Archive for December, 2011

Lowe’s Feels VERY Dumb Right Now

Saturday, December 17th, 2011

You might have heard how the other week the Florida Family Association protested Lowe’s advertising on TLC’s “All-American Muslim” show until they canceled their ads. Protests on the order of Tahrir Square erupted on the internets.

Now it turns out this hate religious group is only one dude.

Wow.

Check out the New York Times article: “Waging a One-Man War on American Muslims“.

Sarcasm in Print

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

We talking about this almost two years ago (see SarcMark).

Check out this article from the Washington Post: “Should sarcasm have its own font style?

I may be guilty of using the faux-html code, like: < sarcasm > great idea .

All-American Racism, from Lowe’s

Monday, December 12th, 2011

Lowe’s has sunk below Walmart in corporate crassness: “All-American Muslim Meets an Un-American Advertising Pullout“.

Lowe’s pulled its ads following a protest campaign from the Florida Family Association, which objects to the show, in essence, because it portrays Muslims too positively. That is, it argues the show is “propaganda” because it portrays peaceful, ordinary Muslims without mentioning horrible things that other Muslims have done. Right: because a decade of news reports, eight seasons of 24 and constant political grandstanding have done a bang-up job of utterly ignoring Islamic extremists.

Bonus points for mentioning the PPH.

Love the Poniewozik …

Clark Color Lab

Sunday, December 11th, 2011

The last few years it’s been harder and harder to get slide film developed. As you all may remember, the last lab in the world to process Kodachrome stopped a year ago this month.

I only shot a few rolls of Kodachrome in my life, I mostly shoot E-6, which folks do still develop.

Except Clark Color Labs.

Sometime in the last six months my old standby has stopped processing E-6 slides, so when I sent them a roll last week they returned it. Frustrating.

I’m beginning to feel like a dinosaur …

Hacker’s Hill Sale in Trouble

Friday, December 9th, 2011

Oh my: “Religious imagery jeopardizes Hacker’s Hill funding“.

London Removing Sidewalks

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

This is a weird, weird idea: “Goodbye, Sidewalks: London Planners Break Down Boundaries Between Cars and Pedestrians“.

Exhibition Road in London—a half-mile strip in the city’s cultural heart that draws 11 million visitors each year to its numerous museums and cultural institutions—will reopen next month without clear lane markers or curbs. As The Guardian describes it, the new design “is about suggestion rather than certainty.” Similar projects on other streets in London have decreased accidents involving pedestrians, showing that both walkers and drivers tend to pay better attention when they realize that they can’t rely on barriers to guide them.

Huh.

Right or Wrong?

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

In the last month we’ve wondered quite a bit about Sadie’s handedness, as Liz and I are both lefties.

Here’s an interesting Wall Street Journal article today that’s scary: “The Health Risks of Being Left-Handed“.

Infamy

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

Six decades ago today was the attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base, which led President Franklin Roosevelt on December 8 to give a speech to a joint session of Congress declaring it “a date which will live in infamy”.

Interestingly, that’s not how he put it in the first draft (from the National Archives):

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Fascinating.

James Niehues

Monday, December 5th, 2011

Wow, so apparently this one illustrator – James Niehues – does like, every ski resort map painting ever.

Wow.

Doctors per capita

Saturday, December 3rd, 2011

Maine and all of the northeast make out well when it comes to doctors. Check out this Washington Post article: “Where are the doctors?

Apparently by 2020, the US will be 90,000 doctors short … But not the northeast, including our fair state:

Compare that to Maine, a state without a medical school that somehow manages to have one of the highest levels of physicians.

Don’t believe them? Check out the map:

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LEGO Photo

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

Sadie, as seen through the LEGO Photo iPhone app:

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Happy National Day!

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

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