The Hackenblog

For those of you who are in Northeast LA, there’s a new restaurant around the corner from me in Lincoln Heights that pretty good. Well Being Spicy Chicken, click for menu and map because they don’t have a webpage. It’s on the south side of North Broadway, between Workman and Sichel in LH, in the middle of the block, street address is 2706 North Broadway, they’re open from 10AM to 8:30PM. I like it; it’s kind of a Chinese-Mexican-Other fusion because almost everything has jalapeños in it and the sides on most dishes are white rice, French fries and cole slaw. I can’t take much picante, and though I stick to the fried chicken and won ton soup (which takes half an hour to cool), I have survived the Spicy Chicken twice so far. They also have really good coffee, but bring your own creamer because all they have for it is Creamora-like stuff. So if you feel like something new, c’mon down to LH. Free parking in the back off Workman, south of North Broadway.

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“My position on this can be easily misunderstood. I don’t want civilization to collapse (I like Mozart and access to root canal). I don’t want Homo sapiens to go extinct, or the planet to parboil. I certainly don’t believe in doing nothing in the face of this emergency. But I also don’t believe we are going to make any hassle-free switch in the way we run things — or that we should want to. Would the USA be a better place if we could run Wal-Mart and Las Vegas on wind power? I don’t think so. Would the public benefit from another hundred years of suburban living — and an economy based largely on creating ever more of it? All the Prozac in the universe would not avail to offset the diminishing returns of that bullshit.”

~snip~

But I don’t want to be doubly or triply misunderstood as appearing to twang on the kind people who invited me there, or to evade the obvious fact that I went (by airplane and shuttle van). I thought it was worth going to carry this one little message: let’s stop talking about making better cars and start talking about occupying the landscape differently — which we’re going to have to do anyway.
We Want Solutions!, by James Howard Kunstler, May 28, 2007

JHK goes to the Telluride Mountain Film Festival and doesn’t tell them what they want to hear.

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“Look, I’m really sorry about the mess my generation and your parents’ generation is leaving to you: the cruel economy, the bloody quagmire of US foreign and military policy, our threatened habitat. And I just want you to understand that we tried to do better – maybe not enough of us, maybe not hard enough – but we tried. And now you have to try, only with one big difference. For us it was matter of idealism, for you it’s a matter of survival.

“So, my final instruction to the class of 07: Go out there and raise hell!”
The Apocalypse is Yours Now, speech given at the Haverford College commencement on Sunday May 20, Barbara Ehrenreich’s blog, May 21, 2007

Sure, kids, go out an raise some hell, hey, according to Barb you’re doomed anyway because her generation sucked up anything worth having. Better to die on your feet than live on your knees or something.

Why do I read this woman’s blog? Why? There must be a reason.

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“Even if a woman has a small ejaculation, it can be messy. The amount of semen a man ejaculates can make an incredibly large mess; and since female ejaculate is thinner than male ejaculate it can spread even more. Being subject to gravity it can quickly soak through several layers of towels and leave a wet spot on the bed. Some couples resort to waterproof mattress covers, but this is probably more extreme than necessary; a single towel with a layer of plastic under it is sufficient. (Just keep a piece of an old shower curtain in the night table drawer!).

“Whatever the facts are, just enjoy everything God made you to enjoy!”
Female Ejaculation, The Marriage Bed, Sex and Intimacy for Married Christians, by Paul (via Lock the Bedroom Door)

Well, okay. Graphic under the jump. Hm.
(more…)

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Okay, now this is just weird.

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“Data collection in 1984 was deliberate; today’s is inadvertent. In the information society, we generate data naturally. In Orwell’s world, people were naturally anonymous; today, we leave digital footprints everywhere.”
Is Big Brother a Big Deal?

Teaching Computers How to Forget

“In an effort to prevent terrorism, parts of the mobile phone network will be disabled when President Bush visits Australia. I’ve written about this kind of thing before; it’s a perfect example of security theater: a countermeasure that works if you happen to guess the specific details of the plot correctly, and completely useless otherwise.”
Mobile Phones Disabled When President Bush Visits Sydney

“In the April 2007 issue of Queue, Dan Geer writes about security trade-offs, monoculture, and genetic diversity in honeybees.”
Dan Geer on Trade-Offs and Monoculture

“The Virginia Tech massacre is precisely the sort of event we humans tend to overreact to. Our brains aren’t very good at probability and risk analysis, especially when it comes to rare occurrences. We tend to exaggerate spectacular, strange and rare events, and downplay ordinary, familiar and common ones. There’s a lot of research in the psychological community about how the brain responds to risk — some of it I have already written about — but the gist is this: Our brains are much better at processing the simple risks we’ve had to deal with throughout most of our species’ existence, and much poorer at evaluating the complex risks society forces us face today.

“Novelty plus dread equals overreaction.”
Rare Risk and Overreactions

He’s so cool, I get frostbite just cutting and pasting from his blog.

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“Blue Cross had been canceling thousands of policyholder’s coverage, once they submitted claims, over minor and inadvertent errors. The tactic is widely known and deplored as “use-it-and-lose-it” health coverage. In order to settle a class-action lawsuit, they have agreed that they must show policyholder deception before final termination. However, the burden of proof is still on the consumer not the insurer.”
Blue Cross To Stop Canceling Policies, Working Californians Blog, May 11, 2007

This could ALL be solved by extending Medicare coverage to ANYONE who asked for it. Fuck private health insurance, it just doesn’t work anymore (if it ever did)

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“What’s a Living Wage?

“Definition: A policy requiring employers to increase hourly wages of any employees paid below a certain hourly rate.
Hourly rate: Typically a living wage is set so that on a full-time basis, wages are equal to or greater than the amount required to bring a family of four above the federal poverty line. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 2006 guidelines indicate $20,000 as the poverty threshold for a family of four.
Living wage: The first living wage ordinance was enacted in Baltimore in 1994. As of May 2005, about 130 jurisdictions in the nation had passed some form of a living wage ordinance. Of California’s 478 incorporated cities, 20 have passed some form of living wage ordinance.
Sources: HayGroup study of living wages, ACORN Living Wage Resource Center

“So businesses doing work with the city will now be required to pay their employees at least $10 an hour or a minumum of $400 a week of $20,800 per year.”
Irvine Passes Living Wage Law, The Liberal OC, May 25, 2007

Wow… Irvine… My God, there’s hope for everything!

Although $20,800/year don’t buy much in OC, it’s a good start on a more fair and better society.

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“…Swastika shaped building cluster at the US Navy’s Coronado, California Naval Amphibious Base, built in the late 1960’s, can be viewed from space, via Google Earth…while the architect who designed the structures said the shape was quite intentional, a US Navy spokesperson has declared the shape of the swastika building cluster to be an unfortunate accident…”
Kriegsmarine building, Alternate Brain, May 25, 2007 (via Skippy, but originally from Talk to Action, which looks pretty intense)

Huh… Is this… is this so the Nazi alien spaceships will know where to land?

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“The Wm. J. Clinton Foundation, with Bill himself explaining it on Wednesday, has lassoed a team of banks, energy service companies, and 16 of the world’s biggest cities to reduce energy use dramatically. Tactics include more efficient buildings, lighting standards, alternate energy sources, and the like. The Clinton Climate Initiative provides Microsoft tools for measuring how a city’s policies change greenhouse gas emissions, and financing to install superior technologies in buildings.”
Bill Clinton gathers a bucket of money for 16 cities to go green

“The AP’s Maria Cheng has a catchy lede here: “If it really is what’s on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble.” True enough, thanks to that “might be”. However, her source — an imaging expert in the UK where she is based — seems to be a bit of an iconoclast. Thus the story might better stress right off the bat that his ideas are not, for now anyway, mainstream.”
Are some thin people just tucking their fat out of sight (and clogging arteries, etc) ? Some say so, others don’t.

“Thanks to its passage across the face of its star as seen from Earth, Swiss astronomers have measured the size and hence density of a planet circling its star some 30 light years away. The conclusion: it’s mostly water. But the planet, the mass of Neptune, is so close to its star and has such pressure that its water is both hot, and solid. Ergo, hot ice. It seems odd more reporters did not bite on this one. Hot ice? That’s a wow. The report is to be in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.”
A big, hot, far away planet made mostly of (hot) ice

And the horrors of SEX!
“Toronto Globe & Mail Andre Picard runs it under the startling hed “Oral sex can lead to throat cancer.” That could zip a few lips even though, in the story, he says the good news is that the higher risk remains fairly low; Washington Post Rob Stein puts up high that this may explain rising throat cancer among young people who neither smoke nor drink heavily. A source tells him that if vaccination is good for the girls, ditto for boys; The Register (UK) Lewis Page goes for cheeky, coarse humor with the hed: “Oral sex could be more dangerous than cigars - Looks bad for Clinton either way.” You guys, cool it with Clinton
HPV cancer, vaccine etc. studies in the news

That’s all for now, Science Fans!

