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December 2006
OK, the red paper clip
was an amazing study in bartering. I have to admit I was skeptical at first; but
then I realized it was more about the sociology experiment. It was a really
heartwarming story - and the 'author' was very entertaining on the blog all the
way through. So his brother and a friend next decided to try to
hitchhike to all 50 capitol cities. They made
it - and I'm sure had just as much fun. They do a great job of blogging and
storing images on flickr for people to browse. Fun. I wish I thought of that
during my college years... yeah right. I wasn't that creative. I think there's a
book coming out about the paper clip soon...
Also heard about a good book that I'm going to have to have a
look at -
"They Call Me Naughty Lola" It's about 'lonely hearts' ads from the
London Review of Books. Sounds entertaining. Meets the non-fiction criterion.
After my last post and recent despair over the decline of society, these
creative entries give me hope that we're at least going to be entertained and
charmed on our way to damnation.
Finally - an update from a 3 year old entry. Our new baby
girl was named Dana. So now we can study the effect of giving a girl a popular
name 'Emma' (#2) vs. a much less popular one 'Dana' (#396). At least we didn't
name her Angel -
which has been shown to be well correlated with low intelligence. [source
Atlantic Monthly and Freakonomics] :)
November 2006
As a human race we can't continue to 'grow' our population and
economies while promoting a wasteful, inefficient, western lifestyle. [We must
almost entirely scrap the prevailing model of a competitive, growth economy and
adopt materially simple economies that stress cooperation and participatory
control. Above all, we must move to a steady-state or zero-growth economy. There
is now a global ecovillage movement pioneering the development of new
settlements that are required for sustainability. Hopefully, the coming "mother
of all oil shocks" finally will get all this on the public agenda.] ..from
Ted Trainer, the author of The Conserver Society and Towards a Sustainable
Economy.
http://www.dieoff.org/index.htm#consensus
January 2006
Wow, how time flies... and all I can come up with is this
lame site:
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/
You thought snappy/catchy/funny phrases on t-shirts had been
DONE; this takes it to a whole new level. You want it on a t-shirt, mug,
whatever - they got it.
Also check out Bro Pivin's Band - Dimonet ->
Playing a gig near you... August 2005 - Katrina I
still can't believe the level of destruction and desperation in
Louisiana/Mississippi in the wake of Katrina. The NAOA site and 'Google Earth'
have been good for a techy to get a survey of the details.
NOAA Katrina (imagery
post-Katrina plus all the gory storm details)
Google Earth (type Superdome, New
Orleans) If you ever want to blow your mind
and weekend figuring out a movie, see
Primer. You can surf the web
for everyone's try at an explanation. Good nerd flick. It won the Sundance Film
Festival. August 2004 - "Ode to P-Town" [found on the web - it's
perfect]
from time to time i get asked about
portland - the city that i love to call home. rather than reinventing
the wheel with each inquiry, i thought i'd give it one final and
enduring post here on my blog.
let me begin by noting that i am a transplant. i was an air force brat
who grew up all over the country, and who was raised by new yorkers.
i've now been here since the fall of 1995, much longer than any other
place i've ever lived.
i love portland because it is a big enough city that you get yelled at
by crazy people on the bus, yet it is a small enough city that most
people say thank you to the bus driver. i once had a bus driver who
always smiled and announced SW 7th and Jackson as "james' stop"...
portland is big enough to have a varied and interesting nightlife, but
small enough that it's hard to find a GREAT dinner after 10 pm on a
wednesday. surprisingly few people actually live downtown. but it's
very common to live 5 minutes out.
portland is high-brow enough to have a decent opera, ballet and
symphony, but it is laid back enough that you will see people wearing
jeans to each. there is GREAT art and theater in portland, but
sometimes you have to know someone who knows where to find it.
portland has great food. great coffee. great wine. exceptional beer.
if traveling by car, one can be skiing in the mountains, flying a kite
at the beach, or windsurfing in the columbia river gorge, in under two
hours. in under three hours, you can be in seattle.
portland is the home of powell's, the legendary independent bookstore.
portland metro has more farmers markets than the nyc metro area.
portland has more strip clubs per capita and more free wi-fi than any
other city in the us. portland has some of the highest unemployment
rates and shortest school years in the country.
portland does not have a major league baseball team. we do not have
lightning bugs. we do not generally get hurricanes or tornadoes.
the summers are dry and mild. today it will be 85 and sunny. (we break
100 only if my brother is in town trying to escape the heat.)
it does rain in the winter, but not like seattle. you are much more
likely to get damp than soaked. umbrellas are for suits and tourists.
it is quite literally overcast from october to april, so if you need
sun - portland is not for you.
in the depths of winter, if you arrive at the office at 7:30 and leave
at 5 - you will never see the light of day. it is perfectly normal on
a sunny day in december for people to stop on the streetcorners of
downtown and stare at the sky.
portland winters are perfect for curling up with a cup of tea and a
good book. it usually snows once a year.
and a special section for new yorkers:
portland does not have good bagels, and it is impossible to find
cannoli. while public transit is plentiful, portlanders generally own
cars. you have to call a cab - you cannot simply hail one.
on your average day in new york city, you will talk more politics with
cabbies, bartenders and complete strangers than you will with all of
your aquaintances combined during an average week in portland.
portland is on the west coast - there is no hurry.
