The blogroll's news. - 5-7 August 2010
Aug. 8th, 2010 01:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptWelcome aboard, everyone, and curl into a look at how long-form journalism, expanding the minds of the reader, and the craft of writing are being actively killed by corporate conglomerates whose managers are concerned with stock prices instead of truth, only hire on a small amount of editors to screen who gets in and who gets out, while leaving those inside mostly to their own devices, and encourage their writers to tell the people what they already know in the simplest and stupidest language possible. It makes the publications and posts dry, boring, and shoddily-constructed. Given crap quality, readers will move on. This is, by the way, how Rolling Stone can thrash most newspapers and organizations with their reporting, despite supposedly being a music mag.
Then again, depending on what you're reporting on, sometimes it's almost impossible to do your job. Reporting on the conditions at Guantanamo Bay, for example, means being able to take a picture in one place one day and having it deleted off your camera the next because the rules, which have always been this way and never change, have changed.
Enjoy, as well, a primer on how to say "Get *bleep*ed, a*bleep*ole in the politest way possible.
Billionaires pledging to give half their wealth to their favorite charities. No coordination to one charity, but each one gives to the issues they find most important.
And a library situated to close unless some magic is worked and enough funding appears to keep it going for the next year.
Starting out in the world today, The United States has sent an official delegation to Japan to mark the anniversary of the first usage of atomic weaponry in war. The ceremony on Friday will remember the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. An apology from the United States for the use of the weapons would be helpful, say the Japanese organizing the event, but they don't expect it to happen, even in the renewed climate of trying to get a world without nuclear weapons. For those that are planning on visiting Hiroshima, the NHK will have a display up of postcards from around the world promoting peace. There's still time to send yours in, if you like. Also, comparisons between a fictional town where one child is tortured for the benefit of all and a world where a decision was made to kill 220,000 people to supposedly build a better world on their ashes.
The United States military is banning its own soldiers from reading the material leaked to the Wikileaks site, under the reasoning that doing so would be downloading classified material onto unsecured machines, a breach of security. So their opposition, the people they claim will be using this information to hurt them, can download it, but the people who might be in danger can't? That makes zero sense.
When you have far more men than women in the country, you start seeing camps for men designed to make sure they don't lose to the girls or women in their pursuits, because what woman would want to marry a man she can excel at more than him? Or... something. Sounds more like the son-centric society is watching too many men and the rise of feminism eat away at their image of manly men and is resisting that change. The results of things like that could easily be a man beating a 17 month-old child to death because the child was apparently acting like a girl.
Finally, Mexico City's decision to allow gay marriage is upheld by the country's supreme court. Perhaps this opens the door for Mexico to join the Century of the Fruitbat, assuming someone gets daring enough to actually do it?
Domestically, BP reports that it has completed a kill procedure on the Deepwater Horizons well that should be holding back the oil flow. the relief well will still be used to complete the kill and seal it up for good, but now BP can turn its attention to spinning, dodging, weaving, and making sure that it doesn't pay one more cent than it has to for all the costs associated with this disaster. We think they should be kicking in the $1.4 million dollars the X-Prize foundation is offering for new oil spill cleanup technology and raising the prize a bit more to get more people interested in it.
The proposed site of a Muslim mosque and cultural center close to the site of the 11 September attacks was denied landmark status, allowing the construction project to proceed. The opposition of the decision attempted to appeal to lingering sentiments about the 11 September attacks and tried to paint Islam as The Bloodthirsty Religion that was gloating about its success by building a mosque so close to the attack site. Supporters of the decision praised the commitment to the founding principles of the country and the upholding of Constitutional freedoms.
Infographic time - projections that point out extending the entirety of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts would be the biggest contributor to deficit over the course of the next ten years.
Finally, Target's CEO apologized for donating $150,000 to the campaign of a known anti-gay politcian, apparently having decided that his pro-business stance was more important at that point than his anti-gay stance. Target then found itself under fire because it has a stated commitment to workplace equality, and donating to the anti-gay politician pretty well flew in the face of that. Citizens United, caught this time by the citizens, united, but how many others are there going to be? And how many of them will receive the same furor and outrage?
Technology awaits with designs of a bus carrying passengers that moves on existing roads, but is tall enough to pass over the cars also on that same road.
The federal government has admitted to secretly storing images of people taken with the new tearhertz backscatter device for airports - the ones that can show details like genitalia. The ones that they said they would never actually store any of, because we were all concerned about the privacy aspects of detailed pictures like that being available.
Finally, allegations that an organized group of conservative-leaning users of digg are spiking stories that they don't approve of, usually with a liberal slant, and promoting conservative ones, so that those stories can garner the vaunted digg effect and be discussed greatly. It is sort of how, say, the Anonymous work, but with more political purposes in mind instead of for lulz, for revenge, or for screwing with Scientology. To me, though, this indicates the power of organized work - in a free and open digg, eventually someone was going to figure out that unionization would allow them to project their power in a greater way. So yeah. Liberal technique win out, or something.
In opinions, Mr. Linkins looks at the recent double rainbow and shows why the Prop 8 ruling should be the one that goes to the house, no matter how satisfying the Tenth Amendment ruling of earlier tempts someone to find it worthwhile, because the unintended consequences of letting a Tenth through like that could be disastrous for a lot of other federal policies. Also on that case, even if the case eventually results in Prop 8 being upheld, it only means that true victory is coming soon. Furthermore, depending on the paper you read during the debate, you were exposed to the debate in a very different frame of reference.
For the best argument so far on the matter, though, we must turn togreyweirdo, who points out the problems he has with how sin is used as a bludgeon and a catchall for "stuff people do that we don&aopos;t like", and the further problems he has with any God or his followers that would be that concerned with such things. After all, many of the other gods cared more about proper tribute and worship, not about what the other people were doing, so long as they weren't actively killing this god's followers.
The "House of Straw" department applauds Mr. Pierson's column on how liberals believe Iran has a right to develop and use nucelar weapons, and that the United States and Israel should not use their own ability to pre-emptively stop Iran from enriching more uranium and building those weapons. There is a cogent arguemnt there, but it's buried in jingoism and drek - Iran signed the NPT, which prohibits it from developing nuclear werpons. So long as there is no indication that it has developed those weapons, it still adheres to the NPT and there's really not much anyone can do about it.
I need some background information from a Nukee or someone with good knowledge of the process - how much enrichment does uranium need to be viable nuclear reactor fuel? Does highly-enriched uranium burn better/faster/longer than low-enriched uranium? Is there any reason other than weapons development why someone would enrich past a certain point? Iran being defiant is one thing, but I still think that even madmen in charge understand on some level the idea that if they shoot, they will get shot back at even more. The only thing they're hoping for is for the vaunted claims of defense systems to just be claims. And even then, they'd be condemning themselves to a worldwide retaliation. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Ayatollah would both have to be similarly insane and willing to risk riot, revolt, and the wrath of the world. It's a bad calculation, no matter what.
those looking to challenge the individual mandate feel they are further along the road to victory on repeal, and I'm sure they'd like to believe that will extend to repealing the whole thing. I doubt that will be possible - but perhaps this Court will show its conservative activisim and go broad if they decide to repeal.
Mr. Reich takes the Obama Administration to task for doing things only halfway - TARP, stimulus, health care, financial reform - and not doing them big enough to effect real change. We wonder how much of this has been the Obama unwillingness to stake political capital on the truly liberal ideas and how much of it has been the assured Republican opposition making it not possible to achieve anything of note, substance, or liberality because the opposition is more interested in making things not work and selling the people that they can do better than in helping the real American people out of this recession.
On more normal politics, the sharks come out on Representative Waters, because it helps feed their narrative that Democrats are corrupt and not to be trusted. Yes, even as all the Republican scandals continue or haven't faded from recent memory. The best line to take in talking about that is "Get all the corruption out, regardless of affiliation." - which would probably gut the Congress significantly and allow for the election of new corruptible people or people who actually want to do the job of the Congress without playing silly games and obstructions. There's also the accusation of hypocrisy agains the President because he's holding $30,000 per plate dinners while claiming to represent the common people, who would never have such money to spend.
Finally, out of this section, Mr. Sowell says economic central planners are doomed to fail, despite having higher intelligence, facts, and statistics at their disposal, because Markets and the Experience of the People are Inherently Superior. The funny part is, he touches on the real reason, but it doesn't completely fit his narrative, so he leaves it as a footnote - people are complex, often will make stupid decisions instead of smart ones, and cannot really be predicted with any granularity. Even Seldon couldn't predict past the big levels, and he's supposed to have planned a way of getting back from complete societal collapse. Trend forecasters are just wrong as well as are right, as are some stock brokers. People don't behave according to the models yet, which makes it really hard for anything to be effective except trying to develop better and more accurate models. In Sowell's rush to prize experience over brilliance, showing how much he's not fond of bright people, he forgets that good planning has to work at all levels of the chain. After all, even in the private market, people have to exercise economic planning.
There's also plenty of case to be made by conservatives to pay in their taxes and debate how the money gets spent, instead of the Republicans being the party of perpetual tax cuts to help the wealthy and starve everyone else.
Last for tonight, Iggy Pop comments from inside stardom about how much the people get sold crap packaged as the next greatest thing. As an example, we present the Pee-wee Herman purity ring.
And for those wondering how things go in Japan, the differing degrees of apologies and bows, a handy primer on Shazai.
Then again, depending on what you're reporting on, sometimes it's almost impossible to do your job. Reporting on the conditions at Guantanamo Bay, for example, means being able to take a picture in one place one day and having it deleted off your camera the next because the rules, which have always been this way and never change, have changed.
Enjoy, as well, a primer on how to say "Get *bleep*ed, a*bleep*ole in the politest way possible.
Billionaires pledging to give half their wealth to their favorite charities. No coordination to one charity, but each one gives to the issues they find most important.
And a library situated to close unless some magic is worked and enough funding appears to keep it going for the next year.
Starting out in the world today, The United States has sent an official delegation to Japan to mark the anniversary of the first usage of atomic weaponry in war. The ceremony on Friday will remember the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. An apology from the United States for the use of the weapons would be helpful, say the Japanese organizing the event, but they don't expect it to happen, even in the renewed climate of trying to get a world without nuclear weapons. For those that are planning on visiting Hiroshima, the NHK will have a display up of postcards from around the world promoting peace. There's still time to send yours in, if you like. Also, comparisons between a fictional town where one child is tortured for the benefit of all and a world where a decision was made to kill 220,000 people to supposedly build a better world on their ashes.
The United States military is banning its own soldiers from reading the material leaked to the Wikileaks site, under the reasoning that doing so would be downloading classified material onto unsecured machines, a breach of security. So their opposition, the people they claim will be using this information to hurt them, can download it, but the people who might be in danger can't? That makes zero sense.
When you have far more men than women in the country, you start seeing camps for men designed to make sure they don't lose to the girls or women in their pursuits, because what woman would want to marry a man she can excel at more than him? Or... something. Sounds more like the son-centric society is watching too many men and the rise of feminism eat away at their image of manly men and is resisting that change. The results of things like that could easily be a man beating a 17 month-old child to death because the child was apparently acting like a girl.
Finally, Mexico City's decision to allow gay marriage is upheld by the country's supreme court. Perhaps this opens the door for Mexico to join the Century of the Fruitbat, assuming someone gets daring enough to actually do it?
Domestically, BP reports that it has completed a kill procedure on the Deepwater Horizons well that should be holding back the oil flow. the relief well will still be used to complete the kill and seal it up for good, but now BP can turn its attention to spinning, dodging, weaving, and making sure that it doesn't pay one more cent than it has to for all the costs associated with this disaster. We think they should be kicking in the $1.4 million dollars the X-Prize foundation is offering for new oil spill cleanup technology and raising the prize a bit more to get more people interested in it.
The proposed site of a Muslim mosque and cultural center close to the site of the 11 September attacks was denied landmark status, allowing the construction project to proceed. The opposition of the decision attempted to appeal to lingering sentiments about the 11 September attacks and tried to paint Islam as The Bloodthirsty Religion that was gloating about its success by building a mosque so close to the attack site. Supporters of the decision praised the commitment to the founding principles of the country and the upholding of Constitutional freedoms.
Infographic time - projections that point out extending the entirety of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts would be the biggest contributor to deficit over the course of the next ten years.
Finally, Target's CEO apologized for donating $150,000 to the campaign of a known anti-gay politcian, apparently having decided that his pro-business stance was more important at that point than his anti-gay stance. Target then found itself under fire because it has a stated commitment to workplace equality, and donating to the anti-gay politician pretty well flew in the face of that. Citizens United, caught this time by the citizens, united, but how many others are there going to be? And how many of them will receive the same furor and outrage?
Technology awaits with designs of a bus carrying passengers that moves on existing roads, but is tall enough to pass over the cars also on that same road.
The federal government has admitted to secretly storing images of people taken with the new tearhertz backscatter device for airports - the ones that can show details like genitalia. The ones that they said they would never actually store any of, because we were all concerned about the privacy aspects of detailed pictures like that being available.
Finally, allegations that an organized group of conservative-leaning users of digg are spiking stories that they don't approve of, usually with a liberal slant, and promoting conservative ones, so that those stories can garner the vaunted digg effect and be discussed greatly. It is sort of how, say, the Anonymous work, but with more political purposes in mind instead of for lulz, for revenge, or for screwing with Scientology. To me, though, this indicates the power of organized work - in a free and open digg, eventually someone was going to figure out that unionization would allow them to project their power in a greater way. So yeah. Liberal technique win out, or something.
In opinions, Mr. Linkins looks at the recent double rainbow and shows why the Prop 8 ruling should be the one that goes to the house, no matter how satisfying the Tenth Amendment ruling of earlier tempts someone to find it worthwhile, because the unintended consequences of letting a Tenth through like that could be disastrous for a lot of other federal policies. Also on that case, even if the case eventually results in Prop 8 being upheld, it only means that true victory is coming soon. Furthermore, depending on the paper you read during the debate, you were exposed to the debate in a very different frame of reference.
