October 21, 2008
Can you guess what America's "greenest city" is, according to an article in the October 2008 issue of Fast Company magazine? Hint: it's not San Francisco or Portland or Seattle. Give up? It's Grand Rapids, Michigan, the city where I live. According to the article, "Grand Rapids leads the nation in the number of LEED-certified buildings per capita. In 2005, …
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September 3, 2008
Forget McCain and Obama. A new presidential candidate has burst onto the scene. Watch the video to find out who this mystery candidate is: Learn more. …
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August 18, 2008
Peter Hessler has a fascinating article about American distance runners in The New Yorker this month. "Running to Beijing" focuses on Ryan Hall, a marathoner from California, but the part I enjoyed the most was this description of American marathons: Marathoning may be the only sport in which sponsors target the losers, and the losers pay for the winners. That's …
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June 12, 2008
I was really excited to hear on NPR today that Barack Obama's campaign has decided to deal with slanderous accusations head on. They've put together a new site, Fight the Smears, that calls these accusations what they are: lies. For example, the site responds to the smear that "Barack Obama Won't Say The Pledge of Allegiance/Won't Put His Hand Over …
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March 6, 2008
The Chicago-based web-application company 37signals just announced in a blog post that they are conducting a set of Workplace Experiments in an attempt to make their company "one of the best places in the world to work, learn, and generally be happy." So far they've implemented three new policies: Four-day work week: after a summer of Monday-through-Thursday work, they realized …
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December 13, 2007
A little over a week ago the city of Grand Rapids awoke to find a man dangling from a pole projected beyond the corner of a downtown building. Some people called the police, some called the fire department, and some just shook their heads and kept moving right along. It turns out that the man was Sigmund Freud. Well, not …
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November 27, 2007
A feature article in New York Magazine a little over a month ago asked this troubling question: "Can a Lack of Sleep Set Back Your Child's Cognitive Abilities?" It's obviously a rhetorical question, but the recent research is terrifying nonetheless. Apparently, kids are getting on average one hour less sleep each night than kids did 30 years ago. In the …
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November 6, 2007
I read in a magazine some time ago that a ridiculous percentage of the food we put in our bodies is corn. Food manufacturers put corn in almost everything, and, of course, most farmers use corn to feed the animals that we eat. And why not? Corn is cheap and ubiquitous, at least here in the United States. It's also …
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October 6, 2007
As much as I disagree with almost everything George W. Bush has done during his presidency, I can wholeheartedly support this proclamation from our Commander in Chief: NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 9, 2007, as Leif Erikson Day. I call upon all Americans to observe this day with …
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September 30, 2007
The New York Times has finally figured out that it's in their best interest to make their newspaper articles available to the public. As of a week or two ago, they're no longer charging a fee for their "premium" content. Now anyone can read columnists such as Paul Krugman online without having to subscribe. They've opened up their archive, too. …
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August 12, 2007
Every once in a while I get an email from the Swedish American Heritage Council. Or is it the American Swedish Heritage Council? Or the Swedish American Historical Society? Anyway, as much as I hate to admit it (at least, to my mom), I typically hit the delete button when one of these messages shows up in my inbox. A …
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July 27, 2007
It's been over two months since I started writing this entry, so rather than prolong the agony any further, I'm just going to post it somewhat unfinished and hope that it prompts further discussion via the comments. Back in May I heard a snippet of a Talk of the Nation episode featuring Josh Waitzkin, and I was really impressed. If …
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July 1, 2007
There's nothing more comforting to the sick than having a diagnosis, a name that we can attach to what ails us. It's especially heartening to be able to identify by name an illness that plagues a very large number of Americans. The Dunning-Kruger effect, while not exactly an illness, is especially pernicious in that those who have it are blissfully …
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May 26, 2007
My friend Melissa has twin girls who attend the British School in Washington D.C., so when the Queen of England came to town, she paid the school a little visit. According to Melissa, "a court fool was hired to accompany Her Majesty to the event that day": …
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May 1, 2007
The older I get, the more people I know who are battling cancer. So, whenever I see something hopeful related to the disease, my interest is immediately piqued. The excellent blog LifeHacker.com just posted an article about a free online version of The Survivor's Handbook: Eating Right for Cancer Survival: Like the print version ($14.95), the PDF-formatted e-book was written …
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October 27, 2006
Two great web pages, one educational and one merely instructional, show what miraculous things can be done to the human face with some Photoshop work and perhaps a little professionally applied makeup. The Ponderance blog shows the excellent Dove Real Beauty video (via YouTube), in which a rather unassuming woman is transformed into a billboard model: Ponderance: Real Beauty Vs …
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October 14, 2006
When my former student (and current friend) Nicole Tieri sent out an email message a few days ago describing her concerns about a new documentary airing next month, I thought that her thoughts deserved wider circulation. Here is what she had to say: Greetings! To those I see daily and to those who have forgotten what my voice sounds like, …
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September 8, 2006
