This is a fascinating, very short doco that looks at Mardi Gras beads from both sides: the partiers who wear them and the sweatshop workers who make them, and what each group thinks of the other:




Also, this:




A couple of little comments on life in America.

Kinda freaking out here. A few hours ago the Bean started complaining about a sore tummy. Then it got worse, to the point where she was curled up on the floor whimpering. steve901 has taken her to the emergency room to see if it's her appendix, while I sit at home and wibble. I get cranky when I'm sick, but my kids? When they're sick I panic.

Edit: Doctors say it's not appendix, or UTI for that matter. No idea what, but the pain seems to be lessening so they're chalking it up as "just one of those things". Why do "those things" always happen in the middle of the night instead of at a civilized mid-morning on a weekend when you don't have anything important to do?

Anyone have a spare cluestick?

I had to go up to Northern Virginia today to meet with a student group I advise. Last month, they voted to do a film festival in March. Theater is booked. Theater owner has been given a guarantee that theater rent will be paid and film rights will be purchased, to the tune of at minimum $1000, and based on that guarantee, he turned down another offer. Yesterday I got an email saying they're having second thoughts, fund raising sounds like too much work, don't wanna bother. Guess what, kidlets? You don't get to do that. This is the real world, where contracts have to be honored.

They're not usually this stupid, but for some inexplicable reason this year they elected a freshman as president. He loves running meetings and feeling powerful, but can't wrap his pointy little head around the notion of responsibility.

On the up side, while we were there we spent a couple hours at the post-Christmas sales and got some nice bargains.

David Barton, founder and president of WallBuilders, "an organization dedicated to presenting America's forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on the moral, religious, and constitutional foundation on which America was built," in an interview stated that:

Out of 182 nations at the UN this year, America is the only nation in the world that does not average a revolution every 30 to 40 years. We're the only nation where we never have to think about having a new government in our lifetime, a revolution.

How stupid is that? No, really. I want to know. Exactly how stupid? I'll be extreeeeemely generous and, focusing on the second sentence and the question of stability, include both government change by conquest and by decolonization* as well as actual revolutions. Off the top of my head:

No 'revolutions' ever - Australia, New Zealand, Canada

No 'revolutions' in the last century - France, England, Mexico, Switzerland, Bhutan, Holland, Denmark, South Africa


I have no doubt I've missed quite a few. Wanna play?

* This should exclude nations created relatively recently, like Israel, where it's hard to talk about a long-term, multi-generational pattern of stability.

You may have heard that five Americans were arrested last week in Pakistan. This is the first report I've read (though there may have been earlier ones, it's not a story I've followed closely) that says why. Assuming it's correct, I have to wonder, how do the right wing loonies spin this:

A group of Muslim men, some if not all of Middle Eastern descent, plan a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility and get fairly far into the implementation process. But, they aren't targeting the U.S.; the facility they are going after is in Pakistan. And they are all American citizens. Remember Pakistan? Home to Osama bin Laden? Our purported ally that has denied the US the right to go after al Qaeda where they live? The country that stole U.S. nuclear secrets and developed a nuclear program in direct violation of several treaties, but got away with it because shrub decided we needed them for the gwot? How can you spin this as anything other than that some Islamic terrorists are PRO-AMERICA?

Kinda takes some of the oomph out of the whole Muslims-are-anti-American narrative.

For those who celebrate the festival of Saturnalia Christmas holiday, here's something to ponder as you hang your virtual stockings, a little reminder that it's not all presents and tinsel. Of course, being my friends, I know you've been very, very nice.

Also, from cavalorn, a realio, trulio, little engine that could.

Merry Christmas to them what does, and happy vacation days to them what doesn't.

I've officially got ... something. Doc says it might be strep, but he can't be sure since my tonsils are too recessed to get a good look at, or it might be a sinus infection, but we can't test for that, then again it might be bronchitis, which could be either viral or bacterial. Whatever it is, I'm getting antibiotics, so hopefully it will go away. In the meantime, everything hurts, with special emphasis on my head and throat, and special, guest status, stabbing-chest-pain when I cough.

Edit: I spent over half an hour with the doctor discussing, not only my current symptoms, but also my past medical history and other medications. He looked at all my records. After careful consideration, he gave me very specific instructions on a combination of antibiotics and over-the-counter medications. I handed my husband those instructions and explained them to him in detail. Did he buy what I told him to? No. He told the pharmacist, "she has a cold" and bought what the pharmacist recommended. Fuckin eejit.

Spamming the flist this morning, but I just came across koalathebear's post on fonts and was introduced to a whole word of font-hate I never knew existed. Is this a common thing? And what's with the massive Papyrus hate?

As far as I can tell, the argument against it is that it is a) popular, b) pretty and elegant, and most importantly c) a Microsoft, off-the-rack, standard font. The thinking seems to be that nothing that comes from teh ebil MS should be allowed to be either a or b, and that people who use Papyrus are corporate stooges posing as individuals with style. Now, I despise the MS monopoly and their shitty coding standards as much as any reluctant PC user (my uni won't ante up for more expensive Macs), but pretty and elegant are nice things, regardless of the source, and not all of us have the skills (excuse me, skillz) to make our own fonts, so why get in such a snit about such a trivial thing? If only custom fonts are cool, does that mean that anyone who buys pre-made clothes is a dork? Are individualism and style such elite concepts that they are available only to those who have either the funds or the skills to own nothing off-the-rack?

Tis the season for selfish commercialism deep spiritual contemplation. In honor of which, I share with you the thoughts of one of the great philosophers of our time, slightly inebriated:




My favorite lines:
"In my religion, the building of a telescope is the building of a cathedral"
"I'd rather be a rising ape than a fallen angel"

I think that last one would make a great icon, if anyone has mad graffix skillz.

In other news, the official Sumerian response to Yahweh's interference in their already thriving civilization. (hat tip to ladykathryn)

Okay, some more than others. Still, good fun: