via
Saturday, December 04, 2010
dang, now i'm gonna have to learn finnish
don't know if it's in there or NOT, but my favorite is italian and it's
gatsu piedi
(you figure it out)
Cory Doctorow
(Image: Okay, so it's funny., a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from andrewbain's photostream)
if it's them or theirs, i'm sure they'll make an exception
for you and yours? R I P babies, rip
all up in arms about abortions and birth control (not babies mind you but little wiggly thaings. NOT actual human beings, but eggs and sperm) BUT if you're a LIVE, LIVING PERSON, EFF YOU. THEY DON'T GIVE A FLYING YOO HOO. how do you justify that? how do you sentence an innocent to death?
Arizona Cuts Financing for Transplant Patients
By MARC LACEY
PHOENIX — Even physicians with decades of experience telling patients that their lives are nearing an end are having difficulty discussing a potentially fatal condition that has arisen in Arizona: Death by budget cut.
Effective at the beginning of October, Arizona stopped financing certain transplant operations under the state’s version of Medicaid. Many doctors say the decision amounts to a death sentence for some low-income patients, who have little chance of survival without transplants and lack the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to pay for them..............pic:
Joshua Lott for The New York Times
Randy Shepherd, a patient, and his daughter Krista.
Friday, December 03, 2010
what is life?
NASA-Funded Research Discovers Life Built With Toxic Chemical
NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth.
Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components.
"The definition of life has just expanded," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it."
This finding of an alternative biochemistry makeup will alter biology textbooks and expand the scope of the search for life beyond Earth. The research is published in this week's edition of Science Express.
....................
pic from the nasa story linked above - Image of Mono Lake Research area
NASA-funded astrobiology research has changed the fundamental knowledge about what comprises all known life on Earth.
Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components.
"The definition of life has just expanded," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it."
This finding of an alternative biochemistry makeup will alter biology textbooks and expand the scope of the search for life beyond Earth. The research is published in this week's edition of Science Express.
....................
pic from the nasa story linked above - Image of Mono Lake Research area
read it!
here's but a paragraph
An affront to the eyes of God
B
and hey father, there is NO FUCKING FEMINIST 'PROBLEM' and hey father, THERE IS NOT A HOMOSEXUAL SCANDAL WHERE THE CHURCH HAD TO PAY OUT BILLIONS. IT WAS A FUCKING PEDOPHILE SCANDAL (IT'S DIFFERENT YOU STUPID STEAMIN' PILE)
whoa, this dude run off and unfinished thoughts are ummmmm, well see for yourself
An affront to the eyes of God
B
In doing some research for my review of "Made in Deganham," the movie about the women strikers against Ford UK, I wanted to find out when equal pay for equal work first became the law in the United States. I didn't discover what I expected. Only two weeks ago, a Republican filibuster in the U. S. Senate prevented passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have added teeth to measures for equal pay. The Republicans presumably feel they have some support from women on this subject, especially those following religions which preach that a woman must submit to the will of her husband: Either her actual husband, or her legislatorial surrogate.........
and hey father, there is NO FUCKING FEMINIST 'PROBLEM' and hey father, THERE IS NOT A HOMOSEXUAL SCANDAL WHERE THE CHURCH HAD TO PAY OUT BILLIONS. IT WAS A FUCKING PEDOPHILE SCANDAL (IT'S DIFFERENT YOU STUPID STEAMIN' PILE)
whoa, this dude run off and unfinished thoughts are ummmmm, well see for yourself
the foreign press have it right
and our press corps don't? well, i think most of them do, they're JUST TOO FUCKING SCARED TO SAY IT
(well in all truth i don't know if i'd use the word traitor. stupid. yes. vicious. yes. self-absorbed. wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yes. dangerous. yes (only because she has FANS. which by the way, i just cannot understand).
Foreign Press Says What America’s Won’t: Sarah Palin is a Traitor
The GOP's Tabloid Patriot is an International Embarrassment
(well in all truth i don't know if i'd use the word traitor. stupid. yes. vicious. yes. self-absorbed. wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yes. dangerous. yes (only because she has FANS. which by the way, i just cannot understand).
Foreign Press Says What America’s Won’t: Sarah Palin is a Traitor
The GOP's Tabloid Patriot is an International Embarrassment
Sarah Palin has made it to the big time; she’s now being called out by international media. Yesterday, the Russian newspaper Pravda (this same paper has been quoted in numerous Right Wing publications when it criticized President Obama, and was considered a paper of merit at such time) eviscerated Sarah Palin for her unrelenting attacks upon the democratically elected President, at a time when America needs to stand together, united. When members of the International Press call Sarah Palin out for her lack of American patriotism, it’s time for the American Press to pay attention. It’s about time someone did.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey writes in Pravda:
“By attacking the democratically elected President of the United States of America at a sensitive time in her country’s history, she shows the tact of a boorish drunkard bawling obscenities at a funeral…....................
found via
Thursday, December 02, 2010
saw this and wanted to post about it
i happen to be one of the fans of tweezerman products. they're EXPENSIVE but VERY well made. there's also a lifetime guarantee on sharpening (if whatever you have needs sharpening that is). on top of everything, the company has a soul
Dal LaMagna: A Serial Entrepreneur Parlays Tweezerman Business Success into Social Activism
The following is an excerpt from Dal LaMagna's new book, "Raising Eyebrows: A Failed Entrepreneur Finally Gets It Right," (Wiley, 2010).
