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silveradeptGreetings, everyone. Take a look at the following - RGB, an art installation that looks odd at first glance, but then become much clearer when you apply a filter to it.
Also of interest, remember that word data set we linked to last time, using the Google Books material? Check out a spike in the usage and writing about magic(k) somewhere in the middle of the 80s. What happened then that caused it? The Satanic Panic? Or something else? Data is always fascinating, especially when wanting to find a lens to interpret it with.
A class of eight year-olds conducted and got an experiment about bee flower selection published in a peer-reviewed journal. And more importantly, it taught the kids that SCIENCE! is not merely facts, data, and memorization, but experimentation, questioning, and puzzles - y'know, fun!
Finally, the value of a friend to a child is measurable, and very, very positive. Doesn't have to be a horde of admirers. Just one friend that thinks of them as a friend, too. All you need is one and a lot of the withdrawn and depressive tendencies of adolescene don't get their full-blown manifestations.
Out in the world today, what, exactly, do you do with a copy of the Qu'ran written in the blood of Saddam Hussein? You want to get rid of things belonging to him, but it's also a religious text. Dilemma, dilemma.
Also, more contracts for training police forces to mercenary corporations whose record on that training is abysmal. Additionally, another foiled terrorist plot, this time in the United Kingdom, and new sanctions for Iran.
With their very greatest "THINK OF THE CHILDRENS" shout that they can, The United Kingdom is censoring every website they believe contains any sort of pornography, in an effort to avoid accidental exposure to children, seizing on a study that claimed accidental porn exposure damaged children. Parents will have to publicly state they want porn to be able to get it, or can put a rating classification on their Internet feed.
An attemtped crocodile smuggling ended badly, with the croc escaping captivity and causing a panic that destroyed the plane the smuggler was flying the crocodile in on.
Finally, Iraq has a governemnt. Sworn in. Finally.
Domestically, Mr. Taibbi hints that a domino might finally be falling over in the case of prosecuting those involved in the financial services meltdown - an auditing firm's head looks to be on the chopping block for not knowing and not caring about billions of dollars in loans that were being recorded as buying and selling assets of the company so as to not look broke to its investors. And then there's all the data coming forward that Senator Sanders was able to get, despite having to fight corporations and other politicians to get what the people want to know - just how much business, wealthy individuals, and the government are all working together to suck the people dry and enrich the rich even more.
The reapportionment of the House of Representatives due to the 2010 Census appears to be taking seats from New England and the Midwest and giving it to the warm southern and southwestern states. Oh, and Washington gets a seat.
Speaking of the Congress, Getting Stuff Done appears to suddenly be the watchword: A food safety bill passes the House and heads to the President, having escaped the Senate earlier through a voice vote.
Additionally, a bill that would provide medical assistance to the first responders of the 11 September attack passed the Congress and headed to the President. After having had a couple billion hacked off of it, but it did pass.
And finally, the New START treaty was ratified by the Senate.
There's a fair about of What the Hell going on as to why this lame duck is suddenly passing a boatload. It could very well be that the Republican Party stuck to their promise that once they got their bonus tax cuts, they would let other work be done, but there's also the possibility that the Republicans decided to Get Stuff Done because Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi stuck to their threat that they would stay in session until everything got done or the new Congress was sworn in. That said, in the new Congress, this tactic won't work, as there isn't a majority in both houses for the Democrats, so peeling off one Senator to vote to recess won't really be much of a problem. But for now, the Obama agenda marches on. (Although, the compromises to get some of the agenda done often seem like it was worse than doing nothing...) Now, if only the economy would manage a recovery...
A gentleman who believes in the supremacy of white skin objects to the casting of a black actor as a Norse God. Which would be eccentric and kooky, of course, were it not for the fact that several organizations that believe in the supremacy of white skin are also joining in the objection, believing themselves and their culture to have been affronted by the casting. Never mind that the comic series in question has played fast, loose, and everything else with the mythology in question. And that you can think of a hundred other examples where the races of the characters have been changed to suit Hollywood casting (Racebending, anyone?).
Governor Barber of Mississippi does a whitewash of the 1960s, claiming that where he grew up, the ultaracists were the driving force behind peaceful integration of schools and businesses. The best they can claim is that they helped to prevent the Klan from taking root, but they were just as good at intimidation and working against integration and civil rights as the Klan were.
Perhaps it is then appropriate that we receive these materials on the day that festivities and celebrations were kicked off for the 150th anniversary of a declaration that states were seceding from the Union so that they could continue the practice of slavery. Regardless of what they teach people in the region that lost the Civil War and whatever bullshit justification, like "States' Rights", they hide behind. Maybe in a few years they'll look back at teh Birthers and think that they weren't so bad, just that they were agitating to make sure that everyone who was President was actually a citizen, and try to ignore or explain away why they chose the time of a black President to suddenly demand this.
