May 22, 2009
Science Friday: Waterballoons in Space
Waterballoons in Space. Embedding these videos seems impossible so view it here. 
More Science Friday.
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May 21, 2009
Listen: The Role of Intuition in Discovery
wNYC’s Radio Lab on unexpected diagnoses:
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May 19, 2009
Sunday NYT Magazine: Dilemmas of Debt
I finally finished devouring my Sunday New York Times Magazine and, as always, nearly every article in there is thought-provoking and interesting.
There is a profile of Suze Orman, the personal finance maven who I always thought dispensed pretty obvious financial advice. (It’s not an entirely flattering portrait, but my guess is her $20 million-plus fortune is secure.)
There’s also a very interesting piece about the credit card companies’ efforts to learn about their customers’ purchase and payment habits and the ways in which they get those who’ve defaulted to pay up. (Also not flattering!)
Anyway, the issue is provided for free online but a subscription to the Sunday NYT is, to my mind, your best investment. Just don’t use your credit card.
P.S. As much as I love The Washington Post, its Sunday magazine has become, IMHO, cartoonishly bad. This past Sunday’s issue was dedicated to the 2009 Post Hunt, which apparently appealed to a whopping 10,000 area residents. How on earth is this of any news importance to justify making the cover of a purported news magazine?
I wish the editors over there would realize that substance sells. Either include real magazine journalism in the Sunday magazine or cease publication and put the money saved into journalism that can appear in the rest of the paper.
Much better would have been include this heartbreaking and well-reported story by DeNeen L. Brown (Style, May 18, 2009) about how you need to be rich to be poor and crafting an issue around poverty, finance, and the state of the U.S. economy./rant
May 18, 2009
Flashback: Whither the ‘Burbs?
A friend points me to an article published last spring in the Atlantic titled “The Next Slum,” by Christopher B. Leinberger, on whether all those McMansions constructed in the building frenzy will survive both the subprime crisis and what could be changing attitudes on the part of some Americans to move away from car-centric suburbs and exurbs to public-transportation-accessible, walkable urban areas.
The article relies in part on data from the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, which incidentially has an article in the May 2009 issue of Planning magazine on American Demographics, circa 2109. Using a midrange scenario, the authors envision a U.S. population double the size of today’s: 600 million people.
I don’t see how transporting that many people (nevermind housing, feeding, schooling, and caring for them) is possible without a wholesale rethinking of the way communities are designed and built.
Let’s hope some smart people get cracking on some good ideas!
May 15, 2009
Event: 134th Preakness Stakes
The second leg of the Triple Crown is tomorrow at the dilapidated Pimlico Race Course in D.C.’s sister city of Baltimore. (In contrast with the dire condition of the actual facility, the Preakness has a cool new website.)
Rachel Alexandra, the filly, is the heavy favorite (from what I read), even though she drew the outer most post position. Andrew Beyer talks about the race in this video. In his column today in the Washington Post, he says he’s rooting for her; this is short of an outright prediction that she will win, which means she still has a chance (ha, ha – joking, sort of).
As always, if you’re opposed to horse racing, donate to PETA here.