For the best argument so far on the matter, though, we must turn to
greyweirdo, who points out the problems he has with how sin is used as a bludgeon and a catchall for "stuff people do that we don&aopos;t like", and the further problems he has with any God or his followers that would be that concerned with such things. After all, many of the other gods cared more about proper tribute and worship, not about what the other people were doing, so long as they weren't actively killing this god's followers.The "House of Straw" department applauds Mr. Pierson's column on how liberals believe Iran has a right to develop and use nucelar weapons, and that the United States and Israel should not use their own ability to pre-emptively stop Iran from enriching more uranium and building those weapons. There is a cogent arguemnt there, but it's buried in jingoism and drek - Iran signed the NPT, which prohibits it from developing nuclear werpons. So long as there is no indication that it has developed those weapons, it still adheres to the NPT and there's really not much anyone can do about it.
I need some background information from a Nukee or someone with good knowledge of the process - how much enrichment does uranium need to be viable nuclear reactor fuel? Does highly-enriched uranium burn better/faster/longer than low-enriched uranium? Is there any reason other than weapons development why someone would enrich past a certain point? Iran being defiant is one thing, but I still think that even madmen in charge understand on some level the idea that if they shoot, they will get shot back at even more. The only thing they're hoping for is for the vaunted claims of defense systems to just be claims. And even then, they'd be condemning themselves to a worldwide retaliation. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Ayatollah would both have to be similarly insane and willing to risk riot, revolt, and the wrath of the world. It's a bad calculation, no matter what.
those looking to challenge the individual mandate feel they are further along the road to victory on repeal, and I'm sure they'd like to believe that will extend to repealing the whole thing. I doubt that will be possible - but perhaps this Court will show its conservative activisim and go broad if they decide to repeal.
Mr. Reich takes the Obama Administration to task for doing things only halfway - TARP, stimulus, health care, financial reform - and not doing them big enough to effect real change. We wonder how much of this has been the Obama unwillingness to stake political capital on the truly liberal ideas and how much of it has been the assured Republican opposition making it not possible to achieve anything of note, substance, or liberality because the opposition is more interested in making things not work and selling the people that they can do better than in helping the real American people out of this recession.
On more normal politics, the sharks come out on Representative Waters, because it helps feed their narrative that Democrats are corrupt and not to be trusted. Yes, even as all the Republican scandals continue or haven't faded from recent memory. The best line to take in talking about that is "Get all the corruption out, regardless of affiliation." - which would probably gut the Congress significantly and allow for the election of new corruptible people or people who actually want to do the job of the Congress without playing silly games and obstructions. There's also the accusation of hypocrisy agains the President because he's holding $30,000 per plate dinners while claiming to represent the common people, who would never have such money to spend.
Finally, out of this section, Mr. Sowell says economic central planners are doomed to fail, despite having higher intelligence, facts, and statistics at their disposal, because Markets and the Experience of the People are Inherently Superior. The funny part is, he touches on the real reason, but it doesn't completely fit his narrative, so he leaves it as a footnote - people are complex, often will make stupid decisions instead of smart ones, and cannot really be predicted with any granularity. Even Seldon couldn't predict past the big levels, and he's supposed to have planned a way of getting back from complete societal collapse. Trend forecasters are just wrong as well as are right, as are some stock brokers. People don't behave according to the models yet, which makes it really hard for anything to be effective except trying to develop better and more accurate models. In Sowell's rush to prize experience over brilliance, showing how much he's not fond of bright people, he forgets that good planning has to work at all levels of the chain. After all, even in the private market, people have to exercise economic planning.
There's also plenty of case to be made by conservatives to pay in their taxes and debate how the money gets spent, instead of the Republicans being the party of perpetual tax cuts to help the wealthy and starve everyone else.
Last for tonight, Iggy Pop comments from inside stardom about how much the people get sold crap packaged as the next greatest thing. As an example, we present the Pee-wee Herman purity ring.
And for those wondering how things go in Japan, the differing degrees of apologies and bows, a handy primer on Shazai.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 09:08 am (UTC)And as for the straddling bus ... clearly England could learn from China to disallow cars being parked on the road, if any of those drawings are representative. But I do wonder, are taller vehicles just going to get stuck behind the bus on roads with only two lanes on each side? Wouldn't that create congestion, rather than ease it? Hmmm.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 03:05 pm (UTC)But they're only talking about a 2 meter clearance under the bus, which automatically cuts out all trucks, delivery vans, etc.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-08 03:09 pm (UTC)Do you have HOV/carpool lanes in and around the city? If so, maybe the buses can run on those - most passenger cars and vans would be under the 2 meter clearances, right?
no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 01:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 08:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-10 12:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-09 08:42 am (UTC)