Right, then, - 15 September 2010
Sep. 16th, 2010 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptGood day, loyal, disloyal, and just-starting readers. We begin today with a letter that helps me to process why songs such as "F**k Me, Ray Bradbury" exist on YouTube, elegantly explaining why robots are not to be feared, but people are. But people can also change, as the writer of the Anarchist's Cookbook has repeatedly asked that it be taken out of print, because it contains views he no longer holds. However, due to the copyright on the book not actually being his, the publishers are free to do with it whatever they want.
Speaking of older books, an information desk is built on them.
And finally from the headliner section, a reminder that for all the freakout about trandgender people at work (like the freakout about gay people at work before it), the likelhood of having to deal with someone showing off their gender assets to the point of distraction is far greater than having to worry about whether you're going to work with someone transgendered. So, workpeople can stop freaking out that they're going to have all sorts of gender issues, and the Senate can get off their asses and pass legislation protecting the transgendered from discrimination.
Out in the world today, the capitalist sound the alarm that bread, circuses, and jobs have to return to the economies of Europe and America, or social unrest will follow. There are a couple ways that could end up - either the capitalists decide they want to protect their holdings and structure and find a way to suddenly put all those people back to work by investing in them, or the capitalists feel confident that they can channel the rage of the unemployed, using their media platforms, against certain outgroups that can be painted as "stealing the jobs of Americans" or creating conditions where companies say they can't hire because the costs in wages and benefits are too great for them. (Just don't look at their quarterly profit statements.) At the same time, Bank of America may be the leader in requiring increased account minimums, lest an account holder be charged a fee, which would tie up more of the people's money and siphon it to the banks and the capitalists.
The French Senate passed through a bill that would forbid full-face coverings on its citizens, a bill that affects relatively few people but has been touted as a way of defending the values of France against fundamentalists that use full face coverings as a way of oppressing women. The bill will have to pass the muster of a committee formed to debate its constitutionality.
The jailed hiker's bail has been paid, which lets her go out long enough to receive an examination before she has to go back for trial. No such bail has been afforded to the other hikers still under arrest, and she may yet still be convicted of espionage and sentenced to death.
Elsewhere, the unmanned aerial campaign against Pakistn continues and intensifies and a protest in Afghanistan that may have been at least partially inspired by the media letting the 11 September book-burning stunt run as long as they did.
Here in the United States, as promised, politics continues to get weirder by the day. Primary results in Delaware indicate that the anti-masturbation and Tea Party favorite candidate Christine O'Donnell has beaten career politician Mike Castle for the Republican nomination, and that Tea Party darline and forwarder of racist and pornographic emails Carl Paladino has beaten Rick Lazio for the Republican nomination for governor of New York. (Democrats in both places are likely cheering.) New Hampshire might also be a Tea Party victory, but as of the article writing, it was too close to call. On that point, of O'Donnell's victory, she finds herself with an array of conservatives publicly against her, including that at one point, the National Republican Senatorial Committee said they wouldn't fund her general campaign, a statement that they have retracted. Voters hoping for a moderate Republican instead find themselves faced with more than they can stand, and the conventional wisdom appears to be that O'Donnell won because an out-of-state group with deep pockets took an interest in her and drove enough ideologues to the polls to win. In the fight between moderates and conservatives for the Republiacn Party, the conservatives have gotten enough gains that they have to be integrated or dealt with in one way or another. The general elections and the ad campaigns should prove to be interesting this season, with Angle, O'donnell, Paladino, and others having to convince the regular voting populace that they're electable candidates who will do good things in office. Ready, set, good luck, you're going to need it.
Speaking of political showmanship, a parade in Yakima, Washington contained a float with a person in a President Obama mask cracking a whip over a child (presumably white, since nothing was made of the race of the child), intended as a commentary on his economics. The imagery chosen, however, also invites commentary on its appropriateness considering the more traditional image of a white man cracking a whip over a black slave pulling something.
Apparently, the correct response to someone being under investigation for whether they tortured captured detainees is training contracts. Y'know, because you want to reward people who created an environment so horrible that it drove a soldier to suicide rather than participate, likely because of the degrading, inhumane techniques that soldiers were expected to perform on detainees. There's a preponderance of evidence, enough that the investigation should have started years ago. What reason does the government and the military have to delay further?
In technology, Meet HRP-4, a humanoid robot designed to replace humans at most menial tasks.
After receiving word that authorities in Russia were using software piracy as an excuse to raid political opponents, Microsoft says they will provide a blanket license for NGOs and journalist groups outside the United States to use their software.
