Most of these kids are going to have a step down in lifestyle when they have to enter the working-world environment after they graduate,” says John E. Vawter, principal of Capstone Collegiate Communities, which developed the Cottages.
When Clarence Thomas led the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, he fought to make it handicapped accessible. “I firmly believed, how can we talk about all these theoretical issues when there are people who can’t even get in the door of the building?” he explained to an audience at Harvard Law School, having been asked about the subject. “One of my best friends was a quadriplegic, and I watched how a two-inch curb was like The Great Wall of China for him.” Then a pause. “I think we do that with the opinions we write,” he said. “We write them in a way that they’re inaccessible to the average person.” With that fascinating segue, he explained the logic behind his writing: What I tell my law clerks is that we write these so that they are accessible to regular people. That doesn’t mean that there’s no law in it. But there are simple ways to put important things in language that’s accessible. As I say to them, the beauty, the genius is not to write a 5 cent idea in a ten dollar sentence. It’s to put a ten dollar idea in a 5 cent sentence. That’s beauty. That’s editing. That’s writing.
— Why Clarence Thomas Uses Simple Words in His Opinions - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic
Since taking office in 1999, Hugo Chavez has spread his socialist revolution in Venezuela by seizing more than 1,000 companies. For bondholders that stuck by him, he’s also delivered returns that are double the emerging- market average. The 681 percent advance, equal to 14.7 percent annually, has enriched investors from OppenheimerFunds Inc. to Goldman Sachs Asset Management LP that counted on Chavez’s willingness to siphon the country’s oil wealth to pay its creditors in the face of start-stop growth and falling reserves. While his policies drove away enough investors to keep Venezuela’s borrowing costs over 12 percent on average during his tenure, or 4 percentage points higher than those of developing nations, he’s never missed a bond payment.
— Chavez’s 681% Returns Mean Socialism Buoys Goldman: Andes Credit - Bloomberg
Dear Cable, How are you? Can you believe it’s been a year since we last saw each other? I remember handing the cable guy my set-top box like it was yesterday. So much has happened since then. The last of the remaining cool characters on “Boardwalk Empire” got offed. Zombies have officially overtaken vampires as the monster du jour thanks to “The Walking Dead.” And Carrie on “Homeland” has consumed about 10 gallons of Pinot Grigio. You see, Cable, breaking up with you didn’t mean the end of my entertainment universe. I wanted to let you know that I’m happy. Me and Internet TV? We’re getting along great. I spent 36 hours with her last weekend watching three seasons of “Damages,” and she didn’t mind that I never changed out of my sweatpants.
A year ago, when I first asked Les Dorr, a spokesman for the F.A.A., why the rule existed, he said the agency was being cautious because there was no proof that device use was completely safe. He also said it was because passengers needed to pay attention during takeoff. When I asked why I can read a printed book but not a digital one, the agency changed its reasoning. I was told by another F.A.A. representative that it was because an iPad or Kindle could put out enough electromagnetic emissions to disrupt the flight. Yet a few weeks later, the F.A.A. proudly announced that pilots could now use iPads in the cockpit instead of paper flight manuals.
— F.A.A. Rules Make Electronic Devices on Planes Hazardous - NYTimes.com
The iOS Text Editor roundup. This is a feature comparison of text editors on iOS. The information was compiled by the web community on an open Google spreadsheet.
— iTextEditors - iPhone and iPad text/code editors and writing tools compared
I have received a couple dozen emails this morning about missing notes with Simplenote sync in nvALT. Simplenote recently changed their API and nvALT hasn’t kept up. It’s not entirely Simplenote’s fault, but the combination of Simplenote and nvALT has become deadly and my interest in continuing to support it is waning. Please use Dropbox sync. It’s easy, free, and opens up the possibility of using any of dozens of iOS text editors for your notes. I especially recommend Elements, Notesy and Notely. For information on switching, see Michael Schechter’s post. Again, this is as much — if not more — nvALT’s fault as Simplenote’s, but I don’t see much of a future there. We have always made an effort to avoid modifying the basic data storage and sync mechanisms as much as possible, and it’s not an area I’m comfortably hacking around in right now.
