Addicted to Last.FM

I've been spending an incredible amount of my free time over at Last.FM. What hooks me is not only the ability to listen to just about every song published but also the ability to click on user's profiles and listen to what they are listening. This means if they are from Brazil you can get a taste of what a Brazilian listens to in her country. If they are Swedish- same. Thai - same.

If music is a universal language then mediums like this might be wonderful diplomats.

Tell Your Friends

It's Burma, not Myanmar. Myanmar is what the thugs in charge (the junta) want us to call it out of a cynical hope that it will instill national pride into her citizens and help fully legitimize them. Burma is what the rightfully elected president and the opposition movement against the junta call their country.

It's been Burma for centuries, also. Why give the thugs what they want?

Via the "Fair Use Act" from the above ABC News link. -->

In all my reporting on Burma, I have often pointed out that "Burma" is still the name of the country to those who legitimately won the 1990 election (which we covered in Burma). Note that all the opposition and exile groups use "Burma".

It was the junta that changed the name after Suu Kyi was arrested and accused of being under the influence of foreign powers (she was married to an Englishman). The junta ruled that keeping the name as Burma was an insult and proof that foreign powers wanted to dictate the country's future.

In fact the military was intent on wiping out the past and creating a whole new reality, history, and power structure under a new name: Myanmar.

They claimed it had true nationalist roots.

In fact, this is exactly what the Khmer Rouge did when they changed Cambodia's name to Kampuchea. Only those who wanted to gain favor with the regime called it Kampuchea. Today it is Cambodia again. I expect the same will be true of Burma and Rangoon if the military regime is ever unseated. - Correspondant Mark Litke

I Swore No More TV

Then they have to remake Bionic Woman... and from all reports it's entertaining. Yee - quick someone Teevo!


*It was one of my faves growing up

Kool-Aid Time

America is in a "restructuring" moment at present.

We have a lot of rich folk that wish to keep their money and we have a lot of folk that want to enforce their simplified world views on people (social conservatives). So, we have lack of health care and nothing in the way of decent social services or infrastructure. We get lack of net neutrality and corporations popping up everywhere to tell us what we can listen to, what we can do,
and who we can do. ^

It's the age old phenomenon of technology outstripping social progress and at present the distance between the two is fixin' to grab a huge can o' whoop-ass on The USA and the world in general.

At the end of it all, if the globally warmed oceans haven't swallowed us all, we'll emerge in a new world created by new democracy movements. It has to happen. We live in an information age and the only way to progress in an information age is to be good with information (duh). We can't do that if we're trying to go back to a fake 50's idea of social model (with a lot of laissez faire market practices).

Isn't that a nice thought?

Burmese Action

Just because these guys need all the help we can give them. Let's try to kick our congress people in their rear a bit.

Asperger's Syndrome

Mine papa has asked me to look up Asperger's Syndrome for him so I can discuss it with him later. I have to say it is rather interesting reading as I now can readily exclaim "aha! I know people that fits!"

Snipped from Wikipedia.org:

Asperger syndrome (also Asperger's syndrome, Asperger's disorder, Asperger's, AS, or AD) is one of several autism spectrum disorders (ASD) characterized by difficulties in social interaction and by restricted and stereotyped interests and activities. AS is distinguished from the other ASDs in having no general delay in language or cognitive development. Although not mentioned in standard diagnostic criteria, motor clumsiness and atypical use of language are frequently reported

Reading further down the article informs us that many brilliant people fit the AS category and there's a growing trend to see AS as just a "type" of functioning person, rather than a disorder. I suspect ADD is a lot like that , also.

The Net Is A Neat Place

If you know where to look and what to avoid. A friend turned me onto last.fm so I listened to a few stations and I've finally got enough in my play list to embed my own lil player thing-a-ma-bob into the blog. It's over to the right ----->

There ya go!

Gramma told me once, " that the world is a great place, if you don't weaken," which, in the case of the internet is pretty on the money. As long as you protect yourself against ID thieves, stalkers, and virii, it's a great place.

On other topics; those Burmese monks are sure stirring things up nicely. I heard that there are just as many of them as there are troops. Peace against tyranny. It can't get any clearer than that. Again, best to them.