Dispatches from District 48
Archive for the ‘Other’ Category.
My Princeton roommates and I back in college and at reunions last week.
In the reunion photo, I am the guy in the orange and black on the left. Libertarian readers might also recognize Brink Lindsey of Cato third from the left. Each 25th reunion class gets their own blazer of unique design to cherish forever. I thought ours was pretty good.
I thought this was really cool. I am not really into caption contests, but there seem to be so many possibilities for this one. The first 9/11 that wasn't? An early Air Force One photo op?
via Shorpy
Glen Reynolds repeats a past recommendation for the Sennheiser PX-100 headphones, and I want to give that recommendation a big ditto. I have three pair at home and love them. They are inexpensive, rugged, sound great, and fold up cleverly (though there is a learning curve to getting them back in the case).
A local contestant on "The Biggest Loser," NBC's hit weight-loss show, will be the featured speaker at the Maricopa Chamber of Commerce's Third Annual Keynote Speaker Event on May 27.
Maricopa resident Sione Fa, 28, is expected to share his journey to a healthy, new lifestyle during the fundraising event at Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino Resort.
Really? You mean Gary Coleman wasn'g available. Do business owners really have time for this stuff?
OK, I am an engineer-geek but I think the video below, of a ship leaving the Houston Ship Channel at night, taken with time lapse photography, is really cool. If your eyes are sharp, you can catch the San Jacinto monument on the right (which Texans went out of their way to make taller than the Washington Monument) and the refinery where I once worked on the left, just before the third bridge (the only suspension bridge). Via Tom Kirkendall.
I had the sound off when I watched it. I can do without the techno-jazz soundtrack, but ymmv. I will confess parts of it look like a scene from Blade Runner.
I tried listing a grill and a bunch of old patio furniture on the Craiglist "free" section the other day. I had no experience with the site, but the amount of hassle to try to sell these items, which are incredibly bulky, was really high compared to their value. Anyway, I simply listed them as sitting beside my driveway and that anyone who wanted was welcome to take anything they wanted. I chose a good weather period with the anticipation that they might sit outside for several days.
My son and I left for lunch and 45 minutes later it was all gone -- every one of 20 or so pieces. Piranhas probably take longer to fully strip a cow carcas.
Love this picture of 30 Rock, via Shorpy (including full-size image)
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands survived an assassination attempt, though several of her staff and onlookers were not so lucky.
Years ago, my parents actually hosted Queen Beatrix's visit to Houston. As a libertarian, I don't have much use for hereditary monarchy, but she was quite approachable and helped smooth over my wtf-am-I-doing-here nervousness at the event. She also paid a visit to Princeton University while I was there, so she's got that going for her too.
Radley Balko linked to this article for a different reason (at least I think it was for another reason -- I actually can't figure out why he linked to it, but all those Reason guys are often too hip for me to follow). But I thought this line was funny:
An off-duty Essex police officer could face charges for shooting his allegedly neighbor's dog after it tangled with his Pug, state police say.
"Allegedly neighbor's dog?" Is the fact that he is a neighbor in doubt? Or is the ownership of the dog in doubt? Or is it the species of the animal that is in doubt?
Apparently the NSA is under some heat for proposing to monitor the communications of a member of Congress thought to be meeting with terrorist suspects:
While the N.S.A.'s operations in recent months have come under examination, new details are also emerging about earlier domestic-surveillance activities, including the agency's attempt to wiretap a member of Congress, without court approval, on an overseas trip, current and former intelligence officials said. . . .
The agency believed that the congressman, whose identity could not be determined, was in contact "” as part of a Congressional delegation to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006 "” with an extremist who had possible terrorist ties and was already under surveillance, the official said. The agency then sought to eavesdrop on the congressman's conversations, the official said.
The official said the plan was ultimately blocked because of concerns from some intelligence officials about using the N.S.A., without court oversight, to spy on a member of Congress.
I have a counter idea. Why don't we monitor all the communications of all of Congress all the time and post it on a web site. If they want to exercise ultimate power over us, we can then exercise ultimate scrutiny over them. Unfortunately, in the world of the future, Congress is likely to be the only group exempted from monitoring.
My son got to play a high school baseball game today at Chase Field, right after the Diamondbacks game was over. It was really cool to see the kids on a major league field, though unfortunately his team ran into a buzz saw and lost.
