Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Sony declares official end of the floppy | Tech News on ZDNet – Yeah, everyone laughs, until the remember some day the stuff they have on a 3.5″ floppy from college that nothing can read any more …
- Boobquake to Rock World on Monday — Daily Intel – I fully support this effort — in the name of science, of course.
- How Sarah Palin Has Become a Singular National Industry — New York Magazine – Les and I chatted about Sarah (and her new, profitable career) during the Lost Podcast. Interesting reading (beyond the snippet here).
- Hayworth explains his ‘birther’ inclinations – Every time I shake my head sadly over what McCain has morphed into, I need to remind myself of the person who’s facing him in the Arizona primary. Yeesh.
- All Gardeners are Perverts, Part I – It’s not so much a real fear as insurance policy ass-covering and the application of state law on school volunteers who are there to work with kids upon anyone who might be on school property. I’m waiting for the day when all parents of kids at a school have to undergo a criminal background check so that the school knows it’s safe for them to be on the grounds.
- Neanderthals may have interbred with humans – Not tremendously surprising.
- Why acupuncture aids spinal recovery – health – 26 April 2010 – New Scientist – This is pretty darn cool — both therapeutically, but also as an example of how science works. You test for a result, then try to figure out what what you observed happened, then test to confirm. The answers aren’t automatic or easy or even always correct (there’s always more to test), but you end up with something you can reproduce and extend from, rather than simply attributing it to “chi” or good spirits or prayer or an alignment of the zodiac with the level of bodily humours.
- Why You Should Never Pay For Online Dating – A self-serving, but interesting, crunching of pay dating sites.
- New Last Airbender Trailer, New Awesome Stuff, New Crap to Worry About – Not the first person I’ve read note that there’s an utter dearth of humor in the trailers we’ve seen. Which could be a simple direction for the trailers only, or may indicate that’s the direction MNS is taking the film. Which would be a crying shame, because the “fun” is a big part of what made ATLAB enjoyable and made the drama all the more meaningful.
- Even Tancredo worries AZ immigration law may go too far: People shouldn’t be pulled over for how they look. – Hey, Arizona dudes, when even Tom Tancredo expresses concerns about how harsh your anti-immigrant law is, you might want to give it another look-see.
- An economic historian debunks the originalist rhetoric of Citizens United – A nice take-down of the conservative activism in the “Citizens United” case.
- The fate of Wall Street reform – This is a win-win situation for the Democrats — either they get the financial reform bill that the country needs and wants (for which they can take credit), or the GOP can bask in the inky glow of having blocked said needed and wanted legislation directly on behalf of the financial industry (which is likely to hurt them come November).
- Catholic League’s Donohue Makes Big Claim: Not All Pedophilia Is Abusive – Sexual abuse is, ultimately, about power, the inappropriate wielding of power of one person over another. While our laws on age and sexual consent may be drawn arbitrarily, they exist nonetheless, and for a good reason. Donohue’s claim that someone who is being abused would never continue a relationship with the abuser over many years demonstrates how little he understands about sexual abuse.
- Calling out McConnell, cont’d – When one side engages in systematic lies, delays, obstruction, broken promises, demands, rejected compromises, and, oh, more lies — then insists that if the effort isn’t “bipartisan” than it isn’t legitimate, then that insistence isn’t actually bipartisanship, it’s just another means of obstruction.
- The evolution of toleration in the West. – In some ways, it’s an interesting insight into the current conflict within the GOP and the Right — fiscal/big-business conservatives vs. social conservatives, and how the two never coexist easily (and have often been enemies). I don’t buy completely that capitalism/trade is the core reason for the increase in tolerance in Western society, but it is certainly one of the reasons (beyond the simple idea that both travel and familiarity with those who are different tends to reduce knee-jerk cultural prejudice).
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Actually, I would be deliriously happy if MNS removed what passed as “humour” in LA, since most of it was at the expense of Sokka, and all it did was ruin the pace of the show needlessly. Bonus points to MNS if he manages to make Ang not an whiney, useless idiot that needed to be smacked every couple of minutes like in the cartoon, but a real fully fleshed out character that is worthy of being a hero.
There’s certainly some that could (must) be excised, for the sake of time if nothing else, but I don’t think TLAB would be the same (or as good) cast entirely drama-epic a la LotR (which included copious Hobbit humor, esp. early on, though I could have done without the Dwarf humor).
And while there are indeed times when I wanted to smack Aang upside the head, I’m not sure being the gritty gravelly-voiced ultra-serious warrior monk we see in the ads is an improvement.
We shall see.
Have you been reading the rewatches at Tor.com?
The rewatches? Ummm, no.
What are the rewatches?
Tor.com is doing a weekly (or so) rewatch of the series, an ep at a time, with reviews. Some good stuff. http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=58880