The current topic on the #joiito IRC channel is: “Bush/Cheney 2004: Don’t change horsemen in mid-Apocalypse”.
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OMG MARS IS SO COOL!11!1!11!
Even Mars Rovers have their own blogs!
|
argh!
NASA’s making fun of me now with their wake-up music! OMG, I am soooo dusty and disgusting right now!! I have red grime everywhere, especially under my abrasion instruments! It’s no wonder I can’t grind anything! I find evidence of past water, but I can’t even find a puddle to splash my treads in here! I so need a shower. And a manicure. OMG, what if Stardust saw me like this?! And I can’t add all my rover budz back on LJ without getting some kind of limit exceeded error when I hit 750! Man, this day has just been awful. Current Mood: |
dirtywhat a workout!
I took soooo many pictures today. NASA was so bossy. So much for being
a self-directing rover. Put your arm here, Opportunity! Now put it
here! Now put it over there! Take another picture, Opportunity! I never
get to have any fun. But at least I got to watch the eclipse. I haven’t
had a chance to put my pictures up yet, but I hope to soon!!
I’m so wiped out. I’m just gonna veg tonight. I wonder if one of the orbiters could beam me a movie or something.
Current Mood: 
tired
nya-nyah, sis!
I found water first! Go me!
I found water first! Go me!
If
you haven’t heard from my sister, I’m sure she’s just sulking over the
fact that NASA is so proud of me for finding evidence of water while
she’s just been digging up more boring rocks.
Current Mood: 
accomplished
Categories
Stuck in the middle with me
[ via Being American in T.O. ] Where would you live in Politopia?
I seem to be in the north-west suburbs of Centerville:
Categories
A Brief History of Dieting
[ via CarbWire.com ] This Arizona Republic article, Diets all the rage since at least 1087, is a timeline of diet plans for the past millennium. My favourite one:
1087 – William the Conqueror tries a liquid diet for weight loss, taking to his bed and consuming nothing but alcohol.
Not everyone thinks that The Corporation is a book/film with good ideas. Take this news release from epublicrelations.ca:
Activist film aims to destroy the corporation:
Capitalism, democracy, health, education and environment threatened
© ePublic Relations Ltd 2004
Posted February 2004
Contact: rsirvine@epublicrelations.ca
Activists
are sending corporations on wild goose chases. At the urging of
activists, businesses are pursuing ideas such as the triple bottom
line, corporate social responsibility (CSR), and smart growth. But
these pursuits are merely ruses to keep business leaders and their PR
consultants preoccupied and distracted.
While businesses
invest enormous amounts of time and money in attempts to earn
accolades and recognition for successes in these areas, activists
have a different goal. They want to redefine, dismantle, destroy and
reassemble in a manner more to their own liking the entire
corporate world. The first step is to totally malign virtually every
corporation along with its managers, directors, shareholders and even,
in some cases, employees. What better way to do this than through a
movie!
The Corporation
has opened to critical acclaim at movie festivals in Europe and North
America. It recently won the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award at
the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.
For the films producers,
corporations and the pursuit of profit are sources of many social evils
including planetary destruction;
The documentarys web site (http://www.thecorporation.tv) states:
Self-interested,
amoral, callous and deceitful, the corporations operational principles
make it antisocial. It breaches social and legal standards to get its
way even while it mimics the human qualities of empathy, caring and
altruism. It suffers no guilt. Diagnosis: the institutional embodiment
of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria or a
psychopath.
To
reach this judgment the film takes a creative and effective approach.
It runs through a checklist used by psychiatrists and psychologists to
diagnose mental illness. The list is based on the diagnostic criteria
of the World Health Organization and DSM IV. By going through the list,
the film attaches the following characteristics to a corporation:
callous unconcern for the feelings of others
incapacity to maintain enduring relationships
reckless disregard for the safety of others
deceitfulness: repeated lying and conning others for profit
incapacity to experience guilt
failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviours
Based
on this assessment corporation, the film concludes that corporations
are psychopaths. To support this contention, a former FBI agent
familiar with psychopathy is interviewed.
The Corporation
is playing in theatres across Canada; will be aired by TVO in Ontario,
Canada; and, American distribution is expected. DVD and VHS copies will
be available.
Must viewing for activists
The
Corporation is important viewing for activists around the world.
Regardless of the business or industry you work in - biotechnology,
banking, ranching, agriculture, transportation, manufacturing, fishing,
chemical, pharmaceutical, nanotechnology, financial services, computer,
retail, fast food, etc. -- NGOs and activists who oppose you will be
inspired and motivated by the film. And regardless of where your
business is located Canada, the United States, New Zealand,
Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Poland, India,
Pakistan, South Africa, Japan, you name it the film will successfully
recruit more activists, invigorated to challenge the corporate world.
(A visit to the films online discussion forum reveals how activists
are reacting to the film.)
