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4.29.2005
Rumsfeld Is Strongest One There Is
4.27.2005
"...and we will call it... This Land..."
I would be lying through my virtual teeth if I said I hadn't watched this a couple of times, already. Because I have. Frankly, with this now floating out there, I'm not entirely sure which one of these I'm more excited about.
(Why yes, I am a sucker for a particular genre of summer blockbuster film, why do you ask?) (Study guides for SERENITY available here and here. Val may storm in here to claim otherwise, but it's worth the effort, trust me.) 4.22.2005
The Whiz Kids, Oh My God, Don't Get Me Started
   More bizarro product promotion/"important issue" special issues/public service announcement comics can be found right here. (Is it sad that I am fairly certain that at some time in my life I have read -- or actually owned the books above? The first two I'm sure of, and can actually lay hands on one; FRANCIS... man, I don't know, but it looks too weirdly familiar...) It's round on the ends....
Oh, Ohio. You make me so sad sometimes.
In a "Healthiest Cities" ranking of the 50 largest cities by Sperling's Best Places, Ohio cities were notably absent from the top 10. In fact, Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati all made the bottom 10 at numbers 45, 47, and 48, respectively. The study compared data for Physical Activity, Health Status, Nutrition, Lifestyle Pursuits, and Mental Wellness. If you look at the numbers, all three are especially dismal in terms of diet. Actually, the biggest surprise was that my current hometown, DC, was number 2. Sez local gossip & news blog, DCist, "Of course, the mental wellness gauge may not take into account the 535 members of Congress or homeless Joe that lives in the van down the road, but still, color us surprised. Somehow, despite horrific commutes on the Beltway, the stress levels of D.C's numerous law offices, and Ben's Chili Bowl, we're on the whole very healthy people." Seconded. And even more disturbing, Washington scored 100 points (!) on the category of "mental." I guess that must just be a product of inflated ego. I Am Such a Fanboy
4.21.2005
Payola
 Corey Greenberg, tech editor for NBC's "Today" show, appeared last July to praise Apple's iPod as "a great portable musical player . . . the coolest-looking one" and suggested a compatible device to "share your music with other people." "This is the way to go," he declared."Let's cut the Apple commercial here right now, okay?" co-host Matt Lauer interjected. Lauer was onto something. Greenberg, an NBC contributor, confirmed yesterday that he has received payments from Apple as well as Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Seiko Epson, Creative Technology and Energizer Holdings, charging $15,000 apiece to talk up their products on news shows. The contracts were first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal. ### {sarcastic snark} I never did trust that guy. {/sarcastic snark} 4.20.2005
Stop
 I know, I know, you're getting sick of it, but I kind of think it's funny. And sad. Funny sad. One of the paragraphs in the second column reads thusly: "NO RESPECT -- Though a judge can find protection for obscenity videos, many of them find the Ten Commandments inappropriate for public display. They quote laws of foreign countries -- even an unratified UN Treaty, rather than our own Constitution, when it suits their fancy." (italics mine) When I were in that there law school, we was learnt that them was called "persuasive authority" that a court is not required to follow but may consider -- and was certainly appropriate. But whatever. That's Nutrageous!
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's work from the bench has been outrageous, his latest salvo at the federal judiciary in the weeks following the courts' refusal to stop Terri Schiavo's death.
DeLay also labeled a lot of the courts' Republican appointees as "judicial activists," a term applied by conservatives to judges they dislike for not following what they call strict interpretations of the Constitution. The No. 2 Republican in the House has been openly critical of the federal courts since they refused to order the reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube. And he pointed to Kennedy as an example of Republican members of the Supreme Court who were activist and isolated. "Absolutely. We've got Justice Kennedy writing decisions based upon international law, not the Constitution of the United States? That's just outrageous," DeLay told Fox News Radio on Tuesday. "And not only that, but he said in session that he does his own research on the Internet? That is just incredibly outrageous." ### I also liked this part: However, DeLay has called repeatedly for the House to find a way to hold the federal judiciary accountable for its decisions. "The judiciary has become so activist and so isolated from the American people that it's our job to do that," he said. Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? And on a semi-related note, I chuckled yesterday at this post from Professor Randy Barnett over at Volokh, about forthcoming responses to the quixotic argument that judicial review is an invention of an activist court and not authorized by the Constitution. 4.19.2005
Victory!
 If you were at all wondering about the appearance of the Northwestern Wildcat at the top right of the dahlbergcentral home page, I think the letter pictured here will clear up any confusion. (and thanks, big bro, for the tribute.)Staying true to my feline roots--from Bobcat to Wildcat--I'm poised to pounce on Evanston! Let the debt begin! 4.16.2005
Napping to Memes
4.15.2005
The Rock Show and What Happened After
 Casey gave me a copy of this last night before we headed out to the movies. I think this is post-Wilco, back in February. 4.14.2005
Light at the End of the Tunnel
 Digital composite of images of a solar eclipse, all taken in Antarctica, November 2003. (found via the Astronomy Picture of the Day archive) 4.12.2005
Speeding Bullet / Locomotive / Tall Building
4.11.2005
Carl and Beckett
No Man, No Problem?
