus raising hospital bills for the sick and injured. I do not have enough ??? for this.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-08 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-08 10:18 am (UTC)US Military Budget, 2007: $439.3 billion. Minimal cost of the Iraq war in 2007: $130 billion on top of the military budget. Total including nuclear weapons research, development and maintenance, veteran affairs, and so on: $626 billion. Per year.
Suddenly, most of them aren't really that expensive, eh?
Also, I'd question a lot of the numbers in there. I'd also question the geology knowledge of anyone dumb enough to seriously suggest a transatlantic tunnel, and introduce them to such concepts as 'Plate tectonics', specifically that thing in the Atlantic called the Mid Atlantic Ridge, and the fact that said Atlantic is spreading out east-west at that ridge at around 2.5cm per year.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-08 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 12:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 12:16 am (UTC)