Game On.
Google Transit has graduated from Google labs. Nice touch with the cost comparing transit versus driving. Wonder who's going to come up with something better? Yahoo? Nokia? Let the transiting begin.
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This American Life: The Detectives
Probably my favorite David Sedaris story ever, the mystery which strikes the Sedaris home, is on This American Life last month. 22 minutes long and worth every second.
This American Life (free stream, or $.95 download available)
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Don't buy that extra widget.
A report came out today about environmental issues and consumption habits in Australia. Turns out that wealthier households consume more (what?!) but the real news is that inner-city households are consumption hotspots. Transit use and energy-efficiency are offset by higher rates of consumption on goods, rather than services. (Something to think about in the big-box argument?)
Some great recommendations that are easy(ish) to put into action:
· Shifting consumption from high impact goods to lower impact services;
· Consuming sensibly rather than carelessly, while enjoying life more;
· Cutting down on waste and unnecessary expenditure;
· Purchasing efficient and environmentally sound products.
On top of it, this report lays it all out in a clear, understandable manner with really lousy type. Worth a read. PDF attached.
Also, look at the index in web form. Pretty:
http://www.acfonline.org.au/consumptionatlas/
Report PDF
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Moyers v. Rove: Round 4
WARNING! Lenghthy read follows link below:
Bill Moyers had a pretty amazing rundown of the offenses set forth by Karl Rove on a recent episode of Bill Moyers Journal. He has come under fire for being partisan and biased as a journalist. Perhaps the best response the PBS had (outside of its transparently conservative Ombudsman, to whom the answer was directed) is:
"As we stated last month in our reply to your (previous) inquiry, 'the title of the series, Bill Moyers Journal, signals to viewers that they can expect to encounter the strongly reasoned viewpoints of Bill Moyers and his guests.'"
Oh, and don't forget to read the letters that follow. I'm writing one, and soon.PBS | Ombudsman | The Gift That Keeps on Giving
A letter to a Vermont newspaper in response to the sins of homosexuality, 2000.
Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay son and I’ve taken enough from you good people. I’m tired of your foolish rhetoric about the “homosexual agenda” and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of motherhood ever since my children were tiny.
My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the time he was in the first grade. He was physically and verbally abused from first grade straight through high school because he was perceived to be gay.
He never professed to be gay or had any association with anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have gestures like the other boys. He was called “fag” incessantly, starting when he was 6.
In high school, while your children were doing what kids that age should be doing, mine labored over a suicide note, drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out of me as he choked out that he just couldn’t bear to continue living any longer, that he didn’t want to be gay and that he couldn’t face a life without dignity.
You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don’t know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn’t put him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and it’s about time you started doing that.
At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to yours, and you won’t get to choose. Whether it is genetic or whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal development, I don’t know. I can only tell you with an absolute certainty that it is inborn.
If you want to tout your own morality, you’d best come up with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, because my own heterosexuality was a blessing I received with no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed by a 10-step program, I’m puzzled. Are you saying that your own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that’s not the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?
A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, so I’ll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for “true Vermonters.”
You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they didn’t give their lives so that the “homosexual agenda” could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.
He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at all. That wasn’t the measure of the man.
You religious folk just can’t bear the thought that as my son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of happiness. It offends your sensibilities that he should request the right to visit that companion in the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit from tax laws governing inheritance.
How dare he? You say. These outrageous requests would threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine the sanctity of marriage. You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious people who find your attitudes repugnant. God is not for the privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no sin.
The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about “those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a religious upbringing” asks: “What ever happened to the idea of striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?”
Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that?
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Cash Cab comes home!
We recently learned that four friends were out on the town, caught a cab and ended up on the Cash Cab game show. Well, it aired last night and was hilarious. Carlton made certain to speak directly into the camera like a good boy and Sandy kissed the money they won. All familiar behavior from this group of wonderful people. As an added bonus, Sandy's picture made the front of AOL's TV section.
Congratulations to all of them and thanks for a jolly great time.
I totally want to make a little mouse fatter.
Though this diabetes-breakthrough news is interesting, I can't help but dwell upon the process behind fattening up the mouse – putting out little, tiny cheesecakes, leaving thimbles full of macaroni and cheese lying around, mixing up a fresh bottlecap of white russians.
