Funny new "race relations" comedy movie linked on upworthy.com.
31 May 2013
Friday, May 31, 2013
Rebirth of the Cicada
A great time-lapse film of the US cicada flight this year has been posted on the web. Samuel Orr was the creator. Nice.
Mr. Orr wants to do a feature-length film on the topic and has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund it.
I have really fond memories of witnessing this phenomenon as a boy, vividly remembering its explanation by an adult. I will sadly miss this one due to geography. I hope to see it again, however, in my lifetime. They really are beautiful and their story is amazing.
31 May 2013
Mr. Orr wants to do a feature-length film on the topic and has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund it.
I have really fond memories of witnessing this phenomenon as a boy, vividly remembering its explanation by an adult. I will sadly miss this one due to geography. I hope to see it again, however, in my lifetime. They really are beautiful and their story is amazing.
31 May 2013
The War on SNAP
Paul Krugman has a nice op-ed in the NY Times on the ill-conceived Republican push to reducing funding for and perhaps kill the nations food assistance program SNAP. My wife, who works for a food aid nonprofit organization, often recounts to me the misery that has already been caused by sequestration. This piece is worth your time and your outrage.
31 May 2013
31 May 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Calvin & Hobbes: Times Change
Craig Mahoney has an art show featuring a painting of a now-grown Calvin greeting his old friend. It makes me feel very happy and very sad.
Remember kids: BATS AREN'T BUGS!!!!!
30 May 2013
Remember kids: BATS AREN'T BUGS!!!!!
30 May 2013
Joss Whedon Commencement Address
Writer & director Joss Whedon gave the commencement address to Wesleyan College this year. I like it. An excerpt:
30 May 2013
You have, in fact, already begun to die. You look great. Don’t get me wrong. And you are youth and beauty. You are at the physical peak. Your bodies have just gotten off the ski slope on the peak of growth, potential, and now comes the black diamond mogul run to the grave. And the weird thing is your body wants to die. On a cellular level, that’s what it wants. And that’s probably not what you want.
I’m confronted by a great deal of grand and worthy ambition from this student body. You want to be a politician, a social worker. You want to be an artist. Your body’s ambition: mulch. Your body wants to make some babies and then go in the ground and fertilize things. That’s it. And that seems like a bit of a contradiction. It doesn’t seem fair. For one thing, we’re telling you, “Go out into the world!” exactly when your body is saying, “Hey, let’s bring it down a notch. Let’s take it down.”
30 May 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
The Coming Obamacare Shock?
Paul Krugman has written an op-ed in the NY Times on how he believes Obamacare will indeed shock the country next year.
28 May 2013
28 May 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
The AP and the Justice Department
I'm leery of government interference with the press doing its job. Of course, today I'm worried about the press actually doing its job absent government interference.
There are three sets of actions taken by members of the executive branch of our government that are being called scandals right now: the deaths of Americans in Benghazi last year, the unequal targeting of right wing groups by the IRS, and the Justice Department secretly obtaining communications records from the Associated Press. Of the three, only the last is remotely a scandal.
The first is at best a turf battle amongst bureaucracies. The second is a story of a few players acting wrongly and those above them actually shutting down that wrong-doing once it came to light, exercising oversight of their own domains. (And I am not claiming that mistakes were not made or that government in this case could not operate better on behalf of the people. I am simply saying that there is no scandal present. Only politics can generate a scandal from either of these sets of events.) The third, however, deserves the greatest scrutiny. There is no greater bedrock of what America truly should be than the concept of freedom of the press.
With this in mind, I recommend a column in the Washington Post by veteran national security reporter Walter Pincus. It puts into context the actions of government officials and the members of the press. There were on-going, real-world events that were affected by the leaks in question. The question for us as a society is whether stemming those leaks rises above the threshold of necessity for the government to interfere with the press.
Often, that is an easy call to make. It isn't here.
21 May 2013
Addition: I've read two other pieces on this topic today that are worth your time. The first is by Jack Shafer at Reuters. Expanding on it is a piece at TPM by Josh Marshall.
Addition 2: Second post by Marshall at TPM.
22 May 2013 Addition: I'm going to highlight two more posts. One on the general response by the press to this issue and the second putting these responses in context.
There are three sets of actions taken by members of the executive branch of our government that are being called scandals right now: the deaths of Americans in Benghazi last year, the unequal targeting of right wing groups by the IRS, and the Justice Department secretly obtaining communications records from the Associated Press. Of the three, only the last is remotely a scandal.
The first is at best a turf battle amongst bureaucracies. The second is a story of a few players acting wrongly and those above them actually shutting down that wrong-doing once it came to light, exercising oversight of their own domains. (And I am not claiming that mistakes were not made or that government in this case could not operate better on behalf of the people. I am simply saying that there is no scandal present. Only politics can generate a scandal from either of these sets of events.) The third, however, deserves the greatest scrutiny. There is no greater bedrock of what America truly should be than the concept of freedom of the press.
With this in mind, I recommend a column in the Washington Post by veteran national security reporter Walter Pincus. It puts into context the actions of government officials and the members of the press. There were on-going, real-world events that were affected by the leaks in question. The question for us as a society is whether stemming those leaks rises above the threshold of necessity for the government to interfere with the press.
Often, that is an easy call to make. It isn't here.
21 May 2013
Addition: I've read two other pieces on this topic today that are worth your time. The first is by Jack Shafer at Reuters. Expanding on it is a piece at TPM by Josh Marshall.
Addition 2: Second post by Marshall at TPM.
22 May 2013 Addition: I'm going to highlight two more posts. One on the general response by the press to this issue and the second putting these responses in context.
Monday, May 20, 2013
Boston Strong: "The Shoes"
My sister sent me this from Boston Magazine. The stories of the folks who ran in the marathon and were near the finish line when the bombs went off are quite interesting and often moving.
20 May 2013
20 May 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Buycott Phone App
From Forbes comes information on a new app that informs consumers about the corporate and personal interests ultimately behind the products that they are purchasing. If you don't want to give the Koch brothers or Monsanto your money, this app is for you.
Buycott is available on iTunes and Google Play.
15 May 2013
Buycott is available on iTunes and Google Play.
15 May 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
How the Case for Austerity has Crumbled
How the Case for Austerity has Crumbled by Paul Krugman in an upcoming NY Times Book Review piece is most interesting.
14 May 2013
31 May 2013 Addition: Additional studies have further debunked the austerity claims of Reinhard and Rogoff.
14 May 2013
31 May 2013 Addition: Additional studies have further debunked the austerity claims of Reinhard and Rogoff.
Monday, May 13, 2013
RIP: Antonia Larroux
My sister sent the following wild obituary from the NY Times. Antonia should have met my Aunt Doris!
13 May
13 May
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Spock Mocks Spock for Audi
A new ad for Audi -- at the expense of Mercedes Benz -- features Spocks both old and new. I love it, liking both actors quite a bit. I've owned several Audis and enjoyed each of them. Never owned a Mercedes Benz, but have driven quite a few. Either way, you are driving a nice automobile. First world problems indeed!
7 May 2013
7 May 2013
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Patient Pig, Climbing Goat
Apparently, it is my week for cute animal videos. If you watch this with the sound on, it goes "full barnyard!"
4 May 2013
4 May 2013
Friday, May 3, 2013
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