tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71622069747289313352012-01-29T12:33:13.430-06:00Daughter Number ThreeA filing cabinet full of stuff I have stumbled across, but can no longer keep in hard copy.Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.comBlogger16161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-13684795413844655842012-01-29T12:32:00.000-06:002012-01-29T12:32:23.931-06:00The Good and the Bad (No Ugly)For the past week, I've been subjecting myself to what is possibly the worst book I've ever read.
Back in fall, when I visited the Minneapolis Book Fair to hear Steven Pinker speak, I stopped off at the table of local young-adult publisher Flux. I hadn't heard of them, but I've since realized they're an imprint of paranormal publisher Llewellyn International.
The woman at the table pointed Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-76551030895819144222012-01-28T11:19:00.000-06:002012-01-28T12:00:49.238-06:00Missing Hyphen Causes Canine ConstructionFrom a friend's Facebook status:
Here is some evidence of their level of doggy can-do:
Insert appropriate dog pun here.Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-23031810655664152892012-01-27T16:49:00.002-06:002012-01-27T16:49:36.445-06:00Packing SnowA few things I've been reading lately:
If you were looking for an anecdote illustrating why standardized reading tests aren't great for evaluating kids' reading ability, this should fit the bill.
For anyone who is or ever was a young woman, and for men especially. This reminded me all too much of my youth.
Why I am mostly glad there aren't more of you reading this.
Now I really must go Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-60370064015376231822012-01-26T19:59:00.002-06:002012-01-26T19:59:32.565-06:00Doing Badly on Charles Murray's Bubble QuizI generally don't take Facebook quizzes that are mentioned by friends. But when I saw one recently that asked How thick is your bubble?, I was intrigued.
Devised by Charles Murray, co-author of The Bell Curve, the 20 questions on the quiz are meant to find out if you live a life that is isolated from "mainstream America." That's the subject of Murray's latest book, Coming Apart: The State of Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-40402228990273267372012-01-25T17:41:00.000-06:002012-01-25T17:41:00.236-06:00Obviously a PlayerOverheard between two young women at a shopping mall:
Woman 1: "Have you ever played Words with Friends on Facebook?"
Woman 2: "What's that?"
Woman 1: "Um, well, you create words. With friends."
And an unrelated followup tweet from Twin Cities writer Molly Priesmeyer:
Words with Friends sounds like the outcome of some sort of assertiveness training seminar. I'd like to try this thing.
For theDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-66335158494333944682012-01-24T20:03:00.002-06:002012-01-24T20:03:37.557-06:00Photo ID, Current Address Not the SameA Star Tribune letter writer in today's paper grumbled about members of "the left" calling voter ID laws racist. Mary McIntosh Linnihan of Minneapolis wrote:
It is virtually impossible to function in today's society without a photo ID -- from the bank to the grocery store to the doctor's office and beyond. Anyone who claims otherwise is not being honest.
Mary, I've got news for you -- you may Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-71779322465543397232012-01-24T13:47:00.000-06:002012-01-24T13:47:00.246-06:00Single-Serve Selfishness
Coffee starts out as a not-so-environmentally responsible drink, due to its long-distance transport and effects on habitat destruction, but the recently popular single-cup coffeemakers multiply the wastefulness.
The convenience of single-serve production means each person can have just what s/he wants, with no need to compromise on a shared pot, god forbid. This could, I suppose, merely be Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-44846058585478096882012-01-23T18:50:00.000-06:002012-01-23T19:29:29.069-06:00Who's at Fault for FoxConn?Next time I start making noises about how we're getting close to a post-scarcity economy, somebody slap me and make me reread this New York Times article about FoxConn, the million-employee Chinese company that makes iPhones, iPads, XBoxes, and most of the other electronic flotsam people like me can't seem to get enough of.
Someone does still make stuff in this world, it's just that those makersDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-76269709063712956242012-01-22T12:05:00.002-06:002012-01-22T12:05:40.988-06:00The Blooms of RegretHuffington Post writer Bronnie Ware, a hospice worker, recently shared the Top Five Regrets of the Dying. It was a bit obvious in terms of its content, but worth reading nonetheless.
However, I can't figure out why the editors chose this photo to promote the story:
What do blackeyed Susans have to do with the subject? Is one of the top five regrets "I didn't plant enough native wild flowers"?
Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-9688292594742998222012-01-21T10:38:00.004-06:002012-01-21T10:40:05.396-06:00Accretive...It May Grow on YouThe story of a consulting firm losing a laptop, risking the exposure of sensitive personal information, is all too common these days. But it's worse when the personal info is unencrypted and contains individual medical details.
And even worse when the losers were basically debt collectors, compiling the information for hospital clients. Their "checklists...included a 'frailty' evaluation, a 'Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-1036247378792965392012-01-20T16:24:00.000-06:002012-01-20T16:26:52.103-06:00Ever Heard of Horsepower?I've written before about the stupid questions submitted to Parade magazine's celebrity column, but genius-columnist Marilyn vos Savant gets her share, too. Last Saturday's column featured a letter from a reader who must have trouble functioning within this thing we call reality:
My husband says that a light fixture with six 60-watt bulbs is as bright as a fixture with one 360-watt bulb. To meDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-19287288043112845292012-01-19T19:25:00.000-06:002012-01-19T20:26:18.028-06:00Old Technology, Young PeopleJohn Scalzi's 13-year-old daughter, Athena, recently encountered her first long-playing album, to her consternation:
I have a few amusing tales of Daughter Number Three-Point-One's experiences with the outmoded as well. Not available on video, alas, but here goes.
