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Tuesday, August 30, 2005
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Xeni Jardin:
Flickr user dustin3000 uploads two news photos that show flood victims in New Orleans wading in chest-deep water. In each, a person appears to be dragging a bag or box or two of food or beverages.
The Associated Press caption accompanying the image with a black person says he's just finished "looting" a grocery store. The AFP/Getty Images caption describes the white couple "finding" bread and soda from a grocery store (no stores are open to sell goods).
Perhaps there's more factual substantiation behind each copywriter's choice of words than we know, but the difference in tone also suggests racial bias. Link to comparison, and here are the originals: one, two. (Thanks, Howard)
(Via Boing Boing.)
8:23:51 PM 
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Fascinating before and after pictures, along with maps, showing what has happened in New Orleans.
5:56:03 PM
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Just watching a few minutes of CNN coverage of this disaster in New Orleans. A reporter was saying she saw two men trying to break into a deli, and saw cops on a back hoe come along and force them out of it. I don't know what she meant by force. But what a strange thing to do! Presumably these men were in a dire strait -- how long has it been since they've eaten? A minute later the reporter talked about the lack of fresh water -- isn't there some bottled water and other drinks in a deli? How long is it before there's going to be food to eat? It seems to me that protecting a deli -- which, from the sounds of it, is going to be under water pretty soon -- should have a lower priority than getting food and water in people's bellies.
Later: I forgot to say so before, but I hope everyone reading this makes a contribution to the Red Cross or other organization that can get some help to these folks. Looking at this stuff on TV, and remembering last year in Asia, and remembering 1989 here, and knowing what the earthquake will do to the Bay Area, I remember that it's not unlikely that I, or those I love, will need help one day.
2:48:29 PM
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Session 416 is a fansite dedicated to keeping track of all of the known mirrors for the "River Tam Sessions" viral for the upcoming Serenity movie. Serenity feels like the last movie which would benefit from a word of mouth thing like this, seeing as the only people who get what is going on in these shorts are already completely rabid for the movie, but we bow to the superior marketing ability of teh Whedon.
Session416
Previous mention and description of the Session 416 viral here.
See also:
· The international Serenity trailer
·Serenity wow
(Via Screenhead.)
1:34:36 PM
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The nation's poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year, the fourth consecutive annual increase, the
Census Bureau said Tuesday.
The percentage of people without health insurance did not change.
Overall, there were 37 million people living in poverty, up 1.1 million people from 2003.
(Via The Huffington Post | Raw Feed.)
1:34:30 PM
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Check out this picture of Albireo in today's APOD. This is a double star that's really easy to find and spot under moderately dark skies with a pair of binoculars. And it's a beautiful sight, with the fantastic contrast between the two stars. Of course, it doesn't really look like the APOD photo in binoculars, just two distinctly colored points of light swimming in the black (depending on light pollution) background of space. Go look for it tonight! You'll be glad you did.
11:27:37 AM
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The United States is the wealthiest country in the world. But new data from the Census Bureau shows that more people are struggling just to make ends meet. AP reports:
The nation’s poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year, the fourth consecutive annual increase, the Census Bureau said Tuesday…Overall, there were 37 million people living in poverty [in 2004], up 1.1 million people from 2003…The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold — 11.3 percent of the population.
Sounds like the perfect time for a tax break for Paris Hilton.
(Via Think Progress.)
10:54:42 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Steve Michel.
Last update: 9/2/2005; 10:20:15 AM.
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