the art of writing is discovering what you believe
What albums do you consider perfect, or nearly so? There are plenty of perfect songs, or tracks. I’m talking about albums on which every track is perfect, or nearly so. Here’s my short list (in no particular order)
Add your list to the comments . . . . .
The Two-Income Trap is thick with irony. Middle-class mothers went into the workforce in a calculated effort to give their families an economic edge. Instead, millions of them are now in the workplace just so their families can break even. At a time when women are getting college diplomas and entering the workforce in record numbers, their families are in more financial trouble than ever. Partly these women were the victims of bad timing: Despite general economic prosperity, the risks facing their families jumped considerably. Partly they were the victims of optimistic myopia: They saw the rewards a working mother could bring, without seeing the risks associated with that newfound income. And partly they were the victims of one another. As millions of mothers poured into the workplace, it became increasingly difficult to put together a middle-class life on a single income. The combination has taken these women out of the home and away from their children and simultaneously made family life less, not more, financially secure. Today’s middle-class mother is trapped: She can’t afford to work, and she can’t afford to quit.
This is why I want a part-time job: we need the time someone can spend at home more than the income. Insurance being the way it is, quitting entirely is out of the question, but half-time would be fine.
The Seattle Times has anointed its choices for local offices and when I briefly skimmed the list, I saw what appeared to be a trend. Of the three city council members who were pilloried over some questionable rezoning votes on behalf of a (gasp) strip club, the two women are deemed unworthy to be returned to office, with the rezoning fiasco as a big factor, while the only man of the three is considered a strong, moral leader despite the recent lapse in judgment.
The big difference between the three seems to be inexperience on the part of the two women (councilman Compton has been in the game a bit longer): the Times has other issues with the two rookies, but by citing the strip club mess as a factor in all three endorsements, it raises some questions.
Rosenkrantz, Min to replace Nicastro
Judy Nicastro deserves a political thrashing for taking campaign money from the friends of a strip club, voting for a city ordinance at the request of the club and defending it all
Della instead of Wills
And Wills is up to her nose in the latest Seattle embarrassment, the campaign-finance shenanigans surrounding a Lake City strip club.
Wills voted — twice — for a rezone that would permit expansion of the club’s parking lot.
Re-elect Compton
His strengths, value and service to the community were not diminished or defined by lapses of attention and judgment during council land-use proceedings involving a Lake City strip club.
Compton argues his vote still fits the land-use facts, but readily concedes the troubling proximity of politics, money and requests for help, and the council’s failure to follow rules about outside contacts.
I finally installed the plugin to make this work, and scripted it to run every two hours. Some of the stuff folks are using as search queries and end up here make less sense than some of the entries on this weblog . . . .
Computer bugs annoying, but not a major economic threat – Aug. 22, 2003
To the extent that they force businesses and workers to waste time deleting tons of spam e-mail or loading anti-virus software, the bugs could shave about half a percentage point from productivity growth in the quarter, said Anthony Chan, chief economist at Banc One Investment Advisors.
“Anything that causes people to spend more time thinking about what they do will clearly have an impact on productivity,” Chan said. “The good news is this is not a permanent situation — these things have a way of clearing themselves up. But will it be completely inconsequential? I don’t think so.”
Productivity, a measure of worker output per hour, is a big deal for the economy, since it lowers the cost of doing business, boosting corporate profits and improving standards of living.
Fortunately, with recent advances in technology and the longest period of labor-market weakness since World War II, productivity growth has plenty of room to fall. It grew at a stunning 5.4 percent rate last year, the fastest pace since 1950.
What’s more, a lot of the money businesses are spending on anti-virus software or hiring consultants to safeguard systems goes right back into the economy — it might even create a job or two, Chan said — though it seems unlikely this would totally offset the negative effects.
“With the disruption of airlines, trains and such, it’s hard to make the case that increased business at anti-virus companies would be totally offsetting,” said James Glen, senior economist at Economy.com.
So for some companies, office automation might be a lose, rather than a win. Air Canada’s reservations system was “crippled” for part of a day due to the latest vorm attacks: how much lost revenue does that amount to and what would be the outcome if the EULA was enforceable as a warranty, rather than as a copyright protection tool?
Given that small business is the engine of the US economy and how few mom and pop businesses are likely to have an IT staff, what was the cost to them and to the economy?
The Seattle Times: Local News: Freed mink attack Sultan farms
The [10,000] mink were released Monday morning from the Roesler Brothers Fur Farm when someone cut through a fence and opened numerous cages. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a group classified as a domestic terror organization by the FBI, has claimed responsibility in an e-mail to the media.
While I don’t necessarily agree with the fur trade and mink farming — by all accounts. mink are ill-tempered, nasty little bastards: their rescuers this week were advised to handle them with oven mitts to avoid being bitten — liberating 10,000 of them to prey on other livestock and housepets, to say nothing of introducing who knows what into the bloodlines of the wild mink doesn’t seem like a useful gesture.
In one move, a fringe group manages to alienate farmers and citizens who may have otherwise sympathized with their cause.
This story reminded of an idea that keeps popping up in my head. I have often wondered if, here in Ecotopia, there would be support for windfarms like these. I know there are some planned along the Canada-US border as well as others in place in Oregon.
But my pipe dreamplan is more ambitious and it ties in with another technology we like here in the Puget Sound area. My idea would be to take the technology we use in our popular floating bridges and build a wind farm at sea, off the Pacific coast. The wind never seems to stop blowing, from what I recall on my visits, and it would be possible to build them far enough offshore to render them invisible to residents and tourists alike.
There are some issues, like the cost of building the floating infrastructure (essentially the same concrete pontoons we use in bridges) at such a distance from land. But I see advantages as well. No land need be purchased to make this work, and expanding capacity might be cheaper as costs come down, rather than higher as land appreciates. The sea-based platforms would be off the flyways, minimizing birdstrikes and other hazards.
A single windmill generating 3.6 megawatts of energy, day and night, seems pretty amazing to me. A hundred of them would be something to see. If they are as self-sufficient as the article suggests, this could be a very effective means of generating low-cost energy in a scalable way.
BW Online | July 30, 2003 | Why iTunes Has Bands on the Run
At the heart of the debate is this question: Who should decide what’s art, the artist or the public? The Chili Peppers and Metallica say they — and they alone — should decide how fans should listen to and keep their music.
[ . . . . ] Apple’s (APPL ) iTunes is a tool of liberation. It gives them the freedom to pick and choose, and, in essence, make their own compilations from favorite tracks. [ . . . ] In fact, the opportunity to compile personalized play lists and track selections may be one of the service’s biggest draws.
InfoWorld: The battle for decentralization: May 02, 2003: By Chad Dickerson: Networking
The days of the paternalistic top-down IT department are nearly gone. My message to chief technologists everywhere: Your users have left the nest; the best thing you can do is hope they make the right choices and occasionally call you for advice.
This sums up the different philosophies on technology in my current workplace. I’m on the empowerment side, in case you were wondering.
Continue reading “empowerment versus control”
I noticed there weren’t any “Powered by FreeBSD” buttons. There are now. There’s a a gif version on this page, and I submitted that and the png version to the mother site to be added to the collection.
Fun.