Make Just One Pencil

Reach Upward has a great post on the economics involved in "Shopping Local". His post features a replay of a concept proposed 50 years ago by an economist by the name of Leonard Read, and made famous by Milton Friedman.

The concept is that something as simple as a lead pencil could not be made by any one man. In fact, its production involves the work of countless people. The idea was intriguing enough to me that I've started a new blog dedicated to gathering all information on the production of pencils.

Check it out.

Make One Pencil

Marriage, Poverty, Education, And Homosexuality

Democracy for Utah has a post entitled, "Is poverty a greater threat to marriage than gay people?" The author, Carrie, then goes on to cite a statistic that shows that poverty is low among married people to support her claim.

It would seem to me that her question may have easily have been phrased this way, "Is marriage a greater threat to poverty than gay people?". Or, why not, "Is poverty a greater threat to gay people than to marriage?" There is as much evidence to support these claims as that made by DfU because, frankly, homosexuality is not addressed in this study.

In any case, why not conclude from studies that show marriage, and wealth, as co-factors that marriage has a positive impact on ones financial well-being? What harm can it do to pursue two worth goals instead of pitting each against the other. In any case, correlation is not causality. Poverty could, in fact, cause nothing that is measurable by this study, and marriage could have no effect whatsoever on the pocketbook.

And what about the issue of poverty? This study does appear to discuss the level of education of the participants, drawing a direct correlation between the levels of education of women, income, and marriage status of the group.

"College-educated women, whose numbers have risen sharply since 1980, often live with a partner and postpone marriage. But in most cases, they eventually marry and have children, and divorce at about half the rate of women who do not finish high school."

Do any of these characteristics cause the others? Perhaps there is a correlation between those who obtain a college degree and those who escape poverty, but cause is not as easy to peg as correlation.

Share Your OPML

OPML is a file that can be imported/exported, uploaded/downloaded that contains all of your RSS feed information. I've talked about RSS feeds before. RSS feeds are an invaluable tool for the 'internet addict'. I've thought about sharing my list of RSS feeds for a while, but haven't been sure about how to do this.

Until now.

At Share Your OPML.org you can upload your list of RSS feeds, and then view those feeds that are similar to your own.

I highly recommend it.

MLK Day:Clearing The Calendar

The legislative leadership would like to move the start of the legislative session so that it doesn't begin on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Now this raises, for me, a thought about the idealogical divide separating conservative thinkers, from liberal ones.

Conservatives are, generally, most concerned that government address issues that strike at all people. Liberals take an added interest in the well being of minorities. For them, the government is the individual. They draw no distinguishing line between the activities of the government, and individual acts. To a liberal, the impact of government actions are felt, most keenly, by the minorities. Broad, overarching, concerns, are considered less important to solve than small issues. To a liberal, present dangers have decidedly less emphasis than far distant dangers. For reference compare 'global warming', which will have its greatest impact-all evidences being equal--years hence; to our economic dependence upon oil--a concern right now. Our economic vitality was a concern, cited by the U.S. administration, leading to our rejection of the Kyoto accord.

Now back to the start of the legislative session which is written into Utah's constitution. KSL reports that there are one million residents of Utah that are black. This is not to say that there are one million critics of the start day of the Utah legislature. It does not follow from being a member of the black race, that one will take offense at MLK sharing the day with the legislature. In fact, we can't, say that King himself would be offended at the collision of the two days. I would think that the very existence of such a constitutional activity would have cheered King. We, also, might just find more significance in Kings life if we mark the passage of another session of the legislature alongside Kings memorial.

Then again, we might want King to have his own day, which is why I support a vote of the people.

Let the majority decide.

The Constitutionality Of Vouchers

A post by Natalie regarding the constitutionality of school vouchers. Please see my reply.

John McCain hates bloggers!

I know. That title is pretty weaselly. I'm sure that McCain doesn't hate bloggers, but he wants them to be under the same restrictions as large organizations who devote huge resources to preventing copyright violations. He wants bloggers to police comments. Violations could cost the offending blogger $300,000!

I don't have $300,000.

Think Progress

Super Lettuce Turns Sour Sweet

It has been almost ten years since I tried "miracle fruit" and I'll never forget it. The little red berry, the only fruit on the bush, was split three ways. It tasted like, well, nothing. I didn't think it was much of a miracle.

After consuming a large bowl of lemons, followed up with another bowl of oranges, we were convinced of the miraculous nature of that fruit. Those were the sweetest lemons I have ever had.

I've since tried to explain the situation to others, and even to find information on the fruit on the internet to no avail.

Until now.

It seems that Japanese scientists have engineered lettuce to contain the protein that binds to your taste buds and make sour things sweet.

The protein is called miraculin, and the fruit it occurs in naturally is called Richadella dulcifica, or "miracle fruit".

Super Lettuce Turns Sour Sweet

McGyver this!

Well, I misspelled McGyver as 'McGuiver' and now Farrer Commons comes up as number three when searching for the mispelled name on Google.

Anyway, I have another nice little life-hack for you.

When you've dropped something into the toilet, and don't relish the thought of toilet water all over your hands, then try this.

Take a plastic grocery bag and place your hand inside. With your hand covered, reach into the toilet and get the missing item. Then, still holding the item, turn the bag inside-out and you can toss it into the trash.

If you dropped some valuable jewelry, you may wish to reconsider throwing it away.

