Friday Links and iTunes iChing

I’ve just downloaded a trial copy of the offline blogging software ecto. I’m not sure why a total savings of perhaps a dozen keystrokes for a quote’n'paste seems so slick and convenient, but it does. Until the novelty wears off I will probably be posting more linky-posts.

Absolute most essential reading on the internets lately: Flea‘s just launched in to a series of posts on her experiences with working poverty and welfare. Part One:

I was expecting a Balloon-O-Gram and a basket of government cheese to be delivered along with a nice card that read “Congratulations! You are now officially poor!”

We didn’t share a lot of this when it was going on. There’s not an awful lot of reward in talking about what it’s like to be totally broke; in fact, there’s a lot of punishment when you do. Empathy, even among those champions of the poor, Liberals and Feminists, was in extremely short supply, which suddenly caused the allegations from poor women and women of color that feminism is a movement for middle class white women to snap quickly into focus. Oh yeah! Look at that! It totally fucking is!

… and Part Two:

Even more notable is the praise I get from the staff. How unbelievably clean my children’s teeth are! Is it possible that they’ve been taught good dental habits? They brush twice a day? Wow! And as for my teeth, well, they’re amazing. My gums are great, my teeth are white and shiny, and my fillings are hanging in there nicely.

“So evidently I’ve got bag lady teeth for a rich person, but movie star teeth for a poor person,” I told Steve.

Remember that Chilean lake that just up and vanished a couple months ago? Looks like global warming ate it:

Experts now say melting glaciers put pressure on an ice wall that acted as a dam, causing it to give way.

Water in the lake flowed out of the breach into a nearby fjord and then out to the sea, said Andres Rivera, a glaciologist with Chile’s Centre of Scientific Studies.

The latest Scientiae carnival is up at Amelie’s Welt, with the theme of “responsibility”. The latest Carnival of Feminists is at The Hidden Side of a Leaf, with OMG so many book reviews! This time my good intentions were focused on a post that would’ve fit with both carnivals, but you’ll all just have to wait the usual indefinite amount of time before hearing what I thought of Has Feminism Changed Science?

Below the fold, it’s time to ask the iTunes pseudorandom number generator some questions about the future of American health care.

O! Great and glorious iTunes! Hear my ritual invocation and query without giggling dammit! Since I’ve just dropped off an insurance claim I would like your intervention with the spirits of Blue Cross and Blue Shield; also, everyone seems to be chattering about Sicko, which I haven’t yet seen. So, O iTunes, I ask you: Will the US have a universal health care system in place in the next 30 years?

  1. The Covering: Harvest TuneMike Marshall, “Into The Cauldron”
  2. The Crossing: KinaHedningarna, “Hippjokk”
  3. The Crown: Stirling Castle Set: Stirling Castle/ Forth Bridge/ Jenny Dang The Weaver/ Keep It Up/ Johnny Wilmot’s Fiddle/ Hughie Shorty’s ReelAlasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas, “Fire & Grace”
  4. The Root: Granny Hogg’s Enormous WalletWolfstone, “The Half Tail”
  5. The Past: Blind Mary/Planxty Charles O’Connor – Stones In The Field, “Come Singing, Come Dancing”
  6. The Future: Sleepy MaggieAshley MacIsaac, “Hi How Are You Today?”
  7. The Questioner: Name of the GameABBA, “ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits”
  8. The House: Canned By The BestPerfect Strangers, “Perfect Strangers”
  9. The Inside: Jeg Tenker Sa Tidt Pa Min BryllupsdagLoretta Kelley, “Amerikaspel”
  10. The Outcome: Ril-Set: The Ril From Holt/The Ril From Skjerholt/Far From Home – Aly Bain et al., “North Sea Music”

(The key)

Hmm. It’s hard to prognosticate when so much of my music collection lacks words – or perhaps the oracle is being a cagey politician? I’m going to be optimistic here, and assume that the Scandinavian presence in the Outcome indicates a Scandinavian-style solution (or, at worst, Scotland and the UK national health service). And hey, iTunes did a bang-up job of identifying the Root of the problem, so obviously it is reliable.

Comments

  1. Lab Lemming wrote:

    Hey Yami,
    Thanks for the link to flea’s blog. Her stories are amazing.

  2. yami wrote:

    Aren’t they, though? I heart Flea a whole bunch.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*

*