According to an NBC News story quoting the Office of Management and Budget, the 1995 and 1996 government shutdowns, which lasted a total of 27 days, cost $1.4 billion. That, the story continues, is $2 billion in today's dollars (http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/27/20723289-why-a-government-shutdown-could-be-a-pricey-proposition?lite).
To understand the reasons for the high cost, it behooves one to understand the set of rules governing such an event ~ rules written in the late 1800s: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/09/the-odd-story-of-the-law-that-dictates-how-government-shutdowns-work/280047/
Bad Food! Bad! Sit! Stay!
I was happy to see the recent spate of articles about food waste and the confusion over "consume by" dates. Personally, I've never paid attention to them, and I've always been shocked (shocked, I tell you!) by the perfectly good food I've seen friends blithely toss down the drain and into the trash can (not even a composting bin). Maybe this momentary coverage of the latest issue du jour will give some pause for thought. To that end, here's a list of five foods that do not go bad the instant their "sell by" date is reached. And to it, I would add one more: cheese. Just cut off the colorful bits and enjoy the rest. Honestly!: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-24305902
Caffeine, Free ~ Sept. 29
National Coffee Day (who knew?) is Sept. 29, and there are a few deals to be had at certain chains and companies!: http://www.parade.com/166874/leahingram/national-coffee-day-2013-whats-free/?utm_source=parademagazine&utm_medium=print&utm_campaign=vanity20130929
The Emotional Email
It had to happen. Researchers at the National Research Council Canada have put together a program that can deduce your gender and personality by analyzing the words you use in your emails or other social media. Yup. Fascinating ~ and yet somehow creepy: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24286-what-your-email-style-says-about-your-personality.html#.UkdqNrwtfgd
The Sight of Sound
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| Kraftwerk's "Transistor" Martin Klimas |
Wanna know what "Time" really looks like? How about "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor"? German photographer Martin Klimas did, so he photographed the way pools of paint reacted on a membrane when the sound was turned way up high. He calls the results sonic sculpture: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/artscience/2013/09/the-sounds-of-pink-floyd-daft-punk-and-james-brown-as-expressed-by-flying-paint/
Just Because: 'Behind the Beautiful Forevers'
My brother gave me this book for some holiday, or maybe for my birthday. I can't remember. Either way, I finally started reading it during my recent vacation, and though I haven't finished it, I have to say that, like everything he has recommended, it's very good and extremely worthwhile. The subtitle is "Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity," and it's by New Yorker staff writer Katherine Boo. As a reporter, Boo spent a lot of time in India, and this book is what is called on the jacket "narrative nonfiction."
prologue: between roses
Midnight was closing in, the one-legged woman was grievously burned, and the Mumbai police were coming for Abdul and his father. In a slum hut by the international airport, Abdul's parents came to a decision with an uncharacteristic economy of words. The father, a sick man, would wait inside the trash-strewn, tin-roofed shack where the family of eleven resided. He'd go quietly when arrested. Abdul, the household earner, was the one who had to flee.
Abdul's opinion of the plan had not been solicited, typically. Already he was mule-brained with panic. He was sixteen years old, or maybe nineteen—his parents were hopeless with dates. Allah, in His impenetrable wisdom, had cut him small and
prologue: between roses
July 17, 2008—Mumbai
Midnight was closing in, the one-legged woman was grievously burned, and the Mumbai police were coming for Abdul and his father. In a slum hut by the international airport, Abdul's parents came to a decision with an uncharacteristic economy of words. The father, a sick man, would wait inside the trash-strewn, tin-roofed shack where the family of eleven resided. He'd go quietly when arrested. Abdul, the household earner, was the one who had to flee.
