where does the dough go?
I love these types of visual representations of numbers. This one is interesting to study and see how your spending habits compare to the “average” person. Needless to say my book budget far exceeds the average American. These are annual numbers based on stats from the US Department of Labor.
Pommes frites
Got a weakness for chocolate chip cookies? Kettle chips? Pizza? Ira talks with former FDA commissioner David Kessler about how tasty foods change your brain, and how the food industry designs the fat, salt, and sugar-laden snacks you crave. Kessler, the former head of the FDA during the Bush and Clinton administrations, is the author of the new book “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite.” Is overeating a lack of willpower, or a disease?
From KUER in Salt Lake City an interview with Ellen Rupple Shell author ofCheap the High Cost of Discount Culture.
You’ve probably heard stories of people standing in line for an amazing sale or fights breaking out over a bargain table. Chances are – you may have gone to some great lengths for a rock-bottom price yourself. “Cheap” has become part of the American way, but journalist Ellen Ruppel Shell says it comes at a cost. Tuesday on RadioWest, she joins Doug for a look at discount culture and what it means for our homes and our economy.
From KUOW in Seattle: Marjane Satrapi: ‘Growing up in Iran’
We talk a lot about the Middle East, but what was it really like to grow up there? What does it mean to be a woman in Iran? How do people in Iran feel about their Iraqi neighbors? Marjane Satrapi grew up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. What was occurring at that time? What were the fears and the hopes? What is the human cost of war? How do those events play into present day? How did Saddam look from the other side of the border?
Satrapi records the events of her childhood in two graphic novels, “Persepolis” and “Persepolis 2.” She joins us on “Weekday” to share her story. Additionally here’s a short YouTube film with Satrapi speaking on a panel about her film, based on her book, that was nominated for the best animation category.
In today’s modern world it’s hard to keep track of what foods are in season and what have been shipped from halfway around the world.
Here’s a neat listing that shows the seasons of various foods that you may have lost track of. It is helpful to keep you eating more locally and aware of how far things have traveled to get to you table.
An eagle eye for making the financial world a safer place for all
Yes, I’ll admit it I sent her a fan letter months ago, thanking her for her service and expressing my admiration for her passion. I think that we all should applaud the work that she is doing. Bravo.
The Pacific Northwest has endured a summer of record breaking temperatures. UW Weather Guru Cliff Mass had an interesting piece on his blog detailing the proper placement of an outdoor thermometer:
“When it comes to measuring heat, the National Weather Service shares this advice about where to place your thermometer:
- Mount the thermometer in a shaded, well-ventilated and open area, about 5 feet above ground.
- Away from water sprinkler systems
- No closer than four times the height of any obstruction. For example, if a building is 10 feet tall, it needs to be no closer than 40 feet from that building.
- Located over natural ground just as grass, dirt or sod; which means, not on your roof.
- At least 100 feet from road or concrete.”
Speaking of temperatures, the Consumer’s Union had an interesting article about serving wines at their proper temperature.
photo by Fernando de Sousa
Here’s a Fortune Magazine interview of interest with the CEO of Netflix Reed Hastings.
Websites that get you past barriers
A few websites that are worth checking out often are PolitiFact with it’s famous Truth-o-meter. Here you will find the facts behind the many political spins that circulate around our mainstream media. If you are wanting to keep an eye on the health care reforms proposed for our country with in excess of 47 million people without health coverage this is a good place to start.
Check out ProPublica, “an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Our work focuses exclusively on truly important stories, stories with “moral force.” We do this by producing journalism that shines a light on exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of those with power to vindicate the trust placed in them.” (from their website) They hope to put into place more investigative journalism that has lost it’s place is our fast paced 24 hour news cycle. Staff includes: Paul Steiger, the former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, Stephen Engelberg, a former managing editor of The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon, and former investigative editor of The New York Times, is ProPublica’s managing editor. For a sampling check out their coverage of the bailout.
NewsTrust is also a good site to keep in your bookmarks. Here readers rate the quality of the stories featured and you can find some stories you may not see in the mainstream media. From their site “NewsTrust reviewers evaluate each story against core principles of journalism, such as fairness, accuracy, context and sourcing — using our unique review tools.” Here’s a sampling of that they offer, an article on sleep paralysis. NewsTrust based in California is a nonprofit public benefit corporation with an educational purpose. They started NewsTrust to “address growing problems of information overload, misinformation and mistrust on the Internet, caused by the rise of opinion news and amateur journalism, as well as media consolidation and newsroom cutbacks” (from their website).
For international news that is more in depth check out Global Post where you will find this moving story about children born behind bars. They have quite a stable of on-the-ground journalists of superior quality. They have more than 65 correspondents in nearly 50 countries giving it a hand up in international coverage.
Congrats to Our 111th Supreme Court Justice
Congratulations to Justice Sotomayer, for breaking many firsts, the first Latina Supreme Court Justice, the first justice who was raised in public housing, and the first with diabetes. Bravo for breaking the glass ceiling and being willing to endure so much scrutiny to serve your country.
I’m sure that Justice Ginsburg is relieved to have another woman on the court again.
If you are interesting in the inner workings of the Supreme Court may I recommend The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court a stunning non-fiction work by court watcher Jeffrey Toobin.
The President of the United States as a Child
How can you not smile when you see the glee in Barak Obama’s face in this 1960s photo? Next time a kid this age tells you that he or she is going to grow up and become president bring this photo to mind and encourage the dream.
Indeed it’s cool photo for a hot summer day.
photo by Kprateek88
“These little 15-second waits add up–big time. If Verizon’s 70 million customers leave or check messages twice a weekday, Verizon rakes in about $620 million a year. That’s your money. And your time: three hours of your time a year, just sitting there listening to the same message over and over again every year.”
His solution? Figure out how to sidestep the message and use this to record instead a message for Verizon cell phones such as: “Hi, you’ve reached Ginger, press * to leave a message” this takes the listener directly to the beep.
Here are the various codes:
* for Verizon
1 for Sprint
# for AT&T
# for T-Mobile
Now if Pogue would get people rallying behind the world hunger or the dwindling clean water supply…
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