Free online backup program

Once I find a new job I plan on buying a new computer shortly thereafter, allowing me to convert my current computer into my backup external hard drive. Until that time I am stuck debating about how to best back up my information without spending a bunch of money. A few days ago I found a program named Dropbox that offers 2GB of free online storage and syncs your information automatically. I currently have Dropbox syncing my pictures, documents, and desktop and still have quite a large percentage of my space remaining. Oh, and Dropbox syncs across different platforms and multiple computers. Also, you can access it via the online interface if you are on an unlinked computer.

There are a two major drawbacks:

1. Space- 2GB really is not that much space. For $100 per year you can have 50GB, but I think if I were paying that much I would expect significantly more storage space and would end up looking for a different program.
   
2. Currently the program only backs up files that you actually move to the Dropbox folder on your hard drive. There was no way in hell I was rearranging my file structure for this so I looked for a workaround. What I found is that by using symbolic links you can trick Dropbox into syncing other folders and files. The Dropbox Wiki has a writeup of how to sync folders and files outside of the Dropbox folder using symbolic links. Mac users should check out the section "OS X Specific: Automator," which provides a very simple way of doing this. If you are on a PC I wish you luck in your efforts to make this happen.
   

Happy V-Day!

I don't really mind not having a boyfriend on Valentine's Day, but I do miss making a "mailbox" out of a shoebox and doilies for the class party.

These are my Valentines to you guys:

Ew ick

No reason to post this other than the ick factor.

A Dad at 13!

Horny Manatee, a new venture for NBC

In December 2006 NBC purchased the rights to the domain name HornyManatee.com. Seriously. Conan O'Brien made up the name during a skit on his show, and NBC decided to purchase the domain name to avoid being associated with content of which the network did not approve. So they posted this content instead. Take the tour. I cannot believe how many categories were created. Enjoy.

A quicker set of links

Sorry for all the posts that I have been making that are not much more than lists of links. I will work on cutting back, and not just by making fewer posts with more links. That will start right after I give you a few links:

• Dr. Grammar's Frequently Asked Questions - I have only clicked on a handful of these, but I agreed with the answers to all of them. A good resource for our debates, though I think it should be used only after an argument based on prior knowledge;
• "15 Amazing Yearbook Photos of U.S. Politicians" and also "12 Amazing Celebrity Yearbook Photos" - Jimmy Carter is terrifying.
• "5 Real Life Soldiers Who Make Rambo Look Like a Pussy" - My personal favorite of the group, this article is exactly what it sounds like, describing each of five men in the categories "Who was he?", (where the fuck does this comma go?) "The best Hollywood could come up with," and "Why it doesn't compare." My only problem with Cracked.com is that I get sucked into reading fifteen different lists with titles like "7 Historical Figures Who Were Absurdly Hard to Kill."
  

Gross.

I hate Nadya Suleman for her pathetic reasons for having children, her misuse of medical treatments designed to help those with actual medical difficulties, and her complete disregard for the impact her decisions have on others. Now added to the list is the way her stomach looks.

Damn you, disturbingly good anti-abortion ad!

Don't worry, I'm not converting. I just admire the ingenuity of the marketing.



Oh, yeah, and it's totally an unfair use of his image.

... and More Articles!

Hey, if you're going to steal from Bart, why stop at just one?

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"Dr. Doom," famously pessimistic NYU economics Professor Nouriel Roubini, argues that the best solution for resolving the toxic asset problem is (temporary) nationalization. Without it, he argues other options result in one of three problems:

If government takes on debt:
1. Overvaluing assets ---> Massive cost to taxpayers
2. Undervaluing assets ---> Risks massive bank failures
If government helps private sector keep debt:
3. Non-transparency and/or overcomplication (see Tax Code, the)

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In a rather odd article, scientists have discovered a bacterium in the Russian mammoth graveyard that may extend the duration of human lives in general, as well as the duration of their sex lives.

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I only read a little bit of this article, but it seems there's been something of a real-life Catch Me If You Can, with a woman taking on fake lives at Ivy League schools as part of her rouse.

Articles!

A quick article dump to start the day’s blogging activities.

