38 Studios Writes Rubber Check to RI
It just keeps getting better. From the Boston Globe:
Curt Schilling firm to make $1.1m payment, may miss payroll..
Donna Summer at Karate Camp
My memory of Donna Summer is from the 80′s– a class at Special Training, an annual women’s martial arts camp. The teacher, a charismatic and beautiful black woman named Tonie Harris, talked about living in the projects, and finding inspiration in a Bruce Lee film. She wanted to do that too, and fought her way up the belts to the respected title of Sensei.
It was a buzz for me to take lessons from a female sensei. That honorific title had only applied to men in the dojos I belonged to.
Tonie was an inspiration, and very much admired. She mentioned that she was engaged to a man and I heard a sound like ice tinkling– lesbian hearts were breaking all around me.
In my previous experience of karate school, warm-up for classes was an endurance contest. Push-ups on wooden floors to the sound of grunting and Sensei barking in Japanese (with a Rhode Island accent). The female senseis at Special Training were more innovative and inclined to add music to workouts–a new thing for me. Tonie was a big fan of Donna Summer. She played Donna’s hit song, ‘Love to Love You Baby’ to the class of about 100 gathered in an athletic field outside a college gym.
My fellow elderly will understand why I had always found that song embarrassing. But that day I discovered the power of context. I already knew that Donna Summer was a very smart and sensitive woman, from hearing her interviewed on the radio. ‘Love to Love You Baby’ may have meant one thing in the disco. In a room full of powerful women doing kata, Donna Summer’s song was an anthem.
I am sorry for the passing of Donna Summer, but she was a diva. She really lived. She left something beautiful to the world. We should all hope to do as well.
The Human Factor
Is it possible that smart people might mess up their priorities? This is a reminder that a nuclear power plant will require skilled labor basically forever, or until the radioactive fuel is trucked off to a safe place– wherever that turns out to be. From The Boston Herald…
With its current operating license just weeks from expiring, officials at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth sent nearly half their employees home this morning hours after their contract expired, a move dubbed “disgraceful and disturbing” by union leadership as they weigh the plant’s latest offer.
Despite negotiating into the early morning hours, officials with the Louisiana-based Entergy Corp. — which runs the Plymouth plant — and members of Utility Workers Union of America Local 369 failed to hash out a new contract after a month of talks, both sides said today.
That prompted the plant to turn away all of its “non-essential employees” this morning, said union president Dan Hurley, who scoffed at the designation that any worker is “non-essential.”
“It’s a nuclear facility, so I’d think that everyone in there is an essential person,” said Hurley, who helps represent 380 workers at the plant. He said healthcare as well as safety and staffing issues were the major sticking points separating the two sides, and the union plans to vote on Entergy’s latest offer next week.
We can’t keep creating nuclear waste in the belief that future generations will be more rational and selfless than our own. This stuff lasts forever.
And when something goes wrong, corporations vanish and citizens are left with the burden. See Greenpeace on private profit–socialized risk.
Schilling's Company Bleeds Red Ink?
After his heroics in Game 6 of the 2004 American League Championship Series (the “bloody sock” game), and helping the Boston Red Sox win their first World Series in 86 years, Curt Schilling will never have to pay for a drink in a bar anywhere in New England for the rest of his life.
However, if his gaming company, 38 Studios…
Is that Beady-Eyed Potato to Blame? Think Again
There’s more to the story than just a few bad potatoes (and bad potato jokes). Read on:
Donate to RIFUTURE
I met with Bob Plain today and talked about doing some videos to add a little more real information to the political season. I support Rhode Island’s Future because it has helped tell important stories and get needed information to people about what is going on in Rhode Island politics. Donate to them and you will be contributing to a resource for quality content on the progressive political scene.
Hillary Clinton: Face Off
Hillary Clinton, in an event generating even more negative feedback than her 1993 national health care debacle, has appeared in public with minimal makeup, glasses, and au natural hair. The shocking occurrence took place during an official event in Bangladesh, part of her current diplomatic tour throughout Asia.
In an act that brazenly flaunted common decency and decorum, she allowed the world to see the true state of a sixty-four-year-old woman’s face.
38 Studios and the ‘Job Creator’ Logic
The news is not good for the $75 million dollar gamble that Governor Carcieri talked the state of RI into taking. It looks like 38 Studios is already looking for a bailout. From Bob Plain at the RIFUTURE blog:
Will This Make Fox News?
It will be interesting to see how they balance it. Can they distance themselves from Rupert Murdoch and his crew in the UK?
LONDON — British prosecutors said on Tuesday that Rebekah Brooks, a former key aide to tycoon Rupert Murdoch and onetime close friend of Prime Minister David Cameron, will face prosecution along with her husband and four others for perverting the course of justice in the hacking scandal that has burrowed into British public life.
There’s always distraction. Frank Bruni at NYT says that Bristol Palin has a new reality show,’Life’s a Tripp’. She should google some child stars and reconsider putting her kid in front of the cameras. He might end up telling a therapist that he feels like he’s being watched. They have treatments for that.
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