the art of writing is discovering what you believe
TBogg » Cat’s in the the cradle and the bun’s in the oven :
If Todd Palin spent half as much of his time being involved in his kids lives as he spent stalking Mike Wooten and harassing his wife’s staff, Bristol Palin might be planning on attending her high school’s winter formal instead of preparing to give birth to Puck Jesus Palin-Johnston on Christmas Day
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Flickr: The Film is not dead it just smells funny Pool:
35mm B&W, large format pinhole, large format pinhole printed as a cyanotype, medium format pinhole, 35mm color negative.
A pretty good selection, I think, especially as this is a curated pool. When you can only submit one per day, it makes you take a good look at your stuff.
Sorry, Dad, I’m Voting for Obama – The Daily Beast :
If Democratic populism is a farce, Republican populism is a tragedy.
Finland’s ex-president Martti Ahtisaari received the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his efforts to build a lasting peace from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Middle East.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008 to Martti Ahtisaari for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts. These efforts have contributed to a more peaceful world and to ‘fraternity between nations’ in Alfred Nobel’s spirit,” the committee said in announcing the prize.
By selecting Ahtisaari, 71, for the prize, the Nobel committee returned its focus to traditional peace work after tapping climate campaigner Al Gore and the U.N. panel on climate change last year.
The secretive five-member committee said that Ahtisaari’s work across the world — Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East — proved that such efforts can have a profound effect on peace processes.
“Through his untiring efforts and good results, he has shown what role mediation of various kinds can play in the resolution of international conflicts,” the committee said in announcing the 10 million kronor (US$1.4 million) prize.
“For the past 20 years, he has figured prominently in endeavors to resolve several serious and long-lasting conflicts,” the citation said, mentioning his work in conflicts from Namibia and Aceh, Indonesia, to Kosovo and Iraq.
[From Talking Points Memo | Former Finnish president wins Nobel Peace Prize ]
Oh, yeah, that coincides with Ken “Panty Sniffer” Starr, the Do-Nothingest Congress, Mission Accomplished, Paris, Britney, Brangelina, and all the other crud that is considered news.
Interesting idea: creativity, restraint . . . . the results should be interesting.
Deadline: 31st December 2008 – You have plenty of time, read on.
– Subject: It is hard to use only one word for that so:
– Description of the Subject:
Each contestant will shoot on a 120 roll using the 6×4.5 format. Two subsequent frames of the roll, although shot at a different place and with several days difference must tell a story. Any story… No words, no titles, no descriptions or hints. Shhh…. you must let each judge/member/guest think of their own one
Good morning,
I wanted to let you that your decision to block customers from claiming their own reusable bag refunds at the self-checkout is one of the most short-sighted and wasteful things I have seen in some time.
So where once anyone could simply claim a refund by keying 1075 on the number pad and weighing the bags, we are now expected to get the attendant (who is generally busy with more complex customer problems) to do the same thing for us.
Reusable bags save your stores money, allow customers feel like they are making a difference, and are generally a good idea. But someone decided that we can’t be trusted and are somehow going to exploit this for all the nickels we can get.
A much easier solution would to simply cap the number of bags any one customer can claim at a reasonable number, like 5. Someone may take you for 10¢ when they claim 5 and use 3, but consider the union wages you are paying to monitor that as well the customer goodwill you’re squandering, and ask yourself if it’s worth it.
Well, as it turns out, it’s not an abuse of the bag refund that is the issue. Apparently, it’s abuse of the self-checkout system itself. I’m not sufficiently criminally-minded but evidently what has happened is patrons will weigh items with their bags in the refund process, meaning they get a 5¢ refund and the item(s) free. Add to that more mundane abuses — buying item A while paying for lookalike but lower-priced item B, keeping items off the scale so they are never counted as unpaid for — and it demonstrates how people will take advantage of anything they can, anyway they can.
This was why they had the public stocks back in the day.
I got some weird email acknowledging my unsubscription from my local FreeCycle group. Wha? I enquired what this was about, and got this reply:
Today you posted to the entire group a personal aside/request, violating the most basic rule that nothing but OFFERs/WANTEDs/TAKENs/RECEIVEDs can be posted by members. You have been a long-time member and of course know this rule.
We are extraordinarily serious when it comes to keeping “discussions” out of the FreecycleSeattle group – with 15,000 members this is simply not a place we can go, nor is it a thing 99% of our members want to see. Numerous places in the FAQ and the group rules point out that you need to email the moderators with concerns, not the whole group. You chose to ignore these rules.
You have two choices at this point:
A) recognize your mistake, don’t argue about it, read the group FAQ again. If you choose this option, feel free rejoin the group after five (5) days have past, with the understanding that you will abide by the group’s policies and rules in the future.
or
B) argue about this, waste our time defending your yourself, and/or rejoin the group under your original id (or an alias) before five (5) days have past. If you choose this
option, you will be immediately be banned from the group for at least one (1) full year.Your call. We’re very serious about this.
Well, then. What’s that about? No copy of the offending message, no trace of in the list archives or in the email from the list.
Either this message was a figment of someone’s imagination or all posts are being moderated. What do the FreeCycle rules say about that?
*** DON’T FULLY MODERATE YOUR GROUP.
And what else?
*** DON’T BE A DICTATOR.
[From FC Moderators Manual – Do’s and Don’ts for Freecycleâ„¢ Moderators .]
Continue reading “if you give people power, they will use it”
Fiction Rule of Thumb
Except for anything by Lewis Carroll or Tolkien, you get five made-up words per story. I’m looking at you, Anathem.
I’m Joe, and I live in New York City. I also really love Polaroids. Polaroid has recently announced that they are discontinuing their instant film. Although sadly inevitable, I regret that more people didn’t get a chance to appreciate the unique quality of Polaroids. So, I decided to start a project. For a few dollars, I will send you a Polaroid of anything anywhere in New York City. I don’t already have these stocked up – each one will be taken just for you. You will have the only copy in the entire world of a picture that was taken by someone else for you and you alone. That means way more than any other medium or method of exchange – there is a solitary, tangible record of a single moment in time shared by two strangers. I’m not doing this for money. The prices cover the film, postage, train fare, etc. It’s about interaction, distance, moments in time and most importantly the most awesome photographic medium ever. So, here are some Polaroids you can have:
[From haybale.org » Home]