First story:
When she was not quite three, she was playing with her dad's 1940s-era Underwood manual typewriter. She plunked Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-73890336923122829522012-01-19T07:38:00.000-06:002012-01-19T07:50:17.245-06:00WHY UPPERCASE TYPE IS HARD TO READBasic web etiquette tells us we shouldn't write in uppercase letters because it's the same as shouting.
But more importantly, uppercase type is much harder to read, especially if it's used for more than a few words. So if you don't want people to read what you've written, by all means, type it in uppercase letters.
For instance, I was watching a TED video by physicist Geoffrey West about Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-61820712964205607572012-01-18T00:01:00.000-06:002012-01-18T08:53:57.951-06:00Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-52290966475302860492012-01-17T14:28:00.000-06:002012-01-17T16:44:13.743-06:00Tabs of RighteousnessThe browser is about to explode once again, so I thought I would post a few.
First, there's this beautiful bit of sarcasm:
I failed once again at finding the original source. It seems to have been everywhere last Friday. Spreading from a post on Reddit, I believe, but not original to that poster.
Next: What Americans Keep Ignoring about Finland's School Success (from the Atlantic). Hint: It Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-40200850129591074412012-01-16T16:42:00.003-06:002012-01-16T16:42:40.402-06:00Only in MinnesotaIf you're not from around these parts, this headline from today's Star Tribune must be pretty much inexplicable:
People around here sometimes forget that our habit of shortening the city name "White Bear Lake" to "White Bear" can have unfortunately comic effect at the most serious times.
The inside headline, which was set in upper and lowercase type, allows the reader to see the initial caps Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-47379679797095878882012-01-15T11:41:00.000-06:002012-01-17T08:38:32.070-06:00A Conversation on Poverty in AmericaIt's worth it to watch the entire two hours and 40 minutes of a Tavis Smiley conversation on poverty in America that ran a few days ago on C-SPAN, but there were three passages that compelled me to transcribe them for my own pack-rat purposes and your reading pleasure.
First, there was Suze Orman. Yes, telegenic financial advisor Suze Orman -- not someone I spend a lot of time with. I was Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-44665367196234632542012-01-14T10:27:00.000-06:002012-01-14T10:29:44.544-06:00Gingrich, in His Own WordsHow's this for divisive?
This morning, NPR listened in while Newt Gingrich spoke to conservative voters in the Greenville, South Carolina, area recently. First the reporter says he told the crowd about his "support for South Carolina's strict new voter ID law that's being challenged by the Obama administration."
And then Gingrich is heard speaking:
"And I think we have to understand their fearDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-48965954732456498872012-01-13T10:15:00.000-06:002012-01-13T10:16:10.821-06:00Headline Goes HereIf I were young and could start over with my collections, one thing I would keep are all the examples I see of "dummy" display text that goes to print. A favorite one I recall from the 1980s was in the Washington Post obituaries; the headline read something like "Slug Goes Here for the Dead Guy."
This recent example from the Guardian isn't nearly so bad, but I love it anyway:
Seeing oversightsDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-15576201776776788192012-01-12T16:37:00.005-06:002012-01-12T16:37:47.955-06:00From Bumper to BumperMore of my latest photo obsession: bumper stickers.
Oh, really?
I hate to imagine.
If only powering cars were that easy.
Past bumper sticker posts:
Stickers of Late
But What Do You Really Think?
Sticking It to Them
Misuse of a Semicolon
Say It Loud, I'm Whack and Proud
Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-8571489131675408772012-01-11T16:41:00.001-06:002012-01-13T10:17:15.520-06:00Hanson Meets Shaw Meets PinkerI recently found a copy of a booklet I made just before I started this blog. It compiled cartoons and articles I had in my clipping file. I gave it to family members for Christmas in 2007. (Lots of copyright violations to accompany the admiration.)
The very first cartoon is a "You Don't Say" one-panel by the Star Tribune's L.K. Hanson.
Seeing it now, I'm reminded of one of my many favorite Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-36607674203908526862012-01-10T18:12:00.000-06:002012-01-10T18:12:06.748-06:00Chalked Food at Seward Co-opWandering through the produce department at Seward Co-op is a chance to see the latest chalk art.
Fruits on one side...
...winter squash on the other.
Created by members of the produce staff.Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-967639387633592032012-01-09T19:00:00.000-06:002012-01-09T19:00:52.887-06:00100 Percent BarbieI won't get started on my opinions about Barbie®, but I just stumbled upon this photo of a full-size version made by a college student to show how unrealistic the doll's proportions are:
The student, Galia Slayen, pictured with Barbie, has personal experience with anorexia and made the figure to draw attention to the problem of eating disorders and body image.Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-44635656514382514532012-01-08T10:59:00.002-06:002012-01-08T11:29:19.751-06:00Admittedly Cynical About the Oklahoma Self-Defense CaseI suppose I should wait for the Law & Order episode based on Sarah McKinley's "pistol-packing mama" story, but I can't resist ruminating about all the things that don't seem to add up in it.
The first version I read about it was from the Los Angeles Times, which gave the outline:
McKinley, an 18-year-old with a 3-month-old child, was home alone in her trailer in rural Oklahoma. Her husband had Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-9444407271243297182012-01-07T14:57:00.002-06:002012-01-07T15:04:26.506-06:00Simulating Poverty to Make a PointThis is a new one for me: the Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches holds interactive poverty simulation periodically, the next of which is this Thursday at the GMCC offices on Lake Street near Chicago Ave.
According to the Star Tribune's Rose French, the simulation is "board-game-like, with up to 50 'players.' They're divided into small groups, each representing a family of five (two parentsDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-11973562529867478262012-01-06T10:48:00.003-06:002012-01-06T17:00:37.272-06:00More than the Minimum on Minimum WageMinnPost's Beth Hawkins has a thoughtful, information-filled piece about the minimum wage in Minnesota. Drawing on state statistics and the work of one of my favorite nonprofits, the Jobs Now Coalition, Hawkins lays it out.
