News I'm Following Today

I'm not much of a newshound at the moment, mostly due to being severely depressed about the state of the world, but here are some things going on that won't leave my mind, so I thought I'd blog about them.

1) Russia. Yeah, I still think Trump and Putin are in bed, and I firmly believe all the bluster about Syria - including the utterly ineffectual bombing - is cover for them making sweetheart deals with each other. Your mileage may vary.

2) North Korea. Trump is provoking them, and I don't know what will happen. All I know is that it isn't good.

3) United Airlines is evil. That's my opinion, of course, but I have no reason to doubt it. I've heard horror story after horror story, and experienced my own horrible trip on one of their planes. It's hard to not see the video of a man being dragged off a United flight - after he'd been seated and even though he had a valid ticket. I'm not a big fan of Jimmy Kimmel, but he gets it right (YouTube link).

3a) The people bringing up the victim's past and making a big deal out of it are scum.

3b) Two industries I know of use "overbooking" as an excuse - the hotel industry and the airline industry. I don't think either industry does enough to compensate customers who are victims of this practice. While I wouldn't go so far as to ban it outright, I think it should really hurt them if they overbook and as a result are unable to deliver what they've sold. And I mean really hurt by 5 to 10 times as much as the cost of the ticket/hotel room, in cash, not some worthless vouchers.

4) Sean Spicer is... really really bad at his job. And that's literally the nicest thing I can say about him. I don't want to say he's a Holocaust denying alt-right moron, because I'm not really sure he is. But anyone who makes this sort of gaffe should NOT be the White House press secretary. Heck, he should probably look for a job that isn't in communications.

5) San Bernardino. I don't have much to say on this one, but it's in my heart and I'm crying inside for the victims and their families.

6) Ardian Syaf, an artist for Marvel Comics, hid hateful anti-Jew and anti-Christian messages in his artwork. He's been fired. It's upsetting that someone would use X-Men, a comic about acceptance and the struggle over hatred, to promote such hatred. But I think Syaf himself, based on comments he's made, does not understand why people would find his messages hateful. Gail Simone graciously laid out her own experiences working with him. I'm sorry for everyone involved - though Syaf really did bring it upon himself.

Linkdump for Wednesday

Canada is burning. Well, one town. But it's a scary type of burning.

Honestly? I'm really wishing lab-grown meat would happen more quickly. I would be delighted to switch to food grown this way. It would save water, save land, not hurt animals and still satisfy our carnivore side... if it all pans out. I hope it does.

Metafilter has a frightening story: one person moving out of New Jersey put the state's budget at risk. In other words, the super-rich are so rich that they can devastate a region just by leaving. I don't mind people getting rich, but this is obscene.

On a lighter note, Metafilter finds a jewelry ad to be The Greatest & Most Enigmatic 2-Minute Horror Suspense Film of Our Time. It's... wow. I think it is truly impressive that an ad featuring Gwyneth Paltrow could have so many continuity errors that it inspires crazy theories.

Having recently read a book on the history of Hawaii (I really should review it), this article makes perfect sense in a pathetic way. Yes, people really were that racist and greedy.

Students are now exempt from stringent FAA standards regarding flying drones. I still want a little drone to use inside the house.

Comic book writer Peter David writes about his weight loss battle.

And in other comics, Previews seems to indicate that Rebirth is a reboot after all. I guess I don't mind having my comics rebooted every 20 years, but every five years or so is getting tiresome.

Linkdump

A judge ordered a newspaper to remove an article from its website. The paper refused and basically told off the judge. The judge backed down.

I don't have anxiety attacks often, but when I do they are truly some of the worse things I've ever dealt with. Wil Wheaton has advice for a fan who asked about dealing with a panic attack.

This key organizer is tempting to me, but I'm not sure if I want it enough to actually get it.

I don't know why, but I find this story about adding sound effects to real-life lasers to be just... cool.

National Geographic celebrated World Oceans Day on Instagram with lots of great photos. But I think this is my favorite. But then, I'm also a sucker for seahorses.

A lined seahorse at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. Photo by Joel Sartore.

Personally, I prefer to write yyyy/mm/dd for my own records, because it makes a heckuva lot more sense than the default U.S. date format (and because I was influenced by computer standards as well, I'm sure).

Here's a nice list of Nebula Award winners with links to a lot of the stories online. I'm particularly pleased with the victory of Ursula Vernon's Jackalope Wives. Vernon did the fantastic webcomic Digger (which was honored with a Hugo award in 2012). Anyway, Vernon's response to her win was hilarious and humble in the best way. Congrats! I hope to meet you at a convention some day.