Abdul's opinion of the plan had not been solicited, typically. Already he was mule-brained with panic. He was sixteen years old, or maybe nineteen—his parents were hopeless with dates. Allah, in His impenetrable wisdom, had cut him small and
The Best Vintage
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| bottled memories screen shot |
Changing Their Minds
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| De Mello and her students from the Projeto Uerê website |
Not Who You Think You Are
We now know that what we do, where we live, and how we live can change our genetic makeup. Fascinating enough, but that's just the beginning. Scientists are learning more about something some had long suspected: Sometimes, our genetic makeup is not ours alone. The ramifications of this reality are deep for geneticists, for genetics counselors, and even for forensic scientists: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/17/science/dna-double-take.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
No Comment
The website of the 141-year-old Popular Science magazine will no longer be allowing comments on its articles. The online content director explains why, saying "because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media
culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock
scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a
website devoted to championing science": http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/why-were-shutting-our-comments
And along those lines, Stephen Colbert comments on youtube's move to moderate comments (not for the younger crowd) (video): http://www.hulu.com/watch/537751
(P.S., "Ron Paul 2012")
And along those lines, Stephen Colbert comments on youtube's move to moderate comments (not for the younger crowd) (video): http://www.hulu.com/watch/537751
(P.S., "Ron Paul 2012")
To Read or Not To Read
In honor of Banned Books Week (Sept. 23-29), here's a list of some of the books that have been challenged and/or banned here and around the world. It includes classics like To Kill a Mockingbird ("Challenged at the Moss Point, MS, School District [1996] because the
novel contains a racial epithet. Banned from the Lindale, TX, advanced
placement English reading list [1996] because the book 'conflicted with
the values of the community.'"), Sons and Lovers ("In 1961 an Oklahoma City group called Mothers United for Decency hired a
trailer, dubbed it 'smutmobile,' and displayed books deemed
objectionable, including Lawrence's novel."), The Call of the Wild ("Banned in Italy [1929], Yugoslavia [1929], and burned in Nazi bonfires [1933]."), and Lady Chatterley's Lover ("Dissemination of Lawrence’s novel has been stopped in China [1987]
because the book 'will corrupt the minds of young people and is also
against the Chinese tradition.'"): http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/classics/reasons
Waka Waka.
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| stag, New Year's Day, Romania Charles Fréger |
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| Strohmann, carnival, Germany Charles Fréger |
Museum Day ~ Sept. 28
On museum day live!, Saturday, Sept. 28, admission to certain museums around the country is free. But you'll need special tickets (story and link for tickets): http://www.mnn.com/family/family-activities/blogs/grab-a-free-ticket-to-your-favorite-museum-this-saturday
Go here ~ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/venues/ ~ to find out which museums around you are participating.
Go here ~ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/venues/ ~ to find out which museums around you are participating.
The Finger
I honestly did not know this! from wisegeek.com:
Fingers and thumbs do not contain any muscles. Rather, they are composed of bone, ligaments and tendons. The tendons connect the skeletal structure of the fingers to the palm and forearm muscles to make movement possible.
More about fingers:
Fingers and thumbs do not contain any muscles. Rather, they are composed of bone, ligaments and tendons. The tendons connect the skeletal structure of the fingers to the palm and forearm muscles to make movement possible.
More about fingers:
- The skin on the fingertips has many more nerve endings compared with most of the body.
- Contrary to popular belief, cracking the knuckles will not cause arthritis.
- On average, women have longer index fingers and men have longer ring fingers.
Meeting Merkel
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| Merkel celebrates winning her third term. AFP |
My Very French Vacation
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| the countryside around Bédoin KW |
1. The Jack Russell terrier is, without a doubt, the most popular dog there, both in the country and in Paris. They were everywhere!
2. In case anyone is interested, in Paris, it's all about red lipstick. Interestingly, it can look sophisticated or punk, depending on who's wearing it.
2a. Gray hair can be chic and beautiful.
3. Freeway noise barriers are at a slight angle, like this: \—/. For the most part, when the freeway goes over a river or other picturesque area, the barriers are transparent. I did a little research to try to find out why the angle, whether, for example, that had an effect on the barrier's efficacy, but all I could find was one reference to it as a way of mitigating a high barrier's visual effect. For an interesting summary of barrier research, see http://www.dot.ca.gov/newtech/researchreports/reports/2010/ucprc-rp-2010-04.pdf
4. Roundabouts are a great way to slow traffic down, add interest (via vegetation
Plugging In, Turning On
I'm not saying Europe is perfect or that we're not, but after two (magnificently wonderful) trips there in the last few years, I feel that one thing they have all over us is cultural maturity. Of course, as with everything, there are benefits and shortcomings to both zeitgeists, the older and the younger. My focus just now is on the general, everyday attitude toward the environment, current resources, the past, and the future of all. They acknowledge the complexity of the interactions involved. For example, they have, for the most part, kept the narrow streets of their past and, instead of widening them, have learned to live with them. They drive small cars (i.e., they understand that bigger is not necessarily better; in fact, glitter and pretension are notably bad form). They take the metro (which goes everywhere). They walk a lot. There are easily accessible rental bikes and itty-bitty cars everywhere: rent one here, drop it off there.