"It's probably the most obese mouse that's ever been reported," Scherer says of their particular mouse strain.
Fun.
‘World's fattest mouse’ appears immune todiabetes - health - 23 August 2007 - New Scientist
Nurdles are not cute.
Charles Moore is the single person on the planet screaming his lungs out about this problem of little, tiny pieces of plastic COVERING our oceans. Read this all the way through. Look at the images. My hope is that you will not look at the world the same again.
And for everyone (including the turtle in the article), pass it on to others.
Best Life Magazine: Health & Fitness: Our oceans are turning into plastic...are we? and
Another personal story with great images.
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This election's best issue
We sit around talking about whether or not Michael Moore made a good movie or not, but what we should stick to is the real topic: upgrading our mediocre healthcare system.
An editorial in the NYT today:
World’s Best Medical Care?
Many Americans are under the delusion that we have “the best health care system in the world,” as President Bush sees it, or provide the “best medical care in the world,” as Rudolph Giuliani declared last week. That may be true at many top medical centers. But the disturbing truth is that this country lags well behind other advanced nations in delivering timely and effective care.
Michael Moore struck a nerve in his new documentary, “Sicko,” when he extolled the virtues of the government-run health care systems in France, England, Canada and even Cuba while deploring the failures of the largely private insurance system in this country. There is no question that Mr. Moore overstated his case by making foreign systems look almost flawless. But there is a growing body of evidence that, by an array of pertinent yardsticks, the United States is a laggard not a leader in providing good medical care.
Seven years ago, the World Health Organization made the first major effort to rank the health systems of 191 nations. France and Italy took the top two spots; the United States was a dismal 37th. More recently, the highly regarded Commonwealth Fund has pioneered in comparing the United States with other advanced nations through surveys of patients and doctors and analysis of other data. Its latest report, issued in May, ranked the United States last or next-to-last compared with five other nations — Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom — on most measures of performance, including quality of care and access to it. Other comparative studies also put the United States in a relatively bad light.
Insurance coverage. All other major industrialized nations provide universal health coverage, and most of them have comprehensive benefit packages with no cost-sharing by the patients. The United States, to its shame, has some 45 million people without health insurance and many more millions who have poor coverage. Although the president has blithely said that these people can always get treatment in an emergency room, many studies have shown that people without insurance postpone treatment until a minor illness becomes worse, harming their own health and imposing greater costs.
Access. Citizens abroad often face long waits before they can get to see a specialist or undergo elective surgery. Americans typically get prompter attention, although Germany does better. The real barriers here are the costs facing low-income people without insurance or with skimpy coverage. But even Americans with above-average incomes find it more difficult than their counterparts abroad to get care on nights or weekends without going to an emergency room, and many report having to wait six days or more for an appointment with their own doctors.
Fairness. The United States ranks dead last on almost all measures of equity because we have the greatest disparity in the quality of care given to richer and poorer citizens. Americans with below-average incomes are much less likely than their counterparts in other industrialized nations to see a doctor when sick, to fill prescriptions or to get needed tests and follow-up care.
Healthy lives. We have known for years that America has a high infant mortality rate, so it is no surprise that we rank last among 23 nations by that yardstick. But the problem is much broader. We rank near the bottom in healthy life expectancy at age 60, and 15th among 19 countries in deaths from a wide range of illnesses that would not have been fatal if treated with timely and effective care. The good news is that we have done a better job than other industrialized nations in reducing smoking. The bad news is that our obesity epidemic is the worst in the world.
Quality. In a comparison with five other countries, the Commonwealth Fund ranked the United States first in providing the “right care” for a given condition as defined by standard clinical guidelines and gave it especially high marks for preventive care, like Pap smears and mammograms to detect early-stage cancers, and blood tests and cholesterol checks for hypertensive patients. But we scored poorly in coordinating the care of chronically ill patients, in protecting the safety of patients, and in meeting their needs and preferences, which drove our overall quality rating down to last place. American doctors and hospitals kill patients through surgical and medical mistakes more often than their counterparts in other industrialized nations.
