May, 2012 archive
Nature Photograpy 0
One of these days, I shall go on safari to photograph our most common wild life:
Plastic shopping bags in their natural habitat, shopping center parking lots.
Facebook Frolics 0
Zuckerberg’s Law?
Share me a break.
Aside:
Criswell predicts that, just as with so many companies during the tech bubble of the 90s, the IPO will be Facebook’s highpoint. It’s all downhill to Yahoo-ville and AOL Town from here.
QOTD 0
Fran Lebowitz, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Now, nature, as I am only too aware, has her enthusiasts, but on the whole, I am not to be counted among them. To put it bluntly, I am not the type who wants to go back to the land; I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel.
Misdirection Play, Trayvon Martin Dept. 0
Why are some persons so appalled at the possibility–and it’s only a possibility at this point–that Trayvon Martin fought back against the armed attacker who had been stalking him with malicious intent?
One can imagine the comment were the colors reversed.
- Victim courageously defends self . . .
- Last desparate battle . . .
- Zimmerman’s* last stand . . .
Furrfu.
__________________
*Remember, I said “reversed.”
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Foreclosures poised for a comeback. Process servers worry less about employment security.
Lenders issued 809 foreclosure-related notices in the area last month, up 2.4 percent from the 790 issued in March but down 21 percent from the 1,023 reported in April 2011, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure-monitoring service based in Irvine, Calif.
Wait for It 0
No doubt Pat Buchanan and his fellow travelers and sycophants will have something portentous to say about this:
No doubt it will be a typically constructive and even-handed comment.
Also, pigs, wings.
In other news, Jay Bookman anticipates the fuss.
How It Works 0
Jason330 finds an analogy for “white privilege” that even a lamer gamer can understand.
Aside:
One characterization that I have settled on for white privilege as it has affected my white life is this: White folks (like me) define the norm; others (not-white folks) define the “diverse.”
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Bloomberg: Unemployments holds stead at 370k. Still treading water.
The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, fell to 375,000 last week from 379,750.
(snip)
The number of people continuing to receive jobless benefits rose by 18,000 in the week ended May 5 to 3.27 million.
The continuing claims figure does not include the number of Americans receiving extended benefits under federal programs.
On the One Hand, There Is No “on the Other Hand” 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., points out the fallacy of the “both sides do it” claims. A nugget:
It was not Democrats who voted down their own deficit reduction resolution, apparently because they didn’t want the president to share credit.
It was not a Democratic leader who declared defeating the president his top legislative priority.
No, it was Republicans who did all that. And it is not Democrats who have seen a steady trickle of condemnation and defection by their own appalled members.
QOTD 0
Desmond Tutu, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness on the way to school:
The man fled when witnesses confronted him Monday morning, but police recovered the rifle and notebook at the scene in a subdivision south of Atlanta.
A witness saw the man pointing the rifle at a passing school bus, Clayton County police Officer Phong Nguyen said.
Another Summer Blockbuster 0
Signs of the Times 0
At Hacker Public Radion, David Whitman has a fascinating interview with Dawn McKenna, who is an American Sign Language simultaneous translator.
She discusses training and certification and what simultaneous translation to and from sign language involves. If you are at all curious about what is going on when you see an ASL translator in that little window on your television, go listen to it now.
