Friday, July 11, 2008

Helpful

A blind gentleman, complete with white cane, asked me for directions just now. Of course, I pointed in the direction he should go. Anything I can do to help.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Printers

You know what I don’t understand? Almost every (office) printer now takes a full ream of paper. Why do people only put part of a ream in the printer and leave the rest for later?
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

How big is Sacramento?

I was trying to figure this out a week or two ago and now it’s come up again in a reference to Sacramento being a “top-20 media market”. Sacramento is the 26th largest Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) (see also CSAs and CBSAs). It’s also the 37th largest city in the US.

This “media market” or Designated Market Area (DMA), defined by Nielsen Media Research rather than the US Census Bureau, is yet another way to measure the Sacramento area’s influence. It’s defined as an area where everyone can receive common television and radio station programing. While it was once #18, it looks like it’s slipped to #20.

Friday, June 20, 2008 Thursday, June 19, 2008 Tuesday, June 3, 2008
A police community support officer ordered two Christian preachers to stop handing out gospel leaflets. Telegraph via Instapundit, “RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN ENGLAND”.
 
Not good.
Friday, May 23, 2008
She did as well as expected – second place in the soccer-ball kick, a “participant” in the 500-yard-dash. Adults use that word to boost self-esteem, but the kids know what it means. “I got a loser ribbon,” she said. James Lileks
Odd how expectations change – my mom never came to watch, even though she was the model of an Involved Parent. My dad? He was working. Dads didn’t leave work to watch their kids kick a soccer ball. For that matter, kids didn’t kick soccer balls. I don’t think they had soccer balls in North Dakota until 1981… . No, we had baseballs. Hard, unforgiving, painful, American baseballs. When it came at your head you got out of the way. Now in the space of a single generation we’ve trained the young to stick their heads into the path of an oncoming ball. James Lileks
 
This actually concerns me. What will the differences in America be in a generation or two that will be due to everyone growing up playing soccer instead of baseball? Somehow it doesn’t seem like it will be a positive effect.
 
I remember reading a article a few years ago—I think on Slate but I can’t find it in Google anywhere; I wish I could—it’s one of those that you don’t think is very important at the time but it sticks with you. It contrasted baseball and football in terms of America’s identity, arguing that baseball is the more “American” sport because it emphasizes individualism whereas football is more imperialistic and socialistic in nature emphasizing teamwork and conquering territory. I’d love to see that same analysis applied to soccer (or, as James Taranto calls it, metric football).
Thursday, May 8, 2008

Chilling #3

JAPAN: “This is the land of disappearing children and a slow-motion demographic catastrophe that is without precedent in the developed world.”

Sorry about all the downers but this was just on the way to work this morning! Via Instapundit.

Monday, April 28, 2008