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Jul. 28th, 2012 03:21 am* President Obama is lifting the AIDS travel ban, just in time for an AIDS conference in DC. If DC were a country, it would by on the conferences list of countries in crisis due to the high rate of transmission there: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#48365078
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* I see Mitt Romney has been out demonstrating his diplomatic chops by insulting Great Britain while he's over there for the games. I mean, what better way to show off his skills than an exchange of insults with the Conservative leader of a country we are allied with. Now imagine how he'd do, say, trying to get the Russians to stop sending attack helicopters to Syria. After all, he claims that the Russia is still the biggest threat to our national security. No really, look it up. It was only a few moths ago. It would be hilarious if it weren't so scary.
* Mitt Romney wants everyone to know he wants us to go back to George W. Bush's foreign policy as all the problems of the Middle East are somehow President Obama's fault everything there was perfect before President Obama took office thanks to Bush's policies. O.o Suddenly Mitt Romney's nastiness tpo our allies makes sense. He's trying to duplicate George W. Bush's bad will tour of Europe, by being a dick to foreign powers for no reason. I'm guessing his endorsement of Bush's policies means he's in favor of invading random countries to start forever wars in the hopes of making his friends rich. Of course, he hasn't said exactly which countries he's planning to randomly invade or any other policy details, only that he plans to take us back to the Bush era. Is anyone else horrified and freaked out?
* Bobby Jindal says Mitt Romney's rudeness to the leaders of other countries doesn't matter as only winning votes in the United states count. I guess Republicans are unaware that foreign policy is an important part of the president's job and have ignored all the crisis President Obama has navigated in his term of office. So, Bobby Jindal: lying or too ignorant to be competent for office?
* Mary Tamm, the original and my favorite Romana has died: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18995370
* "Gorillas Outsmart Poachers: Are the Apes Rising?:" http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/27/gorillas-outsmart-poachers-are-the-apes-rising/
* It voting time again here in Washington State. Here's a pretty good Progressive Voter's guide, which is a real help in the smaller races where one doesn't know much about the candidates. If you scroll to the bottom, they break it down by district so you can click through to races that only effect you. http://progressivevotersguide.com/2012/washington/primary/?src=GSEWVGA&P=1
For the record, I did not entirely agree with them, but I mostly did when I filled out my ballot.
* I waded through the last of the paperwork today, likely incorrectly and with bad math. Odds on, I am cheating myself out of money due to not knowing where to file what. Sigh. Hector is on Day 2 of a howling jag. The meds are helping and I'm generally getting him to calm down and take a nap by 11PM or so. It's still exhausting. I'm in crippling physical pain just now, which is not helping either. (I eventually gave in and took the serious meds). The corys seem fine and happy. I did a bunch of tank maintenance including even morre bubble wand tinkering. I can really see why the cheaper wand is cheaper. Also, the older and better wand is clearly aging out. Yet another think on my things to worry about after Seattle list. My main goal for this weekend is a bunch of stuffing needing doing with the tall twenty, and maybe more housework, but I'm mostly planning to rest up. Monday has serious errand in it, which I expect to exhaust. Tuesday I'm aiming for smaller, less dire paperwork. There's all this stuff that requires me getting the timing right involving juggling bills, travel, and other financial crap coming up in the near future. It's stressing me the hell out. I am really looking forward to seeing the ever delightful Evilandi, though. I don't get to see him nearly enough.
