am i the victim or the crime?
Grooming an ELF: How Tre Arrow turned Jake Sherman into an “eco-terrorist” by Carlton Smith.
originally posted by xowie
Grooming an ELF: How Tre Arrow turned Jake Sherman into an “eco-terrorist” by Carlton Smith.
originally posted by xowie
What’s up with Trader Joe’s selling (what appears beyond doubt to be) re-branded Amy’s frozen pizzas? And then marking the box “sold and distributed exclusively by…”? I’ve been telling anyone who will listen that I suspect TJ’s just rebrands generic packaged foods. I’m sure it’s tasty and I’m glad it’s cheap – I just wonder why people who turn their noses up at Sun Glory brand canned corn are thrilled to give Trader Joe’s the same .59 for the same can.
originally posted by xowie
Once slaughtered, the turkeys have to suffer one more indignity before arriving in your grocer's meat case. Because of their monotonous diet, their flesh is so bland that processors inject them with saline solution and vegetable oils, improving "mouthfeel" while at the same time increasing shelf life and adding weight.
The New York Times Op-Ed: About a Turkey. The author wants to persuade you to seek out a turkey which didn't suffer the indignities of a factory farm for your Thanksgiving meal, if only because it may actually taste like turkey. Regardless of your intent, the accompanying graphic alone is worth your click.
Sam's most recent profile is directed toward men and women both and states that she's interested only in friendship. ''My intention was to meet girls -- because I know basically no women in New York at all,'' she said. She received only two responses from women, one of whom, Katherine, she met. ''Katherine proceeded to buy me far more drinks than was sensible and then insisted that I come and hang out at her apartment,'' Sam recalled. ''So the one time I went on an Internet date and was drunkenly taken advantage of, it was by a woman.''
originally posted by xowie
A life where TiVo has always existed
She gets quite confused when we are watching a non-TiVo TV, and she asks to watch ''a kids show'', and we have to explain that this TV won't do what ours at home does. We've sometimes shortened this explanation to ''This TV is broken'', which she seems to accept, and will wait until we get home to watch our ''fixed'' TV.
My son, too, expects every TV he sees to be able to deliver him a choice of episodes of Dora, Little Bill, or Blue's Clues on his command.
What part of No do ya still not understand? Date rape in the time of Kobe, roofies and Girls Gone Wild by Judith Lewis, with bonus ‘toon by Ellen Forney.
originally posted by xowie
Forest fires and the fire threat of conifers killed by beetles have been in the news. Earlier this year, when Colorado had a number of forest fires, a newscast said that of all the thousands of acres Colorado has lost to fires this year, 10 times as many have been lost to bark beetles, for which there is no control. What are bark beetles, should we care, and are they a problem here?
The ravages of these insects in the West are a problem of our own creation. Fire is a constant in the ecosystems of these pine woodlands, and for decades fires have been suppressed. Before fire suppression, Western forests were naturally very thin stands of trees that were widely spaced. The trees in them represented a great variety of age categories because they were really the few survivors of one or more fires.
Fire suppression changed all that. Now many of the forests are dominated by trees of a very narrow age range. They grow much closer together. They compete with each other for water.
When drought is a factor, as it has been for the past several years, trees are stressed beyond their limits. Enter the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae. It attacks many species of pine under stress but is particularly fond of ponderosa pine, which happens to be the most widespread and adaptable pine in the West. The result is widespread death of huge areas of pine forest.
Horticulturist Scott Aker answers your gardening questions.
"The new group is called the Groonies, because they happen to live in a town where [Data], the Chinese kid, lives ... and he's got an electronics repair shop and all the kids hang out at his shop. He has this Chinese accent and he calls the Goonies the Groonies, and so the new kids call themselves the Groonies, until they get into a situation where the old Goonies have to save the new Groonies, or vice versa."
The 'Goonies' sequel is certainly off on the wrong foot.
We were sitting around the table, adults yapping and ignoring the kids and out of the corner of my eye I see Zoe, my 4-year-old,take a handful of hot rice from her plate and, in slow motion, throw it at her 6-year-old sister Ruby. But instead of jumping up to squash the thing, I sat there mesmerized, watching. "She's never thrown food before," I thought to myself. "This is a rite of passage, the primal launch."
Okay, I get all that — but what was on that mini-disc?
