Facebook’s Manipulation

June 30th, 2014 → 6:35 am

“You would play upon me,
you would seem to know my stops,
you would pluck out the heart of my mystery,
you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass;…
do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?” – Hamlet

Facebook is getting a lot of flack for manipulating users feeds to see if they could tweak their emotions (and apparently they can).  I am always ambivalent about such news stories; I would hate being manipulated by an insensitive, bigger “power,” but I am an academic and at the same time understand the value of such studies.  This one seems pretty minor, but, I have to admit, I really never have been much of a fan of Facebook.

Filed under: Blog & Stupid/Evil People

100 Year Anniversary of Ferdinand’s Assassination

June 28th, 2014 → 7:05 am

“More are men’s ends marked than their lives before.
The setting sun, and music at the close,
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
Writ in remembrance more than things long past.” – Richard II

100 years ago today Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated, and the world slid into its first World War.  It is humbling to look back on it now; the horror, the uninevitability of it, the profound waste.  There is a world that existed before June 28, 1914, and a rather diferent world that was borne after it.

Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money & Literature/Theatre/Art & Other & Politics/Politicians & Stupid/Evil People

Luis Suarez’s Bites

June 26th, 2014 → 5:47 am

“This is the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers…
They say there is divinity in odd numbers, either in nativity, chance, or death.”
          – The Merry Wives of Windsor

Or bites?  Who is this guy who keeps biting people on the soccer field?  What an absolute weirdo.

Filed under: Blog & Stupid/Evil People

Journalists in Egypt

June 24th, 2014 → 5:12 am

“[They] hath been most notoriously abused.” – Twelfth Night

The lengthy prison sentences given to a number of journalists in Egypt, and the sham trial that went with it, are shocking.  I pray for the Middle East.

Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians

Not Another Cat!

June 21st, 2014 → 7:45 pm

“I could endure anything before but a cat,
And now he’s cat to me.” – All’s Well That Ends Well

I don’t know how it happened.  I honestly can’t believe it did happen.  This morning I woke up completely unaware that anything like this could happen.  We adopted a second cat today.  After a morning spent picking raspberry’s at Lakeview Farms, I took my son with me to the vet for our current cat’s checkup.  There were cats to be adopted there, and lo and behold, my son immediately became enamored of a cat named Stanley.  Wouldn’t let it go.  We came home and he convinced my husband – who had previously vowed NEVER to get another cat – that he and Stanley had to be together.  Now, we have a new cat in the house!  Welcome to the family, Stanley.

Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life

Old Friends

June 19th, 2014 → 5:51 am

“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” – Hamlet

I spoke to an old friend for the first time in 10 years yesterday.  Once, we were really quite close; now, it’s like we speak different languages.  Strange how at one time we can think we really know ourselves and others, when in truth we have no conception how things (and people) can change.

Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life

Supervillain

June 17th, 2014 → 7:46 am

“Some report a sea-maid spawned him.  Some, that he
was begot between two stock-fishes.  But it is certain
that when he makes water his urine is congealed ice.” – Measure for Measure

If Shakespeare were to describe an X-Men super villain.

Filed under: Blog & Other

ISIS – Islamic State of Iraq & Syria

June 15th, 2014 → 6:57 am

“Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war.” – Julius Caesar

Crazy, bloodthirsty, vengeful fools.

Filed under: Blog & Stupid/Evil People

Eric Cantor’s Defeat

June 12th, 2014 → 6:40 am

“Down, down I come, like glist’ring Phaeton,
Wanting the manage of unruly jades.
In the base court?  Base court, where kings grow base,
To come at traitors’ calls, and do them grace.” – Richard II

[Note:  The first two lines refer to the fable of Phaethon, who
drove a chariot of sun but couldn’t control the horses (or jades),
and they drove too close to the earth and set fire to forests and cities.]

Cantor couldn’t control the unruly Tea Party and now he’s thrown down; thrown down in the base court of Congress.

Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians & Stupid/Evil People

Inequality

June 10th, 2014 → 6:21 am

“They are as sick that surfeit with too much,
as they that starve with nothing.” – The Merchant of Venice

Inequality is not good for the rich, or the poor.

Filed under: Blog & Other