May 2012
2 posts
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Understated and perfect.
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March 2012
1 post
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“Hacking is disruptive, and whether you code software, write books, or film...”
– Rands In Repose: Hacking is Important
November 2011
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July 2011
1 post
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June 2011
2 posts
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May 2011
1 post
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April 2011
1 post
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us...”
– Ira Glass (via nefffy)
March 2011
4 posts
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Recent Scenes from Antarctica - In Focus →
It’s like another planet. Incredible.
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How the Rich Soaked the Rest of Us →
The astonishing story of the last few decades is a massive redistribution of wealth, as the rich have shifted the tax burden
February 2011
4 posts
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The Moral Bankruptcy of Low Taxes
If you live in Texas you have certainly heard a big hoopla about Texas’ budget deficit. It is certainly not of the magnitude of California’s’ but its getting up there.
What is surprising about the deficit is that Texas has served for many years, as one of the banner states for effective conservative budgets and of the effectiveness of low taxes to stimulate growth and sound...
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“For on Egypt, it was the moral force of non-violence — not terrorism, not...”
– President Barack Obama
January 2011
2 posts
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Even Tombstone had gun laws →
Great historical perspective on gun laws in Arizona.
For all the talk of the “Wild West,” the policymakers of 1880 Tombstone—and many other Western towns—were ardent supporters of gun control. When people now compare things to the “shootout at the OK Corral,” they mean vigilante violence by gunfire. But this is exactly what the Tombstone town council had been trying to avoid.
In late 1880, as...
October 2010
3 posts
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Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law →
Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.
Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch.
“The gentleman that’s the main thrust of this thing has a huge turquoise ring on his finger,” Nichols said. “He’s a great big huge guy and I equated him to a car salesman.”
What he...
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iPads, Curriculum for Excellence and the... →
Fraser Speirs has been chronicling on his blog his experience getting his school using the iPad in their classrooms. The latest article summarizes the experience classrooms have had so far. It’s all gold, and I recommend the read but I like the last paragraph the best:
We have only given one directive to our teachers for using the iPad: it should be used everywhere it’s useful and...
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September 2010
7 posts
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Cowboys Nation: He's Got Phil Pozderak Eyes →
Another commentary on Alex Barron:
The holds would burn if Barron were simply overmatched. But if he was too heavy-legged to mirror his man and grabbed some jersey to keep edge-rushers from slamming his QB, I would understand. Barron’s feet, though, get good reviews. It’s his lack of a punch-out which puzzles me. Offensive linemen can extend their hands to jar rushers. Barron has...
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Salvation in the First Sermons of the Church →
The following is a theme that we have explored heavily at Journey. The idea that for the early church the death of Christ was significantly less important than the actual resurrection both theologically and historically. The more modern idea of penal substitutionary atonement seems to depart significantly from the early church core values.
What we see exposed in Paul’s trial speeches is...
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August 2010
10 posts
Color, Photos, and One Fuzzy Little Boy in a Field
[view larger: 800 x 593 | 6090 x 4515]
Jack Delano - Chopping cotton on rented land near White Plains, Greene County, Ga. (Farm Security Administration, 1941)
A lot of the color photos I’ve seen from before the 1950s strike me as stiff, over-worked, or so experimental as to be a “Hello, World.” They’re cool from a technical standpoint, but they often don’t tell you any more about the...
WatchThis AMC Show looks awesome. I’m a sucker for zombie movies.
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“It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence...”
– George Washington
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"Hallowed Ground" →
Look at the photos. This neighborhood is not hallowed. The people who live and work here are not obsessed with 9/11. The blocks around Ground Zero are like every other hard-working neighborhood in New York, where Muslims are just another thread of the city fabric. At this point the only argument against this project is fear, specifically fear of Muslims, and that’s a bigoted, cowardly and...
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Filibusters and arcane obstructions in the Senate →
“Sit and watch us for seven days,” one senator says of the deadlocked chamber. “You know what you’ll see happening? Nothing.”
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Cowboys vs. Bengals Quick Thoughts
Yeah yeah, I know its only pre-season, but I can’t help myself. I love watching these games because it gives us a glimpse at the possibilities of the upcoming season by giving us a good feel on the quality of depth along the team. Here are some of my quick observations:
Our defensive front and linebackers are good. We have athleticism among our front seven of the likes not seen in a long...
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July 2010
21 posts
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Peace through Polyglotism →
C. Scott Andreas writes on learning multiple programming languages:
Over time, I found that my preferences evolved. Rather than bending a single language to meet my every need, it became apparent that some flexibility is essential to becoming a programmer who is able to address a variety of problems quickly, efficiently, and reliably. Coming from a dynamic language background, I began...
Confession #74: The Web’s Five Most Endangered... →
tweetage:
The five most endangered words of the realtime internet era are:
Let me think about that.
Shirley Sherrod, the former rural development director for the Agriculture Department in Georgia found that out the hard way when she was fired by the Obama administration for her delivery of a supposedly racist speech. The speech was creatively excerpted, political bloggers and cable news...
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Banking and IT: Big Banks need IT Reform almost as... →
Interesting post about big banks and their inability to modernize their infrastructure, but I would like to generalize the article’s point into a bigger statement.
In today’s world, one of the ways a company can gain a big competitive advantage is by investing in modernizing their IT infrastructure.
I believe this is true for small companies as well as for big companies. I love...
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Bad Connection: Inside the iPhone Network Meltdown →
Back in 2007, when AT&T (then Cingular) and Apple executives disclosed the deal publicly, they spoke of a radical collaboration — one based on trust and respect as opposed to the usual dynamics of control and fear — that could serve as a new model for the wireless industry. And it succeeded, to an extent, leading companies like Google to exercise greater control over phone and software design...
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What Would Reagan Really Do? →
It’s doubtful, for example, that a contemporary Reagan figure would seek to solve every problem by cutting taxes. In 1981, the former California governor swept into office promising to slash taxes to their lowest-ever levels—and with the Economic Recovery Tax Act, that’s exactly what he did. When Reagan arrived in the White House, the top marginal tax rate was 70 percent; by 1987 it was 38.5...
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“We want to make all our users happy. If you don’t know that, you don’t know...”
– Steve Jobs on Apple