The Monocle Weekly Podcast

Sometime last week through my Google Reader I came across someone talking about the Monocle Weekly podcast. I gathered that The Monocle is a magazine, but without reading about the magazine I subscribed to podcast. I seriously enjoyed the podcast, it’s a nice mixture of politics, business, music, design, etc. This past Saturday Brian, Dave and I went shopping at Tretorn in Georgetown. I noticed Tretorn had copies of the newest issue of The Monocle, I decided it would be in my best interest to look into getting a subscription to the magazine. I was a little disappointed when the subscription didn’t seem to be a very good deal, I mean it’s definitely worth it to have it delivered (and you get a really nice-looking tote bag) but you are not getting any discount by subscribing. I’ll probably end up getting a subscription, especially since today’s episode of The Monocle Weekly podcast was just so good, it’s really well done, I couldn’t possibly give it a higher recommendation. Great job guys!

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Triumphant Return

All this talk of vacation, it seems I took a little vacation from the blog as well. I’m sure more ramblings will show up soon…

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Heading to Spain and France!

I’ll try to update from there!

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Tufte Revisited

If all goes well, it looks like work is going to pay for me to take Tufte’s one-day course. When I realized he was coming the price was an instant obstacle, $380 dollars to see him speak? Sure, you also receive the books but what if you already have them? Not that I had all of them but still… He offered a student discount but I haven’t been a student for a few years now.

Now, my work is not creative at all, I’m basically an auditor. We have guidelines and our mission is codified in statutes and regulations. But I’ve somehow managed to be known as “the creative guy” at work. My supervisor’s boss has be design his presentations, posters, screensavers, etc. Mind you, it’s all still very constrained, I do work for the government but still… they see me as creative. It’s worked to my advantage, I’ve received bonuses for doing the most mundane things.So, I figured it would be worth a shot to send my supervisor an e-mail about the course. I copied and pasted what the course would cover and suggested two reasons why the course was relevant. I later learned that the three supervisors in my division and their boss had talked about my proposal and the big boss was very interested and wanted to send someone else as well. So, now one of the supervisors is also going. Life is good sometimes.

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Hillary in Da-House

This comes from Andrew Sullivan:

I kept waiting for the “This is Hillary Clinton and I approve this message.”

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A History of Evil

The best thing I’ve seen this year. I want to be able to do things like this, it’s so beautifully done.

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Illegal Immigrants and Incarceration

reason magazine has this interesting post citing statistics that illegal immigrants are less likely to end up in prison. Some astute commenters asked whether deportation might lower the numbers cited. It appears the study took that factor into consideration. reason cites the following, and i cite reason:

• Foreign-born men make up about 35 percent of the state’s adult male population, but they are roughly 17 percent of the state’s overall prison inmates.

• U.S.-born men are jailed in state prisons at a rate more than three times higher than foreign-born men and are 10 times more likely to land behind bars.

• Male Mexican nationals ages 18 to 40 – those more likely to have entered the country illegally – are more than eight times less likely than their U.S.-born counterparts to be imprisoned.

• Those who entered the country when they were 1 year old or younger make up about 0.8 percent of those institutionalized.

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Simulating Swarm Intelligence

It occurs to me that I can meditate about being a swarm of bees!

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Starting a Co-Op

When I was in Berkeley I lived in a co-op. Although near the end I was ready to move out on my own I sort of miss the instant comradeship. I also miss the interesting people. Everyone always complains about DC and how it’s hard to meet people. The group houses get pretty close to the co-op vibe. It would be interesting to start a co-op in DC. We’d pool resources together and attend to everyone’s dietary needs. Buying in bulk would be cheaper. We’d each put in five hours of work per week and we’d have social activities and all that good stuff.

Maybe I’m too old, I’m about to turn 26. i’m partnered up, I’m supposed to be saving to buy a house. I suppose I could buy a house and then use the rent from the co-op members to help pay the mortgage.

It’s a nice idea but then I remember the last semester in the co-op and how I was over co-op living. Maybe I’m just romanticizing this…

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Kaleido

Narcissus swirling his image.

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