Lit City Blues

Well, I was going to take advantage of the wide spread mourning over the collapse of the Azure Window  to revisit the flag of Malta, but I some digging provided a much more exciting alternative than another Lost Weekend in Vexillology- because you see, today, the Canadian Province of Nunavut turns 18! Nunavut's legal! Woot woot! So, Happy Birthday to Canada's newest province- so let's check out their flag: This is a boss flag. According to Wikipedia , it was criticized for having too many colors, the placement of the star at the end of the flag and the use of gold and white as the background field and the black outline around the red inuksuk in the center. All, IMHO, utterly bullshit complaints and here's why: the gold and white are a good color combination and the red inuksuk at the center acts as the glue between the two sides of the flag perfectly. Had they but the blue star on the gold portion of the flag, I might buy into the whole idea that there are too many...

CD #41: actually a burned CD with a comp question from my Master's Degree on it. CD #42, 30 Mix- thought I was real close to having an 'original' but, no. 2 repeats. Talking Heads- Girlfriend Is Better The Black Keys- Lonely Boy Robyn- Dancing On My Own Los Colorados- I Like To Move It Fleetwood Mac- Tusk A Tribe Call Quest- Can I Kick It? MGMT- Time To Pretend Owl City- When Can I See You Again? Beyonce- End of Time Macklemore & Ryan Lewis- Thrift Shop Pink- Walk of Shame Stevie Nicks- Stand Back Johnny Cash- Tennessee Stud Flying Lizards- I Want Money Pixies- Where Is My Mind? The Lumineers- Ho Hey Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros- Redemption Song Talking Heads- Crosseyed and Painless CD #43, Untitled with 5 repeats Bridgit Mendler- Hurricane Pink- The Truth About Love Coolio- Sumpin New Pitbull- Give Me Everything Macklemore & Ryan Lewis- Can't Hold Us Arcade Fire- The Suburbs Fleetwood Mac- Tusk Harvey Danger- Flagpole Sitta S...

So I recently stumbled across a fascinating article about a guy named Gregory Watson . And Mr. Watson way back in the day (1982) he write a paper about a Constitutional Amendment that had been proposed way back in 1789 by none other than James Madison itself. The nutshell: Congress can vote to give itself a raise, but that raise can't go into effect until after the next election, giving the voters a chance to weigh in. Seems reasonable, right? (And if it seems familiar- there's a reason for that.) But Mr. Watson wrote a paper about it, turned it in, got a C, appealed the grade to his Professor, who left it as a C and then decided that he was going to roll up his sleeves and get that Amendment Ratified. And knock my ass down with a feather- that's exactly what he did. You see, the Amendment didn't have a deadline. Nine states had said, "yes this seems like a good idea" back when it was first proposed, which left 29 states to get. 10 years after he wrote tha...

This lovely map is our world as seen in the Gall-Peters Projection , which is different from this map, which is the Mercator Projection :                     Now, on the face of it- who cares, right? A map is a map is a map- except, when, of course it's not. School children for generations have probably become very used to seeing the bottom map. It makes both Russia and the United States seem large and important- and back further and further in the day it placed Europe (and more specifically, London, if you're an Anglophile) in a curiously central position. The top map? It's more accurate than the bottom one- and the big news last week is that Boston Public Schools are the first and so far largest public school sysem to officially switch to the Gall-Peters Projection .  I wanted to dislike this, but ultimately, I can't. The Gall-Peters Projection is more accurate. It's not necessarily all that aesthetically pleasing- the n...

So I'm bummed. I'm bummed because technically, Andorra isn't an enclave. It's landlocked. But it's sandwiched between both France and Spain and yes, it's on my list of 'Lost Weekends In Vexillology' so let's party on with the flag of Andorra and then we'll have some fun with enclaves. Here it is: The current flag was adopted in 1971, the blue-yellow-red tricolor has a similar to design to the flag of Romania, Moldova and Chad- but in the case of Andorra, the design is impacted more by it's geography and history than anything else. The three bars of the tricolor are similar to the tricolor of France (the red and the blue, as well) but the yellow and red can be found on both the flags of Spain, Catalonia and the old county of Foix . Let's jam out about their Coat of Arms: Like with the flag of Andorra the design of their Coat of Arms is impacted by both the countries history and it's geography. The top left quarter of the shiel...

This month on Medium,we have a short story that was inspired by a now (very) long ago trip to the Mall of America, where the Missus was defeated by Thai Spicy Chicken noodles that were far too spicy for her liking and as I was patiently waiting and watching her struggle with the spice, I glanced down the far end of the food court and wondered, "what if someone randomly took a picture and ended up capturing the suspect in a terrorist attack on film without even meaning too?" And with that simple sentence, the idea for "The Picture" was born and many months later, here it is: The Picture Hope you enjoy it!

In general, I'm wary of economics. Like healthcare, there's a ton of stuff I don't understand about the field and I get tired of struggling with my own ignorance. So, in what I imagine will be a futile and somewhat vainglorious attempt to unpack and educate myself on economics a bit, I want to compare and contrast two 'economic miracles.' Texas and Minnesota. Minnesota is being mentioned in left-wing circles as an example of progressive governance done right. Governor Dayton reversed the trends of his Republican Predecessor and has raised taxes on the rich, increased public spending and created 'shared prosperity' for the people of Minnesota. And so far, it seems to have worked like gangbusters. Minnesota is doing quite well for itself, especially in contrast to the sea of red all around it . The question then is a simple one: is this sustainable? Texas was another economic darling of the commentariat and it's experience suggests perhaps not. There a...