Thursday, June 27, 2013

Roundup of the interwebz and more

I've always been a sucker for reading the comments sections on the interwebs. I don't know why - it's rarely rewarding. But I always have.

This commenter on a Paris Jackson news item appears to have a fear of the Scunthorpe Effect:

DEMI    Due to those cir***stances FB should shut their trap, and erase her page.
28 MINUTES AGO REPLY    


From the Grauniad, a response from whistleblower Edward Snowden about Beijing:

12.04pm ET Question: Guardian staff Spencer Ackerman17 June 2013 4:16pm  
Edward, there is rampant speculation, outpacing facts, that you have or will provide classified US information to the Chinese or other governments in exchange for asylum. Have/will you? 
Answer:This is a predictable smear that I anticipated before going public, as the US media has a knee-jerk "RED CHINA!" reaction to anything involving HK or the PRC, and is intended to distract from the issue of US government misconduct. Ask yourself: if I were a Chinese spy, why wouldn't I have flown directly into Beijing? I could be living in a palace petting a phoenix by now.
I can't help thinking Snowden actually believes in phoenixes. I think he really imagines they live in Beijing palaces. I'd turn whistleblower in an instant if I could live in a palace with phoenixes, so I know how he felt.


Disinfo has an article on hallucinogens:
In Oliver Sacks‘ book The Mind’s Eye, the neurologist included an interesting footnote in a chapter about losing vision in one eye because of cancer that said: “In the ’60s, during a period of experimenting with large doses of amphetamines, I experienced a different sort of vivid mental imagery.”

That's a really odd thing for cancer to say. 


Once, many years ago, I got into an argument on Usenet because I said that saying you were "American" if you came from the US wasn't fair to other Americans, like Canadians and South Americans.  Usenet retorted, "Only an American would say that!" which was funny because I wasn't American at the time. Anyway, I sort of lost the argument, but now, only 18 or so years later, The Atlantic writes an article saying a similar thing to me. I WIN! USA USA USA!!! 

Unfortunately, the Canadians still don't seem to care either way. 
I was sitting with an Argentine friend, well educated and well traveled, who was reading The Atlantic online. A headline used the term "America" as a synonym for the United States of America. "That's incorrect," he said, sounding shocked that an esteemed publication would make such a junior mistake. "America is a region, not a country."


Many years ago,  when I was a kid I was fascinated with one story in a Porky and Petunia Pig comic book, where the two pigs were caught by the giant leafy hands of a Patagonian Pork Eater plant and hoisted into the air. I really wanted that plant – being a kid I hadn't really thought through how I was going to obtain a supply of pork for it.

I was fascinated, therefore, to learn that the British Royal Horticultural Society's  Chilean Sheep Eater Plant was in bloom. There's no mention in the article of any Patagonian relatives, but it's nice when life imitates art.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) at Wisley said the Puya chilensis, a native of Chile, would bloom in the next few days and last about a week.In the Andes it uses its sharp spines to snare and trap sheep and other animals, which slowly starve to death.The animals then decay at the base of the plant, acting as a fertiliser.
No mention of how a new world plant evolves to eat old world sheep – presumably it practiced on guanaco or llamas or whatever in the region.  Also, rather disappointingly, it doesn't have big leafy hands. It looks like a particularly unwell yucca. 


In a newspaper article about a boy who decided she was a girl, and so was to be dressed as a girl, the comments section included these two:

chodd  Sarah Bostock  3 days ago are you serious? do you have an education? Do you have children. My son thinks hes hulk Hogan right now but im not going to paint him green everyday.
Jacqueline Miller  chodd  3 days ago Hulk Hogan is a real wrestler who is white with blonde hair. THE HULK is a green supper hero.

I love the idea of a supper hero.



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