Rick Scott’s budget released in Eustis, belongs in Fantasyland
The summary of Rick Scott's proposed biennial budget for the state of Florida is bleak: tremendous spending cuts and attacks on public employees to pay for tax cuts concentrated for those who can afford to pay taxes. The St. Pete Times/Miami Herald state political bureau reporters are not impressed, calling today a four flip-flop day. […]
Check the policy mirror before going out
Larry Ferlazzo, someone I generally enjoy reading, made me wince with a blog entry attacking the parent-petition mechanism for charter conversions. Using this methodology, a group (generally one that has recently received a large amount of grant money to work in low-income neighborhoods) hires plenty of staff and throws “time” at a community. Often, the group […]
Weird science
It's been a while since I wrote an Out of Left Field Friday entry, and since I've worked 60 or more hours this week and desperately need to take a break… so a science-themed entry. Cars are Faraday cages, which is why we're safe inside one in a thunderstorm (even thundersnow, at least from the […]
Now Meeting: Committee To Encourage Use of “The”
Fate must be taking its revenge on me for making fun of universities that put "The" in their official names. A story in this morning's Tampa Tribune that represents my and other union members' views quite well quotes me as saying phrases such as "health of state pension fund" and " it's up to state Legislature." For […]
New York Times indulges in iconographics – ugh!
By Sherman Dorn on February 3, 2011
Today’s America by the Numbers is a set of gratuitous icons next to decontextualized numbers. Cases in point: civil marriages and divorces. The numbers in the Times icon display are crude rates, against the entire population. Of course one would expect a lower marriage rate as a population ages, because young adults are more likely […]
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