Thursday, July 18, 2013
"a run-up in housing prices that is artificial, fueled by speculation from Wall Street investors,..."
“a run-up in housing prices that is artificial, fueled by speculation from Wall Street investors, setting up the affected regions for yet another crash.”
- Will Rising Mortgage Rates Put an End to the Housing Recovery? -
- Will Rising Mortgage Rates Put an End to the Housing Recovery? -
Friday, July 12, 2013
How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby? - Jean Twenge - The Atlantic
How Long Can You Wait to Have a Baby? - Jean Twenge - The Atlantic: 
A very good, evidence-based analysis of how long a woman can wait - biologically - to have children.
It might be worth pointing out that raising children requires a lot of physical and emotional stamina, and that those things also decline with age.
It may be possible to conceive children at 40, but how will you feel about still raising them in your late 50s?
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Workaround for Disk Utility "Unable to write to the last block of the device"
I got a new Mushkin solid state disk (SSD) for my 2011-era Macbook Pro running OS X 10.7.5 and when I went to format the thing, Disk Utility kept returning: “Unable to write to the last block of the device".
I got the same error when I booted up in recovery mode (holding Option and then picking the Recovery HD).
However, when I put the SSD in a USB enclosure and connected it to a 2007-era Macbook (running the exact same version of the OS, however), Disk Utility worked just fine. I was able to format the disk, partition it (for a Recovery partition) and then use Carbon Copy Cloner back in the Macbook Pro to clone over my existing hard drive.
So if anyone else out there runs into this problem, find yourself an old Macbook? Not a great solution, but it’s out there.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Inequality Is
Inequality Is: 
A powerfully interactive analysis of economic inequality in the U.S. Data-rich and yet very accessible.
Friday, June 07, 2013
'Superbugs' push effort to approve new antibiotics
'Superbugs' push effort to approve new antibiotics: 
It’s embarrassing that we’re willing to give drug companies more money for antibiotics when we really need to stop feeding them to pigs day and night.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
The Excel Depression - NYTimes.com
The Excel Depression - NYTimes.com: 
I think it’s what psychologists call confirmation bias. We like to believe in research/data that defends our own point of view. Governments have slashed spending to cut deficits because politicians wanted to, but the economists that defended that position were actually wrong. Sigh.
Friday, March 29, 2013
The case of the poison potato - Boing Boing
The case of the poison potato - Boing Boing: 
Fascinating look at potato hybrids and how GM crops can actually result in fewer unexpected side effects than traditional cross breeding (since you know which genes you’re messing with).
Monday, March 04, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Adding (Multiple) File Attachments to iPad or iPhone emails
For a device that replaces a computer for many (iPad) or that can use cloud-based file syncing (both), it’s amazing that you can’t attach files easily to email in iOS. But with this $0.99 app – iAttachment – and Dropbox, it’s actually pretty easy.
I’d imagine it also works with apps from other cloud syncing services where you can choose “Open In…” with your files. If so, leave a comment!
Once you have iAttachment and a cloud file app (Dropbox in this example), here’s what you do:
1) go to Dropbox and find the file you want to attach. The bottom right option is a little icon with an arrow going into a box. Tap that and pick “Open In…” and select iAttachment.
Do this for each file you want to send. It’ll take you to iAttachment after each one, so you’ll have to go back to Dropbox for each additional file.
1) go to Dropbox and find the file you want to attach. The bottom right option is a little icon with an arrow going into a box. Tap that and pick “Open In…” and select iAttachment.
Do this for each file you want to send. It’ll take you to iAttachment after each one, so you’ll have to go back to Dropbox for each additional file.2) Once you’ve imported all the files you want, open iAttachment. The files will be in the Imported Files folder. Tap the folder to open it, then check each file you want to attach.
3) Tap the “attach & mail” icon along the bottom. It will open a Mail compose window with those files in there. You can delete the text that says they were attached with iAttachment.
