Making more out of less - 3-4 May 2010
May. 5th, 2010 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptGreetings, seekers of new things to read and explore. Harnessing the dynamo of social media, One Book, One Tweet offers a multinational book club, kicking off with Neil Gaiman's American Gods.
This week is also Choose Privacy Week, intending to highlight just how much of our digital selves is already out there, and what sort of things we may expose ourselves to by indiscriminately being public. There’s even a nice video with some very famous people. Sometimes, privacy gets changed because the company decides to flip some new switches. Someone usually provide opt-out information, like how to opt-out of Facebook's Instant Personalization, but it’s not always clear and it often takes several arcane steps to truly and completely opt-out. Plus, when presented with things not to do on-line, most people either don’t realize they’re doing it, or realize rightly that being private about data often limits the functionality of the tool.
Own Your Own Awesome, for societally enforced modesty is a four-letter word. A reminder to all of us that the things we accomplish really are accomplishments and worth being proud of, instead of societal pressure that tells us not to take credit for the awesome that we are. Impostor Syndrome sucks.
The State of Michigan lost an icon as Ernie Harwell, long time voice of the Detroit Tigers baseball club, died at 92 years of age. The older we get, the more the people we grew up with aren’t there any more, as more of them shuffle off to the Dead Pool...
Over the weekend, President Obama delivered a commencement address to the graduating classes of the University Of Michigan, exhorting them to participate in democracy and for the politicians and rhetoric to get dialed back significantly from its current always-angry state. He also mentioned the necessity of government and its ability to do some things very well, because it is big enough to do them well.
Out in the world today, a Conservative Party Senator in Canada told women's rights groups to "shut the fuck up" about their concerns on abortion funding for developing countries in a health bill if they wanted to make progress on mental health funding for those countries, suggesting that making a cry about abortion will sink the entire bill. The activists are not taking the advice, of course, so we’ll see how the bill plays out.
A documentary suggests that Osama bin Laden is living comfortably in Iran, where he enjoys protection from the parts of the world that would like to see him and his organization dismantled.
The United States Pentagon released a number they claim is the total amount of nuclear weapons the United States has - 5,113, in response to allegations by the Iranian President that the United States is a rogue nation, threatens others with nuclear strikes, and doesn’t follow the Nuclear Nonprofileration Treaty. I’m giving it a small percentage chance that the number is accurate.
Mexico's president criticized Arizona's Papers Please law, prompting lawmakers in the United States to compare it to the standing law in Mexico, one they suggest is more draconian than the Arizona law. They also accused his government of encouraging Mexicans to immigrate illegally and send the money they receive back home, instead of working on curbing the problems with his own economy.
Somalia's crackpot-Islam government looks well on its way toward sparking revolution, cracking down hard on all sorts of activities like listening to music and the wearing of brassieres. Sufficiently applied repression like this will likely build the pressure to the break point.
Domestically, Newspapers are back to their traditional profit margins - very slim. This is a good sign, as it seems to be a stabilizing influence on the “media doom!” meme, and it can hopefully retrain people to think that some things just aren’t going to be able to make you obscene profits all at once. Plus, there are good reasons for media entities to exist - they can can break big scandals and then devote sufficient resources to making sure they don't get stomped on or washed away by the interests that are scandalized.
A suspect has been arrested in the attempted Time Square bombing, after police followed several possible avenues to determine the identity of the failed bomber. After the arrest of the suspect, Senator John McCain of Arizona said he should be treated as an enemy combatant, not read his Miranda rights, and shipped off to a military tribunal. And if looking for possible motives, don’t overlook that the suspect's house was in foreclosure on your way to say it was all about Comedy Central’s censored South Park cartoon.
A Democratic primary candidate for Ohio said that his opponent could not win with the last name of Yalamanchili. The name of that candidate? Krikorian. Afte being rightly lambasted and named a Worst Person in the World, Krikorian shouted "Conspiracy!" between MSNBC and Proctor&Gamble to protect Yalamanchili, who once worked for P&G. Well, his primary bid is sunk.
