Archive for August, 2010
About that Mosque…
Thursday, August 12th, 2010Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that an Islamic group has received permission to build a mosque two blocks away from Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. Everyone from Newt Gingrich to Sarah Palin to Glenn Beck has weighed in against the project, claiming that the mosque’s presence would be seen by some as a victory for the 9/11 terrorists. Others have taken a more passive-aggressive tack, claiming that they, personally, don’t mind a mosque, but that putting one so close to Ground Zero would be a cruel reminder of the attacks for the families of those who died there. A smaller contingent is in favor of the mosque, pointing out that one of the things the terrorists attacked on 9/11 is our freedom of religion, with which any American has the right to worship as he/she chooses.
Fortunately, that last group includes New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who, surrounded by religious leaders of many different faiths, gave an impassioned speech about religious freedom while announcing that the petition for the building’s landmark status has been denied, clearing the way for construction to begin.
Today, the New York Times ran an article about the woman in charge of the mosque project. Here are some things I learned from reading the article that I’m sure Newt, Sarah & Glenn don’t want anyone to focus on:
Categories: New York, New York, Political Rantings | 13 Comments »
Unlikely Twins, Part XIV
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010These two August 10th birthdays took different approaches when it came to, well, just about everything, I’d guess…
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| Antonio Banderas, A chick in every plot… |
Herbert Hoover, A chicken in every pot… |
Categories: Unlikely Twins | 3 Comments »
Presidential Quotable Quotes
Monday, August 9th, 2010Some kids memorize the words to Elmo’s World. Some kids know all of the Jonas Brothers’ names. Then there’s this kid, who’s parents have taught him to memorize some altogether different fun facts:
Categories: Political Rantings, Random Acts of Blogging | Comments Off on Presidential Quotable Quotes
Greenberg’s Law
Sunday, August 8th, 2010In the spirit of everyone from Moore to Godwin, I humbly present:
Greenberg’s Law: On the Internet, any discussion, no matter how substantial its subject matter, can be completely derailed by the presence of a typographical error. For example, regardless of the veracity of the previous sentence, no one would discuss the point it makes if there were an apostrophe in the word “its.”
Also:
Greenberg’s Corollary: The person who brings up the typo, at the exclusion of the subject being discussed, concedes the argument.
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | 3 Comments »
Unlikely Twins, Part XIII
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010Odds are pretty good that on August 4th, The President will be celebrating with someone other than a retired football commentator…
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| Barack Obama, Yes We Can! |
John Madden, YES!!! |
Categories: Unlikely Twins | 2 Comments »
The Best of TED: The Power of the Pentatonic Scale
Sunday, August 1st, 2010Here’s another installment of my Best of TED series, in which I share talks from the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference that have struck me over the years as particularly insightful or fascinating.
Today’s installment isn’t even a TED talk at all, but it was posted by TED on their website under a heading called Best of the Web which, “highlight[s] inspired talks on sites other than TED.com.” In this short video, famed musician Bobby McFerrin turns an audience at a science festival into a musical instrument, first by “tuning” them to sing certain notes when he hops up and down on the stage at certain spots, and then by using the innate knowledge of music we all seem to be born with to get them to independently infer other notes in the (pentatonic) scale. If you’ve ever doubted the power of music, or the genius of Bobby McFerrin, watch this:
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