Delusional Movie Quiz

Watching way too much TV lately... but thought this would be fun. It's the delusional movie quiz. To play, simply name an actor and the film in which he/she has played a schizophrenic delusion. :-) Betcha I know which one's Jane's gonna go with... be fun to see how many we can all think of.

Sesame Street Rated "not safe for your preschooler"

Here is the sadness that is our entertainment industry.

They've just released the original Sesame Street episodes on DVD, but they are accompanied by a precaution that they are not recommended for today's preschoolers. Why? Because Cookie Monster still eats everything in sight, Snuffy is still invisible to everyone but Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch is dismally grouchy, etc and so forth.

So, since today's parents can't hold a conversation with their child about why it's not good to eat paintings and chairs and railings and too many cookies, we're being issued a warning.

Give me a break TV Land! Entertainment is just that. If our kids learn the ABCs at the same time, good for the them. But, in the end, TV is entertainment. And entertainment is often fiction. As in, blue monsters don't really exist! Therefore you would be best to not follow his eating habits!

I could go on forever.

Go read it for yourself and let me know what you think.

Santa's a pimp and he gets his latte faster

Seems everytime I log onto the internet lately I'm tripping across some new piece of absolute moronicness from somewhere on the globe. The funny thing is sometimes the reporters realize it's moronic... like the mall in Australia who told their store santa's to say "ha ha ha" now because they thought "ho ho ho" might be offensive to women. Newsflash mates -- Saint Nick was around long before Snoop Dog.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071115/wl_asia_afp/lifestyleaustraliachristmasoffbeat

Another stupid thing that annoys me is I keep reading all these moronic studies that colleges are conducting. One article reported recently that coffee houses discriminate against women, because it takes women an average of 20 seconds longer to get served their coffee drinks. I don't know about you, but personally stuff like that kind of makes me want to send those researchers to find out how long it takes to get a latte in Darfur, or Afganistan perhaps.

Another study from Great Britian claims that 1 in 4 people would NOT give up their cell phone for a month for a million dollars. Actually that one's kind of encouraging, because really I think that just shows that 1 in 4 people in Great Britian have a sense of humor. Perhaps there is hope for us yet.

Tigerlily

insulin resistance is a bigger problem than we knew

Research on the brains of Alzheimers' patients seems to show that toxic proteins render neurons which are responsible for learning and memory insulin resistant, leading them to label Alzheimer's "Type 3 diabetes". Wow.

exercise doesn't make you lose weight

Exercise to feel better, not get thinner. So says the latest research, apparently. I loved the willingness in the article to question assumptions. I know that for me personally, I lose weight when I don't eat, not when I'm working out a lot. It does make me want to yell at the scientific establishment, "Will you make up your minds?"

Also, I am somewhat insulin resistant, and according to the article, foods that spike insulin (pasta, breads, sweets, beer, rice, potatoes, pastry) are what actually make you store fat. I don't like the way I feel after I eat them, anyway, so I don't, usually, but it's so interesting that this is physiologically borne out.

Breast Feeding

Read this.

commit to compromise

The Washington Post interviews Suzanne Riss, the editor of Working Mother magazine, about the issues involved (I would say for all parents) in juggling parenting, working and maintaining an identity.

In terms of practicalities, this interview annoyed me. Buy yourself a new pair of shoes? How trite is that?

I did like this quote about expansionist thinking though:

But try to think of it in an expansionist way. That juggling these multiple roles provides enormous benefits to our emotional health and financial well-being. That's not to say our lives aren't complicated, but they're more fulfilling. More is better and gives me more.

fox news network edits wikipedia

Check out the diff on all the Wikipedia edits coming the Fox News IP. Al Franken is particularly funny. In case you thought nobody knew what you were doing online...

women penalized for being angry at work

Angry women lose out according to this study. Most interesting part: these are not women who lost their tempers, or were in any way out of control; they were just women who SAID they were angry. Calmly.

And, this difference was reflected in the hypothetical compensation assigned to these women by study participants.

Participants conferred the most status on the man who said he was angry, the second most on the woman who said she was sad, slightly less on the man who said he was sad, and least of all by a sizable margin on the woman who said she was angry.

It makes me wonder what about angry women is so threatening to people... unresolved mother issues?

Also interesting: men were penalized for being sad, so it seems as though some of this is about culturally acceptable gender roles and emotional expression.

when moms unite...

..or not...or just whine a lot...or not..