An opera ten years in the making will debut in the MIT Media Lab, where human performers will be accompanied by robot performers, including a musical chandelier, as part of the story involves a person successfully uploading their consciousness into a house's computer system. I think it will be a great opera to see, if someone is in the area. Technology and music merged together, sounds good.
Dick Tracy is jealous of our ability to create a device that is watch on the outside, iPod nano on the inside.
And last out, justice reasserts itself in at least one way - Zynga, the corporation behind FarmVille and other derivative games, is finding out that the "steal everyone else's ideas and then blanket the landscape with your knockoffs" business plan is not as profitable as they had thought. Or, at the very least, while you get a nice surge at the beginning, it's like pouring water into an effective steel sieve.
The opinions begin with Mr. McGurn placing all the blame for the Park 51 fiasco squarely on the shoulders of liberals, who ignore that Islam is the Bloodthirsty Religion and deserves special attention, and then sparked the whole thing by lecturing the rest of America that they should be more tolerant. Wait, what? Someone just up and gave a lecture about tolerance out of the blue, with no previous cause or reason for them to be lecturing against? While they simultaneously ignore the very thing they're supposedly giving lectures about? For as much as liberals are supposed to love hearing themselves talk, as far as I know, an unsolicited lecture is still something they wouldn't do. Perhaps it was all the columns written about how Islam is the Bloodthirsty religion and studies saying that Sharia Law is dangerous and violent and is infiltrating YOUR HOUSE WITH GOVERNMENT SUPPORT, YES YOU, BE AFRAID OF THE MUSLIMS NOW that sparked the "unsolicited lecture", Mr. McGurn.
Mr. Sowell starts with a solid premise about how words and phrases that have done the opposite in practice are ineffective and then squanders it talking about how "social justice" means, if anything at all, how everyone should be equal in a Vonnegut way and that the right kind of equality to search for is the Orwell way, dismissing that situation and class have impace on the successes of people with a simple "everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and those who work hard will be rewarded."
Mr. Pestritto suggests that comparisons between this century's progressives and the last century's progressive are not off-base, as both sets reject the founding principles of America such as individual liberty in their quest for government ability to control everything.
Last for tonight, pictures that will cause many people to shout "It's a Gun---" before being obliterated in an explosion. Mecha art of Naochika Morishita, with several iterations of the aforementioned mobile suit, along with others of its type and some Super Sentai mechs, including that which became the original Megazord when the suit and mecha footage was paired with an entirely new storyline that would become Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
Okay, and a broadcast date for when Neil Gaiman, in cat form, appears on the Arthur cartoon on PBS. Yes, there's a picture of the character as well.
Speaking of older books, an information desk is built on them.
And finally from the headliner section, a reminder that for all the freakout about trandgender people at work (like the freakout about gay people at work before it), the likelhood of having to deal with someone showing off their gender assets to the point of distraction is far greater than having to worry about whether you're going to work with someone transgendered. So, workpeople can stop freaking out that they're going to have all sorts of gender issues, and the Senate can get off their asses and pass legislation protecting the transgendered from discrimination.
Out in the world today, the capitalist sound the alarm that bread, circuses, and jobs have to return to the economies of Europe and America, or social unrest will follow. There are a couple ways that could end up - either the capitalists decide they want to protect their holdings and structure and find a way to suddenly put all those people back to work by investing in them, or the capitalists feel confident that they can channel the rage of the unemployed, using their media platforms, against certain outgroups that can be painted as "stealing the jobs of Americans" or creating conditions where companies say they can't hire because the costs in wages and benefits are too great for them. (Just don't look at their quarterly profit statements.) At the same time, Bank of America may be the leader in requiring increased account minimums, lest an account holder be charged a fee, which would tie up more of the people's money and siphon it to the banks and the capitalists.
The French Senate passed through a bill that would forbid full-face coverings on its citizens, a bill that affects relatively few people but has been touted as a way of defending the values of France against fundamentalists that use full face coverings as a way of oppressing women. The bill will have to pass the muster of a committee formed to debate its constitutionality.
The jailed hiker's bail has been paid, which lets her go out long enough to receive an examination before she has to go back for trial. No such bail has been afforded to the other hikers still under arrest, and she may yet still be convicted of espionage and sentenced to death.
Elsewhere, the unmanned aerial campaign against Pakistn continues and intensifies and a protest in Afghanistan that may have been at least partially inspired by the media letting the 11 September book-burning stunt run as long as they did.
