Noteworthy entries.
I'm sorry to say that this reasonable approach to Muslims shown by Jersey Governor Chris Christie (i.e., the lack of bigotry) is all too rare among Republicans. Lawrence O'Donnell reports:
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Christie's words shouldn't be inspirational, but they are in this climate of Republican bigotry.Bob Edgar, opinion contributor at POLITICO both pans and applauds Stephen Colbert's creation of Colbert Super PAC in this article: Stephen Colbert for Supreme Court justice! Mr. Edgar says:
The Super PAC launched Thursday by the satirist Stephen Colbert and blessed by the Federal Election Commission is a terrible idea. It makes a mockery of our campaign finance laws, inviting politicians of all stripes to launch their own Super PAC-linked TV "news" shows and then use those programs to raise buckets of money from corporations, labor unions and other special interests. It’s the sort of thing Common Cause has always been against. We hate it. And it’s positively brilliant!But "...inviting politicians ... to launch their own... TV 'news' shows..."??? What if we flip it, and TV "news" shows launch their own politicians? Uh, oh. Too late.
This video made me do a double-take. How are these children able to play such big guitars so well? The little girl in the middle is the one to watch extra closely. The music is certainly precisely played. For many years I taught guitar lessons, and I could never teach such a young child to confidently play a bar chord (you'll see a few of these in this video). I'm stunned and staggered and delighted to see and hear the music, but a little wary about how hard these children had to be pushed to reach this performance level. I'd love to know more about the teaching methods . . .
Now I've got myself a soap clock. Back in January, 2008, I bought a 16- pack of soap at Costco. After bringing it home, I was inspired to write a post called "How many more bars of soap will I buy before I die?"
As of today, the last bar of soap from that pack is almost gone. My house has several bathrooms, and I tend to use one of them, almost exclusively, and that's were that pack of soap was located. Therefore, I can attribute most of the soap use to me. Therefore, I used 16 bars of soap in about 42 months, meaning I use a bar of soap every 2.6 months or, conversely, I use .38 bars of soap per month.
Now, going to the life expectancy tables, I see that I will likely live till age 93, but that seems awfully generous. This clock says I'll only live until Thursday, February 7, 2030 (19 more years). And here is a detailed calculator that takes into account many factors, and it tells me I'll live until 83, which means I'll live 28 more years. 28 years = 336 months. Sounds like a good average.
All I needed to do was translate years into bars of soap, and that is accomplished with simple multiplication: 336 month x .38 bars/month = 127 bars of soap. If I keep buying big 16-bar value packs, I'm only going to buy 8 more packs of soap before I die. This makes soap a precious commodity, indeed. On the other hand, anything you regularly use (pens, eggs, birthday cakes) can serve as a clock.
In case you think I'm obsessed with death, you're probably right--this is one of the sites that fascinate me.