caramida: (teacher)
Many people forget that some of the coldest days of the Cold War weren't all that long ago. Late September of 1983 was fifteen weeks after the opening of WarGames, a movie that seems quaint now, but was scary at the time, and less than 60 days before we were all scared out of our wits by The Day After. They were making Red Dawn at the time.

Just three weeks after the Soviets shot down a South Korean 747 with hundreds of US Citizens aboard, while the US and the USSR were still mortal enemies, deep in a of the Soviet Air Defense bunker, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov saved the world.

Na zdorovia, Colonel Petrov. Spasibo.

One of these days I want to tell his story in class. I wonder if a 'This Day in History' or 'Five Minutes in History' would be a neat way to introduce stories from the past to my students. Also, would five minutes every few days take away from the other curriculum I need to impart?

Hmmm.
location: home
Music:: The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome - The Middleman
Mood:: 'grateful' grateful
caramida: (fraggle rock)
posted by [personal profile] caramida at 05:06pm on 12/09/2009 under
Chicken pot pie, peppery and nice, with a crust so close to perfect you can smell it from there.

Thank you, Alameda Pie Truck!
Music:: TTBOOK: The We Generation - Wisconsin Public Radio
location: home
Mood:: 'delighted' delighted
caramida: (hero)
posted by [personal profile] caramida at 09:23am on 26/07/2009 under , , , ,
[using the House MD icon, because though I don't have an economics icon, I do have one with a medical bent]

Economics is about the distribution of goods and services, with the intent that this distribution be as efficient as possible. The major mechanisms for this involve the manipulation of supply and demand, or rather the idea that supply and demand will adjust themselves to come to an equilibrium where the system is efficient (generally, economists' goal is maximum efficiency).

[livejournal.com profile] bradhicks offers a reasonable suggestion that artificial restrictions on the number of graduating MDs serve to increase the cost of health care in the US. Leaving aside his class-based points of argument regarding the motivations behind this restriction (valid tho' they may be), the fact remains that our population has grown by 50% without a concurrent rise in the number of doctors. It stands to reason that, given rising demand, a constant (not rising) supply of MDs will command a higher price on the market, thereby causing an increase (perhaps one of several causes) in healthcare cost. Brad's post is worth checking out. I'm not sure his answers are all the answers, but it makes for an illuminating thought experiment.
Music:: Not The Doctor - Alanis Morissette
location: home
Mood:: 'thoughtful' thoughtful
caramida: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] caramida at 01:01pm on 11/07/2009 under ,
...an entirely charming song about emotional blackmail.




We miss you, Uncle Shelby.
location: home
Music:: Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout (Would Not Take the Garbage Out)
caramida: (politics)
posted by [personal profile] caramida at 11:23am on 11/07/2009 under ,
Jeb Bush interview in Esquire on Health Care: "Under Obama, we're going to create a system that's not focused on quality; it's focused on access to care."

As opposed to now, where we have a system that's not focused on quality; it's focused on maximizing shareholder value. Both quality and access suffer.

When did we ever have a system focused on quality?
Mood:: 'annoyed' annoyed
location: home
caramida: (politics)
posted by [personal profile] caramida at 04:36pm on 07/05/2009
59 seconds long, and a hoot.

location: home
caramida: (sorry)
posted by [personal profile] caramida at 06:49am on 01/05/2009 under ,
Each of these clips are pretty short.



There are some things that are perfectly ok to say if you're not vice-president.



Oh well, he's no Dan Quayle or Bingo Bob Russell.

Also, Robert Gibbs is no C.J. Cregg...

location: home
Music:: Cowboy Junkies, Misguided Angel
Mood:: 'amused' amused
caramida: (portrait)
posted by [personal profile] caramida at 04:23pm on 30/04/2009 under , ,
(no longer)[Not Erica filter]

(Taking a short break from the final miles of the old thesis marathon.)

I want to do something nice for Erica (actually, several things, but this is one of them). She really wants a haircut, but she is wary of what some SuperCuts yahoo (for example) might do to her hair, and she doesn't know who she can trust among the many stylists out there.

Can anyone offer recommendations for AWESOME stylists? Money is no object (more or less, this is a big gift), but I am looking specifically for someone in the Bay Area who does curly hair exceptionally well. Would be great if they were also NO-POO positive, and generally Curly Girl Approved. There's got to be somebody, right? Six million people in the BA, and somebody has to be doing curly!?

Can I get some recommendations? I'd like to surprise Erica with a Card and a Reservation, especially if I can get it before Erica's folks come out west.

Also: Incidentally, someone out there on the nets has my copy of Lorraine Massey's Curly Girl, but I don't remember who. Does anyone know?

Ok. Walk around a bit, and then back to the thesis. I'm on the final stretch. I can see the finish line from here.
location: home
Music:: Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30: III. Finale: Alla b - Noriko Ogawa
caramida: (politics)
Chip Johnson, the SFGate Oakand correspondent runs a reasonable list of grievances against Mayor Dellums (masked as a comparison with Berkeley's Bates: Dellums should take some cues from Mayor Bates.

So really, upon reading this I'm wondering if we should be deciding between two unpalatable choices. Do we wait for another 19 months of this while Mayor Dellums fails to prevent the city falling around our ears, or do we recall a public servant who had a distinguished career with an ignominious end?
Music:: Turpentine - Brandi Carlile
location: home
Mood:: 'frustrated' frustrated
caramida: (Default)
posted by [personal profile] caramida at 08:09am on 21/04/2009 under
The folks at Geekologie offered these as a visual wake-up this morning.



via the tasty folks at plime.
location: Pimentel Control
Music:: Roadside, by Chris Pureka

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