"Under Minnesota law, certain employers can pay just $5.25 an hour, or even $4.90 for youth in training. Never mind that state statistics peg the hourly wage a single, Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-11634800722572935082012-01-05T20:08:00.003-06:002012-01-05T20:08:37.894-06:00Two Many Gender SignifiersI couldn't help but give an extra-girlish "teehee" when I read the words of former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Eric Magnuson in today's Star Tribune:
But what about the male congresswoman and the female congressman, your honor? Don't they count?
Magnuson, now in private practice, is representing the Minnesota Republican party in the redistricting case. One new map, backed by the Democrats, Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-69148928513666519002012-01-04T16:32:00.004-06:002012-01-04T16:32:45.467-06:00The Other PBS Logos
If you ever wondered how the classic PBS logo was designed, check out this short video.
Designer Herb Lubalin talks about the process he went through with his public television client and it sounds all too familiar. It made me wonder how much of a discovery process he had done with the clients before starting the job. But maybe that wasn't how things were done back in the 1960s.
The thing Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-12357310448089433932012-01-03T18:47:00.001-06:002012-01-03T18:48:18.121-06:00Travels with Edo PopVisiting the huge Edo Pop exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Art was enlightening for more than artistic reasons, although well worth it that way, too.
I loved this statement from one of the rooms' explanatory panels:
During the early decades of the Edo period (1615 - 1868), travel in Japan was dangerous and arduous. However, the shogun's requirement that feudal lords spend half their Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-1383450135145878002012-01-02T18:13:00.001-06:002012-01-03T08:41:47.271-06:00What Does "100 Years of Natural Gas" Mean?Maggie Koerth-Baker (science editor for Boing Boing) has a book coming out in April called Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us. But for today she has a post about the problem of estimating how much natural gas is left in the ground.
All things considered, 100 years is not really a very long time. Especially given the fact that estimates like this are Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-21521748136274574272012-01-01T22:27:00.000-06:002012-01-01T22:27:39.084-06:00Panera Shares NicelyI hardly ever give examples of design that I like, so here goes.
Panera's holiday banners (seen in the Cleveland area) are a great example of design coherence without sacrificing visual interest.
The type treatments are completely consistent, but the placement keeps them from feeling as though they're in lockstep. The red backgrounds unify, while the varying illustrations kept me wanting to Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-12860546448797592452011-12-31T19:33:00.000-06:002011-12-31T23:15:53.995-06:002012 – the International Year of CooperativesThe United Nations has named 2012 the International Year of Cooperatives. It's good timing, because these days, we need solutions and not just complaints about the state of things. Co-ops are a business model that works within capitalism in a new way, one that can work for Occupy as well as Republicans.
Lately I've been finding out about the work of historian Gar Alperovitz. Among many other Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-73475567144649498872011-12-30T16:47:00.003-06:002011-12-30T22:26:38.958-06:00Fun with Grocery SignsYes, I really did see this sign at a grocery store:
I still don't know what that is supposed to mean.
Then there's a series of signs I saw at a Weis grocery store. I had the chance to go into their backstock area today, since it's the only large grocery store I've seen that doesn't have a public restroom. Instead, you have to go through a door that says "Employees Only," climb two flights of Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-54384420027501963342011-12-29T15:43:00.000-06:002011-12-29T15:43:01.747-06:00A Cup Full of Shakespearean InsultsVisiting family and I came across this mug of Shakespearean insults. It brought more than a smile to my face.
My favorites:
All eyes and no sight
Not so much brain as ear wax
Canker-blossom (eeeewwwww!)
Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-67669362834581924642011-12-28T17:24:00.000-06:002011-12-28T17:24:36.136-06:00No Place Like HomelandIf you had told me in 1999 that there would be a poster that used the term "homeland security" in a serious way within the boundaries of the U.S., I wouldn't have believed you.
That is all.Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-91688011245882514412011-12-27T14:22:00.000-06:002011-12-27T14:22:00.072-06:00He's the Un LeaderFrom the Pioneer Press last week:
Note to the copy editor (at AP? or at the PiPress?) who wrote this headline: Korean (and Chinese) names place the family name first, so Kim Jong Un's shortened name here should be Kim.
And his given name is Jong Un, so referring to him as Un is pretty wrong. It's akin to referring to someone named Mary Anne Smith as Anne on second reference.Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-11801076083805607372011-12-26T09:30:00.000-06:002011-12-26T09:46:36.803-06:00Boxing Day TabsA possible cure for insomnia that worked, in studies, for 75 percent of insomniacs, vs. only 25 percent helped by current treatments. And it's not a drug. Amazing.
There's no reason to turn off an iPad or Kindle during takeoff or landing.
If you've ever wondered what the difference is among geek, nerd, dweeb, and dork, this is the Venn diagram for you.
In a recent Mother Jones story about Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-22882771925930788662011-12-25T20:38:00.000-06:002011-12-25T20:38:44.007-06:00Christmas Songs and ThoughtsI love most Christmas music, including the strongly religious carols, even though that's not much of a fit with the rest of my life. So I was very struck by this song I just discovered by Tim Minchin, called "White Wine in the Sun." It might become my new Christmas anthem.
