Look at this cute costume choice!

[conuly]

I don't get it, though. Why did she dress up as two totally different, completely unrelated people? :P

Anecdotally, it seemed every other kid was in a superhero costume this year - especially the girls. Eva bucked the trend a bit - she made a Harley Quinn costume, complete with homemade mallet.

*************************

The Multiverse Is Inevitable, And We’re Living In It

Las Vegas shines as a model for solar power

The Other Reformation: How Martin Luther Changed Our Beer, Too

Crows Are Doing the Best They Can

Want to be Santa? Be ready for tough questions and heartbreaking requests (Data on the costume vs. uniform front - "A Santa suit should never be called a 'costume,' he said. It's a 'uniform.'")

The reminiscence bump: why America’s greatest year was probably when you were young

Hidden in a Basement for 70 Years, Newly Discovered Documents Shed Light on Jewish Life and Culture Before WWII

Return of the city-state

The war against Pope Francis

Mali’s Desert Elephants, on Edge of Annihilation, Get a Fighting Chance

For the Love of Rattlesnakes, Scrub All GPS Data from Your Nature Photos

New fingerprint algorithm helps ID bodies found decades ago

The Kurds Are Right Back Where They Started

How Catalonia’s crisis is turning into a European problem

There is no 1st Amendment right to speak on a college campus (I'm not 100% certain I agree, however, it is refreshing to see an article on the subject that's more than handwringing over how today's youth are ruining everything.)

Here’s Why Vaccines Are So Crucial

On NYC’s Paratransit, Fighting for Safety, Respect, and Human Dignity

They fled danger at home to make a high-stakes bet on U.S. immigration courts

Wisconsin governor signs anti-boycott Israel order

Neo-Nazis Target College Campuses in Recruitment Drive

Comments

Britney Wilson’s paratransit article is SO DAMN TRUE

[jesse_the_k]

...and beautifully written.

[wpadmirer]

Crows are cool.

Transport for the disabled and elderly is a huge problem everywhere. They must all pay really crappy, because the clinic where I work has the same issues getting patients to and from the clinic. It's tragic.

[conuly]

And there's no excuse for it. There is just no way that this is the best they can do with the money they have.

[mindstalk]

It kind of might be? Siderea's post includes comments saying $30-40/ride is a nationwide cost standard. The constraints like "call the day before" seem common as well. And we're talking about what is essentially a specialized and low-volume taxi service that needs special vehicles. It's not impossible that every institution hates disabled people, but if *no one's* done better, then the constraints might be inherent to the problem.

[archersangel]

that thing about crows reminds me of the story about the girl who feeds crows & sometimes they leave little gifts.

[conuly]

Love it!

[brokenallbroken]

They're not two unrelated people; the other one is Supergirl's human suit, Kara ("Clark Kent's cousin"). Probably based on the new-ish CW(??) series. Yay Kara!

[conuly]

Are you saying that Kara Danvers is Supergirl? That's ridiculous! Supergirl can fly, and Kara wears glasses. They're two totally different people!

Sheesh, next you'll be saying that Clark Kent is Superman.

[brokenallbroken]

:D

Bruce Wayne is also Batman. How else do you explain all his high tech toys? No regular schmuck could afford all that! Besides, THE BUTTS MATCH.

(Sorry if I cam off as patronizing; I am working on not assuming everyone of course knows all the same things I do.)

[conuly]

Definitely didn't sound patronizing. I was worried I sounded patronizing as I explained the joke!

[brokenallbroken]

Not at all! Unfortunately we have yet to come up with sarcasm punctuation.

[conuly]

Well, point of fact, we kinda do have sarcasm punctuation if we use smilies, like the :P which is me sticking my tongue out.

[brokenallbroken]

That didn't read as sarcasm to me.

[conuly]

So I'm curious - do you have some other interpretation for :P at the end of a sentence? (Legit curious, not snarky curious. Though I'm not sure saying that makes it better.)

[brokenallbroken]

There's several, including "yuck", which is what I usually use it for.

[conuly]

How funny! I would never use it for "yuck"!

[brokenallbroken]

You don't stick your tongue out when something tastes bad? Huh.

[conuly]

No! I stick out my tongue when I'm making fun of people in a light-hearted and childish fashion!

[siderea]

Count me in as someone who never knew this is what you meant by ":P". I'm with brokenallbroken that it signifies disgust. I could tell it was clearly incongruent with your contexts, so I knew you didn't mean it as that, but I didn't know what you meant, and didn't know why you were using an emoticon that signifies disgust to mean something else.

