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Wednesday rapid fire
- Driving with Mr T.
- Poorly written and misleading article in Newsweek about poverty. To quote:
The picture is clearest when you look at the number and fate of the world’s middle- class countries (rather than middle-class individuals, although the story there is not so terrific, either).
and
The absolute income levels of the poorest may be creeping up. But with the notable exceptions of India and China and a few others
Why is there no critical thinking anymore?
- Michael Jackson uses ladies room in Dubai
- Woman to marry man who shot her
- More on modded hybrid cars
- Solar power and Sterling Engines make the best chance for meaningful solar power I’ve seen so far.
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Is anyone there?
I haven’t had any comments in a while, is anyone there?
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Just ordered
Visual Studio 2005. Full scouting report in around 3 weeks or so.
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Job security inspires low standards all around
I was reading the two education related articles Schools want Beltline voice and Decatur tries to close racial gap in the AJC and was astonished by the poor quality of the writing and thinking. Nothing but one and two sentence paragraphs and no information that couldn’t be found on a press release.
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A fine point
I forget how I got to this examination of the French riots, but this is a pretty good explanation
What you’re seeing in the riots now is really just the same thing that happens when the government tries to privatise some public company, and the unions go on strike.
This is the French banlieu criminal union going on strike.
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Dinosaur attack
In what I can only assume is an attempt to keep their names in the paper, both Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader have taken sides on the Terrell Owens affair.
The civil rights activist said the level of punishment could have been warranted if Owens had been caught shaving points, selling drugs, carrying a gun or fighting fans without sufficient restraint.
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Synchonicity
Whilst going to see the A-Sides at Limerick junction last night I experienced a weird coincidence of sounds and scene. I was listening to the Waco Brothers album “To The Last Dead Cowboy” and for two miles the alienation of the music matched the inherent alienation of an urban landscape.
I was driving up McClendon, which actually goes for quite a ways. The neighborhoods were very nice, and very pricey, but also very old. It occurred to me that the builders and original dwellers of the neighborhood were long gone; it gave the neighborhood a strange, bruised feel. The houses had character and style, but they seemed lost without their original owners. The separation was somehow palpable (with the soundtrack).
Reading over this I don’t think I’ve captured the thought accurately.
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Long time no blog
The riots in France continue. Is it me, or is it very strange that there is a national strategy on what is essentially a local law enforcement problem, albeit a common one.
I still think some of the French politicians are playing a “the worse, the better” game with the rioters, to wit, the worse the riots, the more the anti-immigration sentiment, which bodes well for le Pen’s party. Or it could be that the French government simply lacks the ability to end the riots.
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Wednesday round up
- Torture Warrants – it deals with everything honestly I suppose.
- Google founders buy a private jet – and yet “We’ve worked very hard to make sure our [net] impact on the environment is positive”
- The gutlessness of the Republican party is amazing.
- Kinky!
- Topless protesters – though after a certain age one’s cause doesn’t really break even in effectiveness. The organization is called “Breasts not bombs” though I see no reason why we can’t have both.
- Ayn Rand’s cover illustrator is still alive and has some wonderful art on his site. I highly recommend it. His prints are exhorbitantly expensive sadly.
- Wonderful pulp art (the Shadow) from Micah Wright, who it would seem is a fraud in his other endeavors.
- Twinsparc has released SaySo.org
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Band of the moment
The Barnyard Playboys – nothing complicated, just good old country punk. I got their album after seeing them at the Star Bar about six years ago (during my rockabilly period) and I haven’t listened to it in about 4 years. Still good, unpretentious stuff. Where else can one hear “Someone shaved a yeti” in song?