KG Math

The Building Blocks method sounds very similar to how I taught my kindergarteners math. I guess they knew what they were doing. Reading this article made me want to teach KG again.

Hello, Napoleon complex?

This. Is. SAD. Koreans are sad. This does not help me with my desire to embrace my culture more. No, not at all. Tallness is overrated.

Clowning Around In the Name of Research

Funny October article about cell phone distraction .

Man's Best Friend

Not a surprise, but hehehe: dogs are better friends than people.

(in the walking-buddy sense)

Barefoot Running

This article (more like a blog) - sort of related to this book - came out awhile ago and I meant to post it when I first read it... but I didn't. So I revisited it, and now I'm posting it.

I think the whole barefoot movement is really interesting, and I think I'll end up investing in a set of Vibram Five Fingers in the future - both for running and weight training/all other types of exercise.

Economics of Gift Giving

Nothing too ground breaking, but an interesting take on the economics of gift giving.

Reformat articles

Not really an article, but this is an awesome way to reformat webpages, especially news articles.

Hm, I guess I could link to the article that included the tool to better fit the posting rules of this blog.

Pentagon's Balloon Challenge

Cool....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/science/01darpa.html?_r=1&hpw

Lithium

Wow, if I had to guess where lithium comes from, I would have been so wrong.

One thing leads to another (from a national uproar to ineffiecient over-use of a precious resource)...

Jim Carrey marries Jenny Mccarthy. Jenny's child was autistic, and now so was Jim's-- thru marriage. On to the CNN interview box they go. Jim Carrey is famous and I, the viewer, will watch him on tv. So what do they say to viewers - vaccines Baaaaad. I say whaaaaa? Other people say, Yeahhhhh, vaccines bad.

Now kids are getting the measels again. Bad thing 1.

Bad thing 2: USA refuses adjuvants in Swine Flu vaccine....

Okay. I drew the line between Jim Carrey and this article, and it's past my bed time. But the main thing is - It's crazy how public health concerns can be made like this. Out of fear that citizens won't comply to safety recommendations.

G'nite.

Medulla oh my g-dda!

Just learned about this area of the brain today. Amazing timing for this article to surface. I guess that happens a lot. You learn something new, and then you notice that new thing everywhere you look in your normal life. Like the time I was at the farmers market as a kid and saw those honey sticks (yummm) where you cut off the top and squeeze out the delicious honey. It was something totally new to me - I thought the amish had invented it. Then when I went back to my normal routine - there they were, everywhere - they had been all around me and I had just never noticed.

Brain ... slate....

Simon says: BOGUS

Interesting libel case going on across the Atlantic. The link to the original article is below.

Photography

http://studionineblog.com/?p=658

how can anyone read this and not want to do what he does?? or not be inspired in some way???

You Lie! haha

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/us/politics/10wilson.html?hp

now that's good tv--- GObama

Vay - Ner - Chuk

That's my boiiiii!

One way streets

Short funny article.

Twin Superpower!

Ann, this is the article Devin sent the BMB group. "Career Opportunity for Sarah and Angie". Still not to late to pull off a successful Alias-style mission!

Laptop free coffee shops

This slate article is calling out the WSJ on the laptop free coffee shop trend. A few false trends are discussed in the article, coffee shops start near bottom of the first page.

Suing College

This article isn't that interesting on its own. But it is amazing to see what happens when everyone just has a gut reaction to a one liner vs finding out the facts.

If you haven't heard, a woman is suing her college because she hasn't been able to get a job. Sounds absurd - right? Except her college is for-profit, is basically a vocational school and charges more than local regular colleges. You may not agree with her after reading the article, but at least she seems less deserving of ridicule on the national news.

Laptop-free coffeeshops

I'm horrified. Coffeeshops should feel fortunate. We, the public, have shunned free libraries in favor coffeeshops despite the $2 cover price. I guess I should consider myself fortunate that when I go to coffeeshops I'll be bringing text books for the next few years. Stilllllll.

