Shorter post - 25 January 2010
Jan. 27th, 2010 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptGood morning. For those of you lucky enough to live a life where it seems there's an author's hand at work, recall that even the best works need some editing. And others need to be championed so as to get over the gag reflex created by one show of its type.
Up top, peer into the rationale of a book pirate, and see some of the reasons why people find, rip, and then trade material on-line.
For those looking to delpoy a complete suite of tools to help them run their library (and possibly business), the Librarian in Black has an excellent roundup of free things available, many of which are also open-source.
Out in the world today, a bombing in Baghdad timed a day after the hanging of one of Saddam Hussenin's biggest lieutenants, profiling of Muslims in airports around the United Kingdom, an appeal against the dismissal of the case against Blackwater employees alleged to have shot up civilians in Nissor Square, Iraq, demonstrations and counterdemonstrations for and against the rule of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, being blamed for rolling blackouts, widespread crime, rationing, and other difficulties, with aupporters claiming the demonstrators are exaggerating, and China stepping up their campaign against the United States, accusing the U.S. of cyberwarfare. Possibly trying to take the heat off the accusations agaist them?
In domestic news, despite the lack of media coverage, the investigation into the Anthrax attacks in 2001 remains open and unsolved.
President Obama will call for a domestic spending freeze for the next three years, excepting defense and security industries, the major entitlements, and some others. By excepting the defense industry, he has already prevented what he wishes to achieve. Mr. Krugman is nonplussed at the news from the President regarding the spending freeze, and hopes that some sound policy appears with this idea of spending freeze. Mr. Krugman joins more than a few bloggers and columnists in his belief that the Obama proposal is a bad idea. Further economic worries continue with a report that 43 states saw a rise in unemployment last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is no longer the tool of choice for the economy, thankfully.
In a clear case of Did Not Do The Research, children's author Bill Martin, Jr. was confused with another Bill Martin, a writer on Marxism, and was thus excluded from a third grade classroom. This is a school boars - they're supposed to at least be minimally competent about such things, but with the way challenges go in schools, maybe I'm putting too much faith in them. The General, of course, praises the decision and offers ways to make it seem like it was a justified deliberate choice.
And then the Dumb Criminals - after successfully getting the Congress to defund ACORN based on a home movie, one of the actors in that movie has been busted for trying to get into a federal office and manipulate the telephone systems.
Last out, Mr. Michael Steele is disguising his latest fundraising effort as a capital-C Census, much to the aggravation of the real census, and much to the criticism by those on both sides of the political spectrum. Mr. Steele, of course, can't see what the big idea is, considering things are clearly marked as a political mailer.
Technology begins with talk about how close we are to having augmented reality contact lenses, if we can just solve a couple more problems about size, power, and focus for the eye.
In the opinions, retouching on an older story, Mr. Henry Jenkins spells out possible consequences of the new Austrialian blacklist for fandom, where one group that wants to persecute fandoms they find icky could easily force the rest of the country to be denied access to not only their fanfic, but to canonical materials as well.
The editors of the WSJ single out Mr. Mann, professor at Penn State, in an attempt to make you believe the entirety of stimulus spending is a waste, by invoking Mr. Mann's involvement in dubious climate change research, hoping your reaction to the East Anglia University e-mail chain and skepticism of climate research will blind you to the small amount of money being singled out and the diversity of the stimulus package.
Mr. Goldberg believes Mr. Obama has been on the airwaves far too much and is dodging questions so as to make it seem like he's doing what the people want, when the people are supposedly clearly against him and want him to not do wha the's doing (because they elected Scott Brown!) The Washington Times says the President has a loose grip on reality because he's continuing to fight for the things that have made him unpopular, rather than bending immediately and going whichever way the political winds blow. Had he gone that way, they probably would have accused him of being Charlie Obama. Mr. Pruden believes Mr. Brown's election is the sign that conservatism is not dead, and that Republicans can fight back into prominence riding his wave. Mr. Pruden is right - conservatism is not dead, and never was. It has simply shifted focus to emphasising social conservatism over fiscal conservatism.
Speaking of fiscal conservatism, the WSJ's editorial board is distraught that the United States is no longer the "frees" country in the North America, having ceded that position to...Canada. That socialist bastion is now the freest country in the world. Heh. Heheh. Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Of course, the article wants to blame it all on the Obama administration, and extol the virtues of the Market (all praise to its name), but I'm sure there's good ground for all sorts of things just by saying the "socialist" Canada is now actually the most free country in North America. (By the way, the slide was from 6th to 8th, one spot behind Canada. So it's not really all that bad, but like I said, there's lots of hay that could be made in the wild exaggerations department.)
Last out of opinions, Messrs. Shultz, Perry, Kissinger, and Nunn say that the only way to ensure our nuclear deterrent actually deters is to modernize it, especially as the number of warheads owned by all the various nuclear powers goes down. Furthermore, we should share our ways of keeping our weapons safe so that other countries can do the same and avoid accidental detonation or terrorism.
Want some worst persons? Try the village that ordered 101 lashes for a pregnant girl because she conceived after being raped. No, the rapist wasn't touched at all. And then there's scare tactics trying to get women to do abstinence because teen motherhood is frightening, unplanned pregnancies kill families, and it's always the girl's fault.