Elsewhere, a compmlaint against a city council that opens its meetings with a prayer invocation because that invocation is specifically denominational. As with such things, all gold is to be found in the comments, whether it is people who consider their religious beliefs under attack by these requests, or others who claim that atheism is a religion too and must be barred under the same principles as the objection, or the person who repeats the useless and demeaning canard that a society without Christian beliefs is somehow amoral, lawless, and anarchic, as well as playing the "majority rules, so shut up" card, proving themselves dangerously ignorant of more than one thing.
Last out of this section, the year in viral e-mails, all of them untrue.
In technology and sciences, The FCC voted on a proposal on the matter of network neutrality, one that may be toppled if a court decides that the FCC does not have the authority to regulate in this manner. Which may be a good thing instead of a bad one, because the deal that was struck appears to have very little to do with actual network neutrality, and more to do with enshrining Internet providers and allowing them to discriminate and charge tolls if content owners want their material to load with any swiftness. The other side is nonoe-too-pleased with it, either, considering it to be a liberal coup and the executive grasping for new powers and possibly the first step toward reinstituting a Fariness Doctrine over the airwaves and other top-down, government-driven censorship and control of the media (...right.) This is entertaining, in a way - on the left, they hate the deal because it gives corporations control over what people see and how fast it is delivered to them, on the right, they hate it because it gives government control over what people see and how fast it is delivered to them. These positions can co-exist, but it seems
Tapping the potential of many humans making light work, the Planet Hunters project puts Kepler data in front of average citizens and asks them to determine whether or not the data fits a pattern that would indicate an exoplanet.
New brain reserach indicates the brain retains plasticity and develops well into the 30s and 40s - which might very well mean that social adulthood (where one can become a leader of the country) and physical adulthood are actually around the same age.
A telepresencce robot by the name of Gostai is unveiled, hoping to help people feel like the absent people are present. The robot is controlled over the web, contains a camera for the person controlling to see, and the robot is there to help the people present feel comfortable talking. It's also likely to be useful for supervisors to check up on their employees by sending/planting several telepresence robots so they can be there all the time.
Finally, Apple yanks the Wikileaks app from the iStore, because they claim that the app violates laws by providing access to Wikileaks.
Down in opinions, the rush to tar the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell with as many socially unacceptable things as possible - Rush Limbaugh says that only people who "have only shown hatred and contempt for the US military are the ones celebrating 'don't ask, don&qpos;t tell' as a great historic accomplishment" We suspect that he means that people who are celebrating the repeal of the policy are anti-military, because otherwise he's pretty much nailed the truth with a vengeance, and his context bears out this interpretation. Which makes PFC Bradley Manning one of those contemptuous people (and Mr. Limbaugh says PFC Manning is gay to make sure that he gets tied in to it) along with everyone else celebrating. Oh, and apparently the military will take this policy repeal and decide that it's okay for mixed-sex showers, in yet another example of the slippery slope gone greased. So we're up to gays and lesbians in the military leading to mass desertions, pedophiles being recognized as legitimate (and Rush says that gays are rife with pedophilia, to at least the degree that women lie about rape), gays and lesbians receiving special rights as a protected, above-the-rest class, and mixed-sex showering, with all the implications of leering, rape, and other sexual misconduct that applies.
Mr. Knight revisits the "moral arguments would have beaten this repeal" department, has to go back to 1989 to find language that confirms his opinion about how QUILTBAG people are hiding their perversions to be seen as normal, and then letting them out once they're accepted, and then provides some of his example arguments: Religions say heterosexual marriage is supreme, science that I don't like is obviously flawed, the military blood supply will become tainted because gay men are such a high HIV and syphilis risk, gay men commit disporportionate numbers of sexual assaults (according to the Family Research Council, whose credibility is in negative values), and: TRAIDITION!. So clearly, the answer is to pass laws that prevent gay men and lesbians from joining National Guard positions, and reinstituting the ban as swiftly as possible, or God will forsake us all for our immorality. At least one State Delegate in Virginia is trying to make this a reality, proving that you can't exaggerate enough to be satirical these days.