”Sarah Palin's $159,050 Conflict of Interest” - Todd Palin is currently racing a “snow machine” 1,971 miles across Alaska, during which his “Arctic Cat's powerful two-stroke engine will emit the same amount of hydrocarbons as an automobile driving from Chicago to San Francisco and back 150 times.” Fantastic. And it only gets trashier and more polluting. First, the pollution: “[During the race] Todd Palin will release as many cancer-causing and smog-forming pollutants as a Chevy Malibu driven around the Earth at its equator 28 times.” Now, the conflict of interest: the race is sponsored by “[…] the petroleum giants Tesoro and Conoco-Phillips; State Farm, Wells Fargo, Frontier Airlines, Alaska Airlines and the Alaska First National Bank.” You may be saying, “But you are not being fair. Maybe the Palins do not get a shady benefit from this.” Well, Todd is an annual competitor (seemingly surprising for a race with a field of 40 people willing to do this kind of evil to the environment) who has only one four times. “Once after Sarah was elected to the Wasilla City Council, once after she was elected mayor, the year she was appointed to the Alaska Oil and Gas Commission, and the year she was elected governor.” Okay, okay, maybe I jumped the gun. Sorry for trying to shame such an upstanding family.

“Video Games Are Good For Children – EU Report” - Nothing too surprising here, but it is nice to have confirmation of something I believe: An EU panel determined that "’video games can stimulate learning of facts and skills such as strategic thinking, creativity, cooperation and innovative thinking, which are important skills in the information society.’" Yay! An excuse to play more video games!

Unemployment as stimulus -
“A Novel Approach: Using Unemployment Benefits as a Means for Stimulus” – An interesting plan to maximize the benefits created by unemployment payments: instead of paying out cash to an unemployed person for a set amount of time provide that person with a voucher that subsidizes them as an employee. For example, assume Mr. Doe is unemployed and receives $200 each week in unemployment payments ant that were anyone to hire Mr. Doe it would cost that firm $500 each week, a (made-up) prohibitive amount. The likely outcome here is that he remains unemployed. But if Mr. Doe can suddenly walk into an interview and say, “Instead of costing you $500 each week I will only cost you $300 each week and the money that would have been my unemployment check is now paying the other $200 of the salary.” Obviously this has limitations (e.g. what happens when Mr. Doe’s salary is no longer subsidized?), but in the short term this plan creates a greater overall income, implying a greater overall level of consumption, for the same government investment. At the same time it increases the overall production level of the economy.

“Big Satellites Collide 500 Miles Over Siberia” – This story seems pretty ridiculous at first, though it does highlight the very real concern of the volume of junk orbiting Earth. Apparently a non-functional Russian satellite launched in 1993 and described as “[…] out of control” crashed into a commercial satellite launched in 1997, creating thousands of particles that will now orbit Earth waiting to smash into other man-made satellites. I can’t help but think of this as a case of modern space zombies in which each zombie (read: smashed satellite) spends the rest of its time trying to create more zombies (read: smash other satellites). For perspective on the dangers we are facing from orbiting junk only fifty-two years into man’s era of sending crap into space: “[…] orbital debris is now the biggest threat to a space shuttle in flight, surpassing the dangers of liftoff and return to Earth.” I will now officially swear off space flight until we have orbiting Roombas keeping me safe.

“Letting Scientists Off the Leash” - This is an interesting article written by a researcher at Stanford University who discusses the flaws in the way money for research is distributed. His main point is that the typically conservative review boards that approve funding for grant proposals do not fund very imaginative or risky research. This leads to a situation where most of the ideas we are pursuing are those that we are already sure we can turn into a profit, not those that could have a substantially larger impact but at the same time carry larger risks (in that they are more likely than the boring projects to have an outcome different from that discussed when the grant was proposed). I don’t know too much about this, but I do support the idea of devising a more efficient means of identifying and funding riskier and more creative research.

Maybe the funniest Letterman interview I have ever seen.

For those of you who aren't following the story, Joaquin Phoenix recently announced his retirement from acting and the beginning of his new career: rapping! (It's real footage, but the audio is crappy.) At first I was surprised to hear this, but then I saw Joaquin on Letterman and suddenly understood it all. Joaquin must be on a drug, as he acts crazily enough that Letterman ends the interview by saying, "Well, Joaquin, it's too bad you couldn't be here tonight."

