After Mubarak stepped down as president of Egypt on Feb. 11, a popular question on Twitter—probably at lots of dining room tables as well—was, “which country is next?” Like everyone else, I had no idea. But there is one country … Continue reading
I’ve been wondering if there is a way to control my iPod Touch (4g) with voice commands, especially when skiing, when, for example an Indigo Girls song comes on or something and I need to skip to something more like … Continue reading
How to make masa, the cornmeal for tamales, with video from the molino, or mill, in North Queretaro. Continue reading
Our first order of seed packets just arrived from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, purveyor of what my farming buddy Robert dubbed “seed porn,” out of Mansfield, Missouri … you have to order the catalog to get the full centerfold effect. … Continue reading
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I never got a proper kaffiyeh, though I did wear a really shitty, touristy one for many years, until it disintegrated in the desert. But I am prepared with my Egyptian worker hat, repping the Revolution in Boise. It’s still … Continue reading
National Public Radio has a story this morning on alternatives to health insurance mandates but they forgot one (as does everyone else who is talking about mandates): a national health care system.
Two stories caught my attention this morning in the feed reader (I’m still catching up with my feeds after the Mexico trip). Change.org has the story (and petition) of a couple caught unawares by the ten-year bar when he self-deported … Continue reading
I dug out my Egypt journal from 1998 when I spent about a five weeks traveling across the Sinai, to Cairo and up the Nile (which means south, into Africa). This was my first time really traveling. I was 20 … Continue reading
One of my assignments this month is to put together a formal nonfiction book proposal, which—aside from a few chapters of the book, of course—includes several elements that are a bit outside my normal journalism purview. The rules for this … Continue reading
El Chupacabras Interview Escucha aquí a mi primer entrevista en español sobre mi trabajo. Estaba unos dias en México, en Playa del Carmen, entrevisando a Ben Reed, el radio personalidad, cuando el me reversó la mesa, como decimos, y me … Continue reading
While I was traveling in Mexico these last few weeks, an icon of Mexican foreign correspondency passed away. John Ross, 72, died of cancer around Lake Patzcuaro, the same weekend I passed by that absolutely stunning place on a bus … Continue reading
Here is some stuff I’m listening to today: Aurelio’s new album via Honduran-Idahoan friend Dunnia. And via research assistant and boss, Idaho historian Kathy Hodges, some banda like none I’ve ever heard:
Every modern typographer agrees on the one-space rule. It’s one of the canonical rules of the profession, in the same way that waiters know that the salad fork goes to the left of the dinner fork and fashion designers know to put men’s shirt buttons on the right and women’s on the left. Every major style guide—including the Modern Language Association Style Manual and theChicago Manual of Style—prescribes a single space after a period. (The Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association, used widely in the social sciences, allows for two spaces in draft manuscripts but recommends one space in published work.) Most ordinary people would know the one-space rule, too, if it weren’t for a quirk of history. In the middle of the last century, a now-outmoded technology—the manual typewriter—invaded the American workplace. To accommodate that machine’s shortcomings, everyone began to type wrong. And even though we no longer use typewriters, we all still type like we do. —Manjoo
Vs.
I love you guys, but you’re crazy. On questions of aesthetic preference there’s no particular reason that normal people should listen to a bunch of geeky obsessives who spend orders of magnitude more time on these issues than average. It’s like how you probably shouldn’t listen to me when I tell you not to use .doc files or that you might want to consider a digital audio player with Ogg Vorbis support. I strongly believe those things, but even I know they’re pointless and arbitrary for everyone who doesn’t consider “Save As…” an opportunity for political action.
Nor should we assume that just because typographers believe earnestly in the single space that their belief is held entirely in good faith. They’re drunk on the awesome power of their proportional fonts, and sure of the cosmic import of the minuscule kerning decisions that it is their lonely duty to make. Of course they don’t want lowly typists exercising their opinions about letter spacing. Those people aren’t qualified to have opinions! —Lee
dang. might start saving those avocado and mango seeds now.
Chart: America’s Gardens Are Warmer in 2012
One way to tell that the world (or at this country) is warming is to take a look at the map the USDA puts on the back of seed packets, which shows that winter temperatures have risen pretty much everywhere in the U.S. The Department of Agriculture released an update to the 1990 version of its “Plant Hardiness Zone Map,” which reveals much milder winters than in the past. Read more.
[Image: USDA]
Watch this mayor’s soul leave his body. Fine questioning by a TV reporter. via ImmigrationProf.
tarmac
Jan Brewer vs. Obama: An airport meeting turns into an epic battle
She wrote some things in her book he didn’t like: The tough-on-immigration Arizona governor, who was not particularly happy with the way the president treated her in a much-talked-about-at-the-time 2010 meeting, wrote about it in her new book ”Scorpions for Breakfast,” and Obama didn’t like what she said. So, last night, when Obama got into Phoenix, this happened. ”I will say that a picture is what it is,” she said. “I must say, I was not hostile. I was trying to be very, very gracious. I respect the office of the president, and I would never be disrespectful in that manner.” What we would give to hear that conversation up close. (AP Photo) source
3 weeks to read the book.
