dsgood (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dsgood) wrote,@ 2009-06-30 12:04:00 |
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Monday June 22, 2009 Today I became certain that Iran will have a new government not far in the future. The current regime isn't competent to hold power. Its efforts to keep the lid on news about the opposition have succeeded only in becoming more bad news.
***To Southwest Senior Center, to use the computer lab.
Downloaded the July 1930 issue of Astounding Stories of Super-Science (now Analog.) I was amused by letters asking editor Harry Bates to reprint The Good Old Stuff. (Bates is best known for writing "Farewell to the Master;" the story dumbed down to make the movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still.")
I was interested to see a Murray Leinster story I'd never heard of: Part I of _Murder Madness_. The style wasn't what I expected from Leinster, but was like that of the other stories. My suspicion: Bates was a heavy-handed editor. (Caution: I did not finish reading any of the stories; my conclusions are not based on careful research.)
***Steeple People thrift store was having its annual Dandelion Sale. Clothes were two-for-one; everything else half price.
I got a very few things, including _Claim Your Inner Grown-up_ by Ashley Davis Prend.
Wednesday June 24, 2009 To Southwest Senior Center, to use the computer lab.
The lunch for seniors often has entertainment and/or education. This being the monthly Birthdays celebration, there was edutainment: Armenian folkdancers.
***The news showed up on my LiveJournal friends list before it was on Google News. South Carolina governor Mark Sanford hadn't been walking the Appalachian Trail; he'd been in Argentina to see a female Close Friend. (Breaking it off, he says.) Meanwhile, he'd been neglecting state business.
I for one would not trust Sanford to handle my affairs.
Why this wasn't on Google News yet: Google collects what newspapers,tv, radio, etc. consider important, as shown by the amount of print space and air time it's given. And the story hadn't yet built up enough bulk to reach Google's front page.
I see three problems with this way of deciding what counts. First, newspapers play up stories which the editors don't think are important, but do think readers will be highly interested in. For example, the President acquiring a dog is always first page news.
Second, much of what news editors think is important turns out not to be. Not always because they're ignorant; often the relevant experts are at least as wrong.
Third, stories which they don't consider important turn out to be.
***To the Wedge Coop.
Then across Lyndale Ave to Steeple People thrift store, which has a half-price sale through the 27th. I bought the first two volumes of Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy. From the magazine free box, I got two recent issues of The Nation. And from the miscellaneous free box, Lonely Planet's guide to South America (2004 edition.)
***To the Aldi supermarket on Lake Street for eggs. Then to Target, and then home.
***I used to read The Nation frequently; but these days I prefer political blogs to magazines of opinion. Reading these two issues, I found myself most interested in the
"liberal liaisons" ads. In the June 15th issue: "FETISHES AND FANTASIES fulfilled. Hot erotic talk with creative, sensuous woman." Two more such ads. Other kinds: "GREEN SINGLES. Free photo ads for progressive singles in the environmental, vegetarian and animal rights communities." Two nonprofessional ads from men, one of whom is "Locked in but not locked out."
=========
Thursday June 25, 2009 Used the computer lab at Southwest Senior Center.
***Stopped in at Steeple People thrift store.
***To Walker Library. The New York Times had a front page article on successful African orphanages. "Success" meaning that babies whose mothers died in childbirth are kept alive and healthy through the most vulnerable few years.
The July Scientific American had an article on the origin of differences between the two hemispheres of the brain. It's been Scientific Fact that the differences exist only in humans; the researchers say they go back to the very beginning of the vertebrate lineage.
***Inc. magazine has an article on a family business which includes a prodigal brother. The one who founded the business (a bakery) took his errant brother back a couple of times before the brother finally stopped using meth and started to properly run his life. The prodigal brother then originated the line of bread which made the bakery really successful.
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting, and then home.
***To Southwest Senior Center, to use the computer lab.
Downloaded the July 1930 issue of Astounding Stories of Super-Science (now Analog.) I was amused by letters asking editor Harry Bates to reprint The Good Old Stuff. (Bates is best known for writing "Farewell to the Master;" the story dumbed down to make the movie "The Day The Earth Stood Still.")
I was interested to see a Murray Leinster story I'd never heard of: Part I of _Murder Madness_. The style wasn't what I expected from Leinster, but was like that of the other stories. My suspicion: Bates was a heavy-handed editor. (Caution: I did not finish reading any of the stories; my conclusions are not based on careful research.)
***Steeple People thrift store was having its annual Dandelion Sale. Clothes were two-for-one; everything else half price.
I got a very few things, including _Claim Your Inner Grown-up_ by Ashley Davis Prend.
Wednesday June 24, 2009 To Southwest Senior Center, to use the computer lab.
The lunch for seniors often has entertainment and/or education. This being the monthly Birthdays celebration, there was edutainment: Armenian folkdancers.
***The news showed up on my LiveJournal friends list before it was on Google News. South Carolina governor Mark Sanford hadn't been walking the Appalachian Trail; he'd been in Argentina to see a female Close Friend. (Breaking it off, he says.) Meanwhile, he'd been neglecting state business.
I for one would not trust Sanford to handle my affairs.
Why this wasn't on Google News yet: Google collects what newspapers,tv, radio, etc. consider important, as shown by the amount of print space and air time it's given. And the story hadn't yet built up enough bulk to reach Google's front page.
I see three problems with this way of deciding what counts. First, newspapers play up stories which the editors don't think are important, but do think readers will be highly interested in. For example, the President acquiring a dog is always first page news.
Second, much of what news editors think is important turns out not to be. Not always because they're ignorant; often the relevant experts are at least as wrong.
Third, stories which they don't consider important turn out to be.
***To the Wedge Coop.
Then across Lyndale Ave to Steeple People thrift store, which has a half-price sale through the 27th. I bought the first two volumes of Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy. From the magazine free box, I got two recent issues of The Nation. And from the miscellaneous free box, Lonely Planet's guide to South America (2004 edition.)
***To the Aldi supermarket on Lake Street for eggs. Then to Target, and then home.
***I used to read The Nation frequently; but these days I prefer political blogs to magazines of opinion. Reading these two issues, I found myself most interested in the
"liberal liaisons" ads. In the June 15th issue: "FETISHES AND FANTASIES fulfilled. Hot erotic talk with creative, sensuous woman." Two more such ads. Other kinds: "GREEN SINGLES. Free photo ads for progressive singles in the environmental, vegetarian and animal rights communities." Two nonprofessional ads from men, one of whom is "Locked in but not locked out."
=========
Thursday June 25, 2009 Used the computer lab at Southwest Senior Center.
***Stopped in at Steeple People thrift store.
***To Walker Library. The New York Times had a front page article on successful African orphanages. "Success" meaning that babies whose mothers died in childbirth are kept alive and healthy through the most vulnerable few years.
The July Scientific American had an article on the origin of differences between the two hemispheres of the brain. It's been Scientific Fact that the differences exist only in humans; the researchers say they go back to the very beginning of the vertebrate lineage.
***Inc. magazine has an article on a family business which includes a prodigal brother. The one who founded the business (a bakery) took his errant brother back a couple of times before the brother finally stopped using meth and started to properly run his life. The prodigal brother then originated the line of bread which made the bakery really successful.
***Adult Children Anonymous meeting, and then home.