Daily Archives: November 8, 2011

8 posts

Your Favorite Television Show Could Get the Boot!

Television. It’s a very risky game. You think your favorite network execs are a bunch of geniuses and maybe they are. Perhaps your favorite show is the best thing on television since Falcon Crest, however, you and your core group of Facebook friends are the only ones who think so. The rest of the viewing public would rather use an acid eyewash than watch that tripe you think is so entertaining. Hence we have what the industry calls “Shows on the Bubble.”

Let’s take a look at the latest cropping of Bubble shows. Get your Facebook petitions ready!

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The Increasing Gap Between Youngs and Olds

Much has been said of the increasing gap between rich and poor.  But the past quarter-century has also seen a greatly increased gap between people under 35 and people over 65.  A newly released report from Pew Social Trends highlights this:  between 1984 and 2009, the average net worth of an under 35 actually fell by 68% (despite the massive booms that are meant to have taken place during that time).  The average net worth of an over 65 increased by 42%.

To put it another way, the average American over 65 in 1984 had 10 times the net worth of an American under 35.  In 2009, he or she had 47 times the net worth of an American under 35.  The figures were not much different in 2005, before the financial crisis began, although the effect of the crisis has been to increase the gap further in percentage terms.  See the handy-dandy charts after the jump.

What are the primary reasons for this increased gap?

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Updated: Will Mississippi Be the Catalyst for Federal “Personhood” Legislation?

Today voters in Mississippi will vote on an amendment to the state Constitution that would designate inseminated human eggs as legal persons from the “moment of fertilization.” The ramifications of such an amendment will outright challenge Roe v. Wade, abortion and contraception. And Republicans would like to make this a federal plan. Continue reading →

QOTD: Is Your Garden All Put to Bed for the Winter?

If the ground hasn’t frozen yet, there are still things you can do in the garden in cold-winter zones. By cold winter, I mean areas where the ground freezes rock-solid for winter and doesn’t soften up again until spring.

Today’s theme: what to do with all those plants.

Plants that are in the dirt:

All the dead annuals should be pulled up out of the ground when they turn brown under the first overnight frosts. Leaving them in the ground all winter is asking to have mould and other diseases come spring.

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Do Not Freak Out On November Ninth

On Wednesday, November 9, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, we will see the first “national” test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS).  Formerly known as the Emergency Broadcast System, this is the alert and warning system that interrupts television and radio broadcasts.

The public will hear a message lasting thirty seconds which clearly states: “This is a test.” The message will be the same across radio, television, cable and satellite outlets. Continue reading →

Concert Review: Feist

Singer-songwriter Feist played at Chicago’s Riviera Theater on November 4. Never before have I been to a concert that made me want to fall asleep until this one. Despite being a little tired from the week, I was ready to rock.

In every other concert I’ve been to the headliner usually comes out with one of their faster songs to get the crowd ready to jam out for the next hour or so. Not so with Feist. She played a slow song followed by another slow song and then another and another and it went on like that for the next 45 minutes until she played “My Moon, My Man” from her 2007 album The Reminder. Standing in the middle of the middle level would seem like an ideal place to take advantage of a venues acoustics, but this was not so with this concert. Continue reading →