This question comes a little late this week. Once again, I’m pulling from The World Question Center on Edge.org.
“What is the most important invention in the past two thousand years?”
I’d also like to know why you consider it the most important. I’ll answer after my readers have a chance.
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The “question mark” search barrage continues. I’m up to 290 searches for that term and about as many variants. The strangest search phrase in the past week was “question mark memory”.
Scott has introduced me to podcast fiction by way of his own podcast novel, Archangel: Valley of the Shadow. You can listen to the promo here. He’s up to five episodes. For convenience, you’ll find direct links to these episodes below:
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
But this list won’t help you stay up to date on the story. If you use iTunes, you can subscribe to future episodes here. Otherwise, subscribe to SpiritualTramp’s RSS Feed and keep an eye our for new Archangel episodes.
Lastly, Scott love’s to hear positive feedback, and likes to get any other kind. You can leave a review on iTunes, or leave a comment on his website.
The above comic is created and licensed by Rudis Muiznieks of Cectic.com.
Not only does this comic point out the absurdity of treating any ‘alternative’ theory seriously, it actually makes a deeper point. It’s also a critic of modern American media. When the media reports on almost any issue, it tries to report on both sides of that issue, even when one side is a deluded minority with an agenda.
It kinda brings to mind media’s coverage of global warming and teaching evolution, doesn’t it?
Happy Friday!
I responded to another of Congressman Hayes’ newsletters today. I only had a quick question and wasn’t intending to blog about it. However, it appears that a quick question is exactly what was needed to get some real information.
In today’s letter, I mentioned that I had not received a response to my previous letters about FISA renewal and his energy policy. Not even four hours latter, his office calls me.
It seems that a specific question about his vote on the recently passed Farm Bill (a veto later today is expected as is an override) is the sort of thing Congress staffers handle quite ably. Since, in the past, I didn’t ask questions but disputed policy, they were a bit less responsive. I also think that I was ignorant on what the staffer’s consider a response. They thought that their call and assurance that they’d “pass my concerns on to the Congressman” was enough. I didn’t.
Things became more complicated when, in a previous letter, I mentioned that I have a blog and will be writing about my conversations. This had two effects. First, they didn’t want to respond in writing (electronically or otherwise) and second, they referred me to their communications director who handles press if I really want a written response.
Apparently, they haven’t adjusted to the new media. They still want a clear line drawn between constituents and ‘the press’. As a constituent, they wanted be responsive to my concerns but have no permanent record. As a blogger, they want a fully vetted response that doesn’t stray from the Congressman’s message. These are understandable gaols, but unrealistic expectations. Blogs and the like have rendered the difference fuzzy.
For now, I’ll play their game. I’ll contact their communications director and ask for a response to my letters. Now that I know, though, I will be ready with pen and paper when I see D.C.’s area code on my caller ID.
Here’s this weeks question… but first, an item of interest.
Do you see that picture to the left of this, and almost every weekly question post? It’s a pretty neat question mark. I got it here from Wikimedia Commons (that site and Creative Commons search are what I use to find a majority of the images for my blog). But that little question mark has been the source of an a minor nuisance for my blog’s statistics. For the past month, someone or something has relentlessly searched using the phrase “question mark”. It has been by far the most searched term that ends up with a visit to my site over the past 30 days. In all, I’ve had 215 visits because of this, which is about 20% of my usual monthly traffic.
The funny part about this are the variations of the search phrase that were used. Many were pluralized, a couple were typos or misspellings, others added a exclamation point and/or a dashes, still others left out the space and just searched ‘questionmark’. The best, though, were the ones that use modifiers. These tended to be odd. Here’s a list:
and my favorite…
“Sexy” question mark? Talk about an odd fetish! I wonder if it’s the curvy top or the round bottom that does it for the searcher.
I didn’t realize how much I was missing the weekly question we used to post until it was gone (Janet has taken a break from it to focus on other things). Anyway, with that in mind I thought I would take on the responsibility and send something out.
This week’s question is geared to all of those Internet junkies out there….
What are some of the websites you read the most and why?
I myself need to think about this one a bit so stay tuned for my answer 
Bunnies4Buddha 
Gas prices are now much higher in America. We all know this. Some of us saw it coming (though I thought it would happen a lot sooner) and planned for it. We purchased smaller, fuel efficient cars, car pooled, and moved closer to where we work and/or go to school. We may have even taken public transportation now and then. Others, well, they continued living in the suburbs and continued driving their two SUVs 40+ miles to and from work.
You know the type. They insist that they ‘need’ an oversized vehicle to transport their kids to and from school and extra curricular activities. Not that their kids couldn’t walk the mile and half twice a day (yet they wonder why their kids are getting so fat). Despite this claim you usually see the driver alone in their tax-subsidized suburban tanks. You usually see them most often when they are right in front of you, blocking 90% of your visibility. That’s when you can’t help but notice that, more often than not, somewhere on the backs of these eye-sores, there is a little metal stylized fish.
That’s right, the owners of these monsters are often Christians. I couldn’t find any hard statistics to confirm this anecdotally formed opinion, but it stands to reason considering two commonly accepted facts. 1. Liberals are more likely to drive smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles. 2. Christians are more likely to be conservatives. Thus Christians are more less likely to drive smaller automobiles. Regardless, the point of this rant post is to highlight some hypocrisies of the Christian SUV/minvan driver, and how that hypocrisy has reached new heights recently.
How is ownership of a large, fuel-inefficient vehicle hypocritical for the Christian? Greed. First of all, SUVs are tax-subsidized, meaning that people rich enough to buy a large vehicle save money at the cost of everyone else, including those who cannot afford such a vehicle. Second, they produce more pollution. Harming everyone via the environment is not excused by the convenience of having a large vehicle. Third, SUVs are more safe for the owner (presuming they opt for the non-flipping kind), but less safe for everyone else. Fourth, they create a disproportionate amount of road damage for which everyone’s taxes must be used. And Finally, they create a high demand for gasoline which has pushed prices up for everyone. Continue reading…
The above image is created and licensed by She’s Not Ther.
Thanks to Jason Bently, host of my favorite radio program, Metropolis, on KCRW, I’ve found a great resource for new free music. It’s called RCRD LBL (‘Record Label’ without any vowels). What is RCRD LBL you ask? Here’s how they describe themselves:
RCRD LBL is an online record label releasing exclusive and completely free music from emerging and established artists. In addition to our in-house label, our network includes a roster of independent record labels offering free MP3 downloads and multimedia content.
It’s organized like a multimedia blog. You can view music videos and listen to great music. You can even download many songs. I spent a few hours this morning downloading and listening to some of their archives and found over 30 great songs! They have a wide variety of styles but one thing all the songs seem to have in common – quality. Here are some of my suggestions:
Finally, they make it easy to keep up with the updates. You can use their RSS feed or subscribe to their pod cast. Let me know if you find anything cool!
Subscribe
