Better Living Through Introspection

According to their website, the DC School Modernization Campaign is a

broad coalition of parents, teachers, students, administrators and citizens who are advocating for passage of the School Modernization Bill that will provide secure, long term funding to modernize DC’s crumbling public school facilities.

Basically, they’re pushing for the passage of DC Council Bill 16-250. From the report on Bill 16-250 [49pp., 230KB PDF]:

The purpose of Bill 16-250, the “School Modernization Financing Act of 2005″ is to dedicate $60 million in revenue from the DC Lottery that is currently allocated for spending in the general fund in the FY06-09 budget and financial plan, to finance the reconstruction, renovation, and emergency maintenance of public school facilities through the issuance of up to $ 1 billion in revenue bonds. However, if $60 million lottery funding is utilized to
support debt financing, the actual effect of this legislation may allow only for the borrowing of between $440 and $500 million in lottery revenue bonds, depending on interest rate levels at the time of issuance, not $1 billion.

It seems harmless, right? So go sign up and show your support. Or, like me, at least do it for the karma.

Potential readers can make snap decisions in just 50 milliseconds, according to a recent article on news at nature.com.

We all know that first impressions count, but this study shows that the brain can make flash judgements almost as fast as the eye can take in the information. The discovery came as a surprise to some experts. “My colleagues believed it would be impossible to really see anything in less than 500 milliseconds,” says Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in Ottawa, who has published the research in the journal Behaviour and Information Technology1. Instead they found that impressions were made in the first 50 milliseconds of viewing.

Interesting article, but essentially nothing new. Bah!

Full article

It may not be the last laugh, but on Friday afternoon, after the close of the stock market, Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Computer, shared an e-mail chuckle with his employees at the expense of Dell, a big rival.

The message was prompted by the 12 percent surge in Apple’s stock price last week, which pushed the company’s market capitalization to $72.13 billion, passing Dell’s value of $71.97 billion.

From The New York Times

Take the audio from Bil Gates and Co.’s CES Keynote. Add video from a Mac desktop. Result: hilarity. Re-introducing The Real Windows Vista: Episode One on Tauquil.com via Wil Shipley.

Columbus Memorial at Union Station (Detail)

My second most-photographed statue. (The first being the fountain in Dupont Circle.)