Posted by Joanna on 09 May 2008 | Tagged as: the wave of the future
BFF just sent me this link to this video about consumer jet packs - available this year!
I’ve complained before about the lack of jet packs before, but i can’t link to it because I’m still trying to get my 2007 archive back up.
Posted by Joanna on 08 May 2008 | Tagged as: the christ
Saw this in an alley in Harrisburg, PA a few weeks ago with my future sister-in-law Anne. It must have been a vision just for us because we walked by later to show The Bro and The Lord was gone. But here’s our proof. It still makes me laugh every time I see it.
Posted by Joanna on 04 May 2008 | Tagged as: the market
After three months of criticism - and sometimes outright ridicule - at Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo, Microsoft slinks away rebuffed. The consensus seems to be that the marriage would not only not provide much value but would create something of a bureaucratic nightmare. My buddy Tim Lee pointed out the importance of cultural differences between the two companies when we talked about it last week. That would have been a difficult integration.
Posted by Joanna on 04 May 2008 | Tagged as: the wave of the future
A few things I learned about recently.
I just bought an expensive bottle of worm poop at my local hardware store, but I was looking for something other than miracle grow to feed my indoor herbs i recently planted for use in cooking. Apparently it’s the Nantucket Nectars of fertilizer - a couple of Princeton grads figured out how to emulsify worm poop and bottle it. As an added bonus, it’s actually bottled in reused 2-liter soda bottles that they collect at local drives. I had to laugh, then i forked over twelve bucks to bring it home.
In my Flow Yoga newsletter (Flow Yoga being my yoga studio, which was recently named the best one in DC btw), I learned about 41pounds.org - a nonprofit that contacts direct mail companies on your behalf to get your name removed from lists such as catalogs and credit cards and gets your junk mail reduced by 80-95% for five years. Fourty-one is based on the fact that the average American receives about 41 pounds of junk mail each year. And, cleverly, for $41 they’ll work their magic for you. They provide the service and donate to your favorite charity when you sign up.
Posted by Joanna on 01 May 2008 | Tagged as: the nondescript
Posted by Joanna on 29 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: the christ, the political
I’m watching The Daily Show and Jon Stewart just made fun of Sen. Brownback’s comments at an abstinence hearing. Brownback said the culture does not promote with the Brownback family teaches.
Stewart:
“In the Brownback family, we teach that boys have a God Stick and girls have a Shame Cage and we don’t say another word about it.”
True Love Waits, Bitches.
Interestingly, I read today that 51% of Latina girls in America get pregnant before they’re 20. The identified reason is that there are lots of misconceptions plus general ignorance about contraception.
Gotta run - Newt’s on the show.
Posted by Joanna on 25 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: the political
“The whole ethanol thing is depressing. It’s so dumb that our government tries to put all its eggs in one basket [ethanol], only to find out that the basket is wrong and we’ve wasted a lot of time and money.” -Sister
Yes, my sister is in the medical field but apparently has her thumb on the pulse of politics as well. We talked last weekend and she was cracking me up with her summaries of the Presidential campaign and - of all things - ethanol subsidies. It’s not something I’ve paid much attention to because I knew the premise of it was false. But I was browsing Knowledge Problem today and got caught up on the general discussion. It appears “wrong basket” conclusions are becoming more frequent:
In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Lester Brown and Jonathan Lewis seem overly generous in their interpretation of the motivations for the now-obvious-failure of ethanol policy in the United States:
“Food-to-fuel mandates were created for the right reasons. The hope of using American-grown crops to fuel our cars seemed like a win-win-win scenario: Our farmers would enjoy the benefit of crop-price stability. Our national security would be enhanced by having a new domestic energy source. Our environment would be protected by a cleaner fuel. But the likelihood of these outcomes was never seriously tested, and new evidence has shown that the justifications for these mandates were inaccurate.”
I must have missed the analysis indicating that ethanol was intended to create crop price stability. I thought the hope was always that the policy would push food prices up. Isn’t that how increases in demand work?
Also, the national security argument for ethanol always struck me as false. We import most of our oil from Canada and Mexico, and with oil a fungible product in an international market, it is hard to see just how some other nation might wield oil-withholding as an offensive threat.