Life and death. In a comparison of five countries, the United States had the best survival rate for breast cancer, second best for cervical cancer and childhood leukemia, worst for kidney transplants, and almost-worst for liver transplants and colorectal cancer. In an eight-country comparison, the United States ranked last in years of potential life lost to circulatory diseases, respiratory diseases and diabetes and had the second highest death rate from bronchitis, asthma and emphysema. Although several factors can affect these results, it seems likely that the quality of care delivered was a significant contributor.
Patient satisfaction. Despite the declarations of their political leaders, many Americans hold surprisingly negative views of their health care system. Polls in Europe and North America seven to nine years ago found that only 40 percent of Americans were satisfied with the nation’s health care system, placing us 14th out of 17 countries. In recent Commonwealth Fund surveys of five countries, American attitudes stand out as the most negative, with a third of the adults surveyed calling for rebuilding the entire system, compared with only 13 percent who feel that way in Britain and 14 percent in Canada.
That may be because Americans face higher out-of-pocket costs than citizens elsewhere, are less apt to have a long-term doctor, less able to see a doctor on the same day when sick, and less apt to get their questions answered or receive clear instructions from a doctor. On the other hand, Gallup polls in recent years have shown that three-quarters of the respondents in the United States, in Canada and in Britain rate their personal care as excellent or good, so it could be hard to motivate these people for the wholesale change sought by the disaffected.
Use of information technology. Shockingly, despite our vaunted prowess in computers, software and the Internet, much of our health care system is still operating in the dark ages of paper records and handwritten scrawls. American primary care doctors lag years behind doctors in other advanced nations in adopting electronic medical records or prescribing medications electronically. This makes it harder to coordinate care, spot errors and adhere to standard clinical guidelines.
Top-of-the-line care. Despite our poor showing in many international comparisons, it is doubtful that many Americans, faced with a life-threatening illness, would rather be treated elsewhere. We tend to think that our very best medical centers are the best in the world. But whether this is a realistic assessment or merely a cultural preference for the home team is difficult to say. Only when better measures of clinical excellence are developed will discerning medical shoppers know for sure who is the best of the best.
•
With health care emerging as a major issue in the presidential campaign and in Congress, it will be important to get beyond empty boasts that this country has “the best health care system in the world” and turn instead to fixing its very real defects. The main goal should be to reduce the huge number of uninsured, who are a major reason for our poor standing globally. But there is also plenty of room to improve our coordination of care, our use of computerized records, communications between doctors and patients, and dozens of other factors that impair the quality of care. The world’s most powerful economy should be able to provide a health care system that really is the best.
World’s Best Medical Care? - New York Times
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I'm dying to try these.Apocalyptic Fit
I think TV producers are in a period of anxiety. Every channel, from Discovery to SciFi is all disaster all the time right now. (Disclaimer: Disaster movies give me lifeforce. I watch any I can.) Either 3d film programs are just dictating television, or something big is driving an apocolyptic anxiety.
Also, I was thinking about climate change today after reading this. I realized that the universe couldn't give a crap whether we were ruining our atmosphere or not. We could screw it up until it all got blown off the planet. Whatever. We only need to care because we live in a big terrarium hurling around a fireball and are fucking it up. (The only real difference between us and a terrarium is that a terrarium has glass protecting it.)
I almost ran smack a Tony Award-winning actress today.
So I was at the Tony Awards rehearsal this AM with Jim and Steven. Radio City Music Hall. We got to watch all the fine tuning and behind-the-scenes action. Jane Krakowski was there – she's the great blond comedienne on 30 Rock.
On the way through exit 26 I nearly walked into a woman. We both stepped back and apologized, and I stepped aside to let her pass through. Turns out was Bernadette Peters. Such a minor story, but you have to collect Diva in New York stories, don't you? (For the record, Bette Midler smiled to me from a moving car in the West Village once. Those are about all the Diva stories I have.)
Body Fuzion
Jimmy and I are on an SNL kick right now. Drew Barrymore at her best.
Kritin Wiig: "You've got a bad haircut and your house smells weird."
Look, I've been busy.
After a long hiatus, I'm back. We had a very successful conference on climate change and I've got a lot to show. I'll put up a post with all the new materials to get myself back in the groove right soon. For now, here is a link to something to keep you busy:
flickr search " cats"
The 7 most promising energy sources.