[conuly]

The things we learn, every single day!

[thewayne]

The best take on that meme is from the early issues of The Tick comic with Clark Oppenheimer, their resident Superman clone.

[kengr]

The bit about the First Amendment and college campuses is more or less correct.

It's an *old* argument I've had online since the BBS days in the early 80s.

In a space provided by someone else (BBS, online Forum, private property, etc) it's *not* a freedom of speech issue.

Rather, it's a freedom of the *press* issue.

Basically, you cannot be compelled to use your "press" (stage, forum, station, etc) to support ideas you don't want to.

As I used to tell idiots who accused me of censorship for telling them they couldn't discuss certain things on my BBS, it was *my* platform, so I had editorial control.

They were free to go to another BBS or even set up their own BBS and say what they wanted *there*. A couple even did. and didn't last long as folks didn't care for the discussions.

[mindstalk]

Nice point.

[conuly]

Good argument.

[mindstalk]

That Luther article smelled simplistic and sensationalist to me. I present https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruit for comparison.

[conuly]

I reject your reality.

[randomdreams]

>how today's youth are ruining everything.

My favorite line from this week: "Millenials are killing all the things that depend on disposable income"

[conuly]

ROFL!

[mindstalk]

Man, that paratransit story is something... I was going to say they'd be better off just contracting to Lyft or Uber, but I guess the average may not be accessible for many users.

[conuly]

Nor affordable - Access-a-Ride is the same cost as a bus fare (or half price, even), and you can bring an aide along for free.

[mindstalk]

Cost to the *user*, yes. The agency is paying a lot more, I expect. "Contract to Lyft" would mean the paratransit agency paying most of the cost.

[siderea]

TA-DA!

Did you want fries with that?

[conuly]

Yes, yes I do.

[mindstalk]

Cool.

[author_by_night]

Also, Uber drivers have their own cars, which can be just as problematic. I have some very minor physical issues and I've had a few "oh shit this is going to be tricky" moments. I've often wondered what would've happened if they'd come when I had a broken foot, or how someone with greater mobility issues would handle it. And yeah, expense issues. :/ Especially for someone who doesn't work, and/or someone who uses it constantly. I only use Uber a few times a week, and I work, so I figure it's no more expensive than if I had a car (especially once you factor in gas and insurance).

I suppose Uber or Lyft COULD establish a program, though.

[mindstalk]

UberX comes with driver owned cars, like Lyft. But Uber started life as a "black car" company, and I think that's still an option. Whether those vehicles are accessible is another matter. UberX also has a "big vehicles" option, I assume people who own SUVs or minivans, which might help some people who'd have trouble getting into a subcompact, I dunno.

[conuly]

There are lots of people who really need dedicated, accessible transportation... but even just getting some of the ones who don't need it out of the shitty city-run paratransit will ease the load for the rest.

[mindstalk]

Plus it'll help the ones who can use Lyft.

I could see "ease the load" cutting the other way: fewer people diverting your trip, but an even higher cost per ride (behind the scenes), and the agency having to pay for conventional paratransit *plus* Lyft subsidies... unless, of course, they cut the conventional paratransit budget.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

LOL, awesome costume! I haven't seen that show, but Googled up the images: she definitely nailed the look.

1957, the year I was born, was America's most prosperous year ever. It was also the year that kicked off the space race. Of course it was not such a good time for civil rights, and the corporations were just starting their big take-over of media and government, and all the unregulated industries were merrily poisoning the environment, but still, people didn't know all that at the time. There was a lot of hope and optimism, not to say 'hubris'.

I think 'MAGA' is actually "Make America as we imagined it to be before we had to learn about all this terrible stuff." It was never really that way, but the terrible stuff didn't use to be in everyone's faces every waking minute like it is now.

[conuly]

It wasn't in some people's faces, but other people couldn't avoid it.

And yes, completely nailed the look! Supergirl isn't a half-bad show, but it tries too hard.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Nobody could avoid their own personal terrible stuff, obviously, or the terrible stuff of the people they personally knew, but they didn't have the terrible stuff of the entire world literally in their faces at all times, like we do now on our phones and lap-tops. There's a huge difference between reading in the newspaper that something terrible happened, and watching a hundred videos taken live by those to whom it happened.

[conuly]

Maybe - but there's also the difference of saying "These bad things happen every day, and those respected people are the ones who are doing it to me and my community" and saying "Look, I can prove it, here's 1000 videos of it in action". The latter is less terrible to me.