Jaquandor has been doing crafts and his fine work brings back memories of my own work many years ago. Perhaps someday I’ll get a scanner and run a few old prints through and share . Mine, though, were not as bright or colorful as Jaquandor’s. I was very much in a purple stage at the time…
Jauandor, I don’t think it is possible to make a mistake when doing tie-dye. The patterns you get are very much the pattern of the world at that moment.
This seems like it would be just the thing for bloggers:
I asked everyone the same question: “What’s it really like to have your job?”
Instead of responding with: “Do you like teaching?” they all asked: “Do you like to write?”
It does appear that some tenured academic bloggers have plenty of time to write. Heck, even some of the untenured ones (until recently) appear to have a lot of writing time.
But there is more to the academic life than just writing. Read the rest of the above linked article.
Via TaxProf Blog.
Seems bush and cheney are feeling a bit tender these days as more and more folks come to the conclusion that dear leaders have not been entirely forthcoming over the past 5 years. Especially with the respect to the Iraq diversion from the so-called war on terror.
Yesterday cheney comments:
Some of the most irresponsible comments have, of course, come from politicians who actually voted in favor of authorizing force against Saddam Hussein. These are elected officials who had access to the intelligence, and were free to draw their own conclusions.
….
The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their memory, or their backbone – but we’re not going to sit by and let them rewrite history.
And, John Cole notes:
It seems to me there are plenty of things to flay this administration about that you don’t need to start lying yourself. Or playing the tired old victim card.
Well, it is not clear that any of the criticizing folks are lying but one thing for sure: the senators and congress critters who supported the bushies grabbed the bait hook, line and sinker. They should all be thrown out of office.
Oh yea, lest anyone forgets bush’s real reason for wanting to take out hussein:
And, in discussing the threat posed by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Bush said: “After all, this is the guy who tried to kill my dad.”
The Pajamas Media (aka Open Source Media) development has been mildly interesting to watch and now I wonder whether anyone will read, analyze, quote and link to anything on that site beyond navel gazing by the participants. My reading of their copyright notice suggests that The Talent Show is has already violated it. Heck I will too:
You may not reproduce, distribute, copy, publish, enter into any database, display, modify, create derivative works, transmit, or in any way exploit any part of this site. The only exceptions to this are that you may download material from Our Site for your own personal use, provided such download is limited to making one machine readable copy and/or one print copy that limited to occasional articles of personal interest only. No other use of the content of Our Site is permitted.
The language seems pretty clear that they don’t want us to quote and comment on any of their material so let’s oblige them.
Via Making Light.
Some online retailers are touting the use of e-checks:
This process –… — has been around for a number of years. It’s common among utilities and others that send out monthly bills: They ask for your bank-account number and the “routing” number at the bottom of your checks, then withdraw what you owe when your bill’s due.
For paying directly from my checking account I’ve been pretty happy using a debit card. But the retailers are looking for a bit more:
Retailers wish everyone would pay this way, as it saves them money. Take Fresh Direct LLC, a New York City online grocer. Deputy Chairman Jason Ackerman says the company pays 2.2 percent in fees on the average credit-card transaction, but its new e-check system costs it roughly half that amount.
I think any thoughtful online retailer will look seriously at this kind of savings. But, there may be drawbacks for some consumers:
For consumers, one of the best reasons to avoid e-checks is to keep earning rewards from a credit-card company. Retailers argue that’s short-sighted. As Amazon notes on its site, if more customers were to pay through their bank accounts, Amazon could pass on its savings in the form of lower prices.
Amazon and the others need to incent customers on a per transaction basis if they want broad adaptation. The way to do this is to pass the savings directly to the customer. If a retailer saves a net of 1.1% when customers use an e-check then credit that to the customer on a per transaction basis. In the long run everyone except perhaps the banking and card industry will be better off: retailers become more competive, consumers save some money and the fees charged for using credit/debit cards probably come down (e-check fees may go up).
This is potentially good stuff for online purchases and it would be great to see more of the same when we shop locally. Remember that w hen you are buying in person you can ignore the cards and e-checks and simply pay with cash. This will definitely hit the bottom line of the banking industry and I’m ok with my local stores keeping the difference for a while. I would, though, rather see us getting an automatic discount for cash at the register!
And as to the rewardsmentioned above:
Some credit cards give you 5 percent refunds when you use them at the grocery or drug store.
If these card companies are charging a service fee high enough to give 5% refunds then we should damn well be all over retail outlets to give us discounts for cash!@!