Paul Krugman: Sympathy for the Luddites (New York Times)
I've noted before that the nature of rising inequality in America changed around 2000. Until then, it was all about worker versus worker; the distribution of income between labor and capital - between wages and profits, if you like - had been stable for decades. Since then, however, labor's share of the pie has fallen sharply. As it turns out, this is not a uniquely American phenomenon.
Charlie Jane Anders: Are Paul Krugman's 1996 predictions about 2096 already coming true? (io9)
Back in 1996, economist Paul Krugman wrote an essay about the next 100 years of economic history, as if looking back from the year 2096. At the center of that essay was the notion that white-collar jobs would disappear, and a college education would become much less valuable. And is this already happening now?
Annalee Newitz: Why environmentalists embrace nuclear power (io9)
A new documentary, Pandora's Promise, has scientists and politicians arguing over the future of nuclear power. It's a movie about how prominent environmentalists went from being anti-nuclear power to favoring it - largely because the alternative, fossil fuel, is so damaging to our ecosystems.
Daenerys' whole storyline on Game of Thrones is messed up (io9)
Last week's Game of Thrones season finale ended with a scene full of racial imagery that seemed kind of messed up. But actually, argues comedian Aamer Rahman, Daenerys' whole storyline has been problematic from the very beginning. Here's why.
Lucy Mangan: "Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C O'Brien" (Guardian)
This is still the book I hold up during the periodic rows that break out among adults of a certain stripe about the worthlessness of certain children's books …. And it enables me to keep, at bottom, the faith that children should be allowed to read anything at any time. They will take out of it whatever they are ready for. And just occasionally, it will ready them for something else.
Green is the traditional color of Islam. According to tradition, the robe and banner of Muhammed were green. and according to the Koran (XVIII, 31 and LXXVI, 21), those fortunate enough to live in paradise wear green silk robes. Muhammad is quoted in a hadith as saying that "water, greenery, and a beautiful face" were three universally good things.
Al-Khidr ("The Green One"), was an important Qur'anic figure who was said to have met and traveled with Moses. He was given that name because of his role as a diplomat and negotiator. Green was also considered to be the median color between light and obscurity.
Source
Alan J was first, and correct, with:
Green
Jim from CA, retired to ID, wrote:
Green is considered the traditional color of Islam.
Charlie replied:
Green
Adam answered:
Green.
Sally said:
The color green has been associated with Islam as a symbol of the religion itself. Green is the sacred color of Islam, and is used for the bindings of the Qur'an (the Muslim Holy Book) and in the silken covers of the Sufi saints.
Color + Design Blog / Colors of Religion: Islam by COLOURlovers
This is the color of my eyes - the ones from which I don't see very well. Maybe if I converted...
PS: Sing it Sebastian de La Cruz, you represent everything good about America, despite that which you wear to sing the National Anthem!
Dale of Diamond Springs, in Charming Norcali responded:
It's Green.
To: BttbBob
Keep fighting, you've absolutely got me sniggering with your words today!
Here is some green shit for Izlameiks!
Marian replied:
green
MAM wrote:
Green is considered the traditional color of Islam.
Green with a vertical white band (symbolizing the role of religious minorities) on the hoist side; a large white crescent and star are centered in the green field; the crescent, star, and color green are traditional symbols of Islam
BttbBob answered:
I had intended earlier to abstain from this question only because my personal abhorrence of any theological dogma (What one chooses to indulge in along those lines is, of course, none of my damn'd business and I couldn't care less. Just don't expect me to follow suit, I'm tellin' ya, as I equally abhor any hint, ever so small, of evangelism or compulsion by any religion. By-any-religion...
And that's a fact, dagnabbit!)
~~~~~
All that said as a preface, I've decided to participate purely as a matter of historical and intellectual interest - the answer is green and I knew that straight away... Witness the flag of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia...
