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silveradeptCheers, everyone! Today, we're going to start with an experiment allowing you to grow your own snowflake crystals and doodling in math class that happens to also illustrate some pretty cool math principles. None of them will help when it comes to figuring out what a budget looks like with your 11 year-old son who wants a cell phone of his own, but they're still neat to watch happen.
We also have A letter to one Mr. Albert Einstein about a declaration from scientists about the dangers of the new nuclear weapons just developed, asking for his signature. Einstein granted it, as the last piece of correspondence he wrote in his life.
Minus 18, a hangout for lesbian and gay under-18s, has a very sweet set of anti-homophobia posters, simply changing the word "gay" to "straight" in the three most common questions lesbian and gay students, teens, and others get. Elsewhere, Ms. Walker reminds the world that there should be more women in powerful and executive positions in the world, and that finding every excuse the Old Boys Club can to make it about women's bodies instead of their brains demeans the women and shows off the stupidity of the men.
Wisconsin serves as a shot in the arm for those looking for inspiration to keep doing the activism they're doing. It has become the point where, hopefully, the nation as a whole realizes what sort of effects Corporate Republicanism will have on them, why the conservative movement's insistence on the Market (A.P.T.I.N.) is a flawed moral model that will destroy them and enrich the very rich, and starts to push back against the continued selling-out of the country to corporate interests, against all the elected officials that stand in their way, regardless of party. Religious leaders can impart their moral authority in exhorting their church members to stand in solidarity with the workers and their unions, because of the moral implications of reducing a person to a cog in a machine and then crushing any ability they have to make a decent wage and living.
The anti-union bill bassed the state lower house, and the Governor continued to threaten layoffs and an inability to refinance state debt if the anti-union bill doesn't pass. Why not repeal the tax breaks that started this situation, Governor? Then there's no crisis, and no real need to destroy union bargaining rights. In fact, one faculty unionized, even in the face of your threats to strip them of collective barganing rights.
And speaking of teachers and unionized public servants, we do the things that make the students able to go to school by keeping them safe, the students want to go to school by making them engaged and energized, the students in school by keeping them healthy, and the students doing well in school by providing them with the tools and resources they need to succeed. Sometimes on eight year-old computers held together with force of will alone. They're not the people who are causing this problem. Those people are the people that Uncut wants to pay their taxes, by peaceably demonstrating in front of their doors and stopping them from doing business and raising awareness of just how much corporations and the rich duck paying their obligations to the government in taxes. (If you want to join up, US Uncut is available, and currenlty planning a demonstration on 26 February outside Bank of America locales. BoA received a significant bailout from the U.S. government and is doing quite well now - an easy task when you end up not paying taxes on a multi-billion dollar finance industry.) And worse, they've been trying to do this very thing for decades on end, always marching forward on their plans and hoping that nobody else would catch on before it was too late. They're not the people protesting - those people would send lobbyists and other high-paid opinion-influencers to the building, rather than turn out themselves to offer their opinions, and possibly pay out their bribes, err, contributions on the floor.
Out in the world today, Mr. McCartney's ballet [orig: opera] score will debut in New York on 22 September.
The United States delegation is pressing for harsh language against Libya in the United Nations Human Rights Panel, of which Libya is a member. The delegation also supports expulsion of Libya from teh panel based on the actions of the leader at home. For people who believe the UN is a joke and the Human Rights Panel a bigger one, this might turn out to provide some credibility.
General Petraeus, top United States commander in Afghanistan, ordered a review based on allegations that one of the members in his command recruited and used psychological operations techniques on visiting dignitaries from the United States to make them want to approve more expenditures on the First Land War in Asia.
Here in the United States, a Saudi national on a student visa was charged as a suspected terrorist in a plot to attack the Texas house of the previous administrator. Once again, the system works, and the professionalism of all those involved is highlighted, because there could have been an "accidental" fumble of that information that would have allowed the plot to go forward, had politics trumped professionalism.
In sciences, evidence appears that says Neanderthal persons cooked and ate vegetables, going against the previous assumption that they were exclusively meat-consumers.
Also, some pictures of neutrino detectors on Terra.
Finally, the possibility of agave cactus as a biofuel feedstock, after its parts used for tequila, mescal, and sweetener are exhausted.
In technology, Google revises their ranking algorithms so as to make original content rank higher, and repeaters and content copiers like this blog rank lower. Which is fine with me, as I've never had grandeur of high PageRank.
