s skippy the bush kangaroo

skippy the bush kangaroo



Monday, January 14, 2013

Bridging a Degree of Separation: The Arts in Life

One of my old college classmates—much more famous for time spent blogging here and here, including "hogging" (may it be resumed over Gary Bettman's dead body)—reviews one of my wife's favorite novels:

So I want to talk for a moment about Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. No, really. It is very strange, but I have been having conversations about A Wrinkle in Time all year long with colleagues and friends. I’ve even gone back and reread the book. I was motivated partly by all the attention it received this year, the fiftieth anniversary of its publication. I learned only in January of this year, reading an item in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, that L’Engle’s heroine, Meg Murry, is something like the patron saint of “bookish girls” everywhere; as Anne Lamott remarked in November of this year, “A Wrinkle in Time saved me because it so captured the grief and sense of isolation I felt as a child.” And I realized that when I read it in 1972, I completely missed how anomalous it was that a speculative sci-fi young-adult novel would have as its protagonist an awkward girl who is such a science geek she can recite a good chunk of the periodic table of the elements by memory. I missed that because I identified with Meg Murry; I didn’t get the memo that boys weren’t supposed to identify with female protagonists, and I shared Meg’s sense of social anxiety and science geekdom and general outsiderness just as, a few years earlier, I had shared in Alice’s sense of bewilderment and wonder and occasional aggravation at the worlds of Wonderland and the Looking-Glass.

Check out the whole thing.
posted by Ken Houghton at 12:32 PM | 0 comments

on a monday

following current tv deal, al gore is now richer than mitt romney

do our brains work better out of doors away from technology?

first antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea detected in north america

christopher tolkein says peter jackson 'eviscerated' his father's work
posted by skippy at 11:12 AM | 2 comments

Sunday, January 13, 2013

skippy's sunday night music club

a little song touching upon environmental issues....

posted by Cookie Jill at 11:09 PM | 0 comments

sunday afternoons

moderate republican group votes to take the word 'republican' out of its name

australia's extreme heat is the canary in the global warming coal mine

new law forces health insurance companies to use plain language to explain their policies

almost 100 years ago, the infamous armory show in new york opened -- exposing america to the modern art of duchamp and the dadaists
posted by skippy at 11:55 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, January 12, 2013

according to bernie saunders, 1 in 4 profitable corporations in america pay 0 federal taxes
posted by skippy at 8:50 PM | 0 comments

saturday night is the loneliest night of the week

more soldiers took their own lives than died in combat during 2012

"i'm not racist, but..." yes, you are

the sharp, sudden decline of america's middle class

it's a giant rubber ducky in sydney harbor!
posted by skippy at 12:55 PM | 0 comments

Friday, January 11, 2013

skippy's friday night music club

a little mood music to start your weekend off with...


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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:30 PM | 0 comments

mmt

posted by mahakal at 5:47 PM | 0 comments

on the matter of the debt trilemma

tax coupons. that is all. issue notes that will be accepted for taxes, and the government is not borrowing but lending future revenues into circulation.
posted by mahakal at 3:17 PM | 0 comments

friday i'm in love

man arrested in texas for filming cop

arizona's anti-immigration bill is losing the state millions

it pays for states to raise the minimum wage

workers digging subway tunnels have discovered emporer hadrian's poetry and arts amphitheatre under rome

posted by skippy at 10:41 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, January 10, 2013

skippy's thursday night music club

a little theatrical thursday selection....from one of my favorite democrats, gene kelly, and his on-screen partner, the incomparable judy garland.



kelly was a lifelong supporter of the democratic party which occasionally created difficulty for him as his period of greatest prominence coincided with the mccarthy era in the u.s. in 1947, he was part of the cfor the first amendment, the hollywood delegation which flew to washington to protest at the first official hearings by the house committee on un-aactivities. his first wife, betsy blair, was suspected of being a communist sympathizer and when mgm, who had offered blair a part in marty (1955), were considering withdrawing her under pressure from the american legion, kelly successfully threatened mgm with a pullout from it's always fair weather unless his wife was restored to the part. - wiki

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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:48 PM | 1 comments

thursday night blues



the republicans are losing the debt ceiling fight

silencing the science on gun safety

number of veterans who die waiting for benefits skyrockets

hooray! it's the manhatten museum of mathematics!
posted by skippy at 11:33 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

skippy's wednesday night music club


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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:30 PM | 0 comments

wednesday lover

gun owners are 4.5 times more likely to be shot than non-gun owners

amidst record drilling, gas prices hit record highs in 2012

the tea party is in its death throes

which professions have the most psychopaths?
posted by skippy at 11:23 AM | 1 comments

Tuesday, January 08, 2013

happy birthday elvis

where ever you may be....

