I love the decennial census, but you know this (see Census Fun).
We got our form in the mail the other day and I was confused to see you couldn’t fill the form out online. Doesn’t that seem like a logical option?
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who found this odd: “One Thing You Still Can’t Do Online.”
I missd this from last Friday, the New York Times has an op-ed about Dubai and specifically the Burj Khalifa: “The Age of Concrete.”
Key quote:
From a technological standpoint, it’s profoundly impressive that a reinforced concrete frame has outperformed the steel of Taipei 101 — the previous record holder for height — by 1,050 feet. This achievement suggests a new era in structural engineering: the compressive strength of concrete has tripled in the last four decades, allowing concrete structures to be thinner, lighter and far, far taller.
Dubai has been in the news quite a bit lately, and it’s not good: “Airline Crew Face Jail In Dubai Over Sexy Texts” and “British Couple Appealing Dubai Kiss Conviction” and “Dubai’s Moral Crackdown Is Kiss Of Death For Tourism.”
Not sure if you’ve been following the story of the Texas board of education and how they’ve been throwing their conservative weight around with school book publishers. Things like asserting the Christian faith of the founders and lessening the role of Thomas Jefferson in the founding (he who coined the damned “separation between church and state”), pointing our flaws in the Great Society (damned Civil Rights, federal education funding and poverty war), playing up the violence of the Black Panthers, giving the Reagan Revolution more time … just a whole host of things with which I do not agree.
The New York Times has more on the subject: “Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change.”
To be fair, I’m not terribly familiar with Jefferson Davis’ inaugural address as President of the Confederacy, one document they want to elevate. So maybe that should be taught.
Although phrases such as “it is a gross abuse of language to denominate the act rebellion or revolution” and “the rights of person and property have not been disturbed” or “no intention or design to invade the rights of others” or “a desire to protect and preserve our own rights” might ring hollow to a student in the 21st century who was descended from those held in slavery.
Here’s an article from the Houston Chronicle written by a historian: “State education board keeps itself in the news.”
Key quote:
During the discussion, one participant argued that individuals in the guidelines should be limited to “correct historical figures.” I am uncertain what she meant by “correct,” but the suggestion has the ring of paternalism. At the very least, it undermines the purpose of critical thinking. Rather than have a state agency trawl through our past and provide a “correct” list, the guidelines should be seen as opportunities for the display of historical analysis and pedagogical skill.
Fantastic article about digital preservation in Monday’s New York Times: “Fending Off Digital Decay, Bit by Bit.”
Peter Kafka at All Things D has dug up a fantastic list – the wholesale prices that cable providers pay the broadcasters for each channel. Check out: “Hate Paying for Cable? Here’s Why.”
SNL Kagan
Every so often my father and I get into a frustration match about the bundling of cable TV. This happens mostly before or during baseball season, as NESN isn’t “basic” cable – it’s on the more expensive pricing tier.
You know, because “basic” cable should cost $55 a month.
We want a la carte pricing – why pay for Fox News, truTV or the Style Network if we don’t watch it? I don’t buy magazines I don’t like to read, or food I don’t want to eat.
Of course, every commercial enterprise has their tricks and quirks, and long ago the cable industry made the brilliant move to bundle everything we want and don’t want together. Getting them to change that seems less-and-less likely as downloads and streaming video take over the web and the mega-corporate broadcasters have more frequent disputes with the mega-corporate subscription-television providers over transmission fees.
Also, as pricing sends a signal (i.e. you get what you pay for) broadcasters would probably want their channels to command a higher price. As the lower the price of the channel, more people would infer the channel is crummy and probably not sign up for it.
Oh well. I guess we can dream that someday Time-Warner will allow me to pay $4.06 for ESPN, $0.88 for Disney, $0.24 for MLB Network and a scant $0.14 for Comedy Central. That someday they’ll be hurting enough to get my $5.32 instead of the $55 that I’m not paying them today.
UPDATE: Just saw a New York Times article from Wednesday about cable-cord cutter who ditch their subscription-television provider and watch cable over the internet tubes, a rising number as cable bills rise. Check out: “Changing Channels, From Cable to the Web.”
