Market Power

RIP Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford has passed.

Merry Christmas

We here at the PowerHouse wish you and yours a Merry Christmas.

RIP James Brown

On this Christmas day, sadly, the godfather of soul has passed.  James Brown died of pneumonia today at 1:45 AM.  Just this past Friday, he had held a toy giveaway in Augusta, GA, his  hometown.

Things of Interest

It's been a busy few days around the PowerHouse, what with getting ready for Christmas and keeping the PowerKids out of the presents.  It also didn't help that the blade from the food processor processed my thumb when I tried to clean the blade.  That made typing an adventure.  Anyways, I wanted to share a few things of interest that I've found on my travels around the web recently.

1. The Big 10's bowl revenue sharing system and why, in the short term, the Gophers bowl trip is apparently a break even proposition.
2. How to make a castle out of refrigerator boxes (we've done similar things at the PowerHouse) - HT to Fark
3. Coyote on Blogging (a response to a WSJ column by Joseph Rago knocking bloggers).  Coyote is right.  The MSM adds value to readers by providing them with stories and columns from their own reporters and from the wire services.  Many are very good.  Many, simply put, are head scratchers.  Bloggers add value by giving their two cents worth.  Readers have many news stories and bloggers available to give them a more complete and polished product.  And for academic bloggers like myself, the blog is a way for me to write about examples that I use in my classes.
4. Eclectecon on the problems with subsidized multilingualism.
5. Is the Mizzou football program better now than when Gary Pinkel first arrived?  Yes, says Vahe Gregorian.

Two Types of Yoga

Reader Mark Stratton sends me the following pictures:

There are two types of yoga.  There's proper yoga:

And Kansas* yoga.

The difference, of course, is that you use a table with proper yoga and you use a chair with a broken back in Kansas yoga so that your feet still touch the

*Insert your favorite state to raz.

Markets in Everything: A White Christmas

From Craigslist:

Georgia Holiday Decor offers a white christmas for you and your family. Georgia Holiday Decor has done extensive research on making man made snow that can produce a blizzard of snow just like the snow makers at ski areas. We have the ability to make snow in your own yard for skiing, sledding, snow boarding or any snow related activity.

A Day with PowerKid, The Younger

Yesterday was spent selecting candidates for screening at the Chicago ASSA's and chatting with my colleagues.  Due to family commitments, I shant be going to Chicago for the conference.

Today is bonding day with PowerKid, the Younger so I probably won't write much more today.  If you're a praying kinda person, pray for some snow here at the PowerHouse.  It's not because I want a white Christmas.  Rather, the PowerKids and I love to play in snow and if the snowfall is sufficient, I'll get to hear the manly roar of the PowerSnowBlower.  Hell, I might fire it up even if we get nothing but rain.

History of Kwanzaa

My first rememberance of Kwanzaa came while I was working at Walgreens in, I believe, Omaha.  We sold Kwanzaa cards.

If you have kids in US elementary schools, they are probably talking about Kwanzaa in their classes.  Do you know the history of Kwanzaa?  If you were born before 1966, then you are older than Kwanzaa.

Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chairman of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach, created Kwanzaa in 1966. After the Watts riots in Los Angeles, Dr. Karenga searched for ways to bring African-Americans together as a community. He founded US, a cultural organization, and started to research African "first fruit" (harvest) celebrations. Karenga combined aspects of several different harvest celebrations, such as those of the Ashanti and those of the Zulu, to form the basis of Kwanzaa.

RIP Joseph Barbera

Joseph Barbera of Hanna-Barbera fame has passed away.

Aurora Pics

As promised earlier, here are a couple of pictures of the Northern Lights taken from my front yard on December 14th.  The clouds moved in and stayed around for the next couple of days, so these are the best shots I could get.  Solar activity has been low for the past two days, so these may be it for a bit.