Wow, cool.

Sniff test to preserve old books

Researchers report in the journal Analytical Chemistry that a new "sniff test" can measure degradation of old books and historical documents.

That's just neat.

Excellent Things

Steve @ Now This has started a trend: excellent things. As in, list them.

OK. I like that.

1. The webcomic 'Digger', by Ursula Vernon. It's weird, it's beautifully drawn, and I love it. Excellent!
2. The webcomic/printcomic 'The Dreamer', by Lora Innes. Set in today and the Revolutionary War, it's just so so so cool. Excellent!
3. Living Harvest's hemp milk. Delicious. I don't drink milk b/c of my allergy, even though I've fallen off the wagon and eat cheese and chocolate right now, I have never been able to bring myself to buy milk. So I've tried a lot of milk substitutes over the years, and I picked up a carton of hemp milk, made from hemp seeds, at The Hempest, a store in Boston, and loved it. And now, look! Hemp milk at Whole Foods just down the street from my apartment! Excellent!

Domina Hatshepsut Pepper, 1997-2009

Pepper Being Cute as a Button
Originally uploaded by sidravitale

aka "#1 Cat."

This is Why Environmental Protection Is Important

Because your kids will drink that water. School drinking water contains toxins

You *Assholes*

I do NOT cuss in print lightly (anymore...well, ever). Domestic violence as a pre-existing condition? Are you fucking kidding me?

Treating Domestic Violence as a Preexisting Condition is Only One Example of the Rampant Sexism in the Healthcare Debate

Our health care system is broken. BROKEN. Not to mention the sexism.

Domestic Violence is a "Pre-existing Condition?"

BROKEN. How can anyone in their right mind not want to break the monopoly, rationing, and overall control of these companies that stand between us and receiving health care?

Wow, cool!

A skull that rewrites the history of man It has long been agreed that Africa was the sole cradle of human evolution. Then these bones were found in Georgia...

Ooooo. I love a good mystery!

Glass Microbes

Glass Microbiology Suddenly, my Ebola virus plushie seems quaint.

We Just Don't Call it 'Rationing'

We Ration. We Ration. We Ration. We Ration.

"We ration. We ration without discussion, remorse or concern. We ration health care the way we ration other goods: We make it too expensive for everyone to afford."

Thousands Line Up for Promise of Free Health Care

Remote Area Medical - started in 1985 as a mobile health clinic serving undeveloped countries and later rural America - comes to L.A., and THOUSANDS of people show up for care because they can't afford it otherwise. A telling quote from one of the patients, "You know when you haven’t seen a doctor in so many years you have a lot of questions."

Senator Kennedy's Legacy

So, what did he do?, courtesy of TwistedChick, a long-trusted news and news aggregation source.

Thoughts on Excellence

Kilohana Men in the Duke Kahanamoku Race 2007 (hat tip to Kate Elliot. Thanks, Kate!). Watching this made me misty-eyed for two reasons. One, I've become a sap in my old age.[*] Two, it is a joy to see a thing done well, and with passion, because I believe in doing all things well, and with passion. This is why we admire athletes - who do a thing and do it well. This is why we admire all those who achieve excellence and pity those who have never reached for it in the entirety of their lives. To do a thing well, to strive to do that thing well - whether it is writing legal briefs, writing code, singing, dancing, stand-up comedy, playing basketball, or whatever it is that you consider worth doing - is an important part of the human experience, and may even be the quintessential human experience. What a marvel is humanity, when we do a thing and do it well.







[*] OK, it's more complex than that, but, I have.

Lion of the Senate - Gone

Obituary: Edward Kennedy (at BBC News)

It's interesting to me that on NPR this morning they kept talking about how Kennedy got stuff done regardless of which party controlled the White House. He stood firm on his principles of public service and progressive ideals. It's standing firm and working both sides of the aisle to achieve real results, not pseudo-partisan "compromises," that gets things done. Current Democratic senators and representatives, take heed. You can't give away your goal to get your goal.

I've gotten a lot of flack for this over the years...

But I still don't get why I, a woman, shouldn't crow when I do something well, or, be proud of my accomplishments. Because it'll hurt a man's feelings? Any more than when I punch you in the face?

It's a huge step away from what women are commonly expected to do - we've all noted studies in which women are observed to phrase sentences as questions as opposed to statements, so that we don't step on the widdle men's toes by challenging them directly and confidently. We're also told not to boast of our achievements or accomplishments because somehow men are easily intimidated by this. (Apparently.)

My name means "star," and I'm not hiding my light for anyone.

"There's a force stronger than nature, keeps her will alive"

So, it's obvious I hope that this blog is on its last legs. I never write, I never call. Tut, tut. Don't know if it'll change or not, as I seem to be doing more "Sidra the Writer" type stuff on livejournal/dreamwidth, which, doesn't mean much anyway, and the purpose of this blog is political and social commentary, and writing.

We'll see what happens.

Anyway. There are times when one wishes to bust out in song, not to celebrate anything in particular, and not in a 76 trombones musical kind of way (or even a Victor/Victoria kind of way) but just bust out in song because it's been too long since the last time you busted out. So last night Freddie Mercury bust out in my head, champion that he is, and I regaled my neighbors I suppose, with a little a cappella "We Are the Champions". Yeah, baby, sing it! I miss Freddie Mercury. I miss the music of my childhood and youth, but is it that it's better music (and by what metric?) or is it that it's the music of my childhood and youth, before life got more and more difficult, and so many burdens accreted that now I feel like my own planetary disk. Feel free to spin off a small planet, oh, debt, oh loneliness, oh people who've fucked themselves over whom I cannot save. Spin off and orbit around me if you must, though I'd much rather you went all rogue planet on me and departed my gravitational well entirely.

Sigh. So much for astronomical metaphors.

Three links make a post, my friends:

Bitchin cool, as they used to say: Shepardess makes bridal gown from wool of her own sheep. It looks really cool, seriously, you gotta click on this.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver dies. I admire the Kennedy ethic greatly - with great gifts, comes the obligation to use them in service of others. Funny how the (frequently republican) politicos forget that the little people whom they oft disdain so much are in fact the people they are supposed to be working for.

I've been reading Iroquois Diplomacy on the American Frontier, let me tell you all about it.

mini-update

Grandma, dead.

Awesome wedding entrance video. That's how to do it, baby.

Phase change in Alaska as the permafrost melts - and lakes disappear. Alaska Meltdown.

Wow, do I love Jimmy Carter

I always loved him before, for living his principles, unlike so many who claim said principles and then defile them - that's a rant for another time - but I love him even more now.

The Words of God Do Not Justify Cruelty to Women.