Category: general

Eric Burns and the Magazine Man are both from New Hampshire…and both of them are also extraordinarily prolific and fabulous writers. Is there something in the water up there?

Tycho’s gonna be a father.

I always kind of assumed that Tycho wasn’t the type to have kids, that the closest he’d get to parenthood would be corrupting his niece, and perhaps Gabriel the Younger. So this post (scroll down to “I Have An Announcement To Make”) took me completely by surprise. Of course, he wrote it with that intent, didn’t he?

Congratulations, Tycho and Brenna!

The Micro Compact Home (via BoingBoing) is available anywhere in Europe.

The micro compact home [m-ch] is a lightweight, modular and mobile minimal dwelling for one or two people. Its compact dimensions of 2.6m cube adapt it to a variety of sites and circumstances, and its functioning spaces of sleeping, working – dining, cooking, and hygiene make it suitable for everyday use.

Further details are available here.

It’d be hard to host a party in one of those…

I find the idea of a tiny house, with just as much room as you need and nothing more, very appealing. At the same time, this flies in the face of everything I’ve grown up believing (bigger is better, etc.), so I have a hard time reconciling myself to the notion.

Mi Rancho, at Belair and Columbia Road, is awesome, and here’s why.

I had “La Favorita”, which is a chicken enchilada, a beef burrito, and something with beef and beans and a pile of guacamole. (I may be wrong about which was the enchilada and which was the burrito…I’m not really a connoisseuse of Mexican cuisine.) I had water to drink and fried ice cream for dessert.

Sean had a half order of Nachos Supreme, which, for a half order, was still quite a few freaking nachos. He had iced tea to drink.

Service was fantastic, as usual. Our meals arrived promptly, and we of course had plenty of chips to enjoy in the meantime.

Our bill, for food that totally and pleasantly filled us to the brim? Including tax and tip?

Fif. Teen. Dollars.

$15.00! We could have easily paid double that amount at another Mexican restaurant, for similar or even inferior food and service.

Sean and I were just sort of staring at our check, wondering how it could possibly be right. We found our entrees, each around $5. Drink, $1.50. Dessert, $2.00. ($2.00! T.G.I. Friday’s would have charged at least $3.95 for that ice cream.)

The check was right…Mi Rancho had done it again. Fast, attentive service, delicious food, and low, low prices.

For dinner at a sit-down (not fast food) restaurant, that’s tough to beat.

Ampontan at Japundit has a fabulous (as always) run-down of what’s happening politically in Japan right now. Koizumi has thrown up quite a few nontraditional candidates to run against the LDP members he ousted, including several women and a popular entrepreneur, Takafumi Horie.

It would be nearly impossible to find a candidate anywhere in the country guaranteed to attract as much media attention as the man they call Horiemon. A high-school dropout and self-made millionaire in his early 30s, Horie is the president of the Internet company Livedoor. He first gained public attention last year during the furor over the planned contraction of Japanese League baseball teams from 12 to 11 (and possibly 10). Horie offered to buy one of the teams, but the owners, led by the autocratic Tsuneo Watanabe, rejected his bid out of hand. The public viewed the baseball owners’ rejection of Horie’s offer (and their efforts to contract the league) as perversely stubborn and typical of the shortcomings of the old way of doing things in Japan. This created a classic old/new, hidebound/progressive contrast that won Horie public and media sympathy and support. A new baseball team was eventually formed after two others were merged, and Horie, though denied the chance to buy the new team, was widely credited with rekindling public interest in Japanese baseball.

Media interest in Horie more than redoubled earlier this year with his 80s American-style attempt to take over the Fuji Television network. Backed by the American firm Salomon Brothers, Horie made his move by buying up stock during off-hours trading. The entire process became a continuing daily soap opera on Japanese television and a media sensation. Though Horie failed again, he forced Fuji to make concessions to shareholders, and Livedoor and Fuji formed a business partnership in May.

It’s not easy to compare Horie to public figures in other countries, but try to imagine a combination of the star power of a young, ungeeky Bill Gates with wide public support and a Donald Trump who wasn’t such a jerk.

Global Voices Online mentions Horie in a roundup of Japanese blogs.

All I can say is I’m rooting for Koizumi. The man is brilliant. Plus he’s got balls the size of the moon. He’s just what’s needed to shake up the Japanese political system. It’s very exciting and inspiring to me to see this kind of reform taking place in a government that has too long suffered from bloat and complacency. I’d rather like to see something similar happen here in the U.S., but I’m not sure that’s really possible.

Japan Today: 6-month-old girl dies from heat in car while mom plays pachinko

Peachtree City is looking to bring in a new weapon against the kudzu threatening the life of its trees: goats.

The city is trying goats because it is believed they will be cheaper than using chemicals to fight kudzu, an ever-expanding weed considered a pest in much of the South.

The chemical approach would cost $16,750 per acre a year if 100 acres were treated, according to research by the City Council’s staff. But the goats would cost only $2,500 per acre.

Sounds like a plan…

I’ve heard that only 1% or 2% of Japanese people actually ever climb Mount Fuji, though I have no idea if those statistics are accurate. Whatever the true percentage, an Internet apparel retailer seems to be seeking to raise it.

The company will be sending executives up the mountain on August 24. Anyone hoping to get a job with the company must come along–interviews will take place at dawn at the summit.

“We are aiming to be the No.1 Internet retailer, so the No.1 mountain in Japan is very suitable,” said Yoshifumi Tsunada, head of public relations for Image Co, the parent company of ImageNet Co., which will do the hiring.

“A lot of people have said we are strange though.”

