July 2011
59 posts
June 2011
92 posts
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shutdown shutout
This afternoon my whole state government is going to shut down. Now, I’m not saying everyone in the world has to care what happens in Minnesota. But it’s a whole state government shutting down. It’s got direct impact on a big group of U.S. citizens and resonance with events happening around the country. Here are the top stories on Google News:
Casey Anthony trial
National...
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Tumblr Tags →
Here’s another thing I built. When I started designing this blog I wanted it to have a list of tags I frequently use, but I didn’t know what they’d be, I wanted Tumblr to figure it out for me. Tumblr’s theme-building tools don’t do it, so I set out to do it myself.
Specifically, I wrote a web service (using Sinatra and MongoDB) that fetches all the posts on a blog...
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“Marriage (unlike homosexuality) is a lifestyle choice”
– Bill Keller, “Solving the G.O.P.’s Gay-Marriage Problem” (via swirlspice)
I’d like to hear more about this, from the same column: “rank-and-file Catholics are actually far more supportive of same-sex marriage than other Christians.” True or false? What other...
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Why Medical School Should Be Free →
Peter S. Bach and Robert Kocher argue that waiving med school tuition would shift graduating doctors from specialties to primary care - which is necessary to fix our health care system.
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“Shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy...”
– Local Food or Less Meat? Data Tells The Real Story (Harvard Business Review)
It’s good to see some science in this ongoing debate. Of course, “vegan locavore” beats both options… but it makes for a long, jellied winter around here.
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Desperately Seeking Serendipity →
Ethan Zuckerman: “When we use the word ‘serendipity’ now, it’s usually to mean ‘a happy accident’. The parts of the definition that focus on sagacity, preparation and structure have slipped, at least in part, into obscurity. Our loss, I believe, is that we’ve lost sight of the idea that we could prepare ourselves for serendipity, both personally and structurally. I...
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The wrong John Wayne →
“Rep. Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign on Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, and in one interview surrounding the official event she promised to mimic the spirit of Waterloo’s own John Wayne.
“The only problem, as one eagle-eyed reader notes: Waterloo’s John Wayne was not the beloved movie star, but rather John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer.”
This (from the Washington Times, via...
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The tale of what Bachmann says she heard Obama... →
minnpost:
According to Bachmann, when Obama was pressed for his long-range solution to the projected shortfall in Medicare, he muttered: “But we have Obamacare.”
Keep in mind, this is the same person who interpreted her constituents’ efforts to talk to her about same-sex marriage as kidnapping. The way she perceives things is unusual.
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“We don’t want a city full of rentals owned by people who can’t stand...”
– Jim Mork, on Minneapolis’s fee for converting an owner-occupied home to a rental. There’s quite a heated discussion over on the E-Democracy forum!
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Watch“Tales of ice-bound wonderlands,” an affecting look at wild inhabitants of the polar regions, by Paul Nicklen.
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Halloween, Alaska : Dance By Accident →
New music from Halloween, Alaska!
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“… So to recap, Mark Dayton is a horrible person because he wants to keep...”
– Jeff Rosenberg
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After Hours Club in Mpls Raided, 87 Arrested →
east-lake:
edkohler:
“Police found a bar and sound system set up in the basement. They seized crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana and pills, as well as several guns, Palmer said.”
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27th Ave S at Lake St
This is so crazy. At first I just assumed it was at El Nuevo Rodeo because of their past issues. But the balls to have a space like this basically across the street from the 3rd Precinct is...
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“There are believed to be 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United...”
– Jose Antonio Vargas, who at 16 learned that he was in the country illegally, and at 30 came out in the New York Times.
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"Bus tour?" said Sarah Palin. "What bus tour? I... →
(via shardlow and Newsweek)
This is a funny gag, but I think Newsweek — even the fun, irreverent “Newsweek on Tumblr” — is on shaky ground reblogging without comment a humor piece that consists entirely of a made-up quote attributed to a public figure.
The notes are full of rebloggers who clearly think it’s real. Sorry to be so stuck-up about truth and stuff.
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The New Yorker to One-Third of All Music Listeners... →
sweetlovehotcoffee:
Every generation since the alleged Youthquake has done a great disservice to their youngers. We act like age makes you inescapably pointless. It doesn’t.