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I write a little about misogyny in comic books, but I think we should all remember that misogyny is a real world problem because too many men hate women. I won’t say all men, but some days it sure seems that way.

The DeAnza Case: men really hate teenage drunk girls reminds me uncomfortably of the OC rape case where Jane Doe passed out and was gang raped by three men who taped it and passed around DVDs of the rape. The first trial, with video evidence, ended in a mistrial. Back in the DeAnza case: was there no DNA evidence? I wonder. Sounds like the cops screwed up on this one. If she went to the hospital and there was a rape kit or whatever, wouldn’t there be DNA evidence for at least one of the rapists?

Note to my readers: don’t pass out at parties. Don’t drink out of a glass that has been left unattended for even a few minutes. Stick to weak drinks and fruit juice and hope nobody puts the date rape drug in it. How sad that it has to be like this, but it is.

Oh, and comic books, well, here’s the deal on that. Comic books, not all of them, but far too many of them, that dehumanize women are part of the larger problem of women being treated like things. Things that can be raped, mutilated, murdered, etc. When Marvel and DC and whomever make the rape, murder and mutilation of women attractive to sell books to teenage boys, they make the world a little less safe for women of all ages.

I realize that not all men are monsters, but the victim in the DeAnza case was raped in front of a roomful of cheering onlookers, many of whom were men. Why, you might ask, didn’t anyone stop it? I can tell you why no woman tried to stop it, because she would have been the next rape victim. And the men in the room? They must have been enjoying it, and this is part of the dehumanization of which I speak. Would they have been so keen if the victim were a man being forcibly sodomized by three men? I think not. Of note, it was a woman at the party who took the victim to the hospital, not a man or the police. I salute that woman and call her sister. (Update 052507: There were three women rescuers and, if you have the stomach for it, here’s what they saw.)

The corrupt thinking of the rapists and onlookers in the DeAnza case and the OC rape case, and the image of tentacle rape on a comic book cover and the MaryJane Porno statue are the same. Women transformed into things that can be used and disposed of without conscience or even thought. Raped, mutilated, murdered, etc. This is why women are up in arms over the cover and the statue and more. Real-life rape and murder is at least sort of still a crime, although the DA is also a villain in the DeAnza case, the larger theme is that the victim was degraded into an object, a receptacle for the rapists hatred of women.

I’ve no idea why most men hate women so much. Why, guys? What is it that causes the horrors men visit on women? And is it ever going to get better for all of us?

I have a pet theory that all girls should be raised like Shaolin monks: able to defend themselves physically, but also able to meditate and live peacefully. I think this because the way things are, the majority of men are just not going to change on their own. This makes me sad, but there you have it.

Full disclosure: I have known a few gentlemen, and stories like the DeAnza case make me wish there were more like them in the world.

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“The prototype, called a ‘clean hub,’ is made from an old, 20-foot-long storage container and houses a bathroom complete with a composting toilet and a solar shower, a 4,400-gallon water tank, a foot pump-powered sink, and water collection and filtration systems. Running on two solar panels and a 1500-watt battery, the hub also provides sufficient electricity to power itself, with enough left over to run a small appliance, such as a laptop.”
Architecture students build ‘hub’ for disaster relief, Social Design Notes, May 14, 2007

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“The following is a review of US Air Force Major Patrick Sullivan’s 2006 thesis for a Master of Science in Strategic Intelligence from the National Military Intelligence College (NMIC). The thesis examines China’s strategy to ‘buy equity oil interests’ around the globe, the methods that they employ in that task, and the resulting impacts on global oil production and US national security concerns.

“This review should also be of interest because it offers a window into the strategic thinking of the US intelligence community. NMIC is the training ground for the next generation of American strategic decision makers. I have searched every thesis paper in the NMIC system for the last 9 years—no paper deals specifically with Peak Oil. This is the only thesis that deals with the geopolitics of global energy scarcity—in this case, the rise of resource mercantilism in China.”
Wildcats & Tigers: China’s Oil Acquisition Strategy, The Oil Drum, May 9, 2007

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Made in America…

Tentacle porn!

