Buffalo Skyline from BCT 800x135

Tuesday April 29, 2008 at 14:02

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New music experiment

marco:

My music collection is in desperate need of an update, having stagnated since about 2002 with very little new discovery since then. This is the beginning of my effort to revitalize it.

With the help of Tuneage and other music discovery methods, I’m trying a new experiment:

  • Get at least one new album every week.
  • Each must be from a new band.
  • All music will be legally acquired — either purchased or legally free.
  • Digital downloads will be used as often as possible, but with absolutely no DRM. CDs beat DRM if there’s no alternative.

Last week’s albums:

What’s next?

 I would recommend a subscription to eMusic. It’s all DRM free, and for $90/year I get 30 downloads a month, so that’s $.08/track. A hell of a lot less than a CD or iTunes. Last week I got the new Raveonettes album and Thao (two awesome bands if you don’t know ‘em). Their selection is mostly indpendent and smaller bands. And to sign up you get 35 free tracks. 

35 free emusic downloads. 

This post was reblogged from Marco.org.

Tuesday April 29, 2008 at 12:07

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For those in the Boston Metropolitan Area, May 12th - 18th is Bay State Bike Week. The city is aiming to get get people to pledge to bike a cumulative 50,000 miles during the week. There will be special bike centric events every day, and breakfast and snack stations set up in different areas throughout the city. This is a great week to give biking a try if you’re normally a bit intimidated by traffic. The city is organizing Bike Convoys and encouraging bicyclists to encourage their friends to bike as well. Every since the Mayor got the bicycling bug some great things have been happening in Boston. Although that’s not to take away from the great work groups like Mass Bike, Livable Streets, and Walk Boston have been doing. http://baystatebikeweek.org/

For those in the Boston Metropolitan Area, May 12th - 18th is Bay State Bike Week. The city is aiming to get get people to pledge to bike a cumulative 50,000 miles during the week.

There will be special bike centric events every day, and breakfast and snack stations set up in different areas throughout the city. This is a great week to give biking a try if you’re normally a bit intimidated by traffic. The city is organizing Bike Convoys and encouraging bicyclists to encourage their friends to bike as well.

Every since the Mayor got the bicycling bug some great things have been happening in Boston. Although that’s not to take away from the great work groups like Mass Bike, Livable Streets, and Walk Boston have been doing.

http://baystatebikeweek.org/

Tuesday April 29, 2008 at 10:06

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High gas prices prompt call for 4-day work week

(via azspot)

The idea is a ten hour day, four days a week,  and thereby reducing commuting one day a week. At first this idea kind of made me angry, because “if people didn’t live in the suburbs or exurbs and lived in a sustainable way this wouldn’t be an issue!” But after considering the idea for a little bit, it would be nice to always have three day weekends…

Honestly though, the commuting problem is that we live so far from where we have to work, shop, and play. Regardless of a four day work week, on that extra day off when someone needs to go to the supermarket they’re going to get in the car. And when there’s soccer practice the next town over they’re going to get in the car. Etc. Etc. Etc.

This isn’t going to solve the problem of people having to drive hundreds of miles a week. People have to change where and how they live, or they can pay increasingly high gas prices and spend more and more of their waking hours behind the wheel. That is not what I want out of life. 

This post was reblogged from AZspot.

Tuesday April 29, 2008 at 9:44

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“Suburb: a place that isn’t city, isn’t country, and isn’t tolerable.”

—

Mignon McLaughlin (via simko)

Simko, where are you finding all of these great quotes about place? I thought this was my niche.

This post was reblogged from Welcome..

Monday April 28, 2008 at 15:40

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“All cities are mad: but the madness is gallant. All cities are beautiful: but the beauty is grim.”

—

Christopher Morley (via simko)

His wikipedia page (I know, I didn’t know him either).

This post was reblogged from Welcome..

Monday April 28, 2008 at 2:43

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headspace: via I bloody love you. You’re my best mate. “Amount of spacerequired to transport the same number of passengers by car, bus, or bicycle.” You can know the numbers, but sometimes you just need to see it. 

headspace:

via I bloody love you. You’re my best mate.

“Amount of spacerequired to transport the same number of passengers by car, bus, or bicycle.”

You can know the numbers, but sometimes you just need to see it. 

This post was reblogged from .headspace..

Sunday April 27, 2008 at 21:34

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Are biofuels bad?

squashed:

 I wouldn’t suggest that we keep our biofuel policy the way it is by using subsidized corn rather than cellulostic ethanol, but I do think it is way too early to call the whole biofuel experiment a failure.

I full heartedly agree with this statement, (and the sections I didn’t copy as well). I think it is important that the criticisms of this current generation of biofuels is well publicized though. This may sound paranoid, but the Ethanol Lobby is a relatively powerful lobby, and if Ethanol is only received as our Saviour bringing energy independence, then I think we could have a problem. 

Another problem, or potential problem, is that the US Government has ordered that Ethanol production be doubled by 2015. 

And finally another negative about ethanol that you missed, is that because of the fertilizers used in growing corn, the runoff can endanger water quality. Granted these are all concerns and critiques about how biofuels are currently being produced, but it would seem that unless there is a critical voice about corn ethanol now then the status quo may become entrenched and then we have lost the opportunity for real change.

Grist has an excellent article summarizing the current situation with corn ethanol here.

This post was reblogged from Squashed.

