Efficacy is Not My Concern, Soldier

Goldblum
What a ponderous ingrate, but lovable at that.







I am not sure if I could have more antipathy for Howard Stern. Free speech, well, yes OK, “Free speech, rah rah rah!” “Hell no we won’t go, we support this moron’s show” “You can’t chill expression, man – we’ll just turn up the heat” and all the other exercises in fatuous camera-gesturing – Of course John Stuart Mill was right and all – truth is a collective exercise - except it’s not hard to notice that the only time people burn flags is when Congress is about to make it illegal to burn flags and the only time anything gets said is on accident, when the camera’s hot and the speaker doesn’t know it. Symbol, symbol, set me free, teach me to know liberty!

On a lighter note (if I sound jaded, it's more b/c of sleep issues than H. Stern or speech-related issues:

Japanese Get Fat Penguins to Exercise
TOKYO (AP) -- It's wintertime and the king penguins at a zoo in northern Japan are putting on weight. But the keepers there have a solution: exercise.
Authorities at Asahiyama Zoo are taking the penguins on 500-yard walks on the snowy grounds twice a day, said zoo spokesman Tetsuo Yamazaki.
"Just like in humans ... the fat accumulates during the winter months, and the blood-sugar level rises," Yamazaki explained from the zoo, 570 miles northwest of Tokyo.
The zoo's 15 king penguins aren't exactly obese. Penguin winter weight varies from 33 pounds to 40 pounds, said zoo official Kazunobu Maru. So far, only one of the flock is 40 pounds, he said.
The reason for weight gain is natural, zoo officials say.
"In order to withstand the cold, the penguins have a habit of standing very still during winter months," Yamazaki said, while in the summer they can walk around and swim as much as they want.
To fend off obesity, the zoo instituted the winter exercise program in 2003.
The penguins have tender webbed feet and can only walk significant distances on snow, so the program can only take place during the colder months.
The zoo, on the northern island of Hokkaido, takes the penguins on strolls from December until April. The first walk of the season was Thursday.
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Some thoughts –

It’s 8:00 am. First period starts in fifteen minutes. I have been up for three and a half hours. Something is wrong with my cerebral cortex, is my diagnosis, as to why my love affair with sleep has faded like your mother’s old cotton sundress.

Various scenes from Cormac McCarthy book I am reading involve necrophilic acts, which may account for difficulty sleeping. I am at peace with moving and thinking at half speed, but I do not look forward to the inevitable insomnia aftershock that will hit in about two and a half hours.


Read Brokeback Mountain twice last night, and can’t tell if I see what everyone else seems to see. Second time through, the prose came alive a bit more. Dialogue too.

This is mush. Go have a good weekend.