Category Archives: Misc.

The next bubble: student loan debt

Students graduating college last year owed a record amount in loans. Compared to five years ago, borrowing has increased 20% to an average bill of $25,250. The rise in borrowing is unsurprising considering that, while American wages have generally stagnated, tuition has swelled. For instance, under the most optimistic projection, the University of California system [...]

Green on green crime

Daniel H. works in renewable energy development in the Houston area. He studied at Rice University and researched energy policy in Denmark as a Fulbright Scholar.
If you were driving from L.A. to Phoenix, and you happened to look left a few minutes after driving through Barstow, C.A., you would see an open expanse of Mojave [...]

The Degeneracy Thesis

In the second half of the 18th century, prominent European intellectuals supported a theory claiming that “due chiefly to atmospheric conditions, in particular excessive humidity, all living things in the Americas were not only inferior to those found in Europe, but also in a condition of decline.”
This was known as the Degeneracy Thesis, and its [...]

By popular demand…

Normally I don’t like Jimmy Kimmel, but since I can’t think of anything else to write about, enjoy this video of him smacking down Jay Leno on Leno’s own show:

Quick question

Most technology gets cheaper over time, so why is the cost of satellite and cable TV going up?

Happy Thanksgiving

We’ve gone fishin’ for the day.

Stuff I didn’t know

The main vampire dude in the Twilight series is supposed to be over 100 years old! I have to echo Yglesias on this one: if he’s 100+, why is he hanging out with high school chicks?
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I realize until this week that it was the media’s job to boost Sarah Palin’s book sales. ABC News actually has [...]

WWW Recommends: Irrational Hatred

From the Dept. of WTF:
From the author of the bestselling Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed!, Katharine DeBrecht, comes Help! Mom! Radicals Are Ruining My Country! – a hilarious and entertaining way for parents to sit down with their children and teach them the origins of the new Tea Party movement and the [...]

Sanity Saturday: Call of Duty Edition

Throughout the GeekWorld this week has been a near rapture over the sales performance of the latest tactical shoot’m up, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Most of it has been over the sales performance, leading many a gamer to hold their braced Carpal Tunnel-ridden arms in the air in victory saying how video games [...]

Electronic Health Records Part II

Some notes from the writer, Andy Oram, of this O’Reilly Radar post when he attended the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium:
According to the president of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, Micky Tripathi, 80% of US medical practices consist of just one or two physicians, and small practices handle 90% of all outpatient visits. Given the difficulties of [...]