Ingenious!

Odorless kimchi!

The Ultimate Obama Insider

"Great article!" -Eric "An incredible look at the Obama administration through the lens of someone with power I've never heard of" -Eric "As enjoyable and thorough as a New Yorker article." -Eric "Like reading an episode of the West Wing." -Eric "Fascinating friction in an administration who espouses it's No Drama ideal." -Eric

Controlling Your Dreams

I'd like a bit more scientific evidence, but this article is quite trippy.

I've had plenty of times when I've gone in and out of being awake and been able to direct a dream, but I think that was more like day dreaming. I don't think I could have made myself fly, but then again I never thought to try.

Rice is writing about what?

Not exactly a good article, but kind of mind bending to read an article about golf written by Condoleezza Rice.

Hiroshima

a touch of beauty. The japanese author blends a mention of current nuclear arms negotiations with childhood memories of Hiroshima. I wish this article were longer - if it were a book, I might just read it.

Sotomayor

On one hand I find the Sotomayor confirmation pretty boring since it is so likely she'll be confirmed and since all the senators' stances are so obvious (it reminds me of the saying "everything has already been said, but not everyone has said it"). But in some ways I think it is an interesting add on to the strip search case. Since that was a case where having a female justice almost certainly added the prospective/empathy to lead to a certain decision. This article mentions the connection.

Wiki article of the day

It's a doozy! The Beauchamp-Sharp Tragedy. Golly, it's juicy.
(But really just read the intro part--that's all I read)

Texting Teen Falls Down Manhole

hahahahahahahahahahahhaha.

Does that make him a Christian Scientist (badum-bum)

This article is why Article Recommendations was created. So much to discuss...

A few years back, I remember digging in to the Evolution vs. Creationism debate when it was really heating up. On one side there were the scientists and on the other were the religious Kansas Board crazies & Co. pushing creationism... But between the two poles stood one man: Francis Collins. He was in an oddly paradoxical and contradictory position. Yet he could calmly respond to any given issue - usually by yielding to the side of science but insisting on his persistent faith. He was THE Evangelical Christian / Scientist. Honestly, if Bush had appointed him to head the NIH, I might have been outraged.

The fact that obama did makes me sink into my own reflections and wonder.

Oh Joe

Biden's "gaffe" actually signalled foreign miliary might to act!? I heard him say this quote to Snuffleuffagous this morning, and it sounded a little odd, but am amazed that a government would take what he said as anything more than Joe being Joe-- much less, and well orchestrated signal that we won't stand in Israel's way if they defensively attack another country.

Socialized Medicine vs. Single-Payer

A good, short article about the difference between the two kinds of health care systems (recommended by my bro).

Slow Law

The Supreme Court ruled today on the case about the strip-searched 13 year old girl. The real story is the girl's now 19 years old. Hooray for....... (wait for it) ........................... (keep waiting) .................................... (only a few more years) ............................................................Justice!

Medicare vs. Medicaid

Things to do... I guess at some point I'm supposed to learn the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. Extracurriculars used to mean baseball or the literary magazine. Now it's, can I make me-time to learn about health care policy? (slate article)

Accident in my future home

Another difficult article to get through. A train collision on the DC Metro line.

I thought it was interesting that Obama commented on the incident-- I wonder due to his new residence in DC, or if he would have commented no matter where this tragedy occurred.

Crime

Never heard of this site, but digg brought up this crime. I never understood how a guy could be raped-- now I wish I didn't. The guy at the end makes it seem like 1 out of 10 guys would be okay with it.

on the modern marriage (and divorce)

I came upon this interesting article in The Atlantic. A woman discusses marriage and what it means to the American today, and how it has changed from before. She delves into the idea that marriage need not be forever any longer, as the reasons for being in a lifelong marriage no longer exist.

