Archive for May, 2009

Redesigning California

Update: our local public radio station broadcast the two minute version of this post. Listen to it here. Most clichés about California are true: we are both America’s most urban state and its most agricultural. We are home to more national parks, more immigrants, and a better public university than any other state. We have [...]

Best of JamSideDown, Competition, Economics, Elections, Immigration, Politics, Reform

How the Kindle Helps Destroy Textbooks

When Bill Clinton was elected President in the early 1990's, encyclopedias were a $1.2 billion dollar business in the US. The best encyclopedia, Britannica, owned half of the market and advertised "more than 80 Nobel laureates" among its contributors. A Britannica set cost over $1,000. They were sold door to door by over 2,000 commissioned [...]

Best of JamSideDown, Book Wars, Competition, e-Books, Economics, History, Technology

The Peter Pandemic

Three days ago, I felt like crap. Sudden onset aches, chills, and nausea with a 100 degree plus fever. I didn't go home because I did not want to expose my family to Mexican pig flu. I had not been south of the border recently, but plenty of people around here have been, so I [...]

Disasters

Welcome Fallow Travelers

OMG it's a Fallows avalanche! And here we are with the site only half dressed! Goofy stuff about bikes and Barack lying everywhere. Pick up and get dressed, people — we have company! Well, make yourselves at home and feel freee to dig around. I'm told there's a pony here somewhere….

Technology