Baltimore, Maryland, has become the first city to require that evangelical ministries masquerading as health care clinics display that they do not make recommendations or referrals for birth control or abortion. Naturally, those ministries cry foul and that their free speech rights are being trod on. Well, if they were more up front about what they were and didn’t lie to people about their true intentions, then we wouldn’t have this problem, now would we?
Should we blame Dick Cheney for the oil spill in the Gulf? Haliburton is involved in it, and the Bush/Cheney administration decided that spending $500,000 for a remote-controlled shut-off switch was just too great an expense for those companies and didn’t require them. And now that things have gone south, it should be a reasonable expectation for those companies to build in safeguards and to clean up their own mistakes. Worse yet, if the spill expands into a fast-moving part of the Gulf current, Florida and several costal states northward of it could be seeing the effects on its own shores soon.
Tennessee just got flooded, as lots of rain in a short period of time has rivers bursting up and flowing over. Disaster relief teams like the Red Cross are doing what they can to help.
In these tough times, more and more people are turning their small plots of yard into gardens, gicing rise to a new business of people who will build and maintain the backyard garden. And this time around, it’s not because there’s a War Somewhere Else that we have to provide victory for, but because it’s cheaper to grow your own.
Finally, In California, it is now illegal to use the name or likeness of a deceased soldier for commercial purposes, intended mostly as a Take That against persons selling anti-war T-shirts displaying the name or image of a dead soldier or lists of the dead to be applied as bumper stickers.
In technology, like everywhere else, sex sells on social media, on Twitter, African-Americans are twice as likely to be present as they are in the real world, conclusions from research done on Twitter and its users, yet more research indicating most people with autism are not disordered, just different, and can actually be better at certain tasks that neurotypicals, attempting to replicate the human brain with one billion smartphone brains, Sarwin's experience with inbreeding, Google investing in a firm that weights the probability of the future, as well as developing software to use on television set-top boxes, which may or may not find an audience as more and more people get rid of their pay television services, and one very scary thing - It took Apple four weeks to sell one million iPads, complete with Apps and restrictive hardware and software practices.
In opinions, Mr. Schwartz knows how the European struggles with finance will end - economic alliances will be tripped and bailouts will be forthcoming, because if one falls over, the rest fall down, too.
Mr. Hedges paints a bleak picture of how the corporations and the war industry have already won and control Congress and our military operations, and that those looking for democratic revolution or wresting control from the corporations will have to figure out how to do it en masse without the ability to mass communicate over television, radio, or other standard broadcast media.
Mr. Salerno reminds us that for as useful as positive thinking can be, one should not believe that positive thinking will cure all things, like cancer.
Mr. Wood takes his eye and examines how the military is offering good pay and benefits to get people in, noting that such pay and benefits cannot extend indefinitely while also noting that people who willingly risk the chance of dying because of the agenda of the country should be rewarded handsomely for their service.
The Washington Times contributes an unsigned accusing the Obama administratino of unabashed race-baiting and racial politics, with Papers Please as the latest indication of And How, because the law says you can’t racially profile, you already have to be suspect of something, so only potential criminals get their immigration papers checked, and everyone has to have their citizenship status confirmed when they get held, so it applies to everyone equally. It just so happens that Hispanics will be the majority of people stopped and sent back, because they’re the ones most likely to be here illegally. Mm-hmm. Totally not intending things to be about one race, it just happens that it will shake out that way. Sound familiar?
And last out, Mr. Bolton says the United States is resigned to a nuclear Iran and the nuclear Middle East that will follow, because nobody in the Obama administration is willing to order the pre-emptive glassing of another nation. Israel might do it, he says, but we should look forward to nuclear profileration in our future.
Finally, Sir Terry Pratchett points out some of the narrative flaws in Doctor Who, and why it might be best declassified from being "science fiction", while maintaining that it is an excellent programme by most other standards.