~~~~~
Now, then, that begs the question: What, if any, is the "traditional color" of the other major monotheistic religions i.e. Christianity and Judaism? I wasn't at all certain so I decided to investigate. Blue would seem to be the major color associated with Judaic symbolism from what I've found (I think most know what the Israeli flag looks like with its blue "Star of David" and top and bottom bars). Purple is most associated with the Christian "Advent", but is not as accepted as a singular representation as are the others cited. That's about all I cared to indulge my time in on the matter.
~~~~~
To tired to list the interesting birthdays for today... Have at it if you will...
June 15 Birthdays - Celebrities Born June 15 | Famous Birthdays
Marine layer burned off mid-afternoon then returned a couple of hours later.
Tonight, Saturday:
CBS begins the night with a RERUN'The Mentalist', followed by a RERUN'Blue Bloods', then '48 Hours'.
NBC fills the night with LIVE'Stanley Cup Playoffs', then pads the left coast with local crap and maybe an old 'Dateline'.
Of course, 'SNL' is a RERUN, with Christina Applegate hosting, music by Passion Pit (from 10/13/12).
ABC starts the night with a FRESH'Zero Hour', followed by another FRESH'Zero Hour', then a RERUN'Mistresses'.
The CW offers an old '2½ Men', followed by another old '2½ Men', then an old 'Family Guy', followed by another old 'Family Guy'.
Faux fills the night with LIVE'MLB Baseball', then pads the left coast with local crap.
MY has an old 'Burn Notice', followed by another old 'Burn Notice'.
A&E has 'Criminal Minds', 'Longmire', another 'Longmire', and another 'Longmire'.
AMC offers the movie 'Wyatt Earp', followed by the movie '16 Blocks'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 5 - Episode 6
[7:00AM] TOP GEAR - Season 5 - Episode 7
[8:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES REVISITED UK - Season 2 - Ep 1 - La Riviera
[9:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 1 - Ep 10 - Dillon's
[10:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 4 - Ep 11 - Oceana
[11:00AM] RAMSAY'S KITCHEN NIGHTMARES US - Season 2 - Ep 12 - Casa Roma
[12:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 5 - Episode 6
[1:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 5 - Episode 7
[2:00PM] TOP GEAR - Season 5 - Episode 8
[3:00PM] BANG GOES THE THEORY - Season 6 - Episode 4
[3:40PM] BANG GOES THE THEORY - Season 6 - Episode 5
[4:20PM] BANG GOES THE THEORY - Season 6 - Episode 6
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 21 - The Perfect Mate
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 22 - Imaginary Friend
[7:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 23 - I, Borg
[8:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 24 - The Next Phase
[9:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 25 - The Inner Light
[10:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 26 - Time's Arrow - Part 1
[11:00PM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 21 - The Perfect Mate
[12:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 22 - Imaginary Friend
[1:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 23 - I, Borg
[2:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 24 - The Next Phase
[3:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 25 - The Inner Light
[4:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 26 - Time's Arrow - Part 1
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - Season 5 - Ep 21 - The Perfect Mate (ALL TIMES EST)
Bravo has the movie 'The Scorpion King', followed by the movie 'Walking Tall'.
Comedy Central has the movie 'Mr. Deeds', followed by the movie 'Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay', then the movie 'I Love You, Man'.
FX has the movie 'Iron Man', followed by a FRESH'UFC On FX', then the movie 'Knight & Day'.
History has 'Swamp People', 'Pawn Stars', another 'Pawn Stars', still another 'Pawn Stars', yet another 'Pawn Stars', and still another 'Pawn Stars'.
