You know, I was just thinking the only thing that could make a White House celebration of a Christian holiday even more fucking objectionable is layering the First Lady's fat-hating and disablist and otherwise problematic "anti-childhood obesity" campaign on top of it.
Voila! "The President and First Lady have announced that this year's White House Easter Egg Roll will be held on Monday, April 5, 2010 with the theme of 'Ready, Set, Go!' promoting health and wellness. The event will feature live music, sports courts, cooking stations, storytelling and, of course, Easter egg rolling. All of the activities will encourage children to lead healthy and active lives and follow the First Lady's 'Let's Move!' initiative, a national campaign to combat childhood obesity."
Put on Your Easter Bonnets, Fatsronauts!
LOST LATE
Friday night, Jimmy Fallon did a great parody of Lost on his show. I thought the Losties who hadn't seen it would enjoy—and, quite honestly, it'll probably be pretty amusing for anyone who knows the basic outlines of Lost and enjoys seeking the piss taken out of it!
A full transcript is available by clicking "Read More." It took me forever to do the transcript, because there's a lot going on and not a lot of dialogue, but I tried to make it as comprehensive as possible.
Not-So-Random You Tubery: Curling Science
Curling is going on right now in Vancouver.
Curling is very cool
I don't have time to do an entire transcript, but the CBC News article that goes with this video sums it up:
A researcher studying the science of curling for Canada's Olympic team has found that sweeping doesn't melt the pebbly ice as many believe, but softens it and subtly changes its physical characteristics.
"What we discovered is that it never melts. It only slightly warms up due to the friction of the sweeping," said Tom Jenkyn of the University of Western Ontario.
Sweeping can warm the ice by about 1.5 degrees, Jenkyn said, and reduces friction for the curling rock.
Jenkyn is studying the physics of curling using an infrared camera as part of the Canada's $22-million Own the Podium research program into sports of the Winter Olympics.
Jenkyn's full results are being kept secret until June 2010, revealed only to Canada's Olympic athletes, coaches and officials.
"We're sworn to secrecy," he said.
Here's more about the Own the Podium program from the Toronto Star.
If you are a curler and/or know more about the physics of curling, let's have it in comments!
Calling All Legal Scholar Shakers
Say you have a former vice-president who goes on the air and says stuff like this:
"I was a big supporter of waterboarding," Cheney said in an appearance on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. He went on to explain that Justice Department lawyers had been instructed to write legal opinions to cover the use of this and other torture techniques after the White House had settled on them.Is a signed confession the only thing missing at this point?
[...]
Cheney told Jonathan Karl that he used his position within the National Security Council to advocate for the use of waterboarding and other torture techniques. Former CIA agent John Kiriakou and others have confirmed that when waterboarding was administered, it was only after receiving NSC clearance.
Taliban's Military Commander Captured in Raid
Well! This is, one hopes, good news insomuch as it has the possibility of bringing nearer the end of the war in Afghanistan:
The Taliban's top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.According to American officials, the raid was carried out by the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, which is Pakistan's military spy agency, and the ISI was accompanied by CIA operatives. The ISI is also leading the interrogation of Baradar, with CIA operatives' involvement.
The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban's founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials.
It was unclear whether he was talking, but the officials said his capture had provided a window into the Taliban and could lead to other senior officials.
It's great that Pakistan appears finally to be cooperating more unreservedly with America to go after the Taliban, but it's concerning that they are leading the interrogation as "the Pakistanis have long been known to subject prisoners to brutal questioning," i.e. what we would call torture.
Spencer Ackerman succinctly argues that it's important from a strategic standpoint, in addition to all the moral reasons, not to torture Baradar: "The ultimate point of fighting the Taliban is to compel them to give up fighting and accept some version of a post-Taliban order in Afghanistan. Torturing Baradar—which the Pakistanis have been known to do—is counterproductive to that effort. If we treat the guy respectfully, in a demonstrated way, it might spur a reconsideration of Taliban goals. I am not counting any chickens, but any hope of a game-changing possibility will be foreclosed upon if we or our allies torture Baradar."
I don't know that treating Baradar well will spur a reconsideration of Taliban goals, but I know that not treating him well will more deeply entrench loyalties among his followers. Which ought to be a good enough strategic reason not to do it, even among those who (gag) support torture.
Question of the Day
Suggested by Shaker picaflor: What mystery would you like to see finally solved?
About 20 different historical mysteries come immediately to mind, but I'm going go with who helped Lee Harvey Oswald kill JFK.
Quote of the Day
"I don't owe him shit. He really screwed my life up, is how I look at it."—Joe the Plumber, so totally over John McCain.
Today's Edition of "Conniving and Sinister"
Strips One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115. In which Liss reimagines the long-running comic "Frank & Ernest," about two old straight white guys "telling it like it is," as a fat feminist white woman and a biracial queerbait telling it like it actually is from their perspectives. Hilarity ensues.
Random YouTubery: Dick Button's 1948 Olympic Freeskate
There is just one announcer comment at 0:38: "Button electrified the crowd with his phenomenal jumps. Just watch this!"Button, who won the gold for that routine and will turn 81 in July, can still be found during the Winter Olympics providing figure skating commentary for NBC.