Last for tonight, The Oracle of Bacon, playing Six Degrees with just about any person in film you can think of.
Up top, peer into the rationale of a book pirate, and see some of the reasons why people find, rip, and then trade material on-line.
For those looking to delpoy a complete suite of tools to help them run their library (and possibly business), the Librarian in Black has an excellent roundup of free things available, many of which are also open-source.
Out in the world today, a bombing in Baghdad timed a day after the hanging of one of Saddam Hussenin's biggest lieutenants, profiling of Muslims in airports around the United Kingdom, an appeal against the dismissal of the case against Blackwater employees alleged to have shot up civilians in Nissor Square, Iraq, demonstrations and counterdemonstrations for and against the rule of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, being blamed for rolling blackouts, widespread crime, rationing, and other difficulties, with aupporters claiming the demonstrators are exaggerating, and China stepping up their campaign against the United States, accusing the U.S. of cyberwarfare. Possibly trying to take the heat off the accusations agaist them?
In domestic news, despite the lack of media coverage, the investigation into the Anthrax attacks in 2001 remains open and unsolved.
President Obama will call for a domestic spending freeze for the next three years, excepting defense and security industries, the major entitlements, and some others. By excepting the defense industry, he has already prevented what he wishes to achieve. Mr. Krugman is nonplussed at the news from the President regarding the spending freeze, and hopes that some sound policy appears with this idea of spending freeze. Mr. Krugman joins more than a few bloggers and columnists in his belief that the Obama proposal is a bad idea. Further economic worries continue with a report that 43 states saw a rise in unemployment last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is no longer the tool of choice for the economy, thankfully.
In a clear case of Did Not Do The Research, children's author Bill Martin, Jr. was confused with another Bill Martin, a writer on Marxism, and was thus excluded from a third grade classroom. This is a school boars - they're supposed to at least be minimally competent about such things, but with the way challenges go in schools, maybe I'm putting too much faith in them. The General, of course, praises the decision and offers ways to make it seem like it was a justified deliberate choice.
And then the Dumb Criminals - after successfully getting the Congress to defund ACORN based on a home movie, one of the actors in that movie has been busted for trying to get into a federal office and manipulate the telephone systems.
Last out, Mr. Michael Steele is disguising his latest fundraising effort as a capital-C Census, much to the aggravation of the real census, and much to the criticism by those on both sides of the political spectrum. Mr. Steele, of course, can't see what the big idea is, considering things are clearly marked as a political mailer.
Technology begins with talk about how close we are to having augmented reality contact lenses, if we can just solve a couple more problems about size, power, and focus for the eye.
In the opinions, retouching on an older story, Mr. Henry Jenkins spells out possible consequences of the new Austrialian blacklist for fandom, where one group that wants to persecute fandoms they find icky could easily force the rest of the country to be denied access to not only their fanfic, but to canonical materials as well.
The editors of the WSJ single out Mr. Mann, professor at Penn State, in an attempt to make you believe the entirety of stimulus spending is a waste, by invoking Mr. Mann's involvement in dubious climate change research, hoping your reaction to the East Anglia University e-mail chain and skepticism of climate research will blind you to the small amount of money being singled out and the diversity of the stimulus package.
Mr. Goldberg believes Mr. Obama has been on the airwaves far too much and is dodging questions so as to make it seem like he's doing what the people want, when the people are supposedly clearly against him and want him to not do wha the's doing (because they elected Scott Brown!) The Washington Times says the President has a loose grip on reality because he's continuing to fight for the things that have made him unpopular, rather than bending immediately and going whichever way the political winds blow. Had he gone that way, they probably would have accused him of being Charlie Obama. Mr. Pruden believes Mr. Brown's election is the sign that conservatism is not dead, and that Republicans can fight back into prominence riding his wave. Mr. Pruden is right - conservatism is not dead, and never was. It has simply shifted focus to emphasising social conservatism over fiscal conservatism.
Speaking of fiscal conservatism, the WSJ's editorial board is distraught that the United States is no longer the "frees" country in the North America, having ceded that position to...Canada. That socialist bastion is now the freest country in the world. Heh. Heheh. Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Of course, the article wants to blame it all on the Obama administration, and extol the virtues of the Market (all praise to its name), but I'm sure there's good ground for all sorts of things just by saying the "socialist" Canada is now actually the most free country in North America. (By the way, the slide was from 6th to 8th, one spot behind Canada. So it's not really all that bad, but like I said, there's lots of hay that could be made in the wild exaggerations department.)
Last out of opinions, Messrs. Shultz, Perry, Kissinger, and Nunn say that the only way to ensure our nuclear deterrent actually deters is to modernize it, especially as the number of warheads owned by all the various nuclear powers goes down. Furthermore, we should share our ways of keeping our weapons safe so that other countries can do the same and avoid accidental detonation or terrorism.
Want some worst persons? Try the village that ordered 101 lashes for a pregnant girl because she conceived after being raped. No, the rapist wasn't touched at all. And then there's scare tactics trying to get women to do abstinence because teen motherhood is frightening, unplanned pregnancies kill families, and it's always the girl's fault.
Last for tonight, The Oracle of Bacon, playing Six Degrees with just about any person in film you can think of.