Modeling

I'm not naive about the relationship between the way someone looks in reality and the way they look on a magazine cover, but I found this to be astonishing ...

Possibly my favorite SI Swimsuit cover ever
I feel like I once borrowed a calculator from this chick at summer camp

Bar Refaeli - Wikipedia

Possibly the best sentence I've read in all my studies of economics

Judge: Why does a man like you have to pay for sex?
Charlie Sheen: I don't pay them for sex. I pay them to leave.

You Can't Buy Class.

When photographs showing Michael Phelps smoking pot came out, he handled the situation rather maturely. After his fairly reasonable attempts at disappearing the pictures failed (if I remember correctly he offered to write articles for the paper if they agreed to not publish), Phelps immediately admitted the legitimacy of the pictures and apologized for "[...] behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment." Phelps did not attempt to change public opinion on marijuana laws, or to gain special treatment by qualifying his actions; rather, Phelps said, "I'm 23 years old and despite the successes I've had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. [...] For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again." I disagree with the furor over Phelps' slip-up, but I do not think this situation could have been handled in a more professional manner. Phelps even went on to say that his suspension of three months was fair and warranted. Class act all around.

I can finally get to my point: a 23 year-old swimmer should not be acting more maturely and with more grace than, I don't know, maybe a Super Bowl-winning receiver or a Gold-Glove winning infielder. This isn't to say that Phelps should lower his standards, but that Plaxico and A-Roid show raise theirs.

Plaxico is not only a jerk who shot himself in the leg in a nightclub because he was holding a gun in the waistband of a pair of sweatpants, but also a person who doesn't pay any bills on time. Seriously. He has been sued at least nine times for unpaid debts since he entered the NFL in 2000. That is an average of once a year if we are generous and include 2009. Once he even paid a debt (only after a court ruling) with a check that bounced! This guy is less than two years into a five-year, $27.25 million contract, which tells me he is just being a dick for no reason. If shooting himself in the leg doesn't change his attitude, I doubt he will ever come to the point where he can be respected in the way that Phelps was and should be again.

My other example is one that is near and dear to my heart, Mr. Alex Rodriguez! I had my own reasons for hating the guy, so I was quite happy when the Red Sox 'lost' the chase for Rodriguez and the Yankees signed him to a record-breaking contract. [My hatred stemmed from both interviews watched on TV and a game I attended where A-Rod, after turning an inning-ending double play while playing for the Rangers, pretended to throw the ball to the crowd, laughed, and then took the ball into the dugout. Dick.] Now that he has finally admitted to using illegal performance enhancing drugs I can relax knowing that if he goes down as one of the best players ever it will be with a giant asterisk next to all of his statistics. I can only hope that the asterisk is composed of three syringes...a guy can dream, can't he?

A much fun as it is to watch sports stars run their names into the ground I truly hope that rookies everywhere are forced to take notes on Phelps' handling of the controversy surrounding his pot smoking. As always, money cannot buy class or grace under pressure, as Michael Vick, A-Rod, and Burress can all tell you.

Coldplay steal the show...and a song.

Long story short, Coldplay seems to have written the song "Viva la Vida" by simply copying the Joe Satriani song "If I Could Fly." Originally Joe Satriani planned to serve Coldplay with a copyright infringement lawsuit at the Grammys by hiring a bunch of servers to scour the venue. In the end, Satriani's lawyer was contacted by a lawyer representing the band who said he would accept the papers without the drama of a Grammy-night hunt for the band.

Here's a YouTube video that plays relevant sections of both Coldplay's "Viva la Vida" and Joe Satriani's "If I Could Fly." Satriani's song is from his 2004 album Is There Love In Space?, while Coldplay's is from their 2008 album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends.

For reference: the complete Coldplay song; the complete Satriani song.

For those of you interested in the music theory behind this claim here are two videos in which a guy from Creative Guitar Studios in California analyzes the theoretical similarities between the two songs. Video 1. Video 2.

Satriani is suing for any and all profits related to the copyright infringement, and considering the popularity of "Viva la Vida" he stands to gain quite nicely from this (especially when one considers the bump in name recognition for Satriani).

Prelude to: Clinton cheats on spouse in Oval Office, 21st century edition?