I’ve done this before when I had a bunch of random US-UK tabs open in my browser window. In the spirit of the game, I will leave them in the random order they’re in, and not edit the order to group things on common topics, hopefully creating an interesting non-pattern.
- MIT student pranksters “rickrolled” the institution itself. I wonder if the Cambridge, US police were as health-and-safety conscious as the Cambridge, UK police?
- A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer. Ugh, the really ugly side of the American tendency to blend religion and politics even though they are supposed to have separation of church and state. (Ahem. Try that again, even though WE are supposed to have… what, have I forgotten the color of my passport? Sheesh.)
- Former president Jimmy Carter dares utter the word “racism” in the context of the vitriolic partisan politics eating at America right now. I’m not sure what I think, but it’s gotta be a possibility with some of the ahem more senior members of congress. My grandparents would say the most shocking things in a most innocent way at times, they really grew up in a different era. Although, come to think of it, Jimmy must be the same vintage as my grandparents, has he become enlightened?
- Fantastic commentary on hidden socialism in America… loved it, loved it. It exposed yet another one of the US/UK differences that I had not thought about before but find fascinatingly and utterly reversed: America has ’socialist’ education, it is state supported by taxes and open to all, and University entry uses affirmative action to balance the scales. In the UK your performance in school (and likely your performance in and after University) is highly tied to your parents’ ability to send you to a posh private school to prepare you for your Oxbridge entrance exam. Yet Americans are against universal access to health care and constantly complaining about the NHS???
- People may criticize American sports stars for their behavior both on and off the field, but this was truly deplorable: a British rugby star first used a fake blood capsule to get off the pitch and then asked the doctor to cut his lip so it would really bleed… and the doctor did it! Cheating, anyone? Think the stakes are lower in British sport than in American?
- A jerk (congressman) yelled at the president during a televised speech on healthcare and then tried to argue he should not be rebuked for his disruption. Note: if you are a Maureen Dowd hater I’d encourage you to read this regardless, it’s quite even and not so shrill compared with some of what she’s written, and there are some interesting tidbits in there that I had not seen elsewhere. Of course, what he actually said was child’s play compared with a British politicians and their, ahem, vocal tendencies in the parliament (like the whole “living proof that a pig’s bladder on a stick can get elected to Parliament” comment, which apparently is now equally applicable in Congress in the US as well.)
- Finally, Thomas Friedman on how the US is the leading supplier of equipment for producing solar panels… but the equipment is all installed overseas, although not in Britain (for obvious reasons to do with the lack of sunshine, I’m sure!) Again, not a big Friedman fan but I am a HUGE fan of Advanced Materials, probably have an old grad school friend or two working there, and thus I’m not one of the people he addresses in the first sentence who have “probably” not heard of AM.
There we have it, bits and bobs for a crazy Thursday. I took my team to the pub tonight to introduce a few new recruits, and it turns out that if you count passports, birthplaces, long-time residence locations and birthplaces of parents, we are a mini-United Nations with all 6 inhabited continents represented, most more than once, and a remarkably complicated set of allegiances. This I love about my line of work. Although it just reinforces my relatively new prejudice that I get along best with people who have also been expats or closely allied with expats…
5 responses so far ↓
Kat // September 17, 2009 at 10:02 pm |
Just a quick point, my aunt in the states wouldn’t dream of sending her kids to public schools. In fact they go to one of the most posh schools in the area we are from. My cousin, he wants to go to Notre Dame (also pretty posh) and it will all certainly follow him after graduation. So, really there is just as much choice in the US as UK. Their success is definitely going to be influenced by what Mom and Dad can afford.
kurmudge // September 19, 2009 at 2:36 pm |
Supplementing Kat, I think it is criminal that the access for the poor to a decent educatuion is blocked in the US by politicians who are tools of their big money contributors. Washington DC is mostly minority, its school system is horrific, every leader in the town from the mayor on down (all minority) supported the low-income voucher program. The new leader came to town, sent his own kids to the toniest private (in the UK it would be “public”) school, Sidwell Friends, and then, upon orders of the public school teachers union that had bankrolled much of his campaign, shut down the low income-only voucher program over the begging of the parents whose kids had been promised that they could finish at their cuerrent schools. This was one of the slimiest acts by any politician in recent US history- despite campaign promises to the contrary. And people wonder why we don’t believe them regarding global health care budgeting?
The Darwin film could not find a distributor because it is a sure money-loser. I couldn’t list a distributor who is not an enthusiastic Darwinist (or one who actually knows aything whatever about the subject, very much like the producer of the film). Every film in the US that makes money in the theatuh these days is either a Pixar animation for kids or a slam-bam SFX thriller with females in tight costumes oriented toward 13 year old boys. Someone show me the last historical drama of this type that made money or drew any audience. This producer is just trying to gin up a controversy to promote the film.
And the congressman was rude and boorish, he properly apologized (more than once). Then he refused to do so for the 3rd and 4th time because it was by then a political stunt. And regarding the actual topic of his original rude heckle (far milder than what is commonplace in the House of Commons), he was correct. The US House had voted down the enforcement mechanism twice, and after the issue came to light as a result of this incident, Pelosi ran back to try to cover their tracks because of the new media scrutiny.
These things are all usually more complicated than the headlines make them out to be.
Howard // September 21, 2009 at 12:14 pm |
> Of course, what he actually said was child’s play compared with a British politicians and their, ahem, vocal tendencies in the parliament
> And regarding the actual topic of his original rude heckle (far milder than what is commonplace in the House of Commons)
Point of clarification here: (1) MPs are not allowed to accuse each other of lying *. If they do they are asked to apologize, or risk being banished from the Chamber for a while.
(2) They don’t intervene when being addressed by the Head of State. Heckles and interjections only happen during debates and Question Time.
* there’s an articcle about it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2009/09/unparliamentary_or_unamerican.html
notfromaroundhere // September 21, 2009 at 7:42 pm |
Howard, we are in some strange zen place of non-confrontational discussion! And thanks for the link, that was extremely informative. I read the bbc pretty regularly but had missed this one!
Howard // September 21, 2009 at 8:22 pm |
> Howard, we are in some strange zen place of non-confrontational discussion!
It’s great, isn’t it!
> And thanks for the link, that was extremely informative.
You’re most welcome, NFAH!