I've often heard the saying "the truth is in the middle" when discussing heated political issues. The saying can be true when factions on either side make equally hyperbolic remarks, trying to sway the undecided into their camp. However, just because an issue has been politicized it doesn't mean that one side isn't more right than the other. In ( Read more... )

ceida pointed me to this interesting article in the Globe. My initial reaction was that it is a ridiculous name for what is just a sequence of sounds, but since there are so many songs that reuse a comparatively small set of chord progressions, I thought it would be an interesting, if only academic, exercise (which I have not done) to construct an ( Read more... )

From NYTimes.com:[The president issued] a memorandum that sets forth broad parameters for how his administration would choose expert advisers and use scientific data ( Read more... )

Playing around with photo editing software -- it's interesting how quickly things can go from good to just plain wacky. The top one is the original taken with my Canon SD800 IS.


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From the Freakonomics Blog:Who owns Trader Joe’s?

1. Some great California family full of surfers and gardeners.

2. A small band of communal farmers in Oregon.

3. A huge German discount-grocery chain best known in the U.S. for no-glamor stores often located in marginal neighborhoods.
( Spoiler )

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From the Daily Show:


Friedman explains why we need to develop clean energy technology in the United States to a degree much greater than what has been done. He also supports carbon taxes or caps as a market signal to deal with the pollution externality. Smart guy.

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From this TIME article:
"As a new freshman [at the University of Mississippi] last September, Jeremiah Taylor accompanied his white roommate to a fraternity party where he was the only African-American in attendance. He says a partygoer, noticing him, commented, "Oh my God, I can't believe there's a nigger here." When Taylor turned to go, one ( Read more... )

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