The New York Times Abstract City blog is genius, last year’s “I LEGO N.Y.” might be my favorite pop-art ever.
Well artist Christoph Niemann is at it again with a funny take on Google Maps. Check out: “My Way.”
This New York Times “On Language” column is from a couple of weeks ago, but it’s clever and educational and portmanteaus (portmanteaux?) are always fun.
Plus I agree with Mr. Garner that blog is “the ugliest neologism of the last century”.
Check out: “Webinar.”
I love-love-love things like this.
From the Freakonomics blog at the New York Times we get a graph showing water consumption in Edmonton from February 28 – during the men’s Olympic hockey gold medal game.
Green line is the consumption from February 27.
Graph: EPCOR
So as you know South Africa is hosting the FIFA World Cup in June.
Ahead of that, the “Schott’s Vocab” blog on the New York Times has a list of South African slang.
Check out: “Soccer World Cup Slang.”
I love languages. I love that you can say the same thing in hundreds of different ways. How some languages have subtleties that others lack. Each has it’s own strength and beauty.
It just sucks I’m so bad at them.
So instead I can marvel in how different people communicate. I think I mentioned recently how the United Nations has six official languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish).
Well in this New York Times article from Monday about Google’s translating software I saw a fun fact – European Parliament proceedings are translated into 23 languages.
Dang!
I had to google it. We’ve got: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
So now the Islamic Solidarity Games have been called off because host-country Iran inscribed “Persian Gulf” on the tournament’s official logo and medals.
This, as we know from last week, is bad news (see Iran and the “Arabian Gulf”).
Check out the New York Times article: “Muslims Won’t Play Together.”
I think I’ve linked to this blog before, but quite frankly I’m feeling too lazy right now to check. “Schott’s Vocab” is a blog on the New York Times that is a “repository of unconsidered lexicographical trifles — some serious, others frivolous, some neologized, others newly newsworthy.”
Fun puns, if you will.
Today’s entry is particularly amusing because Liz and I actually did this (with a $5 ring, though): “Mengagement Rings.”
One line interested me, though, “For a certain generation, in Britain especially, to spot a husband wearing a wedding band is rare.”
Men don’t wear wedding rings in England?! Can we confirm that?
I love architecture. In another life I could have designed buildings. I just read an interesting article in the New York Times about the new United States Embassy in London: “A New Fort, er, Embassy, for London.”
Here’s the design they picked:
Kierantimberlake Architects
Key quote from the article:
The project as a whole, however, is a fascinating study in how architecture can be used as a form of camouflage. The building is set in a spiraling pattern of two small meadows and a pond that have as much to do with defensive fortification as with pastoral serenity: an eye-opening expression of the irresolvable tensions involved in trying to design an emblem of American values when you know it may become the next terrorist target.
Over at the Embassy’s official page they have a few more renderings, including this one that’s much more spikey than the last:
Kierantimberlake Architects
Stories like this are bad to read at five in the morning: “The New Poor: Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs.”
Of course, I never even got unemployment, so that means I’m even worse off.
<shudder>
One of the things that struck me when we lived in Dubai was that everyone called the Persian Gulf by the name “Arabian Gulf”.
Guess it made sense, we were living in Arabia. Of course, the United Nations guidelines are clear:
The term “Persian Gulf” is used as the standard geographical designation for the sea area between the Arabian Peninsula and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The full term “Persian Gulf” is always used to designate that sea area when it is first referred to in a text and is repeated thereafter whenever necessary for the sake of clarity.
But Arab states still call it otherwise, upsetting Persians.
So what’re they going to do about it?
How about: “Iran Threatens Airline Ban Over “Arabian Gulf” Tag.”
Just read an interesting fact over at the Opinionator blog at the New York Times:
Through immigration and high birth rates, the United States is expected to add another 100 million people by 2050. If you don’t believe me, consider that we’ve added 105 million people since 1970. This is more than the population of France. More than Italy. More than Germany. Currently, we have a net gain of one person every 13 seconds.
Josh finally lives in Maine again
after four years at Boston University, a stint in Southern California with
Walt Disney Feature Animation,
and two years in Dubai, UAE,
where he created and wrote
Newlywed in Dubai.
