Flying Shortbread

Why Facebook is becoming pasty (aside from the interruptive ad placements). When I post something controversial and you ignore it, it ranks low on Edgerank, Facebook's algorithm for what to post to the Feed. If you only Like sugar, or only engage with sugar, you only get sugar. Pretty dumb of Facebook. 

The first thing I want to do is say thank you to all of you. The second thing I want to do is introduce my co-author and dear friend and co-teacher. Ken and I have been working together for almost 40 years. That's Ken Sharpe over there. (Applause) So there is among many people -- certainly me and most of the people I talk to -- a kind of collective dissatisfaction with the way things are working, with the way our institutions run. Our kids' teachers seem to be failing them. Our doctors don't know who the hell we are, and they don't have enough time for us. We certainly can't trust the bankers, and we certainly can't trust the brokers. They almost brought the entire financial system down. And even as we do our own work, all too often, we find ourselves having to choose between doing what we think is the right thing and doing the expected thing, or the required thing, or the profitable thing. So everywhere we look, pretty much across the board, we worry that t...

#Queer ~ People hate this term. I don't. I hear that it is self-derisive and used as hate speech and can't be reclaimed and is self-poison, but I don't agree. To me the 'LGBTI' is so structured, it negates the fluidity of sexuality. For one,  it excludes non-heteronormative hets. I use queer, and I want all people who don't fit into 'normal' to be 'queer' by choice. I invite them to be, I want everyone to see that 'queer' is the new 'normal'.  # Queer  ~ 'Queer' recognizes fluidity in sexuality. LGBTI is confining, exclusionary. Non-heteronormative hets could choose to be 'queer'.

Malawi President Joyce Banda says, "I as a leader have no right to influence how people feel." (http://bit.ly/SsWXgz) COMMENT: It may be that Banda needs to understand that she is applying the word 'leadership' incorrectly - or perhaps somebody rounded a vernacular word up to leadership and it's not the word she said... because leadership means showing initiative TO LEAD people in a certain direction. It sounds like she just wants to be in front of the pack, it doesn't matter what the pack thinks. The presidency should be inspirational, invigorating us to follow the leadership provided. Not eager to climb down to the lowest common denominator. Human rights are not a popular (in the democratic and enthusiastic version of that word) viewpoint, that's why they need a determined protection... or 'leadership'. I hesitate to extrapolate this incident to the rest of Africa, and some other parts of the world... but it is tempting.