Detention

As much as I read nonfiction, it's surprising to me that the first books I've really read about World War II have been the last two books I've finished, Bonhoeffer and Unbroken.  I didn't set out to read World War II books, and it didn't really occur to me until I was halfway through Unbroken that these two books together exposed me to both theaters of the war I'd never really studied beyond the basics we learned in history class in grade school.  Interestingly, both books concerned a main character who was imprisoned by the Axis powers and much of each book was about the time under that imprisonment.  With that background, perhaps the following conversation with my wife (a middle school teacher) on the phone the other day will make sense:

Me:  What are you up to the rest of the day?
Mary: Just monitoring lunch detention and then teaching my last hour class.
Me:  Detention?
Mary:  Yeah, detention.
Me:  What was their offense?
Mary:  They were talking too much in class.
Me:  So you're detaining them?
Mary:  I'd never really thought of it that way, but I suppose so.
Me: Well, that's what detention means. That seems a little extreme under the circumstances, don't you think?
Mary:  No, that's what detention is for.
Me:  Maybe there's a more appropriate word for it?
Mary:  I don't know, I don't think it matters.
Me: I think it matters a lot!

Other than exposing that I'm going crazy in my early 30's, I think it's an important reminder that context matters and we should occasionally take time to think about whether the terms we use make sense to those outside our settings if there are occasions when they look in.  It's mainly that I'm going crazy, but some that context matters.  Ok, almost entirely that I'm going crazy.

Finished with Blackberry

My Blackberry is becoming a huge source of frustration.  It started with constantly getting a "wheel of death" only to be followed by a battery life of right at (no kidding) five hours.  I spend good portions of my day making sure my phone has enough battery.  It seems apparent that it's not the battery either, the Blackberry is looking for something and using massive amounts of power to do so.  I am told the problem may be that I have third party applications installed on it.  It's a good thing every other device is equipped to handle third party applications. So, I'm done with it.  The plan is to get a data-only package for the device for work purposes and then get another device that I will serve as a "smart phone" for personal use.

For that reason, I thought I would open it up to you to give me any input you have on what I should get.  I had always assumed iPhone would be my choice, but since I'm making big jump, I figured I would shop my options.  I will say that I am already familiar with Apple products as I already use a Macbook Pro, iPad, and iPod.  That said, I'm open to your suggestions.  Finally, I will leave you with this video my brother sent me a couple years ago (that seems to have been updated and the original version deleted) that makes me laugh, a lot (not work-safe, for language).

Dealing with Electronic Cords/Manuals

We've been slowly working our way through getting our office/spare room in shape over the last few months, so this response to a reader's question at Unclutter about storing materials/cords of electronic equipment is helpful.  I especially like their idea about user manuals:

All manuals for items we plan to sell or donate go inside a plastic sheet protector of a three-ring binder. If we don’t plan to get rid of the item and simply keep it until it breaks, we go online, find a .PDF of the manual, and link it to a spreadsheet. If the manual isn’t online, we’ll scan it, save it as a .pdf, and link the file to the spreadsheet. Once we have access to a digital copy, we recycle the print version. Learn more about the spreadsheet method in our 2007 article “Organizing digitally scanned data.”

Comments have been made recently, expressing a desire to get my ("ugly") file cabinet out of the office/second bedroom.  I have objected on the grounds that some stuff in there would be a hassle to go down to the basement (the proposed new location for the file cabinet) to get every time we need it.  The idea about the owner's manuals brings up an interesting point though; we need very little of this in actual hard copy at our fingertips. Investing in an inexpensive feed scanner would probably be a great way to allow for a lot of stuff to get out of our way and into the basement, yet readily at our fingertips whenever (and wherever) we need it.  

Carmody on Amazon Prime vs. Netflix

Tim Carmody, in a really good post at Wired, reviews prospects for Amazon Prime vs. Netflix, suggesting that 18 months from now he believes Amazon will have more subscribers than Netflix for their streaming video service.

Further, he pushes against the idea that Apple may have hit a wall based on the "law of large numbers" (the idea that the greater the sample size, a company's performance will return to their actual potential), quoting CEO Tim Cook's keynote address at last week's Goldman Sach's Technology Conference:

It was 37 million — more than we’d ever done before. We were pretty happy with that, but let me give you the way I look at the numbers. As I see it, that 37 million for last quarter represented 24% of the smartphone market. There’s 3 out of 4 people buying something else. 9 out of 10 phone buyers are buying something else. 

Handset market is projected to go from 1.5 to 2 billion units. Take it in the context of these numbers, the truth is that this is a jaw-dropping industry with enormous opportunity. Up against those numbers, the numbers don’t seem so large anymore. What seems so large to me is the opportunity. 

Goldstein on Second-Term Supreme Court Nominees

Tom Goldstein had a great post earlier this week about potential Supreme Court nominees under a second-term President Obama should he win reelection in November.  Goldstein anticipates Justice Ginsberg and possibly Justice Breyer will retire around 2015, leaving President Obama with his third and (possibly) fourth appointment.  Presidents Reagan and Nixon both had four Justices confirmed during their Presidencies.  Since then, no President has had even three (Carter 0; GHW Bush 2; Clinton 2; GW Bush 2).

There are a lot of factors that go into choosing a nominee.  Goldstein suggests he believes President Obama will rely on the following:

In sum, here are the criteria I think the President will be using.  The person must of course be highly qualified intellectually.  Beyond that, the candidate must be (a) female, (b) a Democrat, (c) reasonably well known to the President’s advisors, (d) between the age of forty-two and fifty-two, (e) a lawyer (so no Susan Rice), (f) have substantial interest and experience in the kinds of issues that the Supreme Court decides (so noSamantha Power), and (g) have sufficient credentials.  Those credentials would be (i) a federal appellate judgeship, (ii) federal or statewide electoral office, or (iii) a senior federal executive position.  There also is a substantial preference that the nominee be African American or Asian American.

I'd encourage you to read the entire article and see Goldstein's list of potential nominees, but to skip to the end, Goldstein believes Obama's ideal nominee based on those factors is the current Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris.

Gluten-Free Roundup: February 15, 2012

Every Wednesday I plan to bring you a roundup of interesting news stories from the world of Celiac and gluten-free living.  Please feel free to email me if you have any stories you think are worthy of including in the next week's edition.  Enjoy!

• Foodprocessing.com has an article passing along the obvious story that that there is a major financial opportunity for food manufacturers/distributors to jump on board the gluten-free train.  Despite this, consumers may be reluctant to try new brands and instead look to the gluten-free versions of brands they already trust. The article also examines the cost-benefit analysis companies undergo when deciding whether to enter the gluten-free marketplace.
• The Boston Globe reports that Norwood, Massachusetts is now carrying gluten-free products.  
• NPR suggests that Baking Without Flour Brings Sweet Results.
•  According to a new American Gastroenterological Association study, individuals with Celiac disease increase in risk of GI cancers for the first year after diagnosis, but no increased risk thereafter (via Celiac Central). 

Douthat on "Coming Apart"

Ross Douthat continues the banter among moderate conservative pundits (which includes his own column on Sunday) over Charles Murray's new book "Coming Apart."  In a blog post titled "What Charles Murray Gets Right" Douthat calls the book, despite his criticism of the 15% of the book that offers overly-libertarian conclusions, "one of the strongest and most lucid explorations of the existing data on the long-simmering social crisis in working-class life, and the extent to which American society’s recovery from the dislocations of the 1960s and 1970s has been a recovery primarily for the upper middle class."  Sounds good, it's ordered on my Kindle and I'm looking forward to getting to it later this week.