Cameras mounted on the two solid rocket boosters that helped propel space shuttle Atlantis into orbit on July 8 provide unique angles of the launch from the Kennedy Space Center and their subsequent water landing downrange in the Atlantic Ocean.
Sarah, Proud and Tall wrote at Balloon juice from 2011-17.
How long is it until we can leave David Brooks out on a hillside to die?
As I have mentioned before, I try very hard not to read anything that David Brooks writes, just in case my brain becomes so revolted it tries to crawl out my ears.
His most recent excresence, however, is so appalling, such a pile of unthinking horror topped off with scads of twaddle masquerading as sympathy, that I can’t leave it alone.
The fiscal crisis is driven largely by health care costs. We have the illusion that in spending so much on health care we are radically improving the quality of our lives. We have the illusion that through advances in medical research we are in the process of eradicating deadly diseases. We have the barely suppressed hope that someday all this spending and innovation will produce something close to immortality.
…
Obviously, we are never going to cut off Alzheimer’s patients and leave them out on a hillside. We are never coercively going to give up on the old and ailing. But it is hard to see us reducing health care inflation seriously unless people and their families are willing to do what Clendinen is doing — confront death and their obligations to the living.
…
My only point today is that we think the budget mess is a squabble between partisans in Washington. But in large measure it’s about our inability to face death and our willingness as a nation to spend whatever it takes to push it just slightly over the horizon.
How long is it until we can leave David Brooks out on a hillside to die?Post + Comments (92)
Very Late Night Open Music Thread
My apologies, kiddies.
The last two weeks is a bit of a blur.
I remember some of my birthday, and then I woke up ten days later next to some canal in Amsterdam, half naked, wrapped in a copy of the last edition of the News of the World and clutching a large clump of bright red curly hair in my hand. Something important happened. Now I just have to remember what the fuck it was.
Thankfully, I’ve managed to check into the Dylan and found a coffeeshop that delivers, and as soon as I’m able to wake up Anouska Hempel and get her out of my bath, I’ll tell all.
Much love,
Sarah.
ETA: Any of my little disco bunnies who like that song, may enjoy this version.
I suspect Rupert Murdoch may be having a bad day…
From the Guardian website:
David Cameron has bowed to pressure to hold public inquiries into the “absolutely disgusting” allegations of phone hacking by journalists at News of the World, and into the original police investigation into the scandal.
The phone-hacking crisis enveloping the News of the World has intensified after it emerged that Scotland Yard has started to contact the relatives of victims of the 7 July 2005 attacks to warn them they were targeted by the paper.
Ofcom has put out a statement on its website about its ability to intervene in the BSkyB takeover. Here it is.
In the light of the current public debate about phone hacking and other allegations, Ofcom confirms that it has a duty to be satisfied on an ongoing basis that the holder of a broadcasting licence is ‘fit and proper‘.
It is clearly not for Ofcom to investigate matters which properly lie in the hands of the police and the courts, however we are closely monitoring the situation and in particular the investigations by the relevant authorities into the alleged unlawful activities.
From a speech in parliament by Labour MP Tom Watson:
I want to inform the House of further evidence that suggests Rebekah Brooks [chief executive of News International] knew about the unlawful tactics of News of the World as early as 2002, despite all her denials yesterday. Rebekah Brooks was present at a meeting with Scotland Yard when police officers pursing a murder investigation provided her with evidence that her newspaper was interfering with the pursuit of justice. They gave her the name of another executive at News International, Alex Marunchak. The meeting, which included Dick Fedorcio of the Metropolitan police, told her that News of the World staff were guilty of interference and party to using unlawful means to attempt to discredit a police officer and his wife. She was told of actions by people she paid to expose and discredit David Cook and his wife Jackie Haines so that Mr Cook would be prevented from completing an investigation into a murder. News International were paying people to interfer with police officers and were doing so on behalf of known criminals. We know now that News International had entered the criminal underworld.
She cannot deny being present at this meeting when the actions of people she was paying were exposed. She cannot deny now being warned that under her auspices unlawful tactics were being used with the purpose of interfering with the pursuit of justice. She cannot deny that one of her staff, Alex Marunchak, was named and involved. She cannot deny either that she was told by the police that her own paper was using unlawful tactics, in this case to help one of her law-breaking investigators. This in my views shows her culpability goes beyond taking the blame as head of the organisation. It is about direct knowledge of unlawful behaviour.
And was Mr Marunchak dismissed. No. He was promoted.
Shares in News Corporation and BSkyB fell as the News of the World phone hacking scandal put Rupert Murdoch, and his bid to take control of the satellite broadcaster, under fresh scrutiny.
News Corp shares fell on Wednesday by 3.3%% in early trading on Wall Street to $17.56, (£11) as US investors reacted to the latest developments. BSkyB shares fell as low as 818p in London, a fall of more than 3% or 27p.
Cry me a river…
I suspect Rupert Murdoch may be having a bad day…Post + Comments (54)
Happy 4th of July!
…. and happy birthday to me!
/checks diary
Shit.
Never mind, carry on as you were.
Now where did I put my coke vial and that sweet little Portuguese man?
Brace yourself…
I thought the anti-meat Pamela Anderson boob ad we used to get was bad.
Then this appeared:
Early Evening Open Thread – Soulwax Radio
Musically I’m all over the shop, my dears. In my 92 (almost 93!) years, I’ve seen and enjoyed the birth of almost every modern musical style that doesn’t involve catgut strings and dancing in a circle around a fire (and some that do). I’ll listen to just about anything, and if the musical experience can be enhanced with alcohol and/or drugs (and let’s face it, what isn’t?) then Grammy is a happy girl.
Today I’m excited about Radio Soulwax, a new and free website and Ipad/Iphone app from the gentlemen behind Soulwax, The Flying Dewaele Brothers and 2manydjs.
If you haven’t experienced them, their musical style is … um … somewhat like seven monkeys on a crack and acid bender being given access to a set of decks and a symphony orchestra.
Imagine that two mad Belgians locked dozens of hooks and lyrics and tunes from familiar songs in a small room with no food and a lot of vodka and left them to fight or fuck it out, so that they could come back in the morning and see what mutant musical offspring has sprung forth, and you’re getting close.
Anyway, Radio Soulwax (in either website or app form) will eventually play a full 24 hours of remix sets. The first one hour set, Introversity, is a mix of 420 song introductions, from almost every musical style imaginable, that is exhilarating, confusing and teasing, as tiny snippets of incredible songs fly past at an incredible pace, coupled with album cover animations which would make Terry Gilliam giggle like a loon. Fortunately, they do promise that most of the songs will return in the later mixes in a more substantial form, but even in this truncated form some of the odd conjunctions and inter-mixtures of song intros made me laugh out loud.
I have found the Flash on the website a bit buggy in Firefox so far today, so I have downloaded the first mix to the Ipad app and it’s a dream.
Radio Soulwax has the potential to keep me entertained for weeks.
Now, where did I put that coke?
By the way, did I mention it’s my birthday this weekend? I’m a Fourth of July baby. There may be fireworks.
[Image: A Musical Interlude in the Harem – Fabbio Fabbi (1861-1946)]Early Evening Open Thread – Soulwax RadioPost + Comments (82)