Also, this is noteworthy:

Why Him? Why Her? explains the hormonal forces that trigger humans to be romantically attracted to some people and not to others (a phenomenon also documented in the animal world). Fisher posits that each of us gets dosed in the womb with different levels of hormones that impel us toward one of four basic personality types:

The Explorer—the libidinous, creative adventurer who acts “on the spur of the moment.” Operative neurochemical: dopamine.

The Builder—the much calmer person who has “traditional values.” The Builder also “would rather have loyal friends than interesting friends,” enjoys routines, and places a high priority on taking care of his or her possessions. Operative neurotransmitter: serotonin.

The Director—the “analytical and logical” thinker who enjoys a good argument. The Director wants to discover all the features of his or her new camera or computer. Operative hormone: testosterone.

The Negotiator—the touchy-feely communicator who imagines “both wonderful and horrible things happening” to him- or herself. Operative hormone: estrogen, then oxytocin.

Fisher reviewed personality data from 39,913 members of Chemistry.com. Explorers made up 26 percent of the sample, Builders 28.6 percent, Directors 16.3 percent, Negotiators 29.1 percent. While Explorers tend to be attracted to Explorers, and Builders tend to be attracted to Builders, Directors are attracted to Negotiators, and vice versa.

(but, I also am guilty of believing marriage is forever, love can last forever, and all that Disney stuff. so congrats to Jess & Eric!~ teehee)

Drivers

Reuters. Pittsburgh is top-five for most courteous drivers. I had no idea. Seriously.

On second thought, it's the roads that are frightening-- the drivers ARE actually pretty nice.

Obama recommends Gawande

Over the last year, and especially since we've launched this ArticleRec site, I've found The New Yorker's Annals of Medicine to be one of the most consistent repositories of amazingly interesting writing. This New York Times article quoted below shows Obama agreeing, and using Atul Gawande's words to actually guide policy.

“He came into the meeting with that article having affected his thinking dramatically,” said Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon. “He, in effect, took that article and put it in front of a big group of senators and said, ‘This is what we’ve got to fix.’ ”

It's fascinating that politicians are reading the same stuff we are. It's both great to know we have a reader as a president, but also a little disappointing that my childish expectation that our government has all this secret information is total bologne.

It was really cool reading the NYTimes article having just read Gawande's piece a couple days ago myself. I love when that happens.

Sliding Doors

What my life could have been: the confessions of a reluctant vivisector. It really almost happened. Coming to Pittsburgh I was offered two jobs: 1) study memory with alzheimer's patients 2) study vision in rhesus monkeys. Had I chosen the latter, at the very least my last 3 years would have been wildly, tortuously different, and at most would have lead to a career of what's described in the article. One major push towards alzheimer's-- besides the better clinical experience, the more human interaction, more obvious impact and higher pay-- was the image of having to tell my 7th grade students at Poly I was leaving them to prepare live monkeys for single-cell electrode recordings in their brains. Yikes.

Sriracha everything

Sriracha is officially a fad. Don't let this stop you from slathering it on everything you eat!

underlying conditions

the NYT story is that people should be concerned because most Americans are afflicted with one of the following underlying conditions that could put people at risk of swine flu:

diabetes, asthma, heart disease, lung disease, a weakened immune system and, possibly, obesity[...] pregnancy, being younger than 2, or being older than 65.

this possibly could be a blessing in disguise as people might try to remedy their afflictions by eating better and more healthful foods and exercising.

Life Imitates Art

White cop shoots undercover black cop... Just like in the Wire!
http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=369494&f=19
(Sorry I'm posting from my blackberry so I don't know now to embed the link)

Liberal vs. Conservative Minds

According to these two questions in Kristof's latest article, I'm somewhat left of center. 

I don't always read online magazines. But when I do, I prefer Slate.com

Slate Article. These Dos Equis ads are so interesting-- Like a combination of James Bond, Chuck Norris, and Stephen Colbert: "The police often question him just because they find him interesting," "His beard alone has experienced more than a lesser man's entire body," "His blood smells like cologne."