When I started Tweezerman, I had not imagined the company it would eventually become. At the time, I had no grand vision for a grooming implement empire; all I was hoping for was a modest business that could support me.
That hadn’t always been the case.
After 16 years of failing at dozens of businesses, I was simply trying to be realistic, to scale back my schemes, and to take one small step at a time.
It was that sense of caution and focus that put me on the right track. Even today, I’m not sure what would have become of me or Tweezerman had I not experienced those early failures.......
pic via
huh???????????
i'm praying (no pun intended) there is something we're missing here. i'm praying (no pun intended) a judge based a custody decision on whether a parent had a religion or not. this CANNOT be. it just can't
Dad: Court took my kids because I’m agnostic
Dad: Court took my kids because I’m agnostic
A divorced Indiana father says he lost custody of his kids because he's agnostic.
Craig Scarberry had joint 50-50 custody of his three children with his ex-wife for four years, until a judge ruled last month that he was to be limited to four hours' visitation time per week and custody once every second weekend.
Scarberry says the only thing he can find in the ruling to justify the change is a superior court commissioner's comment that "the father did not participate in the same religious training as the mother ... father was agnostic." The ruling also stated that "when the father considered himself a Christian, the parties were able to communicate relatively effectively."..........
fuck them. really, FUCK THEM
because THEIR kids have enough to eat, they don't give a flying fuck about YOUR kids. the sooner you realize it and STOP VOTING FOR THEM, the better off the ENTIRE COSMOS will be
KIDS. we're talking CHILDREN here. it's TOO COSTLY TO FEED OUR NATION'S HUNGRY CHILDREN
FUCK YOU REPUG-LICK-ENS
FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU
(it's ap, so you have to click the link)
Republicans Block Child Nutrition Bill
and as JM Ashby said on bob cesca's awesome blog
"$4.5 billion for healthier school lunches and more free lunches for poor children is too costly, yet $700 billion for tax cuts for the rich is just what the doctor ordered in this economy."
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
i'm told i'll be needing a bumbershoot today
L’Opera / Jour de Pluie
oil print, 1909 by Pierre Dubreuil
anderson, man, how can you sit there with a straight face
when you're talking to someone who is a bag o' dicks?
unfortunately, this is just way too easy
posting story links without comments that is. this doesn't need ANY further introductions from moi
Tea party leader: Restricting vote to property owners ‘makes a lot of sense’
Tea party leader: Restricting vote to property owners ‘makes a lot of sense’
asswipes, asswipes and MORE asswipes
the sooner y'all realize THEY DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK ABOUT ANYONE OR ANYTHING BUT THEMSELVES, we will ALL be better off. i promise you that. WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP
Rep. John Shadegg's ridiculous views on unemployment benefits
By Jonathan Capehart
Rep. John Shadegg's ridiculous views on unemployment benefits
By Jonathan Capehart
A new entry in the annals of Republican ridiculousness came today with the appearance of Rep. John Shadegg (Ariz.) on "Morning Joe." Get a load of his response when MSNBC's Mike Barnicle asked him to square GOP opposition to unemployment benefits (because they're not paid for) with its support for extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest (without saying how they would be paid for). ..............
this is one hell of an essay
and it hits the nail on the head. if you are too stubborn, too ignorant, such a liar you cannot recognize yourself. WAKE THE EFF UP
American Psychosis: What happens to a society that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion?…
By: Chris Hedges, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, is the author of severalbooks including the best sellers War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle. .
The United States, locked in the kind of twilight disconnect that grips dying empires, is a country entranced by illusions. It spends its emotional and intellectual energy on the trivial and the absurd. It is captivated by the hollow stagecraft of celebrity culture as the walls crumble. This celebrity culture giddily licenses a dark voyeurism into other people’s humiliation, pain, weakness and betrayal. Day after day, one lurid saga after another, whether it is Michael Jackson, Britney Spears or John Edwards, enthralls the country … despite bank collapses, wars, mounting poverty or the criminality of its financial class.