IFC -
[6:00AM] Bunk
[6:30AM] Comedy Bang! Bang!-Zach Galifianakis Wears a Blue Jacket & Red Socks
[7:00AM] Clash of the Titans
[9:30AM] The Three Stooges-Flagpole Jitters
[9:55AM] The Three Stooges-For Crimin' Out Loud
[10:20AM] The Three Stooges-Gents in a Jam
[10:45AM] The Three Stooges-Gypped in the Penthouse
[11:10AM] The Three Stooges-He Cooked His Goose
[11:35AM] The Three Stooges-Hot Ice
[12:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Stock Car Races
[12:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Funeral
[1:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Cheerleader
[1:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Rollerskates
[2:00PM] Malcolm in the Middle-The Bots and the Bees
[2:30PM] Malcolm in the Middle-Smunday
[3:00PM] Whitest Kids U'Know
[3:15PM] Clash of the Titans
[5:45PM] District 9
[8:00PM] Crank: High Voltage
[10:00PM] Jarhead
[12:30AM] Crank: High Voltage
[2:30AM] Jarhead
[5:00AM] Bunk
[5:30AM] Bunk (ALL TIMES EST)
Sundance -
[6:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Kim Kelly Is My Friend
[7:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-Tests and Breasts
[8:00AM] Freaks and Geeks-I'm With the Band
[9:00AM] Swimming With Sharks
[10:30AM] The Way We Were
[12:30PM] Adaptation
[2:30PM] American Gigolo
[4:30PM] Swimming With Sharks
[6:00PM] Slumdog Millionaire
[8:00PM] Searching for Bobby Fischer
[9:45PM] A'mare
[10:00PM] Misery
[11:45PM] The Business Trip
[12:00AM] Room in Rome
[2:00AM] Less Than Zero
[3:45AM] Weekend
[5:30AM] Man Shops Globe-Scotland (ALL TIMES EST)
SyFy has the movie 'The Mist', 'Sinbad', followed by a FRESH'Sinbad', then a FRESH'Primeval: New World'.
Dr. Merle Haggard makes a brief statement after receiving an Honorary Doctorate at California State University, Bakersfield on Friday June 14, 2013.
Photo by Felix Adamo
Singer Willie Nelson is taking his annual Farm Aid benefit concert to upstate New York with an all-day festival of music and locally grown food in September.
The event in Saratoga Springs, 28 miles north of Albany, will feature Nelson and other Farm Aid board members John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews, as well as other artists to be announced soon. Tickets go on sale to Farm Aid members June 18 and to the general public June 28, the Farm Aid organization announced on Friday.
The concert will be Sept. 21 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
Nelson said Farm Aid exists because government agricultural policies often favor large corporate-owned farms rather than small farmers. "Small family farmers really need help; the big corporate farmers are doing OK," he said.
"We need to guarantee farmers a living wage for what they do," Nelson said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gives flowers and welcomes cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, to the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, Friday, June 14, 2013. Putin met with Russian cosmonauts to mark the 50th anniversary of Tereshkova's flight.
Photo by Mikhail Klimentyev
Grammy Award-winning singer Adele and Mr Bean actor Rowan Atkinson were among more than 1,000 people recognized by Britain's Queen Elizabeth in her Birthday Honors List on Friday.
Marking the monarch's official 87th birthday, the honors went to 1,180 recipients from all walks of life, from a beekeeper and a whisky maker to diplomats, artists and business leaders.
London-born Adele, 25, was awarded an MBE - member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - for services to music.
Comedian Atkinson, known to millions of fans around the world for his bungling creation Mr Bean, was given a CBE, Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
A knighthood went to actor Tony Robinson, who played Atkinson's long-suffering servant Baldrick in "Blackadder", a popular BBC comedy series set in different periods of British history.
Ever wonder what the universe actually looks like? Today's your lucky day. A team of astronomers have created an 18-minute video highlighting their incredibly detailed 3-D model of the known universe.
If you pay close attention, you might see the tiny blue dot that is planet Earth. Feel insignificant yet?
The video attempts to give context to something that is, to put it mildly, rather hard to comprehend. In the video narrated by Helene Courtois of the University of Lyon in France, viewers are treated to an overview of 120 million light-years' worth of space, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Of course, that's not the entire universe, because nobody (not even your science teacher) knows how big that is.
