So let's go back, way back, to the time of March 18.
Asshat of the Week (March 18):
There were actually so many asshats this week that our nominees skewed to the asskickers in compensation. But that's not to say one didn't shine through!
Boy, how did this take so long? Sarah Palin makes her first appearance on the blog after denouncing the National Endowment for the Arts. In the interest of not working ourselves up to a frothy rage in which all we can do is stutter half-obscenities and break whatever we're holding at the time like that one guy on Passions, that's all we're going to say about that.
Asskicker of the Week (March 18):
The Miami Hockey team, which won its first CCHA tournament championship and brought the Mason Cup to Oxford. And the last CCHA tournament championship, maybe, since the Big Ten has broken off now and we're losing half the teams in the conference. And OK, maybe a picture of Miele or the whole Brotherhood would be more appropriate, but c'mon. Rico looks pretty badass there.
The SuperMoon. The moon came its closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit, and due to some orbit timing, this was the closest it has been in 18 years.
(Now, here's where this gets a little tricky, and hence the delay.) The coalition of nations working from the UN Security Council enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya, with special mention to President Obama for setting the "no boots on the ground" rule immediately with regard to U.S. troops. Now, these sorts of military excursions in the Middle East often feel a lot better at the beginning than they do at the end. But certainly it should go on record that the pressure building up through the past few weeks was incredible, and Gaddafi shows no signs of letting up on killing his own people even now. So now, a few weeks later, there's more skepticism about this... but something had to be done. And even though there are always negative repercussions to military action, this at least went through the UN.
The engineers who worked in high radiation levels to reconnect power cables to the overheating Fukushima reactor. The human and economic toll from the earthquake is stunning, and the threat of nuclear disaster (while miniscule in comparison to the damage wreaked by the tsunami) certainly was doing no favors to the morale of the country or the world by awakening all sorts of nuclear ghosts. We still don't know what the result of the increased radiation will mean for the people working at Fukushima-- probably an increased risk of cancer. But they've been problem-solving away despite the breathtaking violence done to their country, and in the process preventing further catastrophe. Engineers. They're awesome.
Jane McGonigal, who after recovering from traumatic brain injury using game mechanisms is using video games to make the world a better place. On the premise that to reach a better world, you have to imagine a better world, Jane makes and fosters the creation of alternate reality games: some to imagine the world the day after we run out of oil, others to make helping other people in real life part of a game mechanic, some to encourage exercise, others to encourage healing, all to foster "the whole range of human emotion." She recently delivered the keynote at PAX. Kick on, all!
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