I remember when George Clooney got up at the Oscars and said, "we in Hollywood are ahead of the rest of the country in terms of progressive political issues." We set the standard for other people etc. etc.... Oh come on!?
This episode of South Park was quite clever.
Here's an explanation of the episode.
And here's a link where you can watch smug alert!!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
ARE YOU WILLING TO BET ON OUR HUMANITY?
Last week when Daniel got home from work we were flicking through the channels after watching dinner and believe it or not, I actually stopped to watch "real sports" with Briant Gumble. The story was on horse racing and some of the hidden practices that go on every day 'behind the scenes' at the stables. He interviewed a stable worker who talked about owners who sell their horses for meat as soon as they stop running as fast. (When I say this I mean horses that are in excellent condition, coming in third or fourth, rather of first in races.) She said the phrase "from the stable to the table" is thrown around jokingly amongst horse owners. My immediate question was: Who eats horse meat? It turns out the horses are sold for meat that will be used in pet food and in the European and Asian food markets. Ugh!! Daniel and I debated over who is at fault, the horse racing industry or the food companies that purchase horse meat? While it is true that if there wasn't a market for the meat, the horses wouldn't be slaughtered for it, I still believe that there is something fundamentally wrong about the current trends in horse racing. A New York Daily News Reporter concisely iterates some of my qualms with the sport when he says, “The thoroughbred race horse is a genetic mistake. It runs too fast, its frame is too large, and its legs are far too small. As long as mankind demands that it run at high speeds under stressful conditions, horses will die at racetracks.” 
The article highlighted below discusses the interesting topic of sports in which death is often the result of or in some cases, part of the entertainment, whether it be the deaths of people or animals. Think of bullfighting, the roman gladiators, cock fighting, and even car racing, which can sometimes leads to the deaths of drivers. The article also talks about how PETA is often quick to support causes which place the feelings of animals over people and will jump on anyone if it advances their cause (often making them look like lunatics, I might add.) For example, PETA's condemnation of horseracing "even extended to presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who picked Eight Belles to win, and daughter Chelsea, who attended the event." Anyway, here is the article: Horse Racing.
While I am not ready to jump on the PETA's crazy cart and ride around throwing paint on people, I do think that cruelty is something that humanity should strive to fight. Watching re-creations of the gladiator fights of ancient days we are horrified to see the enjoyment people took in watching others suffer. Since we believe that human beings are advancing as the years progress, I'm hoping that people will one day look back at the days of watching horses collapse from heart attacks and broken ankles on race tracks wth similar disgusted sentiments.
This article is not about the vices of gambling, but that component of the "sport" makes it one which seems to have the potential of ruining both animal and human lives. Regardless of all the negatives, the profit of those who sponser and promote the races is given higher priority than any notions that we should advance our humanity, stop cruel practices, or discourage gambling. So, for the meantime, human greed prevails and I'm sorry to say that I'm not willing to bet that things are going to change any time soon.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Funny Stuff
I've come across this in some other blogs but thought I'd still share it.Copied from the Washington Post, here are the winners of the Washington Post Mensa Invitational Word Contest.
The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are the 2009 winners:
1. Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a=2 0tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon: The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit: The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor: The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
____________________________________________
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:
1. Coffee (n.): The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.): Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. Abdicate (v.): To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade (v.): To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly (adj.): Impotent.
6. Negligent , adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. Lymph (v.): To walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle (n.): Olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence (n.): Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash (n.): A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle (n.): A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude (n.): The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon (n.): A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster (n.): A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.): The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent (n.): An opening in the front of jockey shorts worn by Jewish men.
The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are the 2009 winners:
1. Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a=2 0tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon: The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit: The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor: The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
____________________________________________
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:
1. Coffee (n.): The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.): Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.
3. Abdicate (v.): To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade (v.): To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly (adj.): Impotent.
6. Negligent , adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. Lymph (v.): To walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle (n.): Olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence (n.): Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash (n.): A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle (n.): A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude (n.): The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon (n.): A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster (n.): A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.): The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent (n.): An opening in the front of jockey shorts worn by Jewish men.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Another Post...
...On the amazing Donna Tartt
Her short writings aren't even as good as her longer works, but this tribute to her mentor, Willie Morris, is so well written I had to share it. I got a little teary reading it.
