Jacob Grier -- Liquidity Preference
Coffee, Cocktails and Commentary
Added Zhubin Parang’s blog to the links at left tonight, mainly because I like putting Zhubin’s and Dan Eberhart’s pages in the same list (inside joke for you Vandy political types).
Surprising as it is, this site broke the 500 unique visitors in a month mark today, and that’s with about eight days of downtime. The 1,000 mark will definitely be cause for a celebration taco.
So Scientific American didn’t mention Nietzsche in their parallel universes article, but they did in this piece entitled “Nietzsche’s Toxicology.” But as much as I love Nietzsche, that is not why I bring this up — the article is about hormesis, the phenomenon of toxins having beneficial effects in small doses.
Dante Arciero wrote about this very subject in the December issue of The Torch. At the time a few people expressed skepticism, but it’s good vindication when a left-leaning magazine like SciAm prints an article on hormetic effects (even noting their implications for environmental laws).
Now if only they’d print a study proving the superiority of sugar cane Dr Pepper over the normal variety…
The first issue of The Slant under new EiC Meredith Gray is online and in print. My contribution is Dining Director Frank Gladu’s welcome letter to incoming freshmen. I have to admit I hate picking on the guy so much (this is my third piece that satirizes him and Vandy Dining). He seems like a really nice guy. But, as the visible head of the dining monopoly that inflicts itself on all freshmen, all Pub-goers, and anyone on campus who just wants a fresh slice of pizza, he’s the guy to be targeted.
My new contact info is up on the contact page. Note the new cell ([seven-oh-three]-969-3580), which now has text messaging.
Finally, Net access in my D. C. apartment! I’ve been here since Friday night and have greatly missed being connected, getting by with a few short trips to a Net café and Kinkos. Life is good, and here are a few lessons I’ve learned so far:
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This is old news, but given the title of my blog I feel obliged to link to the May Scientific American article about the existence of parallel universes and, therefore, eternal recurrence (the article Gerald T. was referencing in his strange and funny guestbook entry). The article outlines four different levels of parallel universes, with the Level I multiverse being the one that could most directly keep Zarathustra up nights. No Nietzsche in the article, but it’s great anyway if you like cosmology.
Catching up on some old content, I added two papers to the site tonight. There is one on jury nullification from 2002 and one on William James’ “The Will to Believe” from this past March.
This is from my friend Josh Keltner, describing a conversation he had with his economic history professor at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX:
JTKeltner1017: say.. have I got a story for you!!
JaRoGrier: I’m listening
JTKeltner1017: I told my economic history teacher this summer that I really wanted to get into theoretical econ and econ history so I was going to read Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations.
JTKeltner1017: she said “Oh really, I’ve never really read any of that, I don’t think its terribly important.”
JTKeltner1017: then I say..”Well do you have any suggestions on how I can spend my reading time better?
JaRoGrier: haha, that’s great
JTKeltner1017: and she says..
JTKeltner1017: or actually she shows up the next day with a copy of When Corporations Rule the World, foreword by Danny Glover
JTKeltner1017: UGGGHGHG
JTKeltner1017: MY ECON HISTORY PROF
Here are a few new websites worth taking a look at if you thought BuddyZoo was a fun way to kill time on the Web: Friendster, Tribe.net, and Ryze. They’re all social networking sites that allow you to explore your network in various ways. Now that I’m back home to Houston and a high speed Internet connection, I’ve spent the past couple nights trying them out. Here’s how they stack up based on my early impressions:
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The department assignments for the Cato interns are now out. On the application I was torn between listing the Center for Educational Freedom or Media Relations as my first choice, so I am thrilled to discover that I’ve been given a dual position: I’ll be assigned to both. This really could not have worked out better!
Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, bartender, cocktail consultant, and magician in Portland, Oregon. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in the print or online editions of The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, Reason, The Oregonian, and other publications.
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