Happy Birthday

Maurice Sendak

1928 -
American writer and illustrator of more than 30 children's books, including Where the Wild Things Are (1963); In the Night Kitchen (1970); Outside over There (1981); We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy (1993); and Brundibar (2003).

Batwoman and the Teachable Moment

from kolchak

More than a few years ago, Mattel Toys tried to market a Barbie doll that came in a wheelchair. I don’t know whether it was a sincere attempt to promote diversity or a sincere attempt to separate more kids from their money. (I imagine it was a little bit of both.) In any case, the effort didn’t last long. Someone quickly discovered that the wheelchair wouldn’t go through the doorways of the various Barbie playhouses and the toy was recalled.

I think I remember this incident because I always thought that Mattel missed what some educators like to call a Teachable Moment. IMHO, the official response should have been: “Yeah, we wanted to make it as much like the real world as we could.”

All of which brings us --believe it or not--to the new Batwoman.

In late May, DC Comics announced that it was going to reintroduce Batwoman, a character who first appeared in 1956. This version of the character, though, would be substantially different from the original; she would be a lesbian, a Gotham City socialite named Kate Kane. Her first appearance is scheduled for 52 #11, due out in July. (52 is a weekly comic that will feature a variety of characters over a year-long run.)

This announcement has resulted in an unexpected amount of publicity from themainstream news media. Most of it has been positive, although some of it has just been clueless. CNN’s Jeanne Moos did a spot which started with the theme of the Batman TV series, which, in this case, is equivalent to putting on a sign that says I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT.

Anyway, it’s ironic to see the name Batwoman associated with an attempt to make Batman more edgy and modern, because, when it was first used, the intention was probably the reverse. The original Batwoman--who was called Kathy Kane, incidentally -- was introduced along with Batgirl to make Batman and Robin look more like a standard family (And if you want to replace the phrase “standard family” with“straighter,” I’m not going to disagree with you.)

Here’s how Jeff Rovin describes the first Batwoman’s weapons in his TheEncyclopedia of Super Heroes: “a powder puff with sneezing powder, lipstick which doubles as a smoke bomb, tear-gas disguised as perfume, bracelets which are actually handcuffs and a large super-strong ‘hairnet’ to snare fleeing adversaries...”

Another point that hasn’t been made often enough is that Kate Kane isn’t the first gay costumed character. The earliest one I can find is Extrano, who was a member of a team called the New Guardians, a comic that DC published in the late 1980s. Since then, comic fans have seen Spectral, in the Strangers; Apollo and Midnighter, in the Authority, and Hulkling and Wiccan in the Young Avengers.

Gay supporting characters have become more common too. According to DC’s press releases, Kate Kane had a relationship with Renee Montoya, a gay police officer who has been part of Batman’s supporting cast for a few years now.

Ultimately, though, this all boils down to: So Batwoman’s a lesbian...and? At this point, it’s not possible to say whether she’s going to be an intriguing character ( much less a successful one.) We don’t know what her motivation is; who the people in her life are or whether she has a distinctive approach to fighting crime.

Pictures of her costume have been released and the outfit is nothing special. It seems to borrow a lot from the futuristic Batman seen in the animated show Batman Beyond. (Although one post I’ve seen has criticized Kate for wearing the “Stripper Boots of the Patriarchy.”). So, in the long run, Batwoman’s sexuality is going to be only one facet of her character. I’m just hoping that, at some point, the Powers That Be at DC will say, “Yeah, we wanted to make it as much like the real world as we could.”

That would be a Teachable Moment.

Sieg Meow!

Sorry, it's been a rough couple of weeks.

Testify, Brother Foser, Testify!

from Media Matters by Jamison Foser

The defining issue of our time is not the Iraq war. It is not the 'global war on terror.' It is not our inability (or unwillingness) to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health care. Nor is it immigration, outsourcing, or growing income inequity. It is not education, it is not global warming, and it is not Social Security.

The defining issue of our time is the media.

The dominant political force of our time is not Karl Rove or the Christian Right or Bill Clinton. It is not the ruthlessness or the tactical and strategic superiority of the Republicans, and it is not your favorite theory about what is wrong with the Democrats.

The dominant political force of our time is the media.

Time after time, the news media have covered progressives and conservatives in wildly different ways -- and, time after time, they do so to the benefit of conservatives.

