The Criminalization of the Poor

Here's a fantastic article about how being poor is being criminalized. http://ehrenreich.blogs.com/barbaras_blog/2011/08/nickel-and-dimed-2011-version-.html

As a companion piece you can read Criminalizing the Seriously Mentally Ill: The Abuse of Jails As Mental Hospitals, which is significantly longer and incredibly depressing. http://books.google.com/books?id=kR_t_xV5RJIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

It was written in the early nineties but you would think it had been written in the early 1890's. It's appalling. In a county in Kentucky one of about every three hundred people have been jailed for a mental illness. The book discusses how people are incarcerated without charges and how their medication is withheld, often because it's much cheaper to jail the mentally ill than to treat them.

Pretty good article about the earthquake

This piece seems to have some good information. I know there was conflicting info going around today. The Washington Monument is damaged, it's not damaged, it is damaged. Apparently it is, but it's not doing a Leaning Tower of Pisa imitations. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44245009/ns/us_news-life/t/congress-pentagon-other-dc-areas-evacuate-after-quake/?GT1=43001

Our house is fine. We just had to put a few things back on the shelves and tomorrow I'll have to sort out my closet, where everything fell over for some reason. So much for storage shelves...

The ceiling at one of Cam's friend's house fell in and the same thing happened at Chris' old school. Two houses in Baltimore partially collapsed and a church was damaged.

Curious why a not so big earthquake was felt from the Carolinas all the way to Toronto? There's an explanation in the article.

Also of note - we felt it much more strongly than my boss, who is closer. Our county has very sandy ground, which allows more shaking. When I took my first responder class this is one of the things we talked about. we're prone to several problems because of the composition of the earth, including collapse while building or while little kids are digging holes. In our county you should never step into a hole that's deeper than your knee.

Portal: No Escape

muckle muckle muckle

It's a little scary how much I like this cartoon. http://twitpic.com/635qix

Kate is the best. The best!

We didn't expect that

Want to know how the world is going to end? Read this article about an "antiviral" developed by a team at MIT.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/antiviral-0810.html

The drug works by targeting a type of RNA produced only in cells that have been infected by viruses. “In theory, it should work against all viruses,” says Todd Rider, a senior staff scientist in Lincoln Laboratory’s Chemical, Biological, and Nanoscale Technologies Group who invented the new technology.

That's what the creators of the zombie plague said. Also the dinosaur who invented a similar technology to conquer age in dinosaurs. Also the guy who invented something similar in a neighboring solar system. That bit of tech started attacking all RNA and wiped out every living thing on six planets and ten moons.

But seriously, is it just me or does this seem like it could really wrong?

Abarat 3 Official Trailer

Super excited about this book coming out.

A terrible day

Today Cam found out via text and Facebook that a friend of his passed away over the weekend. They had been friends since fifth grade. Sam, the boy who was killed, was going to school in Utah and died when the car he was riding in crashed into a guard rail, which tore his passenger door off. I don't know what happened next but he died of his injuries at the scene.

All day long Cam kept getting texts from people asking if he had heard from Sam lately and Cam had to pass the news along, asking them to call him so they wouldn't find out via text.

We're all heartbroken, not just over the loss of Sam, who was a sweet, smart and imaginative young man, but also for his family. I keep thinking of his poor mom, getting the news while she's two thousand miles away.

Busy, busy, busy

Nancy Wake did not have time for that French shit, or cooking eggs or flirty men. She had Nazis to kill!

http://jessfink.tumblr.com/post/8735174449/saynathespiffy-picturesinhismind