A stupendous interactive infographic in the New York Times titled Is It Better to Buy or Rent? allows you to twiddle the dials of interest rates, appreciation, rent increases, taxes, and etc. to see when it makes more economic sense to buy rather than rent.
James Duncan Davidson, the photographer, is also a good writer. His latest, Surprised about Oil Prices? Really?, has some good (scary, too) points:
$4/gallon gas is definitely here in a big way and that’s going to have major impact on America’s suburban lifestyle. And, as a kicker, the news people are running around talking about experts and ordinary citizens being surprised. Surprised?
How the hell can you be surprised about this? Really?
And more:
I find it galling in the extreme that the head of state has to effectively go beg for more oil to run the machine that we’ve built over the last century. It’s appalling, in fact. And, almost every member of the United States government shares responsibility for the mess that we’re currently facing. It’s not just the reaction of Bush II that is wrong—it’s the result of 35 years of U.S. policy that is wrong.
Via Hivelogic.
In case you might be curious, tumbledry is going on the road for a while! I’m off to Amsterdam and Barcelona for a wonderful week with my family. It should be grand. I’m taking the camera with, so naturally I’m hoping for some fantastic shots. However, I will settle for mediocre shots that are foreign-looking.
Feel free to mill around in my absence — I’ll try to keep tabs on you guys and girls via internet kiosks.
Onward!
Attention Richard Roche. Please come to think tumbledry link desk. ISO50 - The Visual Work of Scott Hansen — ISO50 Obama Print Out Now == mega awesome graphic design. I love the palette, typography, and the perfect little pieces of text at the bottom.
A++++ WOULD LOOK AT AGAIN.
The Wikipedia entry on Stanford’s tree mascot is an excellent piece of work. Some excerpts:
The Stanford Tree is the unofficial mascot of Stanford University. Stanford’s team name is “The Cardinal,” referring to the vivid red color (not the common song bird as at several other schools), and the University has never been able to come up with an official mascot which adequately conveys the fierceness and sporting prowess it had hoped to symbolize with that particular shade of sanguine. This fact creates a void not typically found at schools with less-abstract symbols for their sports teams, and into this unfulfilled void the Stanford Band has insistently thrust what is one of the United States’ most bizarre and controversial college mascots.
And there’s more:
During the first decade of its existence, the role of the Tree was generally performed by the Band managers’ girlfriends. In the mid-1980s, however, the Band adopted a more formal selection process for its Trees. Today’s Tree candidate must go through “grueling and humiliating physical and mental challenges” to show that he or she has sufficient chutzpah to be the Tree. During “Tree Week,” candidates have been known to perform outrageous, unwise, and often dangerous stunts in order to impress the Tree selection committee; so much so that the University has felt the need to prohibit certain types of audition activities over the years, such as those involving explosives, firearms, and, reputedly, haggis.
The entire thing reads like an article from The Onion. The picture of the “Stanford Tree entering Standford Stadium” stands out in my mind as one of the best pictures on Wikipedia.
I had a wonderful weekend with Mykala: we celebrated my birthday Friday night with a little dental school shirt shopping and Cheesecake Factory dinner. It’s almost warm enough to eat outside — summer is still struggling to get its act together. I pretended to be warm for the duration of our meal out on the restaurant’s patio… but I somehow don’t think I was fooling anyone. If Mykala asks though, I was perfectly toasty — I have to maintain some masculine bravado, even if it’s only in the realm of temperature tolerance.
We took in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (fun fact: it was released on my actual birthday… day). Speaking of facts, that movie is tearing things up at the box office, cf. Wikipedia:
In its opening weekend, the film grossed an estimated $101 million in 4,260 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #1 at the box office, and making it the third biggest opening of all time. Within its first five days of release, it grossed $311 million worldwide. The film’s total $151 million gross in the United States ranked it as the second biggest Memorial Day weekend release, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
It was fun to watch the movie in a theater crowded with people — I really hope theaters stay around in the future for this social movie-going experience. There are some downsides to sharing the movie, though. For example, the young lady next to Mykala reeked of ethanol and sounded like a pair of poorly maintained bellows. Ostensibly, Mykala was annoyed by the sound of her intoxicated neighbor, but I think deep down she was concerned about the person’s lack of physical fitness. Cardiovascular compassion!
Another quick note: good call, Nils — The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a tour de force in innovative, philosophical, artistic, gripping film-making. Very very good. Highly recommended. I cried, but not at the end, which I think is an indication that the movie told its story exactly how it should have been told.
Finally, because Mykala’s blog, Unicorndog.com is currently being remodeled, I will post an impromptu poem she composed verbally:
Blinker, blinker
Clinker, clinker
I am driving
And now I will go to work at 3M.
Uganda Skateboard Union’s Video Preview:
Please take a look at the talents of Uganda’s original skateboarders. The Uganda Skateboard Union has been successfully operating in a suburb of Kampala for over a year now. The organization is fighting idleness and boredom by introducing skateboarding to disadvantaged youth. The skate park shown in the video is the first and only park in the country and it was built entirely by hand by the youth of the community.
The thing that strikes me about these Ugandan skateboarders is not only their awesome sense of humor (see: man in cape and diving goggles) but their skill. The baseline skateboarding skill is pretty darn high — let’s hear it for natural athleticism! Also… you can visit ugandaskateboardunion.org to donate to building another skatepark. (via airbag)
I read a single sentence today which struck me as an expression of an idea that is not usually written out. First, a bit of an introduction: I frequently search out conversations online that are carried on by thoughtful, considerate people. I can tell you from experience, you will not find such comments at the following places: Engadget (or any site owned by Weblogs, Inc.), Gizmodo, any site that is part of a “blogging network”, any newspaper website (these are particularly bad), ESPN, corporate blogs, and on and on. As such, I still use these websites for information, but I consciously force myself to avoid the comments — they’ll bring nothing but strife.
Certainly, stimulating respectful yet interesting discourse when participants have the total anonymity provided by the internet is difficult, but it can be done.
But back to my main point.
I was reading an interesting discussion, and at the end of a post, one participant wrote this:
I just remember hearing this though, so if you find information contradicting it, well, listen to that.
It’s almost profound in its modest, self-deprecating tone. I think that mentally appending that statement (or a variation thereof) to online discussions could be quite useful.
Irn-Bru is a Scottish carbonated soda pop drink I’ve never heard of. It sounds a bit like Dr. Pepper, in the “hard to describe the taste” department:
The formula for Irn-Bru is a closely guarded trade secret, known only by two of Barr’s board members, with a written copy held in a Swiss bank-vault. As of 1999 it contained 0.002% of ammonium ferric citrate, sugar, 32 flavouring agents (including caffeine (though caffeine is not listed as an ingredient on the Australian labelling) and quinine) and two controversial colourings (E110, E124). It is advertised as having a slight citrus flavour, but many have differing opinions of the exact taste of Irn-Bru.
Irn-Bru has long been the most popular soft drink in Scotland, outselling Coca-Cola, but recent fierce competition between the two brands has brought their sales to roughly equal levels (perhaps leaning to Coca-Cola).
Has anybody had this? I wonder if I can try it when I go to Europe. Hmm.
Kathleen Connally’s picture of an orchard in the springtime is particularly lovely now that we finally have some blossoming spring buds of our own here in Minnesota.
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