Archive for October, 2007
James Howard Kunstler
One of my favorite topics to think, discuss, and write about is the geographic framework of modern America. (Suburbs). A major contributor to my interest obsession with this topic is James Howard Kunstler, author/lecturer/blogger champion.
I saw Jim give a lecture once in Madison and was struck by how succinct and logical his thesis is (it helps that he’s an entertaining speaker). I followed up by reading a few of his books and I’ve been sold ever since. His main points are thus:
- Our current preferred habitat (suburbs) are not designed for humans. They are designed for autos. This is foolish, ugly, and causes psychological unrest.
- The American auto-culture is unsustainable due to oil scarcity and environmental destruction and we need to re-learn how to live in a lower energy intensity mode.
Of course there is more to it, but you should really do yourself the favor of reading one (or more) of his books. I suggest The Geography of Nowhere and The Long Emergency.
Filed under culture, energy, suburbs : Comments (0) : Oct 30th, 2007
Leopard
I received my copy of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) today. FedEx had it delivered by 10:00am and it was installed by 11:30. I haven’t had time to play with it too much, but I’m liking what I see thus far. I believe 2008 will be another good year for Apple.
[update Oct 28]
I’ve been using Leopard for a few days now and can report some of the features I really like. First off, I’m a big fan of stacks on the Dock. I can now instantly find applications or recently downloaded files. Nice.
Another big hit is the web clips for Dashboard. Any public website (sites requiring user login don’t seem to work) can be instantly parsed as a widget using Safari and Dashboard. Thank you, Apple!The new Finder features are hit-or-miss. Coverflow is a miss. Quick look is a hit. All in all, I like the new look & feel of the Finder and feel that the pluses outweigh the minuses.
And finally, to answer Dillon’s comment, I have indeed enabled my flux capacitor and pushed the iMac up past 88 mph so I can use Time Machine, the new backup software. I hate the interface, but it works as promised. I’m now patiently waiting for a hack to ditch the lame starfield theme. (And yes, I’m still using Mozy)
Filed under technology : Comments (2) : Oct 28th, 2007
The other side of the internet
I post quite a few videos on this site, but they usually appeal to the nerdy, geeky, internet-ys sub-culture. Tonight I’m going to shake things up a bit. Enjoy!
Filed under culture : Comments (3) : Oct 28th, 2007
Bumper Stickers
Filed under Milwaukee, culture : Comments (0) : Oct 28th, 2007
Taxes vs. Federal Spending
I’ve had a hunch for a long while that the distribution of Federal resources isn’t exactly. . . fair. (Gasp!) What’s more, I feel frustrated by the apparent disconnect between the people who assail Federal taxation and those who receive the most benefits. I’m especially worried about this as we enter a period of massive water shortages in the south east. But that’s for another day.
Consider the following:
What do you notice about the distribution? Does it seam fair and equitable? Hint : the colors are not random.
Please ponder this chart and reflect as you hear politicians from either side discuss their Federal spending policies. Who’s really benefiting? Who’s really paying?
[Source: Tax Foundation]
Filed under economics, politics : Comments (4) : Oct 25th, 2007
Shirt Hack
I took a copy of my favorite Johnny Cash photo
and screen printed it onto a shirt (by hand!). I’m pretty happy with the results. What do you think?
I’ll put up a how-to here on tadfad sometime if there’s demand.
Filed under culture, frugal, hack : Comments (5) : Oct 24th, 2007
Optimize your organic shopping
It’s no secret that organic foods generally cost a bit more than their factory-farm counterparts. (This is due largely to the fact that more of the costs are internalized in the cost of the food. . . but that’s for another post.)
The best practice would be buying 100% organic, 100% of the time. If you’re like me, that’s tough to do. Instead, wouldn’t it be nice to optimize your organic purchases to get the maximum value for your dollar? Of course it would!
Well you’re in luck! The Environmental Working Group has researched and published a comparative ranking of popular fruits and vegetables. They’ve identified the foods with the highest levels of pesticides (buy those organic!) and those with the lowest.
But wait! It gets better! Act now and you can get a handy wallet-size guide [pdf] for your reference next time you’re in the grocery store.
All for the low, low price of $0. Isn’t the internet great?
Filed under environment, frugal : Comments (0) : Oct 23rd, 2007
Ron Paul on gay marriage
I watched the last Republican debates on Youtube tonight and found it very enlightening. My first reaction was how simplistic many of their answers were. Almost childish at times, if I dare say so.
When I heard Ron Paul’s response to the gay marriage question, I was delighted. Finally, someone has acknowledged the fundamental flaw in our age old debate about marriage: government shouldn’t have its nose in our marriages at all, whether they be gay, straight, or otherwise!
Marriage is currently a conflagration between a civil contract and a religious vow. Government should be concerned with the former and leave the rest to the churches. Civil unions for all, and marriage for those who choose to have a ceremony in a church.
But don’t take my word on it, here’s Ron Paul:
Filed under culture, politics : Comments (2) : Oct 22nd, 2007
U.S. Funding Priorities
It’s a sad day when you can’t pay for children’s health insurance because you’re too busy killing children:
$35 billion is too much to spend on children’s health, because since some of the children covered weren’t poor enough!
Bush Requests $46 Billion for Wars
$46 billion, on top of $142 billion in February, bringing the grand total north of $1 trillion. The purse is bottomless when you’re spending to kill.
This isn’t rocket science here, folks. You can’t run a platform of low taxes and small government when you increase spending for the military at every turn. Just think what [a small portion of] $1 trillion could have done to invigorate the green energy industry in the U.S., revolutionize education, or transform our aging infrastructure into something to be proud of.
And let’s not forget that since we started this military spending adventure in the middle east, our precious tax dollars have lost 30% of their value against the Euro.
To put it another way, the 2003 dollar that Bush so courageously refused to collect as taxes is now worth €0.70. Gee, thanks.
Filed under economics, politics, war : Comments (1) : Oct 22nd, 2007
The internet is for . . .
I’m on call for work until 3:00am tonight. Not the best (but not the worst). I’ve been drinking coffee and keeping myself busy. Here’s a quick update:
- I tweaked the iPhone version of my site to include a link to reddit. (Cheers, Dillon!)
- I tweaked the regular version of my site to include links to digg/del.icio.us/reddit.
- I confirmed that one of my favorite web comics allows hotlinking.
I know that internet humor can be really hit-or-miss, but I really enjoy xkcd’s dry geek humor. Maybe you will too?
Filed under technology : Comments (2) : Oct 18th, 2007