I've been reading a novel, Doctor Glas, written by Hjalmar Söderberg in 1905. So far it has been enjoyable in a depressing sort of way, but not nearly as provocative as the book jacket blurb claims. One paragraph, though, especially captured my attention: We want to be loved; failing that, admired; failing that, feared; failing that, hated and despised. At …
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August 1, 2006
It came as a great surprise to me that our president, who we all know is a fearless commander in chief, dynamic leader of the free world, and public speaker extraordinaire, also happens to be a remarkable poet. Apparently I'm one of the last people to be clued in to this, since W's poem has been floating around the internet …
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June 22, 2006
During my seven years of teaching, one of the things that particularly distressed me was the suspicion that some of my students were cheating. This gut feeling often accompanied my paper grading and was especially severe when the assignment was a "research" paper. Grading papers was already the least favorite of all of my responsibilities as a teacher. It took …
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June 8, 2006
Every time I go back to my hometown of Philadelphia (actually Willow Grove, but who's counting?) for a visit, I have to readjust to the cultural differences between the east-coast city and my current place of residence, Grand Rapids, Michigan. During the first couple days of my visit, a typical conversation might go like this: Diana [to her husband]: YO, …
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May 2, 2006
The Boston Globe reported on Sunday that throughout his presidency, George W. Bush has determined that hundreds of laws simply don't apply to him. President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with …
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December 13, 2005
Sometimes I get confused and dizzy like I'm going to fall off a precipice even though I'm sitting on the sofa in my living room when I think about the endless choices I have for all manner of consumer goods and all I want, all I really, really want, is for some movie star or television sitcom character to tell …
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November 25, 2005
A friend of mine just forwarded an article to me from the CNN website. It's about a history and English teacher in Vermont who was recently called on the carpet for giving a "liberal" vocabulary quiz. Here's one example, in which the students had to circle the correct word in parentheses: "I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once …
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September 10, 2005
This photographic account of New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina swept through is quite staggering and more informative than most of what has appeared in the mainstream media. It takes some time to get through the whole slideshow, which was put together by a Nicaraguan man living in New Orleans at the time of the hurricane, but it's …
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July 14, 2005
The other day I read an interesting entry on JD Lasica's weblog Darknet in which Lasica describes his attempt to put together a home movie "just for showing off to family or friends." The problems he faced were not technical, but legal, as he wanted to splice into his project a few seconds of video from a handful of movies. …
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June 21, 2005
I've never been all that wild and crazy about Steve Martin's Saturday Night Live years. But the essays he has written for The New Yorker's "Shouts & Murmurs" section over the past few years are some of the funniest I've ever read. The other day when I was searching for one of those articles, I came across the website The …
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May 19, 2005
Soon after characterizing Calvin as a conservative (i.e. right-wing) evangelical Christian college, Washington Post columnist Dan Froomkin seems to have been convinced otherwise (scroll down to "The Calvin College Rebellion"): On closer inspection, it turns out that Calvin College is not the bastion of the Christian Right it appeared to be. In fact, judging from my e-mail, it's a veritable …
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April 21, 2005
I'm speechless. (official announcement) …
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April 16, 2005
Felix Salmon added an interesting comment to my recent entry, a review of Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. I thought I'd respond to it here, rather than in another commment. Here's what he wrote: The one thing the publishers have clearly done well is send out this book to any and every blogger out there -- normally with …
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April 12, 2005
A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner It's not too often that I read the introduction, preface, or acknowledgements of a book. Rarer still are the times that I find these introductory materials as finely written and intriguing as the book itself. In fact, the only book in the last …
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March 23, 2005
A "street artist" called Banksy decided to do a little guerilla marketing last week by hanging his paintings in a few rather conspicuous locations. The Wooster Collective website has some great photos of Banksy's art installations, along with this explanation: The images above — exclusive to the Wooster site and provided by Banksy — are of Banksy installing four pieces …
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March 7, 2005
With the recently opened Digital Gallery, the New York Public Library has given internet users access to approximately 275 thousand images—from drawings to maps, early photographs to illustrated manuscripts. It's a lot of fun to browse through it, but you might want to make sure you have plenty of time before jumping in; it's easy to get lost in the …
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February 12, 2005
Lawrence Lessig, hero of the digital frontier and leading advocate of free culture everywhere, was featured in this week's episode of The West Wing. He himself wasn't on the show, but was played by the mad scientist from Back to the Future (Christopher Lloyd). Lessig teaches Constitutional law at Stanford University and chairs the Creative Commons project. In his blog …
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January 19, 2005
Oh my. Condi "Machiavelli" Rice made it through the first round of confirmation hearings, as expected. Here's one reponse to a question about Iraq that upset me a bit, as quoted by CNN, "I know enough about history to stand back and recognize that you judge decisions not in the moment, but how it all adds up," [Rice] said. "It's …
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December 28, 2004
Here is a major resource for information related to the earthquake and tsunami: The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog. Let's pray, donate, and do whatever else we can to help those who are suffering in the wake of the devestation. …
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December 24, 2004
I was reminded of Bush's shameless, duplicitous statement in the second presidential debate, You might say I'm a good steward of the land, when I read yesterday's New York Times article about the administration's overhaul of environmental regulations: The Bush administration issued broad new rules Wednesday overhauling the guidelines for managing the nation's 155 national forests and making it easier …
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December 5, 2004
A few days ago the Eschaton blog posted an entry about CBS and NBC refusing to run an ad from the United Church of Christ. Apparently, it was considered too controversial by the two networks. The ad, which you can view at stillspeaking.com, shows burly bouncers turning people away from a church. Then these words appear on the screen: Jesus …
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November 15, 2004
In a Washington Post article, executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. (don't ask if he's related to Morton or Robert; I don't know) describes the policies in place at his newspaper to separate the editorial staff from the news staff and to maintain as much objectivity as possible. It's an excellent reminder of the standards that most mainstream news organizations apply …
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November 12, 2004
Sure, this information is a little dated already, and we're all trying to move on (no pun intended) and put the election behind us, but for what it's worth, here are a few links to articles that try to make sense of the Republican victory: Money and Politics: It's all about money. Kerry Advisers Point Fingers at Iraq and Social …
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October 23, 2004
Why are so many conservative Republicans feeling disenchanted with the current Bush administration? Why are some so frustrated that they're planning to abandon their party in the upcoming election? Read what they themselves have to say: John Eisenhower: Why I will vote for John Kerry for President FoxNews: Eisenhower's son voting for Kerry Republican Switchers What Prominent Republicans Are Saying …
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October 22, 2004
Never mind what we're told about avoiding religion and politics at the dinner table; we've been getting plenty of both from the press these past few weeks, often in the same article. Ron Suskind's (very long) article in the October 17 New York Times Magazine dissects Bush's religiosity: The disdainful smirks and grimaces that many viewers were surprised to see …
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October 17, 2004
Our poor neighbors have had seven Kerry-Edwards signs stolen out of their front yard so far. They're not giving up, though. This morning when I walked the kids by their house, they had two new signs proudly planted. They also had this somewhat incoherent sign posted front and center. Apparently the thefts around the corner are not isolated incidents. Just …
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October 6, 2004
I have an abundance of links to various articles and sites that I must share with you, my dear readers, who are gracious enough to read this silly web thingy of mine: "Rules of Engagement" by Christopher Buckley in the New Yorker. A parody of the presidential debate rules. "How to Lose the War on Terror: A CIA bin Laden …
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September 24, 2004
In a New York Times Op-Ed, Stanley Fish discusses his writing class's analysis of recent speeches given by Bush and Kerry. Guess whose message has more rhetorical force? President Bush, the students pointed out, begins with a perfect topic sentence...that nicely sets up a first paragraph describing how conditions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia four years ago …
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September 16, 2004
Finally, someone in the mainstream (i.e. conservative) media came out and stated the obvious: Bush has done his fair share of flip flopping. Four years ago the Republicans pinned the same flip-flop label on Gore, so I was a little surprised that they would try it again with Kerry, and even more surprised that it seems to have stuck. The …
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September 13, 2004
An article published today in Slate.com catalogs the carefully scripted public statements by Bush supporters suggesting that Bush's presidency is the direct result of God's intervention. The final three paragraphs are absolutely brilliant: ...it's hard to recall another instance of a presidential campaign so confidently promulgating the idea that its candidate had divine endorsement. The potentially dangerous implication is that …
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September 12, 2004
In an article I read about the Republican National Convention, the writer noted that while Saddam Hussein's name came up over a dozen times, none of the speakers mentioned Osama bin Laden. Now, I have no idea why they wouldn't even mention the guy's name, but I just might have figured out why we haven't captured him yet: The Bush …
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September 3, 2004
It appears that conventional wisdom, at least of the Republican sort, doesn't hold up well to scrutiny. Two articles in Slate.com do a particularly nice job of exposing the lies, half-truths, deceptions, and misdirections that speakers at the Republican National Convention tried to pass on to the American public: Lies, Damned Lies, and Convention Speeches by Fred Kaplan Imperial President …
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August 6, 2004
Here are a few links to political humor/activism, in case you haven't seen them already: Will Ferrel's White House West: A George W. Bush spoof ad This Land Is Your Land: A bipartisan parody by Jibjab.com Bush in 30 Seconds: The top entries in a contest to capture the essence of George W. Bush's administration in 30 seconds You may …
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June 28, 2004
A friend of mine lent me a book a couple months ago called Violence, which I just picked up this past weekend and started to read. Only 25 or so pages into it, I can already say it is the most intensely disturbing book I have ever read. And for all the right reasons. Author James Gilligan, a prison psychiatrist, …
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June 27, 2004
This morning my pastor, Jack Roeda, told an anecdote about some graffiti he saw in a bathroom stall. Someone had written: God is a crutch. Underneath it, someone else had written: Yes, and humanity has a broken leg—and then some. How true. …
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