![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptGood morning, people aiming to be published, trying to get away from publishing, or who have to wafe through the piles of published stuff for something good to read. Wonder full well what life may be like if self-publishing allows end-users to directly access the slush pile, which may restrict what books are popular even further (the choice will overwhelm us and we’ll follow the herd even more) and may just shift the editorial duties off onto pundits instead of editors. The people may becrushed by having to wade through the dreck hoping for oen good thing. They’ll also confront the results of unpublished writers believing common lies about themselves and their craft. However, there may be a way of avoiding despair - editors give you about one page to sell your book, so maybe the reading populace will give someone one page to sell them as well.
In the professional world, Neil Gaiman accepted the CLPIP Carnegie medal, the United Kingdom equivalent of the Newberry medal, for The Graveyard Book and spoke of the need to avoid cutting library funding. Mr. Gaiman is the first author to be accorded both the American Newberry and the UK Carnegie for the same book in the same year. Rowan Pelling speaks of childhood and libraries, first with the magic mobile book van, then in a branch, and all the wonders that produced, as well as a little guilt for slacking off on taking the newest Pellings to the library.
A city councilor in Massachusettes suggested that persons caught looking up pornography on the library's computers be publicly named in an attempt to discourage others from looking things up, too. Clusterfrak, ahoy. Not just because for some people it will be ineffective, but do we realy want to invite the local fanatics to find people and picket their houses for their porn in public habit?
According to documents filed with the court, members of the El Reno police force need retraining in the appropriate use of stun guns, as they discharged one into an 86 year-old woman and delibrately stepped on her oxygen tube because she took an "aggressive pose" in her bed.
Finally, before delving into the headlines, on this day in 1956, President Dwight D Eisenhower signed into law the bill that would create the modern National Highway System, making it much easier for people to go from one place to another swiftly. Now, if only we had built up enough passenger rail systems and started laying track for high-speed trains to go with it...
Out in the world today, let us juxtapose some things for you - namely A report, source undisclosed (hey, Fox, if you're going to report, you should say whose report it is), indicates that the United States over-estimated the ability of Afghanistan's local police to maintatin order and security. Laying over this is the announcement of a manjor offensive by both United States and Afghan forces. Left hand, right hand. Anyone know what the other is doing?
Stupidity based on religion, of course, is not limited to the United States - the Israeli governing body will take a look at allegations that a nature reserve's guides were instructed not to tell the scientifically estimated age of the stalactites out of fear of offending those who believe the world is much younger than those ages. In religious realms, belive what you like. When it comes to science and nature, though, science and nature are what one should be teaching.
Doemstically, a handy yet depressing ticker of how much oil has spilled into the Gulf at the current moment, with results now visible on Pensacola Beach, Florida, as well as Mississippi, where the governor had previously asserted the media was making scare tactics. Karma bites.
Speaking of the company, the North American arm of BP violated its own ethics code in giving more than four million dollars of corporate treasury to Republican Political Action Committees. If you can’t abide by your own ethics. When pressed, the company said that the ban only applied to candidate giving, and that issue giving was just fine. (And they did give some money to Democratic PACs, too.)
The Institute for Creation Research, having moved to Texas in hoeps of finding a sympathetic ear, instead found a court that upheld the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board decision that they cannot grant master's degrees in science. And thus, the sciences were preserved from having to ask whether someone’s science degree really meant science or it meant religion disguised as science.
Mr. Greenwald points out the major dangers of believing or allowing the President to continue acting as if he can order the deaths of Americans anywhere at any time, so long as he hides it behind the fig leaf that they're accused terrorists. Even more remarkably, when attempting to import this into Afghanistan, the Afghan people balked and said that it undermined their system of justice. So why aren’t we complaining loudly about this? (Most likely, if I had to guess, it’s because we’re stuck dealing with the more immediate crises like unemployment, oil spills, and economic malaise to be able to demand that our President stop acting like the last one.)
