Meditations on Free

Some interesting and interconnected meditations on "free" and on "value" here, here, here and here. Music blogger Kate writes:

. . . in a world where singles are incessantly everywhere and also free (thereby, inherently valueless) true, artful albums are RARE (thereby, somewhat priceless). And I don’t know about you but I don’t want what everyone else has for free… kind of the same way I feel about extra large, logo-emblazoned T-shirts. Keep ‘em.
But a compendium of great, interesting songs… dead-ringer singles, sleeper hits, introspective soundscapes, covers turned inside-out, indulgent guitar solos (please, bring those back)… that’s what I want. I want to actually hold it in my hand, open up the liner notes and rub my nose in them, inhaling that new-ink-on-paper-smell.
Limited copies. Frame-worthy artwork.
Raise the standard.
Charge me double the price.

What its like to have swine flu

What I like about the Effect Measure blog is that it is so well written that I, a completely non-medical non-statistical person, can actually understand the articles. Here's one about the swine flu cases that describes some of the most recent research about this new kind of flu very clearly:

60% of the cases reported in this paper were under 18 years of age. 18% had recently traveled to Mexico, although in yesterday's CDC briefing it was said that the travel associated cases are now only 10% of the US total as sustained person to person transmission begins to take hold on US soil. The most common presenting symptom was fever (94%) followed by cough (92%) and sore throat (66%). Unusually for respiratory influenza, 25% had diarrhea and 25% vomiting.
Hospitalization status was known for 399 of the cases and amounted to 36 in the series (it has since increased). . . . Sufficient information on 22 hospitalized patients showed that 12, or about half, had underlying medical conditions that might have increased risk, but half did not, that is, they were previously healthy individuals, many of them young. There were 11 cases of pneumonia among the hospitalized. 8 wound up in intensive care, 4 had respiratory failure and 2 died.
All of these things happen with seasonal influenza, too, so it doesn't mean this is an especially virulent version of flu. It may well qualify for the much used term, "mild," in that regard, because real seasonal influenza is an inherently nasty illness.
But for these patients, half of them previously healthy and on average quite young, "mild" won't cut it as a description of what they went through. Something to keep in mind.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

According to Chuck Jones' memoir, the boss of the Warner Bros studio, Leon Schlesinger (after whom Sylvester's voice was modelled) once said that if there was one thing that simply WAS NOT FUNNY it was bullfights.
Taking this as a challenge, the cartoon studio produced Bully for bugs:

Great line of the day

From Roy talking about the humourless, obsessive right-wing bloggers who think it matters what kind of mustard Obama likes:

It's like they all grew up thinking Frank Burns was the hero of "M*A*S*H."

Thanks, Chet, for the link.

By the pricking of my thumbs, something evil this way comes

This is getting creepy.
I think Blatchford is beginning to think so, too.

That left-wing liberal media everybody hates so much

A few days ago, Digby wrote this:

These wingnuts truly seem to believe that the reason people voted for a left leaning Democratic government across the board was because they actually wanted a far right government. If that makes sense to you, then you must be a conservative too.

Then today I'm listening on the radio to Charles Adler and I didn't catch it all, but the 24/7 anti-Ignatieff hysteria had apparently been put on hold for a few moments in order to hash over how US newspapers are dying because so many Americans are annoyed about left-wing liberal bias in the media. And I thought, excuse me? This tired cliche is being put forward, about a country where 65 million Americans voted for Obama and the Democrats? So why would anyone still think that Americans actually prefer Fox and the Washington Times? Well, I guess if that makes sense to you...

Creativity

Speaking of disablism, here's a perfect example of how its just too easy to sell disabled people short.
Google SketchUp has developed a project to allow autistic people to express themselves creatively. This is an eye-opening video:

May 4, 1970

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young - Ohio

BADD day

Shakesville points out that May 1 was Blogging Against Disablism Day --and here's another roundup of posts on the topic.
I was brought up short about my own "disablism" when a women in a wheelchair once said to me "You feel sorry for me because I am in this chair. But for me, this chair is freedom -- without it, I would be spending my life lying in bed."
She was, of course, right -- I was looking at it from the wrong perspective and I have always been grateful to her for pointing this out.
Then years later, I spent several weeks using a wheelchair at work when I had a severely broken leg -- I found it too exhausting to manage at work with crutches, so a chair was ideal for me.
It gave me a new perspective, however -- what I found most noticeable was the number of people who simply could not look at me anymore, my boss included. I never knew whether this was because I was below their sight line or they just didn't like looking at the external fixator on my leg, or they didn't like the chair, or whatever. I couldn't really criticize them, however -- maybe I would have acted the same way before I knew how useful a wheelchair could be.
Also, I found that just because somebody has slapped a "handicapped-accessible" sticker on something, like a washroom door, doesn't make it true.

Kentucky Derby

I love watching horse races like this. Down the backstretch, Mine That Bird is running last, but he makes his move at precisely the right time and threads his way through the crowd just as he comes around the clubhouse turn. All of a sudden, there he is, running next to the rail where the track isn't so soupy, all by himself as he charges for the tape.

Shorter

Shorter Obama administration "unnamed officials":

"Maybe we still need a phoney justice system for the Guantanamo prisoners. Because if we let the actual American justice system deal with them, they might get actual justice! Can't have that..."

Saturday Morning Cartoon

In honour of the hockey playoffs -- Goofy in Hockey Homicide:

WWJD

What would Jesus do?
Torture people, I guess.

This little piggy stayed home

Cam Cardow



I don't think WHO is going to be able to convince the world's media to call this the "H1N1 influenza A" -- doesn't exactly roll tripingly off the tongue.
Some of the commenters on Effect Measure have other suggestions:

"I saw a funny article from Finland that the English translation call it the TexMex Flu."
"I call the virus the "USA Capitalist Pig Virus". The stories I have read have all linked the inception to a USA Corporate owned hyper-intensive pig farm in Mexico."
"My friends and I are calling it the "Flying Piggy Flu". It's "flying" because it has avian genes. (I suppose we should have worked humans into the name somehow, but this has a nice ring to it.) Also "piggy" seems more friendly/less scary than "swine". The fact that "flying" is sometimes used in place of a more common f-word in polite company had nothing to do with it, but is a nice added bonus."

Game On!

I hadn't really been following the BC election, but today's polling news is startling. The NDP have just about caught up with the Liberals. As RossK now says,
Game On!
Here are some of the poll tidbits:

Even though their reputations seem equally sullied, people chose Campbell almost twice as often (40 per cent) as James (23 per cent) when asked who would make the best premier. . .
The poll shows a growing gender gap in the B.C. election. While nearly half of women (48 per cent) are planning on voting NDP, only 35 per cent are planning to go with the BC Liberals.
The leading party seems to sit better with male voters. Forty-eight per cent polled said they'd stay under Campbell's leadership, as opposed to the 31 per cent who said they'd go NDP.
Age is also a large factor in the party people choose to vote for. Young voters aged 18 to 34 are more likely to vote NDP (41 per cent) and Green (19 per cent). Only 32 per cent of young voters indicated they would re-elect BC Liberals.

Here is one tidbit I thought was particularly interesting. The CTV story says:

Campbell also won the contest for best dinner date. Fifty-one percent of people said they'd rather have dinner with the Liberal, beating out James by two per cent.

It would be more accurate to describe this result as a "virtual tie" and it shows that James isn't as poorly thought of as the rest of the article implies.
And sorry, but I've just got to say it -- it would probably help her public image if she would update her hairstyle -- longer, looser, and get rid of those heavy bangs!