Country music artist Willie Nelson, center, poses with organic farmer Cara Fraver, left, and her husband Luke Deikis of Quincy Farm in Easton, N.Y., on his tour bus on Thursday, June 13, 2013, in Colonie, N.Y. Nelson is taking his annual Farm Aid benefit concert to upstate New York with an all-day festival of music and locally grown food in September.
Photo by Mike Groll
Standard atomic weights, those numbers emblazoned under the elements on the periodic table, were once thought of as unchanging constants of nature.
But researchers have tweaked the atomic weights of five elements - magnesium, bromine, germanium, indium and mercury - in a new table published by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
To calculate standard atomic weight, scientists have traditionally averaged the weights of the stable variations of an element known as isotopes.
All atoms of an element have the same atomic number, or number of protons in their nuclei, but the number of neutrons in the nuclei can vary, leading some isotopes to be lighter or heavier. Carbon-12, for example, the most abundant carbon isotope, has six protons and six neutrons. Its slightly heavier cousin, carbon-13, has six protons and seven neutrons.
Standard atomic weight also depends on how common an element's stable isotopes are. In other words, the more plentiful an isotope, the more it will influence the average. But the abundance of an isotope can also vary from place to place on Earth, leading to differences in an element's atomic weight depending on its context.
When it comes to video games, it still felt like a man's world at E3.
One look at the crowded halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center this past week, and it was easy to see that most attendees of the Electronic Entertainment Expo were men. Yes, plenty of women were at E3, which wrapped up on Thursday. But some were there as so-called "booth babes" - female models hired to hype products and attract attendees to exhibitors' displays on the show floor.
The presence of scantily clad women hawking games and gizmos seemed in particular contrast to a report released this week by the Entertainment Software Association, which organizes the gaming industry's annual trade show. It found that 45 percent of the entire gaming population is now women, and women make up 46 percent of the most frequent game buyers.
There were noticeably fewer "booth babes" roaming E3 this week than in previous years, though exhibitors such as Snail Games, Hyperkin and Atlus still featured women with plunging necklines or body-hugging clothes at their booths.
Private investigators found that CBS News Washington reporter Sharyl Attkisson's computer was tampered with multiple times late last year, the network said Friday.
CBS said an intruder, working remotely using Attkisson's accounts, executed commands involving the search and filtering of data. The network said it is taking further steps to identify the intruder and how that person gained access to her computer.
CBS hired a cybersecurity firm to conduct the analysis. Attkisson, an investigative reporter who has worked at CBS since 1995, said three weeks ago that she thought someone had tampered with her computers.
In an interview with Philadelphia's WPHT radio on May 21, Attkisson said "there could be some relationship" between what has happened to her and to James Rosen, the chief Washington correspondent for Fox News Channel. In what appeared to be a leak investigation, law enforcement officials obtained a search warrant to obtain some of Rosen's private emails and tracked his comings and goings from the State Department.
Attkisson said she had been having problems with a computer in her house since at least February 2011. At that time, she said, she was investigating the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling sting operation and stimulus spending on clean-energy projects. Attkisson won an Emmy award for her "Fast and Furious" investigation.
Actress Scarlett Johansson is suing a French publishing house over a novel that uses her name and image and explores the challenges of being beautiful.
The JC Lattes publishing house said Friday that a lawsuit was filed last week about Gregoire Delacourt's book "The First Thing We Look At."
JC Lattes spokeswoman Emmanuelle Allibert says the publisher's lawyers are preparing to respond to the court, which will then decide whether to take up the case.
Allibert says the book is entirely fiction and is about a character who looks just like Johansson, not Johansson herself. That character is enmeshed in a romance with another lookalike - one modeled after film star Ryan Gosling.
Johansson's French lawyer Vincent Toledano said in a statement to The Associated Press that Johansson is protesting the use of her name and image for "mercantile" purposes, and accuses the book of invading her privacy.
