A Correction

In my blog post yesterday about NPR's review of The Last Airbender, I incorrectly identified the reviewer as Bob Mondello.

It was NPR's other movie reviewer, Kenneth Turan, who wrote the review and who has apparently never watched the TV series. My apologies to Mr. Mondello.

The early brains of a better world...

How Goldman Sachs gambled on starving the world's poor - and won. Johann Hari explains how Goldman Sachs pressured legislatures to deregulate futures trading in food commodities, and then used those commodities markets as a reliable retreat from collapsising real estate markets, in the process jacking the price of bulk foods up by as much as 320%, causing mass starvating and death. Futures trading is a way of managing risk; bundling those futures as derivatives created even more risk than a market without futures trading. Goldman Sachs exploited that "flaw" for its financial benefit.

The strong do what they will, the weak endure what they must - Thucydides.

How to make an American job before it's too late. Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, explains how the disconnect between startup and manufacturer threatens the future of American prosperity, and how we need to stop thinking about "China strategies" and start thinking about "America strategies" for our companies when they get big enough to need mass-production.

Many Poisoned Rivers. Jonathan Mirsky reviews Jonathan Watts's new book, When a Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind - Or Destroy It. Watts outlines how China's manufacturing zones are becoming toxic wastelands, the rivers are contributing to the Pacific Ocean's degredation, the water is undrinkable and the air unbreathable.

After you've read about fifty pages you will find his occasional attempts at fairness bizarre, as in his clichéd conclusion that, faced with two 'extremes', 'the truth was probably somewhere in between'. But there is no 'in between'. China is destroying itself and threatening the rest of us. And, like useful idiots, we are helping the Chinese do it.

Proportional Leading For Fluid Web Designs. White space between rows of text must be proportional to the width of the text. This article shows you how to lead (that's "led", not "leed") your line-heights properly so your pages show up great on both your 1920x1080 monitor and your 320x480 smartphone.

How to use Starbucks as your office. Now that Starbucks offers free wi-fi, learn how to use it well.

Very Scary Fireworks. In 1962, the United States exploded a fusion bomb over Hawaii. Here's the video of that event.

Wonder Woman's new costume. Woah. No heels. No excess skin. What is the world coming to? (Apparently, JM Strazynski is coming to Wonder Woman, that's what.)

More bizarre dreamery...

I dreamed last night that I was in a hot-tub with a crowd of excessively hunky and beautiful men and women. Someone burst into the room and shouted, "The Aliens! The Aliens are landing right now!"

From out of the hot tub arose Kurt Russel, bigger, more tan, more hunky than he had ever been in his entire life. Buck naked, well-hung and holding an enormous war axe, he shouted, "We know how to deal with them, don't we!?" Then he grabbed the nearest dwarven-beared man, kissed him hard, and headed out the door, through which I could see a desert and classic 1950s flying saucers.

Like, what the f#%! is my brain trying to tell me?

Having my priorities straight

Omaha was busy, so Lisakit and I went to do the household's monthly shopping run today. Lisa went in ahead while I parked the car, then gathered up the cloth grocery bags we're reliably taking with us these days. There were a lot of them-- this was the monthly warehouse run after all. I started stuffing them into one bright blue bag. Then I paused, tumbled them out, and stuffed them into another bag, one I'd acquired at a convention long ago.

Because I'd rather have people know I'm a furry than believe I shop at Wal-Mart.

(Note: The links are probably NSFW.)

Trivial Pursuit Question: Who was...

Yesterday, the whole family went out to eat with a whole bunch of friends, and one of the odd bits of conversation came around to the advantages of ziplock bags versus plastic containers.

"Yeah," one guy at table said. "Those ziplock bags are really hard to get open, especially from the inside."

"Personal experience?" someone else asked.

"Not really," he said.

"Yeah," I chimed in. "He was a researcher for Blanche Knott's last book."