And it's totally confusing why he says, "I don't always drink beer," he says, "but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis." I'm glad Slate's article acknowledges this:

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the most interesting man, in marketing terms, is his ambivalence toward the advertised product. "I don't always drink beer," he says. Whaa? "But when I do," he adds, almost offhandedly, "I prefer Dos Equis." Double whaa? Generally, a brand icon will be an all-out cheerleader. Imagine Tony the Tiger admitting that he doesn't always eat cereal for breakfast, but that when he does, he tends to eat Frosted Flakes, like, most of the time. Doesn't have quite the same impact as "They're Grrrrrrreat!"

I wonder how Dos Equis feels about Slate's creation, the Double X,which to them has taken the meaning FEMALE!

Who is the Jerry Lewis of Germany?

Donald Duck, apparently. Check it out:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574181722075062290.html

Post-Finale episodes

Scrubs: season 9

Reading Aloud

I love being read to, it's so soothing, a good way to relax. But the author of this article makes it sound like so much more. Tender? Erotic? The breath, mind, and soul? Makes me think of the movie "The Reader" with Kate Winslet- wow, what a movie. Winslet really knows how to choose the ones that are 'out there'.

And have you ever thought about what other people hear when they read silently to themselves? What are the qualities of the voices? Does it sound like the reader's own voice? Does a man usually read silently in a man's voice, and a woman in a woman's voice? I wonder if you can train yourself to have different silent reading voices...

I thought it was strange how the author made it sound like a negative thing that his students were reading for meaning. Isn't that the primary purpose of words, to convey meaning?

Another Coffee Article

Eric and I just keep looking for excuses to maintain the coffee fix. It's good for you! I swear!

Absinthe

My fear that drinking absinthe would make me go crazy is waning, and the herbaciousness of the flavor profile makes me think I'd be quite a big fan. Mayyyybe it doesn't make you go mad after all!?

It is an anise-flavored spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium... Yum, right?

Reality TV and Drug Trials

Slate article about how short term drug trials don't always indicate long term results. It uses reality show winners as an analogy.

for the love of uni

this one is for you, cousin

NYtimes Uni article

NY Fed

It's too bad Eliot Spitzer was hiring all those prostitutes. He's written a number of articles for slate that seem to really be on the ball, and sometimes ahead of the rest of the news (especially the stuff about looking at where AIG payments went and why they were paid in full instead of looking at the bonuses). Of course, considering he's one of my few insights into Wall Street it is a bit circular for me to assume he's totally right.

Anyway, here's his latest slate article pointing out how questionably the NY Fed is run.

HFC

Slate article about high fructose corn syrup. The part I was surprised by is that sugar contains almost as much fructose as high fructose corn syrup. Does that sound right to the medical crowd reading this? I used to think HFC is worse for you than regular sugar, but this is making me question that.

work worth doing

it is what i strive for, and it happens to be what Sandra Day O'Connor believes is the secret to happiness.

-from Slate.com "The Happiness Project" blog

on eating ethically

This article from Salon.com talks about whether eating ethically is affordable. A reporter does an experiment to find out, and succeeds.

I heart eating ethically.

Air Force Flyover

News has felt slow and uninteresting to me lately. It's been a while since an article moved me in any direction. Finally, this article made me feel totally empathetic to the new yorkers who, having been traumatized by 9/11, were furious about this photoshoot.

DIY Nation

The tanking of the economy, and also perhaps increasing awareness of our negative impact on the earth, have recently led to a do-it-yourself movement (imho). Here's a fun article on Slate about the cost-effectiveness of making your own kitchen staples. I've also seen lots of articles on how to DIY garden & compost, make gutter-water barrels to use for gardening or car-washing, etc etc... some of which I have saved in bookmarks, so let me know if you want me to point you in the right direction.