Those who are complaining, however, are the governors of Texas and Arizona, claiming the 1,200 National Guardspersons they're receiving as border security reinforcement should be more like 6,000 troops. At least in the article, nobody’s making the claim that more people will result in a completely secure border. Arizona still has the Papers Please law, though, which is doing more to harm border relations than any National Guardspeople. The President is looking toward crafting an immigration policy to help deal with issues like the Papers Please law.
Hearings START for Elena Kagan, and right out of the gate, the opposition complains about activist judges, like Thurgood Marshall. The WSj is unconvinced that Second Amendment rights will stay in favor of individuals if Ms. Kagan joins on, based on the 5-4 decision and Ms. Kagan’s not-friendliness to people who ignore the part that talks about a militia’s right to bear arms. This is backstopped by a more general fear that Ms. Kagan's activism will be against conservatism instead of for it, choosing their tried and true standard, the “rule of law” position.
Not all things were bad, however. the person who may be the sole active-duty Juris Doctor awarded under Dean Kagan's time at Harvard wrote of how she respected the military well and did not interfere with their recruiting ability, even as she banned them from the campus commons over Don't Ask, Don't Tell, an endorsement that apparently brought the nominee to tears.
Last out, Representative Boehner suggests that we raise the age on which people can collect Social Security so that we can pay for the last administration's war in Afghanistan, providing a classic example of making the people suffer for your own stupid decisions. How about, instead, we decide we’re going to chop out funding for defense contractors and weapons manufacturers and knock down most of the military-industrial complex and see what sort of savings we can get.
In the sciences and technologies, something we’re betting the Long Bets Foundation is interested in - one of the scientists who helped to eliminate smallpox gives humanity 100 years before an extinction event brought on by our own population and climate changes.
The newest fake weed craze, K2 or "spice", is much more dangerous to those using it than actual marijuana would be. Seems a bit odd, but that’s what happens when you make the lesser illegal - people will go for the greater just to get their high. And kill themselves in the process.
Also, the equation to ride a bike is about 31 numbers and symbols scattered within and without of nine sets of brackets. Or - riding a bike is pretty hard.
Finally, Apple is spying on its iPhone and iPad users, capturing their location data as a part of normal operation, in addition to any specific location-based data the user submits in the course of application usage.
In opinions, Mr. Krugman points out the folly of austerity measures in a recession-turning depression, with some dismay at their popularity in policy vogue right now. Against those who claim Krugman is simplifying too much, the Slacktivist refers to the views of economist Karol Josef Wojtyla, who finds deliberate unemployment of any kind to be an evil and asks whether the right idea to get us out of this situation is to do what has proven to work or to do what has definitely proven not to work. (Sadly, right now, it seems to be that we want to do as much that doesn’t work for the people, but does work for the capitalists, as we can.) After all, Ireland is providing an example of how austerity programs may not be the right idea right now.
Mr. Johnson points out what is wrong with modern corporations - they have no obligation to be moral or to think about the consequences of their actions, just to make money, even when they know that trying to make money in their particular way will cause bad results down the road.
A flux point of priorities and politics from Marines that want to fly the Gadsen flag, an adopted symbol of the Tea Party, from the state Capitol building in Connecticut, claiming it was first a Marine Corps flag and should be allowed to fly under the rules that permit the flying of official military service flags. This is one of those weird places where speech and advocacy are considered. If the Capitol flies the flag, is there an implicit endorsement? Will it be construed in that manner, even with explicit disclaimers? And is the Gadsen flag one officially adopted by the Marines and eligible?
Mr. Carafano likes a little and hates a lot about the newest Internet bill, thinking it is another ploy to grow government while liking the requirements to report and be aware.
Ms. Wallace, the owner of a community bank, beleives the new regulations from the Wall Street reform bill will kill commnuity banking, because the small banks will lend on regulatory compliance rules rather than community services, and they’ll have to employ more people to ensure reliance, and they might even have to cancel electronic banking because they won't make enough in fees to cover the costs. We wonder, precisely, what sort of fees and things are being charged that a small bank fears more rules will make them stop services. Perhaps their too-big-to-fail counterparts will contribute enough to help with that.