These are not in order of promise. They are just to lay them out in an argument. Please comment and add to the list (or subtract).
Cars:
1. Cellulosic Ethanol
Corn is so 1985. Cellulosic Ethanol, the process of taking all the excess biomass we have, such as hay, cornstalks, wood chips and grass, and turning it into a fuel, uses the whole plant, doesn't require growing space and is massively more efficient. It also doesn't rely upon fertilizer which removes it from the petroleum industry. Been in production in Canada as a demonstration project since 1997. In Cambridge MA there is a plant ready to start producing 1.4 million gallons a year in 08. Other plants are about to start construction in Kansas (50 million gallons) and Spain. Branson is behind it, Alan Greenspan loves it. It is changing very, very quickly and older ethanol plants are trying to convert to cellulosic technology because of the more realistic resource use. There simply isn't enough grain to get corn as a viable fuel.
http://www.InvestInCellulosicEthanol.com
2. Compressed Air
Provides it's own air conditioning. Costs $1.00 every 100 miles. Can refill without a filling station and uses backup fuel if necessary. They are slated to be rolled out THIS decade in massive quantities. And cheap. (But probably loud.)
http://www.theaircar.com/thecar.html
http://www.gizmag.com/go/7000/
3. Electric Cars
I don't think I need to even go into these. Google search it or http://www.evworld.com/
Other energy:
4. Wind and wave power
Turbines are starting to be built into skyscrapers, under rivers and everywhere else. They can be built on huge scales or small, can cost $1.00 or $5,000,000,000,000, and hold an immense amount of potential for integration into existing buildings. No one has ever had their head cut off by a turbine. Really.
Or Scotland has a great solution. Put these up and down the northeast coast to harness the power of the Atlantic. Low profile, cheap and very low maintenance.
Or how about multiple methods?
5. Plasma
Energy from trash (again) that has a net GAIN in profit? Yes. So simple it's crazy. Trash is delivered to a plant, separated and turned into glass, a hydrogen CO mix and energy. The glass is a usable material, the gas is a fuel and the energy is fed into the grid for a profit. The first plant opens in St. Lucie County Florida in 09. Japan has them running already. Startech has said the biggest problem is overcoming existing investment systems, NOT the technology.
Good post about it:
http://synthesis.typepad.com/synthesis/2006/09/geoplasma_and_p.html
6. Solar
The oldest energy source in the world. But solar technology has a problem. It cannot get to the consumer without someone getting in the way and charging a middleman or fighting a bureaucracy. The era of flexible, thin solar cells is right around the corner, unless we let it keep going the way it has. Every window in a tower could be a solar panel if the competing industries hadn't held it back for so long. Seriously – that is all which is stopping it.
That said, there are many places which are advancing solar as a source. San Francisco is covering Moscone Center in 60,000 sf of solar panels, and has already begun using them in every municipal building. (Diffuse light works with solar panels, so SF is terrific for the technology.)
Treehugger
Powerfilm
6.25 Geothermal
I don't know anything about it, but that it is used everywhere and is massively under appreciated. Nicolas?
6.5 Nuclear
Fix the problems of storage and waste and we've got an inexhaustable supply of energy. See you in 2050, according to most.
Media Update: Gabriel and Dresden, Tracking Treasure Down
I'm really hung up on this song right now. 100% RIAA free. Fuck the RIAA. Video below.
UPDATE: After listening to the whole album, there is this really nice link to Everything but the Girl, and some other very familiar sounds. It is great listening and very good as a soundtrack to work. The remake of Dust in the Wind (original here) is especially nice.
Call me a skeptic.
I've recently found another podcast I love, love, love. The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe is dedicated to refuting the massive amounts of bad science and pseudo-science in the world. The most recent podcast has a great debunking of Sylvia Browne, a psychic who my mother found interest in in the 80s.
I'm right now going back into the archives on iTunes to see what they say about UFOs. I'm sure that somethign is happening, but the proof has never been there. I want to see what they put together as an argument against UFOs and how they might consider proof to be valid. I'll also look into their global warming topics, as I'd like to see how they address some of the data. Listen to them and see what they say.
