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The Hackenblog
| "It's morning in America, Hackenbush, and you work the nightshift."
Saturday, January 22, 2005 Welcome to blogging. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 11:19 PM PST [Link] I have a Sestina in the December 2004 issue of "103: The Journal of the Image Warehouse," the issue is called "Blurring the Line." It has the coolest, most interesting design of the three journals I've had poems in so far. My poem is spread over three pages and is the last thing in the book. I'm very pleased, if not perfectly delighted. Here's what Image Warehouse says on their worth-a-visit website: "The literary journal incorporates visual art, design and the written word. Creative writing is not given precedence over digital art. Film and music criticism are juxtaposed with concrete poetry. Of course, there are inescapable limitations within the 2-D format, but we challenge ourselves to find news ways of exceeding the expectations that may limit many other literary journals." Here's ordering information: http://www.imagewarehouse.org/journalnew.html. Based on the amount of work in this 8"x6" hardbound book with graphics and other elements set by hand, and a music CD (that I couldn't get to play, alas), I'm impressed they can sell this publication for only $7.50. I suggest you act quickly; operators are not standing by. EDIT: Hm, based on this page, I'm now not so sure you get, for $7.50, the same thing I got. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 08:27 PM PST [Link]
"Today we mark the 32nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that recognized women’s fundamental right to decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. Roe declared that a woman’s right to choose was a personal liberty protected by the U.S. Constitution." Yay! Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 08:14 PM PST [Link] Not making this up; wouldn't even try to make this stuff up: Utah State Lawmaker Defends Polygamy. Republicans... they just blow my mind sometimes. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 08:10 PM PST [Link] And now for some hotcha culture: Foxy Moxy.  Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 08:07 PM PST [Link]
"As the well-heeled Bush crowd was laughing and dancing in tuxedos and designer gowns, the situation in Iraq was deteriorating to new levels of horror. The Black Tie and Boots Ball was held on the same day that 26 people were killed in five powerful car and truck bombs in Baghdad. With the elections just a week and a half away, American commanders, according to John F. Burns of The Times, are seeking 'to prepare public opinion in Iraq and abroad for one of the bloodiest chapters in the war so far.'" After the last four years, hell, after the last four years and his father administration (legally elected as far as anyone can tell), does ANYONE even imagine that the bush crowd has a picogram of shame, or even decency in them? Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 10:16 AM PST [Link] Jon Stewart on the Inauguration Speech. (Via bOING bOING) Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 10:11 AM PST [Link]
Where the fuck is Joan Rivers when we really need her? Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 10:09 AM PST [Link] Google eyes. The company everyone loves knows more about you than you might realize. And that’s just for starters, by Dan Kennedy, BostonPhoenix.com, January 21, 2005 issue I think I knew this about Google before, but it's only starting to bother me now. Why ARE they saving all that search information? And if it's our information, why don't we have a) access to it, and b) the ability to delete it? Dooon't beee eeeviiil, Sergey and Larry, buwahahahahaha. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 10:06 AM PST [Link] "Yesterday a note from historian David Kaiser crossed my desk that points out that things are worse than Max suspects. Not only does Wayne Allard support policies that are craven, reactionary, Leninist, oligarchical, and expropriationist, it is also the case that Wayne Allard's very words are a gross and unconstitutional violation of his oath of office as a senator. As Kaiser writes, section four of the Fourteenth Amendment begins: "'The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.'" "If the [Social Security] Trust Fund should ever have trouble collecting on that asset... some citizens' organization should file suit under this provision to... reaffirm the validity of the Federal Government's obligation to the [Social Security] Trust Fund." Thanks, Brad, this is good to know. I've been meaning to post this forever. I can't even remember where I first saw the link. My day job is taking up too much of my time, like 40 hours/week, so something's gotta give. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 10:00 AM PST [Link] Friday, January 21, 2005 And now for some hard science on why there are more men in the hard sciences. "While there are essentially no disparities in general intelligence between the sexes, a UC Irvine study has found significant differences in brain areas where males and females manifest their intelligence. "'These findings suggest that human evolution has created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior,' said Richard Haier, professor of psychology in the Department of Pediatrics and longtime human intelligence researcher, who led the study with colleagues at UCI and the University of New Mexico. 