Also, a word of advice about her books: They are really fun, entertaining reads (which is why they sell so well) but she sometimes uses words in different ways, so look up unknown words to find the definition that fits the context. I sound like an English teacher, but she draws on her vast and sometimes obscure knowledge of words in her writing, making a dictionary necessary from time to time.
In "The Secret History" she throws in a lot of classics references and references to other books for literary buffs. I looove it!
Some quotes from her tribute to Willie Morris:
"The truth was more complicated, and had to do with that raw, gigantic, intensely tender heart of his which he seldom guarded or protected in any way but left right on the surface for the world to scratch at. What drink could palliate those ancient, chilling sorrows that settled over him? "
"Never will I forget my naive astonishment at discovering that there existed another person who loved words in much the same sputtering and agonised way that I did, who fought them and cursed them and cried over them and stood back, dazzled and agog in admiration of them. After all those years isolated in my hometown, shut up in my bedroom reading books, I had thought I was the only person in the world so afflicted. "
Her short writings aren't even as good as her longer works, but this tribute to her mentor, Willie Morris, is so well written I had to share it. I got a little teary reading it.
Also, a word of advice about her books: They are really fun, entertaining reads (which is why they sell so well) but she sometimes uses words in different ways, so look up unknown words to find the definition that fits the context. I sound like an English teacher, but she draws on her vast and sometimes obscure knowledge of words in her writing, making a dictionary necessary from time to time.
In "The Secret History" she throws in a lot of classics references and references to other books for literary buffs. I looove it!
Some quotes from her tribute to Willie Morris:
"The truth was more complicated, and had to do with that raw, gigantic, intensely tender heart of his which he seldom guarded or protected in any way but left right on the surface for the world to scratch at. What drink could palliate those ancient, chilling sorrows that settled over him? "
"Never will I forget my naive astonishment at discovering that there existed another person who loved words in much the same sputtering and agonised way that I did, who fought them and cursed them and cried over them and stood back, dazzled and agog in admiration of them. After all those years isolated in my hometown, shut up in my bedroom reading books, I had thought I was the only person in the world so afflicted. "
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Donna Tartt Shrine
My most recent literary obsession is "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt. After staying up for nights on end turning pages until my sleepy lids finally overcame the excitement and mild terror stirring inside me, I began to read about the author herself. Much like the characters in her book she is slightly eccentric and was a precocious child. She was sick during her youth and recalls spending hazy days in bed devouring books.
She unintentionally created a sort of literary persona for herself, creating even more intrigue behind the haunting stories she writes. She is 4 feet 10 weighs 95 pounds, and can drink most men under the table. She studied classics on the side "for fun", and can quote T.S Eliot and countless others from memory. In college she started wearing only men's suits and now is usually seen in a black suit of some kind. It is thought that many of the characters in her books are based on close friends but she refuses to indulge any of these suggestions that there are connections between her own life and the lives in her books. This is an entertaining yet thorough article about her.
She is known for pouring over each word she chooses and spends years writing a book. In the last 20 years she has published only 2 books, each hugely successful. So, when I heard that she has written short stories and small works of non-fiction for periodicals and journals, I started searching. My search ended very shortly when I found this glorious page with many of these works, aptly named Donna Tartt Shrine.
Right now I'm reading Heaven on a hummingbird's wing: Donna Tartt on the abiding power of a childhood memory - The Guardian - October 2, 2004, which fits quite well with the theme of childhood found in my recent pictures. Here is a quote from the article:
"Of course, it's not at all remarkable that children are captivated by new things, because to children everything is new. But what is remarkable is how fleeting impressions of childhood delight can linger and change and vanish and re-appear unexpectedly over the years, winking like fireflies throughout the arduous and complicated darks of a lifetime."
It's short and I highly recommend it. You can find it here.
Donna Tartt I salute thee. You are a master of your craft.
Oh....and please come to D.C sometime and do an interview or book reading so I can stand in line, get really nervous and then awkwardly ask you a bad question and get your autograph. Well, hopefully it wouldn't happen like that but anyway....
