Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Kill Barbie!

According to this article from the online edition of the Boston Globe when I get home this evening I'll need to say: "Get me my shotgun Ma! There's vermin in the daughter's room! Them Barbies and Bratz dolls is rotten our little dear's mind."

I know nostalgia for 70s is big this year, but this dusty track raging against the reality that little girls like to act like princess and play with dolls is so out of date and ridiculous you could have run it in the National Lampoon and, without changing a word, have people believing they were reading a parody of high sounding tripe that use to be published in NOW magazine.

My daughter loves Barbies and Bratz and also likes math and science and wants to be a zoologist. A child's mind can try on lots of roles and play many scenarios without it meaning they are stuck in one track for their life.

Ladies (as I'm sure you wouldn't want me to call you girls) go back to your ivory tower and leave parenting to the parents.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Moaning About My Generation

Alex Beam of the Boston Globe newspaper is another who has noticed that the boomer generation is not aging gracefully. He does a good job pointing out that old folks acting like children is just plain silly looking.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Underground or Parallel

Is it an underground economy, black market, or the term I always liked best "parallel market?" A parallel market forms when government tries to control markets. For example, you raise the tax on whiskey, and suddenly people are going to states with lower taxes and bringing the cheaper liquor home to drink, (or even worse buying moonshine). In affect the population creates a parallel flow of liquor into the state that competes with the legal taxed system.

The same thing has happen with labor. The various laws, taxes, and requirements to hire someone is making it more and more attractive to work for cash only, as related in this story form Los Angeles on the cash only work force in the state.

A government, if it is smart, will consider the question of what level of tax will the population bear, before they turn to a parallel market to fulfill their need?

Monday, December 12, 2005

Homeopathic vets under fire

In a new article (subscription required for the full text) we learn that: "...that the claimed effectiveness of homeopathic veterinary medicine has no more solid scientific evidence behind it than voodoo...."

Now if only that same skeptism and keen wit woud be turned to homepathy for humans the world would be little better place.

Monday, December 05, 2005

Tin Robots

It's amazing the things I find when I'm surfing the net and doing searches. I recently found out there is a demographic of people who are into collecting tin robots. These are toys made of metal. Some are powered by electric motors and others are wind ups. The design and art work is inspired by 1950s and 1960s. Most interesting is that this market is not for not collectors items only, but also features a lot of new robot toys.

I have to admit that once I looked over some of the toy robots available it did look tempting especially the classic robot with the twin ray guns or the Robbie the Robot alarm clock.