Some crazy Australian woman has invented a backless g-string Yep, the butt floss was too much for her but she wanted to avoid "freebagging*." Seriously. ... why bother?
(This was news in August; I'm a bit behind. Hehehe. I just said "behind" in a story about underwear. Heheh.)
*Apparently, "freebagging" is Australian for "going commando" aka, wearing no underpants. OoooOOh. Naughty Aussies!
05 December 2004
04 December 2004
The Mystic Pig
Go on, ask a question. It's smarter than you'd expect.**
**It was smarter than I expected. I tried several questions, including, "What is your favourite colour?" and, "How many fingers am I holding up?" The programmer(s) obviously considered these things and included some standard replies to standard questions.
The Mystic Pig | |
 | and the mystic pig said: It's gone, and it's not coming back. But you'll find something better. Ask the Mystic Pig another question created by ixwin |
**It was smarter than I expected. I tried several questions, including, "What is your favourite colour?" and, "How many fingers am I holding up?" The programmer(s) obviously considered these things and included some standard replies to standard questions.
03 December 2004
The Media, War and Terrorism
Last night while sorting the recently returned books, two caught my eye: War and the Media, edited by Thussu and Freedman (Sage, London, 2003) and Framing Terrorism: the News Media, the Government and the Public, edited by Norris, Kern and Just (Routledge, NewYork, 2003).
War and the Media features a Pentagon DOD briefing on the cover; Framing Terrorism is illustrated by 18 newspaper front pages from Europe (Britain, Germany and Spain, I think) showing World Trade Centre attack.
I started skimming through War and the Media and found this passage about Al-Jazeera which I found intriguing:
Skimming through Framing Terrorism, it is clear that the editors favoured statistics over theory. They discuss percentage change in number of stories about Muslims, Muslim organizations and Arab-Americans in American newspapers before and after the 2001 WTC attack (about 11 times the number in the 6 months following as the 6 preceeding); they graph public opinions; and they chart an interesting correlation between the percentage of Americans who felt terrorism was the "Most Important Problem" facing the country and the number of news stories about terrorism on network TV (p.291).
Framing Terrorism also talks about the conflict in Northern Ireland and the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict so it's not all 9/11. In fact, in the conclusion, the authors note that "...even the scale of the tragedy of 9/11 incidents did not put the United States in a category of high terrorist vulnerability comparable to that of many other states in the world." (p. 282)
Where War and the Media focuses on the how journalists see war and terrorism (several chapters are written by former or current war correspondents); Framing Terrorism is more about how people understand and react to the reports. Between the two, they offer some intriguing insights and leave plenty of room for debate.
War and the Media features a Pentagon DOD briefing on the cover; Framing Terrorism is illustrated by 18 newspaper front pages from Europe (Britain, Germany and Spain, I think) showing World Trade Centre attack.
I started skimming through War and the Media and found this passage about Al-Jazeera which I found intriguing:
The most interesting theme in the book though, is not specifically about war or terrorism, but the difficulty of reporting any incident in this era of 24/7 news coverage. The need to check facts and confirm details is contrary to the immediacy of global 24-hour reporting.
Faced with a battle for the 'hearts and minds' and the need to tell moderate Muslims that the US is not waging a war against Islam, in 2001 the US considered advertising on Al-Jazeera TV. ... The US government even planned to launch a TV station to rival Al-Jazeera. Initiative 9/11 put half a billion dollars into a channel that would compete in the region... (War and the Media, p.158)
Skimming through Framing Terrorism, it is clear that the editors favoured statistics over theory. They discuss percentage change in number of stories about Muslims, Muslim organizations and Arab-Americans in American newspapers before and after the 2001 WTC attack (about 11 times the number in the 6 months following as the 6 preceeding); they graph public opinions; and they chart an interesting correlation between the percentage of Americans who felt terrorism was the "Most Important Problem" facing the country and the number of news stories about terrorism on network TV (p.291).
Framing Terrorism also talks about the conflict in Northern Ireland and the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict so it's not all 9/11. In fact, in the conclusion, the authors note that "...even the scale of the tragedy of 9/11 incidents did not put the United States in a category of high terrorist vulnerability comparable to that of many other states in the world." (p. 282)
Where War and the Media focuses on the how journalists see war and terrorism (several chapters are written by former or current war correspondents); Framing Terrorism is more about how people understand and react to the reports. Between the two, they offer some intriguing insights and leave plenty of room for debate.
02 December 2004
I'm a Big Loser!
I have lost 25 lbs.!
Yay! That means I am already halfway to the goal I set for June 30, 2005. Ultimately, I'd like to lose another 25 lbs after that goal is met, but I will be happy at the end of the first 50!
Yay! That means I am already halfway to the goal I set for June 30, 2005. Ultimately, I'd like to lose another 25 lbs after that goal is met, but I will be happy at the end of the first 50!
Reconciliation
Last night I dreamt of reconciling a long-dead friendship. It was very odd because I haven't even thought of this person in probably 4 or 5 years; our friendship ended in a very weird way well over 10 years ago, though some time later I did send out a "peace offering" letter (I know, very unlike me; it was a phase) to which she replied. I think we were both of the mindset, "OK, let's bury the hatchet. But let's not pretend we are still friends either." She ended her reply with something like, "should we ever run into each other, I'd like to think we could say hello and smile."
She lives in another city (last I heard was Vancouver, but that was about a decade ago) and she is (or was) a trial lawyer, so I don't think I am likely to run into her without seeking her out. In my dream, she looked the way she did the last I saw her, though she had dyed her hair dark, and she literally climbed out of a closet (hmmm.. skeletons?) when our mutual friends knocked on the door (they had brought me to see her). In my dream we each looked in wide-eyed surprise at the other, hugged wordlessly, and cried. We then spent some time just hanging out together, walking and chatting like the last fifteen years hadn't happened.
Oddly, when I awoke, I didn't think about it right away. It wasn't until I opened a cupboard that I had a flashback to the dream. And it has been gnawing at me since I remembered it. So was it a good dream? Is it telling me something?Am I being silly?
**
In a similar thread, for your reading pleasure I'd like to suggest a sweet little poem called Old Friend by Janet S. Wong.
She lives in another city (last I heard was Vancouver, but that was about a decade ago) and she is (or was) a trial lawyer, so I don't think I am likely to run into her without seeking her out. In my dream, she looked the way she did the last I saw her, though she had dyed her hair dark, and she literally climbed out of a closet (hmmm.. skeletons?) when our mutual friends knocked on the door (they had brought me to see her). In my dream we each looked in wide-eyed surprise at the other, hugged wordlessly, and cried. We then spent some time just hanging out together, walking and chatting like the last fifteen years hadn't happened.
Oddly, when I awoke, I didn't think about it right away. It wasn't until I opened a cupboard that I had a flashback to the dream. And it has been gnawing at me since I remembered it. So was it a good dream? Is it telling me something?Am I being silly?
**
In a similar thread, for your reading pleasure I'd like to suggest a sweet little poem called Old Friend by Janet S. Wong.
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