March 2008
3 posts
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Doing the Math
Sadly, it’s looking like Clinton has reversed much of Obama’s “momentum” with the press going into tonight’s primaries. Most predictions are that she’ll win Ohio and Rhode Island handily and at least tie in Texas, leaving only Vermont clearly in the Obama column. However, Obama’s lead in the delegate count is so high at this point, that even if Clinton...
The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors →
This article is a few days old now, but still a worthy read. Turns out people are happier when they let some of their options go. Even though letting go of options seems irrational, and it greatly pains people to do it, letting a door close is the rational choice if the goal is being most productive with the options we do leave open. (NYT) ~Amy
February 2008
50 posts
The World Will End in 5 Minutes
God help us all: At 5:30 p.m. Eastern time today, all 7,100 Starbucks locations in the United States will close their doors for three hours. ~ Matt
Obama's pragmatic idealism
Noam Scheiber argues that Obama’s policy team is all about real-world results rather than ideological purity: For example, one key behavioral finding is that people often fail to set aside money for retirement even when their employers offer generous 401(k) plans. If, on the other hand, you automatically enroll workers in 401(k)s but allow them to opt out, most stick with it. Obama’s...
This Hits Close To Home
~ Matt
Oh, no →
Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Ralph Nader is running for president in 2008. Citing American disenchantment with the two-party system, Nader announced his third presidential run this morning on “Meet the Press.” Sure, Americans may be disenchanted. But they’ll be no less so with another white “American hero” as their president. If Nader siphons off enough Democratic...
Move Over, Oil, There’s Money in Texas Wind →
It is so exciting to see more investment in wind power! Apparently, the Times has been running a series on alternative energy… more on this when I’ve woken up! (NYT) ~Amy
Search continues for missing Middlebury College... →
A Middlebury freshman is missing. Please follow the link for more information.
Timewaster of the Day
Well, there goes my productivity for the afternoon. Consider yourself warned.Spin the Black Circle ~ Matt
Hate to quote Huckabee, but ...
zachklein:If we end up with the (tax) rebates, we’re going to borrow the $150 billion from China. And when we turn it into rebates, most people are going to go out and buy some consumables like a pair of shoes that they probably don’t even need, but they’re going to buy them, and they’re most likely an import from China. My point is, whose economy are we stimulating when we do that?-Mike Huckabee,...
Obama's Accomplishments
In response to Chris Matthew’s idiotic “gotcha” interview with one of Obama’s supporters, a guest-blogger at Andrew Sullivan’s site has posted a great rundown of the Senator’s legislative accomplishments to-date: Last night, Texas State Senator Kirk Watson, an Obama supporter, was embarrassed on national TV when he couldn’t name any of Obama’s...
“What I was clearly talking about was that I’m proud in how Americans are...”
– Michelle Obama, on her recent comments about being “proud” of her country. Well, that’s not a very exciting explanation. Maybe Bill O’Reilly will decide not to lynch her after all. Or maybe Bill O’Reilly will stop making lynching comments period. Not that I want to...
Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain →
This is awesome! It looks like the skinny, geeky, D&D-playing boys are being edged out by smart girls who design web pages, keep blogs, and run online businesses. They’re not just sparkling up their Myspace pages - many of them are teaching themselves html code, and one girl has had more than half a dozen paying advertisers on her weekly podcast. It’s great to see well-adjusted...
Leave us a comment!
Hi Mom! (We’ll leave this ambiguous, to be certain all of our readers feel included here.) You can comment on our blog posts now! Click on the link that says “[x number] Comments” at the lower right corner of each post, type your comment in the box that says “Type your comment here,” and hit post. [Incidentally, if you are not either one of our mothers but somehow...
Batting 1.000 here
Just a reminder that no one should ever listen to any predictions I make about the election. My Virginia prediction: Clinton’s been making a push in Virginia over the last week, though, so I’m a bit skeptical of the polls there. I don’t doubt that Obama will walk away with the win, but I’m not convinced his margins will be as large as some are predicting. And my Wisconsin/Hawaii prediction: In...
Paging Joe McCarthy
Over at National Review’s blog, Lisa Schiffren does her level best to insinuate that Obama’s parents (and by extension, Obama himself) were dirty, stinking commies:[A]ll of my mixed race, black/white classmates throughout my youth, some of whom I am still in contact with, were the product of very culturally specific unions. They were always the offspring of a white mother, (in my...
Speaking of hyper-critical America-haters...
James Lileks goes on a bit of a rant today:Love of country must always be qualified these days, lest anyone think you are unaware of slavery, insufficiently regulated railroad stock offerings, Lester Maddox or the attempt by Philip Morris to conceal the addictive nature of cigarettes….We are an exceptional nation, to be sure, but you can’t leave it at that. We are exceptionally misguided,...
Michelle Obama Gaffe
This is a major gaffe, in my opinion, and I think she (and Barack) are going to get beaten over the head with it for a long time to come. James Joyner rounds up some blog reaction to it, and offers his own analysis, which I think pretty much hits the nail on the head: “It’s not that Left hates America; few do and I can’t imagine the Obamas are among them. But there is a strain of the...
Food for Thought (courtesy of The Omnivore's...
What cows are meant to eat: Grass, more or less exclusively. While humans and other single-stomached animals can’t digest grass, cows have evolved to be able to do so, courtesy of an organ called the rumen. The rumen serves as a “twenty-gallon fermentation tank,” in which bacteria help digest the grass, turning it into protein for the cow. There are good ecological reasons to...
