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May 2007 Archives

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Faculty Favorites: Dining and Places - Paul Powell

We asked our faculty and authors to share with us some of their favorite things about living in our nation's capital. Their responses are posted in "Faculty Favorites"

Paul Powell (bio) shares his favorites.

Places to Visit

Fun

Restaurants

For more, also see our Visiting Washington DC pages


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May 30, 2007 11:37 AM   Link    Dining ~   Dining and Things to Do & See ~   Faculty Favorites ~   Fun ~   Visiting Washington, DC    Comments (0)

"Germs and the City"

“Public health” (in the literal sense) now seems to be one thing, and--occasional lurid headlines notwithstanding--not a particularly important one, while “health care” is quite another.

We will bitterly regret this shift, and probably sooner rather than later. As another Victorian might have predicted--he published a book on the subject in 1859--germs have evolved to exploit our new weakness. Public authorities are ponderous and slow; the new germs are nimble and fast. Drug regulators are paralyzed by the knowledge that error is politically lethal; the new germs make genetic error--constant mutation--the key to their survival. The new germs don’t have to be smarter than our scientists, just faster than our lawyers. The demise of cholera, one could say, has been one of the great antisocial developments of modern times.

"Germs and the City," by Peter Huber, City Journal, Spring 2007

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May 27, 2007 06:57 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye ~   Prediction    Comments (0)

Faculty Favorites: Dining and Places - Mike Koempel

We asked our faculty and authors to share with us some of their favorite things about living in our nation's capital. Their responses are posted in "Faculty Favorites"

Mike Koempel (bio), co-author of the Congressional Deskbook, shares his favorites.

Places

Fun

Restaurants

For more, also see our Visiting Washington DC pages


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May 25, 2007 09:57 AM   Link    Dining ~   Dining and Things to Do & See ~   Faculty Favorites ~   Faculty and Authors ~   Fun ~   Holidays and Celebrations ~   Living in DC ~   Visiting Washington, DC    Comments (0)

Design for the Other 90%

On view in the Arthur Ross Terrace and Garden, this exhibition highlights the growing trend among designers to create affordable and socially responsible objects for the vast majority of the world's population (90 percent) not traditionally serviced by professional designers. Organized by exhibition curator Cynthia E. Smith, along with an eight-member advisory council, the exhibition is divided into sections focusing on water, shelter, health and sanitation, education, energy and transportation and highlights objects developed to empower global populations surviving under the poverty level or recovering from a natural disaster.

Design for the Other 90% is an exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

The Q drum

"The real stars of the show, though, are the stories behind the designs." microscopiq, May 17, 2007

They don't need a handout. What they need is an opportunity.
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A poor person actually only cares about one thing: making more money. If they have more money, they can get ahead, take their family out of poverty.
-- Martin Fischer, Kickstart International
The introductory video also provided an opportunity to explore an additional range of themes that may not be as apparent, running through the exhibition and this area of design: open source options, leapfrog technology, economic impacts, community building, testing and end-user research, low-cost innovations, social enterprise, humanitarian entrepreneurship, improved democracies and multiple calls to action.

"In Their Own Words," Design for the Other 90% blog, May 14, 2007

Design for the Other 90% (web site), an exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum through September 23, 2007. Cooper-Hewitt, web site, 2 East 91st Street, New York, NY, M-Th 10 am - 5 pm, F 10 am - 9 pm, Sat 10 am - 6 pm, Sun Noon - 6 pm. $ Admission fee.

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May 23, 2007 10:07 PM   Link    Caught Our Eye ~   Economics ~   Technology ~   Tools    Comments (0)

Bits of careless talk are pieced together by the enemy

This is a WWII poster from the Northwestern University archives.

Bits of careless talk are pieced together by the enemy
Bits of careless talk are pieced together by the enemy

May 19, 2007 09:17 AM   Link    Art    Comments (0)

You have two cows - additions from Janne Tuukkanen

Here are two new "You have two cows...." from Janne Tuukkanen

DRM: You have two cows. You sell both of them, but all the milk still belongs to you.

INNOVATION: You have two cows. You patent "cow" and claim license fees from all the milk of the world. (All your milk are belong to us.)


For more, see YouHave2Cows.com


May 15, 2007 06:27 AM   Link    Humor ~   You Have 2 Cows    Comments (0)

"Laughter is not the Arab way" - Arab-American Comedy Festival

Aside from inheriting money, the best way to get rich in the Arab world is to find yourself an emir. Young men sometimes set out in search of an emir, as young men elsewhere might search for a guru or audition for Donald Trump's The Apprentice.

Emirs, Arab nobility, cherish a bizarre prejudice that makes them wildly popular with ambitious businessmen: By ancient tradition, they consider it undignified to deal with money. So each needs an associate to handle the actual business. Since the best sort of emir maintains close connections with his government's oil rights, the associate, if clever, can become quite rich.

