Late this afternoon, Nate Mook from BetaNews recommended The Sounds album, “Dying to Say This to You”. He made a great recommendation. The Swedish troupe is foot-stomping pop nirvana. Brainless me, soon after I started […]
Let Be the Midwives
The New York Times looks at the prosecution of midwives in Indiana, where only doctors and nurses can legally assist births. I believe the same may hold true in Maryland, where we used a licensed midwife-nurse for our daughter’s birth.
Midwifery certainly predates any law governing the practice or the modern-day practice of hospital deliveries. This doctor-hospital thing is a fairly recent practice, while midwives have been birthing babies for millennia.
Ah, the Internet
It’s disruptive now as ever. New York Times has two great stories on this disruptive quality: One, “Death by Smiley Face: When Rivals Disdain Profit“, about companies giving away stuff and hurting established profit mongers; […]
Another Measure of Beauty
I find pragmatism to be an attractive quality, assuming that’s the right word. Today at IKEA, I observed this petite blonde with a tape measure clipped to the right back pocket of her jeans. There was something unwomanly about it that I find really appealing.
I feel the same way about women with cell phones clipped to their front jeans pocket; and to think so many women wear earrings! I’ve never had much taste for girlie girls that wear more makeup than frosting on cake. But this…
Who’s the Fool?
My Windows Media Center PC pulled a nice April Fool’s Joke: All shows scheduled to record today disappeared, and I couldn’t restore scheduled recordings. So, my daughter missed her favorite Fox and WB kids shows. […]
Too Warm in a Cold Place
Uh-oh. National Geographic warns of unusual warming over Antarctica, that “cannot be explained by the climate models scientists use to predict the effects of global warming from increased greenhouse gases”. Yikes!
Some people might contend the unexpected “temperature spike, which is three times larger than the global average”, is sure sign of global warming. Not me. I think it’s another proof point the global warming models are meaningless. The spike occurs in an area 5 kilometers above the surface, and scientists “are now trying to understand why the atmosphere warming is disconnected from surface temperatures”.
You’ve Got Be Kidding
I am glad it’s an election year. Conservative legislators held a news conference today, where they lambasted Senate lawmakers for passing an immigration amnesty bill. The House wants to tighten immigration rules.
According to CNN, Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (Calif.) said, “I say let the prisoners pick the fruits”. From Rep. Steve King of Iowa: “Anybody that votes for an amnesty bill deserves to be branded with a scarlet letter A”. The brand should be on these representatives and their colleagues making these outrageous statements.
Where Washington Works
I can’t blame Intel for promoting Centrino, and I like the result: The chipmaker worked with Sperling’s Best Places to rank the top cities for teleworking (Whatever happened to calling it telecommuting?). Washington ranks #1.
From (Docking) Cradle to the Grave
How much do some people love their cell phones? It’s a grave question, as some people choose to take along their cell phones when they die—or so claims the BBC.
Seriously.
Super Lawyer
Geek Entertainment TV has an interview with Lawrence Lessig: Mr. Creative Commons and champion of reasonable copyrights. I’m a big fan of both. Lawrence’s work supports the spirit of the the early Web.
Way to Go, Kids
Now this is what social networking should be for: High school students use MySpace to organize a walkout over proposed immigration changes. The kids are right. It’s wrong to make illegal immigration a felony. The […]
Stoning ‘Philosopher’s Stone’
While traveling this month, I started reading J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, with the shameful, Americanized title. The book is properly known in the UK as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Given the Potter series’ popularity (six books and four movies), I had high expectations of the bestseller, but lowered them upon reading.
Coming from Northern Maine, where remain cultural ties to Canada and Britain, I quickly picked up on the mishmash of very British references. I’d say that Rowlings includes just about every magical or ghoulish creature known on the British Isles. The book borrows heavily from literary consciousness. The lacking originality, of plopping together concepts and creatures familiar to many generations of Britons, is astounding—unless her originality is humor. I take the book to be farcical, humorous in its plopping together so many creatures steeped in British cultural heritage.