Okay, maybe the blimp was a poor choice (though excellent to curb your roomate’s excessive chatting, provided you live in a mansion or treehouse. A much better example of what’s available on makezine is this DIY household flood alarm, which texts or emails you when water levels reach too high. Cool, eh?
one semester – almost done
Today marks the official end of classes for my first semester. This was one of those blink-and-its over periods for me. Classes wrapping up in the next week: statistics, economic analysis, policy analysis, conceptual foundations of international relations, and land use controls. Yech.
To celebrate this momentous almost holiday, I am procrastinating. I ordered some Chinese food and am now listening to educational raps while trying to read Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s personal blog. Really.
The “Declaration of Independence” rap is a pleasing counterpoint to the rather wide range of viewpoints on Mssr. Ahmadinejad’s site. Good production values on these raps! I wonder how they are going to sell this stuff.
But this eggroll is terrible, sorry Wai Li Restaurant on Amsterdam.
TED Talks
The Technology, Environment and Design talks (google sponsored) were recently pointed out to me. The talks range from the African AIDs crisis to the present and future direction of space travel. There are webcast videos of all the talks up, and new ones every week or so.
Among my favorite talks thus far are Emily Oster’s challenge to the statistical portrayal the AIDs epidemic in Africa , Carolyn Porco’s description of NASA’s Cassini mission major findings, Bill Stone’s rally for space exploration, and Hans Rosling’s great ‘07 lecture on geopolitical trends in health and statistics.
ps, along the lines of generosity: mexican food style, and certainly worth checking out is FreeRice, which quizzes you on your vocab as you donate rice through the UN’s World Food Program; aggrandize argotistically!
Soggy Days Ahead
… and so Fall has officially begun in Juneau:
Fog, mist, rain: a little taste of what the Wx holds for all us Panhandlers around this time of year. It doesn’t get much better than that!
-P