BYOB part deux: Why I don't buy bottled water...
Something everyone should read… dihard: Mainly because I don’t like being taken advantage of. The bottled water industry is a $46 billion dollar industry. Americans bought over 31.2B liters of water in 2006. It’s a colossal waste of money for what comes out of the tap. It’s not always natural, nor is it spring; most of what you’re buying (25%, or so I’ve read)...
Update: Harvard Research to Be Free Online (NYT) →
Roger Clemens' Congressional Testimony
Pitcher Roger Clemens received a grilling before Congress yesterday over his alleged involvement in the on-going Major League Baseball steroids scandal. Here’s an excerpt from his testimony: Clemens: You want answers? Congressman: I think I’m entitled. Clemens: You want answers? Congressman: I want the truth! Clemens: You can’t handle the truth! Son, we live in a...
Did you know...
… that a new power plant opens in China every four days? From CNBC this morning. ~Amy
NY Times Round-up: Articles you should read!
Michelle Obama Takes to the Trail. A very well-written profile of a very impressive woman. See the comments from my Civ Pro professor, Martha Minow. I Love You, but You Love Meat. Apparently picky-eaters and carnivores do not attract! An interesting look at how people view food and relationships, including quite a few nuts with very specific requirements. Limbo for U.S. Women Reporting Iraq...
Re: The Mac Pro
As usual, Macs win the Mac vs. PC comparisons! See the whole explanation here. (via Marco) marco: We don’t use Macs and Mac software because of the eye candy. We use them because of the design. Design and eye candy are very different — design is a combination of how it looks, what it does (and doesn’t do), and how it works. Use a Mac for 6 months, and you’ll wonder why you ever used anything...
Woohoo!
Ok, this one’s pure geekery, and I really can’t wait!
Very Cool (or very geeky!)
Straight-Talk Express
Here’s what Senator McCain had to say about waterboarding and harsh interrogation techniques during a CNN debate back in November: “I’m astonished you would think such a torture would be inflicted on anyone we have held captive and how anyone could believe that’s not torture. It’s in violation of the Geneva Conventions. It’s in violation of existing law. And Governor let me tell you,...
Harvard Proposal to Publish Scholarly Research... →
Harvard’s faculty are considering whether to publish most of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences scholarship online, making the work available to the public free of cost. The program would be an opt-out program, contrasting the current system that allows professors to publish online if the affirmatively choose to do so. The debate surrounding the issue has focused on a variety of areas:...
Bad News for Ethanol
Michael O’Hare wrote: “There is now more than good reason to expect that no biofuel from seeds, possibly none (even cellulosic) grown on land that could grow food, will reduce global warming if substituted for petroleum products. …The first piece of the puzzle is the recognition that if a piece of forest is cut down, or natural grassland plowed up, to grow biofuel, decay and/or...
The Big Winner Last Night
MSNBC article: “Typically at a dog show such a Westminster, with 169 breeds and varieties taking part, it all comes down to two groups — the judges’ choice and the people’s choice. But this time, everyone was on the same page as a spunky little Beagle named Uno became America’s top dog for 2008.” ~ Matt
“We are bringing together Democrats, and Independents, and, yes, some...”
– Sorry Matt, I think I’m in love with Barack Obama.
Looking Ahead
Assuming Obama does as well as expected in today’s primaries, the media narrative seems to be that his momentum is becoming unstoppable and Clinton’s only hope of derailing him is to build a firewall in Ohio and Texas on March 4th. I’m not so sure of that. I think next week’s Hawaii and Wisconsin contests could prove more difficult for Obama than expected. In Wisonsin, an...
Jesus Beer
Wow. I’m guessing they’d really hate this product line then: ~ Matt
Report: Retailer halts sales of 'Jesus' cosmetics →
Topshop stores in Singapore pulled a line of “Looking Good for Jesus” cosmetics after receiving complaints from Roman Catholic shoppers. Products pulled included “Get Tight with Christ” hand and body cream and “virtuous vanilla”-flavored lip balm. Turns out the 675,000 Christians were less than thrilled with the trivialization and sexualization of their Lord...
Rating the Pollsters
Speaking of polls, here’s a chart from Survey USA showing how accurate some of the big-name pollsters have been so far: /hattip Kevin Drum ~ Matt
Potomac Primary Polls
Today is the so-called “Potomac Primary” (anyone else sick of the catchy names for these things?), and it looks like Obama has a good chance of pulling off another clean sweep. On the heels of his convincing wins in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington, Maine, and the Virgin Islands this weekend, the polls have him well out in front in all three of today’s primaries. In Maryland,...
Hail to the Geek
First post! To kick things off, I had planned to discuss the delegate allocation rules for the Democratic Convention, but I ended up surfing the Net and watching Season 2 of The Office last night instead. So, I guess the politics will have to wait. For now, I’ll take the easy way out and just post a song - Hail to the Geek, by the Deaf Pedestrians. Kind of appropriate for a blog, right?...
Can Sugar Substitutes Make You Fat? →
Turns out that we may eat and/or absorb more calories when we eat artificially-sweetened food than when we eat naturally-sweetened food (i.e., sugar). That’s what happened with animals, anyway. No one’s ready to recommend banning artificial sweeteners from our diets entirely, but it’s worth remembering that diet soda may not be entirely “healthy”. ~Amy