(no subject)
* Apparently, I'm rather sicker than I thought I was. I'm guessing flu. I was late on one of my anti-nausea drug doses and wow! I had to go back to bed for a couple of hours and white knuckle it. No wonder I've been dizzy, tired, and all around crappy. My pain meds dull down the headache and fever, the anti-nausea drugs do their magic. Enough of my meds periodically send my whole digestive system off kilter to make it hard to tell whether it's pathogen or drug reaction. I'm throwing out all my data on the new med reactions as I've likely been sick a few weeks.
I now feel less of a wimp for falling behind on nearly everything this week. If I were a normal person with a normal immune system, I'd likely have been holed up in bed moaning the last couple weeks. *facepalm*
* Rest in Peace, Betty Ford. It's hard to guess how many lives she saved by being open about her struggle with breast cancer at a time when the C-word was spoken in whispers. How many people did self exams because she made it something to be spoken of openly and confronted? How many people got help for drug and alcohol dependency because she was open about her own struggle with them? She was also a strong supporter of women's rights and the ERA. Remember when a person could be Republican and still in favour of looking forward to a better world instead of turning the clock back to 1850?
She will be missed.
* Today was Atlantis' last launch. I was born in the year of the moon landing, my mother watched in real time, her stomach round with me. My father was a huge sf fan. I grew up with tang, and NASA news, Star Trek, and a house full of space dreams. I cried when the first shuttle blew, like just about everyone in my generation. When I was a teen, Sally Ryde came to our school and i knew I'd never go. That never stopped me cheering for others going, for wanting space for other people, for stretching our species' arms toward the future. As a country, we've relinquished our space dreams, just like we let go of the idea that people who aren't born rich are valuable and the whole first world country status thing. To me, retiring the shuttle with no firm plans to build something new and better in it's place is symbolic of the way we've waved goodbye to the whole idea the Future in the last decade. It's not just the space shuttle, I'll miss, but the idea of a better Future, the whole bold glorious dream.
* David Duke of the Ku Klux Klan is on a listening tour in advance of possibly declaring for the Republican Presidential Primary. I know this looks like Godwin's law, but he's an actual KKK leader and has run before. Many of you are likely too young to remember the last time, but you can look it up. I weep for my country.
* Rick Perry just called Oprah Winfrey a harbinger of the antichrist. O.o The Republicans are also courting him for a Presidential bid.
* Meanwhile Michelle Bachman and Rick "frothy residue" Santorum have signed a pledge that among other things claims African American children were better off in 1860 than under Obama. Right now is worse than slavery for African Americans? Really? REALLY???!!!
* I know the last three items look like parody, but I assure you they are not. This is not Betty Ford's party, my father's party. We've reached a stage where the Birchers and the Kluckers are mainstream and reasonable, reality based folks like Meghan McCain are now the fringe. That, my friends, is fucked up. I miss sane, pragmatic people arguing about how to fix things. I would love for us to go back to that, because this scares the piss out of me.
* Exxon is doing a craptastic job at cleaning up the Yosemite spill. They are hiding information from the people and the government. They are using 40 year old technology, and not working with the numbers and urgency the disaster requires. The governor of Montana has pulled out and has set up a separate command center, calling on citizens to take their own samples so we can get accurate measures of the contamination. Imagine if Exxon spent the profits of even one hour of operation to clean up their mess.
* Meanwhile, the Republicans continue to block regulations that would mandate modern clean up technology and safety measures. After all, reality has a well known liberal bias, so should be ignored.
* It's looking like they are going to run a Sunday edition of the Sun instead of News of the World in a classic bait and switch. Every time I think of douchebags gleefully listening to people desperately phoning there dead begging them to please call home, I want to hit somebody. Who hasn't made that phone call, hoping that whoever it is isn't really dead, but knowing in their hearts the odds are even the police will be listening to it and not the person you are hoping will come home? What sort of bastards think it's fun to trick people into thinking the people are definitely still alive in the hopes of getting a juicier phone call? I think you have to be a sociopath to think that's good entertainment, because anyone with even a hint of empathy for another human couldn't do that. Yes, I'm looking at you, Rupert murdoch, and not just the minions you had do it.
* On a lighter note, today, I amused myself imagining a wheelchair mounted Vorlon costume. I'm imagining one would put a sheer panel at eye level and run the Vorlon head like a puppet. What would be even cooler is if you had two people doing it, and could play "Good Cosh, bad cosh" at a Convention. Oh come on, you know it would be fun, ghosting in to the back of panels and looming over people, saying something cryptic, and gliding off amidst a trill of eerie laughter like Vorlon sounds. The chairs would have to be electric, obviously. Imagine Vorlons waiting in line for the loo, perusing dealer tables.
* Interesting thing on Diversity and the English judiciary: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2011/07/on-diversity-and-judiciary.html
* Greenwick's making custom icons: http://teenycom.livejournal.com/971740.html
* Charlotte's Inspiration: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/07/biographer-spider-charlottes-web?CMP=twt_gu
* Neville Longbottom's actor has grown up. O.o: http://cdn02.cdn.gofugyourself.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/118400457-Matt-Lewis-Dreamy-419x628.jpg
* 1879 London murder mystery solved: http://news.yahoo.com/1879-london-murder-mystery-solved-192701803.html
* "What Your Favorite ’80s Band Says About You:" http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/what-your-favorite-80s-band-says-about-you
* Happy Birthday, tibicina!