This process of mutual dependence grounded in folkloric custom fascinated Fuad I. Khuri (1935-2003), a first-class social anthropologist. He was an Arab who spent much of his life as a scholar analyzing Arab customs with the methods he learned in the United States and taught at the American University of Beirut. He left behind a memoir focused on his distilled observations. It's finally appeared under the unlikely title he chose: An Invitation to Laughter: A Lebanese Anthropologist in the Arab World (University of Chicago Press).

"Laughter is not the Arab way," by Robert Fulford, National Post, May 12, 2007

An Arab-American couple kisses on a train when they suddenly spot four suspicious Arabs - with odd luggage and argyle knit sweaters. Should they report them as terrorists?

"Who has blueberry luggage?" whispers Renee, clutching her fiance, George.

"Gay terrorists. Oh, my God ... There's just no safe way to travel."

The joke, as told during the debut of the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival in Los Angeles this week, is bold, edgy and self-effacing. And 100 percent Arab-American.

"Finding Muslim Humor - Arab-American Style," by Dana Bartholomew, LA Daily News, January 26, 2006

New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, November 2007


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May 14, 2007 10:17 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Cheogajip Chicken

After Tyler Cowen wrote it up, we tried the Korean fried chicken from Cheogajip Chicken in Fairfax.

We tried the hot and the regular fried chicken. Both excellent, very juicy and not too greasy. Only whole chickens are sold (cut up into about 15 pieces), and the chicken is not cooked until you order, so you can either call ahead if you speak Korean or plan on waiting about 15 minutes. Worth going back.

Cheogajip Chicken, Lotte Plaza, 3250 Old Lee Highway, Fairfax Circle, Fairfax, VA, 703-273-4499

Cheogajip is located inside Lotte Plaza, 3250 Old Lee Highway, which is located immediately south and west of the intersection of Old Lee Highway and Old Pickett Road.


The counter is about 30 feet south of the Customer Service desk and next to the deli.


Two orders ready to go.


Spciy. Each order comes with a small cabbage salad and a cup of Korean radish.


Regular fried chicken


Box of chicken


Pizza and Chicken Love Letter


"Pizza and Chicken Love Letter is the U.S. brand name of Cheogajip Chicken Korea."
We didn't see any pizza.....


May 10, 2007 10:27 PM   Link    Dining    Comments (0)

Should Federal Judges be paid the same as Members of Congress

For the past 20 years, members of Congress have linked their salaries to those of federal judges as a strategy to avoid the wrath of voters who think lawmakers are overpaid and do not deserve an annual raise.
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Questions about the pay practice have been repeatedly raised in recent years, including by the National Commission on the Public Service, chaired by Paul A. Volcker, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve. The commission found that the buying power of judges has fallen behind inflation and that many law school deans, for example, earn more than federal judges.

"Judges, Congress and the Salary Link," by Stephen Barr, The Washington Post, April 25, 2007

A group of former U.S. Senators and Representatives is preparing to call for Congress to end the practice of linking the salaries of federal judges and those of members of Congress, if Congress is hesitant to raise its own salaries. To assist in this effort, Brookings scholars and their colleagues at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research produced this paper to describe the history of interbranch salary linkage and to analyze it as policy. (The group includes former Senators Howard Baker, John Danforth, and Sam Nunn, and former Representatives Richard Gephardt, Henry Hyde, Susan Molinari, Leon Panetta and Louis Stokes.)

"How to Pay the Piper: It's Time to Call Different Tunes for Congressional and Judicial Salaries," by Russell R. Wheeler and Michael S. Greve, Issues in Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution, April 2007

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May 8, 2007 10:07 AM   Link    Congress ~   Judicial Branch    Comments (0)

Chicken Eating Spiders ... and fried spiders don't taste like chicken

By day Martin Nicholas is an ordinary guy. But by night he becomes the Spider Man, a nickname he's earned because of the hundreds of spiders which share his tiny flat in Bracknell. Martin has circled the world seeking out the most enigmatic individuals of the 35,000 spiders known to exist...the tarantulas.

Now he is in Peru searching for a contender for the title of Biggest Spider in the World, currently held by the 11 inch Venezuelan Goliath Birdeater. Martin's quarry is an un-catalogued species. It is called the Chicken Eating spider because eye witnesses claim to have seen it dragging chickens into its burrow on the edge of jungle clearings. Estimates put it at around 10 inches from one hairy foot to another.

"On the hunt for 'The Biggest Spider in the World'!", BBC Science

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May 7, 2007 09:57 AM   Link    Caught Our Eye    Comments (0)

Careless talk ... got there first

This is a WWII poster from the Northwestern University archives.

Careless talk ... got there first
Careless talk ... got there first


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May 3, 2007 10:57 AM   Link    Art    Comments (0)