Hero Joy Nightingale is a young woman living in the UK who has “locked-in” syndrome, a congenital disability that makes it nearly impossible for her to speak or move.  Hero is also a writer of immense talent.  Her essays are full of dry humor and poignant observations of her own life and its daily struggles.  She has a keen sense of how others perceive her and she is blunt in expressing her own fears and frustrations.  She used to edit a webzine entitled From the Window, which included guest essays from Kofi Annan and Stephen Hawking.  She made mention of plans to attend Oxford in 2003, but she seems to have fallen off the Web since then.  If anyone knows what happened to her, I’d love to know. 

A new study done by the University of Minnesota reveals that atheists are the country’s most distrusted minority.  I continue to find it amusing that some people try to accuse atheists of promoting some sort of secular religion, the ultimate aim of which is to turn every church to rubble and legally mandate bacchanalian orgies in front of every elementary school in America.  I read one post somewhere on the Internet that said, “Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.”  While I long for the day when atheism isn’t regarded as malevolent ideology, I will not waste my time writing screeds exhorting the masses to abandon faith and embrace humanist ideals.  But this study might prompt me to shelve any political aspirations I might have.  Instead, I might have to infiltrate the staff of some innocuous Unitarian or Congregationalist and use his or her office to promote my godless agenda. 

 

I do get some comfort from the fact that liberal men are better in bed, which assures me that there is some small degree of justice to be found in the universe. 

 

Lots of Hollywood movies like to dress themselves in fancy, vaguely cryptic titles that are designed to convey said film’s profundity and deep symbolism.  Think 21 Grams.  Think House of Sand and Fog .  But some movie titles exhibit sheer brilliance in their elegant simplicity.  Witness:

 

 

It’s about snakes.  On a plane.  What more do you need to know?  Since it stars Samuel L. Jackson, it might more appropriately be titled:

 

Snakes on a Motherfuckin’ Plane

 

If you are so incredibly dense as to require an overview of the plot, here’s a trailer.  I didn’t go to midnight showings of any of the Star Wars or Lord of the Rings films, but I totally want to see this movie at midnight with a large group of irony-gifted friends.  The sheer levels of absurdity implicit in film’s title leave me feeling giddy and lightheaded.  I’m also beginning work on plot treatments for the slew of shamelessly derivative movies that are sure to cash in on the original’s success.  Tell me what you think of these titles:

 

 

This one’s a little more highbrow:

 

Escaped Penguins from a Secret Military Weapons Program in a Motherfuckin’ Art Gallery

I may be meeting with a City of Minneapolis official in the next few weeks to discuss plans for making the city’s forthcoming WiFi network accessible and affordable to people with disabilities.  Here’s the idea I’m currently toying with.  The city will be contracting with one or more private providers to operate the network.  I’d like to see the contract include a provision that requires the provider(s) to set aside a certain amount of money for an “assistive technology fund.”  People with disabilities who live in Minneapolis and meet certain income guidelines could access the fund to purchase a computer and/or assistive technology to use with that computer.  In addition, the monthly subscription fee for accessing the network would be discounted for qualifying people with disabilities.  I’d love to see a computer distribution system for all low-income residents, but people with disabilities face additional challenges because they may not be able to easily get to a public terminal in a library or community center.  Furthermore, those computers may not be equipped with the appropriate assistive technology specific to a person’s disability. 

 

My first task is to research any existing best practices in terms of making municipal WiFi accessible and affordable to people with disabilities; I’m not expecting to find much since municipal WiFi is still a nascent concept.  But anyone with ideas or leads on best practices should definitely send them my way.