* Gah! http://thedevilspanties.com/comics/20110709.gif
* Alas! http://catalogliving.net/post/7304136848/fretting-over-it
* D'aw! http://www.dorktower.com/images/comics/DorkTower961.gif
* Interview with Nichelle Nichols and George Takei on the last mission of the Space shuttle, amoung other things: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43692791#43692791
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* Creepy Doll:
I now feel less of a wimp for falling behind on nearly everything this week. If I were a normal person with a normal immune system, I'd likely have been holed up in bed moaning the last couple weeks. *facepalm*
* Rest in Peace, Betty Ford. It's hard to guess how many lives she saved by being open about her struggle with breast cancer at a time when the C-word was spoken in whispers. How many people did self exams because she made it something to be spoken of openly and confronted? How many people got help for drug and alcohol dependency because she was open about her own struggle with them? She was also a strong supporter of women's rights and the ERA. Remember when a person could be Republican and still in favour of looking forward to a better world instead of turning the clock back to 1850?
She will be missed.
* Today was Atlantis' last launch. I was born in the year of the moon landing, my mother watched in real time, her stomach round with me. My father was a huge sf fan. I grew up with tang, and NASA news, Star Trek, and a house full of space dreams. I cried when the first shuttle blew, like just about everyone in my generation. When I was a teen, Sally Ryde came to our school and i knew I'd never go. That never stopped me cheering for others going, for wanting space for other people, for stretching our species' arms toward the future. As a country, we've relinquished our space dreams, just like we let go of the idea that people who aren't born rich are valuable and the whole first world country status thing. To me, retiring the shuttle with no firm plans to build something new and better in it's place is symbolic of the way we've waved goodbye to the whole idea the Future in the last decade. It's not just the space shuttle, I'll miss, but the idea of a better Future, the whole bold glorious dream.
* David Duke of the Ku Klux Klan is on a listening tour in advance of possibly declaring for the Republican Presidential Primary. I know this looks like Godwin's law, but he's an actual KKK leader and has run before. Many of you are likely too young to remember the last time, but you can look it up. I weep for my country.
* Rick Perry just called Oprah Winfrey a harbinger of the antichrist. O.o The Republicans are also courting him for a Presidential bid.
* Meanwhile Michelle Bachman and Rick "frothy residue" Santorum have signed a pledge that among other things claims African American children were better off in 1860 than under Obama. Right now is worse than slavery for African Americans? Really? REALLY???!!!
* I know the last three items look like parody, but I assure you they are not. This is not Betty Ford's party, my father's party. We've reached a stage where the Birchers and the Kluckers are mainstream and reasonable, reality based folks like Meghan McCain are now the fringe. That, my friends, is fucked up. I miss sane, pragmatic people arguing about how to fix things. I would love for us to go back to that, because this scares the piss out of me.
* Exxon is doing a craptastic job at cleaning up the Yosemite spill. They are hiding information from the people and the government. They are using 40 year old technology, and not working with the numbers and urgency the disaster requires. The governor of Montana has pulled out and has set up a separate command center, calling on citizens to take their own samples so we can get accurate measures of the contamination. Imagine if Exxon spent the profits of even one hour of operation to clean up their mess.
* Meanwhile, the Republicans continue to block regulations that would mandate modern clean up technology and safety measures. After all, reality has a well known liberal bias, so should be ignored.
* It's looking like they are going to run a Sunday edition of the Sun instead of News of the World in a classic bait and switch. Every time I think of douchebags gleefully listening to people desperately phoning there dead begging them to please call home, I want to hit somebody. Who hasn't made that phone call, hoping that whoever it is isn't really dead, but knowing in their hearts the odds are even the police will be listening to it and not the person you are hoping will come home? What sort of bastards think it's fun to trick people into thinking the people are definitely still alive in the hopes of getting a juicier phone call? I think you have to be a sociopath to think that's good entertainment, because anyone with even a hint of empathy for another human couldn't do that. Yes, I'm looking at you, Rupert murdoch, and not just the minions you had do it.
* On a lighter note, today, I amused myself imagining a wheelchair mounted Vorlon costume. I'm imagining one would put a sheer panel at eye level and run the Vorlon head like a puppet. What would be even cooler is if you had two people doing it, and could play "Good Cosh, bad cosh" at a Convention. Oh come on, you know it would be fun, ghosting in to the back of panels and looming over people, saying something cryptic, and gliding off amidst a trill of eerie laughter like Vorlon sounds. The chairs would have to be electric, obviously. Imagine Vorlons waiting in line for the loo, perusing dealer tables.
* Interesting thing on Diversity and the English judiciary: http://www.sparkindarkness.com/2011/07/on-diversity-and-judiciary.html
* Greenwick's making custom icons: http://teenycom.livejournal.com/971740.html
* Charlotte's Inspiration: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jul/07/biographer-spider-charlottes-web?CMP=twt_gu
* Neville Longbottom's actor has grown up. O.o: http://cdn02.cdn.gofugyourself.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/118400457-Matt-Lewis-Dreamy-419x628.jpg
* 1879 London murder mystery solved: http://news.yahoo.com/1879-london-murder-mystery-solved-192701803.html
* "What Your Favorite ’80s Band Says About You:" http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/what-your-favorite-80s-band-says-about-you
* Happy Birthday, tibicina!
* Gah! http://thedevilspanties.com/comics/20110709.gif
* Alas! http://catalogliving.net/post/7304136848/fretting-over-it
* D'aw! http://www.dorktower.com/images/comics/DorkTower961.gif
* Interview with Nichelle Nichols and George Takei on the last mission of the Space shuttle, amoung other things: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43692791#43692791
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
* Creepy Doll:
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