Galapagos Eruption

Foto del guía naturalista Diego Paredes

Wolf volcano in the Galapagos islands has erupted for the first time in more than 30 years. Volcano erupts on Galapagos island home to unique pink iguanas, New Eruption Started in the Galapagos Islands and Golondrina Yacht's FB page has photos and links.

Seriously, What the Heck?

Simple solution: police should stop killing people.

Riots in Baltimore... if anything, they are overdue. The endless stream of pointless deaths caused by police who are just a little too ready to use lethal force at the slightest provocation has become numbingly painful. If I were in Baltimore, I'd want to march as well.

There is, of course, an incredibly simple solution to all this pain. The police could stop murdering people. While I don't expect absolutely perfect behavior from everyone 100% of the time, it should be simple enough to not murder somebody. No rough rides. No chokeholds with tackles. No gunning down somebody running away. Just stop the killing and start figuring out how to do actual policework instead of acting like an occupying force. Get cops on the streets, talking with people in neighborhoods, understanding the areas they work in. Proactive policing, small town policing... it's possible. It's done in some places, even in big cities. This attitude of cops against the world needs to go away. Police need to be a part of the community, one of the people in the neighborhood (a person that you meet each day).

I'm an idealist in many ways. This is one area I truly believe we can improve in. This is something that is badly broken that I believe we can fix. The cops should be the good guys.

Not again...

Yet another life ended senselessly. My heart goes out to the family of the victim in the latest school shooting, this one in Troutdale, Oregon, just outside of Portland at one of the state's biggest high schools.

Well, crap...

My heart goes out to the family of the victim in the latest shooting, this time in Seattle at SPU.

Seattle Crash...

My heart goes out to the families of the dead in the helicopter crash in Seattle this morning. I tried to watch some of the news at lunch, but couldn't handle the sheer sadness of reporters mourning one of their own.

Some Links

I'm there. Totally sold. Say no more. It's already on my pull list.

Fish Scale Plastic Replacement. Via Boing Boing.

Sexism on the 'net.

Harnessing the wind even now.

Are bananas about to become extinct? short answer: no, not really

The town of Quartzsite Arizona is in bad shape, and now half the police department is on leave after accusing the police chief of corruption. And, being Arizona, no one in the state government is helping deal with the problem. There's a history of the whole dispute here.

Turnabout should be fair play, but William Saletan of Slate is an honest man.

First-person account of Utøya.

This Takes Some Courage...

Pregnot-- Toppenish High student fakes pregnancy as social test about stereotypes, rumors.

Gaby Rodriguez would worry whenever anyone asked to touch her baby bump.

It wasn't because she felt shy or embarrassed. It was because the bulge -- fashioned from wire mesh and cotton quilt batting -- didn't actually contain a baby.

Gaby spent her entire senior year doing a project on what it is like to become a teen mom, and how it affects other people's perceptions of you. The article is fascinating, the comments at the end reveal a lot more. I hope she did a very good job with documentation of this, because I could easily see her getting a thesis out of this experience in a few years.

Mubarak Resigns

Mubarak resigns as leader of Egypt, now it appears the military will take control. Is this success or a subtle failure?

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo said the announcement caught everyone by surprise: all over the city, drivers honked their horns and people fired guns into the air.

But the army takeover looks very much like a military coup, our correspondent adds.

The constitution has been breached, he says, because officially it should be the speaker of parliament who takes over, not the army leadership.

We can only hope this turns out for the best, and wish the people of Egypt good luck and strength. I don't believe this is even close to being over yet.

The Daily Show

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Arizona Shootings Reaction

Saturday Linkages that Won't Melt Outside

Comic Book Legends Revealed #268: Seinfeld's Superman Fetish, Steve Skeates Aquaman, and John Ostrander. I'm amused that my blog is mentioned in the Aquaman item (as I had nothing to do with the question or answer) and even more amused that my husband's site is also mentioned. Someone must like our work.

Elayne sums up the battle over women on The Daily Show.

Dealing with bipolar depression.

Bacon Cinnamon Rolls. Oh. my.

Slate takes on Anime Eyes and the New York Times.

DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE JUST EATEN, ARE ABOUT TO EAT, OR ARE ABOUT TO GET ON A PLANE: Airline Passengers Showered With In-Flight Maggots. TSA can find a nail clipper, but can't find maggots?!??