You want moral arguments, chumps? Even Skippy, the person who has a list of things not allowed to do, has this in his pocket. Repeal should be supported because it gets rid of prejudice, because people should not be forced to keep secrets to serve their country, because people who are supposed to work together in life-and-death situations should not have to worry about whether a battlefield confession will end their career - or whether the soldier next to them won't save them because they're gay, and a host of other reasons why repeal was a good thing, on moral and pratical grounds. People making moral arguments against this should be ready and willing to stand before their own Judge and defend themselves. They should also not be surprised if that Judge reminds them of the ceriteria he put forward about how his followers should act toward other people.
If you want moral arguments, look at the remarks made at the signing of the bill. The President made moral arguments for why this should happen, why it's great that it happens, and how the country will be better, stronger, and more in line with its principles by repealing the law.
Elsewhere, the leader of the Tea Party Nation group is calling for the dissolution of the Methodist Church, considering them to be nothing more than the "Church of Karl Marx" based on their support for positions like the DREAM Act and health care reform toward the idea of universal health care. For those of you who are even passignly familiar with the works of Karl Marx, you know one of his most famous quotations - "Religion is the opiate of the people." Here's the next sentence, translated: "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness." In other words, destroy the churches, as they keep people in a fog and prevent them from becoming truly happy. It is not possible for there to be a "church of Karl Marx" - the idea is anathema, and the person uttering it is clearly clueless. But that's par for the course from someone who wants to return to only white male landowners voting and to have a sitting member of Congress thrown out simply because he's a practicing Muslim.
But if you're looking for people to pillory, try this - a parent on a youth hockey team singled out the female, not his own child, on the co-ed team and demanded that she be benched or relegated to another league unless her skills improved, as well as the possibility that the boys on the team might have seen the girl changing. Said player saw that demand, and did what most people do when told they're not wanted - she quit the team and went somewhere else, somewhere with a better attitude toward play. I don't blame her at all. The dick parent said that he never wanted her to know about that discussion, and that her feelings could have been spared by hiding it from her. With that kind of attitude toward play and other players, I hope the parent wanting her gone realizes what they've done and willingly relegates themselves to the role of cheering parent for their child(ren) only. Otherwise, I'd hope the coach firmly puts that parent in that place, with a solid threat to bar them entirely from participating if they continue with that attitude. Kids do enough of the comparison and complaining about dead weight as it is - having the parents join in only makes things worse and shows off the shallowness of the parents.
Last for tonight, a warm story to drive away the cold - a puppy was found frozen to a train track, and was successfully freed and adopted out.
Also of interest, remember that word data set we linked to last time, using the Google Books material? Check out a spike in the usage and writing about magic(k) somewhere in the middle of the 80s. What happened then that caused it? The Satanic Panic? Or something else? Data is always fascinating, especially when wanting to find a lens to interpret it with.
A class of eight year-olds conducted and got an experiment about bee flower selection published in a peer-reviewed journal. And more importantly, it taught the kids that SCIENCE! is not merely facts, data, and memorization, but experimentation, questioning, and puzzles - y'know, fun!
Finally, the value of a friend to a child is measurable, and very, very positive. Doesn't have to be a horde of admirers. Just one friend that thinks of them as a friend, too. All you need is one and a lot of the withdrawn and depressive tendencies of adolescene don't get their full-blown manifestations.
Out in the world today, what, exactly, do you do with a copy of the Qu'ran written in the blood of Saddam Hussein? You want to get rid of things belonging to him, but it's also a religious text. Dilemma, dilemma.
Also, more contracts for training police forces to mercenary corporations whose record on that training is abysmal. Additionally, another foiled terrorist plot, this time in the United Kingdom, and new sanctions for Iran.
With their very greatest "THINK OF THE CHILDRENS" shout that they can, The United Kingdom is censoring every website they believe contains any sort of pornography, in an effort to avoid accidental exposure to children, seizing on a study that claimed accidental porn exposure damaged children. Parents will have to publicly state they want porn to be able to get it, or can put a rating classification on their Internet feed.
An attemtped crocodile smuggling ended badly, with the croc escaping captivity and causing a panic that destroyed the plane the smuggler was flying the crocodile in on.
Finally, Iraq has a governemnt. Sworn in. Finally.
Domestically, Mr. Taibbi hints that a domino might finally be falling over in the case of prosecuting those involved in the financial services meltdown - an auditing firm's head looks to be on the chopping block for not knowing and not caring about billions of dollars in loans that were being recorded as buying and selling assets of the company so as to not look broke to its investors. And then there's all the data coming forward that Senator Sanders was able to get, despite having to fight corporations and other politicians to get what the people want to know - just how much business, wealthy individuals, and the government are all working together to suck the people dry and enrich the rich even more.
The reapportionment of the House of Representatives due to the 2010 Census appears to be taking seats from New England and the Midwest and giving it to the warm southern and southwestern states. Oh, and Washington gets a seat.