* Olympics Opening ceremony. I know people were mocking them for following the large scale spectacle China did with something so utterly the opposite and deliberately human scale and quirky, but I think it makes sense. They couldn't have done what the Chinese did and doing something in the same vein would have looked shabby by comparison. At least this way it's sort of defiantly individual and creative. As an historian, I'm not sure I believe that the pre-industrial countryside was that idyllic and I have an idea of how gruesome and deadly industrialization was, but Opening Ceremonies are generally about myth and symbolism. I'm okay with that. I also admit that making sure the cast was multi-ethnic warmed my heart a little, especially with how little press early modern UK communities of colour generally get. Similarly, I'm glad they honored workers, the NHS, Suffragettes, and the WWI dead. (There is so little thought given just generally to WWI veterans especially now that they are gone). I liked that they included so many veterans just generally. I love that they went all out with the pop culture/literary references and the glorification of the imagination. I found it charming that they found a funny way to reference Chariots of Fire. It's impossible for someone my age or older not to think of it when England and Olympics are mentioned in the same sentence, but taking the piss out if it seemed very, well, English. (Full disclosure, I had such a crush on Ben cross when I was 11). The doves! Ooo! The caldron design was delightfully different. May I add, the music for the ceremony in general was a pretty cool tribute to English talent.
* Random parade of Nations stream of consciousness thoughts: I am so happy to see the Greeks raised the money for tickets after all. I was genuinely worried that they'd not make it. The American Samoan flag bearer was smoking hot, wasn't he? Bhutan made it despite everything that's been going on there! Brunei is sending their first female athlete! I wonder what the North Korean athletes make of England? Some of the Egyptians were in the Democracy protest! OMG, did you see the body on the Figi flag bearer? The French flag bearer was not only gorgeous, but a Fencer coming back for her fifth games. Talk about impressive. I loved the Independent Athletes doing their little dance on the way in. How cool is it that Iraq not only made it there despite everything, but the flag bearer is one of three women who ever competed for them? One .of the Japanese team was evacuated out of Fukashima. I wish they'd gotten better footage of Mexico's outfits. Qatar has women for the first time too, one of whom was flag bearer. Saudi Arabia is sending woen for the first time too. Progress! Caster Semenya got to carry the South African flag! I'm so rooting for her just generally after all the assholery she's been subjected to. Obviously, I'm also rooting for Oscar Pistorius and am so glad they are letting him compete. Syria made it. There is talk of protests at an Equestrian event where a distant relative of Assad is competing.
* This is beautiful: http://snakewife.tumblr.com/post/26412144313/ilovecephalopods-43501-cuttlefish-imitating
* Bwahahaha! http://xkcd.com/1087/
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* I see Mitt Romney has been out demonstrating his diplomatic chops by insulting Great Britain while he's over there for the games. I mean, what better way to show off his skills than an exchange of insults with the Conservative leader of a country we are allied with. Now imagine how he'd do, say, trying to get the Russians to stop sending attack helicopters to Syria. After all, he claims that the Russia is still the biggest threat to our national security. No really, look it up. It was only a few moths ago. It would be hilarious if it weren't so scary.
* Mitt Romney wants everyone to know he wants us to go back to George W. Bush's foreign policy as all the problems of the Middle East are somehow President Obama's fault everything there was perfect before President Obama took office thanks to Bush's policies. O.o Suddenly Mitt Romney's nastiness tpo our allies makes sense. He's trying to duplicate George W. Bush's bad will tour of Europe, by being a dick to foreign powers for no reason. I'm guessing his endorsement of Bush's policies means he's in favor of invading random countries to start forever wars in the hopes of making his friends rich. Of course, he hasn't said exactly which countries he's planning to randomly invade or any other policy details, only that he plans to take us back to the Bush era. Is anyone else horrified and freaked out?
* Bobby Jindal says Mitt Romney's rudeness to the leaders of other countries doesn't matter as only winning votes in the United states count. I guess Republicans are unaware that foreign policy is an important part of the president's job and have ignored all the crisis President Obama has navigated in his term of office. So, Bobby Jindal: lying or too ignorant to be competent for office?
* Mary Tamm, the original and my favorite Romana has died: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18995370
* "Gorillas Outsmart Poachers: Are the Apes Rising?:" http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/27/gorillas-outsmart-poachers-are-the-apes-rising/
* It voting time again here in Washington State. Here's a pretty good Progressive Voter's guide, which is a real help in the smaller races where one doesn't know much about the candidates. If you scroll to the bottom, they break it down by district so you can click through to races that only effect you. http://progressivevotersguide.com/2012/washington/primary/?src=GSEWVGA&P=1
For the record, I did not entirely agree with them, but I mostly did when I filled out my ballot.
