The AP & Google Reach Licensing Content Agreement

So for all you J-School kids out there, you might want to take note of this:  Google and the AP have reached a licensing content agreement that will keep the AP’s content on Google.

For those of you that paid attention in JMC 110 & 101 (well, not the grammar 101 class cos I’m pretty sure that really only did cover grammar), the AP and Google News have been having this battle over content and whether or not the news aggregator could continue to post AP articles on their site.

Well, they can.

According to an article on Mashable today, the two parties ended their battle with Google paying the AP an undisclosed amount for the licensing rights to host AP content.

A Week Without Twitter

So, not even a minute ago, Eden drew it to my attention that I tweet way too much.  I have to agree, because as of now I have tweeted 4, 174 times.

4, 174.

And so, in a rather spur of the moment decision, I have decided that I will try to go a week without tweeting anything.

One week. Without tweeting.

I can totally do it! I will triumph!!

And then I will cross it off my list

The Word “Practice”

On my last post, Bella (rentemotion) commented on how people use the term “practicing homosexual” like how a doctor has a medical “practice”. This got me thinking (uhoh…).  Why do they say doctors practice medicine? I mean, the word implies that they’re “practicing” a skill to get better at it, right? Am I the only one who thinks that?

Well, if I am, ignore this. If I’m not, read on gentle readers! (still can’t stop that! It’s too much fun.)

I went over to dictionary.com (for those of you interested, the word of the day is cheechakco which means: a tenderfoot, a greenhorn; newcomer. It is also my new favorite word for “newb” and “newbie”) and looked up “practice”.  According to them, it means:

• to perform or do habitually or usually: to practice a strict regimen.
• to follow or observe habitually or customarily: to practice one’s religion.
• to exercise or pursue as a profession, art, or occupation: to practice law.
• to perform or do repeatedly in order to acquire skill or proficiency: to practice the violin
• to train or drill (a person, animal, etc.) in something in order to give proficiency

So, now I get the whole practicing medicine thing.  What’s confusing me now is “practicing homosexual”.  Does that mean that they’re doing this habitually/usually (which I guess they are), following/observing habitually/customarily (in which case it’s now a religion instead of a sexual preference), exercising/pursing as a profession (so many other issues there…), performing/doing repeatedly in order to acquire skill or proficiency (…), or training/drilling in something in order to give proficiency…

Ok, you know what? I’m just going to stop because this could get really inappropriate really fast.  Either way, it’s understandable why they use the word now. Let’s just leave it at that, shall we?

That’s my word nerdness for the day.  Now I’m off to go finish an essay for the fantastic New Media class I’m taking (expect more on that later…)

Cheers–

Tobie

We Need Asexual Judges

So, while skimming through news articles about the Prop 8 ruling  the other day, I read that the president of the American Family Association said that Judge Walker (the ruling judge) should have recused himself from the case because he is openly gay and that means his ruling wasn’t truly impartial because of that (I’ll try and find the whole quote and post it later).

Thanks to the Box Turtle Bulletin, a blog that reports, analyzes, and fact-checks anti-gay rhetoric, I found the full quote from Tim Wildmon, who continues after this to say that the Judge Walker should be impeached.

“It’s also extremely problematic that Judge Walker is a practicing homosexual himself. He should have recused himself from this case, because his judgment is clearly compromised by his own sexual proclivity. The fundamental issue here is whether homosexual conduct, with all its physical and psychological risks, should be promoted and endorsed by society. That’s why the people and elected officials accountable to the people should be setting marriage policy, not a black-robed tyrant whose own lifestyle choices make it impossible to believe he could be impartial.

“His situation is no different than a judge who owns a porn studio being asked to rule on an anti-pornography statute. He’d have to recuse himself on conflict of interest grounds, and Judge Walker should have done that.”

Well, this makes me wonder what a truly partial judge would have been on the matter.  Because, if you think about it, a heterosexual judge could be partial to heterosexual marriages.  So should they have to recuse themselves from the case?  If you really think about it, the only truly impartial ruling could have come from an openly bi-sexual judge.  But even then, there’s small room for bias because bi-sexuals are sexual beings (try saying that three times fast…) with their own preferences.

This brings me to the point of this post: all cases regarding same sex marriage issues in the future should be heard only by asexual judges.  Obviously they’re the only ones who can be truly impartial on the matter.