Last out, a salmon-flavored vodka, to complement the bacon-flavored one. Should we be expecting a run of meat-flavored alcohols?
In the professional world, Neil Gaiman accepted the CLPIP Carnegie medal, the United Kingdom equivalent of the Newberry medal, for The Graveyard Book and spoke of the need to avoid cutting library funding. Mr. Gaiman is the first author to be accorded both the American Newberry and the UK Carnegie for the same book in the same year. Rowan Pelling speaks of childhood and libraries, first with the magic mobile book van, then in a branch, and all the wonders that produced, as well as a little guilt for slacking off on taking the newest Pellings to the library.
A city councilor in Massachusettes suggested that persons caught looking up pornography on the library's computers be publicly named in an attempt to discourage others from looking things up, too. Clusterfrak, ahoy. Not just because for some people it will be ineffective, but do we realy want to invite the local fanatics to find people and picket their houses for their porn in public habit?
According to documents filed with the court, members of the El Reno police force need retraining in the appropriate use of stun guns, as they discharged one into an 86 year-old woman and delibrately stepped on her oxygen tube because she took an "aggressive pose" in her bed.
Finally, before delving into the headlines, on this day in 1956, President Dwight D Eisenhower signed into law the bill that would create the modern National Highway System, making it much easier for people to go from one place to another swiftly. Now, if only we had built up enough passenger rail systems and started laying track for high-speed trains to go with it...
Out in the world today, let us juxtapose some things for you - namely A report, source undisclosed (hey, Fox, if you're going to report, you should say whose report it is), indicates that the United States over-estimated the ability of Afghanistan's local police to maintatin order and security. Laying over this is the announcement of a manjor offensive by both United States and Afghan forces. Left hand, right hand. Anyone know what the other is doing?
Stupidity based on religion, of course, is not limited to the United States - the Israeli governing body will take a look at allegations that a nature reserve's guides were instructed not to tell the scientifically estimated age of the stalactites out of fear of offending those who believe the world is much younger than those ages. In religious realms, belive what you like. When it comes to science and nature, though, science and nature are what one should be teaching.
Doemstically, a handy yet depressing ticker of how much oil has spilled into the Gulf at the current moment, with results now visible on Pensacola Beach, Florida, as well as Mississippi, where the governor had previously asserted the media was making scare tactics. Karma bites.
Speaking of the company, the North American arm of BP violated its own ethics code in giving more than four million dollars of corporate treasury to Republican Political Action Committees. If you can’t abide by your own ethics. When pressed, the company said that the ban only applied to candidate giving, and that issue giving was just fine. (And they did give some money to Democratic PACs, too.)
The Institute for Creation Research, having moved to Texas in hoeps of finding a sympathetic ear, instead found a court that upheld the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board decision that they cannot grant master's degrees in science. And thus, the sciences were preserved from having to ask whether someone’s science degree really meant science or it meant religion disguised as science.
Mr. Greenwald points out the major dangers of believing or allowing the President to continue acting as if he can order the deaths of Americans anywhere at any time, so long as he hides it behind the fig leaf that they're accused terrorists. Even more remarkably, when attempting to import this into Afghanistan, the Afghan people balked and said that it undermined their system of justice. So why aren’t we complaining loudly about this? (Most likely, if I had to guess, it’s because we’re stuck dealing with the more immediate crises like unemployment, oil spills, and economic malaise to be able to demand that our President stop acting like the last one.)
Those who are complaining, however, are the governors of Texas and Arizona, claiming the 1,200 National Guardspersons they're receiving as border security reinforcement should be more like 6,000 troops. At least in the article, nobody’s making the claim that more people will result in a completely secure border. Arizona still has the Papers Please law, though, which is doing more to harm border relations than any National Guardspeople. The President is looking toward crafting an immigration policy to help deal with issues like the Papers Please law.
