Although I try not to gloat too much, especially on here, about the victories of my sports teams, I must give props to the Baylor Bears, who beat archrival A&M on Saturday 41-21. Admittedly, the Aggies have had a very rough year. But since this is only the second time we’ve beaten them in football since joining the Big 12, any victory over them is cause for celebration. So it’s really a sign of my respect for the Ags that I’m even mentioning it. I doubt many Ags blog about beating Baylor during a normal year. Anyway, congrats to the Bears on a memorable victory!
iTunes
Now that I’m a Mac guy, I’ve been getting to know iTunes, Mac’s software for playing/managing music. Believe it or not, I hadn’t really played with iTunes or messed with digital music much before, even though it’s been around for years. I started ripping my CDs into MP3s via iTunes and loading them onto my laptop so I can carry them around. I hadn’t really realized how nice it can be to carry your music with you. Yes, I know that’s odd, but I just hadn’t really done it before. Even better, I can now shop a massive library of downloadable tunes online and download individual songs for $1 each. So if an album only has 1 song I like, I only have to pay for that one song. Some really nice people gave me an iTunes gift card for my birthday, and I’m trying to decide what to download first. With so many thousands of songs available, it’s hard to decide. Good problem to have!
Are Newspapers Dying?
My friend Chris suggested that I blog about the declining popularity of the printed newspaper. I’m no expert on the subject, but I occasionally hear and read that newspaper ads are becoming less and less attractive, due largely to the added flexibility of Internet selling sites such as Craiglist and eBay. Circulation is dropping for a variety of reasons. The cost of paper continues to rise, as does the cost of delivery due to gas prices (although I’ve now seen gas for under $2 again). Presumably the cost of subscribing is also rising, but I don’t know for sure since I haven’t bought a paper in so long. I know my parents and grandparents still subscribe to a daily newspaper, although I haven’t in several years. The vast majority of my news comes from the Internet, including DallasNews.com (the online version of the Dallas Morning News), CNN.com, and MSNBC.com. I don’t watch the news much on TV and HATE local news coverage. For some, the habit of reading a paper in print form will be very hard to break. However, as the production costs continue to rise, circulation declines, and revenue falls for classified ads and commercial ads, I wonder how long printed newspapers will be around.
What do you think? Will printed newspapers still exist in 5 years? 10? 20? Also, please vote in my poll on newspaper subscriptions on the right.
Carbon Footprint
As you probably saw, my latest poll addresses your level of concern over your “carbon footprint”, which is a measure of how much CO2 and other greenhouse gases you pump into the atmosphere through driving, flying, eating, using electricity, and other life activities. The poll results indicate a wide range of concern, from high concern to no concern to unfamiliarity with the concept. Why should you care? First, I am now confident that the majority of scientists are correct that a) the world is getting warmer, which over time will dramatically impact our world, mostly in negative ways, and b) man’s activities are at least partially responsible. Second, in many cases, reducing your carbon footprint can save you money. Who doesn’t need to save money right now?
I found a great site, aptly named CarbonFootprint.com, that lets you calculate your footprint and find ways to reduce and/or offset it. The Box family’s footprint is about 17 tons/year. To offset our carbon output (by pulling an equivalent amount of greenhouse gas from the atmosphere or help in some other way), we would need to plant 17 trees each year. Each tree can suck about 1 ton of greenhouse gas from the air and replace it with oxygen and other products.
The site lists dozens of tips for shrinking your footprint. Here are a few:
- Quit buying bottled water. Instead, drink tap water or filter it at home. Transporting bottled water burns gas, and manufacturing the bottles use oil.
- Drive less through combining trips, carpooling, eliminating trips, or even moving closer to where you spend your time.
- Switch to cleanly produced electricity such as Green Mountain.
- Buy produce in season from local growers where possible. Out of season produce travels long distances from other areas or countries, burning lots of fossil fuels during the journey.
- Eat less red meat. Not only does beef production waste huge amounts of energy, cows also, um, “release” methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times worse than CO2. Eat more chicken and fish, or go vegetarian for even more impact.
- Run full loads of laundry and dishes instead of partial loads.
- Turn your water heater down to 120 degrees. Heating water uses a huge amount of electricity.
- Turn off lights when you don’t need them. For all appliances, including your computer, either unplug them when not in use or use a power strip to turn them off. Otherwise they continue to use power even though they are “turned out”.
Obviously some of these are harder than others, and we don’t do all of them perfectly ourselves. But every one will reduce your harm to the environment, and almost every one will save you money. Sound good?
Halloween Party
Jenny, Brenden, and I went to a friend’s Halloween/birthday/costume party Halloween night instead of waiting at home for trick-or-treaters. We left some candy outside the door but didn’t get many customers. Anyway, we had a great time and thought you might like to see some pictures.
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- Family portrait: Doctor, nurse, and X-ray
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- Brenden checks everything out. He didn’t really know what to think of me.
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- We took turns spinning around the bat with our foreheads on the end before we took swings at a pinata.
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- Swing and a miss!
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- Yes, that was indeed an eye pinata.
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- Chris and Demona
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- James and Alexis
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- Joel, the birthday boy, feeds his wife Sarah some “brains”.
“Just ‘Cause They’re Black”?
I’ve read and heard some people say that Obama will get the black vote simply because he’s black (even though he’s only half black). Back when Hillary was in the running, I heard people assume that female Democrats would vote for her simply because they were female. Some probably assume the same about women voting for McCain now that Palin has joined his ticket. I’m sure you’ve heard similar stereotypes about these or other groups, such as Mexicans, Asians, Jews, Arabs, Christians, or gays. It’s tempting to paint a group with a very broad brush and forget that any group is made of individuals who might or might not match the group’s stereotype. I’ve done it myself, and you probably have as well. Why? Convenience? Prejudice? Ignorance? The problem is that doing so assumes that each individual lacks the capacity to think for him- or herself and make independent decisions. What an insult! Here are some other assumptions that you might have heard:
- All Mexicans are here illegally.
- All preachers just want your money.
- All poor people are lazy.
- All Christians are Republicans.
- All environmentalists are liberal wackos.
- All Muslims are terrorists.
- All Americans are self-centered warmongers.
- All cops like donuts.
Obviously all of these are false, but there are people who honestly believe them, or at least spout them off. There are many other, even more sinister and offensive assumptions out there. A CNN columnist wrote an interesting article about this issue with regard to the black community. Sure, analyzing the differences among various groups requires some generalization. But almost any generalization is bound to have some exceptions.