Friday, May 28, 2004

Nanny Naivete

“California adopts cell phone ‘bill of rights’."

Sheesh.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/28 at 05:01 AM
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Something Further to Consider Regarding Poverty

About a week ago, I had a few things to say regarding poverty in a post titled “Conjuring Up Poverty." That post was in response to a NYT article regarding alleged poverty here in the USA.

Here’s something additional to consider about the “societal” definition of poverty here in the USA.

"In Haiti’s slums, round swirls of dough can be found baking in the sun. They look almost appetizing until you learn the ingredients: butter, salt, water and dirt.

In a world where the rich spend millions on ways to avoid carbohydrates and the United Nations declares obesity a global health threat, the cruel reality is that far more people struggle each day just to get enough calories.

In Malawi, children stand on the roadsides selling skewers of roasted mice."

From a NYT article titled “When Real Food Isn’t an Option."

Via Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution.

There is no poverty in the United States.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/28 at 04:25 AM
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A Movie I Would've Probably Enjoyed

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker commenting on their idea for filming the movie The Day After Tomorrow.

"We planned to secretly shoot that movie with puppets, word for word, and release it on the same day. We thought that would have been hilarious, but our lawyer convinced us we wouldn’t get it released."

Via Jesse Walker, at Hit & Run, who provides some links on this little story.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/28 at 04:19 AM
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Beating the Bush

I don’t often read Paul Krugman, which is only fair since he, in all likelihood, has never read anything I’ve written, but this morning I was drawn to read his column by the title which heads it.  “To Tell the Truth." A title one must skeptically eye, considering the source.

In the column, Krugman, correctly, questions the veracity of Bush’s integrity in regards to the reasons the United States is currently in Iraq, but it was the following sentence, from Krugman’s column, that triggered a bit of a gag reflex in me as I read it through.

”...Moderate and liberal journalists, both reporters and commentators, often bend over backward to say nice things about conservatives..."

Yeah, right.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/28 at 03:45 AM
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A Return Salvo

Not wanting to be outdone by recent research which seems to show that smoking therapy may be beneficial to some heart patients, the government fired a return salvo by lengthening the list of diseases which may possibly, but not positively, be linked to smoking.

“List Linking Smoking to Diseases Expands."

Link to above story via Drudge.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/28 at 03:29 AM
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Goodshit on a Friday Morning

Fred Lapides site, Goodshit, is a daily stop on my internet journeys, and not just for the eye candy.  Though that sounds like the classic, “I get Playboy for the articles” defense.  This morning, Fred had more than a few items of interest, such as the post below this one, and I wanted to pass on links to two other items Fred posted.

A hand painting of a Bald Eagle.  It’s actually a two handed painting.

And, a review of Wilde’s book A Picture of Dorian Gray. The review is titled “A Poisonous Book." After reading the review, I went and grabbed my 1904 hardcover copy off of my shelves and set it on my nightstand to read again.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/28 at 03:16 AM
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Death by Asteroid or "Verneshots"?

"The idea that mass extinctions are caused by impacts from outer space has been one of the best marketed pieces of popular science—it has even inspired Hollywood movies. It would be ironic, indeed, if Dr Becker’s Australian crater, on the face of things such eloquent evidence for the extraterrestrial nature of mass extinctions, turned out to be a crucial nail in that theory’s coffin."

The above is the concluding paragraph from an article in The Economist titled “Bang and blame." The article introduced me to the term “Verneshots,” which, in a nod to Jules Verne, describes the possibility of volcanic action being able to launch large rocks into space, which is part of a theory which postulates that asteroids did not wipe out the dinosaurs, but large scale volcanic activity wiped out the dinosaurs.  It is an interesting concept.

Via Fred Lapides.

Posted by John Venlet on 05/28 at 03:08 AM
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