Whimsy & Wisdom

How could anybody not love Maira Kalman?
I adore her. I want to name my first born female child after her.

More on strip searches

One from the NYT and one from slate. Both seem to love the line:

Justice Breyer elaborated on what children put in their underwear. “In my experience when I was 8 or 10 or 12 years old, you know, we did take our clothes off once a day,” he said. “We changed for gym, O.K.? And in my experience, too, people did sometimes stick things in my underwear.”

SCOTUS says: an update on strip searches

the Supreme Court of the United States is likely to overturn the opinion finding that strip searching is unconstitutional.

SCOTUS says Nay to drugs and therefore Yay to strip searches.

Slate article

Financing for Alternative Energy

Slate article about how it is advances in financing, more than advances in technology, that are required to step up the use of alternative energy.

gun (out-of-)control

lately there has been much buzz about gun control, or lack thereof. i wrote a post on my blog expressing my distress about the Pittsburgh event. i don't mean to self-advertise; i'm just too lazy to copy the entry in.

yesterday, bob herbert of the NYT wrote an op-ed piece about the recent surge in murderous gun usage. i was surprised to see the numbers: 120,000 since 9/11. 25 times the number of Americans that have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

i can't say i know much about the argument for and against gun control, but i do think it is an issue to be looked upon.

Shooting Pirates

Q: How hard is it to shoot someone in a lifeboat 100 feet away?
A: If the pirates' heads were fully exposed, it would have been an easy shot.
I'm both amazed by the conditions of the instantaneous shots as well as the swagger the author brushes them off like "it ain't no big thang."

Lost Robots

Feel good about Americans. We help robots get to where they want to go.
(Beware: associated video. I almost didn't post this link. I don't want this site to be taken over by videos. That said, I'm linking to the ARTICLE; if you end up watching the video, that's on you.)

The Other White Meat

Eric always talks about pork as white meat, and I always correct him and say that pork's reputation as "the other white meat" comes from a successful marketing campaign & that red meat comes from mammals vs white meat comes from fowl, but this article says it's a lot more complicated than that. Really we should all just be eating matzo ball soup and non-carnivorous fish.

Science & Ethics

Interesting that these two articles came out at the same time: The End of Philosophy and Humanity Even for Non-humans.

I think the latter article disproves the claim of the former. And as this critic pointed out, it wouldn't even be the end of all philosophy- just the ethics part. But less trivially-speaking: just because it's natural, doesn't make it right. 

Cat Poop Coffee

Coffee too bitter? Try cat poop coffee! For a price...

A friend of a friend told jess and me about this. The biochemistry fascinates me... The price gives me pause. As does the ethics. Most generally, the existance of cat poop coffee causes me concern about the culture of which I'm a mid-level card-carrying enthusiast (coffee lovers and snobs association-- abvr. CLASA). The idea of perfecting coffee by having an animal ingest and then excrete makes me intrigued, I mean, shudder. Where's PETA on this?

Doga

Yoga with dogs. Seriously like, the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. I can't believe people pay for/get paid for/get paid to write about this nonsense.

A-Rod

Funny encompassing column on A-Rod.

Texting and Twittering

One article about organizing protests using twitter.

And one article about dealing with other people txting instead of paying attention to you.

Request For Comments

TODAY is an important date in the history of the Internet: the 40th anniversary of what is known as the Request for Comments. Reading this, I remembered what Jess had to say about modern comments. :)

Protests

Kind of short, but the article describes why some protests work and some don't.

The NYT Errol Morris Blog

A fascinating story about a dead Civil War soldier and the photograph he clutched as he lay dying. Morris's past posts are really interesting, too, especially the one from last year about the Abu Ghraib photograph of the dead prisoner and the smiling guard.

Caffeine for sports

The author of this NYT article is in love with caffeine. I'm reading it thinking-- yeah, but what about the health detriments... are there any? The article eventually gets to health by explaining that even though caffeine can increase your hr + bp and make you urinate more often at first, with regular use over a couple days these effects are habituated. It's hard to think anything can have so many benefits (not forgetting the holy antioxidants) without being bad. I often worry coffee will be our generation's cigarettes. But no evidence for that at all.

Seedless Tomatoes & Medicine

The newly added Food Network Widget linked me to an article originally reported in Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette. Seedless tomatoes-- big deal, right? That's what I thought until I read, "The seedless tomato, he says, will benefit those suffering from diverticulitis and people recovering from surgery." That sentence tells me I have a LOT to learn in med school!

No Snickering: That Road Sign Means Something Else

Classic article Jess and I found a while back.

Russell Bates/Ross Parry Agency

The “Butt” in this road, in South Yorkshire, probably refers to a container for collecting water.

e-Records

There's $19 billion available for electronic healthcare records thanks to the stimulus. Two articles discussing how to put the money to use. Your Doctor's Office or the Internet? AND No Small Change for the Health Information Economy.

The Internet In A Box

Whole history of the web in a shipping container.

Why kids don't put their coat on

Why kids don't put their coat on. Really more about difference between how kids and adults plan for future events.

Why go Flexitarian?

The title of this article is pretty obnoxious. But the findings are quite respectably dire: diets rich with red meat are linked to earlier mortality. I know, we already knew. But now we know know.

School Strip Search

Messed up - school strip searches 13 year old girl based on rumor that she has ibuprofen, now going to supreme court.

GOP Hypocrisy

What's new, right? But Dahlia Lithwick at Slate wrote a nice piece elucidating various intellectual hypocrisies among Senate Republicans.

more malignant than just a Glow

I'm actually not very surprised, but it's quite a revelation nonetheless:

Sugar is comforting

When Economy Sours, Tootsie Rolls Soothe Souls

I Cans Make $

A few weeks ago a coworker just showed me FAIL BLOG, which I continue to find hilarious despite the overarching theme of the site being schadenfreude (really it's more just the general stupidity of others). That's one of the reasons this article from slate caught my eye-- an article promising to explain how they make money. I was expecting an explanation having some relation to Google's Ad Sense style advertising, where consumer information is utilized to provide a highly active and sought customized ad space. Instead the article just explains that the owner of the company looks for internet memes that are likely to outlast the usual 15 minutes of fame. I was disappointed the article never goes into the process to which he actually makes money-- rather, it just discusses how he gets content and lots of people to come to his site.

AIG Bonuses

People being irrational despite economists' urges to make us greedy robots. Isn't our human side exactly what we're supposed to be fostering while the economically prototyical human entity of 300,000,000+ game-theory-oriented americans is what got us into this mess? New Yorker Article using Evolutionary Psychology to explain why we wouldn't want AIG to give bonuses even if that caused us some harm: Altruistic Punishment.
(Not the best article, but an interesting perspective on an over-reported current event)

False Memory

This story didn't surprise me very much when I first read it, but it's been on my mind long enough to where I deem it of REC quality. The details remind me eerily of Shawshank Redemption.
http://www.slate.com/id/2213579/

Is Alzheimer's a form of diabetes?

Mostly I'm curious to hear what Eric and Jess have to say about this slate article, so I figured I'd post it here.

House, M.D.

A real team of doctors to look at extremely rare cases... a house, md in washington dc:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/magazine/22Diseases-t.html?scp=1&sq=summer%20stiers&st=cse

(No article's really hit me lately--partially cause I didn't read much in DC..., so thought I'd reach a few weeks back)

What to do with what's left in the fridge

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/03/06/DI2009030602219.html?hpid=features2&hpv=national

Prevent drowning in kids!

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-capsule9-2009mar09,0,3969076.story

$67 a week

LA Times feature on a couple eating on $67/week (this is apparently the food stamp allowance for a family of 2).

