Category: General
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Fun Excerpts from Weird Al’s Fan Club Newsletters
Lately I have become enamored – no obsessed — with the parody music of Weird Al Yankovic. I’ll say more in a future post, but I came across the archives of his fan club newsletters from the 1990s. I wanted to jot down some of my favorite parts. The first section consists of the tongue-in-cheek…
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A Call to Action
Chris Hedges (author of the great book, War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning) wrote this about our current political landscape: Either we begin to militantly stand against the coal, oil and natural gas industry or we do not. Either we defy pre-emptive war and occupation or we do not. Either we demand that…
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Site Migration complete
Finally, my move to the new hosting service is complete. I’ll be back with a roar soon.
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Waltz with Bashir: Do perpetrators tell better stories than victims?
Waltz with Bashir is a serious animated film which tells the autobiographical story of an Israeli soldier during the Israel attack on Lebanon. This was a serious film tackling important questions in an innovative way. At the same time, I was uncomfortable with how it dramatized political events. It raises an interesting ethical and aesthetic…
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Green Linkdump #1 November Edition (and it’s massive!)
Long overdue and probably an overlong post. I’m dumping from Facebook and other places. To describe the predicament of climate deniers, Naomi Oreskes invokes the metaphor of the waiter: “Imagine a gigantic, colossal banquet. Hundreds of millions of people come to eat. They eat and drink to their hearts’ content, eating food that is better…
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Reasons to Vote for Bill White instead of Rick Perry
A list of reasons about why Texans should vote for Bill White instead of Rick Perry. Compiled by Robert Nagle.
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Robert Flynn has a blog!
Collection of essays by Texas fiction writer Robert Flynn, with excerpts. Religious satire, Texas life, political observations. Flynn was my writing teacher at college.
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Linkdump: Ecology and Social Science
I’ll be attending TedX Houston on Saturday. Come grab me if you see me. 10 Ways Cities Can kick the offshore oil habit. Here’s a beautifully written story about North Korean economic problems. Related: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary lives in North Korea. 10 Studies on Meat and Global Warming. From the University of Chicago Study:…
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Toxicology of an Oil Spill
Here’s a must-read piece by Ricky Ott on how Exxon Valdez affected people: During the Exxon Valdez spill, health problems among cleanup workers became so widespread, so fast, that medical doctors, among others, sounded warnings. Dr. Robert Rigg, former Alaska medical director for Standard Alaska (BP), warned, “It is a known fact that neurologic changes…
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Random Literary Junk & A.F.S.E.
Some random stuff marginally related to ebooks: David Rothman wrote a long personal piece about his life and career as a journalist. (He composed it in interview form, with one of his literary creations from Solomon Scandals conducting the interview). Lots of interesting tidbits which never made it on Teleread: a ham radio conversation with…
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Post-SXSW Linkdump
Lots of small things to blog about. Allegory of the Cave as a claymation film (3 minutes). Great but it made me realize how much I missed the first time I read Plato! Here’s Life after Tomorrow, a delightful 70 minute documentary about some of the people who starred in the Annie Broadway play as…
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New health insurance plan
I just updated my guide to buying individual health insurance in Texas. For the record, as a 44 year old, I obtained health coverage with $5000 for $132 with Aetna Texas in Jan, 2009. By April, it had hit $188. I switched to a comparable plan with United Health with $5000 deductible for $167. Even…
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Silly hamster scams
From the people who brought you Amish porn (SFW! – but in poor taste!) here is a wacky flying hamster experiment gone awry. Here’s what happens when animal rights people protest (later, the website guy makes a kind of retraction). Related: the same people seem to have cracked the Willa Wonka code: it’s really about…
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Interview with Vavrek & John Holowach (Tryad)
Recently writer and critic Robert Nagle made a list of 11 Incredible Musicians You Can Download for Free . Many of the musicians on this top list make their music freely available on Jamendo, a free and legal music sharing site. Several musicians appearing on this list also gave interviews to this blog (Read the…
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Why the Phoenix Police Department Sucks
A month ago I came across an outrageous story about a police officer who rifled through a defense attorney’s personal papers in search of incriminating evidence. This was happening while the trial was taking place and it was captured on video. The judge ordered Adam Stoddard (the police officer) to apologize or to go to…