'In addition, by pinpointing these gender-based intelligence areas, the study has the potential to aid research on dementia and other cognitive-impairment diseases in the brain.' "Study results appear on the online version of NeuroImage. "In general, men have approximately 6.5 times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence than women, and women have nearly 10 times the amount of white matter related to intelligence than men. Gray matter represents information processing centers in the brain, and white matter represents the networking of – or connections between – these processing centers." Southern California used to have Junior and High School programs to ferret out and encourage everyone, including females, to get into the hard sciences, if they were so inclined. I work for a Ph.D. in immunotoxicology who was in one of those programs; she's very cool (and very smart, too). In fact, she did her undergrad at UCI. So, yes, there are fewer women in science, and to its credit, the biggest science funding agency in the U.S., the NIH, does not base its awards on gender. They base them on science and reputation (mostly, occasionally grant reviewer ego gets in there, but not often), which is how they tell me it's supposed to be. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 08:40 AM PST [Link] Thursday, January 20, 2005
"'A foolish consistency,' wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson, 'is the hobgoblin of little minds.' An otherwise unreadable 19th century essayist who has driven more students out of American lit courses than James Fenimore Cooper and Alice Walker combined, Emerson became the patron saint of opinion columnists everywhere with that happy thought. (A hobgoblin is a malicious ghost; like Ann Coulter with a sense of humor, I suppose.) Emerson didn’t mean that consistency itself was suspect, only the foolish kind, 'adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.' Little statesmen like Fearless Leader, I suppose, incapable of admitting even other people’s errors if somebody might think he changed his mind. Too many people have died or been maimed by bushco's hobgoblins. Enough already. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 08:24 AM PST [Link] Wednesday, January 19, 2005
"Well, Mr. Chairman, again I thank you. I am -- Dr. Rice, I was glad you mentioned Martin Luther King -- it was very appropriate, given everything. And he also said, Martin Luther King, quote, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." And one of the things that matters most to my people in California and the people in America is this war in Iraq." Yet again, I am so proud that Barbara Boxer is my Senator. Thank you, Senator Boxer for not just knowing what's right, but standing up for it when few others will. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 06:41 PM PST [Link] Y'know, nothing succeeds like success. As they say. Or something. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 06:38 PM PST [Link]
"By this point, the 20th Century must have seemed like an enormous perverse joke to Strauss. Born in beery, Catholic Bavaria with its mad emperor, Strauss endured Bavaria's absorption into grey Prussia to form greater Germany; the whirling spree of Kaiser Wilhelm's lost empire; four years of murderous global war; Germany's decline into fascism, genocide and thuggery (which Strauss, to his great discredit, partly condoned); another appalling war and utter defeat. Strauss would even live to see the partioning of Germany into Western and Communist halves--"I have outlived even myself," he would say in 1949, the year of his death." "I have outlived even myself." I wonder when we'll all be saying that, too. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 06:36 PM PST [Link] Tuesday, January 18, 2005 BUZZWORD OF THE DAY spit: First there was spam. Then spim (spam To see the full Buzzword Compliant Posted by Laurel Sutton @ 12:41 PM PST [Link] Duh. Plus ça change... Especially when you invade their countries for whatever reason happens to be the flavor of the week at the White House. Grrr. Well, at least the kidnappers let Archbishop Basile Georges Casmoussa go unharmed, according to this article. Lucky guy. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 08:35 AM PST [Link] Monday, January 17, 2005 Somewhat depressing, but, I feel, necessary. Please click the "[Link]" to read it (if you're on the main page). Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 10:24 PM PST [Link]
"Molar tooth. Mailed in clear plastic box. Made a nice rattling sound. Repackaged in padded mailer by unknown individual; the postage and address had been transferred to the outside of the new packaging. A handwritten note in a woman's writing inside read, "Please be advised that human remains may not be transported through the mail, but we assumed this to be of sentimental value, and made an exception in your case." Days to delivery, 14." After living in Poland (good), the Czech Republic (bad), and Kazahstan (do they even have a postal service? our office only used Pony Express), I cannot tell you in mere words how much I love the US Postal Service. Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 02:00 PM PST [Link] Sunday, January 16, 2005
"For almost a century now, literary notables such as e.e. cummings and Umberto Eco have been writing about this simple, crudely drawn comic strip. "Krazy Kat" was said to be Woodrow Wilson's favorite comic strip (Wilson, in case you've forgotten, was an American president who was famous for being smart -- if you can imagine that...). The strip was also beloved by William Randolph Hearst -- which was important not because Mr. Hearst was noted for his literary tastes, but because he published newspapers. He continued to run "Krazy Kat" despite the fact that people were so agitated by the strip that they wrote in to complain about it. Therefore many chains refused to run it (I have to say, this degree of animosity towards a lowly comic strip is a mystery to me. From 1982-1986 I did keep a running total of how many consecutive days I could read "Family Circus" and never be tempted to laugh or smile. I just chalked it up to personal cynicism and never wrote in to complain, though)." Ah! Posted by Ginger Mayerson @ 06:26 PM PST [Link] |
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