Some debunkings:
- Enviga doesn't make you lose weight.
- Sylvia Brown is a thief.
- Jesus was not found.
UPDATE: Al Gore's movie pissed me off because of it's over-dramatization and overbearing charts. I've been looking through the podcasts to see what they had to say about his movie to convince me he might have been nearly right. I found it in a great interview with Spencer Weart, author of The Discovery of Global Warming in January (Episode #77). In it, he breaks down the claims of climate change deniers, presents data and discusses "An Inconvenient Truth". The interview starts at about 35:45 and is worth your time. Really.
Also check out the site Real Climate.
J
Enjoy.
Larry Kramer Essay: Why do straights hate gays?
I'm having a hard time finding the published source for this. I'll update when I do.
Why do straights hate gays?
An aging 72-year-old gay man isn't hopeful about the future.
By Larry Kramer, LARRY KRAMER is the founder of the protest group ACT UP and the author of "The Tragedy of Today's Gays." March 20, 2007
DEAR STRAIGHT PEOPLE,
Why do you hate gay people so much?
Gays are hated. Prove me wrong. Your top general just called us immoral. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is in charge of an estimated 65,000 gay and lesbian troops, some fighting for our country in Iraq. A right-wing political commentator, Ann Coulter, gets away with calling a straight presidential candidate a faggot. Even Garrison Keillor, of all people, is making really tacky jokes about gay parents in his column This, I guess, does not qualify as hate except that it is so distasteful and dumb, often a first step on the way to hate. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama tried to duck the questions that Pace's bigotry raised, confirming what gay people know: that there is not one candidate running for public office anywhere who dares to come right out, unequivocally, and say decent, supportive things about us.
Gays should not vote for any of them. There is not a candidate or major public figure who would not sell gays down the river. We have seen this time after time, even from supposedly progressive politicians such as President Clinton with his "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military and his support of the hideous Defense of Marriage Act. Of course, it's possible that being shunned by gays will make politicians more popular, but at least we will have our self-respect. To vote for them is to collude with them in their utter disdain for us.
Don't any of you wonder why heterosexuals treat gays so brutally year after year after year, as your people take away our manhood, our womanhood, our personhood? Why, even as we die you don't leave us alone. What we can leave our surviving lovers is taxed far more punitively than what you leave your (legal) surviving spouses. Why do you do this? My lover will be unable to afford to live in the house we have made for each other over our lifetime together. This does not happen to you. Taxation without representation is what led to the Revolutionary War. Gay people have paid all the taxes you have. But you have equality, and we don't.
And there's no sign that this situation will change anytime soon. President Bush will leave a legacy of hate for us that will take many decades to cleanse. He has packed virtually every court and every civil service position in the land with people who don't like us. So, even with the most tolerant of new presidents, gays will be unable to break free from this yoke of hate. Courts rule against gays with hateful regularity. And of course the Supreme Court is not going to give us our equality, and in the end, it is from the Supreme Court that such equality must come. If all of this is not hate, I do not know what hate is.
Our feeble gay movement confines most of its demands to marriage. But political candidates are not talking about ‹ and we are not demanding that they talk about ‹ equality. My lover and I don't want to get married just yet, but we sure want to be equal.
You must know that gays get beaten up all the time, all over the world. If someone beats you up because of who you are ‹ your race or ethnic origin ‹ that is considered a hate crime. But in most states, gays are not included in hate crime measures, and Congress has refused to include us in a federal act.
Homosexuality is a punishable crime in a zillion countries, as is any activism on behalf of it. Punishable means prison. Punishable means death. The U.S. government refused our requests that it protest after gay teenagers were hanged in Iran, but it protests many other foreign cruelties. Who cares if a faggot dies? Parts of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. are joining with the Nigerian archbishop, who believes gays should be put in prison. Episcopalians! Whoever thought we'd have to worry about Episcopalians?
Well, whoever thought we'd have to worry about Florida? A young gay man was just killed in Florida because of his sexual orientation. I get reports of gays slain in our country every week. Few of them make news. Fewer are prosecuted. Do you consider it acceptable that 20,000 Christian youths make an annual pilgrimage to San Francisco to pray for gay souls? This is not free peech. This is another version of hate. It is all one world of gay-hate. It always was.