In More Fortune Cookie WTF
Saturday night, KBlogz was over and we had Chinese take-out for dinner. And he got another great fortune (he always gets them, because he's the only one of the three of us who eats fortune cookies, lol):
"How much deeper would the ocean be without sponges?"
I think the more important question is: How much more difficult would someone's job be if they were forced to actually pay attention to what a "fortune" is?
NQDTR Discussion Thread – M100215
Hiya, Shakers, time for another Discussion Thread for the Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report!
This is the thread in which you may offer congratulations or admiration for a teaspoon or teaspooner. If you're posting with just congrats or admiration, though, do take a moment and check the thread to see whether other people have said so a number of times already. Remember that no one is required to read here just because they posted over there, so there's no guarantee you'll get a response to a given comment.
The Not Quite Daily Teaspoon Report – M100215
Time for another Teaspoon Report, brought to you by Shaxco, providers of only the finest hand-picked, mountain-grown Belgian pixels, harvested during the Winter Monsoons of the Bruxelles Mountains by Trappist monks riding mules.
Leave comments here that describe an act of teaspooning you encountered or committed. They don't have to be big, world-shaking acts; by definition, a teaspoon is a small thing, but enough of them together can empty the ocean.
If you would like to discuss the teaspoons here reported, or even offer congratulations or your admiration to a fellow Shaker, we ask that you do so over here in the Discussion Thread for today's NQDTR.
Shaker bgk has been kind enough to get a Twitter-pated version out there for you young twittersnappers (and by the way, get off my lawn, you meddling kids! *shakes cane*). You can find the details about the Tweetspoons project right here. That runs all the time, as far as I'm aware (*grumblenewtechnologygrumble*), and we encourage you to let other people know that there's at least one tweetstream talking about just going out and doing good things for the human species.
Teaspoons up, let's hear 'em, Shakers!
ô,ôP
Emo Prince Hates Vaginas
Emo Prince Robert Pattertoningson is doing the media rounds promoting his new film, and evidently decided to use his interview with Details to apply for the hotly-coveted apprentice douche position at John Mayer Industries.
There's a lot of whatthefuckery in the article, but perhaps none quite so eye-squinching as this, on the accompanying NSFW photo shoot in which naked women were used as props (again): "I really hate vaginas. I'm allergic to vagina. But I can't say I had no idea, because it was a 12-hour shoot, so you kind of get the picture that these women are going to stay naked after, like, five or six hours. But I wasn't exactly prepared. I had no idea what to say to these girls. Thank God I was hungover."
So...he had no idea what to say to the women who were being sexually objectified and exploited in his presence, but, after the fact, "I really hate vaginas. I'm allergic to vagina." seemed about right, because the best way to deal with the discomfort of women's bodies being used as props is to slut-shame the women involved. Okay.
Fail.
Senator Evan Bayh to Retire
One of my senators, Democrat Evan Bayh, has announced he will be retiring from the Senate at the end of his term: "The incumbent Hoosier had already raised $13 million for his re-election campaign, and while Republicans thought Bayh might be vulnerable this year, recent polls showed him with seemingly insurmountable leads over his GOP challengers. Indeed, less than a year ago, the National Republican Senatorial Committee conceded that it fully expected Bayh to run and win a third term."
Because he was expected to win reelection, his retirement is rather a surprise. Iain commented, "I wonder what pharmaceutical company board he's going to be a part of." Totes.
On the one hand, I'm cross, because it means that Indiana, which just went blue by the skin of its corn niblets last election, is likely to end up with two Republican senators. On the other hand, I agree with LeMew that "it's hard to be that upset about a quintessential centrist wanker leaving the World's Worst Deliberative Body."
[Shakesville Rewind: Oy, my ass hurts! Oh, and I met Senator Bayh.]
Monday Blogaround
This blogaround is brought to you by Shaxco, makers of HEXFAT hex wrenches, for all your hex-wrenching needs.
Mothers For Women's Lib: Ninth Carnival of Feminist Parenting
Janet D. Stemwedel of Adventures in Ethics and Science: Good riddance to a pair of academic pretenses.
smitten kitchen: spaghetti with cheese + black pepper
meloukhia at FWD/Forward: What Is ’splainin’? And Why Should I Care?
Annalee Newitz at io9: First Video To Reveal Growth Of Stem Cells That Manufacture Blood
Science: Special Online Collection: Food Security
In the 12 February 2010 issue, Science examines the obstacles to achieving global food security and some promising solutions. News articles introduce farmers and researchers who are finding ways to boost harvests, especially in the developing world. Reviews, Perspectives, and an audio interview provide a broader context for the causes and effects of food insecurity and point to paths to ending hunger. A special podcast includes interviews about measuring food insecurity, rethinking agriculture, and reducing meat consumption. And Science Careers looks at interdisciplinary careers associated with food security. Science is making access to this special section FREE (non-subscribers require a simple registration).
Remembering poet Lucille Clifton, who has died at the age of 73:
-Purple Stained Skin: Saying Goodbye: Lucille Clifton
-The Bottom of Heaven: Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)
-Isak: RIP Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)
-Sweet Machine at Shapely Prose: “but who can distinguish one human voice amid such choruses of desire”
-The Miss Rumphius Effect has video links: In Passing - Lucille Clifton
Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime
The Knack: "My Sharona"
Doug Fieger, lead singer of The Knack, died yesterday after battling cancer. He was 57.
