Filed under: General Thoughts, Internet and Media
This is a bit of a catch-all posting; I’ve been entertained by a few of the things I’ve seen recently, enraged by others, and figured I would pass on a few tidbits.
Seen on thursday evening in a restaurant: A little boy, probably a bit over one year old, starts to do that high-pitched attention-getter crying bit, and after a token effort at calming him by his father, the mother pulls out a portable DVD player and sets it up on the table so that he can watch a TV show and shut the hell up.
Overheard this morning in a Starbucks: A couple having coffee together, both looking modern, professional, and stereotypically ‘starbucky’… Talking about playing online RPGs, power-leveling, and gold farming.
In the news: A film, Fitna, that is — as do so many things these days — enraging the religious of the eastern world to the point of sputtering threats. Please note, “The Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.”
Filed under: Events
In the later hours of this day, Arthur C. Clarke — creator and muse — ended 90 years of looking past the stars in order to share with us the wonders that he saw there.
He leaves behind ideas beyond number and a culture immeasurably richer for his contribution.
My god, it’s full of stars!
Filed under: General Thoughts, Media and Science
Okay, that title bears little, if any, relation to the content of this post. This post consists mainly of a pointer to this wonderful critique of the underdog narrative in science journalism, found by way of Slashdot.
I’ve never given it the attention it deserves, obviously, but science reporting in the popular media — from the news outlets to the movies — is pretty bad. Cinema is especially guilty of portraying the scientific establishment as a repressive overmind bent on quashing any threat to some imagined orthodoxy, and popular science writing isn’t a lot better.
I hope you enjoy the article.
Filed under: General Thoughts
My turn, I guess.
For some reason, today, I’m just… irritable and tired.
Tomorrow I’m sure I’ll be fine, but only if my work laptop isn’t still being a bucket of cocks. It’s been that kind of day.
Filed under: Rants
Volunteerism is one of those interesting ‘isms’. It’s probably one of the most well-regarded ‘isms’ by more people, but I admit that much like my reaction to charity, I have a decidedly contrary view of this practice.
And, it appears, I’m not the only one. Here’s “To Hell with Good Intentions by Ivan Illich,” a transcript of a speech given in 1968 to a volunteer organization. I came across this by way of, as always, Metafilter, where a discussion on the validity of volunteering was taking place. This was spurred by an interesting article decrying modern celebrity aid programs as development porn and calling out volunteerism as paternalistic behaviour… which is how I have always sort of felt.
Poke about. It’s a good debate.
Filed under: Events
They look like anybody’s grandparents now, but they’re special.
Men on the Moon
It’s something I’ve dreamed of my whole life. It’s something I may yet see in my life, and it’s something for which I would sell anything, give anything to see. The passion with which these men speak of the moon, the look in their eyes as they remember the experience of landing, walking on, and — in the end — successfully leaving the moon behind is something I empathize with, even if I can’t know the whole truth of it.
Filed under: Internet
Although this link is NSFW, and also NSFPrudes, I kind of like it.
Sex, Sexuality, and Erotism
No idea how long it’ll be online, but I’ve already seen some interesting and well-shot erotica on it. Also, while it’s mostly images of women, there’s a gallery of well-formed nude men in it too; a nice sidelight for the ladies. There may be more in the archive, and I imagine it’d be fun going hunting 
Filed under: Humour and Internet
Apropos of nothing, here’s a few funny Craigslist postings, culled from Metafilter:
Hey, Crackhead
Cement Block, $1
Thank You Donkey Porn
$772,000 a year, and still lonely (mirrored on Jezebel because it was deleted)
I Have a Hot Tub
Why Doesn’t He Want Me
Of course you could just read the original Metafilter thread…
Filed under: Rants
In contrast to my last post, this one is a bit less perky.
The fact that this happens at all is nearly enough to make me physically ill. The fact that I’m probably never going to encounter it, simply because I’m not brown-skinned…
Filed under: General Thoughts
It’s rare that I see something that makes me feel like we technonerds are doing unqualifiedly good things for the world.
So, I’d like to thank Dean Kamen for just… doing good things.
Posted on March 29th, 2008 by Chris
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