In making their anti-corporate
film, the producers interviewed many people from the business world,
including spokesman for the Disney-built town of Celebration Andrea
Finger, Goodyear Tire Chairman and former CEO Sam Gibara, former Royal
Dutch Shell Chairman Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Landor and Associates CEO
Clay Timon, Initiative Media Vice President Lucy Hughes, Canadian
Council for International Business President and CEO Robert Keyes,
Pfizer Vice President Tom Kline, Burson Marsteller Worldwide CEO Chris
Komisarjevsky, and IBM Vice President Irving Wladawsky-Berger.
The Corporation
is a powerful film. Its perspective is clear. In an interview,
commodities trader Carlton Brown says that when the terrorists directed
planes into the Twin Towers in Sept. 11, 2001, the question on brokers
minds was How much is gold up? In other interviews, the corporations
are described as modern slave owners and CEOs are seen as monsters
because corporations are monstrous.
The anti-corporate
movement is strong and getting strong. Dealing with it is probably the
most difficult and important challenge confronting PR folks. Its
certainly far more important and challenging than dealing with a
crisis. A crisis comes and goes. It’s usually pretty clear-cut and
business generally resumes when it’s over.
Activist attacks threaten democracy, health, education and environment
Attacks
on the idea of the corporate are attacks on capitalism. They are a
vague and ill-defined. When they start and when they end is impossible
to determine. They occur at anytime from any direction from any of
hundreds of special interest groups and NGOs. If they are successful,
however, they destroy capitalism and the associated democracy, both of
which have paved the way to improved health care, greater longevity,
higher education standards, enhanced environmental standards, and ever
improving standards of living around the world.
This is
grand thinking and conceptualization. Its beyond the scope of most PR
folks who focus on the next news cycle, the next fiscal quarter, and
the bottom line. Yet, if the anti-capitalism movement isn’t viewed in
this larger context, the consequences are much more dire than a merely
tarnished brand.
The Corporation
and its web site provide valuable insight to the
anti-corporate/capitalist movement. All PR folks are encouraged to view
them to understand what activists are really up to.
Categories
Spot the O’Hara
In the photo below, which person is the direct descendant of an Irish-American school teacher named James O’Hara? The born-in-Manila mocha-skinned gentleman on the left, or the sweet red-haired-and-freckled lass on the right?
Kiss me, I’m 12.5% Irish!
The guy on the left, naturally. Can’t you tell?
During the Great Famine, one James O’Hara left County Cork, Ireland for the United States and a better life. At around the same time, one Catherine Kelly, whose sister was supposed to leave for America but chickened out, took her sister’s steamship ticket and left in her place. Somehow both James and Catherine ended up in Ohio, met each other and got married.
One of their children, also named James, was a teacher. The United States had just won the Spanish-American war, and one of the territories handed over to the U.S. was a Spanish colony called the Philippine Islands. The Americans were establishing a presence there, and there was a call for all kinds of workers, including teachers.
James boarded a ship in San Francisco and set sail for Manila. He ended up outside Manila in the city of Antipolo, where he settled down, got married, had several children and learn to speak and read Spanish and Tagalog fluently.
One of his children is Marietta O’Hara, who was my fair-skinned, green-eyed grandmother. Marietta married Guillermo deVilla Sr., had a kid named Guillermo O’Hara deVilla Jr., who in turn had me. The combination of Irish and Filipino genes makes us great partiers who can hold their drink and have strong family ties and fabulous shoe collections.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everybody!
Categories
Pirates, Ninjas, Elves and Dwarves
[ via Boing Boing
] Tom “Plasticbag.org” Coates has come up with another two-axis
classification scheme for working types: the Pirate/Ninja axis, and the
Elf/Dwarf axis. The meat of his essay:
I have always considered the profound distinction between ninjas and
pirates to be an absolute one. One was either ninja or pirate – there
were no inbetweens. One personality type was skilled and proficient,
elegant and silent, contained and constrained, honourable and
spiritual. The other type loud and flamboyant, gregarious and
unrestrained, life-loving and vigorous, passionate and strong. I
thought all people must pledge their allegiance, or be categorised accordingly.
The other day at work, another binary pair was presented to me – a
co-worker who doesn’t declare people pirate or ninja, but instead elf
or dwarf. For him, humanity falls into doers and thinkers – elves being
elegant and timeless, conceptual and refined, abstract and beautiful
while dwarves are practical and structural, hard-working and
no-nonsense, down-to-earth smiths and makers. It’s a view of the world
that’s expounded a bit in Cryptonomicon.
Coates drew the two axes and plotted a number of big bloggers on them, resulting in this chart:
I wonder where I’d fall. Probably much closer to pirate, maybe straddling elf and dwarf. What do you think?
My mother’s family traces its ancestry back to Chinese pirate Limahong, so I guess I should declare my allegiance to the pirates. Besides, I think that hot tub parties are more a pirate thing than a ninja thing.
Very interesting reading. Perhaps I should contact Coates and offer to program the “where are you on this chart?” quiz.
Go read the article, and while you’re at it, read Scott “PvP” Kurtz’ “Pirate vs. Ninja” series of comic strips.