— A warning: Simplenote, nvALT and deleted notes - Brett Terpstra
I wanted to offer up a basic starting point for bloggers and web workers who use a Mac and are looking to get started with plain text (if you’re not sure why you might want to do this, start here). This will not be a comprehensive dive into the myriad apps you can use. It will be a focused and targeted approach for:
Storing and Accessing Your Plain Text Files
Naming and Tagging Your Files
Formatting Your Files For The Web
Exporting HTML For The Web
Learning A Few Tricks
As the water began to pour into lower Manhattan on Oct. 29, sliding under door frames and into basements, scientists who work in NYU’s Smilow Research Building began to realize that something horrible was happening — something entirely separate from the loss of human life and shelter that would soon follow. Because of the flooding, thousands of mice drowned in Smilow’s basement animal facility, which had lost power and seen its generators fail. Their loss wiped away years of careful breeding and meticulous experimental research on heart disease, schizophrenia and other diseases. Many of the mice that drowned represented critical scientific institutional memory. They carried specific genetic mutations that made them useful models for a range of diseases and disorders. Many of the lost animals represented years of hard work. It is difficult to overstate how fundamental research animals are to the work many scientists do, especially when those researchers are involved in developing new animal models of human disease. A friend of mine from graduate school spent six years developing a line of rats that could be used to study Parkinson’s disease; if her rodent colony had been wiped out, her thesis would have been too. So it went for some at NYU this past week.
— Thousands of mice die in NYU facility during Sandy - latimes.com
OK: Who are you going to vote for? I am voting for the Green Party. Oh, you are? I don’t even know who the Green candidate is. Who is it? Jill Stein — a doctor from Massachusetts. Now, I wouldn’t be voting Green if Roseanne Barr had won the nomination, but Stein is a solid and sensible candidate. I don’t agree with everything the Green Party says, but I’m in tune with many of its basic positions. I’m remaining a registered Democrat because I still hope for the reform of my party. If the Republican candidate were Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich, I would certainly not be voting Green; I would be voting for and contributing to Obama again, as I did in 2008. There are three people on the political landscape whom I absolutely loathe — Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Dick Cheney — that delusional and mendacious war-monger. But I think that Mitt Romney is a moderate — like Nelson Rockefeller, who as governor of New York poured money into the state university system that educated me. Romney is an affable, successful businessman whose skills seem well-suited to this particular moment of economic crisis. Hence I want to use my vote to make a statement about my unhappiness with the Democratic Party and the direction it has taken. The biggest issue for me is the Obama administration’s continuation of endless war, war, war. I denounced the Iraq incursion before it even happened.
The anti-porn feminists have always been visual illiterates. If you’re used to looking at nudes in Greek sculpture and Renaissance, Baroque, and nineteenth century French painting, you’re not going to be that alarmed by what’s called pornography. How silly! It’s just sexual imagery of varying quality – from good to bad. And by the way, these PC gals don’t even realize I invented the now widespread feminist term “pro-sex
When I first read about Naomi’s forthcoming book, called “Vagina,” I assumed it would be a big bestseller for her. So I’ve been extremely surprised not only at the flood of negative reviews from fellow feminists but at the book’s commercial failure, which even made me feel sorry for her. She simply did not do the necessary hard research required into history, anthropology and science. The book is basically anecdotal — like an article in Glamour magazine.
Draw your own conclusions …
For months, Ann Romney and her eldest son, Tagg, were dutifully supportive of the political professionals running Mitt Romney’s campaign. All the while, their private frustration was mounting. Shortly before the first debate, it finally boiled over. What followed was a family intervention. The candidate’s family prevailed on Mitt Romney, and the campaign operation, to shake things up dramatically, according to campaign insiders. The family pushed for a new message, putting an emphasis on a softer and more moderate image for the GOP nominee — a “let Mitt be Mitt” approach they believed more accurately reflected the looser, generous and more approachable man they knew.
Romney’s favorables are above Obama’s now. Yes, you read that right. Romney’s favorables are higher than Obama’s right now. That gender gap that was Obama’s firewall? Over in one night: Currently, women are evenly divided (47% Obama, 47% Romney). Last month, Obama led Romney by 18 points (56% to 38%) among women likely voters. Seriously: has that kind of swing ever happened this late in a campaign? Has any candidate lost 18 points among women voters in one night ever? And we are told that when Obama left the stage that night, he was feeling good. That’s terrifying.
— Did Obama Just Throw The Entire Election Away? - The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan - The Daily Beast