Consider the last two presidents. Bill Clinton faced near-constant media obsession with his 'scandals,' while George W. Bush has gotten off comparatively easy.

Even many members of the media have stopped contesting this painfully obvious point, instead offering dubious justifications. Bill Clinton's 'scandals' made for better stories than George Bush's, we are told, because they were simpler and easier for readers and viewers to understand. 'Sex sells,' while George Bush's false claims about Iraq are much harder to explain.

This excuse is simply nonsense. more:

Poem of the Day

The Strangest Creature on Earth by Nazim Hikmet

You're like a scorpion, my brother,
you live in cowardly darkness
like a scorpion.
You're like a sparrow, my brother,
always in a sparrow's flutter.
You're like a clam, my brother,
closed like a clam, content,
And you're frightening, my brother,
like the mouth of an extinct volcano.

Not one,
not five--
unfortunately, you number millions.
You're like a sheep, my brother:
when the cloaked drover raises his stick,
you quickly join the flock
and run, almost proudly, to the slaughterhouse.
I mean you're strangest creature on earth--
even stranger than the fish
that couldn't see the ocean for the water.
And the oppression in this world
is thanks to you.
And if we're hungry, tired, covered with blood,
and still being crushed like grapes for our wine,
the fault is yours--
I can hardly bring myself to say it,
but most of the fault, my dear brother, is yours.

Trans. by Randy Blasing and Mutlu Konuk (1993)

Happy Birthday

Catherine II the Great
(1729—1796)

Reigned as Empress of Russia for more than three decades
The epitome of the "enlightened despot"

Blucher
(sorry, couldn't resist.)

John Muir
(1838 – 1914)

Scottish-American environmentalist, naturalist, explorer, writer, inventor, and geologist

The spiritual father of the modern conservation movement.

Anthony Quinn
(1915 – 2001)
Mexican-American actor, painter, and writer.

He is best known for his performance in Zorba the Greek.

He showed us how to live the full catastrophe!

Elaine May
(1932- )

American screenwriter, movie director, and performer

One of the funniest people alive.

Charles Grodin
( 1935- )

American actor and comedian

The embodiment of droll.
A very funny man.

Avast! Map of Pirate Activity off Somalia.

from Cartography:


UNOSAT is a United Nations initiative that seeks to provide satellite imagery and mapping products to the humanitarian community. To access satellite imagery users need to be part of “an active member organization”- that is, an organization that is part of the U. N. system or one that is working in accordance to U. N. policies.

Some maps are created and made freely available, usually in response to a natural disaster or humanitarian crisis. Recent examples include maps of the area around Mount Merapi, a currently smouldering volcano in Indonesia, piracy around the Horn of Africa and maps of Lorestan Province in Iran, site of a recent earthquake.

Listen Up!

from AmericanAgenda

Simple Instructions for the Perfect Friday in Pennsylvania

Click the link below:

Directory for the Pennyslvania House of Representatives.

Locate your rep, pick up the phone and call him or her.

Tell your Rep to oppose the passage of HB 2381 (The Marriage Protection Amendment) or they will lose your vote forever! Tell them to focus on the real priorities of Pennsylvania, not the hate of a fringe group bent on erasing the seperation of church and state.

Hang up.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat!

Oh...And tell your friends.
Copy and past the link and tell everyone!

The vote is on Monday, April 24th.

Enjoy your Friday!

Whites Take Flight on Election Day

from WaPo:

Bad news for Michael S. Steele, the leading Maryland Republican candidate for Senate in November: The scuttling noise he hears on Election Day could be the sound of tens of thousands of white Republicans crossing over to vote for the Democrat.

In fact, white Republicans nationally are 25 percentage points more likely on average to vote for the Democratic senatorial candidate when the GOP hopeful is black, says economist Ebonya Washington of Yale University in a forthcoming article in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. White independents are similarly inclined to vote for the white Democrat when there's a black Republican running, according to her study of congressional and gubernatorial voting patterns between 1982 and 2000, including five Senate races (more)

This doesn't portend well for Lynn Swann's run for govenor here in PA. Ed Rendell already has a lock on SE PA and Philly proper. If Swann loses 25% of the white Republicans statewide due to race prejudice I think that would cook his goose.

