A discussion elsethread about Mississippi's Personhood Law (ugh) reminded me of this little ditty from Monty Python's Meaning of Life (1983). #ddtb
Category: ~PlusPosts
Posts imported from Google Plus
Move your money
Margie and I have been quite pleased with both of the credit unions we've belonged to over the years, so I'm tickled to see that the current turmoil is leading a lot of folks to move away from Big Banks.
If your money is still with BofA, or Chase, or one of the other too-big-to-fails, seriously consider a local credit union or community bank. Your money's still insured, the fees are almost certainly lower, you don't have to worry about an investment arm destroying the institution through derivative gambling, and the service (esp. past the teller window) will almost certainly be more local and more responsive. #ddtb
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650,000 Americans Joined Credit Unions Last Month — More Than In All Of 2010 Combined
One of the tactics the 99 Percenters are using to take back the country from the 1 percent is to move their money from big banks to credit unions, community banks, and other smaller financial unions t…
Eating on $4.66 a day
That's how much you get if you’re on food stamps (SNAP). $32.59/week. $4.66/day. $1.55/meal (if you're going for three meals). Not much you can buy for a $1.55.
Remember that, next time Paul Ryan or Eric Cantor or one of those other Congressional dolts (of either party, but most reside on the Right) start going on and on about how we have to keep all those lazy poor people from living the comfortable life sucking at the public teat, rather than hustling to get a job. Once they demonstrate a comfortable willingness to get by on $4.66/day, I'll start to give their rhetoric a bit more consideration. #ddtb
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Elected Officials Attempt Living On Food Stamps
Jackie Spier is discovering how difficult it is to shop and buy food on just over $32.00 per week. She and seven other Congressional Democrats have taken the Food Stamp Challenge, where they commit to…
Oh, modern art – you're so zany
While the longer version of this tale of "Oh, I didn't realize that was the actual artwork" isn't quite as goofy as the shorter versions floating out there, the various other historic examples given are hilariously evocative of my last trip to the Tate Modern. #ddtb
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Overzealous cleaner ruins £690,000 artwork that she thought was dirty
She scoured off a layer of paint in a sculpture by late German artist Martin Kippenberger on loan to a museum in Dortmund
I just like saying "Crepuscular Rays"
It makes me feel like vaguely steampunky. "Unleash the atomics! Time to give these vile Martian invaders a taste of our Crepuscular Rays!"
(Actually, come to think of it, in the premiere "movie" of the animated Justice League, the White Martian invaders were defeated, in part, by crepuscular rays. Wow. Two geekgasms in one post!) #ddtb
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Crepuscular rays are parallel! | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine
Pretty pictures | crepuscular rays | When you go outside at sunset, many times you'll be greeted with spectacular rays of light and shadow stretching across the sky. These are called crepuscular ra
Plus vs Twitter
Heh. It's funny, because it's true. #ddtb
More Doctor Who zaniness
Not only does this look like everyone’s having a hell of a good time, but I’m impressed by the number of former actors in the series the got to reappear for it.
Plus, of course, one of my favorite tunes. #ddtb
(UPDATE: Sorry, the YouTube video didn’t transfer over from Plus. Here it is:)
The Ballad of Russell (T. Davies) and Julie (Gardner)
Man, I wish I could do something so epic (e.g., Doctor Who) that it would get David Tennant, Catherine Tate, and John Barrowman to do a filk for me.
It’s not silly
To ask Billie
We’ll film in every quarry from here to Caerphilly
Ha!
#ddtb
(UPDATE: This YouTube video didn’t transfer from Plus, either. Hrm.)
Dial T for Touchtone
Kids these days have no idea what "dial the phone" means. (Plus, they insist on being on my lawn!) #ddtb
(And a third video that didn’t come over automagically from Plus. Rrg.)
Responsibility vs Opportunity
An interesting article looking at differences between conservatives and liberals in the area of causes of wealth and poverty. In short, conservatives tend to blame (or reward) personal choices as the cause of success or failure in society — the poor are poor because they are lazy and make bad decisions; the rich are rich because they are industrious and wise. Liberals, on the other hand, tend to blame (or reward) outside sources — the poor are poor because they are oppressed, exploited, have few opportunities to succeed; the rich are rich because they are lucky, have connections, take advantage of the system that perpetuates wealth among the wealthy, etc.