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posted by Cookie Jill at 7:45 PM | 2 comments

radio show host alex jones

goes on a tv show...and proves that he is in need of serious mental health help. (i think that is covered in obamacare.)
....jones said the point of the petition was to bring attention to the fact that united states has a bunch of foreigners bragging about taking away the guns of americans while the gov’t amasses more weapons for themselves. he said that the second amendment isn’t for “duck-hunting,” it’s to protect us from “tyrannical government.” he raised his voice to declare to morgan, “1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms!” - mediate
he now is claiming that he is marked for assassination....
“if you don’t know that bloomberg is total mafia, you’re on another planet,” jones said. “they’re thugs. i know what they are.”

“if something happens to us, or we’re killed by crackheads, it was the nypd or mafia they hired,” jones added. - mediate

piers morgan has an afterthought -
"he was the best advertisement for gun control you could wish for," morgan told politico

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posted by Cookie Jill at 5:17 PM | 1 comments

get out the crayola weather crayons

australia is so hot, meterologists have had to come up with a new color.
as a record-breaking heatwave hovers over many regions and territories (which are in their summer months now), the continent’s bureau of meteorology has added two new colors to the weather map to reflect the rising mercury. the map currently shows the weather in orange tones at the top, which indicate temperatures 40 to 48 degrees celsius. but forecasts are predicting off-the-charts weather. as a result, pink and purple will now cover temperatures over 50 degrees celsius—should it climb that high. - yahoo

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posted by Cookie Jill at 1:13 PM | 0 comments

c u on tuesday

why america needs a left

why the super-rich feel victimized by obama

why means-testing is just plain mean

10 things you may not know about james bond
posted by skippy at 5:49 AM | 0 comments

Monday, January 07, 2013

i've been busy

president obama himself wants to stay away from the negotiating table in debt ceiling talks. i think we owe it to him to give him moral support. please sign the petition at whitehouse.gov and recommend my post at firedoglake.
posted by George at 11:48 PM | 0 comments

god speed huell howser

you were part of california's gold.
huell howser--a california broadcasting legend for his various shows that have appeared on public broadcasting over the past couple of decades--has died, according to sources who spoke to the weekly on condition of anonymity. - ocweekly

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posted by Cookie Jill at 12:37 PM | 2 comments

new moon on monday

a checkerboard strategy for regaining the progressive strategy

6 ways to juice up the labor movement

jews who work for a free palestine

the royal mail (britain's postal service) is releasing a limited edition of doctor who stamps featuring all eleven doctors (and a few monsters, too)!
posted by skippy at 6:27 AM | 0 comments

Sunday, January 06, 2013

skippy's sunday night music club

a little "thrill-less" blues


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posted by Cookie Jill at 11:30 PM | 0 comments

the slow killing of the post office

bryan over at why now? breaks it down succinctly...it "is about stealing the profitable activities of the post office and leaving it with the most expensive service it provides." 

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posted by Cookie Jill at 1:11 PM | 0 comments

no wonder the gop hates chuck hagel

he actually works with democrats...and sometimes comes out and makes reality-based statements.

“each one of us who has a responsibility of helping lead this country needs to reflect on what we think is in the interests of our country, not the interest of our party or our president.”

"i took an oath of office to the constitution, i didn't take an oath of office to my party or my president."

"our relationship with israel is special and historic,... but it need not and cannot be at the expense of our arab and muslim relationships."

re: bush's troop increase in iraq - "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since vietnam, if it's carried out

describing the bush administration - "the lowest in capacity, in capability, in policy, in consensus—almost every area" of any presidency in the last forty years."

"people say we're not fighting for oil. of course we are. they talk about america's national interest. what the hell do you think they're talking about? we're not there for figs."


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posted by Cookie Jill at 12:26 PM | 0 comments

environmental news stories sunday

forget the fiscal cliff....it's the climate cliff we really need to worry about. however, i don't think you will hear anything about that on the talking head shows today.