Hearings START for Elena Kagan, and right out of the gate, the opposition complains about activist judges, like Thurgood Marshall. The WSj is unconvinced that Second Amendment rights will stay in favor of individuals if Ms. Kagan joins on, based on the 5-4 decision and Ms. Kagan’s not-friendliness to people who ignore the part that talks about a militia’s right to bear arms. This is backstopped by a more general fear that Ms. Kagan's activism will be against conservatism instead of for it, choosing their tried and true standard, the “rule of law” position.
Not all things were bad, however. the person who may be the sole active-duty Juris Doctor awarded under Dean Kagan's time at Harvard wrote of how she respected the military well and did not interfere with their recruiting ability, even as she banned them from the campus commons over Don't Ask, Don't Tell, an endorsement that apparently brought the nominee to tears.
Last out, Representative Boehner suggests that we raise the age on which people can collect Social Security so that we can pay for the last administration's war in Afghanistan, providing a classic example of making the people suffer for your own stupid decisions. How about, instead, we decide we’re going to chop out funding for defense contractors and weapons manufacturers and knock down most of the military-industrial complex and see what sort of savings we can get.
In the sciences and technologies, something we’re betting the Long Bets Foundation is interested in - one of the scientists who helped to eliminate smallpox gives humanity 100 years before an extinction event brought on by our own population and climate changes.
The newest fake weed craze, K2 or "spice", is much more dangerous to those using it than actual marijuana would be. Seems a bit odd, but that’s what happens when you make the lesser illegal - people will go for the greater just to get their high. And kill themselves in the process.
Also, the equation to ride a bike is about 31 numbers and symbols scattered within and without of nine sets of brackets. Or - riding a bike is pretty hard.
Finally, Apple is spying on its iPhone and iPad users, capturing their location data as a part of normal operation, in addition to any specific location-based data the user submits in the course of application usage.
In opinions, Mr. Krugman points out the folly of austerity measures in a recession-turning depression, with some dismay at their popularity in policy vogue right now. Against those who claim Krugman is simplifying too much, the Slacktivist refers to the views of economist Karol Josef Wojtyla, who finds deliberate unemployment of any kind to be an evil and asks whether the right idea to get us out of this situation is to do what has proven to work or to do what has definitely proven not to work. (Sadly, right now, it seems to be that we want to do as much that doesn’t work for the people, but does work for the capitalists, as we can.) After all, Ireland is providing an example of how austerity programs may not be the right idea right now.
Mr. Johnson points out what is wrong with modern corporations - they have no obligation to be moral or to think about the consequences of their actions, just to make money, even when they know that trying to make money in their particular way will cause bad results down the road.
A flux point of priorities and politics from Marines that want to fly the Gadsen flag, an adopted symbol of the Tea Party, from the state Capitol building in Connecticut, claiming it was first a Marine Corps flag and should be allowed to fly under the rules that permit the flying of official military service flags. This is one of those weird places where speech and advocacy are considered. If the Capitol flies the flag, is there an implicit endorsement? Will it be construed in that manner, even with explicit disclaimers? And is the Gadsen flag one officially adopted by the Marines and eligible?
Mr. Carafano likes a little and hates a lot about the newest Internet bill, thinking it is another ploy to grow government while liking the requirements to report and be aware.
Ms. Wallace, the owner of a community bank, beleives the new regulations from the Wall Street reform bill will kill commnuity banking, because the small banks will lend on regulatory compliance rules rather than community services, and they’ll have to employ more people to ensure reliance, and they might even have to cancel electronic banking because they won't make enough in fees to cover the costs. We wonder, precisely, what sort of fees and things are being charged that a small bank fears more rules will make them stop services. Perhaps their too-big-to-fail counterparts will contribute enough to help with that.
Last out, a salmon-flavored vodka, to complement the bacon-flavored one. Should we be expecting a run of meat-flavored alcohols?
