July 30, 2006 at 8:37 pm
(Urban Design)
As you can read here, urban sprawl is becoming a concern in central Kentucky. I think it’s a weird problem…because it’s new here although not in many other places. Why is that? Partially, perhaps, because Lexington is becoming recognized as a nice place to move to, and we the transplants are to some extent homogenizing it while in the meantime adding population pressure that pushes boundaries outward. Lexington is unique because due to the strong horse-farming industry, the land outside of it is far more valuable that the land, say, east of Denver. But everyone has their price.
The other thing that probably doesn’t help is the paradigm for creation of “greenfield” industrial sites in the Sunbelt, which is to create them outside of major cities to take advantage of cheaper labor. The drawback to this is that it forces some of its employees in more white-collar jobs to choose between being close to work and close to the conveniences of city life. The people I work with who don’t have accents (and plenty who do) all commute about forty minutes to an hour to get to work; throughout the south, numerous other facilities, including the huge Toyota and Nissan plants, are typically about the same distance from the nearest real cities.
I didn’t like it in Denver, where the sprawl ate up inhospitable prarie, and I don’t like it here where the sprawl eats and historic horse farms. But I can’t help feeling as if I’m part of the problem here and not the solution.
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July 26, 2006 at 8:35 pm
(International)
Hearing about things like the alleged Israeli attack on a UN peacekeeping post (some of the story here) makes me sick to my stomach.
I think we’re obligated (along with the British) to support Israel unconditionally, but…as you might expect, my sympathies are already more for the non-Israeli/non-militant Arabs in the area who really seem to get hit disproportinately by the military actions of the Anglo-Israeli alliance in their attemps to fight terror. Yes, it’s well and good for us pro-underdog types to yell about Israeli atrocities from the safety of the US or Europe, but the comments (and the underlying attitude) of the Army reservist mentioned in this article are uncalled for regardless. Wars always have their casualties? But some of the victims aren’t on either side…besides, isn’t the death of innocents the very thing that Israelis are ultimately fighting against?
An attack on a UN detachment is low, though–something you would expect to see from the most despotic regimes. It is something that the US cannot allow from its allies because even if it is an isolated incident, it is a reflection of an attitude of disrespect toward certain principles that is probably fairly widespread, and it is a reflection of attitudes toward the potential for progress in the Mideast that do not mirror the apparently idealistic ones of our own government.
To continue to support Israel action in Lebanon as long as it kills not only non-militant Lebanese but Americans and citizens of our allies who are studying, working or on peacekeeping missions is unacceptable and unsustainable, and this needs to be clear. Perhaps the best thing to do to support Israel is to disengage its military.
2 Comments
July 25, 2006 at 8:40 pm
(Culture)
Since I’ve moved and would like at some point to change my cell phone area code to match, I’m going to need to buy a new phone (This is a scam, I think, run by the phone company in collusion with the manufacturers. “Oh, I’m sorry, that AT&T phone isn’t good any more. You’ll have to get a new Cingular phone.” Which is about what they told me two years ago, too. Because, you know, Cingular is sooo much different.)
So, I’m looking at phones. Have you taken a look at the “features” list of the trendy new phones recently? They’re loaded with really strange things like…video cameras. About how many videos (at something like 60×90 pixels) are you really going to take with your phone? And yet the features that seem truly viable (your mp3 collection on your phone, for example) don’t seem to get much reception–witness the “Slvr”. Yet apparently, that’s what the market for phones is saying–as if we (and worse, even the supposedly hip) want Happy Meal toys when we buy a phone…features that we’ll play with for an afternoon and then forget.
I don’t get it. So, for only the third time in five years (infrequent, to hear some tell it,) I’ll probably buy the cheapest phone they’ve got.
2 Comments
July 14, 2006 at 3:25 pm
(Culture)
McDonald’s is dropping a spicy chicken sandwich from it’s menu after six months because of lackadaisical consumer reaction. This is disappointing news to me because as far as I can tell, it just reinforces the idea among fast-food retailers that flavor can only be added through a combination of fat, salt or sugar, none of which are especially well known for their health benefits.
As companies like McDonalds try to fight their way out of the Bad PR trap of unhealthy menu offerings, they are really going to have to fight the tendency of falling to their core customers to determine what they offer. I think that would include keeping an unpopular menu item for longer than six months.
Aargh, why are our tastes so bland?
3 Comments
July 13, 2006 at 7:39 pm
(Uncategorized)
So…
My wife was minding her own business today when some guy purporting to be rep’ing a security company came buy and tried to sell her a home security system at a great price. She being a good wife told the guy that I was the really tech-savvy one and that he should come back when I got home. So sure enough, after I’d been home from work for about 10 minutes, the guy popped back in. He was really nice, and although this type of thing would normally send off all sorts of alarm signals in my moderately paranoid brain, I just didn’t get the bad vibe. So we went for it. And about an hour after the original guy left (finally), a second, equally nice fellow showed up and began to do the installation. Like I said, nice guy. Not who I expected for an installation-type. He’s currently doing what looks to be quality work, but he did show up in a older Nissan Sentra with Utah plates.
In fact, things are going so well that I just googled the security company’s name and “scam” out of fun and came up with this link. Which is really funny because now that I think about it, these guys do look kinda Mormon, I mean without the suits and bicycles and all. And with the Utah plates…should I offer the guy a beer for the road? Or a Coke?
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July 13, 2006 at 2:18 pm
(Uncategorized)
Why didn’t I think of this first?
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July 11, 2006 at 5:38 pm
(Culture)
I had hoped that the alleged rape-murder of an Iraqi, and the execution of her family by a group of U.S. soldiers would be a fluke. Surely, in the vast majority of cases, if the average American wanted to commit a senseless and violent act, his or her buddies would stop him or her, forcibly if necessary. Surely it’s inconceivable that they would join in. Especially if they are people we are calling heros, people who are in a position of some authority or trust.
But maybe not.
I’d like to hope that there is more to the story in both these cases but…how could there be?
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