soapbox

Economic product space, not an inner product space.

Very cool ideas coming out of the overlap between economics and physics. If you’re a map freak like me, then this figure will have you very excited. I’m particularly fond of the very dangerous-looking fish.

Seriously, though, this sheds a little additional light on the “rich get richer; poor get poorer” problem, particularly why it is often so intractable. Much more detailed information on the dedicated page here; definitely something I’ll be going back to read more about…

for the most mentions of “Dartmouth” in a movie: Superbad.

I have to say that there’s not that much of plot to the movie, it’s a buddy film about two nerdy geeky guy’s attempts to impress girls by getting booze for a party. That said, it’s a good buddy film with some definite laugh-out-loud scenes. Kirsten almost fell out of her seat at a couple of points.

It’s probably worth seeing in the theater and a definite must-see once it’s out on DVD.

Of course, there are a couple of disturbing things… at the party, the girls are really explicitly sexual. This wouldn’be a problem if they didn’t all look really young. (I just imdbed a few of the actresses and they’re all of age. Still feels dirty though.)

More evidence of the rotting core of America comes from the other Viacom-owned music channel, VH1.

I don’t think that “Rock of Love” would be so shocking to me if I’d watched “Flavor of Love”, but a show entirely about sluts trying to be selected by Brett Michaels (I’m not sure what they’re being selected as…) just seems crazy. Kirsten and I watched it while we were folding clothes, and it seriously made her jaw drop. I just checked out the bios of all the girls, and while there are a few whose most noteable life moments are stripping, there are also a bunch of people who really should be doing better.

My main complaint is that all of the people on the show, including Brett, seem completely willing to debase themselves for a chance to be on TV. It just shocks me.

I also don’t really understand the show. It seems to largely be “Watch Brett Michaels make out a lot” since any time he talks to a girl and she says something like “We’re out of milk.” or “Lacey is being mean to me.” it always ends in a “November Rain” visible tounge kiss. (Yes, that was GNR, not Poison.) If he’s really looking for the “ultimate rock-star girlfriend” shouldn’t they all have been tested for stds at the start of the show, followed by cycling them by ones or twos through the bedroom every night? Instead, despite the constant kissing and drunken nakedness, it seems like any real sexual contact is completely forbotten.

I just don’t get it.

I was watching “MTV After Hours” from on Tivo the other day. If you don’t know, this is one of the only shows where MTV actually plays music videos and it’s convieniently in the 3-4am timeslot.

There were two videos that really caught my eye and that really illustrate just how screwed the US really is.

Exhibit 1: Sean Kingston - “Beautiful Girls”. It’s really not a bad song with a “Sittin’ on the dock of the bay” vibe. The problem, at least according to Viacom, is that the lyrics are “You’re way too beautiful girl, That’s why it’ll never work, You’ll have me suicidal, suicidal”. The chorus repeats the “suicidal, suicidal” part. Apparently, MTV must think that this is going to incite people to kill themselves when they break up, so the music video completely blanks out the singer’s voice when he’s at this part of the song. It’s really noticable since, at some points, he’s singing the chorus a capella. The video shows his lips moving to complete silence.

Frankly, I think that suicide is a perfectly normal thing to think about when you’re in high school and the love of your life dumps you. It’s a classic idea, just see Romeo and Juliet. Of course, thoughts are very different than actions, hence the fact that all of us are still around. The fact that MTV thinks they’re such a huge influence on people and need to censor the song really rubs me the wrong way. Especially when we get to exhibit 2…

Exhibit 2: Lil Mama - “Lip Gloss”. So, the entire song is about how a girl’s magic lip gloss helps her in High School. “They say my lip gloss is cool, my lip gloss be poppin’, I’m standing at my locker, and all the books keep stoppin’” In other words, it s semi-catchy idiotic hip-hop-pop song. My complaint is that toward the end of the video “Lil Mama”, who is 17, starts carrying around her kid almost as a fashion accessory. So, while the previous song couldn’t express the idea that you can be seriously upset and hurt by a bad breakup, this song is allowed to make teen pregnancy seem like a good idea.

All I have to say is “wow.”