[Links]
[links] Link salad wishes it spoke every language
Discussion of Google Books Settlement — In yesterday’s Link Salad comments, between me and
Offline Book “Lending” Costs U.S. Publishers Nearly $1 Trillion
Justine Larbalestier on Mansplaining — Been there, done that, cringed.
The 10 most amazing unexplained artifacts — (Thanks to Dr Varanus.)
How scientists have revealed a dinosaur’s true colours — Wow.
Plans for alien contact found wanting — Governments lack frameworks to respond to discoveries. I don’t know whether to be amused or appalled. And more to the point, what will the world’s religious do? (Via Cheryl Morgan.)
For Young Americans, Health Care Reform Is Our Fight — Someone who gets it. People who support HCR are trying to help everyone. People who oppose it are trying to help themselves. I know which side I’d rather be on. If that weren’t true, we’d see significant alternatives being proposed by the Right, instead of “death panel” grandstanding. (And per a comment from @GrayRinehart via Twitter that I’m engaging in hyperbole, I offer the observation that the demographic most opposed to expanding government healthcare coverage is the Medicare demographic, who themselves enjoy significant government healthcare coverage.)
Giuliani Wrongly Says Obama Didn’t Talk About Xmas Bomber — America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani flat out lies, repeatedly, on CNN about Obama’s State of the Union speech. No consequences whatsoever, except to reinforce mistaken beliefs of conservative viewers. Yep, Your Liberal Media hard at work challenging conservatism at every turn.
?otD: How many languages do you speak?
1/29/2009
Body movement: n/a (underslept, to come)
Hours slept: 6.5
This morning’s weigh-in: 224.4
Currently reading: [between books]
Posted: 4:44 am Fri January 29 2010 |
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You are reading the blog of Jay Lake, speculative fiction writer and author of hundreds of short stories, many novels, and winner of the John W. Campbell Award.
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Cora
January 29th, 2010 at 7:41 pmRegarding the elderly demographic being most vehemently opposed to healthcare reform, this is actually a phenomenon I have observed elsewhere as well.
Elderly people will get upset over fairly minor tweaks to the pension system (lower annual pension raises, a gradual pension age increase that will not actually touch anyone who already is of pension age, pensions being paid out a week later than usual), but not only not give a damn about the welfare system, university fees, students grants and a dozen other social issues to the point of saying into your face that “those people should just work like we did.” Whereas the welfare organisations, student demonstrations, etc… will often include a call for higher pensions as a matter of course among their demands. Of course, you get young people rallying against pensioners sucking the system dry(there are always arseholes), but generally more young people are in favour of pension raises than elderly people in favour of social programs benefiting the young.
Question of the day: Fluent in English and German, had four years each of Latin and Spanish at school, but am rusty in both. I know enough French and Italian for holiday purposes. I can understand Dutch fairly well and read newspaper articles and comics in Dutch (but no fiction or serious non-fiction) and get by in day to day situations, but more complex interactions are beyond me. I can understand Lower German (which is a separate language) just fine, but I cannot speak it.