Articles for April 3rd, 2012
Art Laffer Rips Idea of Energy Independence
Don’t tell T. Boone Pickens, but Arthur Laffer, the so-called father of supply-side economics, says U.S. energy independence is the most “daft idea” he’s heard of in his life.
“It’s kind of like Minnesota trying to become banana-independent from Costa Rica,” Laffer joked with an audience in Dallas today. Even though the sellers of foreign oil may be “bad guys,” he went on, that’s no reason to shun their natural resources.
“You use political weapons to solve political problems,” Laffer said. “You should never use trade as a weapon, because it has all sorts of unintended consequences. Take North Korea; that’s really worked well! Or Cuba; that’s really worked, too! Economic tools do not work to solve political problems.”
Oncor Lets You Track Power Outages
Oncor just launched this cool new tool that allows you to see where electricity service has konked out. Good timing.
Tornado Tossed Trailer Rigs Sky High in Southeast Dallas
Mother Nature is throwing a fit. A tornado just hit the Lancaster area tossing trailer rigs up in the air like toothpicks. Another tornado is hitting Tarrant County.
More bad weather is scheduled this afternoon. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Texas Rangers Unveil New Food Items for 2012 Season
Executive Chef Cris "No H" Vasquez holds a Champion Dog. D.J. Pridemore eats the whole thing. (Photography by Micah Nunley)
The Rangers will win the World Series and perhaps a James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant (s). All the news that’s fit to eat is right here.
SMU Research: Boys Prefer Reading on a Kindle
UPI reported about research at SMU in which middle-school boys who had been reluctant readers liked reading more after two months of using a Kindle. Meanwhile the girls in the study responded differently.
“The technology appeared to motivate the boys to read while many girls preferred the actual books,” [SMU researcher Dara] Williams-Rossi said. “It may be that they prefer curling up with actual books and that they enjoy sharing their reading with their friends.”
Because girls like to “curl up” more than boys do?
I have a Kindle, and I don’t find curling up with an e-reader to be any more difficult than with an actual book. In fact, it’s easier to do when you’re tackling a larger tome. I was recently glad to be reading The Pickwick Papers on my Kindle rather than having to balance the 800-page book in my hands when I laid in bed.
My inability to entirely love e-readers has more to do with the experience not quite feeling “real.” Â I’ve experienced some of the same strange inability to remember things from chapter to chapter as did the author of this Time article, which also explains how the physical presence of a book may make it easier to learn material:
Things To Do In Dallas Tonight: April 3
FrontRow made a big announcement this morning about which I am personally very excited. The gist: FrontRow Live is happening again (yay), with really fantastic headliners Strfkr, Onra, and Austin’s Ben Aqua (triple yay). Save the date for May 31 or you will be very sorry.
Tonight, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra hosts a quartet of ABBA look and sound-alikes at the Meyerson. I realize this is sort of musical theater sacrilege, but ABBA got a little old for me after the cross-country family trip where my dad played nothing but the band’s greatest hits from Texas to Missouri. But plenty of people still love the Swedish pop group, what with songs like “Dancing Queen” and “Mamma Mia” permanently lodged in the public consciousness. The tribute group will perform the music that rocketed ABBA to stardom in the late 1970s.
It’s Tuesday Night Trash time at the Texas Theatre, and there’s absolutely nothing redeemable about this evening’s free movie. It’s just garbage. Hamburger: The Motion Picture is about a sex-crazed dude who gets keeps getting kicked out of school for lewd and crude behavior (somehow, the ladies are willing participants in all this.). He wants his trust fund, though, so he enrolls in his last-chance school: Busterburger University, a college for future fast food franchise owners. The only other thing you need to know is that the bar will be open, and there will be drink specials. For a slightly more refined cinematic experience, SMU’s French film festival continues with a showing of Nos Enfants Nous Accuseronts (Food Beware:Â The French Organic Revolution), a documentary about the food industry in France that begins with the mayor of a small town who forced the school to serve only local and organically grown food. What an ideal.
For more to do tonight, go here.
Knitted Uteruses Created For Rick Perry
WFAA reports upon a group of knitting enthusiasts who decided to protest by creating uteruses out of yarn that they plan to send to Gov. Rick Perry and other lawmakers who they say have cut funding to women’s health care:
Inside Kimberlyn Crowe’s Oak Cliff home, knitting has always been quiet therapy. Suddenly, it’s become a way to make some noise.
“Words don’t do any good because it’s all been said,” she declared. So she let the yarn became her words and her hobby become her voice.
“The statement is: ‘Get your hands off my uterus!’” Crowe said with a laugh.
Clear Channel Billboard Confuses Local Editor
As I exit Central Expressway every morning to turn onto Ross, I see a Clear Channel billboard that makes my editor head go a little bonkers. The billboard copy rises in bold letters over a picture of the Dallas skyline. It reads: “Business is done here.”
I know what Clear Channel means to say. “Dallas is a good place to do business. You should buy some airtime or a billboard or maybe both.” But the message can be read another way. “We were blowing and going there for a while, doing some pretty good business. Then the wheels came off. We’re finished.”
So why didn’t the copywriter for Clear Channel choose the clearer option? “Business gets done here.”
It is a mystery for the ages.
Leading Off (4/3/12)
Breaking News! There is still a Press Club of Dallas. And they’re gonna talk about the Large Marge.
Someone Shot Someone. I can’t make fun of this story, because it’s too sad. But if I could make fun of it, I’d point out all the confusion over the pronouns and wonder how the judge got shot. Like I said, though, I can’t do that. Moving on …
DISD Names Superintendent. Technically he’s just the lone finalist, but I need some help with this Mike Miles chap from Colorado Springs. Is he white? Light-skinned black? Because the last super was Hispanic. Before that, white. Then Hispanic, Hispanic. We all know the agreed-upon pattern. Should be the Eskimos’ turn. Miles? Can’t nail that guy down. All I know is that skin color is important to educating kids. That’s why we monitor it so closely on the school board. And I need to know where Miles stands. Half Chinese?
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