I actually only remember the end-credits of The Electric Company because Sesame Street came on after it. But from what I hear, it was a staple of 1980s kids programming for America’s Public Broadcast System (a viewer-funded system with no commercials, for those outside the US). The actual show only ran up until 1977 (year I was born) but continued in re-runs until 1985.
I came across this forward in my immense backlog of unread emails that I decided to sift through today starting with the oldest. The forward was sent to me in July of 2006, so I figured I would look it up first, to see whether the placards the demonstrators are holding were perhaps photoshopped before I go spreading it around.
Well, according to Snopes the photos are actually real this time. The context for the demonstration was the British fiasco about publishing the cartoons of Muhammad. There is a Moslem rule that images of Muhammad should not be made, for fear that granting any preference to a particular image (and incorrect, since no one necessarily knows what he looks like, per se) might lead to an idolatrous reverence toward that false image. The rule, however, is very similar to a Judeochristian rule made presumably for the same reason — and it’s one of the commandments, no less.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Exodus 20:4, KJV
Anyhow, although the protestors seem to be actually prostesting what their signs indicate (as opposed to being a mock protest, a protest of agent provocateurs, or protesters whose signs have been digitially manipulated), it is very very necessary to recognize that the opinions of these outspoken individuals do not represent the opinions of the whole. However, it would not be unprecidented that a group of individuals to protest and cause a general rucus in an attempt to disparage their rivals by pretending to be their rivals and committing heinous acts in the name of the rival’s group. A famous agent provocateur Klan member was actually someone who was against the KKK but infiltrated the group by claiming to have the same beliefs, but once higher up into the order began to reveal many of their secrets from within. The verse, “A wise man scales the city of the mighty, And brings down the trusted stronghold.” (Proverbs 21:22) comes to mind.
In the same way with Christians, the particularly outspoken and discouragingly frequent newsreporter attractant Westboro Baptist Church (the folk who oft protest veterans’ funerals as judgement from God for America’s sins) do not represent the vast vast majority of Christian’s opinion on the matter — nor debatably even represent a Judeochristian biblical perspective. In the same way, let’s not fool ourselves into believing that views of a few represent the vastly unheard opinions of millions of individuals. To clump a huge swath of people into one group based on rumor-spreading of a stark minority, as the forward suggests, would frankly be childish.
It should be noted, also, that one of the pictures (as Snopes mentions) is from an entirely different protest.
Be sure to check out the Drivers’ License Search and after you find yourself, click REMOVE to be taken off the list. Why would we want our information put up on the web like this? So-called Freedom of Information Act nonsense!
This link takes you to a HTML form that you can write a message e-card style, and the submit button takes you to a semi-dramatic flash animation of a penguin sliding down a mountain writing out your message. Not knowing what it was for, I tested it out with that message (sfw, has music).
There’s an inspiring video of some lions who attack a small herd of water buffalo, make off with one of the little ones and before they’re able to seriously maim it, the herd comes back over and one or two brave buffalos try skewering the lions and manage to rescue the baby again. Seriously, this one got to me. The good part comes about 4-5 minutes in.
It was taken by a Texan who was out on safari and captured it on amateur video. Complete with comments from nearby passengers.
This is actually a random image I caught on Toothpaste that I know a little bit about. I’ll try to find a link to the Country Reporter clip I saw him from..
I was loading up a 238-count slough of Toothpaste For Dinner LJ picture queues, and I noticed a bunch of the Russian journals were posting the same picture over and over (the one below). I wondered, “What, is this some holiday or something?” According to their embassy, it is. It’s “Victory Day” celebrated every May 9, to “commemorate the millions fallen in World War II. Flowers and wreaths are laid on wartime graves on this day, and veterans come out into the streets wearing their military orders and medals. Alas, there are fewer of them with every passing year.”
So email/text/IM/Skype/whatever your Russian pals and wish them a happy Victory Day!
I’m only guessing that the rest of these are related. I sure hope so ^_^
Inspired by this I decided to make a brief colly of these tables in action. I’d never seen these before — I’d only played the PC versions ^_^
This one shows the hole in the middle you push all the tiles into, and how new rows that had previously been prepared for you pop right up for another game within mere seconds. That would sure make for some quick round resets — I’d like the mixing and sorting myself.
This one shows the tabletop surface lifted up exposing the innards and a general idea of how the table resets the tiles. I presume one side of each tile is magnetic, with a pole on a sorting edge so that the tile would flip the right direction up..?
A slightly better view on the innards, looks very logical. One comment on the video says that a game can last upwards of 2 hours. If playing 2 games, shuffling would be a welcome break for a moment, I think. The clicking actually sounds relaxing for some reason, perhaps because everything’s being put in a right, proper order all by itself in neat little rows ^_^
This table sorts them in the opposite direction (pushing them along counterclockwise) but also raises the tile rows up in a cooler pattern with edges overlapping slightly but not enough to give your neighbor a glimpse (though, perhaps, each right-side neighbor and equal glimpse, if any)..
Part of the wonder of these clips also seems to be the reactions of the people in the video as if seeing it for the first time. After watching this video (of four guys manually sorting them quickly) it looks like the angled layout is actually one step shy of actual gameplay, giving the players the opportunity to sort their own rows to some degree, I wonder.
I’d like to find more of this kind, to see whether it stores three sets of tiles? Seems like that would just be more moving parts to need replacing (or perhaps that was the idea on the manufacturer’s part! heh)