Wonderful headline: Mailbox, Mini Cooper, Fireworks a bad combo.

What drowning actually looks like.

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost taken by ghosts.

When being autistic is a crime.

LOLCat Theology.

And lastly, Pug Puppy for the in-laws.

I Wanted To Write...

...a long post about a news item I spotted, and I started to write when I realized that I didn't really know all the facts and that the news article was extremely misleading and implied stuff that wasn't actually stated. Then I read some more articles on the same subject and realized that pretty much all of them were missing key facts. Even though I read twenty articles (slight exaggeration), I didn't have enough facts for an informed opinion.

I spent the two longest quarters of my college career in the journalism department, and not one of those articles would have earned better than a D in any of the classes I took. I do not consider myself to be an expert in journalism, but I know bad writing when I see it.

So I'm not going to write about the subject, since I really don't have enough facts and it would be silly to speculate on this particular topic. I pretty much want to dump all news media in operation right now. None of them are up to standard. They are more about earning profits from advertising than good journalism.

Someone Doesn't Like Our Newspaper

SO Much to Talk About, Where Do I Start?

Well, there's been a few... developments... in the greater world that I feel I should address. So I'll ramble on a bit. Those of you who hate my opinions may as well stop reading now.

First up is Tiger Woods. I don't care. Period. That's all I have to say on the matter.

Next up is the Haiti incident with the doofus missionaries: They are idiots. The children being brought out of Haiti had, for the most part, been in the process of being adopted for YEARS before the Earthquake. Waltzing in and thinking you can just take children off the street was ridiculous, if not actually evil. There's a reason the process takes a long time, and those missionaries deserved the punishment they got and more, and should be glad they are getting off easy. Twits. Morons like them make it more difficult for the legitimate adoption agencies to work.

Education: Big Brother is Watching You. This story makes me see red. The school claims the cameras were only turned on if the laptop was reported stolen, but if that's the case, why was the kid disciplined for "improper behavior" in his own home and NOT for falsely reporting his laptop stolen? I'm afraid that every school administrator involved in this act of spying should go to jail for some time and be forbidden to ever work with children again.

UPDATE 2/20: This article defines the improper behavior, "an official mistook a piece of candy for a pill and thought he was selling drugs." How exactly does that relate to a stolen laptop? Meanwhile, the school defends itself by contradicting the parents. They also contradicted themselves. They first claimed that the software had never been activated, and now say it's been used in 42 cases of stolen laptops.

Politics: I'm not sure why anyone is listening to that quitter Palin, the Democratic party needs a spine immediately, the stimulus DID create jobs and lower the job loss rate, and if health care isn't overhauled within the next year or so the premature deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans will be one the hands of our congresscritters, who right now take so much money from the health insurance lobby that they might as well consider themselves paid assassins for health insurance. An aside: Republicans are great at winning elections, but lousy at actually running the country. Democrats are horrible at winning elections, but can't run the country without a supermajority. Ug.

Olympics: I don't care what anyone says, I love Curling. And the Simpsons got it so very wrong that I kind of wish they hadn't bothered (although the pin-collecting side plot was funny). I've also enjoyed watching the other sports, although the crashes have made me cringe and shudder more or less constantly. The weather conditions in Vancouver no more prove global climate change than the snow on the East Coast disproves it, but it sure is more evidence of something totally out of whack in our weather. I'm much more upset by NBC's decision to delay their coverage of the Games 3 hours for the West Coast, WHERE THE GAMES ARE HAPPENING, so we see all the results online before the events are shown on any local channel. NBC really screwed up this one.

Entertainment: I've got more to say about DC Comics than can fit in a summary, but I think the change in leadership is not a terrible thing, and will wait and see. I'm looking forward to Brightest Day because of the promised Aquaman content, but I expect to be disappointed. In other entertainment, can hardly wait for new Doctor Who to start up. And I'm still in training for Emerald City Comicon, which requires me to get lots of walking in.

I must give an annoyed shout out to Aaron Williams who directed me to this page of free downloads of the old Command and Conquer games. I'm utterly addicted to the original game, and I love just blowing up pixels. It's a lovely waste of time, but unfortunately I had more important things I should have been doing (if I'd had the brainpower to do them). Oh Aaron, you have hurt me so!

Um, that's all I can think of for now. I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but this is more like a real blog post than anything I've done in months, so I'm signing off.

Friday Linkdump

Holey Moley! I now have a reason to get financially solvent.