Robot Marathon, full length, toy size competitors.
Finally, Netflix aims for 80 per cent of their streaming videos to have togglable subtitles/closed captioning by the end of the year. right now, only about 30 per cent have this feature.
Into opinions, where we are reminded that while Rush Limbaugh is always a viable candidate for Worst Person in the World by what he says, his candidacy has nothing to do at all with how he looks, even when he's stooping to such low attacks as criticizing the physical appearance and diet choices of Michelle Obama.
Mr. Spencer chastises the Obama administration for engaging in wishful thinking regarding the protesters in Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere. Mr. Spencer is certain they're all going to become Islamic theocracies instead of republican or democratic governments, and that Mr. Obama's optimism is misplaced because of the inexorable pull of the Bloodthirsty Religion and its fanatics. We suspect, though, that Mr. Spencer's fatalism is incredibly (mis)informed by the way that the dominant religion of the United States takes its religious works as inerrant materials, weapons to be used against The Unbelievers, with no room for wiggle on People They Don't Like, and then foregoes the tradition of rich interpretation and discussion than other faiths and practices have as a major part of their history (at least, past the point of the major fractures). It is also easily paired with the entirely false idea that religious freedom means "I'm free to practice my religion, but you aren't" and that if the majority agrees with your position, then Democracy Must Reign, rather than the republican form of government enshrined in the Constitution (but if it doesn't agree with you, then that Republic must protect you and allow you to do what you want anyway) to create the flavor of intolerance that permeates much of fundamentalist Christianity and the conservative movement that bases their morality on it.
Mr. Hanson is far more blunt, assuming that President Obama is running the country into the ground with exorbitant spending and programs that will never work, like the health care bill.
Last out, dolphins help humans find dog, a story that would certainly have been conceptual fiction not fifty years ago. Despite their popularity, and the obvious homages and outright steals that supposedly highbrow writers have done with their work, conceptual fiction writers are too often dogged by their genre fiction labels instead of looked at seriously. Even the course I took in science fiction literature was more a class built around the instructor's personal thesis about such stories, instead of examining them for the works they are and what makes them so enduringly popular.
We also have A letter to one Mr. Albert Einstein about a declaration from scientists about the dangers of the new nuclear weapons just developed, asking for his signature. Einstein granted it, as the last piece of correspondence he wrote in his life.
Minus 18, a hangout for lesbian and gay under-18s, has a very sweet set of anti-homophobia posters, simply changing the word "gay" to "straight" in the three most common questions lesbian and gay students, teens, and others get. Elsewhere, Ms. Walker reminds the world that there should be more women in powerful and executive positions in the world, and that finding every excuse the Old Boys Club can to make it about women's bodies instead of their brains demeans the women and shows off the stupidity of the men.
Wisconsin serves as a shot in the arm for those looking for inspiration to keep doing the activism they're doing. It has become the point where, hopefully, the nation as a whole realizes what sort of effects Corporate Republicanism will have on them, why the conservative movement's insistence on the Market (A.P.T.I.N.) is a flawed moral model that will destroy them and enrich the very rich, and starts to push back against the continued selling-out of the country to corporate interests, against all the elected officials that stand in their way, regardless of party. Religious leaders can impart their moral authority in exhorting their church members to stand in solidarity with the workers and their unions, because of the moral implications of reducing a person to a cog in a machine and then crushing any ability they have to make a decent wage and living.
The anti-union bill bassed the state lower house, and the Governor continued to threaten layoffs and an inability to refinance state debt if the anti-union bill doesn't pass. Why not repeal the tax breaks that started this situation, Governor? Then there's no crisis, and no real need to destroy union bargaining rights. In fact, one faculty unionized, even in the face of your threats to strip them of collective barganing rights.
And speaking of teachers and unionized public servants, we do the things that make the students able to go to school by keeping them safe, the students want to go to school by making them engaged and energized, the students in school by keeping them healthy, and the students doing well in school by providing them with the tools and resources they need to succeed. Sometimes on eight year-old computers held together with force of will alone. They're not the people who are causing this problem. Those people are the people that Uncut wants to pay their taxes, by peaceably demonstrating in front of their doors and stopping them from doing business and raising awareness of just how much corporations and the rich duck paying their obligations to the government in taxes. (If you want to join up, US Uncut is available, and currenlty planning a demonstration on 26 February outside Bank of America locales. BoA received a significant bailout from the U.S. government and is doing quite well now - an easy task when you end up not paying taxes on a multi-billion dollar finance industry.) And worse, they've been trying to do this very thing for decades on end, always marching forward on their plans and hoping that nobody else would catch on before it was too late. They're not the people protesting - those people would send lobbyists and other high-paid opinion-influencers to the building, rather than turn out themselves to offer their opinions, and possibly pay out their bribes, err, contributions on the floor.