She unintentionally created a sort of literary persona for herself, creating even more intrigue behind the haunting stories she writes. She is 4 feet 10 weighs 95 pounds, and can drink most men under the table. She studied classics on the side "for fun", and can quote T.S Eliot and countless others from memory. In college she started wearing only men's suits and now is usually seen in a black suit of some kind. It is thought that many of the characters in her books are based on close friends but she refuses to indulge any of these suggestions that there are connections between her own life and the lives in her books. This is an entertaining yet thorough article about her.
She is known for pouring over each word she chooses and spends years writing a book. In the last 20 years she has published only 2 books, each hugely successful. So, when I heard that she has written short stories and small works of non-fiction for periodicals and journals, I started searching. My search ended very shortly when I found this glorious page with many of these works, aptly named Donna Tartt Shrine.
Right now I'm reading Heaven on a hummingbird's wing: Donna Tartt on the abiding power of a childhood memory - The Guardian - October 2, 2004, which fits quite well with the theme of childhood found in my recent pictures. Here is a quote from the article:
"Of course, it's not at all remarkable that children are captivated by new things, because to children everything is new. But what is remarkable is how fleeting impressions of childhood delight can linger and change and vanish and re-appear unexpectedly over the years, winking like fireflies throughout the arduous and complicated darks of a lifetime."
It's short and I highly recommend it. You can find it here.
Donna Tartt I salute thee. You are a master of your craft.
Oh....and please come to D.C sometime and do an interview or book reading so I can stand in line, get really nervous and then awkwardly ask you a bad question and get your autograph. Well, hopefully it wouldn't happen like that but anyway....
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Action Research Proposal
I just finished amassing a 50 page monster of a research project on using word study with 2nd grade ESOL readers. In education I suppose this paper is the equivalent to the thesis that scientists have to write at the end of their master's degrees. (Although D told me he didn't actually gather data or anything for his...so there! My partner and I gathered tons of freakin' data.)
Daniel was completely selfless in helping me analyze the data, something for which I was not prepared and have little capacity for. He was able to make inferences about outliers (students who didn't do well on the assessments and messed up our data trends) and helped me with numerous tables this semester. Turns out I can't use excel as well as I thought. Anyway, I found this list on a facebook page and thought it really funny considering I spent the last 3 1/2 months writing this stuff. I'm pretty sure I used a few of these...
I am so grateful that I will never have to do something like this again and that this as about as scientific as I will ever get in my life. For this reason alone I will never get a Ph.D.
** A brief guide to scientific literature **
It has long been known == I haven’t bothered to check the references.
It is known == I believe.
It is believed == I think.
It is generally believed == My colleagues and I think.
There has been some discussion == Nobody agrees with me.
It can be shown == Take my word for it
It is proven == It agrees with something mathematical.
Of great theoretical importance == I find it interesting.
Of great practical importance == This justifies my employment.
Some samples were chosen for study == The others didn't make sense.
Typical results are shown == The best results are shown.
Correct within order of magnitude == Wrong.
The values were obtained empirically == The values were obtained by accident.
The results are inconclusive == The results seem to disprove my hypothesis.
Additional work is required == Someone else can work on the details.
It might be argued that == I have a good answer to this objection.
The investigations proved rewarding == My grant has been renewed.
Synthesized according to standard protocols == Purchased
Daniel was completely selfless in helping me analyze the data, something for which I was not prepared and have little capacity for. He was able to make inferences about outliers (students who didn't do well on the assessments and messed up our data trends) and helped me with numerous tables this semester. Turns out I can't use excel as well as I thought. Anyway, I found this list on a facebook page and thought it really funny considering I spent the last 3 1/2 months writing this stuff. I'm pretty sure I used a few of these...
I am so grateful that I will never have to do something like this again and that this as about as scientific as I will ever get in my life. For this reason alone I will never get a Ph.D.
** A brief guide to scientific literature **
It has long been known == I haven’t bothered to check the references.
It is known == I believe.
It is believed == I think.
It is generally believed == My colleagues and I think.
There has been some discussion == Nobody agrees with me.
It can be shown == Take my word for it
It is proven == It agrees with something mathematical.
Of great theoretical importance == I find it interesting.
Of great practical importance == This justifies my employment.
Some samples were chosen for study == The others didn't make sense.
Typical results are shown == The best results are shown.
Correct within order of magnitude == Wrong.