Possibly the move to increased ethanol could have lead to environmental improvements, but biofuel mandates are a bad way to implement policy even if it were true that they produced benefits. As a practical matter, the environmental arguments for ethanol have always been mostly a smokescreen. Ethanol policies were never popular in Iowa because of their potential for improving air quality in Los Angeles or New York City. “Food-to-fuel mandates” always smelled like political pork to me, so I guess I’ve never had a generous opinion of the motives of its political supporters.
And now we’re freaking out because food prices are shooting through the roof.
Posted by Joanna on 23 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: the government schools
No, not troops in Iraq. According to Ed Week there’s a school choice “surge” going on. Apparently there are new programs quietly cropping up in states, and from the success rates it appears that quiet is the better strategy (instead of painting our asses white and running with the antelope, as an old boss used to say).
Georgia keeps popping out surprises:
If Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue signs the legislation passed earlier this month, Georgia will become the sixth state to offer tax credits for donations to private organizations that give vouchers to students for private school tuition.
The legislation would offer credits of up to $2,500 to families, and even more generous credits to companies, equivalent to the maximum value of their donations, although there’s a statewide $50 million cap.
the GA legislature enacted a special needs voucher last year. it’s been a rough road since the Utah defeat but it looks as though the choice idea is unsinkable. i wish we could skip to the part where we start to see real innovation on models. almost everything is still a variation on the traditional theme.
Posted by Joanna on 23 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: the wave of the future
everyone’s got Green issues these days - meaning publications devoted to proving their Enviro-hipness.
a friend pointed me to the NYT Magazine Green Issue. we both think Green Hype is lame but secretly love the advances in technology. So I skipped right to the technology section titled “Invent” (right after “ACT” and “EAT”). those of you in my vicinity have probably heard my CFL bulb speech. and I KNEW i’d read something about federal legislation dooming incandescent bulbs.
Voila:
By 2020, all bulbs in the United States must use 70 percent less energy than incandescent ones do today. (A conventional bulb converts only 5 percent of the energy it uses into light; the rest is released as heat.) In the short term, consumers will very likely turn to compact fluorescents, or C.F.L.’s, which already meet the new efficiency benchmark. C.F.L.’s, though, have their own drawbacks: their coil-shaped “bulbs” emit what some consider to be a cold, blue glare, and they contain small amounts of mercury, a toxin.
that five percent figure is hard to believe. what a waste.
I’ve been reading a lot about solar power. It looks like in the next 5 years that sector could really break through and start seriously replacing our other power sources. more on that later.
Posted by Joanna on 23 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: the arts
I watched 2 surprisingly great movies this week on television.
I was absolutely riveted tonight to a film called “Conversations with Other Women.” Helena Bonham Carter (whom I love) and Aaron Eckhart give fantastic performances in this movie about love, marriage, and memories. Clever editing enhances the wonderful script. Netflix it immediately.
Also a surprise - “Return to Paradise” from 1998 also with great actors. Vince Vaughn, Anne Heche, Joaquin Phoenix, even Jada Pinkett Smith. Great acting and a compelling and emotional story about friendship and sacrifice.
UPDATE:
Almost forgot - I saw “The Singing Revolution” at our local indie theater last weekend - excellent documentary on Estonia’s heroic struggle for freedom from the Soviet Union. Go on the website and put your email address in - they’re doing a road show based on local demand. And if you’re here in DC go see it - I think it’s still at E Street.
Posted by Joanna on 07 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: the culture, the market
FINALLY we’re getting a little past this myth of the worth of college. Nick Gillespie over at Reason quotes Charles Miller, head of the Dept. of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, in his new calculations about the lifetime earning premium on a college education which used to be known as $1 million.
Miller says it’s more like a $279,893 differential (using his own as an example). Why? Among other things, because the costs are so astronomical.
If we actually judged graduates coming into the workforce on their knowledge and skill, that number would probably go into a negative differential. But we’re too lazy to reevaluate the proxy.
I sometimes get push-back on my anti-college rants from people (AHEM, Ray, *cough* *cough*) who retort that I wouldn’t go back and undo my college degree if I could and that it’s an easy criticism for me standing on the other side of a college experience.
