Yeah, this has already gone viral, and well it should. Chris Clarke and Charlie Brooker have each captured the essence of knowledge and information passing in different realms. Journalism schools should pay attention.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
It’s just such a brilliant question about technology, human communication and history, that I had to make it into it’s own post.
In response to this post about Edith Wharton’s extensive writings and what she’d have done today with e-mail, Mark posted the comment:
Who remembers Paul’s tweet to the Romans?
Helluva question. What does your Sunday school class say? What does your literature professor say? What does your history teacher say? Send ’em a tweet and see.
Remember the latest Paluxy River hoax set of a dinosaur print and human print in the same stone? (See “Fred Flintstone waded here.”)
Now you can own your own. More than 10 specimens available, three already sold at eBay. Cheap, at $5.00!
Bloody Mary played by Keala Settle – photo by Peter Coombs
(I saw “South Pacific” on stage last week. I have visions of Bloody Mary selling these things. Much cheaper than a shrunken head, but the shrunken heads are real.)
Open your own “creation evidences museum.” Ken Ham needs the competition.
Latest Paluxy River dino-human track hoax
Dinosaur and human tracks offered for sale on eBay, in 10 copies
Compare the track below on the left, from the news story on the Paluxy hoax, with the track shown on eBay, on the right.
Invite your friends to bid:
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Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
I’m not sure what to make of this. No amount of dopeslapping or head:desk banging is going to help these people get a clue.
And while I haven’t read Sarah Palin’s book, I’ll wager they won’t get a clue there, either. Listening to the interviews one wonders whether they would be able to read Palin’s book. Most of the kids who work hard to fail my classes look like geniuses next to these people.
And then a horrifying thought bubbles up: Dear God, these people might actually vote! They probably view Jay Leno’s “Jaywalking” sequences with astonished looks and great confusion. They can’t tell what’s wrong with the answers, and they miss the humor.
I found this piece at Canadian Cynic (from whom I stole the headline) — he confessed he could only stand just under two minutes of this torture.
For Palin groupies, here are a couple of issues to consider while watching this video:
While it’s done by New Left Media, it’s astonishing that anyone could find so many babbling idiots at one gathering, anywhere in America. This was Ohio? Yeah, Columbus; I know people in Columbus. I fear for their lives, now.
Palin has never made any particular defense of the First Amendment, nor of any of the five freedoms it enumerates. When people say she stands for “freedom to speak,” or “freedom of religion,” they are making stuff up.
“Realness” is not a policy.
Tax cutting isn’t generally a great policy when people aren’t making enough to pay any taxes at all. Tax cutting contributed to our current mess.
Socialism is not “giving away money.”
Obama’s two books do not portray Marxism in a good light. They don’t mention Marxism as a potential path for any American, anywhere.
“Czar” is a shorter word for a headline than “Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency,” or “Special Assistant to the President for Energy Policy.” People who are called “czars” by headline writers do not have any special powers beyond being right when they speak to the president (among many other advisors). The real power is held by agency heads, like the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Treasury. The President’s Cabinet is not a wooden device in which he keeps his dinnerware.
Talk of martial law? Not from Obama. Not in the administration. Not in any agency. Not in Congress. Only in wingnut dens.
Illegal aliens cannot be naturalized under current law. No illegal aliens are being naturalized. When found, they are being deported.
Obama is an American citizen; even the courts are getting testy about that, tossing the crazy lawsuits out with harsh comments for people who are so gullibly dumb.
It’s 700 miles from Sarah Palin’s home to the nearest point in Russia. “Seeing Russia from the backyard” is a figure of speech, and not accurate in any way.
The Governor of Alaska is not the first defense against any attack from a foreign nation on the U.S., coming through Alaska. The U.S. Air Force has jurisdiction, and still patrols that area, along with satellite and radar surveillance. In an attack, the official role of the Governor of Alaska is to duck and stay out of the way.
The Governor of Alaska has no special security clearance that no other governor has. I’m not sure that any governor has a security clearance as governor.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is not a player in the protection of polar bears, nor any other animal on listed as threatened or endangered.
No proposal is before Congress to change current law on “partial birth” abortion. Since there is a law on the topic, it would take a new law, passed by Congress, to change current law. Obama can’t touch it without Congressional action. (This is basic civics, you know?)
Are you afraid of what’s happening in America? After you listen to these yahoos, you may have cause to fear what would happen if their views were to carry an election.
Are people still lining up for lobotomies? Do they directly from the operating table to a Sarah Palin book signing?
We can hope New Left Media edited out all the cogent, intelligent remarks. I have this nagging fear that they didn’t have to edit at all.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Yesterday, October 9, was the Feast Day of St. Denis.
