Born, like other comic book characters, out of an otherwise trivial but life-changing animal bite, the Rabid Librarian seeks out strange, useless facts, raves about real and perceived injustices, and seeks to meet her greatest challenge of all--her own life.
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Sunday, April 06, 2008
An interesting test
Harvard's Project Implicit has an online Presidential Candidate test that measures how positive or how negative you view the presidential candidates. Mine rated high on the 'more positive' side for Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton was way down on the 'more negative' side, with John McCain even lower (which surprised me a little bit; I actually thought I liked McCain better than Clinton). It was pretty interesting. It has you choose one key for positive words or the candidate that you're supposed to choose for that segment. Another key is used for negative words or one of the other candidates. I had a little trouble with hitting the wrong keys, but who knows, that may have been subconscious, which seems to be what they were studying.
Ancient poop turns back clock on first Americans
Humans in North America earlier than thought: DNA from fossilised foeces in Oregon provides evidence that humans inhabited the area 1,200 years sooner than theorised
Okay, technically they're coprolites (an excellent candidate for word-of-the-day). This pushes back the earliest accepted evidence of humans in the Americas to 14,300 years ago. (I'm aware of one claim for 48,000 years before present in Brazil, for example, so that's why I say 'accepted'. That claim is from radiocarbon dating of hearth remains. This is a mixture of DNA and radiocarbon dating for the Oregon site discussed in the article.)
Nifty, hmmm...?
Good night.
Okay, technically they're coprolites (an excellent candidate for word-of-the-day). This pushes back the earliest accepted evidence of humans in the Americas to 14,300 years ago. (I'm aware of one claim for 48,000 years before present in Brazil, for example, so that's why I say 'accepted'. That claim is from radiocarbon dating of hearth remains. This is a mixture of DNA and radiocarbon dating for the Oregon site discussed in the article.)
Nifty, hmmm...?
Good night.
Things I learnt from roleplaying games
Today's word from Dictionary.com is camarilla, 'a group of secret and often scheming advisers'.
I discovered this term years ago from White Wolf's Vampire: the Masquerade. The Camarilla is a sect of vampires in the game going back to the 15th century. Having not heard the term before, I checked on its meaning. See, games can be fun and educational, and more than just whacking monsters and getting treasure.
I discovered this term years ago from White Wolf's Vampire: the Masquerade. The Camarilla is a sect of vampires in the game going back to the 15th century. Having not heard the term before, I checked on its meaning. See, games can be fun and educational, and more than just whacking monsters and getting treasure.
The power of librarians
The medical librarian community has been buzzing for days about a discovery that POPLINE, a reproductive health site which bills itself as 'the world's largest bibliographic database on population, family planning, and related health issues' had made the term 'abortion' a stop word. For those of you unfamiliar with search jargon, a stop word is a word that is ignored by a search engine. They're normally common words such as 'a', 'an', and 'the'.
This upset virtually anyone concerned with censorship who heard about it, and POPLINE was suddenly facing the ire of librarians and researchers who contacted them, wrote in blogs, and publicised the move. Apparently this had effect; the dean of the school where it was developed has ordered it restored and is investigating why it happened in the first place. Now it's made it into the general media:
Web Site Restores "Abortion" Search Term: Reproductive Health Site Funded By Gov't Was Slammed For Restricting Use Of Word In Searches
When asked by one librarian why this happened, POPLINE administrator Debra L Dickson wrote: 'Yes, we did make a change to POPLINE. We recently made all abortion words stop words. As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now.'
You see, POPLINE is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Due to an order by President Bush resurrecting a Reagan-era practice, the agency 'denies funding to non-governmental organizations that perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations', as the article put it. This is effectively a gag order preventing federally-funded organisations from discussing abortion. Of course, by making it a stop word it meant throwing out 'spontaneous abortion' (miscarriage) and the alternatives suggested were too broad for meaningful results. So, it's good to see 'abortion' as a term back.
Yay for Dr Michael J Klag, who restored the term.
