Monday Therapy: An Australian Safety Ad

Hey Girl, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: A Rant

A few days ago, a woman was about to step into the path of a cab in New York because she was looking the wrong way, and a bystander who was paying attention said, "Hey, watch out!" and pulled her out of the way.  Squishification was prevented, a good deed performed, and life goes on, right?  Right?  NOPE.  Not if the girl is an annoying loudmouth journalist with pretensions of grandeur and if the bystander is Ryan Gosling.  I cannot believe the sheer eye-swiveling extent of the aftermath.

I'm Going to Throw Myself Into Traffic Now, Mmmkay?

No fewer than four people -- including my own dear sweet cousin -- emailed me this news story, so I have no choice but to mention it: apparently Ryan Gosling just saved a woman from being hit by a cab in New York City.  Here's the Gothamist writeup.  I like this quip and this headline.  Anyway, this is getting ridiculous.  Gosling's driving me crazy.  Absolutely crazy.  Could he be more perfect?  Don't answer that.  Because just when I think it couldn't get more unfairly stacked against my ability to resist, he goes and proves again that chivalry lives.  Gah!   

All right, fine, part of me wants to hate Gosling for turning me into a giggling schoolgirl, but some other part of me is having too much fun to care.  There's precious little fun to be had in Nerdpocalypse Now!  And still another part of me is not so secretly pleased that I can still even be a giggling schoolgirl after all this time being a cynical angry grad nerd and research-rat.  Hell, I should probably thank the man!  And as we've discussed before, being a serious scholar and dedicated teacher doesn't mean that you have to give up being a girl.  And if aside from annotated bibliographies and journal articles and academic monographs and conference papers and lesson plans I also like shoes and manicures and lip gloss and Ryan Gosling, FINE.  If you don't think I'm a real scholar because of those things, then I'm not going to bother with you.  OK, back to the delightful Ryan (though I still hate The Notebook and will continue to hate it).


UPDATE 1:  "And how much longer can he keep up this bonkers trajectory of human perfection?"

UPDATE 2: A hilarious open letter to Gosling by a frustrated guy: "Dear Ryan, Please, on behalf of all men, STOP IT! You're making us ALL look bad ... REALLY!? What's next? Are you going to rush into a burning orphanage and rescue babies holding puppies?"

UPDATE 3: Of course the Internet meme must comment:

UPDATE 3:  Behold the ugly aftermath.  I rant about it here: "Hey Girl, No Good Deed Goes Unpunished."

The Curtain Falls on RAF Search and Rescue

See this.  A thought from the report:

“... Everyone who’s looked up and seen a big yellow helicopter with RAF Rescue written on it – you can’t get better than that.  It connects the armed forces with the society from which they are drawn.  Or rather, it did.”

Here is the official website for RAF Search and Rescue.  The end of the road after 60 years?  Some thoughts on possible implications.

William Shatner in "Eat, Fry, Love"

Shatner and State Farm have a delightfully funny but effective cautionary tale about frying turkeys and being careful.  More here.  Have a happy (and safe!) Thanksgiving, everyone!

TED Talk: Bruce Schneier on Security Issues

Halloween Paranoia: the Real Fantasy of Horror

Killjoys with no sense of humor who are busy ruining other people's fun?  Now that's really scary.  Anyway,  here's something to think about:

Throwing/Fetching Sticks is Dangerous for Your Dog

Thus spake a British vet. Is there no limit to the determination of "health and safety advocates" to crush the fun out of every part of life? Not even poor Fido is safe from the reaches of the nanny mindset.

Japan Recalls 1 Million Bottles of Sake and Shochu

The rice-based liquors could be contaminated with tainted rice. Here's a bit of the news blurb:

Shipments of pesticide-ridden, rotting rice, intended for use in glue factories, have ended up in the human food chain, principally as ingredients for brewing the national tipple. In the past week more than a million bottles of shochu and saké - drinks made from rice - have been recalled over safety fears.

Taiwan: Authorities Seize 10 Tons of Tainted Milk Powder from China

The tainted milk powder is being blamed in the death of one baby and in the illness of hundreds in China. Taiwanese authorities have seized some 10 tons of the powder that had been exported to Taiwan. A recall is now underway as well, since some of the powder had already been distributed to various cities including Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Pingtung.

So much for "the milk of human kindness."

This is the latest in a long, depressing, and -- quite frankly -- frightening pattern of tainted, dangerous, toxic, or outright lethal food products produced in and exported from China. Moral of the story: for goodness sake (and for health's sake), don't eat anything from China!

UPDATE: AP reports that 400+ babies are sick from the toxic milk powder. The NY Times is reporting that the babies are suffering from kidney problems and that Chinese authorities have detained 19 people.

China: Collapsing Schools and Issues of Shoddy Construction

This isn't good at all. During the recent earthquake in Sichuan province, schools collapsed like houses of cards, crushing and killing numerous children and young people.

But other buildings in the same area often did not fall in the same dreadful way. Are we looking at substandard, shoddy building materials and procedures for Chinese schools?

Here is a blurb:

But the number of student deaths seems likely to exceed 10,000, and possibly go much higher, a staggering figure that has become a simmering controversy in China as grieving parents say their children might have lived had the schools been better built.

The Chinese government has enjoyed broad public support for its handling of the earthquake . . . But as parents at different schools begin to speak out, the question of whether official negligence, and possibly corruption, contributed to the student deaths could turn public opinion. The government has launched an investigation, but censors, wary of the public mood, are trying to suppress the issue in state-run media and online.