Je Suis Charlie

Charlie Hebdo website back up

Charlie Hebdo, RIP

UGH: NY Daily News CENSORS image of Hebdo’s Muhammad Cartoon in report on attack

Ed just spoke to a French friend whose mother lives on the same street as the Charlie Hebdo offices.

She says she grew up reading the writers who were killed. She can't believe they're gone.

1 space after periods redux

I knew there was a reason why you're supposed to use just one space after a period when you're typing on a computer, but I couldn't remember what it was.

Turns out that, unbeknownst to me, my Downloads folder holds the answer, in a document entitled "Problems Noted on Student Writing":

This change occurred in academic writing as a result of the use of computers that have proportional fonts capable of adjusting the spacing as needed. This rule has been the standard in journalism and publishing since computers have been used for word processing purposes. 

Have I ever come upon a document I didn't download?

Sometimes I wonder.

Yes, this really is the best hoodie ever made

Christmas stuff....

This Hoodie Is So Insanely Popular You Have To Wait Months To Get It

1 space after periods, not 2

I've taken to reading legal writing blogs, mostly because Katie Beals & I are getting toward the end of our writing exercises for Ed's textbook, and I keep worrying we're shaky on topic chains (or topic strings).

Idealawg has a fabulous interview with George Gopen. Well worth your time.

It also has this.

Famous last words

Mayor Bill DiBlasio in this morning's Times:

"Ebola is an extremely difficult disease to get."^*

Ed read that out loud to me and said, "That's why medical personnel are wearing hazmat suits."

Interestingly, the Times seems to have cut the line. At least, I don't find it on the site now. Found it in the Daily Mail.

I take his point .... which is, I assume, that Ebola is hard to get from a subway seat. (Let's hope so, seeing as how practically everyone I know has been on the subway this week.)

But still.

If you're the mayor, try to get it right.

And stop telling me to remain calm.

Please.


^*'There is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed': De Blasio in desperate appeal for calm over Ebola case... despite news that patient spent a week roaming New York
By ASSOCIATED PRESS and MIA DE GRAAF FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 22:25 EST, 23 October 2014 | UPDATED: 04:19 EST, 24 October 2014

"If you're over 60, drink up"

Told ya.

Way off-topic, but I'm passing this along

Twenty years ago, a friend of mine, a physician at UCLA, told me that artificial light at night is bad for you -- so bad that she had started turning out the lights in her house at dusk. (I've forgotten, now, what specific concern she had -- it may have been increased cancer risk.)

I've been tracking research on light after nightfall ever since, and just found this, which took me by surprise:

The Relationship Between Obesity and Exposure to Light at Night: Cross-Sectional Analyses of Over 100,000 Women in the Breakthrough Generations Study

Emily McFadden et al.
American Journal of Epidemiology, forthcoming

Abstract:
There has been a worldwide epidemic of obesity in recent decades. In animal studies, there is convincing evidence that light exposure causes weight gain, even when calorie intake and physical activity are held constant. Disruption of sleep and circadian rhythms by exposure to light at night (LAN) might be one mechanism contributing to the rise in obesity, but it has not been well-investigated in humans. Using multinomial logistic regression, we examined the association between exposure to LAN and obesity in questionnaire data from over 100,000 women in the Breakthrough Generations Study, a cohort study of women aged 16 years or older who were living in the United Kingdom and recruited during 2003–2012. The odds of obesity, measured using body mass index, waist:hip ratio, waist:height ratio, and waist circumference, increased with increasing levels of LAN exposure (P < 0.001), even after adjustment for potential confounders such as sleep duration, alcohol intake, physical activity, and current smoking. We found a significant association between LAN exposure and obesity which was not explained by potential confounders we could measure. While the possibility of residual confounding cannot be excluded, the pattern is intriguing, accords with the results of animal experiments, and warrants further investigation.

Boy.

Dollars to donuts there's going to be some kind of relationship with staring at LED screens all night, too.

I keep thinking I need to go back to (paper) books...then I keep not going back to paper books.

I'm a sucker for Apple ads...

I'm 100% certain I shouldn't like this, but I do.

Off-topic: John Mulvaney on SVU

Chris just showed me this bit, and we guffawed….'cuz we've watched a lot of SVU in this household.

Warning: language. SVU language.

Il Est Né le Divin Enfant

Il est né le divin enfant,
Jouez hautbois, résonnez musette.
Il est né le divin enfant,
Chantons tous son avènement.

Depuis plus de quatre mille ans
Nous le promettaient les prophètes,
Depuis plus de quatre mille ans
Nous attendions cet heureux temps.
Une étable est son logement,
Un peu de paille est sa couchette,
Une étable est son logement,
Pour un dieu quel abaissement.
O Jésus, ô roi tout puissant,
Tout petit enfant que vous êtes,
O Jésus, ô roi tout puissant,
Régnez sur nous entièrement.

Lyrics from about.com

Glossary of Computer and Internet Terms for Older Adults

I've just this moment stumbled across a Glossary of Computer and Internet Terms for Older Adults, and I'm chuckling.

Judging by the Computer and Internet Terms they don't know, Older Adults have got it made in the shade. They are the last non-plugged-in humans on the planet, or at least the Western hemisphere.

In the world of the Older Adult, there is no Computer and internet addiction.

No obsessive gaming.

No Internet Blocking Productivity Software.

No glimmer of the possibility that surfing the internet is actually addictive!

Nope.

For the Older Adult, "surf the internet" is merely a term that needs defining:

Surf the Net:
To explore various websites on the Internet.

[pause]

Reading right along....(which is what happens to Older Adults who don't need a Glossary to tell them what Surfing the net means), I find myself partial to the definition of "Clicking":

Clicking
Pressing and releasing a button on a mouse to select or activate the area on the screen where the cursor is pointing. Usually, you click on the left side of the mouse (called a left click). For more advanced functions, you click on the right side of the mouse (called a right click).

Home stretch

2 chapters left to go!

people on boats

Earlier today I had reason to quote the "Hell is other people" line to a friend of mine, who pointed me to this:

Hell is other people. Hell is other people on a boat. What will it take before we accept this? 
Passengers ill-suited for loss of cruise control
By Monica Hesse, Published: February 15 | Washington Post

another critter down

A bird just flew into our sliding glass window and is now lying stunned on the tipped-over practice net on the patio.

Meanwhile Surfer has managed to escape his STRAPPED-ON oversized dog cone. (We discovered his coneless state before he had time to remove his stitches for the third time. In fact, I think he actually came into the family room to show me his cone had come off.)

I was hoping to get through this weekend without a trip to the vet.

[pause]

Bird is not moving.

Ed is going to have to deal with it.

1 down

I have eliminated one of my desk piles! (At least my desk has piles...)

Only 5 more to go! (Distributed across one desk, one table, and one printer stand....)

Then on to the wire mesh hanging file folder bins.

[pause]

Yikes.

I don't think they even make those bins any more. (This is one. Most of mine are bigger.)

Ed on Stephen Colbert tomorrow night

Talking about Mali.

He'll be the straight man.

Stephen Colbert. On Comedy Central.

equator therapy

Back from Aruba --- and wow!

I am in good spirits.

Equator sun.

I recommend it!

gone fishing

Aruba!

Back in a week!

Christmas present review

Game of Thrones 1st Season Collector Edition: not a hit, especially after Episode 2. Dog murder is not entertaining.

Downton Abbey: Silly but fun.