Other Portland essay links:
http://www.mondiale.co.uk/smallbeans/letter.html
http://www.nationalpress.org/usr_doc/Rowe_remarks.pdf
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/special/oregonian/whatwentwrong/part_1.html
You can also
read this here: It's a good overview of why Oregon's politics and budget are
in crisis. OK, so if you're really
enterprising, you can check out the details of the budget here:
Oregon Center for Public Policy
Oregon
Legislative Revenue Office
Citizens for Oregon's Future June 2004
The numbers behind
the name Emma - from the SSA... Maybe we should have looked into this before
we named her...
|
Emma was the second most popular name for babies
getting Social Security cards in U.S. for 2003 (22532 Emmas) |
|
Emma's popularity is growing exponentially;
whereas Mary's is flat - Madison is one of only a few gaining faster. |
|
Emma was the most popular name in 23/50 states
(plus DC and Puerto Rico); but didn't carry California, New York, Texas, or
Florida, so don't think that she had a chance in the Electoral College. |
|
Emma is the name of Rachel's daughter on
'Friends' - but that had no impact on our decision |
|
Sorry Emma, guess you're just another face in the
crowd!
2003 SSN Baby Names |
Emily |
25494 |
Emma |
22532 |
Madison |
19986 |
Hannah |
17393 |
Olivia |
15982 |
Abigail |
15789 |
Alexis |
14659 |
Ashley |
14402 |
Elizabeth |
13927 |
Samantha |
13733 |
Popularity of Emma
Year |
Emma |
Jane |
Mary |
Abigail |
Joyce |
2003 |
2 |
432 |
61 |
6 |
643 |
2002 |
4 |
416 |
52 |
7 |
617 |
2001 |
13 |
422 |
49 |
8 |
575 |
2000 |
17 |
437 |
47 |
14 |
565 |
1999 |
17 |
437 |
45 |
18 |
563 |
1998 |
21 |
417 |
46 |
19 |
538 |
1997 |
37 |
397 |
44 |
24 |
607 |
1996 |
52 |
409 |
43 |
33 |
623 |
1995 |
67 |
410 |
42 |
38 |
586 |
1994 |
73 |
372 |
38 |
44 |
581 |
1993 |
82 |
372 |
39 |
67 |
543 |
1992 |
103 |
398 |
39 |
84 |
524 |
1991 |
125 |
371 |
39 |
88 |
520 |
1990 |
132 |
356 |
37 |
90 |
471 |
|
May 2004
Nice sermon from pastor
Kane at Hillsboro UMC (also
linked here)
Edward Tufte's site - some
interesting visualization stuff.
Compare this with David Byrne's
work... especially EEEI.
If you can't get an MIT degree, you can at least
pretend... January 2004
Been a while since last entry... Some good stuff to record here. After watching
a little bit of local cable access, I stumbled across this little gem:
Fingerboarding!
Astounding. The question is, if your son or daughter got this much into a hobby,
would you worry? or would you be proud?
Don Zobel is in South America. He sends updates via e-mail every week or two.
Now he's sending pictures.
Check it out! I feel like I'm in the adventure with him whenever I
read his mail.
This IS
cool music.
...Lifted...
(In one episode of 'Cheers', Cliff is seated at the bar
describing the Buffalo Theory to his buddy Norm. I don't think I've ever heard
the concept explained any better than this....) "Well you see, Norm, it's like
this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when
the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are
killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because
the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular
killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only
operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of
alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest
brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the
weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And
that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers...."
June 2003
Discovered Jurassic 5 music today. Give "Quality Control" and "Snap, Crackle,
Pop" a try. January 2002
Did Intel blow it? I hope not; but here is an entertaining
and ALMOST unbiased look at Pentium 4.
Do antique glass windows bulge at the bottom
because glass flows? Judge
for yourself.
We recently enjoyed a rim-to-rim
Grand Canyon backpacking trip -- started at the North Rim and emerged
from the South Rim a couple days later. (left)
We're trying to get a bit
more organized about planning mountain bike rides; care to join us?
If so, e-mail me and I'll send you the distribution list for the other
riders. You can also go to the UBS page.
Check out my
brother's band Rekmod (he's the
drummer). Lock up your daughters and put in your earplugs.
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