constant narrator

Buried in Bruce Sterling’s latest Viridian email is a link to a handy little web site put together by Rep. Henry Waxman. It documents many of the ways the Bush administration has thwarted, mishandled and sidetracked science in the name of bolstering and legislating a socially conservation political viewpoint. Topics include such winners as removing any measure of students’ pregnancy rates after receiving abstinence-based sex education, releasing only pro-industry, misleading “highlights” of a study that found allowing pharmaceutical companies to advertise directly to consumers (a relatively new phenomenon) actually confused patients instead of educating them, and re-writes of EPA global warming documents.

http://www.house.gov/reform/min/politicsandscience/

Here’s a nice gem:
“Interference with Scientific Research

Federal funding for research and development totals over $100 billion dollars. The public expects that this research will be conducted independently and objectively. Yet the Bush Administration has:
•  obstructed ongoing research by threatening political scrutiny of projects that concern social conservatives;
•  obstructed agency research when the results might conflict with the Administration’s agenda;
•  undermined outcome assessment, both by creating easy-to-reach performance measures for politically favored programs and by eliminating programs that identify effective initiatives that conflict with the Administration’s ideological agenda;
•  blocked publication of research that may upset an affected industry.”

Whee!

I’ve decided I want to go to the big “J-School” and get my masters in journalism. I’ve been researching schools, reading books on how to get in and get what I want out of the experience, and started studying for the GRE. As I research, however, it seems like I won’t be able to get into the bad-ass programs I want to get into without having some professional experience and two or three articles aren’t going to cut it. We’re talking the INTERNSHIP.

Since I want to write long form, cultural/international articles for magazines, it would be best to intern with a magazine. The problem is, there aren’t many magazines in Austin and the few that do exist have the sort of competition for their limited internships that I am facing in the grad school arena. Even the Chronicle claims to get hundreds of intern applications for their unpaid internships — how bad is it at Texas Monthly?

I am feeling Behind in a big way. I want to go to school next fall but maybe I should wait and use an extra year to prepare and get more articles under my belt (and hopefully the sought-after internship). But I have a fire in my pants and want to go to school and kick some journalistic ass now! Meanwhile, I must feed myself.

Trauma.

I won free tickets from KUT to see Neko Case tonight. Asenath went with me and we arrived a couple of songs into her first set. Since neither of us had heard more than a few of her songs before, we weren’t sure it was her: she didn’t look like her cover photos and was extremely low-key in a t-shirt with a slide guitarist, stand-up bassist and back-up singer on stage with her. The first couple of songs reminded me of the Sundays a bit and then she switched into a mode of channeling Loretta Lynn. She has a nice voice with a good range and her guitar playing was up to snuff. After reading people going ga-ga over her, I was was somewhat underwhelmed for the first few songs.

Her music sounds like a lot of music in Austin. A little jazz, a little country, a little girl-with-a-guitar folk. It made me realize that in other cities 1) people probably don’t get a lot of that combo; 2) it may be rare for an earthy girl in a t-shirt who’s actually a good musician to get up on stage and perform a solid low-key set with other good musicians.

As the set went on, Neko Case grew on me. She seemed very relaxed and bantered well with the audience and her bandmates. She played an old Hank Williams song. I realized that if I knew the words to the originals she was playing I may be all dreamy-eyed and thrilled that I was hearing her live. A couple of songs really grabbed me and had me swaying. I didn’t hear anything that would inspire the fervent devotion of many of her fans, but I had a nice night.

And, as always, Asenath rocked.

By OTTO POHL - great name!

Latest photos of Austin Flash Mobs from Marc.
Flash Mobs on cheesebikini and on flashmob.info.
Here’s Howard Rheingold pontificating on Smart Mobs.

I say it’s time for dbauler to start the Waterloo Flash Mobs. 5 West High alumni and 50 Bosnians at Crossroads Mall singing the Laverne and Shirley theme song: it would be gorgeous.

The 5 Questions meme has reached me, these posed by dbauler:

1. Imagine you’re running in the 2004 Presidental Election. Sum up your
platform.

Short form: “America: Let’s quit being stupid, paranoid and aggressive.”

Long Form:
Foreign Policy and Militarism
Foreign policy, including America’s use of the military, should be focused on supporting self-developed democracy, economic and social development and human rights, thus creating goodwill through international consensus and cooperation.
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