October 2, 2006

Off to the Land of the Long White Cloud

Getting ready to depart for New Zealand (tonight). Now that the trip is hours away, it's finally dawning on me that I'm really going. Bag is packed (and fitted by a very helpful REI employee named Amanda) - weird to only be taking a backpack instead of a rolling suitcase of doom, but in a cool way. I bit the bullet and only packed two (ok, three, but one is non fiction so it doesn't really count - does it?) books. That's a new record for me! Naturally, my bag is chock-full of electronics, but none of them is a laptop. My hands shook as I typed that last sentence, but it'll probably fade in a couple of days.

I'll do what I can to update this blog as I find little islands of wired-ness on the road. I'm eager to have some interesting tales to tell...

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September 14, 2006

Second Chances

A Western diplomat called it "deja vu of the pre-Iraq war period".

Oh, oh. Not this again. The US administration puts out a document that wildly inflates the WMD capabilities of a Middle Eastern state. Simultaneously, that administration unleashes a PR machine designed to build fear and paranoia towards said Middle Eastern state. Equal parts sympathy and fear on the part of the US's allies leads to global acceptance for the claims made in the report.

No, wait! Someone of authority actually called those f*ckers on it this time.

Everyone paying attention? This is your brain on truth.

Posted by Queen of All at 8:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 1, 2006

Intelligent Giving Resource - Charity Navigator

Been feeling materially fortunate lately, and have been working harder at on passing it on to groups that need support. The mountain of "we need" mail has to get parsed a little, at least into "oh, no f*cking way," "geez, not them again," and "maybe" piles.

I try to at least read the info in the "maybe" envelopes. Searching on a eco-focused one I hadn't heard of, I ran across Charity Navigator, a charity evaluating site. It's a great place to look at how groups spend contributions (scores are higher for those with the best program to administrative cost ratios) and find out lots of other key info. You can also see comparisons between peers (or similar size and cause).

Posted by Queen of All at 2:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 30, 2006

Back to Basics - How News Works

Working on updating my blog links (and my point of view), and ran across the "Talking with Kids" website. Of particular interest was their guidance on talking with your kids about news. Here's their Step One:

The first step is understanding how the news works. It is important to keep these things in mind when talking with your kids about what they see on the news:

* News reports focus on the unusual. While this might seem obvious to adults, it can be difficult for children to understand. Seldom will you see a news story focused on the thousands of airplanes that take off and land safely on any given day. However, it becomes headline news when out of those many safe flights, one is involved in a plane crash. Often news coverage of particular issues is disproportionate to their occurrences in real life. For example, news coverage of crime has increased in recent years, even though the total crime rate has decreased significantly.

* The news often reports only the simple facts of a story. Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? These are the six questions journalists try to answer in even the briefest news report. This leaves very little time to add background, context, or explanation to complex news. In fact a typical broadcast news story is only 30 seconds long. Even though newspapers can provide more contextual information than TV news, the average print report is only 400 words. The result is our kids only hear who's killing whom with little or no explanation of why those countries are at war.

While several of the 10 tips are kid-centric, I think a few can benefit even the most hard core news junkie like me, for instance Number 5: "Let your kids know the difference between news and reality" and Number 8: "Acknowledge the complexity of the news."

Sometimes it doesn't hurt to get back to basics.

Posted by Queen of All at 8:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 29, 2006

Mea Culpa This, You Troglodyte

Just got an email from Steve Forbes:

I want to acknowledge your communication with us on the article “Don’t Marry Career Women.” Sensitive issues demand sensitive treatment. The piece that appeared on Forbes.com this past week was intended to be part academic and part humorous. Instead, it profoundly offended hard-working career women everywhere. We deeply regret having done so.

Steve Forbes

President and Editor-in-Chief
Forbes

Yeah, yeah. Still won't make me sign up for Forbes.com or re-subscribe to their rag.

Posted by Queen of All at 12:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

July 15, 2006

Close Your Eyes and Think of Cupertino

You are, once again, Microsoft's bitch.

Matt Morford once again hits it out of the park. Step away from the skanky win box and get some hot, sweet Mac lovin'...

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July 14, 2006

No-Mentum

Kos has a great repost of a Colbert shred of Joe "Droopy Dog" Lieberman.

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June 22, 2006

Best Buy Considers Adding Fruit Back Into Their Diet

Ha! Produce computer lovers unite. Looks like Best Buy is reconsidering their 1998 decision to stop selling Apple computers. Of course, there's no way their cavernous locations can even approach the cool factor of the average, let alone above average Apple temple. However, putting Macs next to the average Evil Empire machines is a fabulous way to show the masses the error of their ways. And that's just aesthetics!

Yes, I'm an Apple Head. Gotta problem wit dat?

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April 4, 2006

Ahhh, Family Values

MIAMI - The deputy press secretary for the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security was arrested Tuesday for using the Internet to seduce what he thought was a teenage girl, authorities said.

Brian J. Doyle, 55, was arrested at his residence in Maryland on charges of use of a computer to seduce a child and transmission of harmful material to a minor. The charges were issued out of Polk County, Fla.

What else really needs to be said?

Posted by Queen of All at 10:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

April 1, 2006

Quick! Before They Take It Down

Matt Morford, supreme satire god, has hit comedy paydirt, all the expense of General Motors. I'm sure some poor GM marketeer thought this Apprentice tie-in was genius, but I'm wondering how long the site/contest will stay live when users are making ads that highlight the diminuative size of the Tahoe driver's penis.

Posted by Queen of All at 1:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)