The best garden shed. I wonder if it's bigger on the inside? In other Doctor Who news, Paul Krugman corrects his employers, who referred to the TARDIS as a phone booth.

I don't need another t-shirt, but if I did, I'd get this one. Cthulu and Hobbes!

Wow, the AP really annoyed the blogosphere with their stupid fee policy.

A fifth foot found on the BC Coast was quickly followed by a sixth foot, but the sixth turned out to be a hoax. Still, that's FIVE single feet washing up in the same area. An expert thinks they are all the result of the same accident.

Too much information leads to losing good information because you can't find it in the mass of data. Over-surveillance has the same problem. Trying to watch everyone is not only a violation of privacy, it also doesn't help prevent crime.

Food portions are much larger today than in the past, which is contributing to our national obesity. One of the first things I did when I started my weight loss was lower my portion sizes, and learn how to eat only half a meal at restaurants. In other weight loss news, eating a big breakfast might help you lose weight, or at least stick to your diet plan.

XKCD has a reminder that there are people behind those words.

Basement cat is coming for your soul.

Er, Is it Thursday Now?

The Whiteout movie arrives in September. I'm looking forward to it, but I probably won't be able to afford to see it in theater.

Bob Rozakis' Elseworld DC Universe. Instead of Batman and Superman taking off, Green Lantern and Flash were the top two heroes.

Tom Beland points to a great tribute to Rory Root.

If you are tempted to sign up with Tokyopop, read this first! Seriously, do you really want to sign away all rights to your work just to get published?

I really would like Neil Gaiman to write Doctor Who. Really.

Duff does it again with a really cool Star Trek cake.

I only watched about half of the video, but technogreek shows off amazing street art.

Is it more efficient to leave your car idling? In a word: NO.

Airline safety brochures have gotten very detailed.

Twins separated at birth are accidentally reunited, and all three women involved sue the hospital that mixed them up.

Kenya Ranger Blogger tries to save wildlife.

It's Thursday Already

February 29th: The Ladies' Privilege.

Oz and Ends examines The Arrival, which I recommended a bit ago.

Keming is improper kerning. In the comments of the original post: This is the basis for a puzzler: What part of a ship turns into its opposite when the "rn" is turned into an "m"? Very easy, but I did have to think about it for a moment.

What If Joss Whedon Wrote Doctor Who.

Scary exchange student story. I think the fact that the kid didn't complain to his parents is chilling.

Street Racing. An accident in Maryland claimed 8 lives when people watching a race in the darkness (in the middle of the street) where hit by a car that was not involved in the race itself.

Cryptomundo reports on an old mystery of the Ural mountains, in which 9 experienced skiers died when they abandoned their shelter in the night for unknown reasons, and ran out nearly unclad into the freezing weather. That alone would have been unusual, but some of the skiers had massive internal injuries when they were found months later.

Wednesday Night Almost Random Links

IDW has some previews up, including the new Doctor Who book.

Speaking of Doctor Who, Catherine Tate makes stuff up. It would be more accurate to say that she's predicting Tennant leaving, not saying he is.

Scott Dunbier writes about the Godson.

We need more contracts like this one in the world.

Kevin Smith weighs in on adults who mess with kid's self-esteem.

Money folded to look like... well, people in hats. There are some good Abes and Georges even. It's Moneygami!

Which is better, real or fake Christmas trees? Personally, I have a little two foot high fake tree that I adore, and I plan on using it until it cannot support its lights anymore.

Much better gift wrapping.

A local politician tested toys for lead, and 10 percent of them were unsafe. Nice. Let's just poison the next generation, hey?

Wowio users, download to support Bill Mantlo.

Ah, yes... upgrading to XP from Vista.

Cutre Overload is proud to be mentioned by National Geographic. Eddie McBlobbules, heh.

In the MetaFilter tradition: . (for Dan Fogelberg)

Lifehacker's 2007 Guide to Free Software and Webapps. I'm already using a few of those, and downloaded more after reading the list.

I really don't like dramatic versions of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but I have no problem with the original text, some of the genius of which filkertom points out. The language of the story is just amazing. I just get tired of seeing it constantly.

First Nations teacher kidnapped... er, taken from school, causing a wee bit of concern.

Finding a son at Lowe's Hardware Store. An impressive story, I thought.

Google still hasn't fixed the garbage with Google Reader, although they've made half-hearted attempts to address some of the issues. I'm enjoying playing with Bloglines Beta, which has me reading some of my feeds in a different way.

Ah, finally an SUV gets what it deserves. The South Lake Union Trolley is off to a good start!