Or if not that, the song "Birth of the Rebel Jesus," which Google tells me was written by Jackson Browne. The recording Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-8384724606263956592011-12-25T14:15:00.000-06:002011-12-25T17:55:43.766-06:00An Illustrator Who Turns HeadsLorna Landvik is a well-known writer of fiction in these parts, so it wasn't surprising that the Star Tribune asked her for a holiday-themed short story to run in today's paper. It tells of a girl who receives a doll almost as big as she is, and how she takes it to school after Christmas for show and tell.
I probably wouldn't have read the story if it weren't for the illustration that Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-41991668481417536562011-12-24T11:15:00.000-06:002011-12-24T11:17:35.107-06:00A Film for the SeasonA few facts I never knew about It's a Wonderful Life (from Newsday):
It was launched at a badly thought-out time of year. Premiering on December 20 seems reasonable enough, but like many movies that open late in December, it only played in New York at first, and so the rest of the country didn't get a chance to see it until several weeks after Christmas. Duh.
Compounding that marketing error, Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-69824512174036261362011-12-23T10:53:00.001-06:002011-12-23T10:53:09.237-06:00Lotterman, Soucheray Talk TaxesEveryone knows I love the writing of economist Ed Lotterman, so it's no surprise I found his recent column Property Taxes Prove to Be a Reasonable Burden persuasive. In it, he described his own taxes as a resident of St. Paul and what he got for them (kids educated, streets he can drive on, etc.).
Because he also owns a farm outside of the cities, he has a pretty good idea what it costs to fix Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-81258207438488874492011-12-22T18:45:00.000-06:002011-12-23T11:33:09.843-06:00Santa Runs Like a (rein)DeereArt cars, it seems to me, tend toward over-the-top, but here's a more subtle one I spied on the streets of St. Paul this week:
It's painted like a John Deere tractor.
And its seasonal centerpiece was a nice bit of color contrast. The retro Santa face seemed like a perfect fit with the car's design era, too.Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-88403823716688757022011-12-21T16:54:00.000-06:002011-12-21T16:54:19.236-06:00Wednesday Tab RoundupA few short items for my currently short attention span:
I may just have to print this and hand it out on street corners.
Did you hear this? UC Davis Chancellor Katehi repeatedly ducked calls from one of the students who was pepper-sprayed. Then denied she ducked the student. Then finally met with her, but walked out. Really.
A model of journalistic behavior on MPR's Midmorning: Propublica Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-55716184446571039042011-12-20T21:16:00.002-06:002011-12-20T21:16:44.512-06:00Throw Your Rascal OutYeah, yeah, yeah, Congress has a 9 percent approval rating. We all know that.
But that's not going to result in equivalent turnover at the polls next November, since attitudes toward Congress are similar to the third-person effect: Congress sucks, but my representative is okay, so I'll vote her/him back in.
Right? Isn't that how you feel, for the most part? I do (although Amy Klobuchar's vote Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-89625135240520722472011-12-19T20:19:00.002-06:002011-12-19T20:20:25.328-06:00Good News/Bad News Insect Repellant
Researchers at Vanderbilt University are on the trail of a breakthrough in mosquito repellants. Up to 100,000 times as effective as DEET, the new compound -- called VUAA1 -- is much less harmful to humans and, once in production, could be substantially cheaper.
Use of VUAA1 could make a major dent in the malaria problem, even if a vaccine isn't found. The chemical works by overstimulating Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-9202657294162623402011-12-18T15:57:00.000-06:002011-12-18T15:57:00.705-06:00Break Foot at Tiffany's
My first thought about this ad from the Star Tribune: What a beautiful ad, even on dull old newsprint. The blue color, the atmosphere, the arch above them sheltering the sky like a snow globe, the swing of the woman's coat...
My second thought (almost as quickly but not quite, I admit): I really hate how jewelers exploit visualized romanticism to sell things no one needs that are made from Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-37122219490292234872011-12-17T10:24:00.000-06:002011-12-17T10:26:30.405-06:00PiPress Wins Koch Headline ContestThe Minnesota Republican party has been self destructing lately, and part of the action was the sudden resignation on Thursday of Amy Koch, the Senate majority leader.
Then yesterday, a bunch of her Senate colleagues announced she had been involved in a vaguely described "inappropriate" relationship with a staffer.
This led to the following headline showdown between the Star Tribune and the Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-4273208449391559252011-12-16T16:35:00.000-06:002011-12-16T16:36:22.467-06:00A Four-Year-Old Is in Charge Here
Four years ago today, I took on the identity of Daughter Number Three. Since then there have been 1,568 post.
This photo is from Christmas morning when I had recently turned 4, right in the midst of the Mad Men era. Check out that slot car track; you never saw so many girls (and a woman, my mom) who liked miniature cars that could go fast.Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-57591736035576841992011-12-15T17:08:00.000-06:002011-12-15T17:08:08.229-06:00All in the Family of ManThe other day, Daughter Number Three Point One mentioned that a friend of hers was watching The Waltons with her mother. Only DN3.1 pronounced the name as The Waldens.
Feeling every year that separates our generations, I told her that it's Walton with a "t" (like the Waltons who own more wealth than 30 percent of America).
And then I followed up with my take on the signature closing lines from Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-89527920226624477482011-12-14T16:20:00.003-06:002011-12-17T09:51:03.560-06:00How the Other Half ThinksYou know how humans have a tendency to listen to people who agree with us? Well, John Scalzi busted that today by asking his readers who consider themselves to be Republicans to post what they're thinking about the field of candidates they have to choose from in the upcoming primaries and caucuses. (Scalzi clearly has identified himself as a non-Republican on a number of occasions.)
Over a Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-23919143887750281092011-12-13T16:54:00.000-06:002011-12-13T16:54:57.656-06:00Another Decline in ViolenceNag, nag, nag, I know. I sound like a broken record about Steven Pinker. But did you hear about the latest U.S. child abuse statistics?