Oh, and getting one past the radar. Did we mention that beautiful women raise levels of stress hormones in men, even more so if they think they have no chance with them?
This week is also Choose Privacy Week, intending to highlight just how much of our digital selves is already out there, and what sort of things we may expose ourselves to by indiscriminately being public. There’s even a nice video with some very famous people. Sometimes, privacy gets changed because the company decides to flip some new switches. Someone usually provide opt-out information, like how to opt-out of Facebook's Instant Personalization, but it’s not always clear and it often takes several arcane steps to truly and completely opt-out. Plus, when presented with things not to do on-line, most people either don’t realize they’re doing it, or realize rightly that being private about data often limits the functionality of the tool.
Own Your Own Awesome, for societally enforced modesty is a four-letter word. A reminder to all of us that the things we accomplish really are accomplishments and worth being proud of, instead of societal pressure that tells us not to take credit for the awesome that we are. Impostor Syndrome sucks.
The State of Michigan lost an icon as Ernie Harwell, long time voice of the Detroit Tigers baseball club, died at 92 years of age. The older we get, the more the people we grew up with aren’t there any more, as more of them shuffle off to the Dead Pool...
Over the weekend, President Obama delivered a commencement address to the graduating classes of the University Of Michigan, exhorting them to participate in democracy and for the politicians and rhetoric to get dialed back significantly from its current always-angry state. He also mentioned the necessity of government and its ability to do some things very well, because it is big enough to do them well.
Out in the world today, a Conservative Party Senator in Canada told women's rights groups to "shut the fuck up" about their concerns on abortion funding for developing countries in a health bill if they wanted to make progress on mental health funding for those countries, suggesting that making a cry about abortion will sink the entire bill. The activists are not taking the advice, of course, so we’ll see how the bill plays out.
A documentary suggests that Osama bin Laden is living comfortably in Iran, where he enjoys protection from the parts of the world that would like to see him and his organization dismantled.
The United States Pentagon released a number they claim is the total amount of nuclear weapons the United States has - 5,113, in response to allegations by the Iranian President that the United States is a rogue nation, threatens others with nuclear strikes, and doesn’t follow the Nuclear Nonprofileration Treaty. I’m giving it a small percentage chance that the number is accurate.
Mexico's president criticized Arizona's Papers Please law, prompting lawmakers in the United States to compare it to the standing law in Mexico, one they suggest is more draconian than the Arizona law. They also accused his government of encouraging Mexicans to immigrate illegally and send the money they receive back home, instead of working on curbing the problems with his own economy.
Somalia's crackpot-Islam government looks well on its way toward sparking revolution, cracking down hard on all sorts of activities like listening to music and the wearing of brassieres. Sufficiently applied repression like this will likely build the pressure to the break point.
Domestically, Newspapers are back to their traditional profit margins - very slim. This is a good sign, as it seems to be a stabilizing influence on the “media doom!” meme, and it can hopefully retrain people to think that some things just aren’t going to be able to make you obscene profits all at once. Plus, there are good reasons for media entities to exist - they can can break big scandals and then devote sufficient resources to making sure they don't get stomped on or washed away by the interests that are scandalized.
A suspect has been arrested in the attempted Time Square bombing, after police followed several possible avenues to determine the identity of the failed bomber. After the arrest of the suspect, Senator John McCain of Arizona said he should be treated as an enemy combatant, not read his Miranda rights, and shipped off to a military tribunal. And if looking for possible motives, don’t overlook that the suspect's house was in foreclosure on your way to say it was all about Comedy Central’s censored South Park cartoon.
A Democratic primary candidate for Ohio said that his opponent could not win with the last name of Yalamanchili. The name of that candidate? Krikorian. Afte being rightly lambasted and named a Worst Person in the World, Krikorian shouted "Conspiracy!" between MSNBC and Proctor&Gamble to protect Yalamanchili, who once worked for P&G. Well, his primary bid is sunk.