Sunday April 27, 2008 at 0:36

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I’ve been keeping my eye on this discussion thread as well as the thread on the minimum wage, and so it made me dig out the Affluent Society by Kenneth Galbraith, because I remember him making a reference to minimum wage and how it has been proven to not actually do all the bad things classical economists say (if you can’t tell, I haven’t found the section yet). But as I was readying myself for bed, I came across this quote:  ”Because economic or social phenomena are so forbidding, or at least so seem and because they yield few hard tests of what exists and what does not, they afford to the individual a luxury not given by physical phenomena. Within a considerable range, he is permitted to believe what he pleases. He may hold whatever view of this world he finds most agreeable or otherwise to his taste.” That said, this issue seems to me like a basic supply and demand issue. Using corn for a fuel supply increases the demand for corn thus raising the price of corn. As we know from practice, this has caused farmers to plant more corn in lieu of other food crops. This has the effect of potentially pricing corn out of reach for some people, because of increased demand raising prices. It also has the potential to increase the price of other crops, because of a decrease in the supply of other foodstuffs (because the farmers are planting corn instead.) To say that biofuels “take food out of the mouths of starving people” is maybe overstating the case, but it is having an effect on the food supply. After all, the US surplus corn that used to be shipped abroad is now being used to fuel cars.  On the other hand biofuels, after they become more efficient, have the potential to be an incredible source of renewable energy. And, when the US dumps surplus corn or grain in Africa, it has a devestating effect on African farmers, because it floods the market with cheap food driving down the price of corn and making it unprofitable for African farmers to produce corn. So, that said, it would seem that there is a potential for production to increase in the long run and have an overall benefit. I’m not an economist, but I at least think my hypothesis has a solid foundation. I’ll be looking forward to critiques. jakoblodwick: Can we please get an actual economist on Tumblr? So that we can get something more than opinions on this science? If anyone can put me in touch with Thomas Sowell, I will fly out to Stanford to set him up on Tumblr.

I’ve been keeping my eye on this discussion thread as well as the thread on the minimum wage, and so it made me dig out the Affluent Society by Kenneth Galbraith, because I remember him making a reference to minimum wage and how it has been proven to not actually do all the bad things classical economists say (if you can’t tell, I haven’t found the section yet). But as I was readying myself for bed, I came across this quote:

 ”Because economic or social phenomena are so forbidding, or at least so seem and because they yield few hard tests of what exists and what does not, they afford to the individual a luxury not given by physical phenomena. Within a considerable range, he is permitted to believe what he pleases. He may hold whatever view of this world he finds most agreeable or otherwise to his taste.”

That said, this issue seems to me like a basic supply and demand issue. Using corn for a fuel supply increases the demand for corn thus raising the price of corn. As we know from practice, this has caused farmers to plant more corn in lieu of other food crops. This has the effect of potentially pricing corn out of reach for some people, because of increased demand raising prices. It also has the potential to increase the price of other crops, because of a decrease in the supply of other foodstuffs (because the farmers are planting corn instead.)

To say that biofuels “take food out of the mouths of starving people” is maybe overstating the case, but it is having an effect on the food supply. After all, the US surplus corn that used to be shipped abroad is now being used to fuel cars.

 On the other hand biofuels, after they become more efficient, have the potential to be an incredible source of renewable energy. And, when the US dumps surplus corn or grain in Africa, it has a devestating effect on African farmers, because it floods the market with cheap food driving down the price of corn and making it unprofitable for African farmers to produce corn.

So, that said, it would seem that there is a potential for production to increase in the long run and have an overall benefit.

I’m not an economist, but I at least think my hypothesis has a solid foundation. I’ll be looking forward to critiques.

jakoblodwick:

Can we please get an actual economist on Tumblr? So that we can get something more than opinions on this science?

If anyone can put me in touch with Thomas Sowell, I will fly out to Stanford to set him up on Tumblr.

This post was reblogged from Jake Lodwick’s Blog.

Saturday April 26, 2008 at 23:25

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Private citizen issues parking tickets to Oregon cop

A “freshly minted” lawyer in Oregon used a relatively unknown provision in state law that alows private citizens to issue traffic tickets to assess $500 in fines to a police officer that parked in a no parking zone while he went and got dinner. The officer is scheduled to appear in court next month.

Hells yes.

Thursday April 24, 2008 at 22:33

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dealbreaker rules: do they exist? And if so how firm are they?

I would say the one dealbreaker that has stuck with me is:

I will not date anyone who likes Ayn Rand. I find that this simple rule ferrets out many different types of people that I would be incompatible with.

biteofpythias:

in several conversations of late people have been talking about relationship dealbreakers, characterisics or factors that would be enough to rule out dating someone…

do you have one (or more?) of these? How firm are you on them - is it an absolute or simply a looser framework of the “sort” of person to avoid?

I’d love to hear what some are, bc I suspect there are some strange ones… Would you date across party lines? Across vegetarian status? Across religion? Across race? Across crest/colgate preference? Does job matter? Income? Whether their parents are still together? Their sexual history? Leno vs letterman divides? Turkey sandwhich with mayo or mustard? Do they open present Xmas day or Xmas eve? Circumcision status? Different subway line? Morning vs night person? Likes porn? Drinker vs not? Smoker? Are crocs ok in a potential mate? Mac vs pc? Not in your cell network? Music taste? Bath person? Team julia vs team jakob? Etc…

you get the idea? Hit me with your weirdest and idiosyncratic rule out criteria?

This post was reblogged from bite of Pythias....

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