Link Anthology 1/18/2009, with a bonus meme
* I have not a lot to say about the Great Cultural Appropriation Debate of DOOM, as oyceter so aptly named it. rilina has a nice links round-up, to which I will add truepenny's excellent post. I'm truly on the fence about this one, as I can see both sides--I think Bear failed to take her character beyond token, but I also respect her inclusion of the character as a person. Maybe I'm just too cynical to be offended? I don't know and my brain is kind of broken right now (for unrelated reasons); there's only so much I can multi-task and an affirmative action debate on a different forum has used up all of my Argument Energy.
* hawkwing_lb on being Irish. This particular part hit home with me:
I can speak in English, but in Irish I am mute.
I have no ear for it. I have no tongue for it. In my mouth it becomes clunky and without music, full of awkward solecisms and embarrassed pauses.
* tithenai on Gaza and the Palestinian perspective. As I said in her comments, I really don't know enough to make a judgment either way--and I'm not hiding a pro-Israeli stance behind that, either, because I had the classic don't-give-a-shit Asian upbringing.
* Via afuna, Dreamwidth Studios is working on a radical fork of the LJ source, founded by synecdochic on the small-business ethic. I have great hopes.
* An insightful discussion of ebooks from a blog-site with the coolest name ever.
* On utility monopolies. This, folks, is why I'm socialist and proud of it (well, other than being Canadian and not understanding why Americans hate socialism so much).
* Apple has taken iTunes DRM-free, with a catch--each file is embedded with the purchaser's name and email address. Given that they haven't exactly disclosed this distribution of information, I am unenthused. I wonder how long it will take for someone to come out with a program to strip the identifying information. And, does this information stay with the file if you convert to mp3? I wasn't aware that mp3s had that kind of secret-info capability.
Finally, that book meme going around the flist again--I just happen to have the BEST BOOK EVAR sitting closest. Really.
Grab the book nearest you. Right now. Turn to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post that sentence along with these instructions in your LiveJournal. Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.
But what was important to me, when I read the Gospels, was less what Jesus said about God or a possible life after death (indeed, he said relatively little on the subject) than what he said about humanity and life on earth.
'Tis The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality by André Comte-Sponville, of course. (Okay, I did cheat a tiny bit by not counting a partial sentence at the top of the page, because this sentence was so much cooler than the other possibility.)
* hawkwing_lb on being Irish. This particular part hit home with me:
I can speak in English, but in Irish I am mute.
I have no ear for it. I have no tongue for it. In my mouth it becomes clunky and without music, full of awkward solecisms and embarrassed pauses.
* tithenai on Gaza and the Palestinian perspective. As I said in her comments, I really don't know enough to make a judgment either way--and I'm not hiding a pro-Israeli stance behind that, either, because I had the classic don't-give-a-shit Asian upbringing.
* Via afuna, Dreamwidth Studios is working on a radical fork of the LJ source, founded by synecdochic on the small-business ethic. I have great hopes.
* An insightful discussion of ebooks from a blog-site with the coolest name ever.
* On utility monopolies. This, folks, is why I'm socialist and proud of it (well, other than being Canadian and not understanding why Americans hate socialism so much).
* Apple has taken iTunes DRM-free, with a catch--each file is embedded with the purchaser's name and email address. Given that they haven't exactly disclosed this distribution of information, I am unenthused. I wonder how long it will take for someone to come out with a program to strip the identifying information. And, does this information stay with the file if you convert to mp3? I wasn't aware that mp3s had that kind of secret-info capability.
Finally, that book meme going around the flist again--I just happen to have the BEST BOOK EVAR sitting closest. Really.
Grab the book nearest you. Right now. Turn to page 56. Find the fifth sentence. Post that sentence along with these instructions in your LiveJournal. Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.
But what was important to me, when I read the Gospels, was less what Jesus said about God or a possible life after death (indeed, he said relatively little on the subject) than what he said about humanity and life on earth.
'Tis The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality by André Comte-Sponville, of course. (Okay, I did cheat a tiny bit by not counting a partial sentence at the top of the page, because this sentence was so much cooler than the other possibility.)