Here in the United States, as promised, politics continues to get weirder by the day. Primary results in Delaware indicate that the anti-masturbation and Tea Party favorite candidate Christine O'Donnell has beaten career politician Mike Castle for the Republican nomination, and that Tea Party darline and forwarder of racist and pornographic emails Carl Paladino has beaten Rick Lazio for the Republican nomination for governor of New York. (Democrats in both places are likely cheering.) New Hampshire might also be a Tea Party victory, but as of the article writing, it was too close to call. On that point, of O'Donnell's victory, she finds herself with an array of conservatives publicly against her, including that at one point, the National Republican Senatorial Committee said they wouldn't fund her general campaign, a statement that they have retracted. Voters hoping for a moderate Republican instead find themselves faced with more than they can stand, and the conventional wisdom appears to be that O'Donnell won because an out-of-state group with deep pockets took an interest in her and drove enough ideologues to the polls to win. In the fight between moderates and conservatives for the Republiacn Party, the conservatives have gotten enough gains that they have to be integrated or dealt with in one way or another. The general elections and the ad campaigns should prove to be interesting this season, with Angle, O'donnell, Paladino, and others having to convince the regular voting populace that they're electable candidates who will do good things in office. Ready, set, good luck, you're going to need it.
Speaking of political showmanship, a parade in Yakima, Washington contained a float with a person in a President Obama mask cracking a whip over a child (presumably white, since nothing was made of the race of the child), intended as a commentary on his economics. The imagery chosen, however, also invites commentary on its appropriateness considering the more traditional image of a white man cracking a whip over a black slave pulling something.
Apparently, the correct response to someone being under investigation for whether they tortured captured detainees is training contracts. Y'know, because you want to reward people who created an environment so horrible that it drove a soldier to suicide rather than participate, likely because of the degrading, inhumane techniques that soldiers were expected to perform on detainees. There's a preponderance of evidence, enough that the investigation should have started years ago. What reason does the government and the military have to delay further?
In technology, Meet HRP-4, a humanoid robot designed to replace humans at most menial tasks.
After receiving word that authorities in Russia were using software piracy as an excuse to raid political opponents, Microsoft says they will provide a blanket license for NGOs and journalist groups outside the United States to use their software.
An opera ten years in the making will debut in the MIT Media Lab, where human performers will be accompanied by robot performers, including a musical chandelier, as part of the story involves a person successfully uploading their consciousness into a house's computer system. I think it will be a great opera to see, if someone is in the area. Technology and music merged together, sounds good.
Dick Tracy is jealous of our ability to create a device that is watch on the outside, iPod nano on the inside.
And last out, justice reasserts itself in at least one way - Zynga, the corporation behind FarmVille and other derivative games, is finding out that the "steal everyone else's ideas and then blanket the landscape with your knockoffs" business plan is not as profitable as they had thought. Or, at the very least, while you get a nice surge at the beginning, it's like pouring water into an effective steel sieve.
The opinions begin with Mr. McGurn placing all the blame for the Park 51 fiasco squarely on the shoulders of liberals, who ignore that Islam is the Bloodthirsty Religion and deserves special attention, and then sparked the whole thing by lecturing the rest of America that they should be more tolerant. Wait, what? Someone just up and gave a lecture about tolerance out of the blue, with no previous cause or reason for them to be lecturing against? While they simultaneously ignore the very thing they're supposedly giving lectures about? For as much as liberals are supposed to love hearing themselves talk, as far as I know, an unsolicited lecture is still something they wouldn't do. Perhaps it was all the columns written about how Islam is the Bloodthirsty religion and studies saying that Sharia Law is dangerous and violent and is infiltrating YOUR HOUSE WITH GOVERNMENT SUPPORT, YES YOU, BE AFRAID OF THE MUSLIMS NOW that sparked the "unsolicited lecture", Mr. McGurn.
Mr. Sowell starts with a solid premise about how words and phrases that have done the opposite in practice are ineffective and then squanders it talking about how "social justice" means, if anything at all, how everyone should be equal in a Vonnegut way and that the right kind of equality to search for is the Orwell way, dismissing that situation and class have impace on the successes of people with a simple "everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and those who work hard will be rewarded."
Mr. Pestritto suggests that comparisons between this century's progressives and the last century's progressive are not off-base, as both sets reject the founding principles of America such as individual liberty in their quest for government ability to control everything.
Last for tonight, pictures that will cause many people to shout "It's a Gun---" before being obliterated in an explosion. Mecha art of Naochika Morishita, with several iterations of the aforementioned mobile suit, along with others of its type and some Super Sentai mechs, including that which became the original Megazord when the suit and mecha footage was paired with an entirely new storyline that would become Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
Okay, and a broadcast date for when Neil Gaiman, in cat form, appears on the Arthur cartoon on PBS. Yes, there's a picture of the character as well.