This upset virtually anyone concerned with censorship who heard about it, and POPLINE was suddenly facing the ire of librarians and researchers who contacted them, wrote in blogs, and publicised the move. Apparently this had effect; the dean of the school where it was developed has ordered it restored and is investigating why it happened in the first place. Now it's made it into the general media:
Web Site Restores "Abortion" Search Term: Reproductive Health Site Funded By Gov't Was Slammed For Restricting Use Of Word In Searches
When asked by one librarian why this happened, POPLINE administrator Debra L Dickson wrote: 'Yes, we did make a change to POPLINE. We recently made all abortion words stop words. As a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now.'
You see, POPLINE is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Due to an order by President Bush resurrecting a Reagan-era practice, the agency 'denies funding to non-governmental organizations that perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations', as the article put it. This is effectively a gag order preventing federally-funded organisations from discussing abortion. Of course, by making it a stop word it meant throwing out 'spontaneous abortion' (miscarriage) and the alternatives suggested were too broad for meaningful results. So, it's good to see 'abortion' as a term back.
Yay for Dr Michael J Klag, who restored the term.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Forty years ago
Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride
U2 Pride (In the Name of Love):
Despite the tarnish of plagiarism issues and infidelity accusations, Martin Luther King, Jr was a remarkable figure whose spirit and dreams may hopefully one day be realised. Unfortunately, that time has not yet come.
A nice opinion piece:
Four decades later, urban black poor are worse off
Reason #5,634 NOT to go to Wal-Mart
I found out about this via YKWIA, who in turned heard about it from T:
Brain-damaged woman at centre of Wal-Mart suit
The human cost of Wal-Mart's great prices
Debbie Shank vs. Goliath
Wal-Mart Rethinks Its Move on Deborah Shank
Summary: Eight years ago, Deborah Shank was stocking shelves for Wal-Mart. She went out visiting yard sales and was hit by a large truck, nearly killing her and leaving her with permanent brain damage and memory issues. She is currently in a nursing home receiving care.
Shank's family sued the trucking company and won enough money to pay legal fees and put money into a trust fund to take care of her future care. That's when Wal-Mart stepped in and sued the family based on something buried in the fine print that allows them to recoup medical costs through covered employees' settlements. Most people would never see that fine print, and if she hadn't signed that agreement she would not have had any health insurance. They wanted more than the trust fund could cover, leaving the family with no way to pay for costs and actually further in debt. The family lost the case at every level. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, giving Wal-Mart the victory.
Mr Shank divorced his wife so her Medicaid benefits would be greater. A survivor of prostate cancer himself, he works two jobs to pay for his family.
A week after they lost the case, they lost something far greater. Their eighteen-year-old son, who had been deployed in Iraq for two weeks, was killed. Even though his mother attended the funeral, her memory is such that she will speak as if he were alive and when reminded of his death, grieves anew as if being told for the first time.
Apparently after all the bad publicity (and who wouldn't have predicted that), Wal-Mart has now come out and said that they won't take the money from the Shanks.
That's good. But it should tell a lot of people to look at the fine print of their own health care plans (or at least look at the laws in your state--many prohibit this kind of thing). It does make you wonder why Wal-Mart even tries to rehabilitate its image. It puts its foot in its mouth at every turn.
The only time I step into a Wal-Mart is if I've received a gift card (as the money has already been given to the company). I'm rethinking that. I could just pass it on to someone who will use it gladly. I have to think of my own conscience, whether it's for Bangladeshi workers, gays who face discrimination in the job, or the Deborah Shanks of the world.
Brain-damaged woman at centre of Wal-Mart suit
The human cost of Wal-Mart's great prices
Debbie Shank vs. Goliath
Wal-Mart Rethinks Its Move on Deborah Shank
Summary: Eight years ago, Deborah Shank was stocking shelves for Wal-Mart. She went out visiting yard sales and was hit by a large truck, nearly killing her and leaving her with permanent brain damage and memory issues. She is currently in a nursing home receiving care.
Shank's family sued the trucking company and won enough money to pay legal fees and put money into a trust fund to take care of her future care. That's when Wal-Mart stepped in and sued the family based on something buried in the fine print that allows them to recoup medical costs through covered employees' settlements. Most people would never see that fine print, and if she hadn't signed that agreement she would not have had any health insurance. They wanted more than the trust fund could cover, leaving the family with no way to pay for costs and actually further in debt. The family lost the case at every level. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, giving Wal-Mart the victory.