Recently in The New York Times
On his second night in Iraq, one month ago, Sergeant Pogany, 32, saw an Iraqi cut in half by a machine gun. The sight disturbed him so much, he said, he threw up and shook for hours. His head pounded and his chest hurt. "I couldn't function," Sergeant Pogany said in an interview on Tuesday in his lawyer's office in Colorado Springs, not far from Fort Carson. "I had this overwhelming sense of my own mortality. I kept looking at that body thinking that could be me two seconds from now." When he informed his superior that he was having a panic attack and needed to see someone, Sergeant Pogany said he was given two sleeping pills and told to go away. A few days later, Sergeant Pogany was put on a plane and sent home. Now he faces a possible court-martial. If convicted, the punishment could range from a dock in pay to death.The New York Times: Soldier Accused as Coward Says He Is Guilty Only of Panic Attack.
My flight arrived in New York at 2 p.m. on Sept. 26, 2002. I had a few hours to wait until my connecting flight to Montreal. This is when my nightmare began. I was pulled aside at immigration and taken to another area. Two hours later some officials came and told me this was regular procedure -- they took my fingerprints and photographs. Then some police came and searched my bags and copied my Canadian passport. I was getting worried, and I asked what was going on, and they would not answer. I asked to make a phone call, and they would not let me. Then a team of people came and told me they wanted to ask me some questions. One man was from the FBI, and another was from the New York Police Department. I was scared and did not know what was going on. I told them I wanted a lawyer. They told me I had no right to a lawyer, because I was not an American citizen. They asked me where I worked and how much money I made. They swore at me, and insulted me. It was very humiliating. They wanted me to answer every question quickly. They were consulting a report while they were questioning me, and the information they had was so private -- I thought this must be from Canada. I told them everything I knew. They asked me about my travel in the United States. I told them about my work permits, and my business there. They asked about information on my computer and whether I was willing to share it. I welcomed the idea, but I don’t know if they did. They asked me about different people, some I know, and most I do not.Statement to the media by Maher Arar, Nov. 4, 2003.
hello, typepad: Shouldn’t Mo Vaughn have been on that last train?
originally posted by xowie
Unbelievable Moroccan Trance this week at Coco’s thing.
originally posted by xowie
MacSlash and Rael Dornfest offer notes from the O’Reilly OS X Conference on a digital home session.
I recount that last part to her -- Delicate and clean, she sits sipping coffee from a chintzy cup -- After an age, the hand holding it starts to shake and I watch tears form at the corners of her brown alive eyes -- "How the hell did you find out?" Ma whispers and before I even start to try to explain she tells me that it is true I am indeed Kerouac's son (she being 'Kathleen' but in reality Catherine) and that (to complete the tale) as soon as Jack discovers she is with-child he disappears never (by her) to be seen again -- And Ma is left alone to raise me eventually meeting Karl whom I always assumed was my real dad but who clearly isn't (and he's no longer around either).
I wonder then what Jack would have made of a son like me -- a boy so ... straight -- and the man he became, so responsible (until now that is) -- his very antithesis -- Shamed, probably, by my lack of resolve.
"Please Don't Kill The Freshman: A Memoir," by Zoe Trope excerpted at Salon.com.
Camped out in front of my locker like a homeless person. Waiting for a security guard to yell at me. They pass by numerous times and do not even look at me. I should be in class. Instead, I open Bukowski's "Tales of Ordinary Madness" and read with a look of confusion on my face. I find this beautiful. No. one. notices ... Cherry Bitch lets me wear her cat-eyed glasses. I feel silly and vain and I like it. I walk home and eventually kiss the Wonka Boy (supposed to be gay). He shoves his tongue in my mouth anxiously, awkwardly. Too much like a child ripping open a shiny Christmas present only to be disappointed. Curry wore a candy necklace today and I tried to bite off some candy and ended up making his neck bleed. What a tragedy. My hands are cold. My feet hurt. Career week only gets worse, I think. Tomorrow we have to write notes to the presenters we saw today (like the woman from State Farm who tried to convince us that selling insurance was a fun, interesting career field ... LYING WHORE). That could take at least two hours ... Vivarin. I believe this calls for Vivarin.
misbehaving.net “is a weblog about women and technology. It’s a celebration of women’s contributions to computing; a place to spotlight women’s contributions as well point out new opportunities and challenges for women in the computing field.”
Parents, children, and other humans should check out Dru Blood's fantastic posts on breastfeeding and vaccinations.
We'll be driving along, and all of a sudden, I'll say: ''Did you hear that? That was a funny lyric.'' And he'll say: ''No, I didn't hear that. I was listening to the groove.''
The New York Times Magazine: Doing It Her Way, questions for Edie Brickell.
