Ruin Reader

A great article/big picture look at recent disasters. A redefining of "apocalypse". Says neoliberal economics led to current "rapacious" state of capitalism, in which the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer by the former strangling the latter. Treats Haiti as a microcosm-like example of what is to come if we continue in this vein. And hey, the author quotes Walt Whitman!

Don't call; just text

My goodness. Usually NYTimes trends are so bologna fallacious bull-honkey... their one purpose is to ignite interesting counter-example conversation. BUT this article struck at the core of something I've been feeling for years. No matter how wonderful it is to get a call from someone - especially friends/family ya haven't talked to in a while - there remains an element of intrusiveness and urgency inherent to phone calls. Texts just seems so polite, informative, and readily available whenever there's a free second. Phone calls on the other hand require so much! Take ambient noise for instance. What's the locus of existing places that qualify both of the follow criteria: 1) A quiet area so the caller can hear you 2) not TOO quiet so you're not being a nuisance to others. How many of those places actually exist - Unless I'm at home, usually I'm impinging on one or the other.... Or I have to spend 5 minutes looking around the school for an empty room. Meanwhile, I can text all day during class!

Anywhooo - It's late. But this article got me all riled up. plz, read, enjoy. And actually anyone reading this article can call me any time. It's the people that do call me I don't want to hear from - haha - just kidding, that's mean. miss all you guys!

-Eric

An old Washington Post article about an experiment involving Joshua Bell playing at L'enfant plaza.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
-- from "Leisure," by W.H. Davies

Look at the date!

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/01/doh-we-almost-spaced-on-lisa-simpsons-wedding-date-2/?hp

Look at the date! In Lisa's future, she was getting married... today!

Jess and I were just watching the Back to the Future marathon on ABC Family yesterday. Ya know that scene in the future with grandpa Biff and the hovercraft? That's the year 2015. It seemed so distant as a kid.

Singularity

I skimmed through the first few pages of this NYT article and thought "What?! Crazy! Cool! Weiiird."

It really makes me wonder what the future (of mankind!) holds.

Magnetar

Ok, this is a podcast, not an article, but does a great job explaining banks betting against their investments, here. If you prefer an article, it's here.

A New Anti-depressant

Medical shrooms? What do you all think about this??

hen + rooster=hooster!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8561814.stm

Dead Sea Scrolls of Physics

Man, I wish I could see this.

Wearing Babies

“At first it was like, ‘Am I trying to be an indigenous tribal woman?’ ”

 Don't usually read the fashion section, but I thought this article on parents carrying their babies on their person was interesting. It never registered in my head before I read the article, but she's absolutely right that wearing babies on your back or stomach has become the trend. Personally I do find it adorable whenever I'm surprised by a tiny head peeking out of a sling on a parent's chest.

But then there was that one time I was on the metro and saw a woman with a set of not-so-small-looking twins strapped to her stomach that made me think there should be a limit of one baby per chest and maybe a lesson or two on proper strapping technique. The poor girls'  heads were lolling backward with eyes glazed and mouths open like fish.

Alice & New Math

A fun article about how Alice in Wonderland is making fun of algebra.

One Century's Beauty is Another Century's Ugly

A brief history of beauty from a veteran of the beauty industry.

Pain & the Brain

This freaks me out for some reason.

Tech scares and CT scans

Two unrelated but interesting articles, both from slate.

First is the history of media scares. Good overview of historical scares that are similar to "is google making us dumber?" - my favorite is when literacy was increasing there was a concern that education would be bad for the mental health of children.

Next is about diagnostic scanning and the cost of health care. The main point is somewhat interesting (although I feel like the point has already been made). But far more interesting is the start of the article which describes how the success of the Beatles funded the invention of the CT scanner (it's a bit of a stretch, but still kinda funny).

Game Theory

applied to passing a Health Care bill... slate, yo!

Writing about math

Wigner essay about the "unreasonable effect of mathematics" referenced in the first of a series of writings about math in the Times).

Hands Down

OK, Anderson Cooper is just way too cool.

Side-bets

Sports and lady-friends... Trashy article, but hits on some interesting sig-other trends... haha.

Google in China

Yay Google!

Wind Chill

I had no idea how made up wind chill is or that it change in the last 10 years.