Check out this very boring article. Looks like she wrote it because she had a deadline and just couldn't think of anything better to say.

Now, check out this not-so-boring response. I love this chic.

Please pardon this post if you're not a mom, or are a mom, and don't give a crap :)

global military spending: check this out

If this chart is accurate the US spends so much more than any/every other country in the world on their military, the only question I can think of to ask is, why? If, compared to Russia and China, in particular, we spend so comparatively much, who exactly are we competing with, anyway?

It seems like a more intelligent expenditure of resources (as opposed to just throwing more money around) would provide a much greater return on investment.

Wired, a love story

One of the most moving pieces I've ever read was in the NYT this week.

She was a heroin addict, living with another man. He was in prison serving time for gang-related homicide. They didn't even see photos of each other until two years into their relationship. She abused him and rejected him and seemed determined to live a wasted life, but he continued to believe in her and refused to surrender. And now, at 50 and 53, they are a testament to what love can do.

Weekly World News printing presses abducted by aliens

The Washington Post reports that the Weekly World News, the black and white supermarket tabloid that "reported" news such as Bigfoot's wife-stealing tendencies before The Onion was even a spark in Tim Keck and Christopher Johnson's neurons, is dying.

The newsroom in its heyday sounds like it was, if not quite as wonderful as being Queen of Atlantis, the closest thing to a perfect workplace I can personally imagine. I love the description of the paper's evolution from celebrity stalking to weird-but-true news to sidesplitting fiction.

RIP.

No Summer Vacation for Al-Qaida

Hmm… maybe that’s why they are so grumpy. Just reading that congress passed something called the Spy Bill. Whatever that is. It sounds scary though. More powers to the secret government to keep us safe. Makes me wonder, is Al-Qaida just a catch phrase? I mean, I know there are nasty men out there twirling their evil mustaches with nasty intentions for us. But, to quote Janet Jackson, what have they done to us lately? I don’t keep up with the news much, so I am asking honestly because I don’t know. I turn to you my superiorly informed Janes' to beg the question – what has this mysterious Al-Qaida been up to? What plots have we foiled lately? Is it all a ruse to expand Bush’s evil empire, or, like the wizarding world, are we just turning a blind eye to you-know-who? And in our complex eco-system of power and agenda, is there even a source we can trust to anymore? - Tigerlily

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070804/ap_on_go_co/terrorism_surveillance

PSA: don't answer CraigsList ads for free iPods

This sounds like an internet hoax come to life. A Boise woman answered a CraigsList ad for a free iPod but became suspicious when the poster would only deliver it to her in a park at night. After alerting police, they showed up to find the man waiting in a car with a black stocking cap, a knife and no iPod. Since no crime had been committed yet, they could only arrest him on misdemeanor charges.

Thank God for intuition. Another one for the "if it sounds too good to be true, run" files.

honesty or paranoia?

The Japanese have experienced an unexpected windfall in the form of someone leaving blank envelopes of cash in various men's rooms and an apartment building. Interestingly, ALL the money seems to have been turned in to the police.

When questioned, the recipients of the windfall were reluctant to talk about it, and some seemed afraid that it was connected to a crime.

This was so culturally different from what I believe would be an American reaction to anonymous envelopes of cash in public places, it was hard for me to fathom. Why all the worry about stolen money? If someone stole it, wouldn't they want to spend it themselves, instead of donating it to strangers anonymously? That doesn't make any sense. Further, cash is hard to trace, anyway, and if the person was leaving it in public places in envelopes, he seemed to have intended for it to be found and used by passersby. It wasn't accidentally dropped.

In fact, the whole thing's so funny, I wonder whether it's some evil alien plot to find the most compliant people on Earth as a suitable location for the beginning of our domination by robot overlords. Who in the world would give away this much money, and why?

surgeon general's report blocked for political reasons

It seems that now we as a nation have to contend with George W. Bush's political cronyism interfering with our medical system as well as with our justice system.

According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's blog, GWB's political appointee William Steiger substantially modified the Surgeon General's report on public health, changing its focus to Administration talking points (such as Bush "health achievements" in Iraq and Afghanistan) and altering or removing important, but less politically convenient, items.

Look at the differences between the two drafts. Surgeon General Carmona's report directly examines the link between poverty and public health. Steiger removes the discussion. Dr. Carmona explores intimate partner violence, women's health and reproductive freedom. Steiger changes the focus of this section to children and families. Dr. Carmona explicitly acknowledges the threats to public health contained in global warming and environmental pollution; Steiger removes this discussion. The list goes on, and the fight over this document blocked its release for over a year.

I find this horrifying. Dr. Carmona's report is supposed to be politically neutral and contain information necessary to the health and welfare of the citizens of this country based on considered medical opinion. It was not intended to be a political document, and should not be one.

Maybe I'm naive. Maybe every Administration in this country's history has censored documents they found inconvenient. But it seems to me that for a government so supposedly focused on "spreading democracy" to semi-willing people elsewhere in the world, it would benefit them to remember what that word actually means here at home.

Kite Runner Voodoo

Okay since we can't all gab about Harry Potter just yet (chomp those pages chickies, go go go) I'll jump on Allison's suggestion and start with Kite Runner. Freaky story there - I was in BJ's with my roommate and picked up the new book "A Thousand Splendid Suns" the other day. So checking out I'm telling him about Kite Runner, actually think he'd like it a lot, all those great Scorpio themes. Then I get home and I'm looking for it on my shelves, but it's not there, so I 'm wondering did I pack it for storage when I moved? Did I lend it out (which I tend to do with a good read). Hmm. A mystery. That night I have dinner with my old roommate GM, and he happens to mention that he still has my book... what book is that? Yes you guessed it, Kite Runner. Next day he's in the neighborhood and drops it off. Freaky huh? Kite Runner Voodoo -- like magic -- "Accio KR!" Apparently I'm a powerful witch :-)

Been a while since I read the novel, but it holds a place for me as one of only two books that ever made me weep at the reading (the other being the Perfect Storm). So powerful, the way friendships run so deep, the way moments you weren't expecting and had no time to think through can shape a life. Oh right, and the atrocity of discrimation, brutality and war. The way the past circles back around. "There is a way to be good again" the novel begins. I'd have to read it again to speak more intelligently about it, but feel free to have at it ladies, the door has been opened. :-) - Tigerlily (Holly)

Authors as franchise

The Ludlum Conundrum was my barf-with-coffee this morning.

The publishing business continues its descent into a quagmire of dishonor by using the Robert Ludlum name (he's been dead for six years) to continue publishing books featuring his characters. (Full disclosure: the original Jason Bourne book, The Bourne Identity, is easily my favorite action novel of all time.) "Robert Ludlum's...." graces the cover in 50-point type.

There are so many aspiring novelists out there, so many characters to create, so many ideas to air. Why are we all so stuck in the routine of the familiar that we require this factory style of book publishing in order to satisfy readers? I can't believe these ghostwriters don't have ideas of their own. Let the original Bourne stand alone, in the 70's where he belongs, and come up with something new to say. Take a risk and trust readers to find quality where it exists.

now I have an excuse for being such a wuss

Salary, Gender and the Social Cost of Haggling caught my attention today. I have never in my life explicitly negotiated a starting salary once it was offered (although I have made faces, raised my eyebrows, etc when generally discussing salary) and always put it down to fear of confrontation, at my own expense. Now it seems as though I may have subconsciously been correctly reading my coworkers-to-be, and that in fact my worry about talking myself out of a job may have been justified. Who knew?

Does anyone else have experience with salary negotiations, successful or otherwise?

— Allison

Testing 1-2-3

Hello ladies! I managed to figure out how to log in... wow. I must be smart. See Jane think - and spell! Wasn't spelling curiousity right but now I've got it, by George I think she's got it... blah blah blah - too hot, that's all I can manage for now. Perhaps CJ has overestimated our abilities here... perhaps I don't belong in the smart girls club after all... feelin' the pressure to be all witty now, but it's a sea with no sight of land. Ahoy mateys, (my boss actually asked me how to spell that the other day) - so the big dilemma of the day is whether to begin reading Khaled Hosseini's new novel "A Thousand Spendid Suns"... or the new Harry Potter. I think perhaps Harry Potter might be the wiser choice. I highly recommend Hosseini's first novel "The Kite Runner" though if you haven't read it yet. Wonderful book.

Okay this is weird, Mariah Carey's all I want for christmas just started playing on my iTunes shuffle - Christmas in July. Strange and freaky. Is Mariah Carey even allowed on this site? or have I just sealed the kicking myself out of the smart girls club? Hahaha - no no let me stay, I'll be witty, I promise! Alright then pancakes smothered in aunt jemima are calling.