Shea posted a hilarious anti-breastfeeding article pro-Nestle Fake Milk Formula to her Facebook status with the usual heavy response to anytime this type of topic comes up – from both pro-breastfeeding moms and those who weren't able to or aren't as worked up about the prevalance of formula in our society.
It made me think, what are the most controversial topics you can bring up with someone to guarantee a good argument (or awkward silences):
– religion/atheism
– politics
– abortion
– euthanasia
– parenting
– breastfeeding
– social programs (pick one)
– economic programs (pick one)
– pornography
– sex
– gambling
– anything to do with races/gender issues/sexual orientation and all that fun stuff
– why the Leafs suck so badly (okay, nobody disagrees about this! 
)
So anyhow, that's a long way of saying that I hope Shea posts this article about the completely different attitude towards breastfeeding that exists way around the world in Mongolia (although if you did a study, I'm sure the attitudes in Mongolia are much more common worldwide than the typical North American way of doing things – baby breastfeeds for maybe 3-6 months if they're lucky or else mom says she just wasn't able to do it – which might be true but you shouldn't admit in the same article that you “didn't realise how much work breastfeeding would be” or mention that being able to leave baby with grandma and grandpa for a night out is a nice bonus as was the case in the article Shea posted to her Facebook.)
Head Tale
If It Was Good Enough For Genghis (And A List of Controversial Topics)
I'm Turning 17 Today – Tell Me Some Things You Wish You'd Known At My Age
Saw this question posed on AskReddit. Lots of good tips/advice no matter how old you are.
Glenn Beck Rapes and Murders Web Memes
If you're fortunate enough not to know, Glenn Beck is the latest TV talking head in the US in the Bill O'Reilly/Rush Limbaugh mould (mold?). He's getting a lot of attention recently, posting the largest viewership gains of any cable news host and being the driving force behind the Tea Bag protests (“Hey Bevis, Heh, He said Tea-bagger. Heh-heh. Heh.”)
Anyhew, someone decided to turn his “when did you stop beating your wife?” rhetorical style against him by setting up a site called GlennBeckRapedAndMurderedAYoungGirlIn1990.com.
This article talks about Beck's attempts to have the site taken down (and why that approach may backfire) as well as providing some deeper thoughts on web memes, trademark law and what is permissible in terms of satire of public figures.
Music Monday – "Death may come invisible, or in the holy wall of fire/In the breath between the markers, on some black I-80 mile."
A fan-made video for a haunting Conor Oberst song (warning: there are a couple graphic images near the end)…
WILIS Project Preliminary Results
The Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science (WILIS) study is a major research project happening at the University of North Carolina.
Here's a blurb from their web site's “About Us” page:
“Workforce Issues in Library and Information Science (WILIS)
project is designed to study the career patterns of graduates of LIS
programs. In general, LIS programs have lacked the time and resources
to track their graduates. As a result, stakeholders do not have an
adequate understanding of what happens to LIS graduates over the long
term. LIS educators, in particular, do not have consistent data on the
extent to which their programs meet students’ expectations, prepare
them for the workplace or meet continuing learning needs. Such an
understanding would assist in educating and managing the LIS workforce
more effectively.”
The University of Western Ontario is one of the participating schools and I was one of the grads asked to take the survey which I did tonight.
Preliminary results from the project are now online if you're curious.
Saturday Snap – Now That's Enthusiasm!
Came across this photo on the official Sask Library Association page on Flickr – a shot of the judges for the Library Olympics event which was held after the Awards Banquet with one judge in particular showing a high level of enthusiasm.
Friday Fun Link – My Parents Were Awesome (Oct 9, 2009)
I think I sort of blew Pace's mind the other day when we were talking and I said “Daddy used to be little like you are now.” You could see the wheels turning and then he replied in a slightly awed voice, “Daddy no big? Daddy little?”
Yep.
Being a father really brings home how things repeat themselves. I remember spending hours as a kid looking through a shoebox of unsorted family photos my parents kept in the cabinet in the living room. And I'm sure that someday Pace will look at the millions of digital photos we're now taking and laugh at Shea's and my funny hairstyles and outmoded fashion sense.
Except I'm sure that Pace's equivalent of the somewhat ironic but lovingly done My Parents Were Awesome web site will take some form that I can't even imagine today – just as I'm sure that the parents whose photos are submitted to that page never could've imagined that their photos would be seen by thousands of strangers around the world.
An Annual Tradition On This Blog Somewhere Around This Time of Year
Well, definitely last year anyhow and I think back in 2006 too from the look of things. I'm sure I did this in 2007 too but the post wasn't tagged, keyworded or referred to in any identifiable way. (Uhm, NP: “First Snow of the Year” – Hawksley Workman by the way.)
Breakdown of NHL Opening Day Rosters
An interesting graphic of how different NHL teams break down by region/country, size, weight and age. I'm not going to do the math but I'll just assume that, with 40 players for a population of a million people, Saskatchewan is still the most heavily represented jurisdiction in the NHL on a per-capita basis, both on an annual and also an all-time basis.
Freedom to Read (Among Other Things)
I missed the end of Banned Books Week but meant to post this story – not just because it does a pretty good job of capturing the importance of Freedom to Read as a core principle in libraries – but also because it contains perhaps the greatest opening paragraph in a newspaper story of all-time:
“So much for the stereotype of library ladies as cardigan-wearing
schoolmarms, all pinched and prudish: Ottawa Chief Librarian Barbara
Clubb has just come out in defence of instructional guides for anal sex.”