This is not Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife and vice versa.

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Wasn’t I just saying we need more women drawing at Marvel and DC? Colleen Coover is a big step in the right direction. Would be amusing if she were writing there as well. I’m also very much in favor of more humor and less cutting up women in comics. I liked Nextwave a lot. I’m all happy now.

(And if Colleen Coover, why not Molly Kiely?)

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“The old joke is, ‘A salesman tells an American that he has a new invention that will do half his work for him. The American replies, ‘Great. Give me two.’” This sentiment comes to mind when I watch people and elevators.”
Elevator Ethics, May 8, 2007

and

“Falwell:
AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.

“Studs:
I’ve always felt, in all my books, that there’s a deep decency in the American people and a native intelligence - providing they have the facts, providing they have the information.”
The Religious Right vs. The Prophetic Minority: Falwell is Dead, Studs Still Alive, May 16, 2007

Who’d you rather be trapped in an elevator with?

Hooray for Studs Turkel! May he live as long as he wants to!

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“On Feb. 8, 2004, George W. Bush proudly proclaimed to Tim Russert on ‘Meet the Press,’ ‘I am a war president.’ Like an 8-year-old playing with toy soldiers, Bush, an Air National Guard dropout, looked at war with vicarious enthusiasm. Contrast the attitude of the nation’s ‘peace presidents’ – supreme commanders who led the nation to victory in the greatest wars the country faced: men who had experienced the grim reality of battle and wanted no part of it.”
The Peace Presidents, Donkey o.d., May 9, 2007

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I know it’s uncool to like All Star Batman and Robin, but I love this book. Okay, there was year between issues 4 and 5, and my personal shopper at Comic Odyssey wonders if this series will ever conclude in our lifetimes, but I just don’t care. I don’t care about Vicki Vale’s ass in issue 1 or Black Canary’s impossible bustier in issue 3. I do not care how cheesecake bordering on bad taste it all is. I love this stupid comic. Perhaps I’m odd, but it’s so over the top, I find if more goofy than offensive. So there. A year between issues sucks a lot, but I certainly found other things to read.

Anyway, let me recap ASBAR 5: Wonder Woman is one pissed off half-naked Amazon and penetrates the Justice League tree house, where she throws a first-class hissy fit. Superman is a jerk to her. Hal Jordan gets her coat; what a gentleman. Plastic Man? WTF? Of course on the next page there’s the goddam Batman running around Gotham with an erection. No, you can’t see it, but it’s there. Meanwhile, back at the Batcave chapter of NAMBLA, Robin is still in those adorable pajamas! Yeah, but now he’s armed and this is probably a good move on his part. Will there be spanking? I wonder. Oooh, cute slippers, too! Has Alfred been saving this outfit all these years? Ew.

DC, you and your copyright can chompe ma verge, I’m calling this Fair Use, buckos, here’s where you can send the C&D. Click on the images for larger size:

You know, I think these are less DC characters than monsters of Frank Miller’s Id. That would make a lot more sense.

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“Every now again, though not very often, I think about spending some time away from the computer, pulling back the blinds and actually leaving my basement to venture outside.

“But then, my cub scout training kicks in and I realize that I shouldn’t just dive headlong into a new project without carefully researching it first. ‘Be prepared’ the motto goes.”
Lol Nature, vol 1, The Daily Blitz, May 12, 2007

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Beyond Google: 119 Sources for Searching the Deep Web

Using the Permaculture Zone Principle for Getting Things Done

Hmmm!

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From Marvel and DC Comics specifically.

I guess I better get my two cents in on the Mary Jane washer woman/pole dancer scuffle before it goes completely cold.

You can start reading the massive reaction to the MaryJane Washerwoman Statue, they started on May 12 and go on and on and it’s not pretty, but it’s pretty interesting because many of these posts are not from “comics bloggers.” (Ragnell here and sort of here.) They’re from people who don’t like seeing women degraded in degrading depictions. Here she is, folks in all her 360 degree glory. Or here if you don’t want to click on thumbnails.

