Work on the Kerrang Radio UFO proceeds apace. I’ve sewed up the sides, now I just need to crochet on the bar code part, and finish up a few small bits with duplicate stitching.

But before I do that - why not multiply my workload by 10-20 times? It’s fun!

I’ve seen this fringe in at least a dozen patterns, none of which I can find to link to at the moment. To make it, you need to start with live stitches. In this case, I picked up stitches along the bottom and knit a few rows in the round just to stabilize it. Then:

1. Knit into the first live stitch, and slip it off the left-hand needle.

2. Cast stitches onto the right-hand needle (I cast on a baseline of 10, then randomize the length by rolling a 20-sided die and casting on that number of stitches). I’m just using the super-cheesy backwards loop method.

3. Bind off all stitches until you’re down to just one live stitch.

4. Put that stitch back onto the left needle. K2tog.

5. GOTO 1.

A lot more work, but so neat!

In Random Science News, I recently listened to an NPR story about how red-breasted nuthatches heed the alarm calls of chickadees. I thought this was a well-documented phenomenon, of one species benefiting from the alarm calls of another, but whatevs.

I was much more interested in their secondary discovery, which is that chickadees tailor their alarm calls to indicate the threat level. Like, “chick-a-dee-dee” indicates a low-level threat, while “chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee” indicates a higher threat. The more “dee”s the bigger the threat, you see.

I walked out to the bird feeder and waved my arms around, but apparently I don’t even rate a “chick-a,” much less one or more “dee”s. They just flew away and eyed me from the trees until I went away. Not even tiny, ping pong ball-sized birds fear me. Sigh!

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I received this email from LiveJournal’s abuse team. I appreciate that he took the time to write it up (or that someone did, and then pasted it in as a canned response). I would feel differently about the issue if LiveJournal wasn’t the blogging platform of choice for teenage girls.

—————————
From: LiveJournal Support
Sent: Wed 3/28/2007 9:55 PM
Re: (72) anorexicqueen QC

Dear Erika,

We understand and appreciate your concerns about such communities. Please let us state our position.

Our experience thus far has been that communities such as these, dedicated to discussing destructive behavior, actually do far more good than harm. They allow open and meaningful communication among people suffering from various eating disorders, and allow users to provide support for each other in their recovery. We realize that these disorders can be harmful to the health of those suffering from them, but we must also recognize that the activities being discussed are not illegal.

We fully recognize that anorexia is harmful and that these communities are dedicated to maintaining a lifestyle that has the potential to cause harm. Speaking strictly from a safety and protective stance, we would of course prefer it if none of our users participated in any way in potentially harmful and dangerous activities, and if those communities had no reason to exist. However, we still believe that, apart from being protected as free speech, it is the lesser harm to permit them all.

Suspending pro-anorexia communities will not make anyone suffering from the disorder become healthy again. Allowing them to exist, however, has several benefits. It reassures those who join them that they are not alone in the way they feel about their bodies. It increases the chance that the friends and loved ones of the individuals in the community will discover their disorders and assist them in seeking professional help. It makes it more likely that we will be contacted if a post by a community member is of the kind where we would contact the local authorities. It provides a supportive environment that will, hopefully, lead others on the road to recovery. Ultimately, these communities are, much like other communities within LiveJournal, protected by the ideal of freedom of expression, something we here at LiveJournal are particularly reluctant to interfere with, as long as that free speech does not violate our Terms of Service or the law.

We truly feel that offering an open forum for meaningful discussion is far more productive and helpful than shutting the communities down and attempting to silence their members.

If you feel that any entries in this community have crossed the line to the point where they are actively encouraging others to harm themselves, please let us know by opening a new request following the instructions given in http://www.livejournal.com/support/faqbrowse.bml?faqid=105. We will evaluate the links you provide, and determine if the posts do in fact cross the line of what we permit on our service. However, we will not suspend the community as a whole simply because it is devoted to talking about an eating disorder.

We understand that a great many people find such communities extremely disturbing; we frequently receive requests to shut them down. What we would recommend, with the greatest respect, is that those users simply avoid all contact with communities of this nature.

We thank you for your concern and appreciate your taking the time to write to us about this very sensitive matter.

Regards,
Dan
LiveJournal Abuse Team

Comments (8)

Speaking of pseudo-scientific garbage (weren’t we?) I thought that everyone was on the same page about Enviga, but I just read a blog post extolling its amazing virtues, on a fairly big-name professional blog.

Just to recap the situation:

1. Enviga is produced by the Coca Cola company, in cooperation with Nestle’.

2. Enviga’s supposed calorie-burning benefits were proven by the company’s own research. As a general rule, when a company does its own research, the findings usually come out in the company’s favor. (Funny, that.)

3. CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest - essentially an industry watchdog) is threatening to file a lawsuit against the Coca Cola company unless it drops the calorie-burning claims. CSPI states that “the evidence that Enviga has even a minor effect is weak and inconsistent at best, and that the claims violate federal food law and state consumer protection laws.”

Do yourself a favor and take a pass on the Enviga. Whatever it is, it ain’t science.

Speaking of consumer issues w/r/t corporate hate, I’m two steps closer to switching from Blockbuster Online to Netflix:

1. Netflix carries Maxed Out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and the Era of Predatory Lenders (which, I am given to understand, is a movie that everyone should see). Blockbuster Online doesn’t. Not sure if Blockbuster stores do or not (I’ll check next time I’m there). This is more likely an issue with distribution channels than some kind of grand conspiracy, since Netflix is partial owner of the movie rights.

2. Netflix has a “Suggest a Movie” link. Blockbuster Online’s website and help system doesn’t even acknowledge the possibility that you might WANT to suggest a movie. Why would you want to do that? WE PICK YOUR MOVIES, YOU SHUT YOUR FACE.

But oh, I do so love the way Blockbuster designed their service with the “double up” loophole. For $17.99/month, I can have up to six movies at a time (three of them from the store). However, if the rumors pan out and Blockbuster raises its prices I am so outta there.

Actually, that reminds me that I’m three steps closer:

3. All the staff members at the Anacortes Blockbuster store annoy the hell out of me, each in their own special way.

Comments (8)