A.P. reports that (despite the down economy, which is generally thought to increase family stress, right?) child abuse was down about 8.5 percent between 2008 and 2010, "reaching the lowest level since the current tracking system began in 1990." The number of Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-10641783872980227122011-12-12T19:08:00.000-06:002011-12-12T19:08:02.563-06:00Jack Cameron, Recycling Hero
What a great job the Star Tribune's Neal St. Anthony has: He gets to write about the cool things local businesses are doing. (Earlier stories of his I've noted were about Ever Cat Fuels and youth mentoring.)
Today's story tells about a guy named Jack Cameron, who started a two-person company 35 years ago with the intent of reusing and recycling kitchen appliances to keep them out of landfills.Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-12377522475923130632011-12-11T10:46:00.001-06:002011-12-11T13:22:00.127-06:00Depressing Stuff, Past and PresentThis story from yesterday's New York Times is one of the most depressing ones I've seen in a long time. I know that's saying a lot, and I'm not completely sure why it hit me so hard. It's not like I haven't been disappointed about other actions taken by our government since January 2009. But this one reminds me of how essentially screwed up our law-making process is.
In a nutshell, the Times Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-57393861038526764102011-12-10T15:25:00.001-06:002011-12-11T13:21:37.678-06:00Even the Absurdities Have Hit a New LowThis from last Wednesday, December 7, on the Huffington Post:
In the story, HuffPo reported that Sidwell Friends School had served a meal that included dangerous foods like teriyaki and edamame (in addition to non-Japanese foods like Szechuan tofu and regular old fried rice). It was part of an Asian food day menu created by their food contractor without regard to that date that lives in infamyDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-31446206409810206042011-12-09T16:27:00.001-06:002011-12-09T17:15:04.039-06:00A Cold Day; Some Frosty TabsWhen I was in college, my drink of choice was Tab (I actually liked the aftertaste of saccharin). Now I realize that the habit does not go away, but is transformed into electronic tabs that linger in my browser.
Vowel habits -- NPR's Robert Krulwich discusses why the shapes we make with our mouths affect how we think about what the words we're saying signify. Plus fun illustrations by Krulwich.
Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-78721156237315794512011-12-08T16:20:00.000-06:002011-12-08T16:23:30.116-06:00Jim Kruse -- Hey, He Used to Be Part of the 99 Percent!Did you see the video a week or so ago of a "1 Percenter" who opined on camera that no one great ever came out of the 99 percent?
Like just about everyone who's seen it, I couldn't believe how stupid he was to think that, let alone say it out loud on camera. What about all those paragons of business virtue like Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Larry Ellison who came from the middle class or less?Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-45563619783743560212011-12-07T17:17:00.000-06:002011-12-07T17:17:00.045-06:00When Is a "Person" Not a Person?As we know, corporations are people, according to the Supreme Court in the Citizens United case. Well, check out this snip from an NPR story on the Massey mining settlement in West Virginia:
The settlement extracts from Alpha Natural Resources, which bought Massey Energy earlier this year, nearly $130 million for mine safety training and major safety equipment improvements. Although the Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-82886340029099086382011-12-06T18:59:00.001-06:002011-12-09T21:05:07.225-06:00Stickers of LateMy most recent bad habit is taking pictures of bumper stickers. Bear with me.
On a big, glossy 4x4 truck.
Taken across the street from my house. Really.
Why, yes, I do live near Wisconsin. Why do you ask?
Based on my hasty and incomplete reading, this one brought to mind Damon Knight's classic science fiction short story To Serve Mankind.
Past bumper sticker posts:
But What Do You Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-55908475623584768302011-12-05T16:41:00.001-06:002011-12-05T16:50:38.087-06:00Weapons of Moose DestructionIt was good to see the Star Tribune editorial against a bill that would erode environmental protection along the U.S.-Canada border by handing control over to the Department of Homeland Security.
For those not familiar with northern Minnesota, much of it a wilderness area called the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), where no mechanized vehicles are allowed. The proposed changes would allow DHS Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-91139708406918946902011-12-04T10:50:00.001-06:002011-12-04T11:09:20.785-06:00Make MagazineMy house used to be awash in magazines flowing through the front door via U.S. mail. There were over 50 a month, but now it's down to about a dozen and a half. (In fairness to me, about two-thirds of those remaining are computer or design rags read only by my better half.)
One magazine that's been here for a few years without much attention from me is Make, founded by Mark Frauenfelder of Boing Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-44100722944306610452011-12-03T11:56:00.001-06:002011-12-03T12:19:19.040-06:00Good News TabsThe bomb in Obamacare: A blog post from Forbes, of all places, noting that today is the beginning of the most important change caused by the new health care law: the requirement that all for-profit insurers spend at least 80-85 percent of premiums on health care for their customers, rather than on overhead like marketing and sales. The writer, Rick Ungar, is skeptical that insurance companies Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-16243280820978898492011-12-02T10:37:00.001-06:002011-12-02T10:58:50.902-06:00More on Modern Source AmnesiaHow hard is it to cite the source of a clever aphorism? Apparently, pretty hard.
Yesterday Jason Kottke, who considers himself a professional link finder, noted the recent proliferation of tweets and retweets of this pithy reworking of a common bit of self-help advice:
Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank and he can rob the world.
I think I've seen it a few dozen times on Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-85498506326714853902011-12-02T09:46:00.001-06:002011-12-02T10:08:27.635-06:00BBB Denounces the Scammers from Canton, OhioThanks to Twin Cities Daily Planet editor Mary Turck for her write-up on the Amish heaters, and for letting us all know that the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota has issued a press release decrying Arthur Middleton Capital Holdings for its deceptive advertising.
