Archive for November 10th, 2011

“The Ones Who Set Off Bombs In The Crowds At Those Festivals in Omelas”

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

John Scalzi needs no help from me, but I wanted to link to his “Omelas State University” entry anyway because:

  1. I think he pretty much hits it out of the ballpark and into the windshield of a car in the parking lot with this one.
  2. I have a certain fondness for “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” as an example of an SF story that also touches on ethical questions like Kant’s categorical imperative. I know I probably sound like a member of the freshman philosophy B.S. debate club, but it hasn’t been that long since I took “Ethical Analysis”.
  3. That said, I also really like the critical comments by John Barnes and Elizabeth Moon on “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”. I remember reading the debate on “The Cold Equations” in NYRSF; if someone did a similar debate on “Omelas” in book form, I’d buy that. And, yes, I’d preorder the John Barnes book, too.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Geek | Comments Closed

Let’s do some random stuff, just for the heck of it.

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Wilson Ramos, catcher for the Washington Nationals, kidnapped in Venezuela.

Gangsters killed and beheaded an Internet blogger Wednesday in Nuevo Laredo, the fourth slaying in the city involving people associated with social media sites since early September.

Floyd Landis has been convicted of “hacking into the computers” of a French drug testing lab, and given a 12 month probated sentence.

(By the way, I know the Jefferson County and landfill stories are on FARK, and I usually don’t throw up links that are already on FARK. In the Jefferson County case, I wanted to link that because I swear I’ve covered Jefferson County here before; but I can’t find that link right now. As far as the landfill goes, that’s one of those stories that I think is too important not to link.)

(And speaking of FARK, does anyone have a take on what’s going on with the FARK moderators and JoePa? There seems to be a lot of criticism in the FARK threads that the mods have been several days late and more than a few dollars short in greenlighting Penn State related threads. I know there are three things in life that FARKers love: beer, the female anatomy, and complaining about the moderators. But even by FARK standards, the criticism has been pointed and sustained.)

Posted in Clippings, Sports | Comments Closed

This is intended to enrage you. (#2 in a series)

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

They were dumped in a landfill.

Posted in Clippings | Comments Closed

Today’s muncipal bankruptcy…

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

…is brought to you by Jefferson County, Alabama.

…burdened with more than $4 billion in debt. The bills began to mount in recent years after officials borrowed to fix a broken sewer system, and then entered into some ill-advised and corruption-laced refinancing deals that backfired with the mortgage lending crisis.

“ill-advised”? “corruption laced”? Interesting.

Here’s coverage from the Birmingham News.

Posted in Clippings, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

JoePa.

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

After all, it is sportsfirings.com.

(Also hookersnblow.net, hookersnblow.org, and dirtyexchangeshutdown.com.)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Philadelphia Inquirer.

Posted in Firings, Sports | Comments Closed