Mr Shank divorced his wife so her Medicaid benefits would be greater. A survivor of prostate cancer himself, he works two jobs to pay for his family.
A week after they lost the case, they lost something far greater. Their eighteen-year-old son, who had been deployed in Iraq for two weeks, was killed. Even though his mother attended the funeral, her memory is such that she will speak as if he were alive and when reminded of his death, grieves anew as if being told for the first time.
Apparently after all the bad publicity (and who wouldn't have predicted that), Wal-Mart has now come out and said that they won't take the money from the Shanks.
That's good. But it should tell a lot of people to look at the fine print of their own health care plans (or at least look at the laws in your state--many prohibit this kind of thing). It does make you wonder why Wal-Mart even tries to rehabilitate its image. It puts its foot in its mouth at every turn.
The only time I step into a Wal-Mart is if I've received a gift card (as the money has already been given to the company). I'm rethinking that. I could just pass it on to someone who will use it gladly. I have to think of my own conscience, whether it's for Bangladeshi workers, gays who face discrimination in the job, or the Deborah Shanks of the world.
Okay, I'm not graceful
but is it wrong to wish for just a shred of grace?
I went to leave a friend's a few minutes ago, going out into the storm and the cold rain. The rain has been falling for a couple of days so the gutter above the door was overflowing. I dodged the cascade of rainwater (I had a book in my purse, which doesn't zip, so that was of main concern), then realised the wind had grabbed the screen door. I went back to push the door shut and then stepped back--and off the porch entirely. I think I brushed one step before skipping the other entirely. I careened down the small hill partway into the yard, twisting my ankle as I went, finally coming to rest about a foot from a tree, nearly hitting it. I fished my wallet out of the grass and threw away a couple of things I'd been taking out to the trash. I looked back through the window. My friend was quietly reading, oblivious to the comedy going on in his front lawn. I limped over to the car, got in, and made it back home without incident. I was soaked to my skin and I'll no doubt be sore tomorrow. Fortunately the book made it through without any damage (the important thing when you're a librarian, right?)
Argh.
I went to leave a friend's a few minutes ago, going out into the storm and the cold rain. The rain has been falling for a couple of days so the gutter above the door was overflowing. I dodged the cascade of rainwater (I had a book in my purse, which doesn't zip, so that was of main concern), then realised the wind had grabbed the screen door. I went back to push the door shut and then stepped back--and off the porch entirely. I think I brushed one step before skipping the other entirely. I careened down the small hill partway into the yard, twisting my ankle as I went, finally coming to rest about a foot from a tree, nearly hitting it. I fished my wallet out of the grass and threw away a couple of things I'd been taking out to the trash. I looked back through the window. My friend was quietly reading, oblivious to the comedy going on in his front lawn. I limped over to the car, got in, and made it back home without incident. I was soaked to my skin and I'll no doubt be sore tomorrow. Fortunately the book made it through without any damage (the important thing when you're a librarian, right?)
Argh.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
An update on the 14-year-old stripper case
2 charged in case of underage stripper
The woman who allegedly gave the teen pills and drove her to the strip club (where the girl presented a fake ID and was hired) is the girl's AUNT. Tina G. Hobbs and her boyfriend, Jimmy R. Kiger, have been arrested on charges of an unlawful transaction with a minor. The girl apparently argued with her mother over spending money, which she did not get. Hobbs said the mother knew about the stripping, but the police say there's no evidence that is the case. Another relative supposedly tipped off the mother and stepfather, who went to the club and found their daughter sitting at a table in dancing clothes. They didn't explain what Hobbs' boyfriend had to do with the whole affair.
The paper identified both the relationship of the woman to the girl and also her mother by name, so I guess it would be easy to tell who the girl was. I'm not going to identify the mother here, though. Hopefully the girl gets away from drugs and this sort of influence, and this can be chalked up to a youthful indiscretion. She's lucky nothing worse happened.
(Shaking head.) Gods, I'm old, I have the urge to go tut...tut.