I think we owe the next generation hope. They deserve elders that will help them be less afraid, that will tell them they’ll get older, and still be dynamic human beings. They might, in fact, be happier. I propose we...
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Vegan- & GF-Friendly Eats in Minneapolis →
robosheep:
fauxmoqadems:
Never again shall I sit in silence at Green Mill!
A beautiful sentiment.
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The Financial Benefits of Living in... →
edkohler:
Car costs were a key factor in pushing homeowners into foreclosure according to a 2010 NRDC study. The study, which tracked 40,000 mortgages in Chicago, Jacksonville and San Francisco, found that the probability of foreclosure rose alongside the number vehicles owned per household in a neighborhood, even after controlling for income and mortgage characteristics such as debt-to-income...
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“We want to disturb people in a way they will like.”
– Our friend Stevie Hryciw of Corpus Callosum, who will be joining us for a show here in Minneapolis later this summer. Yay!
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“Bicycling is, in much of the car-centric U.S., either a privilege or a...”
– Bicycling’s gender gap: It’s the economy, stupid | Grist Part of their Bikenomics series. (via swirlspice)
I like this column, which offers some less-heard theories about the biking gender gap. (I also like the link to this post about Minneapolis’s relatively high ratio of bike commuters.)...
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“Trash Free Seas Act” Introduced in the Senate →
climateadaptation:
On May 26th, Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Mark Begich (D-AK), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced the “Trash Free Seas Act” (S. 1119) to reauthorize the Marine Debris Research, Prevention and Reduction Act (MDRPRA). The MDRPRA’s term of authorization expired at the end of 2010.
Also (via theopie): We are “at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine...
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Coffee Geek Oases in the Twin Cities
Kate and I made a list over on vita.mn because we wanted to win an iPad, but it was frustrating to put a bunch of thought into the list and then have to reduce it to just names of businesses. Maybe thinking was our mistake.
We haven’t been here very long, so we haven’t been everywhere, and we’ve only been to some of these places once or twice. But what would the Internet be without poorly...
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“What ever happened to William Shakespeare? Good theater that decent people can...”
– Dyadko Balaklava, regarding The RMS Duchess of York at Paper Moose Jumpsuit, a production I dearly hope you’ll get another chance to see.
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Public Schools Charge Kids for Basics, Frills →
Stephanie Simon reports in the Wall Street Journal that financially challenged public schools are increasingly charging students for registration, “technology fees,” and supplies, for electives and even for core classes.
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“I walked into this woman’s office, held the scissors up to show her I meant...”
– “And I Should Know,” a brief history of Roseanne and fame, by Roseanne Barr
(via Tiger Beatdown)
Just watched the pilot on Netflix Instant. That show holds up a lot better than most of the shows I used to like.
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The Real Reason Why Bicycles are the Key to Better... →
Kasey Klimes: “Yes, the bicycle is a marvelously efficient machine of transportation, but in the city it is so much more. The bicycle is new vision for the blind man. It is a thrilling tool of communication, an experiential device for the beauty and the ills of the urban context. One cannot turn a blind eye on a bicycle – they must acknowledge their community, all of it.
“Here lies...
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WatchJames Tucker, “Urban Mysteries”
An archaeological investigation of the ancient skyways of the twentieth century, produced for Architecture Minnesota’s Videotect competition.
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how to leave manhattan (and simmer down) without...
citizenkerry:
The people who need to visit Roosevelt Island are New Yorkers because it’s the only place where you can hear yourself speak. And I mean that literally.
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“Moments later Bachmann’s campaign sent out a news release saying she was...”
– A+ Decision Making with Michele Bachmann (via whereabout)
I am very much in favor of the not seeking re-election part of this.
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Is the U.S. Doing Teacher Reform All Wrong? →
Dana Goldstein: “That’s the suggestion of a new report from the National Center on Education and the Economy…. The report takes a close look at how the countries that are kicking our academic butts—Finland, China, and Canada—recruit, prepare, and evaluate teachers. What it finds are policy agendas vastly different from our own, in which prospective educators are expected to spend a...
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“[I]f it’s in the news, don’t worry about it. Because, by definition, news is...”
– Bruce Schneier, “The security mirage” (via Ezra Klein)
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A Gay Girl in Damascus: Apology to readers →
Not much of one.
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