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

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Linkee-poo, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave

On writers being asked for things for free. And not just their writing. (Grokked from Kameron Hurley, I think)

Bob Mondelo pisses all over our geek parade saying while the Force Awakens certainly has raked in the cash, it doesn't have the attendance numbers as other films. However I'll point out two things. One, SW:TFA has only been out for a month. Two, back when those other movies (except for, what, 3 of them) were released there was no real alternative for your entertainment. You had the movies, plays, radio, or maybe TV if you were lucky.

"Univision will acquire a 40 percent, controlling stake in The Onion, which includes the site, its influential sister popular-culture outfit The A.V. Club, the social media satire site Clickhole, and various book and video projects. Univision also will have the right to buy the humor company outright." Okay, Onion, this isn't exactly what I meant by never change. Okay, while there's various "OMG Univision buys…", but what this story actually is the Onion gets a nice injection of cash and Univision gets access to the market it's chasing.

Amazon demonstrates delivery drones that can go 10 miles in 30 minutes. Okay, closer. Now Amazon just needs to build major distribution centers every 20 miles (more than there are WalMarts). Of course, this will only work in dense populations, but then there is a large population segment that doesn't have porches or lawns to call their own.

"Another way to think about this is that while white, working-class voters are now only about a third of the overall electorate, they're about half of the Republican electorate… a candidate can no longer win a general election with their support alone, it's also nearly impossible for a Republican presidential candidate to win a GOP primary without them." What's not stated in the article is that many of those "blue-collar" jobs from Reagan's 80s now require a bachelor's degree. So the overall numbers might not have changed (note that whites with degrees also lean GOP, until you get to post-grads), but the makeup of "white, working-class voters" may have changed. But it is true, over all, the white demographic is shrinking in the US. It's not necessarily a bad thing.

In case you were wondering about the government strategy regarding the Oregon stand off, here's a pretty good explanation of half of it. The other half is the knowledge that in the face of presumed inability by the government, the militia becomes sloppy and takes chances. Such as members driving vehicles off the refuge and being arrested and having the vehicles taken into custody without a fight. Without a defined opposition people naturally become lax. They don't pay as close attention to details. So what started as a somewhat disciplined occupation becomes a group of guys camping out, forgetting that there are bears and other large animals in the woods.

Mommy, why can't the pot and the kettle just get along?

Dear LaVoy Finicum, that's our land, and yes you will pay the rest of us to use it. Also, talk about your entitlement mentality. Here is the American with his hand out wanting government to give him something.

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