[Signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
- Scary Tea Party Compilation
- [Informed Comment - Juan]
You can’t make this stuff up. [links]
- Coffin technologies that protect you from being buried alive
- [io9 - Annalee Newitz]
In the eighteenth century, rumors swirled about people accidentally buried alive when they lapsed into a deathlike state from cholera. As a result, the safety coffin was invented. Here's how it worked.
- REPORT: 111 Republican Incumbents And Candidates Want To Eliminate The Department Of Education
- [Think Progress - Scott Keyes]
This is the third installment in a three-part series on legislation that may emerge from a GOP-controlled Congress. Click here for part one on ending birthright citizenship and here for part two on privatizing Social Security.
[Eh, whatevs. Let them eat free public libraries (which we will also defund). -L]
- Facebook Friendship Pages are Just Plain Creepy
- [ReadWriteWeb - Mike Melanson]
…It's like thumbing through someone else's letters or phone call history…
…as Josh Constine pointed out on Inside Facebook, "The friends of friends privacy setting now has greater significance, as a user only needs to be friends with one person and have access to the profile of the other to see their Friendship Page."
…my suggestion is, if nothing else, to set your profile to "Friends Only" unless you want people you've never met or barely know to examine your relationship with your friends.
…we don't have complete control over [our public online data] and this is exactly what Facebook wants. [link]
- Dept. of Ed. Calls for End to Bullying But Ark. School Official Says ‘All Queers Should Commit Suicide’
- [RHRealityCheck.org - Emily Bridges]
Interesting. The Department of Education says that homophobia violates Title IX. On the SAME DAY, the news breaks that a school official thinks GLBTQ young people should kill themselves… It's simply a very clear cut case of needing to get rid of the charming Clint McCance… The penalty for NOT complying with Title IX is the loss of federal funds.
I'm calling on the Midland School District and the State of Arkansas to come into full compliance with Title IX …, including a full-scale response similar to the one described above – and if they don't, I am calling on the Department of Education to cut their funding. [EDIT: Also, I am signing petition demanding Clint McCance's resignation, and I urge you to do so as well.]
…Oh, and a message to the GLBTQ students of Arkansas: Don't listen to this Clint McCance person. Each of you has more personal worth as a human in your little finger than this guy does in his entire body.
- The first photograph of a human being
- [ABlogAboutHistory.com - Sevaan Franks]
…[daguerrotype by himself] taken in 1838.
- Time Will End in Five Billion Years, Physicists Predict
- The universe will cease to exist around the same time our sun is slated to die, according to new predictions based on the multiverse theory.
- When Judges Get Funny
- [Above the Law - Elie Mystal]
I love everything that is happening here on many levels. But the best thing about this is that the majority is using Cheech & Chong to convict a recreational pot smoker, and the dissent is using Mr. Mackey to tell the majority to chill out.
- 5 Constitutional Amendments That Constitution-Loving Tea Partiers Would Change | TPMDC
- Earlier this week, we looked at many of the various (and popular) long-existing laws that tea parters and their leaders think are actually unconstitutional…
…despite all the talk about "returning" to the Constitution, don't confuse tea partiers with Constitutional purists, who happen to read the document in a conservative way. True, about half of the changes they want to make to the social fabric result from a peculiar interpretation of the Constitution as it exists. The other half, though, would actually require Congress and the states to change it altogether…
- Fox News Tries To Educate Obama On Racial Tolerance (VIDEO) | TPMDC
- "A president starts labeling fellow Americans as enemies? That's just beyond the pale," Varney added.
- Boehner To Appear with Nazi Reenactor | Talking Points Memo
- I'd thought Richard Iott had been put out to pasture after news broke that his main hobby was Nazi reenacting. …saying that he didn't think we were in a position to judge the SS soldiers who did all the cool stuff on the Eastern Front.
But apparently Iott is out of the dog House. And back in John Boehner's House.
This Saturday John Boehner is going to appear at a special pre-election rally with Iott in Toledo…
Late Update: When I first saw this story I figured it was the work of some moron staffer who just got his wires crossed and put his boss in a bad spot. I figured they'd be denying it or pulling out before the morning. But Josh Green (who broke the original Iott story) just got a statement from Boehner's people. And they're all on board. Totally sticking with it.
- Kentucky Police Consider Charging More Paul Supporters In Stomping Case | TPMDC
- "At this point, the investigation is still ongoing," public information officer Sherelle Roberts told ABC News. "We're looking into other individuals who may have been involved in the assault and could get charged."
A quick review of the video shows that multiple men dragged the victim — Lauren Valle — to the ground and one, ironically clad in a "don't tread on me" button, held her there while Profitt emphatically pressed her head into the ground with his foot.
- Tell Congress: Don’t cave to Sarah Palin. Stand up for NPR! – Sign the Petition | Change.org
- Led by Sarah Palin, a chorus of commentators including Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich, and Karl Rove are trying to paint public broadcasting as the "mouth of socialism" in a ploy to simultaneously attack NPR and fire up their base a week before Americans head to the polls…
Heeding O'Reilly's call, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is reportedly introducing a bill that would zero out funding for ALL public broadcasting, including NPR, PBS, Pacifica and more.
Defunding could not only destroy NPR as we know it, but also deal a significant blow to the entire public interest media sector.
[Text above is from an email; is not a word-for-word quote of the linked article. -L]
- Maya Angelou Quotes
- [About.com Women's History]
- Explain the internet to a 19th century British street urchin
- [kottke.org]
If you ever find yourself time travelling back to Victorian England, here's a handy flowchart that will help you explain the internet to the youth of the era.
[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. --L.]
The Of interest (Thu, Oct 28th, 2pm) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.