Gays do not realize that the more we become visible, the more we come out of the closet, the more we are hated. Don't those of you straights who claim not to hate us have a responsibility to denounce the hate? Why is it socially acceptable to joke about "girlie men" or to discriminate against us legally with "constitutional" amendments banning gay marriage? Because we cannot marry, we can pass on only a fraction of our estates, we do not have equal parenting rights and we cannot live with a foreigner we love who does not have government permission to stay in this country. These are the equal protections that the Bill of Rights proclaims for all?
Why do you hate us so much that you will not permit us to legally love? I am almost 72, and I have been hated all my life, and I don't see much change
coming.
I think your hate is evil.
What do we do to you that is so awful? Why do you feel compelled to come after us with such frightful energy? Does this somehow make you feel safer and legitimate? What possible harm comes to you if we marry, or are taxed just like you, or are protected from assault by laws that say it is morally wrong to assault people out of hatred? The reasons always offered are religious ones, but certainly they are not based on the love all religions proclaim.
And even if your objections to gays are religious, why do you have to legislate them so hatefully? Make no mistake: Forbidding gay people to love or marry is based on hate, pure and simple.
You may say you don't hate us, but the people you vote for do, so what's the difference? Our own country's democratic process declares us to be unequal. Which means, in a democracy, that our enemy is you. You treat us like crumbs. You hate us. And sadly, we let you.
More: Larry Kramer's Cooper Union Speech Nov. 2004
Dan Savage's Response to Garison Keillor's recent statements
Bill Maher on the HPV vaccine
Got this in an e-mail today. Yet another moment where it is clear that society hates little girls. Hates them. And their happiness.
Christians crusade against cancer vaccine
Activists don't want girls inoculated against HPV because they want sex to remain as scary as possible.
By Bill Maher
March 2, 2007
New Rule: If you don't think your daughter getting cancer is worse than your daughter having sex, then you're doing it wrong. Last year, science came up with a way to greatly reduce cervical cancer in young women. It's a vaccine that prevents women from getting HPV, which is a sexually transmitted disease that acts as a gateway to the cancer. And the vaccine is so good, it could wipe out HPV. I keep a stockpile near my hot tub, and I can tell you, that tingling sensation means it's really working. And I'd say that even without the endorsement deal.
Now for the bad news: Not everyone is pleased with this vaccine. That prevents cancer. Christian parent groups and churches nationwide are fighting it. Bridget Maher -- no relation, and none planned -- of the Family Research Council says giving girls the vaccine is bad, because the girls "may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex."
Which is really a stretch. People don't get the vaccine for typhoid and say, "Great, now I can drink the sewer water in Bombay." It's like saying if you give a kid a tetanus shot she'll want to jab rusty nails in her feet. It's like being against a cure for blindness because it'll encourage masturbation. It's like being for salmonella poisoning in peanut butter because it'll discourage weirdos from spreading it on their ass and calling the dog.
And yet, the anti-vaccine folks seem to think that if a teenage girl feels a little prick, she's gonna want to feel a whole lot more. But HPV shots don't cause promiscuity. Tequila shots do. Everything your kids buy is sold to them with sex. The vaccine doesn't make them want to screw: MTV does. And hormones. And having moron parents they want to escape from. Hey, when you're 15 years old, breathing encourages sexual activity.
But let's be frank: These Christian groups aren't just against the HPV shot; they're against family planning and condoms and morning after pills -- they want to make sure sex is as dangerous as possible, so that kids know, if they sleep around and get an STD, that's God teaching them a lesson. And the lesson is, you should never have tried out for "American Idol" in the first place.
There's only one kind of medical science that excites Christians, and that's anything that proves life begins earlier and earlier in the womb. If you could use stem cells to prove that life begins at foreplay, the pope would turn the Vatican into a lab. These people don't really want to see a cure for anything, except homosexuality.
But as a parent, if you're so obsessed with abstinence you'd risk your kid's health, there's a word for what you are, but it's not "follower of Christ." It's not "moral." It's not "Christian." It's not even "logical." So just admit it. You hate sex. It's OK to say you hate for the sake of hating. It hasn't hurt Dick Cheney.