Offered without comment:
And the Verdict on Justice Kennedy Is: Guilty ...Next, Michael P. Farris, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association, said Kennedy "should be the poster boy for impeachment" for citing international norms in his opinions. "If our congressmen and senators do not have the courage to impeach and remove from office Justice Kennedy, they ought to be impeached as well." Not to be outdone, lawyer-author Edwin Vieira told the gathering that Kennedy should be impeached because his philosophy, evidenced in his opinion striking down an anti-sodomy statute, "upholds Marxist, Leninist, satanic principles drawn from foreign law." Ominously, Vieira continued by saying his "bottom line" for dealing with the Supreme Court comes from Joseph Stalin. "He had a slogan, and it worked very well for him, whenever he ran into difficulty: 'no man, no problem,' " Vieira said. The full Stalin quote, for those who don't recognize it, is "Death solves all problems: no man, no problem." Presumably, Vieira had in mind something less extreme than Stalin did and was not actually advocating violence. But then, these are scary times for the judiciary. [more] 4.08.2005
Where's the "Search" Button?
There they were, 11 college students, lined up like some alien species before a curious group of about 50 college and university librarians.
One University of Minnesota student had a bagful of electronics with him: iPod, PalmPilot, cell phone. He was bright, opinionated, well-spoken. And when was the last time he was in the U's library? "Last year," he said. The collective intake of breath nearly turned the room into a vacuum. What's a university librarian to do with this generation of college students? In one of the kickoff sessions of the national conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries, the group spent seven hours Thursday at the Minneapolis Convention Center puzzling over the habits of the so-called millennial generation. Confident, sophisticated, tolerant and practical, they are "Internet natives" who are more likely to use Google to research a paper than go to the library. Accustomed to getting information at the click of a mouse button, they are impatient with the slower, word-based searches and single-use computers that many libraries use. One librarian said that at her college, students filled the large reading room but never approached the librarian behind the reference desk. When someone finally asked why, a student said, "I thought you were there to watch us." ### More in the link, obviously. Definitely something I think about every now and then, at least in the general sense of technology in everyday life. Carl will always have Sesame Street at his beck and call because of the TiVo, for instance, instead of having to wait patiently until it's on. When I was a kid, it was a big deal if you typed your paper for school on a computer; now, it's expected. And we've always been the generation that was comfortable with new technology -- what about the generation that doesn't know anything but the New? Reading Materiel
Here's a link to a great piece I heard on NPR this morning about a fifth-grade teacher in Aberdeen, Maryland, who's using graphic novels and comic books to help motivate and interest her students in reading. Notably, although the teacher mentions the fact that the idea seemed natural to her because of media interest in comic book movies like SPIDER-MAN, the books she's using are from Jim Ottaviani's G-T Labs, whose nonfiction graphic novels focus mainly on science and scientists (including FALLOUT, one of the most facsinating comics I've ever read, all about the Manhattan Project and the birth of the atomic bomb.)
4.07.2005
On My Way to Where the Air is Clean
In honor of the new season of Sesame Street which began this week (yay!), here's an awesome essay (with photos!) about the 25 Greatest Moments in Sesame Street history:
   And also: Read through the whole thing -- I guarantee you'll smile and laugh at more than one of his picks. What Hath Rathergate Wrought?
I know I shouldn't, but here's two stories: Is the Post Ducking Responsibility?
...leading us, of course, to: Schiavo memo author steps forward
But remember -- it was absurd -- absurd -- to think that this could be anything but a dirty trick, and that it wasn't the GOP trying to politicize the issue. 4.06.2005
Undercover Mall
Finally, someone has actually put into writing what I've been scratching my head over for the past few years--the growth of the new mall. Or "lifestyle centers" as they are called in this piece on Slate. Built to look just like a quaint, downtown street, these multi-purpose shopping/eating/working/living centers are popping up all over the place. I know of at least one back in Ohio, and there are two right here in my own Arlington.
I should say right away that it's not that I'm opposed to these "created" towns; I actually do quite a bit of shopping there. They always have the best stores, even if they are the big, corporate chains. I know some folks who live in the condos above the Market Common in Clarendon. Pentagon Row has a little courtyard that can be used for concerts and even a skating rink in the winter. These little gems definitely enhance the overall shopping experience. I guess my frustration with them is that they feel so... fake. In Clarendon, though the "common" area has a little courtyard and some playground equipment, you can't help but be distracted by the music they pipe in through the speakers, strategically hidden among the shrubs and parking meters that line the streets. (I think they have those in Columbus, too.) And even though they've topped it off with fancy condos, it's still--well, a mall. I say, if you really want the city experience, nothing beats a good old fashioned strip of quirky buildings full of mom-and-pop stores and restaurants. 4.01.2005
The People Against Cruelty to Vegetables Stadium
Oh, good grief:
Fight for Stadium Name Continues Only in Washington. Sigh.
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