Finally!
Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-32526534933532441102011-12-01T16:02:00.001-06:002011-12-01T16:29:10.877-06:00Another "Pure" Miracle Heater, What a SurpriseAnother day, another full-page ad for a miracle heater with a limited time and quantity offer. This time it's the Living Pure Heating System, promising to lower your heat bills by sucking down $.18 of electricity per hour. (Multiply that by hours, days, and months and see where it gets you.)
The thing that irked me the most about the Living Pure ad was that it didn't even bother to include the Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-6524842001133325082011-11-30T16:30:00.000-06:002011-11-30T16:46:57.284-06:00School Motivation, '70s-StyleI love it when bloggers resurrect printed materials from my youth, like these school posters from the early '70s on Denver's Westword. First they posted a series in this style, with the original captions intact:
That's probably one of the worst concepts anyone could come up with to illustrate the idea of thinking for yourself. What, is the girl thinking to herself, "Hmmm, I think a foot should Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-16647462119184792402011-11-29T17:56:00.000-06:002011-11-29T17:56:00.159-06:00Camels on the Table, Plus OatsIf you haven't visited the Vintage Ads archive over at livejournal, your life is not complete.
Two not to miss are this Quaker Oats ad:
Here's just some of the text, which reports on a company canvass of oat consumption in 40 states, over four months, employing 130 men:
Among the tenements: No oats, of course. "The average child is wan, anemic and nervous. The school teachers say that it Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-69511559507504118102011-11-28T15:30:00.000-06:002011-11-29T08:58:33.724-06:00Occupying My Tabs LatelySteven Pinker Week caused quite a pile-up of unrelated clippings and tabs all over Daughter Number Three's desk and desktop. My browser is threatening to stop running because of all the tabs strewn about, so here's a list just to get them off my computer!
Photos from the 1970s U.S., documenting what life and the environment were like then.
A super-fun whirlwind video (about 11 minutes) on how Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-37745084741123092222011-11-27T10:29:00.000-06:002011-11-27T10:50:55.122-06:00Steven Pinker Week Table of ContentsHere's the list of the seven posts from Steven Pinker Week here at Daughter Number Three:
James Reston 1968, Steven Pinker 2010
Documenting the Decline of Violence
The Worst Atrocities
Asking the Angels "Why?"
Laughing Violence Out of Existence
Making the World Better Without Utopia
The Quotable PinkerDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-52974773101416495202011-11-27T00:02:00.000-06:002011-11-27T00:02:00.088-06:00The Quotable PinkerFor the final post of Steven Pinker week, I've compiled all the quotes from The Better Angels of Our Nature that didn't fit within the more structured pieces I've posted. It's a lot, I know, but every one of these is an explosion of thought.
Even with the decline in homicides, killings of relatives stayed about the same. That's because "…family members get on each other's nerves at similar ratesDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-16355364948025848502011-11-26T14:00:00.000-06:002011-12-10T15:37:08.314-06:00Making the World Better Without UtopiaWhen I was young, the conflict in Northern Ireland was in the news all the time. As I got old enough to understand it a little, I began to wonder if it could ever be resolved because the eye-for-an-eye nature of it was obvious even to a child. How could the people on one side ever learn to live with those on the other, let alone begin to forgive them?
But somehow it has. One of my favorite partsDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-24915430037688116502011-11-25T11:18:00.001-06:002011-11-25T11:42:32.193-06:00Laughing Violence Out of ExistenceA somewhat minor point in Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature is that humor and satire can undermine the propensity to violence, whether by defusing a specific tense situation or taking on national policy.
He gives examples from Shakespeare, Swift, Voltaire, Tom Lehrer, Charlie Chaplin, and the Marx Brothers, including a longish description of a scene from Duck Soup:
...an Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-47881617509736175062011-11-24T17:30:00.000-06:002011-11-24T17:30:32.618-06:00Asking the Angels "Why?"I dislike the fact that my presentation of Steven Pinker's The Angels of Our Better Nature so far has focused only on deaths (from war, atrocities, and homicides). It's important to note that he also discusses declines in rape and domestic assault.
Rape in the U.S. declined by 80 percent from 1973 to 2008, despite increased reporting and the relatively recent recognition of date rape. For Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-11119344797024882862011-11-23T16:30:00.000-06:002011-11-23T16:56:15.789-06:00The Worst AtrocitiesAre you surprised there's a researcher who considers himself an "atrocitologist"? His name is Matthew White, and he's made a list of the 21 worst things people have done to each other. (There are 21 because of a tie for 20th place. I don't mean to be flip about it.)
White plays an important part in the early sections of Steven Pinker's The Angels of Our Better Nature. Because White has Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-87975404954903843682011-11-22T16:30:00.000-06:002011-11-22T16:30:19.705-06:00Documenting the Decline of Violence
Steven Pinker spends the first few chapters of The Better Angels of Our Nature proving that violence has declined, knowing that just about no one will believe him.
To accomplish this, he first forces the reader to realize just how violent our past was. It's hard to read parts of the book that describe torture or executions in detail, and to be reminded of just how common they were. Because Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-52478905163009744982011-11-21T15:30:00.000-06:002011-11-22T19:18:00.206-06:00James Reston 1968, Steven Pinker 2010At the end of a visit to the Minnesota History Center's 1968 exhibit (worth a trip, by the way), I saw a pile of Minneapolis Tribunes, reprinted from the December 24, 1968, edition. Old newspapers -- my favorite! So of course, I grabbed one.