Out in the world today, Mr. McCartney's ballet [orig: opera] score will debut in New York on 22 September.
The United States delegation is pressing for harsh language against Libya in the United Nations Human Rights Panel, of which Libya is a member. The delegation also supports expulsion of Libya from teh panel based on the actions of the leader at home. For people who believe the UN is a joke and the Human Rights Panel a bigger one, this might turn out to provide some credibility.
General Petraeus, top United States commander in Afghanistan, ordered a review based on allegations that one of the members in his command recruited and used psychological operations techniques on visiting dignitaries from the United States to make them want to approve more expenditures on the First Land War in Asia.
Here in the United States, a Saudi national on a student visa was charged as a suspected terrorist in a plot to attack the Texas house of the previous administrator. Once again, the system works, and the professionalism of all those involved is highlighted, because there could have been an "accidental" fumble of that information that would have allowed the plot to go forward, had politics trumped professionalism.
In sciences, evidence appears that says Neanderthal persons cooked and ate vegetables, going against the previous assumption that they were exclusively meat-consumers.
Also, some pictures of neutrino detectors on Terra.
Finally, the possibility of agave cactus as a biofuel feedstock, after its parts used for tequila, mescal, and sweetener are exhausted.
In technology, Google revises their ranking algorithms so as to make original content rank higher, and repeaters and content copiers like this blog rank lower. Which is fine with me, as I've never had grandeur of high PageRank.
Robot Marathon, full length, toy size competitors.
Finally, Netflix aims for 80 per cent of their streaming videos to have togglable subtitles/closed captioning by the end of the year. right now, only about 30 per cent have this feature.
Into opinions, where we are reminded that while Rush Limbaugh is always a viable candidate for Worst Person in the World by what he says, his candidacy has nothing to do at all with how he looks, even when he's stooping to such low attacks as criticizing the physical appearance and diet choices of Michelle Obama.
Mr. Spencer chastises the Obama administration for engaging in wishful thinking regarding the protesters in Egypt, Libya, and elsewhere. Mr. Spencer is certain they're all going to become Islamic theocracies instead of republican or democratic governments, and that Mr. Obama's optimism is misplaced because of the inexorable pull of the Bloodthirsty Religion and its fanatics. We suspect, though, that Mr. Spencer's fatalism is incredibly (mis)informed by the way that the dominant religion of the United States takes its religious works as inerrant materials, weapons to be used against The Unbelievers, with no room for wiggle on People They Don't Like, and then foregoes the tradition of rich interpretation and discussion than other faiths and practices have as a major part of their history (at least, past the point of the major fractures). It is also easily paired with the entirely false idea that religious freedom means "I'm free to practice my religion, but you aren't" and that if the majority agrees with your position, then Democracy Must Reign, rather than the republican form of government enshrined in the Constitution (but if it doesn't agree with you, then that Republic must protect you and allow you to do what you want anyway) to create the flavor of intolerance that permeates much of fundamentalist Christianity and the conservative movement that bases their morality on it.
Mr. Hanson is far more blunt, assuming that President Obama is running the country into the ground with exorbitant spending and programs that will never work, like the health care bill.
Last out, dolphins help humans find dog, a story that would certainly have been conceptual fiction not fifty years ago. Despite their popularity, and the obvious homages and outright steals that supposedly highbrow writers have done with their work, conceptual fiction writers are too often dogged by their genre fiction labels instead of looked at seriously. Even the course I took in science fiction literature was more a class built around the instructor's personal thesis about such stories, instead of examining them for the works they are and what makes them so enduringly popular.
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Um, Er,
Re: Um, Er,
Date: 2011-02-26 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 01:37 am (UTC)N) *reflexive Science-related glee at the neutrino detector pictures*
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 03:54 am (UTC)And yes, SCIENCE!, N.
no subject
Date: 2011-03-02 04:31 am (UTC)