The woman who allegedly gave the teen pills and drove her to the strip club (where the girl presented a fake ID and was hired) is the girl's AUNT. Tina G. Hobbs and her boyfriend, Jimmy R. Kiger, have been arrested on charges of an unlawful transaction with a minor. The girl apparently argued with her mother over spending money, which she did not get. Hobbs said the mother knew about the stripping, but the police say there's no evidence that is the case. Another relative supposedly tipped off the mother and stepfather, who went to the club and found their daughter sitting at a table in dancing clothes. They didn't explain what Hobbs' boyfriend had to do with the whole affair.
The paper identified both the relationship of the woman to the girl and also her mother by name, so I guess it would be easy to tell who the girl was. I'm not going to identify the mother here, though. Hopefully the girl gets away from drugs and this sort of influence, and this can be chalked up to a youthful indiscretion. She's lucky nothing worse happened.
(Shaking head.) Gods, I'm old, I have the urge to go tut...tut.
A nice birthday
I went to bed for an hour's nap three hours ago. I was so comfortable I had a hard time getting back out, and I suppose I probably should just have stayed in, but I wanted to blog and maybe do a little classwork.
Today I:
Now I'm going to head back to bed. I had thought about going to the gym today, doing some cleaning, working on class, calling D (who's home recovering from a hysterectomy) and watching some 'Secrets of Isis' (my birthday present from last year) But there's just so much time in a day. I'll have to make time to do those things, at the beginning and end of the days coming up. Tomorrow it's back to work at both jobs. I'm working Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Wednesday at the store. Good night.
Today I:
- Read some more of Club Dead. I'm enjoying re-reading them. I'm at the main cliffhanger right now. (There's apparently an upcoming television series based on the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries called 'True Blood', but it's on HBO and so I wouldn't get to see it. It's being done by the creator of 'Six Feet Under'. It stars Anna Paquin (Rogue from the X-Men movies), which I can't quite picture as Sookie, but then, you never know, it's Hollywood. I wasn't aware she was a Canadian-born actress who was raised in New Zealand before coming to Los Angeles as a teenager. She is the second-youngest Oscar winner, having won Best Supporting Actress at age 11 for The Piano, and the first Canadian actress to win in that category). Don't you love trivia?
- Ate at India Garden. It was a wonderful buffet. The naan was very fresh and buttery. As always, I really enjoyed what I think is korma (potatoes in a curried sauce). The only glitch in the day was that some of that curry wound up on a white sweater, and I may or may not have ruined it, but that's what I get for wearing white to an Indian restaurant. I stopped by the house and changed.
- Did some errands with friends and helped them dose their animals with flea and heartworm medicine.
- Napped off some of lunch.
- Talked to my mom and grandmother over the phone. My mom's ordered a mattress (remember my Christmas present? That apparently fell through so she's getting a new one) from Sears to be delivered next Wednesday. I'll be working, but she'll meet them that day, since she has a key to my apartment. She and my grandmother are well. I asked her about the insurance card for the car (I need a new one). She'll get it to me. We're going to have to change insurance by June because of my stepbrother's DUI. He's in jail for 97 days because he didn't pay his find and as a wonder my stepfather told him he wouldn't bail him out this time. Go, John! Robert is in his 20s and needs to learn about consequences. He was almost paralysed in one accident and yet he still chose to drink and drive. He's just lucky no one was hurt.
- Dropped something back over at my friends' house.
- Stopped by the store to get my schedule. I'll be working 19 hours this coming week.
- Took a co-worker home.
- Stopped by Walgreens to get some glucose test strips, some macaroni and cheese, and deodorant.
- Came back home, made said macaroni and cheese, drank V-8, and blogged--lots of blogging.
- Went to take a small nap (when left to my own devices for a day I sometimes stay up for three or four hours at a time, nap for an hour, then start the cycle again, actually sleeping maybe four or five hours at night plus a few hours during the day). Apparently I was more tired than I thought.
Now I'm going to head back to bed. I had thought about going to the gym today, doing some cleaning, working on class, calling D (who's home recovering from a hysterectomy) and watching some 'Secrets of Isis' (my birthday present from last year) But there's just so much time in a day. I'll have to make time to do those things, at the beginning and end of the days coming up. Tomorrow it's back to work at both jobs. I'm working Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Wednesday at the store. Good night.
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