I hated the author's pretention. Especially the part about his huge brother who couldn't do less than $100/wk on his own. There was an attitude of this experiment as just that--an experiment, without even a hint of introspection or revelation that there are actually poor people for whom this is actually a reality. In fact, people are trying to feed more than 2 mouths on not much more than $70/week. And they don't have Costco nearby, let alone a 99 Ranch Market or a fresh farmer's market.

We live in barren frigid Pittsburgh, where oranges literally cost $1 each, apples are $2/lb, cauliflower is often >$4/head, and a bundle of green onions is easily $1.79. And we've been successfully eating (and eating whole, nutritious, delicious meals) for ~$60/week. Honestly, in Southern California, where produce is cheap, fresh and abundant, and supermarket prices are held at reasonable prices due to the number and variety of market chains, I can't imagine it being completely impossible. Especially for people living in the type of community in which the author and his partner live.

In many underserved communities, people are largely poor, and neighborhoods are plagued with violence and vacancy. Supermarkets and farmer's marts don't really flock to these areas; in fact, many impoverished neighborhoods don't have a grocery store. They have liquor stores, and perhaps a food pantry stocked with canned/frozen foods and some rotting produce that isn't cheap or abundant. They have unreliable public transportation. People in these communities have to take that $70 per week in food stamps and attempt to build nutritious, balanced meals out of very little.

These people are not benefited by a somewhat lighthearted article written as a response to a fun social experiment that some pretentious writer decided to undertake.

That's my 2 cents, anyway.

Doodling

Article about how doodling when you're bored can actually help you retain information.

Music for the genetically gifted

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/an-ipod-so-small-its-controls-are-found-on-the-cord/?8dpc

An ipod that talks to you-- tells you what song is playing and how much battery life is left-- is cool... That is, if you're of the genetically 'superior' class of citizens that the little weird earbuds stay in your ears. For second class citizens who up 'til now had to pay an extra 10, 20, 30 bucks for earphones that work on our second class ears-- now we can't even use the new ipod shuffle because they made the shuffle so small they put the buttons on the ear bud cord! Thanks. Cool article-- David Pogue rocks.

A Spectacle

At Radio City, a Showdown Between Maher and Coulter

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/arts/television/11deba.html

-

Happiness Project

I've been following the happiness project on slate:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/happinessproject/

It is less lame than it sounds and has some reasonable suggestions. My major complaint is it is too many suggestions. Before I have a chance to try something the next set of suggestions has been posted.

Freethrows

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=335160

Freethrows, completely unguarded and unchanged for years, have been made at a steady percentage for decades. Female and male players scoring at the same levels, and the nba consistently outscoring college by only the tiniest margin.

That said, the author seemed to undercut his own argument that more practice doesn't raise freethrow percentages in his discussion of college teams that focus on freethrows. By showing that these teams have a higher ft percentage, didn't he say practice does make perfect...

Reminds me of when they said the mile couldn't be run in under 4min... And then it was, I dunno. Feels like with enough athletes, unless a change in equipment or revolutionary shooting style appears, maybe we should't expect any major change averaged across all players...

Still, found this article interesting!

Universal Healthcare

http://www.healthbeatblog.com/2009/01/dr-atual-gawande-on-realitybased-reform-why-dont-we-open-the-va-to-the-uninsured-.html

Free VA services for any American. I need to find arguments against the idea of opening the VA up to everyone. Doing that while maintaining our current private system makes a lot of sense. An opposition might be that the VA is underfunded, but preventing emergencies always seems like a good counter-argument making it less expensive and more humane than the SQ. The author's point is that countries develop modern systems based on historical foundations. We have the VA-- why not more fully use it?

Also has good brief descriptions of the foundations and events that led to several European medical systems.

It's based on a New Yorker article written by Atul Gawande. And Q&A with him. REEEEALLY I should have read those before blogging....