Archive for Blog
February 28, 2008 at 09:24 PM · Posted under politics, quicklinks
And the borrowed trillions have to come from somewhere. Because “the saving rate [in America] is zero,” says Stiglitz, “that means that you have to finance [the war] by borrowing abroad. So China is financing America’s war.” The US is now operating at such a deficit, in fact, that it doesn’t have the money to bail out its own banks. “When Merrill Lynch and Citibank had a problem, it was sovereign funds from abroad that bailed them out. And we had to give up a lot of shares of our ownership. So the largest shareowners in Citibank now are in the Middle East. It should be called the MidEast bank, not the Citibank.” This creates a precedent of dependence, “and whether we become dependent on Middle East oil money, or Chinese reserves – it’s that dependency that people ought to worry about. That is a big change. The amount of borrowing in the last eight years, on top of the borrowing that began with Reagan – that has all changed the US’s economic position in the world.”
- The War in Iraq is even more expensive than you think it is
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February 24, 2008 at 11:27 PM
Wow, good thing I went back to work at UNC instead of sticking it out as a Sharper Image store manager.
The Sharper Image files for bankrupcy, plans to close 90 of its 184 stores
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February 20, 2008 at 06:03 PM · Posted under family
Here, finally, is one of the pictures we got at the last ultrasound. You can almost see what he looks like!
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February 19, 2008 at 07:50 AM · Posted under quicklinks
48 social news websites
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February 18, 2008 at 01:00 PM · Posted under design, quicklinks
social wallpaper
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February 17, 2008 at 10:54 AM · Posted under movies, tech, videogames
Happy Valentine’s weekend everyone!
Sarah and I have been enjoying a leisurely move back into our “new” house. So leisurely that this is the first time that I’ve booted up my laptop since it was packed away downstairs over two weeks ago. I’ve been online of course, but only in bits and pieces: at work, at home on the XO, on the powermac connected to the tv. There is a big difference between using any computer and using my computer though. My computer at work is awesome, but it’s at work. The XO is also a fine machine, but only for its niche of cool programs and easy interface. The powermac is great, but even connected to our beautiful 40” LCD television it’s still a little squinty for use from seven feet away. My still-kicking 800Mhz G3 iBook is where its at (ergonomics be damned).
We are seriously loving our bamboo floors. It is ever so nice to be able to look in any direction and see elegant reflections and soothing wood tones instead of dingy carpet. The leisurely move is also quite fine and well recommended. Since we had to clear everything out of every room (including artwork) except for the kitchen and bathrooms and everything was moved into the basement and garage we have the opportunity to start the house over with a blank slate. We are only moving it what we need or want, just pieces at a time, and really making sure that we keep the house nice and neat while we are doing so. Every other move we’ve had has been a regular “move out and in as fast as possible”, but this is the way to do it. It also really helps to be ruthless with your culling of stuff. We have sent boxes and boxes to good will or the dump so far and don’t even really remember what exactly we’ve sent. As two packrats it was hard to get started, but after the initial break we’ve really gotten into the “use it or lose it” mindset.
Speaking of using it (oh man, I am awesome at segues): Sarah got me a Playstation 3 for Valentine’s day! With the HD-DVD format quickly dying after Warner Brothers commited exclusively to blu-ray it was time to get with the true HD movie bandwagon. After a couple days of playing with it I am forced to admit that the better format won. Whereas HD-DVD movies felt like an HD hack of the DVD format (slow menus, buggy discs, etc.), blu-ray really feels like a next-gen movie format. Of course, that impression could stem from the fact that we have a sony television and have been brainwashed by its subliminal messages (and supraliminal, it does force our XBox360’s HD-DVD player to 1080i afterall). Either way, Ratatouille and Casino Royale look gorgeous in high definition. It is a little weird to have a videogame system without any videogames, but all the best games for the PS3 are also on, and done better by, the XBox360. The 360 features better graphics, a much better controller, and achievements! It will be nice to be able to pick up the ‘Darth Vader’ version of Soul Calibur IV though. But without the achievements I might not even do that.
The PS3 doesn’t even have a single “must have” game. There are six contenders: Resistance, Motorstorm, Rachet and Clank, Heavenly Sword, Uncharted, and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Two of those have really short playtime (perhaps good enough for the bargin bin though), one is a remake that I’ve already bought twice, and three are rehashes of game types done better by other games on other systems. The PS3 needs its own ‘Dead Rising’, ‘Mass Effect, ‘Super Mario Galaxies’, or ‘Metroid Prime 3’.
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February 14, 2008 at 09:36 AM · Posted under design, quicklinks
jaanix is a new reddit-like site that has some great features
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February 13, 2008 at 02:58 PM · Posted under family, quicklinks
when geeks have kids
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February 11, 2008 at 02:10 PM · Posted under quicklinks, science
Ancient Bacteria + Human Pollution vs. Modern Ocean Ecosystem
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February 08, 2008 at 05:55 PM · Posted under family
After another ultrasound our baby no longer exists in a state of uncertainty…we’re having a boy!
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February 07, 2008 at 10:37 PM · Posted under tech
The XO is a pleasingly capable machine, especially after installing Opera.
Our new bamboo floors are in! With the baby on the way Sarah and I decided that we’d better get that big project out of the way. For the past couple of weeks Sarah and I worked on clearing out the garage and basement. Last weekend Andrew and Lewis helped me move all the furniture into said garage and basement. With some help from Sarah’s parents (especially to her mom’s excellent skill at fish tank transport) I got the rest of the things down and out of the way. Yesterday and today the highly recommended crew at Sedaris Hardwood Floors (fun fact: the owner is one of David Sedaris’ brothers) cleared out the carpet on both floors and installed our nice new prefinished bamboo. It looks and feels so great! Now we can work on setting up the nursery!
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February 03, 2008 at 01:14 PM · Posted under movies, recently
Watched: The Eye (US version)
Review: 1/5
Meh. While I sound like a snob, this was not nearly as compelling as the Chinese original. Instead of the cute relationship between the protagonist and her mildly inept therapist in the original; we have a bitter, sniping relationship between the two in the US version. Why would he risk his license for that? Mexico was an obvious replacement for Thailand, but why (and how?) would the American medical system get the eyes of a girl who died there? The biggest change was the ending, which I won’t spoil here.
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