Linkspam has some filing to avoid.

[cofax7]

NPR has footage of the last night launch of the Space Shuttle this morning. I remember, many years ago, being in Orlando for a conference on a date that coincided with a night launch of the shuttle (I forget which one). And I was lucky enough to be on the twelfth floor, in an east-facing room. So I set my alarm for 2 AM, and sat on the bed with

Comments

[stephl]

when to walk away from an Internet argument

But what if Someone Is Wrong on the Internet? (When xkcd is good, it's really REALLY good.)

Clearly the advertisers don't think women watch football, or don't care

Except for the random PSA about women's heart attacks. That way they can say they do, too, target SB ads to women!

I'm a little more than halfway through The Hunger Games, and while I'm enjoying it -- it's very suspenseful and thrilling -- I have to say I want more of the story than this. I want the entire construct to be challenged, and I'm beginning to fear it won't be. This isn't Uglies, is it. Hmm.

That's it! I finished it last week, and I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was that I was wanting out of it that I didn't get. I think I wanted it to be more like Uglies. Though I am, coincidentally, picking up the sequel to Hunger Games at the library this afternoon.

[cofax7]

Yeah, by this point in the story (I'm at the 65% stage or something) there would have been some narrative clue indicating that the games themselves were being challenged, and there hasn't been -- at least not substantively. Bitching, but no actual action. However I'm enjoying it enough that I hope something like that happens in the sequel.

I might finish listening to it tonight, while I paint the bathroom. Apparently the way I get home-ownership stuff done is by having good audiobooks to listen to.

[thistleingrey]

There is some challenging in Catching Fire, but it doesn't take shape in any of the ways that I'd hoped it might. Uh. This is too hard to attempt to frame while avoiding spoilers; I don't mean that the challenging goes off in an unexpected direction, rather that it doesn't cohere or have the depth I was hoping for.

Perhaps this means that I should read Uglies.

[anoel]

Seriously my DAD noticed it and he's as un-media critic as you can get. I had to explain it to him.

[clarkco]

Spoiler*******

With the Hunger Games trilogy all the revolution stuff begins in the second book and presumably will continue in the third book due out 8/24/10

[eregyrn]

Oh man, the serving sizes thing! I've become adept at kind of doing the mental math to multiple the information to fit what I'm actually likely to eat, but I just know that most people don't do that. I've gotten to the point where I look at the serving size before ANY other information. And then I often laugh bitterly.

The other problem, I think, has to do with how people understand food amounts. Honestly, I defy anyone to say for sure how many ounces equal how many cookies or how many chips (I mean, when you're standing there trying to envision how much of the bag equals what they say "1 serving" is). I much prefer those packages that will just say "about 2 cookies" or "about 15 chips", which is kind of humorous, but at least it makes it easier to picture (and then... laugh bitterly).

[emgeetrek]

Yeah, the portion sizes on cold cereal, in particular, are a joke. Maybe a six-year-old would eat that small an amount, but hardly anyone else would be satisfied with so little. And for anything that comes in a single-serving package or bowl (like noodle bowls, or soups), the entire package should be labeled as containing "one serving," with nutritional information to match. No one is going to take one of those and divide it between two people (or two meals)--they're not designed for it.

With serving size=1 cookie, at least I can multiply accordingly. The head-banging instances are things like "contains 2-1/2 servings." And then they give you nutrition info for one serving. Lord give me strength!

The whole thing's enough to make one simply say "screw it," and stop reading the labels altogether. Almost.

[nomadicwriter]

I once took a look at the back of a 150g bag of crisps (chips to the Americans in the audience) and discovered it gave you the nutritional info for a 35g serving. Because naturally it's incredibly helpful to know what you'll get if you eat 7/30ths of the bag.

[yahtzee63]

I think The Hunger Games is a pretty powerful challenge not only to its internal society but ours. I didn't think Catching Fire was really the equal of of the first book, but it definitely takes the challenge up a notch. I fundamentally bought it in a way I never did with Uglies.