From the Offical Voter Information Guide: Requires labeling of food sold to consumers made from plants or animals with genetic material changed in specified ways. Prohibits marketing such food, or other processed food, as “natural.” Provides exemptions. Fiscal Impact: Increased annual state costs from a few hundred thousand dollars to over $1 million to regulate the labeling of genetically engineered foods. Additional, but likely not significant, governmental costs to address violations under the measure. Notice this phrase: “Provides exemptions.” In other words, the statute requires certain things and prohibits certain other things — except when it doesn’t. Not that it matters because $1 million a year isn’t going to buy you a lot of enforcement anyway. Who wrote this proposition, Dr. Evil? Prop 37 is supported by people who hate freedom and having to think for themselves. Read more →
Worst Case Scenarios on Demand
If you’re in the market for a worst case scenario, you need to talk to my wife . . . I got an Amazon Local deal via email — a one-hour horseback riding lesson for $35. “Do you want to take a horseback riding lesson?” I asked her. “No,” she said. “It’s dangerous. I’m not going to do it and you’re not going to do it. Remember that guy . . . what’s his name? Christopher Reeve.” Read more →
EppsNet Restaurant Reviews: Gulliver’s
The smoked salmon appetizer was superb, as was the prime rib entree. Attentive service is provided by busty waitresses in the Brobdingnagian tradition. “Did you notice all the waitresses had big tits?” my wife asked. Highly recommended! Read more →
At the Dentist
I Love Piano Music!
Hi everybody! It’s me, Lightning! I love listening to piano music! Whenever someone at my house tickles the ivories, I like to curl up next to the bench and listen! Read more →
Favorite Poem of the Week
My favorite poem of the week — again from Modern & Contemporary American Poetry — was “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” by Bernadette Mayer, especially the final image of the stressed-out new mother reading The Wild Boy of Aveyron, about a feral child raised by wolves. Read more →
Overheard
“We’ve got to stop kicking ourselves in the foot.” Read more →
Visualizing Social Networks
I’m taking a Social Network Analysis class on Coursera. These weren’t assignments for the class (well, the Facebook one sort of was), just some experiments I wanted to share. Facebook You can use netvizz to download a gdf file of your Facebook network, i.e., all of your Facebook friends and all of the connections between them. You can then use your favorite graph analysis software (I used Gephi, which is open-source and free) to look for patterns. My Facebook network is in the image below. Of the four main clusters, two consist of co-workers, one is family and one is people I know from roller hockey. Twitter This is the network of people I follow on Twitter. I used NodeXL (a free, open-source template for Excel) to download and lay out the data. I labeled the nodes in this one. With a few exceptions, the light blue nodes are people… Read more →
Sleeping Pugs
Poems I’ve Read Recently and Liked
I’ve been reading a lot of poetry as part of the Modern & Contemporary American Poetry class on Coursera. One of the things I like about the class is that the video lessons are done a little differently than other Coursera classes I’ve taken. Rather than recorded lectures, the videos consist of the instructor, Al Filreis, leading a small group of Penn students in close readings of selected poems. Anyway, here are a few of my favorites so far: I dwell in Possibility by Emily Dickinson Tell all the Truth but tell it slant by Emily Dickinson The Brain within its Groove by Emily Dickinson Danse Russe by William Carlos Williams This Is Just To Say by Willim Carlos Williams A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsburg Lines for an Abortionist’s Office by Ruth Lechlitner Incident by Countee Cullen These next two, both by Richard Wilbur, I want to single out as being particularly… Read more →
Status
A colleague says, “Are you talkin’ to ME?” Oh, and he showed up at work this morning with a shaved head. Time to worry?
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RT @HarveyMackay: Once the mistake is recognized, what’s lost is lost#Mistakes
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RT @dwangelo: Remember to vote! So it can be cancelled out by 50 million adults who enjoy Harry Potter books.
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RT @DerrickAColeman: Everything Obama says is great, if he had done any of it in the last 4 years, I’d probably be voting for him.
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RT @TriciaLockwood: Think about how close the words PARTNER PANTHER PAINTER and PANTSER are. So close, right? But only Jesus can be all …
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Things Great Engineers (almost) Never Say | Javalobby: java.dzone.com/articles/thing…
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RT @USC: Thanks to student Ari Oh for capturing Traveler trotting across campus recently… #USC #fighton #trojans instagr.am/p/Q76fZXqBa5/
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RT @wtfarthistory: Check out Degas’ binder full of (mostly) women @GettyMuseum (ok it’s a sketchbook) bit.ly/Vbpa9I http://t.co/1 …
Mr. Blackwell Lives
My kid calls me out for wearing white socks with black sneakers . . . “Thanks, Mr. Blackwell,” I say to him. Then it occurs to me that a 19-year-old is not going to get the Mr. Blackwell reference. “FYI, Mr. Blackwell was a flamboyantly gay fashion critic.” Read more →