So, any thoughts on how to get less misogynistic writing and art in superhero comics? I like the books I read and don’t read the books that piss me off. I think one solution is to get more women who actually write and read comics, and take it seriously, working at the big two. Sorry, Jodi Picoult, you might be a good novelist, but you sucked writing Wonder Woman. There are men writing at the Marvel and DC who do great work that’s not consistently and overtly offensive. Such as Warren Ellis (Nextwave, Warren, all is forgiven [as long as I don’t read your blog]), Grant Morrison (Bulleteer was a sly, well-placed jab at exactly what’s wrong with superhero comics), Greg Rucka (loved his run on Wonder Woman and White Out is on my must read list), and there are probably others, but why aren’t there more? And how do we get more women and less-hostile-to-women men writing superhero comics?

I know the editors at Marvel and DC aren’t listening and don’t care, but, because it is all about money, women would spend as much or more on superhero comics and tchokies if they weren’t so creepy. And adult women have as much disposable income as the fanboys. One of the goals of the J LHLS review site is to provide grown-up reviews for grown-ups, some of whom are women who’d like to start reading comics. So what do we mostly review? Manga and anime. What can I tell ya? I’d love to have more superhero reviews, so if you want to review for us, drop me a line and I’ll set up a log-in for you.

Anyway, pre-tangent, it could take a while to change superhero comics so they’re less offensive to women, but it’s a change worth working for. But how? First establish the goal and then the method. Bitching, sorry, I mean, polemic is only so useful.

UPDATE 052707: addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fhackenblog.hackenbush.org%2F2007%2F05%2F20%2Fwhat-do-women-want%2F'; addthis_title = 'What+do+women+want%3F'; addthis_pub = '';

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Originally seen at Mr. Dan Kelly, but mine is cooler becasue it’s subtitled.

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Julian Beever creates ‘hole’ on pavement in Singapore

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So, BuyBlue.org is kaput. Why do I feel like I’ve been kicked in the gut? Anyone got a replacement for it?

UPDATE: Advomatic?. Wish they’d put a date on this post. Oh well.

Maybe The Blue Pages, but it was published in 2006, so I wonder how current it is.

What I liked about BuyBlue was that it was current and you could make requests. Guess I get to do my own digging now. Oh, and anyone know why they packed it up? Just wondering.

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Your Purple Martin PSA du jour.

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Does anyone know what I can do to read LiveJournals on Bloglines again? Or why I can’t? That would be very sad, because Bloglines is perfect for LJ. Wading through my “Friends” list wears me out, especially when I’m just looking for the occasional, specialized post. But Bloglines lets me be in the driver seat.

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“Despite heavy public opposition to the conflict, 19 Democrats broke with their party’s antiwar leadership to oppose cutting off funding by March 31, 2008, joining 47 Republicans and one independent in the 67 to 29 vote against the measure. The Senate’s four Democratic presidential candidates were among the supporters of the measure, offered as an amendment to an unrelated bill, as House and Senate leaders prepared to negotiate a spending package that would fund the war through September.”
Symbolic Measure to End War Voted Down 67 to 29 in Senate, by Shailagh Murray, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, May 17, 2007; Page A03

Here’re the 19 Senators who claim to be Democrats:

Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)

People who live in these states, don’t you think there might be better Democrats, like real ones, who could do a better job representing you as, y’know, Democrats?

The unspeakable horror of war is obviously lost on the majority of our Senate and so they easily wish it on others. What is wrong with these people?

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“Like many other visitors to the La Brea tar pits, sisters Samantha and Katie Salazar watched a basketball-sized bubble emerge from dark, slimy gunk Sunday and wondered, why are the tar pits bubbly?

“For years, educators at the Hancock Park site could only guess that methane gas was being released as the byproduct of oil creation 1,000 feet below the surface.

“Researchers at UC Riverside have finally found the answer: Hardy bacteria embedded in the natural asphalt are eating away at the petroleum and burping up methane.

“Of the bacteria the researchers isolated in tar pit samples, about 200 to 300 are previously unknown species.”
Researchers learn why tar pits are bubbly. (or here, if it’s behind the pay wall [sorry, LAT]) Newly discovered bacteria in natural asphalt are munching on the petroleum and burping up methane gas in Hancock Park. By Jia-Rui Chong, LA Times, May 14, 2007

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“I visit the United States this week to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the landing of a small group of British citizens on a tiny island in what is now called the James River, here in Virginia. With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that, in that event, the origins of a singular endeavor, the building of a great nation, founded on the eternal values of democracy and equality, based on the rule of law and the promotion of freedom.”
Queen Elizabeth II Address to a Joint Session of the Virginia Assembly, delivered May 3, 2007 (there’s video if you can stand it)

That Queen! What a kidder! What a hat!

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