My response is that I had a good school experience that was by no means a mainstream one. I left early because four years is too long and I was anxious to get into the workforce. While there I studied abroad, had great relationships with my professors, and was involved in student leadership. More importantly, I lived on a DRY CAMPUS with no co-ed dorms. It was a calm, disciplined environment. Most importantly, it was $12,000/yr in tuition.
So I think I have some credibility on this argument. I basically agree with all Camile Paglia’s criticisms about college being is now a 4 year summer camp for extended adolescence.
UPDATE: Unrelated but related, Little Bro sends this over from the NYT about the boon in philosophy majors. I think it’s actually a good discipline. if done well, it’s one of the few degrees left that teaches kids how to write and think.
Posted by Joanna on 04 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: the culture
I thought I just wasn’t nerdy or blog-savvy enough to appreciate the insane amount of links in various blog or news posts but I’m glad to hear it bugs the crap out of other people. This is money from Jack Shafer at Slate
who goes through his linking pet peeves:
Only slightly less maddening are the sites and writers that think a links package that reads “click here, here, here, and here for more” is an inducement to visit additional pages. If a writer is too lazy to indicate where the link is going to take me, I’m too busy to click.
Thank you! Especially when it’s all self-referential, like “I’ve talked about this before here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.” Wtf??
Posted by Joanna on 29 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: the district
I wanted to go down to the Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin today but it’s too cold! 52 degrees. Of course it was like 70 yesterday. I may bundle up later and go anyway…I bought a bunch of picnic items for me and My Boy to sit under the blossoms and enjoy!
I made an early run for Trader Joes this morning. I always forget about the one on 25th street in Foggy Bottom and end up in a rut going to the Giant all the time. But I stocked up for some yummy meals for next week - seasoned fish fillets, red snapper, fresh produce, and of course 4 bottles of 2 Buck Chuck!
Posted by Joanna on 29 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: the wave of the future
I had no idea this was possible! I remember hearing about this possibility years ago from Vernon Smith (Nobel-prize-winning economist at GMU).
I’ve got to call Pepco to find out if I can do this in DC. The only thing I can find on the website is a press release from 2006 about them doing a pilot of Smart-Metering technology.
The Galvin Power Initiative has “5 Things You Can Do” for reducing energy consumption, one of which is smart metering so that you can keep track of pricing throughout the day and use less energy during peak times. Apparently federal law requires it, so I’ll do more investigating.
via Knowledge Problem.
Posted by Joanna on 29 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: the culture
two steps back. my favorite TV Channel, Spike TV, is starting a series called “DEA” - reality show about “the drug war.” It pisses me off every time I see a commercial, which is during every break while i’m watching CSI. It totally sucks. Those guys are not heroes! The images are of drug raids and DEA agents ramming open people’s doors. It’s so awful.
We get The Wire, which shows the drastic reduction of violence with a wise cop decides to allow drugs to be sold in a certain area, and then this - a show documenting a horrible war on our own people that fills our prisons to overflowing as if it has the moral equivalence of “Cops.” Total crap.
Posted by Joanna on 26 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: the political
Here’s Tim Lee’s Wright post from Monday for a different perspective.
Obama handled the situation expertly, but I agree with HRC - he wouldn’t have been my pastor.
Posted by Joanna on 26 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: the political
the NYT has a fantastic opinion article on McCain today. I haven’t been covering much on the Republicans because it’s not nearly as interesting now that McCain has the nomination it the bag. But this is a great observation that hits close to home:
Seeming to view himself and the whole political process with a mix of amusement and bemusement, Mr. McCain is an ironist wooing a group of individuals who regard ironic detachment more highly than sincerity or seriousness. He may be the first real postmodernist candidate for the presidency — the first to turn his press relations into the basis of his candidacy…
The notion that our system (in fact, life itself) is faintly imbecilic is a staple of “The Daily Show,” “The Colbert Report,” “Real Time With Bill Maher” and other liberal exemplars, though they, of course, implicate the press in the idiocy. Mr. McCain’s sense of irony makes him their spiritual kin — a cosmological liberal — which may be why conservatives distrust him and liberals like Jon Stewart seem to revere him.
