A Matter of Perspective

Landmarks from different angles!

Ties That Bind: the Czech Republic and West, Texas

Here's a nice story of people helping people in the aftermath of the awful explosion in the little town of West, Texas.

Thank Goodness It's a New Week

Last week was almost unremittingly horrific: the Boston Marathon bombing, the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas, the earthquake in China.  The admirable behavior of decent common folks who rushed to help in bad circumstances was almost (but NOT) outshouted by the incredibly awful behavior of some news media and partisan pundits looking to score cheap points.   Let's not give any more time to people behaving badly; instead let me encourage you to donate to one of the many charities who are working in the aftermath of these disasters.

The highlight of the entire week of dread is that the bombing suspects did not escape.  Add the funeral of Maggie Thatcher, not that it happened, but that it was a reminder of that great lady, the first woman to be head of a major Western nation.  We're all emotionally exhausted.  Here's looking forward to a new week, as I wish you all the very best.  I'm not feeling too well, so there might not be too much posting.

U.S. Passes Saudis In Oil Output

I had no idea.  Some of the action is in Texas and North Dakota.  And up through the ground came a-bubblin' crude.  Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea!

Snarky Citizens and Online Petitions

Let me start off by saying that nobody's seriously considering secession (the last time anyone did, we had a little thing known as the American Civil War, right?), but people have also always thrown around the idea of rage-quitting.  A good healthy dose of snark is often a good thing, especially now.  Anyway, there's a White House petition about Texas secession that's made some news because it has over 60,000 signatures on it.  Before every humorless rube who doesn't understand political humor runs off to yell at Texas, though, please to remember that right now snarky citizens have begun secession petitions from every single state in the Union.  Yup, that's all 50 from Alaska to Wyoming.

The White House's online petition feature has proven itself irresistible to snarky, sarcastic folks for a while (for just one example, see this from the wags at Fark.com), and I think that's good too.  That House should know that Americans are (occasionally rowdy, mouthy) citizens, not (meekly quiet) subjects.  And citizens should speak up, snarkily or not, as they please.  Look, petitions usually don't get results, but it's a chance to pipe up.  

I am now sorely tempted to start a petition requiring every single member of the federal government, beginning with the President and including every member of Congress, to take a college course in introductory economics (both micro and macro, and preferably taught by Professor Greg Mankiw).  Hmmmm.  Or that every single member of Congress must spend 1 day on a dirty job with Mike Rowe. Yeah!

Smoke Should Be Only For Barbecue

Take a look at this terrifying map of the current wildfires sweeping across Texas, courtesy of La Parisienne.  The Lone Star State's disastrous drought -- the worst in 50 years -- has made it a tinderbox ready for wildfires.


UPDATE 2:  See just how fast the wildfire at Bastrop can move:

UPDATE 1: The map was scary enough, but the video ... Here is footage from the fires at Bastrop outside Austin.  Overall in the last week, some 1000 homes and 100,000 acres have gone up in smoke.  Utterly horrifying.

*Insert Tumbleweeds* The Texas Drought

Not good at all.

Friday Fun Video: Movie Theater Etiquette

It's the weekend, and that means going to the theater because the last Harry Potter movie is finally here!  But whether you go to the cinema to see the epic Battle of Hogwarts or something else, here are two hilarious reminders that there's such a thing as cinema etiquette.  First, something from UK film critic Mark Kermode:

From the Alamo Drafthouse theater in Austin, Texas, which follows a strict no-talking, no-texting policy (good on them! I totally HATE people who text during movies while being selfishly, moronically unaware that their phones are emitting light that disturbs the darkness WHICH IS DARK IN ORDER FOR US TO SEE THE MOVIE, DUH):

Nerd News: Storing a $1 Billion University Endowment as Gold Bars

We're gettin' medieval as faith in the US dollar plummets.  Well, I guess it's better than storing that endowment as real estate or stocks.

Edupunk Nerd News: A Bachelor's Degree for $10,000?

Interesting.  I'm not saying this idea is all good, but it's an interesting opening gambit to a much-needed discussion on higher education today.  Note, too, how the author of this piece is a university professor of 20 years' experience (so he must be tenured and a senior scholar), but he still feels the need for anonymity because there are plenty of edu-crats and academics who would probably want to flay him alive for his nerd heresy. 

Kitchen Notes: Perceptions and Reality of Ethnic Cuisines

Plus lots of pretty Venn diagrams! This is darn interesting stuff, actually.  Here's the methodology:

I polled Texans -- not just Houstonians -- on what they thought of when they were asked to consider foods from places like Ethiopia, Lebanon, Germany and several other countries. Through Facebook, Twitter, email and personal interviews, I compiled the most common responses from Texans far and wide. And then I set out asking people that were actually from those countries what their idea of commonly consumed foodstuffs were. I was interested to see how often the American concept of another culture's food overlapped with that culture's actual dining trends. And that's where Venn diagrams come in.

The results were surprising in some areas, not so in others. In the Venn diagrams below, you'll see Texans' answers on the left, the actual countryman/countrywoman's answers on the right, and any overlap between the two in the middle.

Here's an example.  Go read the whole thing. (I am curious, though: how large were the testing samples?  And how about repeating this little experiment in different parts of the country, not just one state?)

It Begins: 14 States File Suit Against ObamaCare

"an unprecedented encroachment on the sovereignty of the states" (quoted verbatim from the legal complaint)

It's gone from speculation to fact as the attorneys general of Florida, South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Michigan, Utah, Pennsylvania, Alabama, South Dakota, Louisiana, Idaho, Washington, Colorado, and Virginia sue. (To be nitpicky, though, I could point out that technically Pennsylvania and Virginia are "commonwealths.")

Those of you gentle readers who are legal eagles might like a look at the complaint (in PDF).

Here are a few more thoughts about the individual mandate and judicial review at Volokh, a law professor blog.

A thought: the fact that more than 30 states are asserting their opposition to ObamaCare is something worth remembering.

(I feel that I should create a tag named "states' rights" or something like that, but that term kind of sounds too Civil War-ish to a history nerd like me. Can you think of a better tag?)

Nerd News: Link Dump

No time to dedicate a post to each one, so here they all are. Read away!

• Insta-Prof and Reason magazine: higher education is broken. Well, duh.
• Inside Higher Ed headline on accreditation: "Unwanted 'Help' From the Feds." Didn't The Reagan say that the scariest words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help"?
• University of Texas law students warn employers to stay away from ... the University of Texas. On-campus catfights are always worth a look and laugh.
• UC student protesters just don't get it: their state government has sold them out.
  

High-Tax Versus Low-Tax States: California Versus Texas

And this piquant piece of reality was in the Los Angeles Times! Here's commentary from PowerLine too. California is a financial basket case, and people are voting with their feet. More here. Seriously, look at this latest round of California schemin' from the pols in office.

Requiescat in Pace: Norman Borlaug, 1914-2009

By his work in agriculture, he saved the lives of hundreds of millions (particularly in poor nations) from hunger and starvation -- effectively saving the lives of more people than any other individual in history. And you've probably never even heard of him.

Take a look at the remarkable life and legacy of Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Peace Prize winner (who, unlike so many recipients, actually deserved it) and the "forgotten benefactor of humanity." Here is his obit in the New York Times.

Bonus: Read Reason magazine's interview with Borlaug from 2000. Read the whole thing. Here's a piece of it: