Today’s Media Links

Randall Robinson

When Randall Robinson appeared on Democracy Now! this caused a slew of links to pop up in my life: Saint Kitts, “Real Estate In The Caribbean—Living & Investing In The Caribbean,” “EscapeArtist.com: Living Overseas” and The Amateur Traveler Podcast.

In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don’t Feel Rich

It’s all relative would be my summary of “In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don’t Feel Rich.” This is why I feel some sympathy for all of those home buyers now in foreclosure who thought they would be magically transformed somehow when they achieved a certain status. The same applies when making a handful of a million dollars—Oprah certainly has millionaire friends that feel impoverished in her presence. This is why holistic style becomes so important when you get some serious cash. You can out-style a billionaire and live better than he or she does—until he or she, for whatever billionaire reason, decides to have you murdered. Being a millionaire and not working at home ain’t no kind of style to me.

John Engel’s “interesting gimmick”

This flickr.com picture basically summarizes for me what technologist Ed Dunn rants (frequently) about “tech bigots.” You see, the “black guys” are brain body guards, protecting the valuable little geek standing there looking uncomfortable. The body language of this little guy is basically my life story in the white-male world of tech. The kid is almost terrified. Now just imagine what happens to this kid when he meets a “big, black guy” who is just as technical as he is. It can get so bad that with every passing work day and with every passing technical achievement the insecurity mounts and the kid becomes determined to prove that this just can’t be true… It’s almost like his whole world is crumbling around him and he can’t wait for that big black guy to go away and leave him alone in his special little world of supremacy. He “thought” Black dudes (except Morgan Freeman as an old, old man) could just be physical—as shown on television… One way for a “big, black guy” to avoid this problem is to deliberately make himself smaller… A brother can get “rich” doing this I’m told… yet, another millionaire who does not feel rich?

Mandarin Chinese Lessons

Just a little note to self about how much free language courses on the Internet have improved. One case in point: Mandarin Chinese Lessons with Serge Melnyk.

Emakimono

To suggest that comics books first appeared in Japan after World War II is to ignore Emakimono. Bazooka Joe just can’t compete with this…

Rigs of Rods

“News and Updates on the Rigs of Rods truck simulator, based on an advanced soft-body physics engine.”

HDCP

Ars Technica back in June: “Look for monitors with HDCP support if you plan to watch protected Blu-ray or HD-DVD content—most monitors are now beginning to support this.”

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand: “Tell me what a man finds sexually attractive and I will tell you his entire philosophy of life. Show me the woman he sleeps with and I will tell you his valuation of himself…”

The Rotting Goddess: The Origin of the Witch in Classical Antiquity

Jacob Rabinowitz: “This is not a book for your average Silver Ravenwolf Wiccan. Rather, this volume delves into the early history of the transition of the witch image in Greek and Roman times from an Artemis-like deity to something much more mortal, even demonic. It is a fascinating read, especially given the lack of scholarship on the subject. Most contemporary histories of witchcraft tend to begin in the middle ages and ignore the earlier roots from which it came.”

Hiroshima Cover-up: How the War Department’s Timesman Won a Pulitzer

Amy Goodman and David Goodman: “Burchett’s searing independent reportage was a public relations fiasco for the U.S. military. General MacArthur had gone to pains to restrict journalists’ access to the bombed cities, and his military censors were sanitizing and even killing dispatches that described the horror. The official narrative of the atomic bombings downplayed civilian casualties and categorically dismissed reports of the deadly lingering effects of radiation.”

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