It’s easy for a lot of people to pretend that global climate change is not occurring. The hot summers we’ve been having in recent years can be explained away as flukes, or dismissed because “it’s been hotter”. Other possible effects–mild winters, an increase in tropical storms–can also be ignored, because they don’t have a significant effect on people’s lives, or they don’t affect a significant amount of people. Shortsightedness is rampant and even understandable; when all’s said and done, global climate change isn’t all that apparent in the 48 contiguous states.

This is not the case in Alaska.

In many ways, this separated US state is the frontline in the global warming debate. Environmentalists say the signs of climate change are more obvious there than perhaps anywhere else in the US.

Dan Lashof, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defence Council, a respected Washington-based group, told The Independent: “People in Alaska are starting to freak out. The retreat of the sea ice allows the oceans to pound the coast more, and villages there are suffering from the effects of that erosion. There is permafrost melting, roads are buckling, there are forests that have been infested with beetles because of a rise in temperatures. I think residents there feel it’s visible more and more, more than any other place in the country.”

[…]

Mr [Lindsey] Graham, a [South Carolina] Republican, said he had been moved by what he had seen. “Climate change is different when you come here, because you see the faces of people experiencing it. If you go to the people and listen to their stories and walk away with any doubt that something’s going on, you’re not listening.”

I don’t think it’s arrogant to believe that what we do has an effect on our environment. We have profoundly changed the face of our planet in the thousands of years we’ve been here. While we might not be in a position to fully understand the effects of our actions, we must be diligent in evaluating them.

By now, clinging to the idea that we’re not causing any harm is the same as clinging to fossil fuels. Neither of these notions will serve us in the long run. It’s well past time for us to grit our teeth and take some hits in the name of preserving our children’s future.

Slashdot links to this just-for-fun quiz: Is Your Boss a Psychopath?

From Slate’s Dear Prudence:

Prudie would like to take this opportunity to state that oral sex is sex. There is some kind of new-age thinking among kids that oral sex is not sex. This is like saying that shoplifting isn’t stealing because you’re not robbing a bank.

I used to know someone with that opinion…

:>

I haven’t done a thorough analysis or anything, but I’m starting to wonder if there isn’t a trend in my comments. Every now and then, all kinds of strangers will start posting out of the blue (and yes, three people is “all kinds” to me. My readership is small). These people typically only post once (to my knowledge) and then never return.

I’ve wondered why that is for some time, but it only occurred to me today that it might be directly linked to whenever I post about hotly contested current events. While these people don’t necessarily comment on the shackle-raising post, they may choose to linger for a bit to see if there is something they want to comment on. Finding such, they do comment, but then find nothing further to hold their interest, and surf away.

This is highly probable, I believe.

The idea of doing searches for blogs that discuss a particular topic, and then going there to post a comment and never return seems pretty boring to me. I’m typically not interested in reading someone’s blog unless it’s something I’m willing to subscribe to. (By this I mean that the blog is both well-written and engaging, and no, well-written does not mean it has to be grammatically perfect.)

I can’t imagine trolling zillions of blogs all day just so I could share my opinion. I’d rather just post my opinion here and be done with it.

In any case, for awhile I was concerned about the readers I was failing to entice to stay, but now I don’t think I care all that much. Trolls belong on forums ;>

Apparently it’s news that the BTK killer referred to himself as “a monster”.

Well, of course he did.

Do you honestly think he feels any real remorse? If he did, surely he would have killed himself by now. No, he’s saying he’s sorry because he wants to live. He’s trying to escape being killed in prison.

If he could be, he’d still be out there. He admitted himself that he already had an eleventh “project” planned before he was caught. He’s not worried about whether or not he’d kill again. He’s just worried about dying.

It’s too bad the death penalty can’t be applied in this case.

Astounding! According to a new study by Stefano DellaVigna of the University of California, Berkeley and Ethan Kaplan of the Institute for International Economic Studies at Stockholm University, the introduction of the Fox News Channel into the market had no statistically significant effect on who people voted for, or voter turnout. (Via Drudge.) Apparently, people can think for themselves! This is bad news for those on either side who like to use the media as a scapegoat.

When they made statistical adjustments to hold constant differences in demographic characteristics and unemployment, and looked at differences in voting behavior between towns that introduced and did not introduce Fox within the same Congressional district, the availability of Fox had a small and statistically insignificant effect on the increase in the share of votes for the Republican candidate. Thus, the introduction of Fox news did not appear to have increased the percentage of people voting for the Republican presidential candidate. A similar finding emerged for Congressional and senatorial elections.Voter turnout also did not noticeably change within towns that offered Fox by 2000 compared with those that did not.

[…]

Why was Fox inconsequential to voter behavior?

[…]

The professors’ preferred explanation is that the public manages to “filter” biased media reports. Fox’s format, for example, might alert the audience to take the views expressed with more than the usual grain of salt. Audiences may also filter biases from other networks’ shows.

The tendency for people to regard television news and political commentary as entertainment probably makes filtering easier. Fox’s influence might also have been diluted because there were already many other ways to get political information.

I’d like to see a few studies on the Internet’s effect on voting. I think that’s where the real story is.

I was all confident and determined back in this post, but I haven’t gone to class since. I’m pretty sure I know why: the week I went, Sean was on his 1 to 10 pm shift, and I had nothing to do. Since then, he’s been on 9 to 6, meaning that he gets home around the time bellydance class starts. During the time I would be getting ready and driving to class, I’m usually starting dinner.

(Last night’s dinner was fantastic, by the way–I made a roast with vegetables, mashed potatoes, and Mom’s homemade rolls, which turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself.)

So anyway, I’m not sure how I want to deal with this. Do I want to try to make dinner early and leave it for Sean while I go to class, or do I just want to give up on going to class? It’s only one night a week, so I feel kinda stupid missing it, but at the same time, it’s kind of an accomplishment for me that I’ve been getting dinner ready at around the same time every night, and I would hate to throw that out of whack.