Friday, February 15, 2013
Saturday, February 09, 2013
The inside story of Aaron Swartz’s campaign to liberate court filings | Ars Technica
The inside story of Aaron Swartz’s campaign to liberate court filings | Ars Technica: 
Should Americans have to pay to access public court records? A compelling case made by a man who may have been driven to suicide by a government focused on secrecy.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Electoral College Changes Would Pose Danger for Democrats - NYTimes.com
Electoral College Changes Would Pose Danger for Democrats - NYTimes.com: 
I really don’t see how this kind of policy proposal can seem like anything less than election fraud. It deliberately skews presidential election results AWAY from reflecting the national popular vote.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
No amendment allowed: A constitutional problem we’re stuck with | MinnPost
No amendment allowed: A constitutional problem we’re stuck with | MinnPost: 
Do you know the one part of the U.S. Constitution that cannot be amended? I didn’t. And what a problem it has become!
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Klobuchar, Franken cheer potential filibuster reform | MinnPost
Klobuchar, Franken cheer potential filibuster reform | MinnPost: 
The minor changes on the table could have monumental changes in the ability of the federal government to solve public problems.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
This one image comparing Google and Apple Maps provides a pretty...
This one image comparing Google and Apple Maps provides a pretty compelling reason why NOT to use iOS 6 if you like good mapping.
Seriously, different colors for highways and surface streets is so 1960 map tech.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Skills Don’t Pay the Bills - NYTimes.com
Skills Don’t Pay the Bills - NYTimes.com: 
Training for a manufacturing job doesn’t help much if it’s starting wage is lower than McDonald’s.
A Failed Experiment - NYTimes.com
A Failed Experiment - NYTimes.com: 
Letting the rich run away with wealth makes for a poorer society.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Beyond Citizens United: Fixing the American elections system | MinnPost
Beyond Citizens United: Fixing the American elections system | MinnPost: 
Campaign finance reform is more complicated than it seems on the face, but there are things Obama can do without Congress.
Thursday, November 08, 2012
Thursday, November 01, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
Sleight of the 'Invisible Hand' - NYTimes.com
Sleight of the 'Invisible Hand' - NYTimes.com: 
A very thoughtful piece on the false notion that Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” implies a lack of government intervention. Rather, he felt that the invisible hand was the unexpected social good from private action made possible by industrious hard-work and proper precedence of the public good in politics. In other words, he’d probably see Goldman Sachs as a bunch of lazy wastrels.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Sunday, October 07, 2012
Friday, September 28, 2012
Why Buses Have Vertical Steering Wheel Columns
Did you ever wonder why a bus has a big, horizontal steering wheel instead of one more like a car’s? Me too, so I asked Metro Transit in Minnesota why bus steering wheels are designed that way.
Here’s their reply:
The answer to your question lies in the fact that the room available in the front of the bus is very limited. Because the engine, transmission and other driveline components are in the back of the bus, the front area is kept as short as possible in order to increase space for passengers. At the same time, this area has to be large enough to accommodate the bus driver and the equipment needed to operate the bus.
One way to help maximize the driver’s area while keeping the front of the bus compact is to mount the steering column in a vertical orientation. I believe that all transit bus manufacturers use this strategy to accomplish this. Just so you know, the steering wheel can be tilted and it also telescopes to fit the needs of various operators, so the vertical orientation is not as much of an issue as it might seem.
Thanks, Charles Wurzinger of Metro Transit!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
"Ambition is fired by possibility, not by deprivation, as a tour through the world’s poorest regions..."
“Ambition is fired by possibility, not by deprivation, as a tour through the world’s poorest regions makes clear”
- Thurston Howell Romney - NYTimes.com
- Thurston Howell Romney - NYTimes.com
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
In U.S. today, no margin for illness | StarTribune.com
In U.S. today, no margin for illness | StarTribune.com: 
A great moral argument for public intervention in health care, if you’re not persuaded by the obvious market failure.
Tuesday, September 04, 2012
Maybe we should just pick the guy that’s more likely to...
Maybe we should just pick the guy that’s more likely to tell the truth.
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