The Evil Eyebrow

Category: News

  • Oh, the Irony. It Burns…

    NPR’s Morning Edition interviewed a woman today concerning the media coverage surrounding (enveloping? choking?) the Virginia Tech shootings. The upshot was, the media is being a huge hungry hound and is exacerbating the trauma on a number of students/faculty/staff/etc. The woman interviewed was a survivor of the Jonesboro shootings in 1998 when she was a 13 year old sixth grader. She spoke about how the media camped out for the remainder of the school year (March-June), not allowing the school any peace.

    NPR also taped some quick soundbites with current students at VT concerning their opinions that the media empire needed to pack up and go; their presence is not allowing VT to heal. The slant of the entire segment was “Media: thou art evil, now GO!”

    Of course this was on a radio news program. I wonder if the students being interviewed about the too-extensive media coverage appreciated the irony of their actions.

    NPR is not immune from the same budget factors that drive the ABC’s and CNN’s and Fox’s of the world. They, however, have a reputation for calm, unbiased, dispassionate objectivity which occassionally gets them into a sticky situation, like this one.

    The irony is hot, let’s go press some scenes.

  • Abstinence Only Eductation

    A study published this month concludes that abstinence only sex education is not effective in changing the behaviors of teens. A silver lining, if you can call it that, is that there was no measurable difference between the study group and the control group. So, the abstinence only education did not negatively affect the rates at which these teens were sexing each other up, nor did it affect the rates that they contracted sexually transmitted disease. A Bush appointee says “This study isn’t rigorous enough to show whether or not [abstinence only] education works,” but we know that the Bush administration has a long established policy of only accepting scientific evidence if it supports their preconceived notions.

    However, the people who are doomcrying the abstinence only education and the ones who are retrenching to defend it are missing an important shade to the study conclusion. There was no significant difference in the two groups, therefore education that included contraception was just as (in)effective as abstinence-only!

    That does not bode well for our current educational strategies. Or maybe it establishes that education has no power over teenage hormones.

  • Big Schools, Big District, Big Budget

    The Atlanta Journal Constitution had an article on Tuesday stating that Gwinnett County, Georgia (east of Atlanta, just outside the I-285 perimeter) climbed in enrollment by 55% this year, and now has 9.8% of all public school students in Georgia. That’s one county!

    Wow.

    Their fiscal 2008 budget is $1.7 billion. Quoting the AJC:

    Gwinnett schools expect to enroll more students this August than the populationsof 138 of Georgia’s 159 Counties.

    Double Wow. I live in Cobb County, which has, by all reports, an excellent public school system. I don’t have any kids, so I can’t report on those reports, but I need to go dig up the statistics for my county and see how it compares.

    Anyone I know looking for teaching jobs?

  • Don Imus does not Deserve Redemption

    I was sitting in the Atlanta Airport this morng, waiting for my flight to Baltimore. CNN, otherwise known as “news channel that used to be good” was covering in detail the story of Anna Nicole Smith’s child and the DNA test proving boyfriend #4a was the father. Thankfully, after 10 minutes of that coverage, they moved along to Don Imus and his unconscionable attack on the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

    If you haven’t been listening to the news for the last week, you won’t know that Don Imus, radio talk show host syndicated by lots of people and employed by CBS, described the NCAA tournament-winning basketball team as “…nappy headed ho’s.”

    CNN’s coverage this morning is almost entirely dedicated to famous people who have jumped up to defend Mr. Imus for his inappropriate remark, including Rudy Guliani, Bill Maher, and Jeff Greenfield. Some guy who’s name I missed was playing the religious redemption card saying (approximately) “every man deserves a chance at redemption.”

    Absent the chistrian-centric overtones of that comment, I agree; every person deserves a chance to rectify mistakes that they have made. The caveat is that they don’t need to rectify that mistake in the same job.

    A public persona such as Don Imus has a responsibility to think before he speaks. An egregious remark such as the one in question should be grounds for immediate reassignment, if not dismissal, for a talk show host. Like yesterday’s posting about a blog code of conduct, “I will take responsibility for my own remarks.” That should apply to Don Imus

    And don’t get me started about Rush “The Biggest Liar in the whole world” Limbaugh.*

    *P.S. I can’t stand Michael Moore, either.

  • Blogger Code of Conduct and the Rhetorical use of Fuck

    The NY Times reports today on a movement to enhance civility in the blogosphere. This code is based partly on the BlogHer community guidelines and a draft is delineated here and here.

    This code was founded directly or indirectly due to a flamewar on a blog posting that was interpreted as misogynistic with threatening overtones (For details, follow any of those links above). I, personally, feel that a level of civility should be adhered to in any public forum where your words can be resurrected in later years, if only for your own protection. You don’t want to be twenty years down the line, running for mayor, and have someone dig up your old MySpace pages. Not good. Personal protection aside, the golden rule is always good to follow. Public discourse is not enhanced by crazy flaming.

    This brings me to a small point I’ve been meaning to write about for a while:

    Why the fuck to people write f*ck?

    I see this often in the blogosphere. It seems a bit silly. It’s not like the most harebrained 8 year old can’t figure out what f*ck means. I don’t tend to use much profanity on my blog, but I feel that a well-timed expletive has some rhetorical value in a less formal setting (which most of my blog postings are). Putting an asterisk in a swear-word is a cop out. Use it, or don’t; half measures don’t get my respect.

  • Expert System labeled Fraud

    A computer program has been abjured from practicing law in California.

    The software did, indeed, go far beyond providing clerical services. It determined where (particularly, in which schedule) to place information provided by the debtor, selected exemptions for the debtor and supplied relevant legal citations. Providing such personalized guidance has been held to constitute the practice of law.

  • More Suspicious Devices in Boston

    Another scurrilous bomb plot is foiled in Boston. This suspicious device was detonated by the Boston Police Department.
    A Traffic Counter is mistaken for a Bomb

    Here is the original story.

    Here is a video of it being detonated.

    Looks like I’m out of a job! Either that or we’ll have to navigate through new layers of bureacratic oversight before placing traffic counters. At the moment, there are none, generally, and traffic counting firms can place counters wherever they want. This leads to quick turnaround times for needed information, which is good! Now, I forsee three-month waiting periods and police escorts for the people placing the counters.

    Woo hoo. I love living in a post 9-11 world.

  • Know Your Neighbors

    Befriend your neighbors or something like this might happen to you.

    This man was dead for a year before he was discovered. That’s just wrong.

  • Verizon, Holy Crap…

    I’m listening to this recorded call about a humongously amazingly moronic customer service nightmare. Apparently, up until last month, Verizon did not recognize the difference between $0.002 and 0.002¢.

    You must listen to this and be amazed. These people are out there and doing your taxes. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

    Thanks to bmenyuk on Livejournal for showing this to me

  • Even NASA Screws Up Occasionally

    That was tongue in cheek, by the way

    I guess NASA’s Astronaut psych evaluations can miss things occasionally.

    From CNN: Astronaut arrested on attempted kidnapping charges.

    Read the story. This is pretty off-the-wall stuff. What really drives home the screwiness is this line.

    Inside the car, police found a half-dozen latex gloves, MapQuest directions from Houston to Orlando International Airport, e-mails from Shipman to Oefelein, diapers that Nowak said she used to eliminate stops along the highway…

    This little drive was from Houston to Orlando. That’s a long way with only a diaper for company.