Monthly Archives: December 2007

10 January Resolutions

By alex | Published: 12/31/2007

I’m feeling particularly myopic lately, and it has nothing to do with my new eyeglasses (yay, flex spending account!). I feel singularly indisposed to offering a cool wrap-up of the year, or a prognosis of things to come. No top 10 lists or statistics. No, the most I can hope to think about right now [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Planning | 3 Comments

Happy Solstice!

By alex | Published: 12/22/2007

The above was my automatic holidayomancy from the Worktank Holiday-O-Matic card generator. I was too slow to put together Christmas cards this year. I took some pictures in Central Park and Midtown on my way back from the dentist earlier this week, and I think I might be able to make a nice card out [...]

What long tail?

By alex | Published: 12/20/2007

There has been a lot of talk lately about the long tail, and its effect on online retailing. Basically, the idea is that as the cost of inventory, advertising, and delivery come down, there is an incentive for online retailers to have very large inventories. This means that they can mine niche products, rather than [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Stuff, Technology, ThingsILike | 2 Comments

Does Mitt Romney Hate Noodles?

By alex | Published: 12/19/2007

I was watching my Sunday comedy program, which included an interview with Mitt Romney, who discussed his recent speech on “Freedom and Religion.” Romney said that America needed “morality and religion” though that religion was “of course, not a particular denomination.” Tim Russert questioned him on this, asking about whether atheists had a place in [...]

Posted in Policy & Politics | Tagged America, American government, Christmas, First Buffalo Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Flying Spaghetti Monster, General, Missouri State University, Mitt Romney, MTU, Nativity scene, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Tim Russert, United States | 2 Comments

If Harry Potter lived in New York

By alex | Published: 12/17/2007

I finished my grading today, and so allowed myself a brief moment of apartment porn. No, I don’t mean browsing through Apartment Therapy, or Curbed, though both are always fun. I went straight to the mother lode, the New York Times Real Estate Section. I’m definitely not in the market. Frankly, it seems very unlikely [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged NYC | 2 Comments

Do film critics know anything?

By alex | Published: 12/12/2007

That’s the question Richard Corliss, Time film critic, asks. He reports on the New York Film Critics Circle’s picks this year, and laments that some of the top grossing films this year did not make the list. He complains that films like No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and Away From Her, [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Movie Reviews | 1 Comment

Quinnipiac Chronicle and administrative “oversight”

By alex | Published: 12/8/2007

I haven’t blogged about the ongoing saga of the Quinnipiac Chronicle, our student paper, which is facing administrative censorship. An editorial printed in the paper lays out the problems: efforts to constrain the way the paper represents the university and its policies. The president doesn’t like how his position has been portrayed in the paper, [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Journalism, Law & Policy, Learning, Open society, Privacy, Quinnipiac, Teaching | 5 Comments