Michael Bates: January 2010 Archives
Trouble telling the difference between a major and minor triad? You're not alone. It's hardest when the chord isn't inverted.
Because sometimes you need to know the hexadecimal representation of a floating-point number.
A new blog of funny political Photoshops from a conservative perspective. (Via The Other McCain.)
Why aren't my videos getting more web traffic? : Ft. Hard Knox
Good advice on how to help websurfers find your videos. It's all about providing descriptive text that search engines can grab.
Poetry related to US History and Geography
Poems for school children about Peter Stuyvesant, Peregrine White and Virginia Dare, Pocahontas, Forty-Niners, Columbus, DeSoto, Miles Standish, Coney Island, and Niagara Falls, among other topics: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3. (Found in a search inspired by Dawn Summers' blog recitation of "O Captain, My Captain."
Territorial evolution of the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Step-by-step chronological account of the development of US international and interstate boundaries, the creation of territories, and the settlement of disputes -- not only what boundaries changed, but why, with links to further information. A good example of what Wikipedia does best.
Map shows boundaries of tribes and territories in 1889, with colored outlines and numbers to indicate areas that were ceded back by the tribes to the Federal government following the Civil War.
The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating - Well Blog - NYTimes.com
Swiss chard for aging eyes; beets to fight cancer; cabbage to "boost cancer fighting enzymes".
New York Magazine: Saint Elizabeth and the Ego Monster
A stark, profanity-laced portrait of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth, excerpted from the new 2008 campaign book Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.
Michael Fumento reports: "The Negative Side Of Positive Thinking"
A review of Barbara Ehrenreich's book Brightsided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America: "Unhinged optimism is pervasive, but the real culprits are those who profit from it: motivational speakers and writers, "life coaches" and various gurus, as well as the 'pastorpreneurs' of the 'prosperity gospel' movement. These chuck aside Christ's teachings to declare that 'God wants us to ... have plenty of money to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us.'" (Via Fausta, who has links to related stories on runaway self-esteem.)
Vegan Reader: How To Make Rice Milk And Stop Supporting Rice Dream
"In this country, many of us are beginning to realize that when we traded in our own skills for the convenient agreement of others doing our work in exchange for money, we won ourselves a world of pesticides, polluted skies and water, contaminated food and foreign sweatshop labor. We stopped living like the incredibly skilled American Indians, or even the early pioneers, nearly all of whom knew how to grow food, make fire, build shelter, find water, craft clothing and feed people. We have become a nation of unskilled workers who pay others to do everything we need for the very basics of being alive, and those we have given our money to have failed to resist the temptation to increase profit by casting care for human and environmental health aside." (Via Phoebe Gleeson.)
Dutch, Reformed: And Please Tell Me You Burned the Books, Too
Guess who's confiscating books at OU?
Hot Air: Democratic heir to Ted Kennedy leads Republican challenger by ... nine points?
Republican Scott Brown is within striking distance of winning the Kennedys' seat in the U. S. Senate and breaking the Democratic filibuster-proof majority.
Language Log » Singular y'all: a "devious Yankee rumor"?
An exchange between Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan at the beginning of "Oozlin' Daddy Blues" is evidence in a discussion about the use of "y'all" to refer to a single person. (Via Ace of Spades HQ.)
American Wire Gauge table and AWG Electrical Current Load Limits with skin depth frequencies
Don't burn down your house! If you must use an extension cord, make sure it's of a sufficient wire gauge for the electrical load you plug into it and the length of the cord.
Paul Rahe: Barack Obama and the Exhausted Presidency - Big Government
"When Obama ran for the Democratic nomination, his opponents -- Joe Biden among them -- warned that he was not ready. When his party nominated him, Republicans made the same point, but to no avail.
"Now, if I am correct in my interpretation of the character of his exhaustion, even Obama appears to realize that he may not be up to the job. It seems not even to have crossed his mind when he ran for the office and assumed it that with the office would come responsibilities of a sort that had never previously encountered and that he had no particular desire to shoulder."
