First Looks category archive

Via Mudflats.

All about what he’s learned about controlling stink bugs in his garden, which isn’t much because there’s not much that can be done, but he can get you headed in the right direction.

I would suggest not conducting any experiments to determine whether the little stinkers are aptly named. They are and they do.

A little earthquake just up the river from here; I’d be surprised if anyone on the surface noticed it.

I was in a 4.something-I-think-4 once in San Francisco. I had traveled there by train for a conference. (One of the bennies in traveling on a business pass was being entitled to a private room in a sleeping car.)

It was my first night on the ground after three nights en route (leave Philly in the evening, arrive in Chicago in the morning, kill a day, leave in the late afternoon, arrive Oakland late the second morning–it is a big country).

I woke up dreaming I was back in the sleeping car rocking in the berth from crossing rough switches. It lasted about as long as it would take to cross two tracks at slow speed leaving a station.

I realized what had happened, figured it was over, and went back to sleep. The next morning, the desk clerk told me that a number of persons had come down at three o’clock and checked out.

I have always wondered, where did they go at three o’clock in the morning? Another hotel in downtown San Francisco?

More here.

In a follow-up story about the Philly-area road rage guy who killed himself this week:

Ferman said that in the first suicide note, Yannarell . . . professed his love to those close to him. Authorities were working to figure out who they were.

The newest one seems to be “epistemic closure.” It appeared out of nowhere this week and took the world like some kind of new Apple iYawn.

It must be a Very Important Phrase, for it has Lots of Syllables and Sounds Vaguely Scientific.

“Epistemic” is apparently related somehow to epistemology, the branch of philosophical inquiry that concerns itself with how we know things. “Closure” comes from closed minds. It seems to mean the phenomenon of deciding that one already knows all that one needs to know and therefore needs to learn nothing more.

Frankly, I prefer Anonymous Liberal’s phrase, “Bubble World”; it is pithier and much more descriptive, even though it doesn’t have as many syllables and doesn’t sound vaguely scientific.

A. L.’s description of Bubble World, excerpted from a much longer post that is well-worth one’s while (If you haven’t seen the Truman Show to which he refers in his post, do so; it is an excellent movie and good training for reading the news):

In its place, the Right has constructed its own Bubble World, a sort of political Truman Show complete with its own facts and rules (albeit facts and rules that are constantly changing based on political expediency). The writers, directors, and actors in this conservative version of Seahaven are the legions of GOP politicians, operatives, and conservative media outlets that relentlessly push this politically expedient alternative reality, and the Trumans are the millions of regular Americans who don’t realize the joke is on them.

A. L.’s follow up post on the Manzi mocking is also quite a good read.

John Cole enumerates the bubbles here. DougJ, also writing at Balloon Juice, has a nice starter collection of links on the Manzi mocking.

Full Disclosure: I haven’t read the Manzi post yet. There is room for only so many electrons in a day.

There’s got to be more to this:

A group of retired military officers says high-calorie school lunches are threatening national security.

A study by the group Mission: Readiness finds that school lunches are making American kids so fat that fewer of them can meet the military’s physical fitness standards. That, in turn, is putting recruitment in jeopardy.

The threat posed by school lunches must be minor compared to those horrible things called “breakfast sandwiches,” double-stuff pizzas, chips, and Double-Downs. I figured there was something missing in the news story.

Here’s an excerpt from the report’s executive summary. The report focuses on school lunches because they are controllable, not because they are the culprit, except to the extent they include Double-Downs (emphasis added):

We are calling on Congress to pass new child nutrition legislation that would (a) get the junk food out of our schools; (b) support increased funding to improve nutritional standards and the quality of meals served in schools; and (c) provide more children access to effective programs that cut obesity.

If we don’t take steps now to build a strong, healthy foundation for our young people, then it won’t just be our military that pays the price – our nation as a whole will suffer also.

The report itself is here (PDF).

Doing his (own) bidding:

Paul Barrett is facing a fine of up to £50,000 after using two separate eBay accounts to bid against himself.

North Yorkshire Trading Standards said those who bid on their own items, or who get friends and family to do it for them, are breaking the law.

I don’t want to know:

Read more »

More here.

Official website here.

Via TPM.

Still in the same general territory–the high 400,000s:

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 24,000 — the largest increase in two months — to a seasonally adjusted 484,000, the Labor Department said. * Analysts polled by Reuters had expected claims to dip to 440,000 from 460,000 the prior week, a number that was unrevised in Thursday’s report. * The four-week moving average of new claims, which irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 7,500 to 457,750.

Atrios is fond of talking of life in his urban hellhole. Of course, though it’s urban, it’s hardly a hellhole; it’s a nice residential neighborhood a few steps from shopping, services, and transportation.

Speaking of transportation, transportation costs are seldom figured in with housing costs and, in a commuting environment, they should be:

Many people are familiar with federal guidelines that suggest households spend 30 percent or less on housing, but fewer people consider the transportation costs associated with a home or community because of an absence of data, Cisneros said.

“When transportation is figured in there — because that’s what it takes to get home — it becomes untenable,’’ he said.

The study found that across Greater Boston, the average household spends $22,373 on traditional housing costs and $11,927 on transportation, from car payments and gasoline to T passes and bike tires. That $34,300 represents 54 percent of median household income in the region.

There’s more at the link.

Read more »

Thoreau lets loose his inner cynic.

From Fact Check dot org. Follow the link for the full analysis:

Q: Did the new health care law give Obama a Nazi-like “private army” of 6,000 people?

A: No. Contrary to false Internet rumors, the new Ready Reserve Corps of doctors and other health workers will report to the surgeon general and be like the “ready reserves” in other uniformed services. They will be used during health emergencies.

They make stuff up because truth is not on their side.

Read the whole thing. From the Boston Globe:

ANOTHER YEAR, another group of men killed in a coal mine. You already know the story, because it rarely changes. Inspectors discover violations. Mine operators ignore them. Miners work through the danger because they need to make a living. Gas builds up and explodes. Some men die instantly from the force of the blast, and some die from the carbon monoxide. There are always a few unaccounted for or trapped, and those mysteries keep everyone’s hope alive for a while. Then, usually, they die, too.

Not really sure what I think of this, except that the judges probably made the only legally permissible ruling:

James Douris lost a key court decision Tuesday in his yearlong effort to qualify his male boxer, who is fed everything Douris eats, as a dependent member of his household in calculating food stamp benefits.

A three-judge Commonwealth Court panel upheld a Department of Public Welfare determination that the dog was ineligible because he is not human.

(snip)

Douris, 55, of Newtown, is a disabled and unemployed veteran who lives alone and relies on the dog to pull his wheelchair and fetch items.