Asked after the game what he thought, he said " We gotta play 'em one day at a time. I'm just happy to be here. Hope I can help the ballclub. I just want to give it my best shot, and the good Lord willing, things will work out."
On the cover of the WSJ today, "US Cargo Ship Repels Pirates." So there weren't any Spanish treasure gallions to attack instead?
A nice example of the car that perhaps encapsulates a whole decade is on sale this week. Does not appear to have been in the movie, but its pedigree is close.
I ordered me some custom Nike's for my 25th Princeton reunion, to go with this fine jacket. It ain't cheap, but Nike allows for some pretty heavy modding of certain shoes at this customization site.
This is dead-on, at least for me.
It is odd that I have this dream about college, even at the age of 47, about every other month, but I have never had a similar dream about work, even now that my entire life savings depends on the success of my business. I wonder why that is?
Immigration Explorer at the NY Times. Dynamic map of US immigration and sources of immigration over the last 120 years.
Also, don't miss the chance to own your own 727 jet for just $45,000.
A framework for choosing a Valentines present (click to enlarge)
via Flowing Data.
I am kind of a Valentines Day scrooge. I don't really like manufactured holidays aimed at converting my guilt into card and restaurant sales. But I did spring for a dozen red roses from the grocery store ($10 baby!) and a giant cupcake for my daughter.
I have always liked factories -- in college, I used to accept certain job interviews (example: Pontiac) just to get the factory tour. Years ago, my wife gave me a travel book called something like "made in the USA" which lists fun public factory tours you can take in the cities you visit. One of my favorite tourist memories was going to the Fedex facility in Memphis at midnight to watch a sort.
But perhaps what made folks think I was really weird was when I told them I though that oil refineries, at night, could be some of the most beautiful places on earth. When I worked in a refinery for 3 years, I used to love being there at night -- not just for the aesthetics, but for the amazing site of miles and miles of plant operating and producing tens of millions of dollars a day of product without a person in sight.
Well, at least one person shares my aesthetics. Via a link from Radley Balko, comes this photo spread called factories and industrial complexes, but which look mostly like oil refineries at night.
My old Princeton roommate Brink Lindsey and I agreed today that our 25th reunion jackets meet the primary test of such apparel: They must be both original and so hideous that one would never wear them outside of zip code 08544.
Can clothing be both hideous and cool at the same time? I think so (which my wife would say explains a lot). Now, if I could get Robert Graham to do an orange and black shirt to go with it....
PS: Brink has a new paper out, "Paul Krugman's Nostalgianomics: Economic Policies, Social Norms, and Income Inequality"
Update: Hat tip to the commenter who seems to be a fellow rail geek for coming up with the D&RGW locomotive analogy. I almost ran this post differently. I was going to have a joke post claiming to be an item from the stimulus bill, claiming one provision to increase employment was to replace traffic cones at construction sites with live humans wearing appropriate gear. But I am having trouble seeing very much funny in the stimulus bill right now. Never has so much been spent so quickly with so little deliberation or even understanding of what is being spent.
As for the test pattern comment, this does remind me of the "moiré" test patterns -- in fact, I had trouble trying to compress it too much as the jpeg started producing moiré patterns.
I don't really do news roundup posts, because losts of other folks do them better. But there were a few things I wanted to blog on today and just don't have time, and rather than lose them, here they are briefly:
HT: Maggie's Farm for the second two.
Via Q&O: Former French President Mauled by Clinically Depressed Poodle
Former French President Jacques Chirac was rushed to a hospital after being mauled by his pet dog who is being treated for depression, in a dramatic incident that rattled the ex-president's wife.
The couple's white Maltese poodle, called Sumo, has a history of frenzied fits and became increasingly prone to making "vicious, unprovoked attacks" despite receiving treatment with anti-depressants, Chirac's wife Bernadette said.
As an aside, does anyone else of my generation remember the Saturday Night Live fake commercial for "Puppy Uppers" and "Doggy Downers?" Do you remember how this seemed, you know, like a ridiculous spoof? (video here).
Update: By the way, here is our white Maltese, who to date has not received any of the benefits of veterinary psycho-pharmacology, but who is a great dog none-the-less.