Speaking of the Congress, Getting Stuff Done appears to suddenly be the watchword: A food safety bill passes the House and heads to the President, having escaped the Senate earlier through a voice vote.
Additionally, a bill that would provide medical assistance to the first responders of the 11 September attack passed the Congress and headed to the President. After having had a couple billion hacked off of it, but it did pass.
And finally, the New START treaty was ratified by the Senate.
There's a fair about of What the Hell going on as to why this lame duck is suddenly passing a boatload. It could very well be that the Republican Party stuck to their promise that once they got their bonus tax cuts, they would let other work be done, but there's also the possibility that the Republicans decided to Get Stuff Done because Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi stuck to their threat that they would stay in session until everything got done or the new Congress was sworn in. That said, in the new Congress, this tactic won't work, as there isn't a majority in both houses for the Democrats, so peeling off one Senator to vote to recess won't really be much of a problem. But for now, the Obama agenda marches on. (Although, the compromises to get some of the agenda done often seem like it was worse than doing nothing...) Now, if only the economy would manage a recovery...
A gentleman who believes in the supremacy of white skin objects to the casting of a black actor as a Norse God. Which would be eccentric and kooky, of course, were it not for the fact that several organizations that believe in the supremacy of white skin are also joining in the objection, believing themselves and their culture to have been affronted by the casting. Never mind that the comic series in question has played fast, loose, and everything else with the mythology in question. And that you can think of a hundred other examples where the races of the characters have been changed to suit Hollywood casting (Racebending, anyone?).
Governor Barber of Mississippi does a whitewash of the 1960s, claiming that where he grew up, the ultaracists were the driving force behind peaceful integration of schools and businesses. The best they can claim is that they helped to prevent the Klan from taking root, but they were just as good at intimidation and working against integration and civil rights as the Klan were.
Perhaps it is then appropriate that we receive these materials on the day that festivities and celebrations were kicked off for the 150th anniversary of a declaration that states were seceding from the Union so that they could continue the practice of slavery. Regardless of what they teach people in the region that lost the Civil War and whatever bullshit justification, like "States' Rights", they hide behind. Maybe in a few years they'll look back at teh Birthers and think that they weren't so bad, just that they were agitating to make sure that everyone who was President was actually a citizen, and try to ignore or explain away why they chose the time of a black President to suddenly demand this.
Elsewhere, a compmlaint against a city council that opens its meetings with a prayer invocation because that invocation is specifically denominational. As with such things, all gold is to be found in the comments, whether it is people who consider their religious beliefs under attack by these requests, or others who claim that atheism is a religion too and must be barred under the same principles as the objection, or the person who repeats the useless and demeaning canard that a society without Christian beliefs is somehow amoral, lawless, and anarchic, as well as playing the "majority rules, so shut up" card, proving themselves dangerously ignorant of more than one thing.
Last out of this section, the year in viral e-mails, all of them untrue.
In technology and sciences, The FCC voted on a proposal on the matter of network neutrality, one that may be toppled if a court decides that the FCC does not have the authority to regulate in this manner. Which may be a good thing instead of a bad one, because the deal that was struck appears to have very little to do with actual network neutrality, and more to do with enshrining Internet providers and allowing them to discriminate and charge tolls if content owners want their material to load with any swiftness. The other side is nonoe-too-pleased with it, either, considering it to be a liberal coup and the executive grasping for new powers and possibly the first step toward reinstituting a Fariness Doctrine over the airwaves and other top-down, government-driven censorship and control of the media (...right.) This is entertaining, in a way - on the left, they hate the deal because it gives corporations control over what people see and how fast it is delivered to them, on the right, they hate it because it gives government control over what people see and how fast it is delivered to them. These positions can co-exist, but it seems
Tapping the potential of many humans making light work, the Planet Hunters project puts Kepler data in front of average citizens and asks them to determine whether or not the data fits a pattern that would indicate an exoplanet.
New brain reserach indicates the brain retains plasticity and develops well into the 30s and 40s - which might very well mean that social adulthood (where one can become a leader of the country) and physical adulthood are actually around the same age.
A telepresencce robot by the name of Gostai is unveiled, hoping to help people feel like the absent people are present. The robot is controlled over the web, contains a camera for the person controlling to see, and the robot is there to help the people present feel comfortable talking. It's also likely to be useful for supervisors to check up on their employees by sending/planting several telepresence robots so they can be there all the time.
Finally, Apple yanks the Wikileaks app from the iStore, because they claim that the app violates laws by providing access to Wikileaks.
