First Drink

For all you folks who had a rough weekend, point your browsers in the direction of this bit of monkeymation. Song: "First Drink of the Day" Band: 7 Seconds to Love Animation: Joel Veitch, rathergood.com (Monkeymation is a term I made up today. It simply means animation featuring monkeys).

Waiting for the Made-For-TV Movie...

Man peed way out of avalanche This has all the earmarks of a truly great TV movie: the human drama, the will to survive, the many and obvious chances for beer advertisments. If a story sounds too strange to be true, you can bet that Dave Barry reported it. Via Running Scared.

Sticking to the Figures

I found this story via Tim Boucher's weblog, Adventures of an Occult Investigator: "Students Arrested Over 'Violent' Stick Figure Drawings." I had to read that headline twice before it sunk in. And then I had to check the story link to make certain it wasn't some kind hoax. But it seems to be the real deal. In Florida, two elementary school students, ages 9 and 10, are charged with felonies, accused of making violent drawings ... with stick figures. Yup, these kids were dragged away in handcuffs and suspended from school. The images, you see, are believed to have been drawn for the "sole purpose of intimidating and scaring the victim," said Ocala Police Sgt. Russ Kern. You can read the story for yourself here, here (with comments), and here (even more comments!). In addition to the actual story, you might want to check out Tim's rather passionate arguments regarding creativity and violence. As far as I have read, these kids have not really threatened anyone. Nor have they hurt anyone or anything in the past (including cute little animals). So unless the whole story has not been reported, I don't see the proverbial smoking gun here. In fact, if these kids don't have a history of actual physical violence or other kind of serious trouble, why are authorities making such a fuss over these pictures? I personally feel that they should be damned glad that the kids are working their anger out on paper rather than in public!

[Updated 3/13/2023 to replace broken and suspect links]

Quotable

"At first you will thing of practice as a limited part of your life. In time you will realize that everything you do is part of your practice." Baba Ram Dass

Iraq the Vote

Well, Iraq's first free elections in several decades occurred yesterday. Sure, there were plenty of nay-sayers. But right now, President Bush is basking in an apparent victory just for this vote to have taken place. And conservative pundits are indeed claiming this vote as a victory for both the Iraqi people and especially President Bush. In fact, they're practically giddy. Michael Smerconish, whose morning show is beamed out of the Philly area, said this morning that "the Iraqi people have voted with their feet" and that this election is a validation of President Bush and his policy in their country. I think he may have actually gone so far as to call it a ringing endorsement. A couple of callers bemoaned mainstream coverage of the elections, saying that Dan Rather, for example, actually looked "pained to be reporting something positive about the elections." Bush is certainly getting some good press over it. And the mayor of Baghdad has even suggested the city will build a statue for Bush. (Personally, I think that move will go over just as well as that image of an American soldier draping the American Flag over a statue of Saddam Hussein in April of 2003. But that's just me.) Not everyone is unabashedly singing praises. Some folks are being a bit reserved in complimenting the President (Holy crap, Bush did something right?). While others might be going so far as to completely naysay the election. Of course, only history will judge this with any kind of accuracy.

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Update: As usual, Jazz does an excellent job of reminding us what "vindication" is really all about over at Running Scared. While most of the media focuses on Bush's victory and takes snarky swipes at Kerry and Kennedy, they are missing the point that Jazz makes so bluntly:

People wishing George W. Bush ill are not wishing the Iraqi people ill. They are hoping that the people of Iraq can survive George W. Bush's "help."

Great Headline for an Uncomfortable Topic

I just cannot resist posting this. Really, I'm serious. Go check out the headline. I will, in all likelihood, "intentionally [seek] to forget [the details of this story], or forcibly ... inhibit and suppress" any memory of it.

Shafer Ponders Blog Hype

Jack Shafer, editor at large for Slate, ponders who smites whom in an old/new media confrontation -- and if there is any actual smiting or even a shootout. Me, I'm wondering if the topic still has relevance. I mean, hasn't the blush faded from this kind of story by now? I'm blogging it because there are links to several blogs that might be worth checking out. :)

Blog Overkill The danger of hyping a good thing into the ground. By Jack Shafer Posted Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2005, at 5:48 PM PT

...the alleged divide between the old media and this new whippersnapper media of blogs has never seemed real to me. With the exception of the "metro" section reporter covering a 12-car pile-up on the freeway, I think most practicing journalists today are as Webby as any blogger you care to name....

...The premature triumphalism of some bloggers indicates that they haven't paid attention to how Webified journalists have become. They also ignore media history. New media technologies almost never replace old media technologies, they merely force old technologies to adapt and find new ways to connect with their audiences. Radio killed the "special edition," but newspapers survived. When television dethroned radio as the hearthside infobox and cratered the Hollywood box office, radio became a mobile medium, and Hollywood devoted itself to spectaculars that the tiny TV set couldn't adequately display. The competitive spiral has continued, with cable TV, VCRs and DVDs, satellite TV and radio broadcasters, and now Internet broadcasters entering the fray. The only extinct mass medium that I can think of is the movie house newsreel.

Full column: http://slate.msn.com/id/2112621/

Behold .... Darth Tater!

"Awwww ... who's da cute widdle space villain? You! You're da cute widdle space villain!"

Yes, that's right, Playskool has unveiled the darker side of Mr. Potato Head. This simply smashing Sith Lord should be available in time for the opening of Episode III in the continuing debasement of the Star Wars universe (er, I meant the third and final of the travesties known as the Star Wars prequels). That little bugger sure is cute, but he is also symbolic of the decline of Vader's iconic nature. I was about 10 years old when the first Star Wars film was released. And I'm not afraid to admit this: The dude was scarey!

This Actually *is* Rocket Science ...

... at least in a virtual sense. Go ahead and call me a space cadet (believe me; you wouldn't be the first to do so), but I was truly excited to read about Spacecamp Online. Via the SciFi weekly newsletter...

If becoming an astronaut is the cherished dream of many an SF fan, it is also one that few can hope to achieve. But—for those of us who won't be on the first manned ship to Mars—the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala., provides a taste of the outer space experience with its Spacecamp programs. Offering astronaut training and spaceflight simulations to both children and adults, Spacecamp can take a visitor through everything from a mission briefing to the sensation of weightlessness that comes with being in zero-gravity conditions.

Spacecamp's various learning streams are available to would-be mission specialists, aviators and robotics experts. A robotics track trainee might learn to build a rover designed to rescue a stranded astronaut, for example, while campers interested in piloting a spacecraft study the basics of flight dynamics. Spacecamp Online details on every training regime offered by the center—its general features and goals, its target age group and even the possibility of tie-in college credit.

Though anyone interested in manned spaceflight will find this site well worth browsing, Spacecamp Online is—like many museum sites—largely focused on attracting flesh-and-blood visitors to its facility and programs. Its Current Exhibits section is disappointing, with only a few photographs to tie in to the V2 Rocket and MIR Space Station exhibits currently being shown at the Center. The links available on the site are primarily for referring international visitors to other Spacecamp programs around the world. Rather than providing hard but distant facts about the space sciences, this site invites Web surfers to once again consider personally exploring the unknown, while giving a glimpse into what the reality of an astronaut's life is like.

by A.M. Dellamonica

I'll give my own review of the site after I've had a chance to play with it. Glee!

After the Snow

I finally uploaded a few of my post-blizzard pics. Drop by my photoblog: [sub]urban [text]ure.