After I got used to the jumbo page size (3" wider than today's papers) and appreciated the photo of Earth taken from the first Apollo mission to orbit Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-40378298912328227492011-11-20T11:37:00.001-06:002011-11-20T12:26:34.519-06:00Sunday Pioneer Press Goodness
Today's Sunday paper comparison was won, hands down, by the Pioneer Press with three notable stories plus an excellent Kirk Lyttle illustration (right).
Payouts for Unused Sick Time Spike did a good job of discussing a complicated issue. It included both facts that will outrage some (one former MNSCU president got over $120,000 in unused sick time when he retired) and others that provide Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-58446891354506754692011-11-19T11:26:00.001-06:002011-11-19T23:09:49.162-06:00Don't Think Too Much
At lunch today I read the chapter about introspection from Dave McRaney's You Are Not So Smart. The upshot is that we don't know why we like the things we like, but when asked, we'll come up with reasons that have little to do with anything -- but that our brains think sound plausible. The real reasons, which are subconscious, are not accessible to our rational minds.
The archetypal research Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-48691402021973093552011-11-18T15:17:00.001-06:002011-11-18T16:06:41.548-06:00The Toilet of Tomorrow
I am obsessed with toilets, clean drinking water, and the infrastructure needed to make it all work. (Search the word "toilet" on my blog or read this earlier post about the Lifesaver bottle, if you don't believe me.)
So today's Science Friday on NPR was perfect. I only caught part of it while in the car, but I can see they've already got three short videos posted, and I imagine the audio willDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-7508970117875510122011-11-17T14:46:00.001-06:002011-11-17T15:40:13.562-06:00All Hail the Logarithmic Scale
Logarithmic scales -- best known to me in the Richter Scale, used to measure earthquakes -- seem to be cropping up a lot lately.
Today kottke.org listed a chart from the Minnesota Dental Association of candies that are acidic enough to cause loss of tooth enamel. On the pH sale, where 7 is neutral and 1 is battery acid, anything rated 4 or lower will deteriorate your tooth enamel.
I'm not Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-53025476439260413622011-11-16T16:13:00.001-06:002011-11-16T16:16:29.456-06:00What Would David Halberstam Do?From today's Huffington Post:
Clearly, the best and the brightest are not proofreading the headlines for the publishing house that Arianna built.Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-12795144609397749392011-11-15T17:30:00.000-06:002011-11-15T17:30:00.186-06:00Snow and TrashMinnPost's recent story on snow removal in Minneapolis and St. Paul had some enlightening information:
Minneapolis has 1,097 miles of streets and parkways; St. Paul has 1,874 lane miles. I was going to proclaim my amazement that St. Paul has so many more miles of streets than Minneapolis, but in writing this I realized that "lane miles" probably doesn't equal what Minneapolis calls "streets," soDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-58135472962703195792011-11-14T15:56:00.001-06:002011-11-14T20:30:18.519-06:00Banks: Bad for the Blood Pressure
Two stories from the news in just the past few days about banks screwing over regular people:
Today on All Things Considered, the story of the King family of Wisconsin. They applied for a loan modification on their $130,000 house after one wage-earner's hours were cut. Their original loan was at 10 percent (10 percent!) through Countrywide, but the modification to 4 percent was through Bank ofDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-88066768541648199632011-11-13T13:00:00.000-06:002011-11-13T13:00:24.298-06:00Where Is the Nanny State When You Need It?Regular readers may remember that I've received numerous cash offers in the mail from companies who think I've won the lottery, and want to lend me money or buy out my winnings. Their offers usually appear with hand-written envelopes and notes, and contain checks for amounts like $25,000.
Since I've never won a lottery, I write "void" on the checks, tear them up, and toss them in the recycling.
Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-67985336931246383332011-11-12T08:44:00.001-06:002011-11-12T09:17:18.925-06:00Double Lucky Duckies
Today's Star Tribune op-ed by former reporter Mike Meyers reminded me of Ed Lotterman's recent column that's been sitting on my desk, waiting for me to write about it.
Both articles are about the Right's reviled "Lucky Duckies" -- people who don't pay federal income tax. (The term has been used by both Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.)
Meyers' piece, Soak the Poor, pointed out that the Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-9309463012048545932011-11-11T20:25:00.001-06:002011-11-17T10:26:25.876-06:00An Abundance of ConcernThe U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has, over the past year or so, recommended no routine prostate cancer screening for men and decreased breast cancer screening for women. Both were based on an analysis of the net benefits -- how many people are treated unnecessarily (and in some cases harmed) for each person whose life is saved by treatment.
As health journalist Gary Schwitzer has said, Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-32108521088738722022011-11-10T17:10:00.001-06:002011-11-10T17:46:04.173-06:00A Contrast in RiotsI was already thinking about the contrast between what happened in Berkeley and State College yesterday, but The Nation's Dave Zirin beat me to the words.
If you haven't watched the footage of the police beating nonviolent students at Berkeley, take a minute:
All they were doing was peacefully pitching tents in an outdoor area, in defiance of a letter put out by the University chancellor Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-47408606551693262862011-11-09T09:14:00.000-06:002011-11-09T09:16:00.870-06:00You Are Not So Smart
One of my favorite blogs, You Are Not So Smart, recently came out with a book by the same name. As the name may indicate, it's all about the ways our brains trick us into thinking things that aren't true.
It's written by David McRaney, a young journalist based in the South (Mississippi, if I remember correctly). He has a day job, but started the blog because he was fascinated by psychology. OnDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-13443261166670466802011-11-08T17:51:00.000-06:002011-11-08T17:51:00.356-06:00Thankful for ImitrexSome bloggers are writing every day this November to describe something they're thankful for. It sounds like a good exercise, and I've been finding John Scalzi's posts particularly worthwhile (especially the ones on luck and why he doesn't drink alcohol), but I think my maunderings on my own life would get boring pretty quickly.