The virtues that sustain a nation-state and build community, from honesty to self-sacrifice to transparency to sharing, are ridiculed each night on television as rubes stupid enough to cling to this antiquated behavior are voted off reality shows. Fellow competitors for prize money and a chance for fleeting fame, cheered on by millions of viewers, elect to “disappear” the unwanted. In the final credits of the reality show America’s Next Top Model, a picture of the woman expelled during the episode vanishes from the group portrait on the screen. Those cast aside become, at least to the television audience, nonpersons. Celebrities that can no longer generate publicity, good or bad, vanish. Life, these shows persistently teach, is a brutal world of unadulterated competition and a constant quest for notoriety and attention................
wednesday humor
sarevil changes feminist history to make it HERstory conveniently for HER of course (goddess, that woman is a gift that just keeps on keepin' on)
by Michelle Goldberg
In some ways, it’s a good thing that Sarah Palin calls herself a feminist. It means that, even among conservatives, women’s equality has become a normative position, the starting point for debate. It means that feminism has gone from something that the right wants to destroy to something it wants to appropriate. That’s progress, of a sort.
But reading Palin’s new book, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Flag, it’s clear that in order to claim feminism as her own, she’s had to radically distort its history. In a chapter on feminism that’s sure to be widely discussed, she mischaracterizes the views of nearly every historical feminist she mentions.
Sometimes she does it to defame them, other times to make it seem as if they shared her ideology..............
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
this is a damn fine essay on airport 'security'
Testing the TSA with Titanium Man
Mike Shaughnessy
Guestblogger Dr. Michael Shaughnessy is a German professor who specializes in computer assisted language learning and visual representations of culture at Washington & Jefferson College. He is the director of the CAPL project to provide free CC licensed media to language and culture instructors worldwide.
Mike Shaughnessy
Guestblogger Dr. Michael Shaughnessy is a German professor who specializes in computer assisted language learning and visual representations of culture at Washington & Jefferson College. He is the director of the CAPL project to provide free CC licensed media to language and culture instructors worldwide.
I have been covertly testing airport security since early 2002. I file no reports and the only notes I take are mental. I am the person that knows when the airport has security holes and still boards the plane. I am titanium man.
OK, enough of the dramatic science fiction; the truth is stranger. I have a few replacement parts installed in my body. Both my right and left humerus are constructed of titanium pins and plates with a number of screws in each arm and my right tibia has a full titanium core with a number of screws to fix it to my ankle and up by my knee. The details of how they all got there would be book length. The short version is that in early 2002 I had to get around in a wheel chair for a while, learn to walk, write, dress myself, eat, cook, all over again. It was an odd rebirth with metal ersatz bones to keep me all together. Unable to use my arms for much at the time due to their reconstruction, I managed to get around by dragging my left foot against the ground to propel the wheelchair. It was much like skateboarding when you get enough momentum to get from place to place.
Oddly enough, one of the first things I did after 4 months in a skilled nursing facility was fly to Canada. At the airport I first noticed how little security there was for me, despite the increased vigilance resulting from 9-11. I was 'wanded' in my wheelchair and of course beeped when wanded on my arms and right leg. After a brief visual inspection, I was simply pushed on by security. At the time, there was no security check of my wheelchair and I could have brought anything stashed in my chair or thick seat cushion. I felt sick being simply pushed by security as I watched a grandmother get special scrutiny. Flying wheelchair bound opened my eyes to the oddities of airport security.................
Monday, November 29, 2010
ira has science friday
here at ravings we have science MONDAY (well, not regularly)
from why evolution is true
The surreal treehoppers
via
from why evolution is true
The surreal treehoppers
via
because a football player is far more important
than a mere woman (always has been that way AND UNLESS WE EFFING CHANGE, ALWAYS WILL BE)
Notre Dame charged with not taking girl's sexual assault allegation, and subsequent suicide, seriously
A Catholic university overlooking a sex crime. It's not pedophilia, but still I bet someone in the Vatican is smiling.
It's a disgusting story. Read this and this.....................
Notre Dame charged with not taking girl's sexual assault allegation, and subsequent suicide, seriously
A Catholic university overlooking a sex crime. It's not pedophilia, but still I bet someone in the Vatican is smiling.
It's a disgusting story. Read this and this.....................
Sunday, November 28, 2010
the skinny white boy on soul train
i remember actually WATCHING this on soul train (well, this is a mashup with booker t thrown in. i mean MINUS the booker t). most things don't make me speechless. at the time THIS did. now, i guess it doesn't seem that unusual.
anyway, dangerous minds gives us David Bowie VS. Booker T: Hammond B3 meets ‘Fame’ on Soul Train
David Bowie vs Booker T. - "Fame" (BRAT Mashup) from Daniel Barassi on Vimeo.
anyway, dangerous minds gives us David Bowie VS. Booker T: Hammond B3 meets ‘Fame’ on Soul Train
David Bowie vs Booker T. - "Fame" (BRAT Mashup) from Daniel Barassi on Vimeo.
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