* I waded through the last of the paperwork today, likely incorrectly and with bad math. Odds on, I am cheating myself out of money due to not knowing where to file what. Sigh. Hector is on Day 2 of a howling jag. The meds are helping and I'm generally getting him to calm down and take a nap by 11PM or so. It's still exhausting. I'm in crippling physical pain just now, which is not helping either. (I eventually gave in and took the serious meds). The corys seem fine and happy. I did a bunch of tank maintenance including even morre bubble wand tinkering. I can really see why the cheaper wand is cheaper. Also, the older and better wand is clearly aging out. Yet another think on my things to worry about after Seattle list. My main goal for this weekend is a bunch of stuffing needing doing with the tall twenty, and maybe more housework, but I'm mostly planning to rest up. Monday has serious errand in it, which I expect to exhaust. Tuesday I'm aiming for smaller, less dire paperwork. There's all this stuff that requires me getting the timing right involving juggling bills, travel, and other financial crap coming up in the near future. It's stressing me the hell out. I am really looking forward to seeing the ever delightful Evilandi, though. I don't get to see him nearly enough.
* Olympics Opening ceremony. I know people were mocking them for following the large scale spectacle China did with something so utterly the opposite and deliberately human scale and quirky, but I think it makes sense. They couldn't have done what the Chinese did and doing something in the same vein would have looked shabby by comparison. At least this way it's sort of defiantly individual and creative. As an historian, I'm not sure I believe that the pre-industrial countryside was that idyllic and I have an idea of how gruesome and deadly industrialization was, but Opening Ceremonies are generally about myth and symbolism. I'm okay with that. I also admit that making sure the cast was multi-ethnic warmed my heart a little, especially with how little press early modern UK communities of colour generally get. Similarly, I'm glad they honored workers, the NHS, Suffragettes, and the WWI dead. (There is so little thought given just generally to WWI veterans especially now that they are gone). I liked that they included so many veterans just generally. I love that they went all out with the pop culture/literary references and the glorification of the imagination. I found it charming that they found a funny way to reference Chariots of Fire. It's impossible for someone my age or older not to think of it when England and Olympics are mentioned in the same sentence, but taking the piss out if it seemed very, well, English. (Full disclosure, I had such a crush on Ben cross when I was 11). The doves! Ooo! The caldron design was delightfully different. May I add, the music for the ceremony in general was a pretty cool tribute to English talent.
* Random parade of Nations stream of consciousness thoughts: I am so happy to see the Greeks raised the money for tickets after all. I was genuinely worried that they'd not make it. The American Samoan flag bearer was smoking hot, wasn't he? Bhutan made it despite everything that's been going on there! Brunei is sending their first female athlete! I wonder what the North Korean athletes make of England? Some of the Egyptians were in the Democracy protest! OMG, did you see the body on the Figi flag bearer? The French flag bearer was not only gorgeous, but a Fencer coming back for her fifth games. Talk about impressive. I loved the Independent Athletes doing their little dance on the way in. How cool is it that Iraq not only made it there despite everything, but the flag bearer is one of three women who ever competed for them? One .of the Japanese team was evacuated out of Fukashima. I wish they'd gotten better footage of Mexico's outfits. Qatar has women for the first time too, one of whom was flag bearer. Saudi Arabia is sending woen for the first time too. Progress! Caster Semenya got to carry the South African flag! I'm so rooting for her just generally after all the assholery she's been subjected to. Obviously, I'm also rooting for Oscar Pistorius and am so glad they are letting him compete. Syria made it. There is talk of protests at an Equestrian event where a distant relative of Assad is competing.
* This is beautiful: http://snakewife.tumblr.com/post/26412144313/ilovecephalopods-43501-cuttlefish-imitating
* Bwahahaha! http://xkcd.com/1087/
