Urgh. Should write online more. Spend less time at work, more time online… right?
Asides
I think Margaret Cho’s piece during her hosting of Outfest (a show) on Wisecrack (a standup comedy series) on LOGO (a tv network) was hilarious. She manages to describe and define the issues about which she’s joking in a way that no other contemporary comedians around seem capable. The video is definitely worth watching, unless you are a huge fan of the Pope’s dresses. In that case you might find this a little bit on the offensive side. I don’t think Cho’s a huge fan of the Pope’s input on social matters. In case you’re in that offended camp, you may want some boules Quiès.
Right now the United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate of any developed nation. Although this teen pregnancy rate has decreased dramatically since the 1970s, recent years have seen that rate become stagnant.
Indeed, as of 2004, 13 states experienced either an increase in teen birth rates or stagnant teen birth rates, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data also showed that one in seven girls who are 14 and younger will experience an unintended pregnancy, and one in three women will have an unintended pregnancy by age 20.
Of those surveyed, 67.7% agreed with the statement about the recent Employment Non-Discrimination Act:
National gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights organizations should support this proposal because it helps gay, lesbian, and bisexual workers and is a step toward transgender employment rights.
(as opposed to, for example, opposing it because it doesn’t specifically protect transgender rights.)
On Towleroad these results produced much debate because the issue of trans rights is often, by some, viewed in partnership with that of gay rights. I say gay rights because I think gay rights should be and can be used as an umbrella term for gay male, lesbian and bisexuals. It’s a term for ‘alternative’ sexual orientations. Trans is an issue that is similar, but not the same:
I support individual freedoms short of cause pain, suffering, and damage to others. I support whole heartedly bisexuals and transgendered people - but I’m sick and tired of gay and lesbian issues being diluted, blurred, and marginalized because they’re intertwined with issues of gender identity and… whatever.
For $1.3 million a year, Larry Page and Sergey Brin get to park their customized wide-body Boeing 767-200, as well as two other jets used by top Google executives, on Moffett Field, an airport run by NASA that is generally closed to private aircraft. Moffett Field is nearly adjacent to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., and the four-mile drive between the two locations takes just seven minutes, according to Google Maps. Other Silicon Valley executives have to fight traffic to get to their large jets parked…even farther away.
Jonathan Miller, who’s now kind of the new chairman of the International Secular Society or the British Humanist Association, one of the two, in England. He said to me the other day, he doesn’t like the word atheist because he doesn’t think there should be a special word for it, if you don’t have a word for saying you don’t believe in the Tooth Fairy.
A Different Argument: Interview with Christopher Hitchens in The Seattle Weekly
I’ve implemented a little update for the ‘Related Content’ that’s found at the bottom of each post. While all posts will continue to link to other posts on a vaguely similar theme, longer posts will show a ‘Sphere It!’ link.
These links show content from all around the web and particularly the ‘blogosphere’ as bloggers like to call it. I think of the ‘blogosphere’ just as I would ‘the media’ but with the simple difference that content is written by normal people and perhaps not a professional production. The Sphere link opens an onscreen box which links to this other aggregated content. Just as the ‘Related Posts’ links are generated automatically and without any input from me (in their case, by Yahoo), Sphere content is linked via the company itself and I have no control over what it shows your or how or why.
Other examples of Sphere links can be seen below:
Walt Mossberg
TechCrunch
This photoshoot by Cliff Watts, proves to me how talented an actress Lindsay Lohan is. Not only can she act, but the fact that she can model as so clearly demonstrated in these shots, with the variety and quality of poses offered, really affirms my respect for her. She may be a party animal and currently a bit off the rails , but her talent shines. It’s impressive.
Linds-lo.com: Cliff Watts Shoot #1
Linds-lo.com: Cliff Watts Shoot #2
“For everything sold on iTunes, we get the majority of the 70-79p per unit sale price,” [one independent label owner] said, then added: “But for everything sold on the Ruckus Network we receive the princely sum of £0.005 per unit. That’s half a pence. My distributor then takes their 25 per cent off of that, leaving myself and the artists to dish up the remaining fractions of a penny between us.”
It’s not much better through Real Networks, he informed – for sales through that service, his label receives a penny per track, he claimed. The thousand tracks sold so far have accrued £10 to the label (to share with the artists) rather than, “the £790 or so we’d have got for the same amount of sales through iTunes.”
MacWorld: iTunes income substantial for music partners
[Indiana teacher] Amy Sorrell was put on paid leave in March following the publication of a pro-gay tolerance essay by sophomore Megan Chase in the Woodlan Junior-Senior High School Tomahawk (which Sorrell supervises). Following a warning for “insubordination” by the school’s principal Edwin Yoder, Sorrell was suspended from teaching and put under “investigation” Yoder also said all future issues of the school newspaper would require his approval before going to press.
The results of the school’s “investigation,” according to the Indianapolis Star? Sorrell will be “transferred to another school and barred from teaching journalism for three years.”
Towleroad.com: Indiana Teacher Transferred, Barred from Teaching Journalism for Allowing Pro-Gay Tolerance Essay
