(OKLAHOMA CITY) With the latest proclamation from Oklahoma GOPer Rep. Sally Kern, she has finally revealed her true lineage: she's not a christian at all, she's descended from several Roman emperors--Constantius, Valentian, Theodosius, and the most famous of all, Justinian the Great. ( http://tinyurl.com/mq8d8y )
You don’t just read House of Leaves; you participate in it
Photo by Grethe Boe
Oh, postmodernism... you fickle, fickle beast. Why can you not be satisfied with one discipline, with working within a single genre at a time? You mash genres together like Girl Talk mashes songs. Your manifestations are ubiquitous, pervading our culture, our landscape, and our…. uh, cultural landscape. You emerged as disillusionment with modernism (and really, who can blame you, I mean modernism is totally lame!) You represent yourself as moving images on highway billboards, as orchestral compositions that celebrate minimalism and incorporate ethnic traditions, as Jane Austen combined with zombies! Your architecture is art and your art is architecture. But, my erratic friend, in my opinion your greatest literary achievement is House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski.
An evolutionary explanation for the belief in space aliens
Photo by Cheryl Empey
I admit that I have a guilty pleasure, one that I do not readily share: I love UFO documentaries. Let me be clear though. I do not believe Aliens have visited us. I am a skeptic to the core, but I do watch UFO Hunters for entertainment value only.
Lack of paid sick leave could hamper efforts to fight flu epidemic
Photo by woodsy
The recent spread of the A(H1N1) influenza around the world – only declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in June – exposed a major shortcoming in American health care and health care-related policies. A real possibility exists that an epidemic in the United States might more widely affect the American population because of the absence of mandatory employer-provided sick leave benefits to workers. [1] This absence may be something of an unintended consequence of public policy decisions previously made in this country.
Mark Sanford’s scandal leaves a thin field of Republican presidential contenders for 2012.
Photo by Scyza
I didn’t see this coming. South Carolina’s governor Mark Sanford was skillfully setting himself up as the logical challenger to run against President Obama in 2012. He refused to take the federal stimulus money for his state (a position he fought for and lost in the courts). He was as ideological as Limbaugh or Gingrich, but his was rhetorically less shrill. With his conservative street cred, Sanford could have been the candidate that galvanized the GOP base without alienating the center. All of Mark Sanford’s potential is wasted because of a zipper problem.
Thirty years ago one of the most powerful tools of the 1979 Iranian Revolution was the tape. Twenty years ago Chinese students huddled around fax machines during the Tiananmen Square protest. Today cell phones beam images around the globe within seconds of being taken. Technology is proving to be the enemy of the state in oppressive regimes.
