Picture source: http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Fixing The Electoral College

It seems that everybody is talking politics these days. Most of the discussions fall on the economy, government intervention, and health care. However, I'm not interested in rehashing these topics. Instead, I will try to help the mess that is The Electoral College.

The Electoral College, like most compromises, is far from perfect. Its design, like the bicameral Congress, was to put more balance between the large and small states. Since the disaster of the 2000 presidential election, recount, and eventual court case, there has been more talk of eliminating the Electoral College. (Admittedly, that talk has died off since George W. Bush is no longer holds office.)

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Commercials Are the New Radio

Ever since I got my first iPod, I have shunned the radio. This was fine at first because I had all the music that I could possibly want and I had bands that I followed. Quickly, I fell behind. New artists came out, I would hear people talking about new songs, and I had no idea what they were talking about. It became a struggle. I could either listen to the insular world that my iPod provided or hear new (though not necessarily good or great) songs. So, I did. I retreated. And eventually The Beatles topped all my playlists. However, as much as I love The Beatles, even they grew stale. And so did much else in my library. I wanted to hear new bands and songs, but I could no longer listen to the radio. There's too much crap and too many commercials. Surprisingly, it would be advertisements and ad execs that came to my rescue.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Qu'est-ce que c'est? (Learning French: Part Two)

For part one, click here

The title of this blog simply means, "what is this?" Though I first heard the phrase coming from the Talking Heads in this song. (Skip to 1:20 for the start of the song.)

When we last spoke (meaning, when I last wrote and you last read), I had just finished my first lesson using Rosetta Stone. I have just finished the first unit and thought I would give you a bit of an update on how things are progressing. Plus, this helps to keep me accountable on my learning.