I hate to tell you this, Mrs. Maher, and anyone else who thinks a vaccine gives your girls a "license to have sex": Your daughter knows she doesn't need a license for sex. She's already on the Internet exchanging bondage fantasies with a German boy she met on MySpace. Forget HPV; she's already on to S/M. We all know, there's only one 100 percent proven method to make a woman abstinent -- marry her.
DS2K7!
I've received three e-mails from palm in the last five days (Get off me back, Palm!) telling me I need to update my Treo software because of daylight savings time changing. Fortunately, I pad my weekends with enough fuck-off time that the only thing that I could mess up, is my scheduled game of "Where did that sock come from?" with the cat.
I'm going to be watching this closely tomorrow AM and Monday. There could be some pretty funny screw-ups tomorrow and THEN AGAIN on the traditional DST change day which is...ummm...later.
Please keep refrigerated.
I'll make him get me some iced tea or something, then come the yays.
Please stop supporting the RIAA.
The tech blog Gizmodo is organizing a month-long boycott of any music supported by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). As most of you may know, the RIAA has begun bullying consumers and holding us hostage with overly-strict copy protection and mean-spirited lawsuits. They also eat puppies (not really.) Anyway, they need to be stopped and our wallets are the best weapon.
Please read he explanation and consider it. They give all details in the below post, and also a place to check if your music that you want to purchase is boycottable.
Also, send this link in whatever form to everyone on your frequently e-mailed list.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets
GOOD NEWS: All the new music I bought in the past month is also RIAA-free. Thurns out that the music not done by RIAA artists is of the highest quality (sometimes better).
Try these on iTunes: Mocky, The Pinker Tones Thom Yorke's The Eraser, Mum, Lemon Jelly I've made an iMix of some suggestions:
Also, here is a short list of places to start looking for independent music. Please report any errors in this list back to me. I will be correcting any misleading links:
http://www.riaaradar.com/
http://www.emusic.com/
http://cdbaby.com/
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com
http://www.stylusmagazine.com
"Remember, the President likes his twinkies arranged around the plate like a spongecake Stonehenge"
It's amazing how easy it is to get sucked back into something. My current vortex: Podcasts on iTunes. I started last week and haven't been able to stop. Neither has Jim.
Last week we found Crista Flanagan (of MADtv fame) has a podcast called Hope is Emo. She does miserable really well, and at times you see a lot of Wendy Walker in Hope. The misery gets to be a bit much, so do it in smaller doses.
I'm also catching up on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. If you've never listened, you must. It is a non-participatory game show, where four people play silly word games. I just listened to the February 11th episode and Paula Poundstone is charming (as is the rest of the cast). All droll, witty and funny as hell while reviewing current events. Please, please check this out. You'll love it. Found here.
UPDATE: One more. SF Chronicle corrections podcast. Here. For the love of all that is holy. Now. NOW. Episode about the Oakland homicides.
NBA does it right...
First, John Amaechi is really terrific. He has been coming out for a few days and is making a serious impact on the sports world.
Second, I just sent this letter to the NBA (at nba.com) in response to this.
I want to commend you in your actions following the anti-gay remarks made by Tim Hardaway. In my opinion, you were swift, deliberate and right to not support intolerance. I now see the NBA with a depth I had not known was there and will make it my primary choice in sports viewing.
Jeff Ferzoco
New York, NY
Get ready to have basketball-watching parties at our apartment. (Maybe Jimmy will learn new hors-d-ouvres for basketball season.)
Lifetime wins the Super Bowl.
On this day of horrible violence towards women across the US, one station chose to counter it with some powerful films. Lifetime quietly made the choice to show Bastard out of Carolina and Black and Blue, two films about domestic violence opposite the Super Bowl. They are also showing The Good Girl, but I'm not certain that it is part of the series.
Someone at Lifetime made a really great choice and will possibly save someone from a lot of pain. I'm watching it to see which advertisers support Lifetime for these films and make them part of my choices. Maybe I'll even write a letter or two...
Tags:
change,
justice,
responsibility,
tvwatch
1 remarks
Are you ready for some hot power tool goodness?
This should be played on every screen in every gay bar for all of eternity.