However, I did want to mention one great advance of the modern age Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-83397269119390872522011-11-07T17:09:00.003-06:002011-11-07T18:47:03.347-06:00Fire(place) SaleToday's Star Tribune included a new version of the Amish fireplace ad with a new price and "double coupon" amount. In the previous ad I wrote about recently, the product cost $547, and the coupon was worth $198. But somehow the product price, instead of being the difference ($349) was listed as "just $398." So I guess that coupon was really worth only $149.
Today's ad has the product price at Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-19315580588941779842011-11-07T08:44:00.002-06:002011-11-07T16:29:48.550-06:00Simple and WrongNice try, David Tufford, but it won't work:
STADIUM FUNDING
Buy beer on Sundays and problem is solved
Here's a simple stadium funding solution: Let liquor stores be open on Sunday. Put the tax proceeds toward the stadium and education.
If you don't want to support the stadium or education, buy your beer the six other days of the week.
It's simple, profitable, voluntary and offends no one Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-66975452111788130842011-11-06T22:11:00.003-06:002011-11-06T22:11:37.338-06:00A Few Random Wisconsin PhotosI'm just back from a quick trip across Wisconsin to the third annual Wayzgoose at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum -- photos from that later -- but here are a few observations along the way.
I saw this ketchup bottle at a restaurant in Eau Claire:
It struck me as a particularly flagrant example of cause marketing.
In Steven's Point, I saw this fine example of why hyphens are needed between Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-9684130453833474272011-11-05T17:36:00.003-05:002011-11-05T17:36:45.553-05:00I Am Introvert, Hear Me WhimperHaving just spent today and last evening at a small conference where I've been constantly around people I don't know well, trying to be social and mostly succeeding, I now find my tendency toward introversion is making me tired and crabby. And I have to go back into it soon.
So on that note, here are ten myths about introverts. (Apologies in advance for the white type on a black background.)Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-38976852380433113162011-11-04T17:52:00.001-05:002011-11-05T17:19:22.976-05:00Mystery ManThree guesses: Who was this caricature from today's Star Tribune letters page supposed to be?
I thought maybe Ben Bernanke or the late King Hussein of Jordan. What do you think?
Scroll down for the answer.
It's supposed to be Herman Cain. You can tell from the 999 pizza hes's holding:
Good thing that pizza was handy or the illustrator, Jennifer Kohnke of the Chicago Tribune, wouldDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-84734786773601325572011-11-03T17:28:00.000-05:002011-11-03T21:38:44.534-05:00The Magical Fruit for Grumpy Old MenThe case of the home-grown, retirement-age terrorist plotters (covered by AP here and the New York Times here) is a nice reminder that terrorists come in more than one color, as well as a range of ages, although mostly one gender. Remember the 88-year-old man who shot up the Holocaust Museum in 2009?
These losers in Georgia are said to have been copying the plot of a novel, written by an Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-32644887311885055602011-11-02T17:08:00.000-05:002011-11-02T18:24:45.217-05:00Budiansky Is BackStephen Budiansky'a Liberal Curmudgeon blog has gone live again, now that Budiansky has come up for air on a book project.
He started off with a bang with a post on the ways the Tea Party and Newt Gingrich torture the memory of the Founding Fathers and the sacred Constitution, moved on to tackle the idea of progressive and regressive income taxes, and then assailed the small business owner/S Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-13712585967465539762011-11-01T18:57:00.000-05:002011-11-01T18:57:41.337-05:00Occupying My ThoughtsHave you seen the letter that's circulating, written by some Wall Street or Chicago Board of Trade type, denigrating the Occupy movement? Well, RJ Eskow at the Campaign for America's Future has a pretty great response to it.
One phrase that Eskow used to describe the writer and his colleagues was "government-subsidized losers." This reminded me of Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone blog post, Wall Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-85606552269383662442011-10-31T16:49:00.000-05:002011-11-01T12:48:20.361-05:00Happy Halloween from the Bat Cat
This photo is a fine example of how photographers or other image creators lose their work. There seems to be no way to figure out who originally took this picture.
If anyone has a definitive answer, I would be happy to credit the photographer.
Update: I now have a creator to credit. Commenter peppery found the original image, created by GorillaSushi, as a gift to Jason Sweeney, who had writtenDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-54085229123249576292011-10-30T16:03:00.005-05:002011-10-30T20:19:07.510-05:00Luck of the WealthyI've previously mentioned this quote from Ursula LeGuin's book The Dispossessed. It's the words of a fictional philosopher named Odo, who influenced a revolution that led to the creation of an "ambiguous utopia":
"For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead Kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we notDaughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-88252317554335724092011-10-29T18:53:00.000-05:002011-10-29T18:53:21.748-05:00Alternate QueensThe AP sidebar that accompanied the Star Tribune's version of the story on the changes to Britain's royal succession could have used a more intelligent alternate historian for a writer.
It started off by telling us that Kaiser Wilhelm would have ruled Britain and Germany, since his mother was the oldest child of Queen Victoria, and then followed with this bit of over-simplification: "With Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7162206974728931335.post-23836704553724266422011-10-28T22:05:00.001-05:002011-10-28T22:05:25.329-05:00Oakland, First PersonA first-person account of the Occupy Oakland police rout from Tuesday night. It's written by a contributing editor from Reason, who lives a few blocks away. In case you're not familiar with it, Reason is a libertarian magazine, so he's not exactly an OWS partisan.
In his recounting, there is no mention of violence toward the police, only tear gas, riot gear and helicopters costing taxpayers Daughter Number Threehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.com0