I was reminded of all this by an email noting that Sept. 28-29 are, together, National
I was reminded of all this by an email noting that Sept. 28-29 are, together, National
United State
I do love William Carlos Williams, and here's another reason why:
So different, this man
And this woman:
A stream flowing
in a field.
Marriage
by William Carlos Williams
So different, this man
And this woman:
A stream flowing
in a field.
How (Not) To
We are in France. When I have a little more time, I'll share some of the interesting things I've learned and seen here, but in the meantime and for your edification, here's a shot of a very educational poster my husband saw the other day and had the presence of mind to photograph for posterity!
We Are There Yet!
It's official. We have now entered interstellar space. Newly analyzed data from NASA's Voyager 1 show that, for the last year, it has been traveling through the ionized gas that is in the space between the stars. "We literally jumped out of our seats when we saw these oscillations in
our data," said Don Gurnett, who led the analytical work together with the plasma wave science team at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. "They showed us the spacecraft was in an entirely new region,
comparable to what was expected in interstellar space, and totally
different than in the solar bubble": http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-277&cid=release_2013-277
The ... You Know, That Thingie
The Smell of Wartime in the Morning
An interview with Jeremy Scahill, national security correspondent for The Nation and author of Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield and the recent documentary of the same name, regarding America's covert wars, Obama's use of drones, and more (video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qqw-2-GR2k
Biiiiig Building
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| Linda Garrison |
This Is Your Brain on Sleep
An animal study has found that sleep turns on the genes that foster the formation of myelin, which protects the nerves of the brain. Lack of sleep turns on the genes involved in cell death and cell stress response. Just one more reason to catch your z's: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130903193807.htm
Vroom-Vroom
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Batman was there. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Read more at: http://www.heavy.com/news/2013/08/110th-anniversary-harley-davidson-milwaukee/5/ |
Faster Than We Thought
With the help of radiocarbon dating and computer models, a team of archaeologists has put together a definitive timeline of early Egyptian culture. It concludes that the space of time between the advent of farming and rule by a monarch was much shorter than previously thought: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23947820
Who Said That?
Quick! Whose last words were purportedly "I should never have switched from Scotch to martinis"? (Hint: It's the same person who claimed, a few years earlier, that "the whole world is three drinks behind"): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23944612
A Little Soot With That Ice?
A study led by NASA scientists found that soot from an industrializing Europe led to the end of the Little Ice Age in the mid-1800s. The black particles settled on glaciers, absorbing the heat from the sun and thereby causing the ice to melt: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-267&cid=release_2013-267
The Iceman (and the Typist) Cometh
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| Milkwoman, Cheshire, England, ca. 1950 George Pickow/Three Lions/Getty Images |
From Sea to Plastic Sea
Most of us do our share and more to recycle, feeling very virtuous as we rinse and toss. We know that our plastic and other recyclables will go to a recycling plant that will sort it and distribute it accordingly. For most of our plastic, that means sending it to China. Yes, that's right. Sending it (think carbon footprint). To China. Because we don't have the facilities to deal with it ourselves. Well, now, as could have been foreseen, China's getting a little pickier about the plastic it accepts. And that has resulted in some of our localities limiting the kinds of plastic they are able to accept, which means more plastic, once again, in our landfills: http://qz.com/117151/us-states-banned-from-exporting-their-trash-to-china-are-drowning-in-plastic/
Heart of the Matter
Where is the sultan's magnificent heart? Sultan Suleiman I (Suleiman the Magnificent) was born in 1494 and died, some say of surprise at the end of his siege of a Hungarian castle, in 1566. His body was taken back to Constantinople, but his heart, legend has it, was buried there. Or was it?: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23884892
Motivation Equation
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| a slight reworking of Maslow's theory |
Seventy years ago, psychologist Abraham Maslow published "A Theory of Human Motivation," which prioritized people's needs into five levels and posited that when the basest (the physiological) was met, the need to meet the next higher one would kick in, and so on to the highest (self-actualization). The theory was embraced by the business world, but it also attracted its share of critics. It has since been flipped, flopped, and reworked, but none of that, contends one psychologist, negates its huge role in shifting the study of psychology from focusing on external rewards to understanding the importance of internal needs: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23902918
Syria 101
Another resource is this town hall put together by moveon.org. It's from Aug. 30, so some of the comments are already out of date, but the background information is valid and informative (video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oGbKr6IxZs#t=810
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