When I can’t decide whether to laugh or cry, I can only mock. Pillar of society and father of seven Frosty E. Hardison, upon hearing that one of his Frostlings will be shown Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth in school, pulled out the old writing stick and sent an e-mail to the Federal Way School Board:
No you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation—the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet—for global warming.
Hardison added that global warming is one of the signs of the imminent return of Christ, who presumably enjoys a balmy climate and prefers Charlton Heston movies.
The School Board responded in mature fashion, collectively screaming “Won’t somebody think of the children!” and imposing a temporary ban on showing An Inconvenient Truth to the district’s 22,500 children. The film can currently only be shown if “other perspectives” are presented as well. As to what these other perspectives might be, I can only assume they consist of seven Frostlings skulking at the back of the auditorium shouting “Not!” at the end of every sentence.
Paris, as seen from the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur in Paris. I probably took this in 1995, so it would be interesting to contrast this with the view today. Click the image for a full-size version.
Overheard on the mean streets of New York:
Black lady #1: You know Earl?
Black lady #2: [Nods.]
Black lady #1: You know Earl?
Black lady #3: [Nods.]
Black lady #1: You know Earl?
Black lady #4: [Shakes head.]
Black lady #1: You don’t wanna know that mothafuckah—that is one nasty-ass nigga.
Much more at
www.overheardinnewyork.com.
In what might turn out to be a very shrewd business move, Adobe have announced that they will be releasing the full PDF 1.7 specification for publication by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This will make the PDF specification a de facto standard, opening the way for integration into a whole raft of applications, and enabling its use by companies who avoid proprietary standards. Adobe clearly hope that their position as market leader in PDF tools will make them the obvious choice as software provider in this newly created market, but the release of the standard will also mean an army of open source developers will now be able to churn out PDF tools and utilities.
The BBC (in conjunction with Oxford University) used distributed computing to predict future climate change, with some startling results. In 70 years, summer temperatures of 40°C will be common in the otherwise temperate UK. Average temperatures in the UK will rise by 4°C, making for milder yet wet winters. The impact of these changes on commercial agriculture will be catastrophic, and the cost of droughts and severe weather damage to property will be sure to touch the lives of ordinary people. Apart from some small domestic adjustments (which appear largely cosmetic and symbolic) there doesn’t appear to be much us common folk can do about it.
Update: Nigerian houses swallowed by sand. This isn’t an uncommon occurrence in arid climates, but imagine this happening on the Costa del Sol or the California coastline.
I had the singular pleasure of seeing Hellwood perform live a few months ago, and have recently been listening to their album quite a lot. The band/project consists of Jim White, Johnny Dowd and Willie B (not the Willie B. listed on Wikipedia, though). As it turns out, White and Dowd (both of whom I have been a great fan for several years now) are even more impressive live than they are on their albums.
The show appears to be heavily influenced by Jim White’s film project, Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, exploring typical Southern themes of sin, redemption, suffering and salvation.
