/ November 30, 2007 / Leave a comment

Best of 2007

One of the best parts of this time of year is “best of” lists. I love finding new music from these lists. So here are two fun lists of best of lists. Careful, you might not be very productive if you venture on:

Largehearted Boy: 2007 Year-End Online Music Lists

Fimoculous: Best of lists for lots of things

Here are a few of my favorites from this year:

The Avett Brothers – Emotionalism

Josh Rouse – Country Mouse, City House

Feist – The Reminder

Jason Ibell – Sirens of the Ditch

Iron and Wine – The Shepherds Dog

Neil Young – Chrome Dreams II

Ryan Adams – Easy Tiger

Son Volt – The Search

Steve Earle – Washington Square Serenade

Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter – Like, Love, Lust & The Open Halls Of The Soul

Josh Ritter – The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter

Band Of Horses – Cease To Begin

Arts and Entertainment
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/ November 6, 2007 / Leave a comment

Sammy walks

Our little Sam took his first steps yesterday! I’ll post some video soon.

Family
/ October 4, 2007 / Leave a comment

The $200 laptop

Most altruistic + technology ideas stay regulated to science-fiction and never become reality. This is a wonderful exception. The One Laptop per Child organization, founded by Nicholas Negroponte, wants to get computers into the hands of the poorest children. They have developed a laptop that you can buy in November for $188. Actually, you have to buy 2 for $400 and the other one goes to a kid who needs it. The laptop itself has some thoughtful, innovative features. Some smart people are using their talents to help people, and I find it inspiring.

Read the article linked below and watch the video to see the laptop in action:
Laptop With a Mission Widens Its Audience – New York Times

Technology
/ September 4, 2007 / Leave a comment

War with Iran

The drums are beating. Bush and Cheney have stated that they will not pass on the Iran nuclear problem to the next president. The factions inside the administration have been debating a course of action, and reports point to Cheney and war winning out. The war machine is already staged and ready to go in the gulf. Bush has already authorized covert CIA action inside Iran. The Pentagon has plans for a three day massive strike against Iran’s military, not just its nuclear facilities.

Now its September. Like in 2002 in the build up to Iraq, the Bush administration and its allies in the media are poised to campaign for war with Iran after Labor Day (Andrew Card “you don’t introduce new ideas in August”).

A war with Iran is a bad idea. Make no mistake, bombing Iran will escalate the “war on terrorism” to a whole new level. Iran is not Iraq. Iraq’s military was a mess before we invaded. The 1991 war and the U.N sanctions had worked to deplete Sadam’s ability to defend itself or counter attack. Iran has the ability to strike back against the U.S. and our allies. They are willing and able to use terrorism on a massive scale. I fear that attacking Iran could embroil us in a mess that makes Iraq and Afghanistan look like a day at the park.

I hope hope hope I’m wrong.

Politics
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/ August 23, 2007 / Leave a comment

Is the housing market screwed?

I’m not a financial wizard, and I sometimes feel naive and ill-informed when I utter my bewilderment at the state of the housing market the last ten years. I don’t get how people can afford half a million dollar homes on typical American salaries. There aren’t that many people making $400K a year! The article linked below is scary, and if you believe it, validates my bafflement.

The bigger problem is the theory that the housing market has propped up much of our economy during this bubble. People felt safe going into debt because their homes were appreciating so fast. We may be in for quite a ride.

The Dangerous Disconnect Between Home Prices and Fundamentals | eFinanceDirectory.com

Misc
/ August 2, 2007 / Leave a comment

I 35W Bridge Collapse

Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in our community. This is a tragic disaster, one that’s almost hard to believe. Major bridges just don’t fall down. Everyone in our family is safe, for which we are thankful. But many people in our community are suffering, for which we are deeply sorry.

The transportation system in the Twin Cities has been woefully under funded. I hope this wakes up those who have some control over how our money is spent because we rely on the transportation infrastructure for safety and as a significant factor in our economy. The critical nature of this bridge to this community cannot be overstated. We were already severely hampered by the highways, and now this will make matters so much worse.

You can find lots of information here: http://minneapolis.metblogs.com/

Misc
/ April 4, 2007 / 1 Comment

Real Estate Roller Coaster

Jodi and I are considering moving to another part of town. There are many branches on this decision tree, with when to sell our house and when to buy a significant limb. The many variables are enough to make your head spin, figuratively speaking.

Well, this little gem induces a literal queasiness on the question of real estate value. Somebody plotted the real estate market (adjusted for inflation) to a roller coaster. The ride is rough and the ending is ominous.

Real Estate Roller Coaster – Google Video

Family
/ March 22, 2007 / Leave a comment

Fun game: Desktop Tower Defense

This is a fun flash-based game. Be careful, it is a bit addictive.

Desktop Tower Defense

Arts and Entertainment
/ March 6, 2007 / Leave a comment

Free education + free million $ idea

MIT is publishing its entire curriculum to the Internet, available to everyone, for free. And they aren’t the only educator doing it. MIT reports that most of the people using the free courses are from outside the United States, which points to a huge problem in this country: Even if you make it free, Americans can’t be bothered with learning. And for those that want to learn, paying for a secondary education is becoming a major burden.

I’ve come up with many “million-dollar-ideas” in my life and here’s another one. Take the free content provided by these programs and mash them with social networking and wiki technologies to create a free online campus. User volunteers could mix and extend the content and make it interactive. Seriously, someone’s going to get rich on this one.

MIT OpenCourseWare

Technology
/ February 23, 2007 / Leave a comment

Check your Internet access speeds

Here is a fun site that is easy to use for checking your Internet access speeds.

http://speedtest.net/index.php

Technology
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