First post from my Treo!
I just figured out how to post on-the-go. I added a weblink to the post page for blogger to my Treo quicklinks. (duh.)
I'm sending this from the Urge right now. bartender's birthday happening tonight. Not staying long. (right.)
Jimmy is out shopping for warmer clothes becuse he has to work in the coming freeze - over a river. I feel bad for him and made him go buy clothes. He's so cute. He wanted to stay home, but it was going to bite him in the ass if he didn't do it now. We'll do a bigger order from Duluth Trading later and get him more workwear. I love workwear and am tempted to become an electrician just to wear it.
Back to me beer.
My change of heart.
Recently I've changed. I used to love convergence. Wanted all my devices in one: phone, music, games, etc. I'm not like that anymore. This all happened because of the new ipod shuffle I got this Christmas.
I LOVE this thing. It forces me to focus my listening to 200 songs, clips on anything and is totally solid state. I'm not afraid of damaging it because it is made of aluminum. Really. Best thing ever.
Unfortunately I'm now one of those geeks who walks around with an MP3 player strapped to them. I'll have to live with it.
The little things: our new ice system.
We have struggled with how to keep enough ice in the fridge for awhile. We both love our drinks like our Vogue editors: cold and colorful. We make what equates to screwdrivers minus the vodka at home all the time, requiring a lot of ice.
We found these at the Container store. They are sealed (ish), stack and were cheap. We bought 4 and ALWAYS have ice now. I'm so happy I could make myself a cranberry and seltzer.
Next step: Putting a visual cue on the fridge to make sure the empty ones are refilled. See, the key to this system is to refill all at once, because it takes 30 seconds. Doing them one at a time has NO advantage. You have to empty all of them out into the larger bin, then refill. Some would balk at that, demanding a commitment to the individual refill. Those people don't live in New York or have a Wii or have a cat who likes to wrestle for hours on end like me. I like short, powerful bursts of focused work. It makes things more tolerable.
That, my friends, is my ice system.
Media Update: The Pinker Tones and more
Music: Totally addicted to the song "Sonido Total" from the album The Million Color Revolution by The Pinker Tones. They are out of Barcelona. They make me shake my booty all day long.
Games: Started up "Animal Crossing" Fucking Bob wanted me to deliver a picture book to Mitzi WAYYY to many times, so I dug up holes in his front yard and sent him a letter telling him he was an old queen with no taste. No response. Also almost finished the Potato Salad level in Cooking Mama on the DS. I can't get the potato peeling down, no matter how hard I try.
Websites: Boingboing is my continued favorite this week.
Tags:
its just a tag,
mediawhore,
Sexy 80's,
Tips
1 remarks
If it could make a panini, that would be a bonus, too.
I was at dinner tonight with some friends and we, predictably, began discussing the features of the iPhone. Everyone agreed in the end that it looks to be great, with the obvious hesitations (Cingular, price, can it be insured?, battery replacement). By far my personal favorite feature is the Multi-Touch screen. I'm not as excited about it on teh phone as for the potential for future variations of that.
From day one in my graphic design I have been bothered by the input barrier put between the user and the computer. Only when we can tactilely and immediately affect the screen – as we would the real world – will designers take further leaps in productivity and, indirectly, creativity. I'm imagining a 30-40 inch platform where you can maneuver objects around as you would if they were in front of you. This is not a new idea: See here.
Of course, the phone will be great, but I'm more looking towards future, more helpful uses for the technology. Oh, and I think they will print money with this thing, as has been said before.
UPDATE: Read this Macworld article for more potential flaws. I don't like that this is a closed operating system one bit.
Oprah might as well book Katie now...
To absolutely no one's surprise, Tom Cruise and Katie are apparently on the rocks. It sounds like things are getting kinda petty in the TomKat compund. With rumors of trauma over an 80's ad campaign and late night mental-wrassles over the number "71", things are looking bleak.
The more I hear about him, the more I think he is just an absolutely normal guy who is a controlling butthead. The Scientology, the quesadilla cheese, the odd numbers. They all make me think that I know many Tom Cruises, but none of them are wealthy. (You all know who you are.)
Anyway, read the nice article: TomKat is dying.
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