Down in opinions, the rush to tar the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell with as many socially unacceptable things as possible - Rush Limbaugh says that only people who "have only shown hatred and contempt for the US military are the ones celebrating 'don't ask, don&qpos;t tell' as a great historic accomplishment" We suspect that he means that people who are celebrating the repeal of the policy are anti-military, because otherwise he's pretty much nailed the truth with a vengeance, and his context bears out this interpretation. Which makes PFC Bradley Manning one of those contemptuous people (and Mr. Limbaugh says PFC Manning is gay to make sure that he gets tied in to it) along with everyone else celebrating. Oh, and apparently the military will take this policy repeal and decide that it's okay for mixed-sex showers, in yet another example of the slippery slope gone greased. So we're up to gays and lesbians in the military leading to mass desertions, pedophiles being recognized as legitimate (and Rush says that gays are rife with pedophilia, to at least the degree that women lie about rape), gays and lesbians receiving special rights as a protected, above-the-rest class, and mixed-sex showering, with all the implications of leering, rape, and other sexual misconduct that applies.
Mr. Knight revisits the "moral arguments would have beaten this repeal" department, has to go back to 1989 to find language that confirms his opinion about how QUILTBAG people are hiding their perversions to be seen as normal, and then letting them out once they're accepted, and then provides some of his example arguments: Religions say heterosexual marriage is supreme, science that I don't like is obviously flawed, the military blood supply will become tainted because gay men are such a high HIV and syphilis risk, gay men commit disporportionate numbers of sexual assaults (according to the Family Research Council, whose credibility is in negative values), and: TRAIDITION!. So clearly, the answer is to pass laws that prevent gay men and lesbians from joining National Guard positions, and reinstituting the ban as swiftly as possible, or God will forsake us all for our immorality. At least one State Delegate in Virginia is trying to make this a reality, proving that you can't exaggerate enough to be satirical these days.
You want moral arguments, chumps? Even Skippy, the person who has a list of things not allowed to do, has this in his pocket. Repeal should be supported because it gets rid of prejudice, because people should not be forced to keep secrets to serve their country, because people who are supposed to work together in life-and-death situations should not have to worry about whether a battlefield confession will end their career - or whether the soldier next to them won't save them because they're gay, and a host of other reasons why repeal was a good thing, on moral and pratical grounds. People making moral arguments against this should be ready and willing to stand before their own Judge and defend themselves. They should also not be surprised if that Judge reminds them of the ceriteria he put forward about how his followers should act toward other people.
If you want moral arguments, look at the remarks made at the signing of the bill. The President made moral arguments for why this should happen, why it's great that it happens, and how the country will be better, stronger, and more in line with its principles by repealing the law.
Elsewhere, the leader of the Tea Party Nation group is calling for the dissolution of the Methodist Church, considering them to be nothing more than the "Church of Karl Marx" based on their support for positions like the DREAM Act and health care reform toward the idea of universal health care. For those of you who are even passignly familiar with the works of Karl Marx, you know one of his most famous quotations - "Religion is the opiate of the people." Here's the next sentence, translated: "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness." In other words, destroy the churches, as they keep people in a fog and prevent them from becoming truly happy. It is not possible for there to be a "church of Karl Marx" - the idea is anathema, and the person uttering it is clearly clueless. But that's par for the course from someone who wants to return to only white male landowners voting and to have a sitting member of Congress thrown out simply because he's a practicing Muslim.
But if you're looking for people to pillory, try this - a parent on a youth hockey team singled out the female, not his own child, on the co-ed team and demanded that she be benched or relegated to another league unless her skills improved, as well as the possibility that the boys on the team might have seen the girl changing. Said player saw that demand, and did what most people do when told they're not wanted - she quit the team and went somewhere else, somewhere with a better attitude toward play. I don't blame her at all. The dick parent said that he never wanted her to know about that discussion, and that her feelings could have been spared by hiding it from her. With that kind of attitude toward play and other players, I hope the parent wanting her gone realizes what they've done and willingly relegates themselves to the role of cheering parent for their child(ren) only. Otherwise, I'd hope the coach firmly puts that parent in that place, with a solid threat to bar them entirely from participating if they continue with that attitude. Kids do enough of the comparison and complaining about dead weight as it is - having the parents join in only makes things worse and shows off the shallowness of the parents.
Last for tonight, a warm story to drive away the cold - a puppy was found frozen to a train track, and was successfully freed and adopted out.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-23 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-12-23 06:45 pm (UTC)But yes, one parent wanting and the other not, or both parents wanting, but wanting different things...I can just see the giant Clusterfrak going on. And all the kids laughing at how many ways they'll be able to evade such controls anyway.