Who? He’s the patron saint of Paris (and France, by some accounts), and possessed people. Take a look at this statue, from the “left door” of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris (Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris: portail de gauche). He was martyred by beheading, in about 250 C.E.
St. Denis, patron saint of Paris and possessed people, greets visitors to the Notre Dame Cathedral. Wikimedia image, by Urban
According to the Golden Legend, after his head was chopped off, Denis picked it up and walked two miles, preaching a sermon the entire way.[6] The site where he stopped preaching and actually died was made into a small shrine that developed into the Saint Denis Basilica, which became the burial place for the kings of France. Another account has his corpse being thrown in the Seine, but recovered and buried later that night by his converts.[2]
Clearly, he is the guy to pray to about Michelle Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh, intelligent design, and the Texas State Board of Education, no? You catch my drift, you can use this factoid to some advantage, enlightenment, and perhaps humor.
As Rod Stewart sang, just “let your imagination run wild.” Maybe St. Denis is listening.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
I get e-mail. In all the discouraging folderol on the health care debate, it’s nice to know that a few people are carrying the torch for democracy and good republican government like these ladies.
Red caped mothers and others in Baltimore, before the U.S.S. Constellation, campaigning to dispel false rumors about health care reform, on August 19, 2009. Image from MomsRising.com
Note links to more information, or to join in their merriment, in the letter.
Faster than a toddler crawling toward an uncovered electrical outlet and more powerful than a teenager’s social networking skills, moms across the country have been fanning out to dispel the unfounded rumors, misconceptions, and lies about healthcare reform.
MomsRising Healthcare Truth Squad members, dressed in red capes, have been distributing powerful truth flyers across the nation to passersby to educate them about what healthcare reform will really do, and about how it will help to ensure the economic security of families across the country.
“I must admit that I don’t normally wear a cape in public, but it was oddly empowering. We knew we were having an impact on the larger conversation about healthcare when a news camera starting following us around. I definitely recommend life as a superhero,” say Donna, a cape wearing SuperMom for Healthcare.
*Let’s give our caped myth-busting moms some “online backup” by Truth Tagging friends with healthcare reform myths & facts today–it’s a virtual distribution of the same facts that the MomsRising Healthcare Truth Squad members are handing out in-person:
It’s going to take thousands of super heroines speaking up in order to get the healthcare debate back on track. We can’t all be out on the streets in capes, so please take a moment now to spread the word and bust some myths via email to friends and family by clicking the link above.
Why’s this so important to moms right now? Over 46 million people in our nation don’t have any healthcare coverage at all, including millions of children. Not only are families struggling with getting children the healthcare coverage they need for a healthy start, but 7 out of 10 women are either uninsured, underinsured, or are in significant debt due to healthcare costs. In fact, a leading cause of bankruptcy is healthcare costs — and over 70% of those who do go bankrupt due to healthcare costs had insurance at the start of their illness. Clearly we need to fix our broken healthcare system!
Don’t forget to help put some more truth into the mix of the national dialogue on healthcare reform right now:
I think it was during the Los Angeles Olympics that I read a story about a guy in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who had called the toll-free number to purchase tickets to some Olympic events. The seats were available and everything went fine, through the giving of the credit card number — until the woman asked him for his mailing address. [I’ll keep searching for that story . . .]
When he gave his mailing address in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the woman said, “I’m sorry, we can’t sell tickets outside the United States,” or words to that effect.
Despite the man’s pleas that New Mexico is part of the U.S., the woman refused to complete the sale.
Now, Google has lost North Dakota.
Photo below, from Art Hunt’s recent cross country driving extravaganza.
Art Hunt said: "The trip was not without its glitches, such as when we discovered we had apparently reached the end of the world"
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Or, until that account is unsuspended by the forces supporting Donald Trump: Follow @FillmoreWhite, the account of the Millard Fillmore White House Library
We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!
Retired teacher of law, economics, history, AP government, psychology and science. Former speechwriter, press guy and legislative aide in U.S. Senate. Former Department of Education. Former airline real estate, telecom towers, Big 6 (that old!) consultant. Lab and field research in air pollution control.
My blog, Millard Fillmore's Bathtub, is a continuing experiment to test how to use blogs to improve and speed up learning processes for students, perhaps by making some of the courses actually interesting. It is a blog for teachers, to see if we can use blogs. It is for people interested in social studies and social studies education, to see if we can learn to get it right. It's a blog for science fans, to promote good science and good science policy. It's a blog for people interested in good government and how to achieve it.
BS in Mass Communication, University of Utah
Graduate study in Rhetoric and Speech Communication, University of Arizona
JD from the National Law Center, George Washington University
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 