The values were obtained empirically == The values were obtained by accident.
The results are inconclusive == The results seem to disprove my hypothesis.
Additional work is required == Someone else can work on the details.
It might be argued that == I have a good answer to this objection.
The investigations proved rewarding == My grant has been renewed.
Synthesized according to standard protocols == Purchased
Thursday, May 14, 2009
South African Commercial
I realized I should explain this commercial a bit. In response to the corruption of ANC (African National Congress) leader Jacob Zuma and frictions within the party people formed a splinter group called COPE (Congress of the People).
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Awesome Picture
I'm sure many of you saw this picture circulating when everyone starting freaking out about the "swine" flu.
Don't tell anyone but I was often seen kissing my animals as a child. My love of animals knows no bounds, ok!
Joao's Mother's Day Pictures
Some new pictures from "grandpa Jow." That's what bea calls my dad. Apparently she cried and cried when grandma and grandpa left on Sunday:(
She has started singing now too. Grandma said she tilts her head from side to side and goes "ahhhh, ahhhh."
Isn't she a beauty?
All proper ladies wear matching hats when going out on Sundays....
Ready for her stroll....
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Rainy Day Musings....
Daniel's aunt Donna recently gave me two pictures of him as a little boy. Staring at the photographs, I immediately saw his current personality popping out at me from shiny images on the old waxy paper. I saw a little Daniel stooped over intently concentrating on something Paul was showing him, his big diaper popping out underneath him. (He looked a little old to be wearing a diaper, but I'm not saying anything :) In the other, he sweetly smiled as he reticently stretched out his hand to touch a goat. My Daniel is still the same: kind, gentle and very clever. Able to sit and concentrate on something for hours on end. Perhaps I was projecting my image of him today onto those pictures, but I think one can tell a lot about a person by looking at the personality traits that develop during childhood.
These pictures inspired us to get a scanner, something I have wanted to do for a long time. I have started scanning old pictures of my family's life in South Africa and will soon start documenting baby Bear's (hehe...that's D) early years as well.
If I stare long enough at the picture of my friends romping round the pool in Orange Grove, I can feel myself transported there: Walking down the long driveway with half-rotting grapes hanging from the vine on the trellis above, running down the brick stairs that led to the back yard, and me shamelessly grilling pounds of meat on the braai.
These pictures inspired us to get a scanner, something I have wanted to do for a long time. I have started scanning old pictures of my family's life in South Africa and will soon start documenting baby Bear's (hehe...that's D) early years as well.
If I stare long enough at the picture of my friends romping round the pool in Orange Grove, I can feel myself transported there: Walking down the long driveway with half-rotting grapes hanging from the vine on the trellis above, running down the brick stairs that led to the back yard, and me shamelessly grilling pounds of meat on the braai.
However, any notions that I entertain of returning to visit the house are readily dismantled. Because, you see, in my mind I am transported to the house as it was in 1991. When I returned to Capetown for the first time in many years, it seemed so small. Not only in size (because I was bigger) but the anticipation of seeing a place so dear to me immediately led to disappointment. The magical place of my childhood holidays had been replaced by small chaotic roads, disorder and destroyed beauty.
Childhood is a mixed experience for a lot of people. Many people say that their childhood years are the worst ones of their lives. I certainly have a lot of painful memories and waves of melancholy sometimes flush over me when I thinkof my youth. At the same time I think we are all in love with the idea of childhood. Freshness, hope, imagination: these are the things that childhood ideally represents for most of us.
I have come to reconcile the Capetown of my childhood to the Capetown I know now and for the most part believe that South Africa has not lost its wild beauty. As for the little brick house in Orange Grove, for now, I prefer the place as it exists in my mind.
Childhood is a mixed experience for a lot of people. Many people say that their childhood years are the worst ones of their lives. I certainly have a lot of painful memories and waves of melancholy sometimes flush over me when I thinkof my youth. At the same time I think we are all in love with the idea of childhood. Freshness, hope, imagination: these are the things that childhood ideally represents for most of us.
I have come to reconcile the Capetown of my childhood to the Capetown I know now and for the most part believe that South Africa has not lost its wild beauty. As for the little brick house in Orange Grove, for now, I prefer the place as it exists in my mind.
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