Cosmologically liberal?? I want to be that!!
This is especially true among DC types - I mean the twentysomethings that run this place. Irony and sarcasm are highly prized and prevalent in the realm of journalists upon whom we rely to document our daily world. The blogosphere has been a huge influence on this - the massive infusion of opinion and ironic detachment finally rescued us from the self-serious, god-like news anchors many of us grew up with.
I saw this yawning gap at the AFF panel a few months ago on the Presidential election. The Romney guy was so sincere, serious, and sweet. In short, he was a total flop with all the precocious, ironic young people.
Do I think McCain would be a decent President? Sure. But more importantly we need symbolic shift after 8 Bush years. I don’t care about his age so much as I care that it’s time to rebalance things - cosmologically, if you will.
Posted by Joanna on 25 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: the government schools
This is how we should all feel about federal involvement in education - observe the young girl on the right:
from The Root - thanks to ck.
Posted by Joanna on 24 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: the political
As goofy as I find the collective infatuation with Barack Obama these days, I’m very glad he’s running for President. I’m glad because it forces us to face things we would prefer to ignore in American culture.
Information continues to surface about his upbringing and community and the people he surrounds himself with. The shocking negativity of his wife and now the racism and kook conspiracy theories of his Pastor reveal an incongruousness that forces us to wonder about the authenticity of his inspiring (yet malleable) messages. More than that, it reveals to us a part of America that has too long been ignored.
Mark Steyn at The New York Sun soundly condemns and clarifies the importance of the Pastor Wright controversy:
Free societies live in truth, not in the fever swamps of Jeremiah Wright. The pastor is a fraud, a crock, a mountebank — for, if this truly were a country whose government invented a virus to kill black people, why would they leave him walking around to expose the truth? It is Barack Obama’s choice to entrust his daughters to the spiritual care of such a man for their entire lives, but in Philadelphia the Senator attempted to universalize his peculiar judgment — to claim that, given America’s history, it would be unreasonable to expect black men of Jeremiah Wright’s generation not to peddle hateful and damaging lunacies. Isn’t that — what’s the word? — racist? So much for the post-racial candidate.
Many of us have known for some time that these kinds of messages are spread regularly in the black community. Yet as a nation we turn a deaf ear and continue to patronize the impoverished with government assistance and low expectations. But these things need to be brought to the light of day and rebuked. Larry Summers was forced to resign because he observed differences between genders, and yet political correctness at the same time demands we allow men like Reverend Wright to spread lies and paranoia because we presume it’s an integral part of black culture.
Obama is now guilty of this as well in refusing to distance himself from it. He likens it to not disowning his white grandmother. After walking an incredibly fine line throughout his campaign avoiding being too black for white folks and too white for black folks, he is now attempting to go a step further in fusing together the cultures that he straddles and that both run through his veins. He may get away with it thanks to our willingness to ignore the prevalent pathologies this story reveals. But the problem and the solution, as always, go beyond just race.
Obama cannot disown his Reverend, not because he’s black, because he has willingly participated in his congregation for 20 years. But what he can do is identify and disown the culture of victimization and the impoverished worldview that continues to keep many African Americans in poverty and disarray. He will not do so in unquestionable terms and risk the ostracization and rejection that truth-tellers like Bill Cosby have endured. Either way he deftly reframes the Wright story, we cannot escape the fact that Obama either attended this church purely to prove his “authenticity” as a black man for future political gain or because he believes and is complicit in promoting these views in his community. Neither conclusion is comfortable.
This is Obama’s Ron Paul Newsletter - at the end of the day, by his affiliation he has implicitly endorsed the views espoused in Reverend Wright’s church year after year. Voters, especially those singing the Obama song, would be right to snip some heartstrings.
h/t Montzter
Posted by Joanna on 16 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: the culture
…for not ever having watched “The Wire” but I PROMISE i’ll Netflix it all one of these days and catch up.
Interesting post via Prettier Than Napoleon on women in the show. From what I know of urban culture, it’s entirely true that women are power brokers. I’m surprised the writers of the show did not know that or portray it.
