I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Monday, August 17, 2015

Linke-poo your time is gonna come

The Miss American competition now includes a social media component. What could possibly go wrong. (Grabs the popcorn, waits for the fireworks).

On the prevalence of male circumcision in our western culture. Slightly NSFW due to illustrations of penises. Also pointed to as examples of how this practice (circumcision for male and female) us related to culture, and not some religious aberration (as has been touted much in the call to end forcible female circumcision in African cultures, which are often mislabeled as Islamic during the fallout from 9/11). It's a very long article, BTW, packed with information. (Grokked from Morgan J Locke)

Just in case you still believe we live in a post-racial meritocracy, "'White and Asian college grads do much better than their counterparts without college, while college-grad Hispanics and blacks do much worse proportionately.'"

Sometimes it's easier to see the problems when they happen to someone else. That is, after all, the basic premise of the original Star Trek. "According to a report released on Friday from research group Berkeley Earth, air pollution is contributing to an average of 4,000 deaths a day, or 1.6 million a year, in China." Yea, I'm sure it's not doing anything to us. Our air is exceptional. Notice our domestic coal industry has finally dropped the Clean Coal charade. (Grokked from Robert J Bennett)

Apparently, not satisfied with screwing over it's hourly/warehouse employees, Amazon is also a shitty place to work in the white-collar side. As a recovering workaholic (who is currently struggling with falling off the wagon this Summer), I know form where I speak. If you've ever seen me work, you know that I'm continuously striving for better. Being adequate isn't enough for me. So I know from where I speak, the practices outlined in the article are poor business practices designed to enable a co-dependency type relationship with its employees. In the short run you can get excellent results. In the long run, it is the weight which will drag a company down and drown in it the sea of competition. OF course there are plenty of people who think there's nothing wrong with it. There are also people who think beating and raping their children is perfectly acceptable as well. And yes, I mean that comparison. It's the same psychology. It's the same relationship dynamic. And it engenders the same long-term ramifications. Also, to anyone who thinks this is a new way, it isn't. This kind of crappy business model has always been out there. And, as I said, it can be made to be wildly successful in the short term. It is always disastrous in the long run. And it is often done by people who don't know any better.

An animated GIF on the volume of 200 commuters in different configurations. Or why I support public transportation (and when I worked downtown, used it everyday). (Grokked from Morgan J Locke)

New Orleans a decade after Katrina. With especial focus on the schools.

On the importance of being cognizant of the power differential when it comes to small requests. I experience this all the time at the day job. It is also my personal opinion, this is often not done ignorantly. (Grokked from Morgan J Locke)

The birthers are still at it. This time, however, they're turning their sites at their own. (Grokked from John Scalzi)

Because the uncompromising position always paints one into a corner, especially when it's a crazy position. In this case, Mikee Huckleberries has to defend decision to force a 10-year old rape victim to carry her rapist's child to term. Warning for both intense stupidity and because it's a Facebook page. Because, besides the trauma of the rape, the reminder of that rape by seeing the child, a 10-year old's body, even a well-developed 10-year old's body, isn't prepared for delivery of a child. But, when you believe a fetus to "be a child", then you must agree. That's the stupidity here, that the Pro-Life movement has redefined fetus as "child". But then, the same people (for the most part) can then define a child as an "adult" and throw them in solitary confinement for crimes committed before they hit puberty. (Grokked from Lizz Windstead)

No comments: