Anathema
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Friday, December 1st, 2006
| Time |
Event |
| 11:52a |
practical and pragmatic Keirsey quiz thingI keep coming up as the same thing on various incarnations of these, so I'm gonna assume that it's accurate. And while the site wanted me to buy the additional report to see what exact four letter rational variant I am, I already knew it from other tests. ( rational INTJ ) | | 3:59p |
The 10 Least Successful Holiday Specials of All TimeThe Mercury Theater of the Air Presents the Assassination of Saint Nicholas (1939)Listeners of radio's Columbia Broadcasting System who tuned in to hear a Christmas Eve rendition of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol were shocked when they heard what appeared to be a newscast from the north pole, reporting that Santa's Workshop had been overrun in a blitzkrieg by Finnish proxies of the Nazi German government. The newscast, a hoax created by 20-something wunderkind Orson Wells as a seasonal allegory about the spread of Fascism in Europe, was so successful that few listeners stayed to listen until the end, when St. Nick emerged from the smoking ruins of his workshop to deliver a rousing call to action against the authoritarian tide and to urge peace on Earth, good will toward men and expound on the joys of a hot cup of Mercury Theater of Air's sponsor Campbell's soup. Instead, tens of thousands of New York City children mobbed the Macy's Department Store on 34th, long presumed to be Santa's New York embassy, and sang Christmas carols in wee, sobbing tones. Only a midnight appearance of New York mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in full Santa getup quelled the agitated tykes. Welles, now a hunted man on the Eastern seaboard, decamped for Hollywood shortly thereafter. Noam Chomsky: Deconstructing Christmas (1998)This PBS/WGBH special featured linguist and social commentator Chomsky sitting at a desk, explaining how the development of the commercial Christmas season directly relates to the loss of individual freedoms in the United States and the subjugation of indigenous people in southeast Asia. Despite a rave review by Z magazine, musical guest Zach de la Rocha and the concession of Chomsky to wear a seasonal hat for a younger demographic appeal, this is known to be the least requested Christmas special ever made.The one by the Village People and the Star Trek episode are just special. | | 4:01p |
Weird. My lj emails are showing up with busted images and links with their html showing. | | 4:21p |
"portraying Christianity as superior to Islam and Europe as superior to the Middle East" Iran issues fatwa on Azeri writerOne of Iran's most senior clergymen has issued a fatwa on an Azeri writer said to have insulted the Prophet Muhammad.
The call on Muslims to murder Rafiq Tagi, who writes for Azerbaijan's Senet newspaper, echoes the Iranian fatwa against Indian writer Salman Rushdie.
An Azerbaijani court sentenced the writer Rafiq and his publisher to two months in jail for an article which was illustrated by the same cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad originally published in Denmark that caused outcry in the Muslim world. | | 7:52p |
at least the Zutara ship sunk Thoughts on the recent Avatar. ( spoilers ) | | 9:06p |
rant I love doujinshi sites where they scan issues, covers, random pages or even just a few choice panels. Scanlation sites go above and beyond the call of duty and should be commended as the wonderful people they are. As a yaoi fan, I love them. As an iconner, I love them even more. ( However... ) | | 9:40p |
coooool PhytoextractionApparently during a regular check of the site some radioactive contamination was found in the ground near one of the storage tanks. The area was promptly cleaned up, the soil carted away and replaced, but the people assigned to figure out how the ground became contaminated in the first place were stumped. They found no leaks, no spills, nothing that could have caused the radioactive material to escape. They checked over the spot for several months to see if the contamination recurred, which it did not, then finally shrugged and called it a mystery.
But a year later the contamination was back.
The second time was much like the first. The clean-up went smoothly, the investigation did not. It was not until the third time the same contamination recurred in the same place that the investigators found the culprit – an oak tree. The tree had sunk its roots into the tank, and was pulling up contaminated material. While one would expect the whole tree to become radioactive, that wasn’t the case. Instead the oak preferentially shunted the contaminants to its leaves. Every fall a new crop of radioactive leaves would hit the ground to mystify the workers at Oak Ridge, and every winter while they were investigating, there would be no sign of anything amiss with the tree. |
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