I admit to thinking that Rendell should be re-elected, entirely on the merits of the job he's been doing, but winning because a bunch of bigots won't vote for an African American sticks in my craw.

NASA Black Hole Simulation

There's a great bit of animation with article. Real Sensawonda Stuff.

NASA scientists have reached a breakthrough in computer modeling that allows them to simulate what gravitational waves from merging black holes look like. The three-dimensional simulations, the largest astrophysical calculations ever performed on a NASA supercomputer, provide the foundation to explore the universe in an entirely new way.

According to Einstein's math, when two massive black holes merge, all of space jiggles like a bowl of Jell-O as gravitational waves race out from the collision at light speed.

Previous simulations had been plagued by computer crashes. The necessary equations, based on Einstein's theory of general relativity, were far too complex. But scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have found a method to translate Einstein's math in a way that computers can understand. (more)

A Real 'Green' House: No Heating Bill for 25 Years

from ScienceDaily:

When David Mears and his wife Dorothy put their house up for sale at the end of last year, it wasn't just the four-plus acres of beautiful woodlot land that made the property appealing. Nor were the five bedrooms or extra cabinet space in their roomy kitchen the most significant features.

The main attraction was the fact that the couple hadn't paid their heating bill for more than 25 years.

That's because they hadn't received one since 1980.

Using his knowledge of alternative energy sources for commercial greenhouses in response to the energy crisis of the 1970's, David Mears, a professor of Bioresource Engineering at Rutgers University, virtually eliminated the use of fuel oil for heating his home. (more)

The beauty of this system is that it uses 25 year old technology and works quite well. So much for the myth that says you can't depend on solar power for heating in the NorthEast.

Happy Birthday

Joan Miró i Ferrá

(1893 – 1983)

Spanish painter, sculptor and ceramist

Harold Clayton Lloyd
(1893–1971)

American actor and film maker


The forgotten man of silent comedy

Lionel Leo Hampton
(1908 – 2002)

American bandleader,
jazz percussionist and vibraphone virtuoso

The very essence of utterly smooth
and the person whom I most wanted to be when I grew up.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


It is also Adolph Hitler's birthday.
PTAAGH!
The thought of him burning for eternity in Hell is one of the few reasons I have for wishing there truly was an afterlife.

The Worst President in History?

Is there any serious doubt? W makes James Buchanan seem like a mensch.

from Rolling Stone:

One of America's leading historians assesses George W. Bush

George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.

From time to time, after hours, I kick back with my colleagues at Princeton to argue idly about which president really was the worst of them all. For years, these perennial debates have largely focused on the same handful of chief executives whom national polls of historians, from across the ideological and political spectrum, routinely cite as the bottom of the presidential barrel. Was the lousiest James Buchanan, who, confronted with Southern secession in 1860, dithered to a degree that, as his most recent biographer has said, probably amounted to disloyalty -- and who handed to his successor, Abraham Lincoln, a nation already torn asunder? Was it Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, who actively sided with former Confederates and undermined Reconstruction? What about the amiably incompetent Warren G. Harding, whose administration was fabulously corrupt? Or, though he has his defenders, Herbert Hoover, who tried some reforms but remained imprisoned in his own outmoded individualist ethic and collapsed under the weight of the stock-market crash of 1929 and the Depression's onset? The younger historians always put in a word for Richard M. Nixon, the only American president forced to resign from office.

Now, though, George W. Bush is in serious contention for the title of worst ever. In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a "failure." Among those who called Bush a success, many gave the president high marks only for his ability to mobilize public support and get Congress to go along with what one historian called the administration's "pursuit of disastrous policies." In fact, roughly one in ten of those who called Bush a success was being facetious, rating him only as the best president since Bill Clinton -- a category in which Bush is the only contestant.

The lopsided decision of historians should give everyone pause. Contrary to popular stereotypes, historians are generally a cautious bunch. We assess the past from widely divergent points of view and are deeply concerned about being viewed as fair and accurate by our colleagues. When we make historical judgments, we are acting not as voters or even pundits, but as scholars who must evaluate all the evidence, good, bad or indifferent. Separate surveys, conducted by those perceived as conservatives as well as liberals, show remarkable unanimity about who the best and worst presidents have been. (more)

Thought for the Day

from The Viscount LaCarte:

'As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.'

