The hallway into the international terminal at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. I like the guy with the boxes. It gives the photo character.
-
Oh, the Irony. It Burns…
NPR’s Morning Edition interviewed a woman today concerning the media coverage surrounding (enveloping? choking?) the Virginia Tech shootings. The upshot was, the media is being a huge hungry hound and is exacerbating the trauma on a number of students/faculty/staff/etc. The woman interviewed was a survivor of the Jonesboro shootings in 1998 when she was a 13 year old sixth grader. She spoke about how the media camped out for the remainder of the school year (March-June), not allowing the school any peace.
NPR also taped some quick soundbites with current students at VT concerning their opinions that the media empire needed to pack up and go; their presence is not allowing VT to heal. The slant of the entire segment was “Media: thou art evil, now GO!”
Of course this was on a radio news program. I wonder if the students being interviewed about the too-extensive media coverage appreciated the irony of their actions.
NPR is not immune from the same budget factors that drive the ABC’s and CNN’s and Fox’s of the world. They, however, have a reputation for calm, unbiased, dispassionate objectivity which occassionally gets them into a sticky situation, like this one.
The irony is hot, let’s go press some scenes.
-
Harry Potter Outreach Program
One of my favorite blogs is SFSignal.com. You know this if you read this blog as I link there frequently.
They have a new challenge! The Harry Potter Outreach Program, intended to convince all those people lined up at bookstores on July 21st (advent of the last Harry Potter novel) that HP is not the end-all and be-all of fantasy or science fiction. Check out the link, and make your own contributions.
-
Fred Phelps and The Westboro Band of Shitheads
The Westboro Baptist Church, led by Fred Phelps and famous for picketing military funerals (because the U.S. Military is a vast gay-love association), blaming the Columbia diaster on the United States’ support of homosexuals and abortion ,and blaming 9-11 on God’s punishment of the U.S., etc., will be attending the funerals of the students killed at Virginia Tech.
This angers me to a degree that is very unlike me. I makes me want to drive to Blacksburgh with a hockey stick and beat that evil man within a inch of his life. However, that would be immoral, and illegal.
I have a suggestion, though.
About 1,000 counter protesters should show up whereever WBC arrives, surround them, hem them in (peacefully!) and not let them move for the entirety of the funerals. I don’t care if it’s 24 hours, they should be penned into one tiny spot and not allowed to leave without trying to cause physical harm to the couter-protesters. Let them sing their “God Hates Fags” songs while the families, students, faculty, and administrators attend to their grieving. We’ll keep the vicious haters away.
Alerted by Pandagon via Pharyngula
-
This Week in Traffic: 18 April 2007
Kuala Lumpur: a “Flood” of traffic
Kuala Lumpur has built a highway that is also a major flood-relief feature, or vice versa. Check out the graphical description.
Electronic Ticketing with a Smile
Police are being outfitted with electronic tools to enable them to do their jobs faster.
Traffic and Produce
Don’t forget to wash your vegetables.
Titanic Passenger List Online (limited time)
The list of passengers on the RMS Titanic is online for the next week.
Mary Peters and Electronic Stability Control
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters has an announcement about standard automotive equipment.
Delhi has Traffic and Enforcement Issues
-
Google Direction
1. go to www.google.com
2. click on “maps”
3. click on “get directions”
4. type “New York” in the first box (the “from” box)
5. type “London” in the second box (the “to” box)
6. click on “get directions”
7. scroll down to step #23As gacked from a friend at work, Jason.
-
Ziggurat Con! Support the Troops!
There will be a game con in Iraq. It will be attended by military personnel and civilian contractors. They need stuff.
I haven’t yet figured the easiest way to contribute, but don’t let that stop you! Go to the link above and help out.
-
What Does This Mean?
My wife is a professor of technical communication at Georgia State University. On her twisty never-ending road to the Ph.D. she taught many undergraduates many courses. One small module of one of these courses was on Icons, and their utility in communicating important messages. As an exercise, she would have the class try to design an icon that could be used on a nuclear waste facility, to be understood for all time by humans, despite any changes that might occur to society, civilization, etc. A permanent message saying, “Do not touch this!” It’s a difficult problem, demanding more psychology than graphic design skill, in my opinion.
Then you get icons like the image above. A worthless coupling of inconsistent themes. Does this mean, “If you touch, be prepared for shock?” How about, “If you touch this, it will explode.”
The context of the message helps out, but this only makes sense if you already know what it means. And if you know what it means, why bother having this message? It boggles the foot.
-
Abstinence Only Eductation
A study published this month concludes that abstinence only sex education is not effective in changing the behaviors of teens. A silver lining, if you can call it that, is that there was no measurable difference between the study group and the control group. So, the abstinence only education did not negatively affect the rates at which these teens were sexing each other up, nor did it affect the rates that they contracted sexually transmitted disease. A Bush appointee says “This study isn’t rigorous enough to show whether or not [abstinence only] education works,” but we know that the Bush administration has a long established policy of only accepting scientific evidence if it supports their preconceived notions.
However, the people who are doomcrying the abstinence only education and the ones who are retrenching to defend it are missing an important shade to the study conclusion. There was no significant difference in the two groups, therefore education that included contraception was just as (in)effective as abstinence-only!
That does not bode well for our current educational strategies. Or maybe it establishes that education has no power over teenage hormones.
-
Project Management Training
For four days last week I attended Project Management Training at my coporate headquarters in Laurel, Maryland (Exit 33 off of I-95, in case you care). It was pretty intensive with two full days and a half day on Wednesday and Saturday.
“Yeah yeah yeah, so what?” you ask. “Who cares? That’s boring corporate crap!”
You’re right. So stop reading. (more…)
The Evil Eyebrow
There is no knowing the Evil Eyebrow
Twenty Twenty-Five
Designed with WordPress