Zeroization What it is

March 21, 2006

“HOP” Level

Filed under: Politics — Mr. Zero @ 10:30 pm

New York magazine has a feature about the (allegedly) growing conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 attacks. I say allegedly, because I personally haven’t heard too much of it in a long time. One of the most amusing parts of the article is the section on ‘HOP’ levels, namely the schools of thought about the 9/11 attacks, and that it falls into four categories:

  1. The Official Story
  2. The Incompetence Theory
  3. LIHOP for “Let It Happen On Purpose”
  4. MIHOP for “Made It Happen On Purpose”

After reading the website UnansweredQuestions.org, I’m suprised there aren’t more theories.

Wasted Power

Filed under: Pollution — Mr. Zero @ 4:41 am

Many electronic devices aren’t ever really turned ‘off’ so to speak. A small trickle of power is necessary for them to display the time or jump to life on command. This ‘standby power’ is minute taken alone, but when everybody owns the same kind of devices, it begins to add up quickly to a great use of energy for no real purpose.

March 18, 2006

Spamtastic

Filed under: Humor — Mr. Zero @ 11:25 pm

Spamusement.com contains a bunch of cartoons inspired by Spam subject lines. These are actually pretty funny sometimes.

March 17, 2006

Indecency Fines

Filed under: Politics — Mr. Zero @ 9:55 pm

WFMU’s Beware of the Blog has a rundown of the latest fines imposed by the FCC. The agency is on a role and is using what appears to be a rather arbitrary system for finding fault and assessing fines.

March 12, 2006

Impeachment

Filed under: Politics — Mr. Zero @ 11:41 pm

I honestly thought that the Harper’s editorial that ran last month, “The Case for Impeachment”, was really nothing but some wishful thinking on the part of the authors. However, it appears that things have gone past the wishful thinking stage into real action. Congressman John Conyors has two blog entries on his site. The first is about the call for censure introduced by Conyors. Senator Feingold has joined the call for censure. Secondly, the call for a committee to investigate impeachable offenses has grown to support from 30 congressmen.

March 9, 2006

Fact-Checking Government Statistics

Filed under: Economics — Mr. Zero @ 4:43 am

John Williams’ Shadow Government Statistics is a monthly newsletter which provides alternative analysis of government statisitcs. The newsletter itself costs a steep $175.00/year, so I won’t be subscribing. However, he provides some interesting notes on the structure and flaws in reporting of unemployment, federal deficit, consumer price index, and gross domestic product. Granted, if you have a background in economics (even at an undergraduate level) you’ve already heard about many of the flaws discussed in your macro or even principles class. If you don’t have a background in economics, I recommend reading them even if this kind of stuff makes your eyes glaze over – people really do make decisions based on these figures (your employer for example) and it’s important for you to be aware of them. Here’s an interview with the author of the newletter and articles.(found via Metafilter)

March 7, 2006

Whit Stillman

Filed under: Film — Mr. Zero @ 9:37 pm

I have often wondered what happened to Whit Stillman, director of Metropolitan, Barcelona, and The Last Days of Disco. After making these three literate and charming movees, he totally dropped out and was rumored to be living in Paris. It turns out that he’s done very little since then, and he’s a little embarassed about it. Better than Fudge recently posted an (exclusive?) interview with the director, in which Stillman discusses his career and what he’s done since.

March 6, 2006

SD Abortion Fight Begins

Filed under: Politics — Mr. Zero @ 8:17 pm

South Dakota’s governor has signed a law banning almost all abortions in the state. The bill is work of anti-abortion fundies who wish to bring Roe Vs. Wade to a new test by the Supreme Court. Get ready for this country to get torn apart.

March 4, 2006

Introductory Economics

Filed under: Economics — Mr. Zero @ 12:25 am

R. Preston McAfee, who teaches at Caltech has already had a pretty extensive and busy career, so I don’t know how exactly he found the time to author a textbook as well. His book, Introductory Economics is quite good and is an excellent reference even for those who already have a basic background in economics. In addition to the “principles” these textbook also contains intermediate microeconomics material. He’s made it available for free as a PDF download and will sell you a printed version for only $11.60. That’s way more reasonable than any of the other commercially available textbooks I’ve seen. McAfee’s book is also broader in coverage and includes many topics related to business strategy (another one of his interests.)

Yummy!

Filed under: Internet Tools — Mr. Zero @ 12:14 am

Yummy is one of my favorite sites. It’s a library of PDF books ranging across a number of subject areas such as economics, food, and sex (all favorites of mine.) Generally it’s pretty tech heavy, but there’s a lot goos stuff out there and it’s linked to a print-on-demand application that allows one to get printed, bound version of the PDF at fairly reasonable prices.

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