SO I REPORTED A WHILE BACK that a reader who works at Ready Acoustics offered to set me up with some sound treatments for the podcast studio / media room setup. This was a good idea, as it’s a fairly big room and a bit echo-y.

The process was pretty involved, with me taking lots of measurements and photos, and them putting those together into a computer model of the room that they used to custom-design the sound treatment. Then they sent me a bunch of absorbent panels of varying thickness — bass traps and high frequency absorbers — all covered in a lovely red material (Helen picked the color). Putting them up wasn’t too hard — they mount with screwhooks and plexiglas brackets that mount with drywall anchors. Everything went well, except that the plexiglas brackets were a bit fragile; luckily, they sent a few extras.

The results are excellent. Stepping into the room from the hallway while talking, you immediately notice how much “deader” the room is. It’s not totally dead, which would be bad, but there’s a noticeable lack of reverberant room tone, and when Helen sat down in front of the microphone she said “My voice sounds like NPR just coming out of my mouth!” It’s definitely made a big difference.

A NOT-SO-GRIM MILESTONE in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A POSITIVE REVIEW FOR The Astronaut Farmer. Excerpt:

In many ways this is an old-fashioned movie, where the dream-driven hero or heroine keeps on dancing, or singing, or swinging the bat, or going to Washingon, or whatever, until the stodgy old powers-that-be recognize the virtue of his or her vision. It’s not a bad thing to see that optimism revived on the big screen again.

Read the whole thing.

IN RESPONSE TO ANN COULTER: Homophobia offsets with “Coulter cash”!

JEFF GOLDSTEIN responds to a critic.

JOHN DVORAK: “There is mounting evidence that the cellular service companies are going to do whatever they can to kill Wi-Fi. After all, it is a huge long-term threat to them.”

Can’t we all just get along? (Via Slashdot).

ZALMAY KHALILZAD:

Under the national hydrocarbon law approved this week by Iraq’s Council of Ministers, oil will serve as a vehicle to unify Iraq and will give all Iraqis a shared stake in their country’s future. This is a significant achievement for Iraqis’ national reconciliation. It demonstrates that the leaders of Iraq’s principal communities can pull together to peacefully resolve difficult issues of national importance.

Ilya Somin thinks it’s a step forward, but not as good as it could be. I agree. I just hope that it’s good enough.

MORE KIDNEY-BLOGGING from Virginia Postrel.

VIDEO AND PICTURES from the secular Islam summit.

OMAR FADHIL REPORTS FROM BAGHDAD: “Violent incidents are still decreasing in number and impact in Baghdad. Yesterday for instance the only reported incident was the abduction of an adviser to the minister of defense by gunmen in western Baghdad. It was less than 24 hours until the security forces succeeded in freeing the abducted general and arresting 4 of his captors. . . . The Mehdi army is not responding to the raids with fire, but they are trying to undermine the security plan by spreading rumors about alleged crimes committed by US soldiers, specifically against the Shia.” Read the whole thing.

“LEGAL LOOTING” IN NEW ORLEANS: Ray Nagin rides again.

PROTESTING PUTIN IN ST. PETERSBURG: “An unusually large and unruly protest against the government of President Vladimir V. Putin ended here Saturday in clashes with the police and the arrest of opposition leaders. Rally organizers and the police said more than 100 people were arrested after a midafternoon scuffle between marchers and riot police on the main street, Nevsky Prospekt, in the heart of the city’s tourist district. St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, is Mr. Putin’s hometown.”

OBAMA: TAKE OFF THE GLOVES:

Sen. Barack Obama said Friday the use of military force should not be taken off the table when dealing with Iran, which he called “a threat to all of us.”

Speaking before a pro-Israel crowd at a downtown hotel, Obama also repeated his call for a phased pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq and strongly backed a strong U.S. relationship with Israel.

Hmm. Can these views be reconciled? Perhaps if the pullout goes through Tehran . . ..

UPDATE: Ah, I couldn’t find this, but a helpful reader sent it — it’s the Iraq Study Group “hybrid” proposal . . . .

MARRIAGE AND KIDS: Following up my earlier post on this topic, here’s another story from the Washington Post:

Punctuating a fundamental change in American family life, married couples with children now occupy fewer than one in every four households — a share that has been slashed in half since 1960 and is the lowest ever recorded by the census.

As marriage with children becomes an exception rather than the norm, social scientists say it is also becoming the self-selected province of the college-educated and the affluent. The working class and the poor, meanwhile, increasingly steer away from marriage, while living together and bearing children out of wedlock. . . . Marriage has declined across all income groups, but it has declined far less among couples who make the most money and have the best education. These couples are also less likely to divorce.

Read the whole thing. This is like what Kay Hymowitz has been saying about marriage and caste in America.

SURGING INTO SADR CITY: A huge roundup at The Mudville Gazette.

Plus, news from Anbar.

A SUPERMARKET GOES ALL L.E.D. LIGHTING and — besides the obvious energy savings — won’t be changing a bulb for years. Plus, reduced food spoilage because of less UV. And this observation: “Less lectures, more practicality will get people to see the light, er, LED.”

I haven’t tried out any LED bulbs. They’re still a bit pricey, but if anyone’s got a model they recommend, let me know and I’ll give it a whirl and report the results.

HERE’S A STATEMENT ON FREE SPEECH AT WISCONSIN:

The Committee for Academic Freedom and Rights at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has followed with deepening concern the process and news coverage surrounding the accusations by some students against Professor Leonard Kaplan of the Law School. Given that Professor Kaplan has not publicly commented on what he said in class, we refrain from commenting on any other details of the case at this time. That said, it is important to comment on a fundamental principle that is at the heart of the controversy. Namely, academic freedom.

There is a distinct possibility that the emotion and pressures surrounding this case—especially after the public meeting at the law school the evening of March 1—will have a chilling effect on honest and good faith discussion of racial and cultural issues in class and on campus. While good teaching requires that students be treated with respect, undue sensitivity and fear of accusations can cause professors and instructors to steer clear of controversy or uncomfortable truths that need to be discussed and faced if we are to improve as a society. Such pursuit of truth is the university’s special charter and reason for existence. . . . There is a fundamental distinction between causing offense gratuitously and invidiously, and causing offense as the by-product of the fair-minded pursuit of truth or constructive criticism. A university of the caliber of UW-Madison, with its long history and tradition of protecting academic freedom in the “fearless sifting and winnowing of ideas” for the pursuit of truth, must take this distinction seriously.

Follow the link for the full statement.

FORGET ABOUT WORLD PEACE: Visualize using your turn signal. Heh.

THIS BLOG BY A BRITISH NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE DOCTOR is one of Helen’s favorites, and this post on maternity deaths in the NHS should serve as a cautionary tale.