staggering cost of repairs allows sewage to foul new jersey waterways. more than 23 billion gallons of raw sewage and other pollutants pour into new jersey’s rivers and bays each year because aging sewer systems are overwhelmed during heavy rains. the raw sewage and toxic waste is enough to fill the oradell reservoir nearly seven times over - bergen county record

as biofuel demand grows, so do guatemala’s hunger pangs. with its corn-based diet and proximity to the united states, central america has long been vulnerable to economic riptides related to the united states’ corn policy. now that the united states is using 40 percent of its crop to make biofuel, it is not surprising that tortilla prices have doubled in guatemala, which imports nearly half of its corn - nytimes

fears for missing residents as fire fighting continues. police fear there may have been deaths in the fire-ravaged south-east of tasmania, with a number of people reported missing. since friday, more than 100 homes have been destroyed by a bushfire between forcett and the tasman peninsula, in the state's south-east - australia abc news

thousands flee out of control bushfires in australia. australia’s savage bushfire season has arrived with cruel force this weekend, destroying scores of buildings and taking the life of at least one man who died as he tried to save his tasmania home from the flames - times of london

china's heavy metal and chemical pollution worsening. in china, a senior environmental policy official has warned the mainland faces an "extremely grave" environmental crisis that will only worsen as pollution increases and the health problems its causes come to light - south china morning post

coal in the rich world: the mixed fortunes of a fuel. why is the world’s most harmful fossil fuel being burned less in america and more in europe? coal-fired power stations provide two-fifths of the world’s electricity, and there are ever more of them. if current trends continue, coal will vie with oil as the world’s largest source of primary energy within five years. - economist

projecting warming's impact on the san francisco bay area. without drastic changes to fossil fuel emissions, the impacts of global warming will land on the bay area with a brute force that pays no regard to our relatively liberal politics, farsighted state climate regulations or fondness for hybrid vehicles - sfgate

gregoire emerges as top contender to boss epa. president obama is about to nominate outgoing washington gov. chris gregoire as the new head of the u.s. environmental protection agency, according to a very private prediction from a very senior source in washington’s congressional delegation - seattle pi

scientists seek foolproof signal to predict earthquakes. the dream is to be able to forecast earthquakes like we now predict the weather. even a few minutes' warning would be enough for people to move away from walls or ceilings that might collapse or for nuclear plants and other critical facilities to be shut down safely in advance of the temblor. - national geographic news

looking to sky to fight climate change. a team of researchers is hoping to be able to make coastal clouds more reflective – thus sending more heat and light back into space, wielding clouds as shields against climate change. one fear, however, is that altering the atmosphere this way could also unleash dangerous side effects - sfgate

whatever your mixed metaphor for it might be -- melting glacial vortex, drought abyss, or maybe just hell (in the burning sense) -- climate change certainly deserves some imagistic attention in a world in which, as tomdispatch regular and founder of 350.org bill mckibben suggests, time is not on our side. - tom dispatch

climate change a reality for massachusetts south shore communities. if you want to see the effects of climate change and rising sea levels, look along ocean street in marshfield, mass., whenever waves batter the boulders and sea wall, the town’s planner, paul halkiotis, says - boston patriot leader

Fracker ad clashes on screen with damon’s 'promised land.' before many pennsylvania movie-goers settle in for matt damon’s film about the fight over natural gas drilling, they will see a message from the energy industry offering "straightforward facts" about hydraulic fracturing and trying to paint damon’s movie as derivative, condescending and cliched - bloomberg news


ohio's fracking panel is delayed. ohio officials are more than a year behind schedule in setting up a system to allow oil and gas “ fracking” in state parks and forests - columbus dispatch

dumped christmas trees are a gift for lake havasu fish. the ghosts of christmas past can be found in some unusual places. the bottom of lake havasu, for instance. there, thousands of christmas trees sunk by wildlife biologists have found a second life as fish habitat in an ecosystem damaged by the damming of the colorado river decades ago. - latte times
on new year’s eve, in the middle of a storm, shell was trying to tow its kulluk drilling rig from alaska to seattle. why then? why risk the bad weather, which, as it turned out, caused the rig to break free from its tugboats and run aground on lodiak island? to avoid paying state taxes, of course. - grist

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posted by Cookie Jill at 10:43 AM | 0 comments

sunday afternoon in the park

unregulated gun sales website owned by mormon church

the four business gangs that run the u.s.

hannity's ratings fell by 50% after the election

david attenborough first to capture on film rare galapagos pink iguana

posted by skippy at 8:51 AM | 1 comments

Saturday, January 05, 2013

Service Workers Will Never Be Paid for What They Can Produce

The authors don’t intend this to mean that the shift from manufacturing to Services means that workers will never get paid their marginal product. But I think it does.

FranciscoStructuralChange

Those at the AEA—er, ASSA—meeting can ask them tomorrow: Jan 06, 2013 8:00 am, Hyatt, Manchester E.

(cross-posted, in slightly different form, at Angry Bear.

posted by Ken Houghton at 3:56 PM | 0 comments

saturday night is alright for fighting

the most devastating look at obama's digital election teams and how they crushed romney's

more guns, more mass shootings -- coincidence?

oh, frabjous day! callooh callay! it's off to jail for tom delya!

limbaugh mentions anal poisoning 13 times in 2 years
posted by skippy at 11:59 AM | 0 comments