12 SOLUTIONS TO dirty chores around the house.
Archive for 2010
April 26, 2010
PROGRESS IN implantable electronics.
R. CRUMB ILLUSTRATES GENESIS: Er, the band, not the book. Though that would be interesting, too. . .
BIG GROWTH in geothermal energy.
FROM DYSON SPHERES to Dyson swarms.
ABOUT 20,000 PEOPLE (INCLUDING THE INSTA-DAUGHTER) ATTENDED Knoxville’s Rossini Festival, while Jack Neely notes that country music may have started out as a backlash to Knoxville’s enthusiasm for opera: “By the early 1880s, Knoxville was hosting extravagant ‘Music Festivals,’ held every spring. Touting itself as ‘the little Paris of the United States,’ Knoxville emphasized European opera above all else, concentrated around Staub’s Opera House, which was on the southeast corner of Gay Street and Cumberland. Significant stars of opera and classical music from New York, Philadelphia, and Boston would take the train to Knoxville for a pleasant weekend of music, some of it outdoors at Chilhowee Park. . . . Back then, opera was believed to inflame the passions of hot-blooded youth, and they weren’t crazy about their youngsters putting on European airs. In May, 1883, some older folks staged a sort of anti-opera counter festival, featuring some down-home fiddle music on an afternoon at Staub’s when there were no sopranos scheduled. It’s the earliest example of country music being played on a public stage I’ve been able to find.”
MAXED-OUT: Taking the breath-holding record to 15 minutes? But at a price.
DICK LEINENKUGEL announces against Russ Feingold.
MORE ON NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR JAMES JONES’ JEW-JOKE. “All-in-all, I’d call it a very unwise joke for a security advisor to The American President to make, especially if the president is trying to convince the nation -by his words more than his actions- that he supports capitalism and the free market, the existence of Israel and the defeat of the Taliban.” Yeah, keep this stuff up and people are going to wonder if the White House is anti-semitic or something.
RESEARCH ON RED-LIGHT CAMERAS:
USF’s College of Public Health concluded that instead of improving safety, the cameras actually make intersections more dangerous. Further, its study said, the cameras give insurance companies a reason to jack up rates for those who get tickets. . . .
No elected official in Tampa Bay has called USF to talk to the study’s researchers, said Langland-Orban, who along with Pracht and Large have done about 75 interviews with various media outlets.
“Locally, the reception has been to ignore our research,” she said. “If you want the money from cameras, you don’t want to know what their impact is.”
But read the whole thing, as there are critics.
A BOOBQUAKE REPORT: “Facebook has become a place for chesty revolt!” ¡Viva la Revolución!
IN THE MAIL: From Brannon Padgett Denning, The Glannon Guide to Constitutional Law: Governmental Structure And Powers.
A DEFENSE OF the new Obama space policy: “The President’s plan is a departure from the Cold War vision of space exploration that defined NASA’s mission for half a century. If the agency’s mission is to survive and thrive, it will need new partners in the private sector, along with a revival of the ‘can-do’ spirit of the 1960s and early ’70s.”
More here.
F.I.R.E.: University of Tennessee Acts to Preserve Free Speech on Campus.
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UTK), one of only a handful of schools to receive FIRE’s most favorable “green light” rating for protecting free speech on campus, acted quickly after being contacted by FIRE to revise a new policy that posed a serious threat to student speech. As a result, UTK remains one of FIRE’s “green light” institutions. The university is to be commended for being so responsive to concerns about free expression on campus.
Read the whole thing. Go UT!
ROSS DOUTHAT ON THE SOUTH PARK AFFAIR: “This is what decadence looks like: a frantic coarseness that ‘bravely’ trashes its own values and traditions, and then knuckles under swiftly to totalitarianism and brute force.”
TIM CAVANAUGH: How Much Does Society Owe to People Who Don’t Pay Their Debts? “Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising in this post-shame age, but as is often the case when you look at the landscape of bad borrowing, the penalties for defaulting are not particularly onerous. In fact, you could make the case that they’re not onerous enough.”
MICHAEL BARONE: Hold The VAT — Taxpayers May Prefer Spending Cuts. You think? “Barack Obama’s project of turning the United States into something more like Western Europe has stirred strong opposition and generated much less enthusiasm. What’s happening in states like Virginia and New Jersey — and what happened not so long ago in Canada, Sweden and Finland — suggests that voters may support spending cuts more than most American politicians and pundits have assumed. And much more than a value added tax.”
TOO MANY “A” students running things?
CHEAP: A one-day sale with Tom Tom GPS for $89.99.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE LAW SCHOOL’S PATENT LAW MOOT COURT TEAM, which won the National Championship this weekend.
PHYLLIS CHESLER REPORTS: I’m Gonna Love You, Come Rain or Come Shine: A NYC Pro-Israel Rally.
I’M SHOCKED, SHOCKED: Global Warming profiteering?
OBAMA MAKES racial appeal for votes. Kinda exclusionary to white males, anyway.
UPDATE: A comment on Obama’s naked racial appeal:
I haven’t heard any prominent “tea partier” make anything remotely resembling this blatant appeal to racial demography, courtesy of President Obama, in which he told activists that “it will be up to you to make sure that the young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women who powered our victory in 2008 stand together once again.”
Nope. Hope and change!