Director of the movie Pedro Almodovar poses with actress Nastassja Kinski at the premiere of "I'm So Excited" during the opening night of the Los Angeles Film Festival in Los Angeles, California June 13, 2013. The movie opens in the U.S. on June 28.
Photo by Mario Anzuoni
The Vatican put a new coin on sale last week to commemorate its historic papal transition. Too bad overseas collectors won't be able to buy it for months.
The Associated Press has learned that the Vatican still hasn't fully resolved an embarrassing shutdown in credit card services, despite announcing four months ago that systems were back up. The impact has been far worse than the Vatican ever let on, costing the Holy See lost sales at a time when Pope Benedict XVI's shock resignation and Pope Francis' surprise election laid the groundwork for a bonanza in Vatican-minted papal memorabilia.
It's all emblematic of the continued troubles plaguing the Holy See's financial system, rocked by allegations of incompetence and corruption. But the new president of the Vatican bank, while acknowledging the delays and losses stemming from the credit card shutdown, is brushing off the fiasco.
The truth is, however, that the credit card woes represent yet another headache for the Vatican as it works to improve its reputation internationally through a painful transition to financial transparency in the fight against money laundering.
A man has been charged with allegedly spraying paint on a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II hanging in Westminster Abbey, police said Friday.
Tim Haries, 41, appeared at a London court charged with criminal damage over 5,000 pounds ($7,800). He was arrested at the abbey Thursday after a portrait of the monarch by Australian artist Ralph Heimans was defaced with paint.
Fathers 4 Justice, a protest group that campaigns on behalf of fathers denied contact with their children, said Haries was a member. He had painted the word "help" on the 9-foot by 11-foot (2.5-meter by 3.4-meter) canvas, the group said.
Haries didn't enter a plea during his brief court appearance Friday. He was released on conditional bail until a court appearance in two weeks, and banned from London after police raised concerns that he might join a protest there over the weekend.
Ben Affleck at UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television's 22nd Annual Film Festival on Thursday, June, 13, 2013 in Los Angeles.
Photo by Eric Charbonneau
The outlawing of drugs such as cannabis, magic mushrooms and other psychoactive substances amounts to scientific censorship and is hampering research into potentially important medicinal uses, leading scientists argued on Wednesday.
Laws and international conventions dating back to the 1960s have set back research in key areas such as consciousness by decades, they argued in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
"The decision to outlaw these drugs was based on their perceived dangers, but in many cases the harms have been overstated," said David Nutt, a professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London.
In a statement accompanying the Nature Reviews paper, he said the laws amounted "to the worst case of scientific censorship since the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus and Galileo".
The Church of Scientology forced the British tabloid The Sun to apologize for reporting that UFOs were seen flying over the church's British headquarters - but The Sun apologized to the aliens. It is one of the best newspaper apologies ever. The Sun says it's sorry for the weekend report "Flying saucers over British Scientology HQ" - flat silver discs were seen hovering by three airplane pilots - explaining, "Following a letter from lawyers for the Church, we apologise to any alien lifeforms for linking them to Scientologists."
As Lawrence Wright reported in his book Going Clear, the Church of Scientology in infamous for aggressively suing its critics for libel - something that's all the more dangerous in Britain, where it's a lot easier to win libel suits. It's so easy that Going Clearwas not published in Britain.
Lorna Elizabeth Tuck Colbert, the mother of The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert, died Wednesday, according to The Post and Courier. She was 92.
Last February, Stephen Colbert canceled two shows when his mother fell ill. "Evidentially, having 11 children makes you tough as nails," Colbert, the youngest of those 11, said at the time. "Confidential to a lovely lady."
According to her obituary, Lorna was an accomplished artist, church leader and business woman. Lorna lost her husband and two of her sons in a plane crash in 1974.
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Make yourself home, take your shoes off...
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Anything that increased your blood pressure, or, even better, amused or entertained?
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How about a favorite TV show, movie, book, play, cartoon, or legal amusement?
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A box set the whole world should own?
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wrote:
answered:
took the day off.
