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02/02/2013

• Here is a story about how sequestration is harming public schools in poor areas.
• Accusing your political opponents of wanting to kill the elderly is very uncivil and should be avoided.
• Here is a list of Republicans who voted to cut billions of dollars from the food stamps program.

01/17/2013

09/13/2013

Armed guards in schools: OK
Metal detectors in schools: NOT OK, WHAT IS THIS, SOME KIND OF A POLICE STATE????

From Henry the Green Engine:

Henry was the focus of Rev. W. Awdry’s irritation once again in the 1990s, when the third season of the television series ‘Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends‘ was released. This series featured a number of original episodes that had not been adapted from The Railway Series stories, some of which annoyed Awdry with their lack of realism. The story that particularly angered him was called ‘Henry’s Forest’.

This episode begins by explaining that Henry’s favourite place on Sodor is a forest through which the line runs. He likes to stop here and admire the scenery. A storm damages the forest, making Henry sad. The episode ends happily, with new trees being planted to replace the ones lost.

Awdry’s complaints were directed at two aspects of the episode in particular. One was that it was unrealistic to have a railway running through a forest, and that sparks from an engine’s funnel could cause a wildfire. Britt Allcroft, the producer of the series, countered this aspect by claiming that she had seen a number of lines do the same thing.

The other aspect was that Henry stops to admire the view without alerting the signalman, which was in direct contravention of British Railways‘ Rule 55. This, Awdry argued, would never be allowed to happen in real life, and would be highly unsafe.

THIS SHOW ABOUT ANTHROPOMORPHIC TRAINS ISN’T REALISTIC ENOUGH

New York Times Magazine: What It Means to Be Popular (When Everything Is Popular)

For example: “NCIS,” the naval-police procedural, is the highest-rated non-football program on television, routinely drawing 17 million viewers a week. By a straightforward accounting, that makes it the most popular show on TV. Yet by a different definition — the extent to which, say, a show saturates the cultural conversation — you could make a case for “Mad Men” as TV’s most popular show, even though it draws only 2.5 million viewers. Or “Girls,” which draws a paltry 615,000 viewers a week but sometimes feels as if it has generated at least as many essays. By one measure, no one watches “Girls.” By another, it’s fantastically popular.

Ah yes, the “how often my New York media friends blog about it” measure

There’s a lot I didn’t know about the Zapruder film

Media interest in the footage was so great that CBS‘s Dan Rather agreed to producer Don Hewitt‘s order that he go to Zapruder’s home, “sock him in the jaw”, copy the film, return it, and let the network’s lawyers deal with the consequences. After ending their telephone conversation Hewitt realized his mistake and immediately called Rather back to countermand the order.