Baltimore, Maryland, has become the first city to require that evangelical ministries masquerading as health care clinics display that they do not make recommendations or referrals for birth control or abortion. Naturally, those ministries cry foul and that their free speech rights are being trod on. Well, if they were more up front about what they were and didn’t lie to people about their true intentions, then we wouldn’t have this problem, now would we?
Should we blame Dick Cheney for the oil spill in the Gulf? Haliburton is involved in it, and the Bush/Cheney administration decided that spending $500,000 for a remote-controlled shut-off switch was just too great an expense for those companies and didn’t require them. And now that things have gone south, it should be a reasonable expectation for those companies to build in safeguards and to clean up their own mistakes. Worse yet, if the spill expands into a fast-moving part of the Gulf current, Florida and several costal states northward of it could be seeing the effects on its own shores soon.
Tennessee just got flooded, as lots of rain in a short period of time has rivers bursting up and flowing over. Disaster relief teams like the Red Cross are doing what they can to help.
In these tough times, more and more people are turning their small plots of yard into gardens, gicing rise to a new business of people who will build and maintain the backyard garden. And this time around, it’s not because there’s a War Somewhere Else that we have to provide victory for, but because it’s cheaper to grow your own.
Finally, In California, it is now illegal to use the name or likeness of a deceased soldier for commercial purposes, intended mostly as a Take That against persons selling anti-war T-shirts displaying the name or image of a dead soldier or lists of the dead to be applied as bumper stickers.
In technology, like everywhere else, sex sells on social media, on Twitter, African-Americans are twice as likely to be present as they are in the real world, conclusions from research done on Twitter and its users, yet more research indicating most people with autism are not disordered, just different, and can actually be better at certain tasks that neurotypicals, attempting to replicate the human brain with one billion smartphone brains, Sarwin's experience with inbreeding, Google investing in a firm that weights the probability of the future, as well as developing software to use on television set-top boxes, which may or may not find an audience as more and more people get rid of their pay television services, and one very scary thing - It took Apple four weeks to sell one million iPads, complete with Apps and restrictive hardware and software practices.
In opinions, Mr. Schwartz knows how the European struggles with finance will end - economic alliances will be tripped and bailouts will be forthcoming, because if one falls over, the rest fall down, too.
Mr. Hedges paints a bleak picture of how the corporations and the war industry have already won and control Congress and our military operations, and that those looking for democratic revolution or wresting control from the corporations will have to figure out how to do it en masse without the ability to mass communicate over television, radio, or other standard broadcast media.
Mr. Salerno reminds us that for as useful as positive thinking can be, one should not believe that positive thinking will cure all things, like cancer.
Mr. Wood takes his eye and examines how the military is offering good pay and benefits to get people in, noting that such pay and benefits cannot extend indefinitely while also noting that people who willingly risk the chance of dying because of the agenda of the country should be rewarded handsomely for their service.
The Washington Times contributes an unsigned accusing the Obama administratino of unabashed race-baiting and racial politics, with Papers Please as the latest indication of And How, because the law says you can’t racially profile, you already have to be suspect of something, so only potential criminals get their immigration papers checked, and everyone has to have their citizenship status confirmed when they get held, so it applies to everyone equally. It just so happens that Hispanics will be the majority of people stopped and sent back, because they’re the ones most likely to be here illegally. Mm-hmm. Totally not intending things to be about one race, it just happens that it will shake out that way. Sound familiar?
And last out, Mr. Bolton says the United States is resigned to a nuclear Iran and the nuclear Middle East that will follow, because nobody in the Obama administration is willing to order the pre-emptive glassing of another nation. Israel might do it, he says, but we should look forward to nuclear profileration in our future.
Finally, Sir Terry Pratchett points out some of the narrative flaws in Doctor Who, and why it might be best declassified from being "science fiction", while maintaining that it is an excellent programme by most other standards.
Oh, and getting one past the radar. Did we mention that beautiful women raise levels of stress hormones in men, even more so if they think they have no chance with them?
