November 2010
25 posts
Well, not really, but she’s going off Twitter for a bit because of Africa children disease something something.
I found of out about this because Brian Dunning of Skeptoid was amused by the alternate titles listed for [Stuff You Should Know)[http://science.howstuffworks.com/stuff-you-should-know-podcast.htm]: Two Guys Read Wikipedia Factoids: the Gathering LMGTFY
Judge John Hodgman (i.e., the PC from the Mac-PC commercials) arbitrates disputes and renders judgments in the style of a reality TV court show a la Judges Judy, Wopner, and Brown, except that reality TV judges haven’t read as much Wikipedia. In the decision, Are Machine Guns Robots? Hodgman helps two friends agree to quit arguing over whether machine guns are robots, because one of them is obviously wrong.
I listened to this while driving home in the rain on I-95, which was dangerous, because I was laughing so hard.
I’m afraid that I would tell a lot of wild stories to my kids.
Regarding the TSA’s Magical Rainbow Porno Machine and its Special Intimate Time With A Person With A Badge, and how all of us, travelers and TSA agents alike, are looking forward to the Let Me Put My Hand Up Your Butt Hole, No Really, It’s Normal, Everybody’s Doing It Jamboree.
I first played Dungeons and Dragons in grad school, but this is what I imagine D&D is like for high school students. This story reminds me of the episode of Freaks and Geeks in which Daniel the freak plays D&D with the geeks, which is probably my favorite story on the show.
(via Instapaper)
A great account of getting around the TSA Backscatter Nudie Photobooth/Mandatory Bonus Genital Yanking. This is a special case, because the author was arriving in the US from abroad, rather than departing on a flight from the US. Regardless, it’s a great story about someone standing up for his rights in a forthright and polite way.
Bruce Schneier, Security Guru, presents a comprehensive round-up on the TSA Backscatter/”Enhanced Pat-Down” practices. I’m traveling soon and am not sure whether I want someone looking at naked pictures of me, or feeling me up.
A comprehensive index of clips in Seinfeld that can be used to illustrate economic principles. I’m ashamed to have enjoyed reading all of these.
I use both of these lifehacks.
Do You Cause More Harm than Good by Giving TOMS Shoes to the Poor? on Zacstravaganza! is a carefully presented indictment of TOMS Shoes. I have a pair of TOMS that I got a few years ago, charmed by the idea that it’s ethical to give away a pair of shoes with each pair that I buy.
I want another pair of alpargatas because they’re classy and comfy, and although I like TOMS style, I’ve been looking around for another vendor because I now think that TOMS is gimmicky.
The article on Zacstravaganza! points out a few big problems with TOMS that show that TOMS is a business that sells a social justice hipster image. The author points out that hookworm is probably the number one pathogen that wearing shoes prevents, but TOMS literature never mentions it directly, but does mention more rare conditions; TOMS well aware of the problems it’s supposed to be addressing. Worse, there is duplicity in TOMS’ model:
TOMS is making oodles of money on both the shoes you buy for yourself as well as the shoes you buy for charity. Yes, a single pair of these shoes per se is really only worth about $5 - but that figure is only applicable if Blake Mycoskie is manufacturing these shoes and sending them to the Third World himself; but if you buy a pair of Pink Murray Organic Cotton Men’s Vegans online for $54 the cost which you pay to give a pair of shoes to Ndugu the Amhara cattle herder is more or less half that - or $27.
Zac talks about conversations he would have with a Mali national who would explain why his kids don’t have shoes:
“Yeah, well, I don’t have to buy them shoes because one day The White People are going to come back and give shoes to the children. My kids don’t have shoes because The White People haven’t come yet!”
I’d rather pay half as much for my shoes and give the other half to Doctors Without Borders, or blow it at Starbucks, whatever. The Life You Can Save has a good list of organizations to give to that do effective work against critical problems, with high efficiency and accountability.
Another article on the topic of whether TOMS helps or hurts is TOMS Shoes: Good Marketing — Bad Aid on Good Intentions are not enough. Good Intentions is a blog you should be reading, period.
