The Food Shark Acquires The Cool Bus

"The acquisition combines one of the largest and fastest growing entertainment communities with expertise in organizing and creating new models for delivery. The combined companies will focus on providing a better, more comprehensive experience . . . and will offer new opportunities for distribution to a vast new audience." Oh wait, that was Google.

Jim Schutz on the Fiscal Impossibility of the Trinity "Park"

(in Dallas), here.

Maybe it comes down to a simple typo: they meant "pork," not "park."

UPDATE: What becomes clear from KERA-TV's new documentary, Living with the Trinity, is that regardless of whether any Trinity projects are completed, there's plenty of money to be made half-building them.

General Idea, "Shut the Fuck Up (Part III)," 1984

"The props: three poodles, General Ideas's signature device. . . . We climbed up the ladders, with soggy, dripping poodles." " . . . . [O]n the borderline between content and context. . . . The pieces of the puzzle don't add up. Are you listening? Do you know what to say?"

Ninja Kitten

Re- Stupak et Al.:

Suppose it were possible for a foetus to be implanted in a man's body and develop there until ready to be delivered.

Suppose, for example, a couple had had sex, and they weren't married, and they certainly didn't want children, so the man had used protection, but the protection had failed.

Suppose the recently-impregnated mother is killed in a car accident but the foetus survives, and the authorities are able to identify the father, and the foetus can be implanted in his body.

Does anyone believe it would be right for the state to FORCE the father to allow the foetus to be implanted in his body, to carry it within his body for nine months, and endure the hardships and hazards of pregnancy and delivery?

Does anyone believe it would be right for the state to force the father to subject himself to such procedures, hardships, and hazards – OR to pay extra in order to avoid subjecting himself to them, in effect ensuring that only poor fathers will be forced to endure them?

Even if we were to grant to a foetus with the I.Q. of a carrot the rights of a fully-formed human, are we so sure its rights should relegate its mother (but not its father) to the most abject slavery?

How is state-enforced pregnancy not the worst kind of involuntary servitude?

Stupak is aptly named.

(And while we're at it, why is a weeks-old foetus with the I.Q. of a carrot more deserving of protection than a chimpanzee capable of sign language?)

Best Thing I Saw Today:

This video was subjected to one of Rebecca Baron and Douglas Goodwin's Lossless experiments.

U.S., Still Richest, Only 42nd in Life Expectancy, & Lags in Quality of Life

A few facts per the most recent American Human Development Report, which compares health, education and income in different nations:

• Despite having the second-highest average income per capita in the world, the U.S. has slipped to 12th place – from 2nd in 1990 – in terms of our basic quality of life.
• The richest fifth of Americans now earn nearly 15 times the average of the lowest fifth.
• We're ranked 42nd in overall life expectancy and 34th in terms of infants' surviving to age one. Citizens of Israel, Greece, Singapore, Costa Rica, South Korea and every western European and Nordic country save one live longer than Americans. Infant mortality in the U.S. is on par with that in Croatia, Cuba, and Estonia. If we could match Sweden's rate, some 20,000 more babies per year would live to their first birthday.
• We have a higher percentage of children living in poverty than any of the world's other richest countries. 15% of American children live in families with incomes of less than $1,500 per month.
• The U.S. lags far behind many other countries in the support given to working families, particularly in terms of family leave, sick leave and childcare.
• 14% of the population lack the literacy skills to perform simple, everyday tasks such as understanding newspaper articles and instruction manuals.
• Among the 30 rich countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. has the greatest number of people in prison, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the total population.

More at The Guardian.

Bird Song

Nicely done; from Jarbas Agnelli (thanks, Julie!)