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An explosion and/or fire at Shaw Court in Calgary has knocked out a significant quantity of telecommunications equipment, affecting not only bank machines and radio stations, but stuff like 911 service and the program that tells ambulances which hospital they should take a patient to.
I’m going to repeat the salient bit:
…SPRINKLERS…in that room…ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT…
SPRINKLERS…ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
SPRINKLERS + ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT?!
LOLWHUT?
Normally when you talk about mission-critical infrastructure, you’re talking about stuff like the servers that handle banking and the stock market. And for that kind of thing, the technology exists to have redundant servers in multiple locations that can fail-over almost seamlessly if something like this happens. We don’t have all the details, but chances are some of this stuff is weirdass old mainframes and actual physical mechanical switches that can’t be failed over quite so easily. Still, why in the name of the Invisible Pink Unicorn and the Flying Spaghetti Monster would you put sprinklers in with them? I mean, I know the obvious answer, which is that halon is expensive. But whose brilliant idea was it to cut this particular corner? Maybe it’s just me, but I think 911 service is a bit more important than the stock market.
I wonder what colour the sky is in the land of Fox News. I really do. The level in inaccuracy and partisan slant censorship present is an obscene injustice against the American people and their right to know what is done in their name. Certainly we can make fun of our ignorant neighbours down south, but we’re missing the point, we should be ridiculing their fatuous news media for the gross veil of ignorance that twists how Americans see themselves and the world.
April 10th, One Day Without Shoes (or Comprehension)
Today is a day in which a company encourages you to go barefoot for a day (the website for this year has been mostly scrubbed of overt branding; criticism and backlash against this cynical corporate venture must be growing) of in order to ‘raise awareness’ and ‘help children’ the world over. Oh, and let’s not forget profit from the gullibility and ignorance of people. I’ve discussed how Tom’s Shoes plays on peoples ignorance in a previous post and thus shall not linger too long on how despicable this ad campaign is. I will repost a quick summary, just so we’re all aware of the how crappy this one-day nonsense actually is.
“Companies like Tom’s shoes take White Liberal Guilt and build a empire on the fuzzy feel good notion of helping others just by buying their brand of shoes. Hey, what could be wrong with getting shoes and having another pair donated to a needy person elsewhere on the globe? The notion of BOGO or “buy one, give one” is a cagey play by Tom’s as it exploits our altruistic instincts; we want to be good generous people, we want to be seen as people that help. It is a nice feeling, but should nice feelings escape critical examination? Of course not, especially when the noxious tentacles of greed are wrapped firmly around our feel-good assumptions about a product or service. NEWSFLASH – The poor of the world do not need more shoes! Sustainable jobs, debt forgiveness, clean water (etc.) – hell yes, but shoes, unless they are edible are far down the frakking list.”
Yah, you get to raise awareness. Awareness of a brand of shoes that is playing you for your altruistic notions in order to flog their product. So when you see the people walking around barefoot today make a note, these are also the same shallow people who do not bother with doing their research and as a result have wholeheartedly bought into the superficial lies of a misanthropic corporate entity.
Celebrate a day without shoes indeed.
What are the inner workings of The Daily Show or Real Time with Bill Maher? The interviews give a small slice of insight into what the leading satirists in America believe they are doing and why they do what they do. Also, Rory Bremner, from the UK is also mentioned. I’ve never heard of him until now but it seems he occupies the same space as Stewart and Maher. I’ll see if I can dig up some of Bremner’s work, for the sake of curiosity.
I think one of the smartest things a parent can do is get rid of the TV if they have children. TV land is a violently misogynistic place that perpetuates the current ugly set of cultural norms we have here in North America. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation shares some startling/depressing facts about what people are subjected to while they watch TV.
“Nearly 2 out of 3 TV programs contained some
violence,2 averaging about 6 violent acts per hour.3
• Fewer than 5% of these programs featured an
anti-violence theme or prosocial message emphasizing
alternatives to or consequences of violence.4
• Violence was found to be more prevalent in children’s
programming (69%) than in other types of
programming (57%). In a typical hour of programming,
children’s shows featured more than twice
as many violent incidents (14) than other types of
programming (6).5
• The average child who watches 2 hours of
cartoons a day may see nearly 10,000 violent incidents
each year, of which the researchers estimate
that at least 500 pose a high risk for learning and
imitating aggression and becoming desensitized to
violence.6
• The number of prime-time programs with violence
increased over the three years of the study, from
53% to 67% on broadcast television and from
54% to 64% on basic cable. Premium cable networks
have the highest percentage of shows with
violence, averaging 92% since 1994.7
With this sort of socialization base are we really surprised about the lack of empathy and caring in our society?
I’m thinking we may need to investigate the MPAA’s claims about piracy and copyright…
:)
Oh and we get redefine terms as well:
The amazing juxtaposition of reality and “american reality” never fails to amaze me. The onslaught of liberal values on TV is just horrible, and the mouthpieces of the Liberal conspiracy are Elmo and Big Bird. The American right is like a crazy guy with scissors in a rubber life raft who keeps on cutting holes in the raft and then complaining/blaming the others that he’s getting ever closer to drowning. It boggles the mind.
So watch how they spin the usual persecuted majority bullshite all over the airwaves and pine over the loss of direction and morality in the conservative America of today.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…