tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38389652009-02-21T08:24:40.317-06:00Made You ThinkWhat made me think today (or, recently).Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1143082799133355772006-03-22T20:56:00.000-06:002006-03-22T20:59:59.133-06:00"the youngest in a family of dragons is still a dragon from the point of view of those who find dragons alarming"A great interview with Margaret Atwood. (Thanks feministlawprofs.)Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1143082472844982452006-03-22T20:53:00.000-06:002006-03-22T20:54:32.856-06:00Relax a littleIt turns out that working too much isn't even good for your work.Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1142431409935479182006-03-15T08:02:00.000-06:002006-03-15T08:03:29.936-06:00I'm embarassed of my carbon footprintWhich I calculated here.Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1142431354643748662006-03-15T07:59:00.000-06:002006-03-15T08:02:34.643-06:00Government reducing mad cow testingThat seems an odd response to this week's news. The Reuters article I just linked to explains that Americans seem to have little worry about their beef, though.Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1142431123771352142006-03-15T07:54:00.000-06:002006-03-15T08:05:45.493-06:00Can you draw Morrissey? And other stories about cute little (lying, biting) toddlersThanks to the Morning News I found this blog with two recent, hilarious posts about life as an alternadad. My favorite part from the first one, which recounts a visit to Souplantation (which reminded me how much I wish we had Souplantation in Milwaukee). Alternadad takes his son outside after a biting incident.Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1142260768697926902006-03-13T08:33:00.000-06:002006-03-13T08:41:06.496-06:00And a bit more inspirationYou probably have heard about Tom Fox, who was a Christian peace activist killed in Iraq. It inspires me that the folks from his own Quaker congregation in Virginia gave this statement in response to news of his death."That no matter what happened to him personally, he believed his mission of peace, and his direct action of connecting to people, one human being and one Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1142260426888441912006-03-13T08:26:00.000-06:002006-03-13T08:33:46.890-06:00InspirationI wanted to share two quotes I found today.First, "It may be that the most interesting American struggle is the struggle to set oneself free from the limits one is born to, and then to learn something of the value of those limits."--Greil Marcus (cited on Blogora).And this: "No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in the present instant. Take peace. The gloom of the world Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1142259942498242472006-03-13T08:25:00.000-06:002006-03-13T08:25:42.506-06:00Water on Saturn's moonEnceladus has geysers!Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1142258357417451942006-03-13T07:58:00.000-06:002006-03-13T07:59:17.426-06:00Google MARS!Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1141876402762581122006-03-08T21:35:00.000-06:002006-03-08T21:53:22.776-06:00Another exciting new hypothesis about dark matter and dark energy!I realize that I am completely unqualified to understand and, really, even comment about the investigations trying to figure out what in the heck is going on with black holes, why the universe seems to be expanding much more rapidly than it should, and why measurements suggest there's a lot of extra matter hanging around but Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1141875077636497242006-03-08T21:21:00.000-06:002006-03-08T21:31:17.650-06:00Yanni arrested for domestic violenceIt surprised me to hear that. His music's so . . . peaceful. You've got to at least give it that.Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1141874449703226882006-03-08T21:17:00.000-06:002006-03-08T21:20:49.726-06:00Then they will be 11 and 1/2 hours ahead of usI didn't realize that India was 5.5 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. I guess I didn't realize that any time zones shifted in half-hour increments. Sri Lanka will move its clocks back 1/2 hour in April, to be in line with India. Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1140788591373015302006-02-24T07:38:00.000-06:002006-02-24T07:43:49.230-06:00I guess I really am too nice; or maybe just anti-boundaryThis post on the new legal writing blog, which links to an article about how students are using email to "erase boundaries" between student and teacher really interested me. An example of what one of the professors cited as going "too far" were student email comments like "I think you're covering the material too fast, or I don't think Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1140788300895753652006-02-24T07:37:00.000-06:002006-02-24T07:38:20.896-06:00Paper chairThis chair looks cool -- it's a huge roll of paper that your kid sits on, pulling off more paper as needed. But it would become progressively less cool the more you used it....Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1140788217041342182006-02-24T07:34:00.000-06:002006-02-24T07:36:57.043-06:00Our DisappearedI was talking to students yesterday about the meaning of the word "disappeared," which is a term used to describe the phenomenon in many countries of a person disappearing, presumably taken somewhere by the government. And then I was reading this article about a federal district court judge ordering our government to release the names of the Guantanamo Bay detainees, and one of Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1140788048130451992006-02-24T07:24:00.000-06:002006-02-24T07:34:08.166-06:00Romance in MadisonIn case someone (i.e., Jo) didn't read the comment, I wanted to share what my friend Rebecca pointed out -- there's a very romantic hotel in Madison, the Canterbury Inn, "a 'literary' bed and breakfast, situated atop an independent used and scholarly bookstore and cafe in the heart of downtown Madison, Wisconsin." The rooms have names like "The Wife of Bath's room,"Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1140493798590514732006-02-20T20:45:00.000-06:002006-02-20T22:25:11.986-06:00Sundry random itemsI have not posted in so long that I have too many clippings, and they refuse to be tamed.First, perhaps the most bizarre. The Conglomerate reports that Madison was named the most romantic city in the U.S. As much as I wish this were true, since it would be another reason for my friends Jo and Kris to consider Madison a good option should they return to the states (and Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1138978580715575962006-02-03T08:39:00.000-06:002006-02-03T08:57:59.296-06:00More pun-in tending headlines?Boy, that has to be the worst example, too. But it does identify the subject I'm interested in: whether headlines have gotten "punnier" since so many people started receiving notification about the news via email and blogs (especially blog aggregators).It could be that rather than any increase in the use of puns or other humorous plays-on-words in headlines, I'm Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1138633892136859432006-01-30T08:42:00.000-06:002006-01-30T09:13:40.720-06:00TruthinessI feel that the hubbub over who made up the word "truthiness" has drawn too much attention away from the discussion of the problem of truthiness. I believe that truthiness is one of the greatest problems facing our nation. (Hint: note ironic truthiness used in this paragraph.)Examples:An military analyst and former Army officer says that the military is stretched nearly "to the Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1137885513318426062006-01-21T16:42:00.000-06:002006-01-21T17:20:20.646-06:00It seems we've turned the earth into a septic tank; oh, and the space nearby, too.I guess I'm becoming an environmentalist. In fact, my concern about our environment has lately been growing into almost panic. At least fear. I don't know if it's the phenonmenon of when-you-look-for-something-you-see it, or if there really has been an alarming increase in the number of frightening reports Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1137101032980204892006-01-12T15:19:00.000-06:002006-01-12T15:24:56.786-06:00Fewer girl babies born in IndiaThis article says that since sex-selective abortion became possible, perhaps 10 million fewer female babies have been born in India than would otherwise be expected. The most striking part to me was this chart of the falling percentage of women:Indian females born as a percentage of males born. 1981; 96.2% 1991; 94.5% 2001; 92.7%What happens in 15 years, when Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1137100741844730582006-01-12T15:18:00.000-06:002006-01-12T15:19:01.846-06:00What kids learn at the movies.In their own words. (Thanks, Morning News.)Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1137100564790323032006-01-12T15:12:00.000-06:002006-01-12T15:18:01.686-06:00Factory farming and modern morality.This essay in American Conservative discusses the faulty legal and moral reasoning that permits factory farms to subject animals to treatment that would be animal cruelty for pets. (Thanks, Morning News.)Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1137099989736380612006-01-12T15:04:00.000-06:002006-01-12T15:06:29.736-06:00Another study in the category of, they needed a study?As you may have noticed from your personal experience, your mind is foggy during the first moments after you wake up, sometimes so foggy that it's like being drunk. "'For a short period, at least, the effects of sleep inertia may be as bad as or worse than being legally drunk,' said researcher Kenneth Wright of the University of Colorado at Jessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3838965.post-1137099855157898462006-01-12T14:54:00.000-06:002006-01-12T15:04:15.166-06:00How the Alito hearings demonstrate the current "Constitutional catechism"At Balkinization, Jack Balkin offers this thoughtful post reviewing questions and answers in the Alito hearings to demonstrate "that at this point in American constitutional history, a Supreme Court nominee must recite a catechism of belief if he or she is to be confirmed."Here's the content of the catechism:The nominee mustJessicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11191079561278663788noreply@blogger.com0