-H.L. Mencken

Writer Beware's 20 Worst Agents

One of the 'agents' named on the list actually demanded that TOR Books fire the Nielsen-Haydens for running this on Making Light, their personal, non-corporate blog. Way to work for your clients, fool. Piss off a major publisher and two of its best editors at the same time. Not to mention taking another blow at the First Amendment. You truly are a GREAT agent. Brilliant.

from Absolute Write Water Cooler:

Writer Beware's 20 Worst Agents

A list of the 20 agents about which Writer Beware has received the greatest number of advisories/complaints during the past several years.

None of these agents has a significant track record of sales to commercial (advance-paying) publishers, and most have virtually no documented and verified sales at all (many sales claimed by these agents turn out to be vanity publishers). All charge clients before a sale is made, whether directly, by charging fees such as reading or administrative fees, or indirectly, for 'editing services.'

Writer Beware suggests that writers searching for agents avoid questionable agents, and instead query agents who have actual track records of sales to commercial publishing houses.

And Here I Am, Stuck Outside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again

Seems like a major hoot and a true holler. Oh to live in NYC. (at least part of the time).


Flarf Festival April 20-22 at Medicine Show in NYC:

THREE NIGHTS OF FLARF

INAPPROPRIATE EXPLORATION IN 21st CENTURY ART
April 20-22, 2006, Medicine Show, 549 West 52nd Street, NYC.
$8.00 per evening, general admission. $20.00 for 3 evening pass.
For tickets: 212-262-4216 and leave message. Tickets will also be available at the door.

Film, poetry, music and theater by members of the Flarflist Collective in collaboration with Abigail Child, Theresa Buchheister, Stelianos Manolakakis, The Drew Gardner Poetics Orchestra, and actors who have worked with Medicine Show, The Ontological-Hysteric Theater, and The Upright Citizens Brigade. Award-winning experimental ensemble Medicine Show hosts the celebrated and controversial Flarflist Collective for three nights as part of its ongoing Word/Play series, partially funded by NYSCA. Hosted by Jordan Davis.

I'm The Decider

from The Huffington Post:

Tee-Hee! This little ditty is just a bit too much.

I'm The Decider

Happy Birthday

Dudley Moore

(1935 – 2002)

British musician, actor and comedian

Best known as the drunken rich kid in Arthur,
he did his best work during the 1960's in partnership with Peter Cook.

Tim Curry
(1946- )

English actor, vocalist and composer

Best known for his role as mad scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show,
he is currently appearing as King Arthur in the Broadway production of Spamelot

Poem of the Day

A Dog Has Died by Pablo Neruda

My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.

Some day I'll join him right there,
but now he's gone with his shaggy coat,
his bad manners and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed
in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I'll never enter.
Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom
where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship.

Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth,
of having lost a companion
who was never servile.
His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes
filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.

No, my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention I need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he'd keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

Ai, how many times have I envied his tail
as we walked together on the shores of the sea
in the lonely winter of Isla Negra
where the wintering birds filled the sky
and my hairy dog was jumping about
full of the voltage of the sea's movement:
my wandering dog, sniffing away
with his golden tail held high,
face to face with the ocean's spray.

Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.

There are no good-byes for my dog who has died,
and we don't now and never did lie to each other.

So now he's gone and I buried him,
and that's all there is to it.


Translated, from the Spanish, by Alfred Yankauer

For my beloved Laika, dead now these 13 years. Remember my promise. I'll meet you there when I can.

Find Leaves IDiots Snakebitten

A true transitional fossil. The second in as many weeks! HOO HAH!

from Pharyngula:

Najash rionegrina, a snake with legs

It's a busy time for transitional fossil news—first they find a fishapod, and now we've got a Cretaceous snake with legs and a pelvis. One's in the process of gaining legs, the other is in the early stages of losing them.

Najash rionegrina was discovered in a terrestrial fossil deposit in Argentina, which is important in the ongoing debate about whether snakes evolved from marine or terrestrial ancestors. The specimen isn't entirely complete (but enough material is present to unambiguously identify it as a snake), consisting of a partial skull and a section of trunk. It has a sacrum! It has a pelvic girdle! It has hindlimbs, with femora, fibulae, and tibiae! It's a definitive snake with legs, and it's the oldest snake yet found.

(more)