The fact is, that such generalizations are incomplete. Some people are poor (or rich) because of their own doing. Some people are poor (or rich) because of factors they have no direct control over (luck, connections, etc.). Downplaying personal responsibility (e.g., doing some research into what those loan papers actually say and whether that kind of deal makes sense) is wrong … but so is ignoring the forces manipulating people into making bad decisions (e.g., obfuscating loan terms, making misleading sales statements about how loans will change over time, okaying people for loans that they clearly cannot afford).
Ultimately, we need a world that encourages personal responsibility — and the societal responsibility to give everyone the opportunity to succeed. #ddtb
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The Spoilers
It's not at all surprising that, given the situation in the country today, there would be an element that would take advantage of it to push forward an agenda of destruction and selfishness and societal breakdown that threatens whatever credibility the rest of their cohorts might have.
I'm talking, of course about folks like the Koch Brothers, who give capitalism and business success a bad name. But I guess these yahoos qualify from the other side of the coin. #ddtb
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Occupy protesters disavow Oakland violence – Yahoo! News
Occupy Wall Street protesters had just a few hours to celebrate what they saw as their biggest victory so far: the peaceful shutdown of the nation's fifth-busiest port. Then the rioting began.
A River Runs Through It (again)
Destroying an old dam to let the river flow naturally. I'd like to know more of the story, but it's fascinating to watch. #ddtb
The Black Bands! The Black Bands!
Okay, it's getting kind of silly now.
Twitter has black band across the top of the window with various utilities and menu options.
WordPress has a dark one (if you're logged into the blog), too.
And now the standard Google design has a black band across the top.
Each of which is fine, but combined turns out to be confusing. Wait, that notification, it was over there, but now it's — oh, I'm in a different application, silly me …
It almost makes me feel fond toward Facebook and it's navy blue band across the top. And that'll never do!
#ddtb
And the Skye is Grey … er, Gray?
I tend to use "grey," but I blame JRR Tolkien and Chris Claremont.
#ddtb
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“Grey”
The color or colour between black and white. U.S. spelling has traditionally been gray, and British (or at least modern British) grey. The OED notes:
With regard to the question of usage, an inqui……
IE drops from majority to plurality of Web usage
Some convincing analysis in the article as to why that's so — and why most of the competing growth has come from Chrome.
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The end of an era: Internet Explorer drops below 50% of Web usage
Two things happened during October: Internet Explorer lost its majority share of the browser market, and here at Ars, Chrome overtook Firefox for the first time ever. We think the cause could be the s…
All your media are belong to us!
Yes, what I've always wanted is yet another layer of DRM between me and the stuff I want to watch (and am willing to pay money for). That it's "social media integrated" makes it even worse. Stupid, stupid Media creatures …
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Your movie on every platform, sort of, for a while: how the new UltraViolet DRM fails
The movie industry's attempt at a kinder, gentler way to let customers own both a digital and hard copy of movies is called UltraViolet, but our experience with a copy of Horrible Bosses left…
But remember, terrorists are all swarthy Muslims!
But remember, terrorists are all swarthy Muslims!
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SOPA is an awful bill that needs to be stopped
Alas, it's the darling of the Hollywood Lawyer set, which the government loves to accommodate. The thing is so full of unintended (?) consequences, it makes the DMCA look good.
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Proposed Copyright Bill Threatens Whistleblowing and Human Rights | Electronic Frontier Foundation
Proposed Copyright Bill Threatens Whistleblowing and Human Rights. In the past week, the larger Internet community has joined EFF in sounding the alarm about the new copyright bill, now known as the S…
The true cost of commuting
Y'know, even if my company stopped subsidizing my transit pass, it would still be worth it to take the light rail in. Especially since it gives me a 30-40 minutes of reading time to and from the office.
Cops and Protesters
I don't envy police who are sent to contain or control protests, especially since there are usually protesters (some of them even not agents provocateur) who are looking for trouble in even the most peaceful settings. And sometimes cops are ordered to do things that they might not otherwise be inclined to do.
But there are clearly cops who enjoy the power, who enjoy striking back, who have anger management issues, who hate damned hippies, who don't suffer taunts or protests well, and/or who, in this Internet/mobile phone age, keep getting caught on camera …