Get an R.S.S. reader

It looks like half of the readers of my blogs (i.e. Davis County Watch, and Farrer Commons) are using Internet Explorer version 6 which means that they are probably not taking advantage of R.S.S. There are plugins available to allow I.E. 6 users to see feeds.

There are a few that have made the jump to I.E. 7 which has a built in R.S.S. feed reader. Although, I haven't heard great reviews of version 7 itself.

About 30% are using some version of Firefox which has a number of R.S.S. feed readers. I use Sage.

I'm sure that Safari users have Feed readers. However, I've never used Safari.

If you don't use R.S.S. and are an internet information junkie, then you should get yourself a feed reader for R.S.S.

R.S.S. stands for Really Simple Syndication and is the best way, at present, for keeping track of all of the websites that you frequent. If you don't want to have to trouble yourself to visit each and every website in turn, that you like, to see if they've been updated then you want an R.S.S. reader.

Only a small number of websites don't use R.S.S. feeds. All Blogger blogs have an option to publish feeds.

Happy Thanksgiving 2006

We just got home from St. George where we spent most of Thanksgiving week. We had great time there with our family. We also learned about our own little family while we were away from home.

Two nights ago my daughter awoke in a panic--It was likely a nightmare, but she couldn't express herself. All she could do is cry and gesture desperately, behind her, in the direction of the single window in the room.

It was likely going to be a long night.

We had no explanation for her terror. It occured to me to ask her if she'd seen something terrible. I asked her if she'd seen someone in the window. She nodded in agreement with her head buried into my shoulder, and instantly fell asleep.

We too could return to sleep. And I had one final thought as I closed my eyes. We all feel safer when we feel that someone is aware of us. When they listen to our thoughts-our fears, the world is a better place.

OneUtah:Questions for a Neocon

OneUtah has an interesting exchange in the comments between myself and one of another mind. The original post was by Cliff (the guy that looks like Adam Clayton from U2).

ScienceDaily: Measles Mumps Rubella And Mercury-based Immunizations Cleared As Causes Of Autism

Here is hoping that we can discover what really can cause autism.

ScienceDaily: Measles Mumps Rubella And Mercury-based Immunizations Cleared As Causes Of Autism

MAKE: Blog: Gas Powered Blender

I've always wanted one of these! It adds an extra kick to a smoothie.

MAKE: Blog: Gas Powered Blender

Invisibility cloak moves a step closer | The Register

I just love the opening line on this article, and the implications of the science!

"After generations of being effectively invisible to the opposite sex, physicists have finally laid down blueprints for a functioning invisibility cloak."

The future is here...We just can't see it.

Invisibility cloak moves a step closer | The Register

My Blogging style

I made a solid decision when I started blogging that I wasn't going to put images on my blog. I just want everyone to know that it isn't for lack of knowledge that I rely, alone, on text to get my message across. This is a matter of style. But, everyone's doing it so I have to give you something.

Here is a picture my wife took of our daughter rendered as ASCII. Isn't she a cutie?

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Lightcone RSS: Which stars light have reached me since my birth

I just subscribed to a new RSS feed telling me to which stars I have become visible in my lifetime. So, just eight seconds after my birth, light would have had enough time to reflect off of me and make it's way back to the Sun (It's a boy). Every day the feed is updated to tell me how far my influence has traveled into the universe.

Hat tip: BoingBoing

TCS Daily - Avoiding a New Isolationism

"Thirty years ago, Henry Kissinger observed that America oscillated (his term) between poles of "crusading and isolation" in its engagement (or non-engagement) with the world. The challenge in building a popular (and stable) basis for American engagement comes in forming a consensus around a policy that lies between these two extremes."

TCS Daily - Avoiding a New Isolationism

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Isolationism Redux (03/31/2006)

Playing on a theme of foreign policy, the National Journal has a great article explaining the evolution of isolationism in America. It even paints President Bush as an isolationist turned outward, although, not entirely.

Hat tip: RealClearPolitics

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Isolationism Redux (03/31/2006)

AEI - Short Publications

The AEI has a brilliant speech by Charles Krauthammer defining the Unipolar world in which we now live. This, as opposed to the world that existed before the fall of the Soviet Union. He enumerates the pros and cons surrounding different schools of thought on Foreign policy. He, of course, drills down the list to one philosophy, explaining why he think that it is best. He illustrates how the framework for these ideas changed after the fall of the Soviet Empire, and became important after the events of 9/11.

No matter which camp we, individually, may be in it is important to recognize the positive aspects of each approach. However, we would be deluding ourselves if we think that we can cherry pick the approach we use in foreign affairs, based only on a whim, and not suffer the mixed consequences of such an approach. Generally, it is best to pick just one philosophy and run with it. I have fallen into a category that Krauthammer does not give the blue ribbon, but I find his arguments compelling. I confess there is an inherent weakness to the approach that I espouse. I don't think I'm revealing too much to say that I fall into the 'Realist' grouping. A good way to find out where you stand would be to take this test. But, don't take the quiz until you read the article below. (Note: I took the test almost 2 years ago)

AEI - Short Publications

New Scientist Quantum computer works best switched off - News

Quote of the day:

"A non-running computer produces fewer errors."

-Onur Hosten, member of team that produced a non-working computer that works.

New Scientist Quantum computer works best switched off -
News