Chatquah and Galoshes

Entrepreneur.com: Best Cities for Entrepreneurs

this one caught me becuase both Birmingham and Mobile are listed. along with 2 other cities in Alabama. Granted that Entrepreneur mag looks a bit cheesy and I didn’t look at the actual way they calculated this, but it is interesting. Another interesting thing: Alabama ranks ranks well in the Small Business Survival Index from 2003 to 2005. This does seem consistent with my time in Alabama, it did seem like small business was thriving. It’s interesting though in that does this mean that the relatively low-cost of living in Alabama has made it one of the better places to start a business or has it’s government actually come through with reforms that favor small businesses? Still it’s funny that in the wake of Walmart’s supposed iron grip on the South East that most of the South East actually fairs better when it comes to small businesses than elsewhere.

technorati tags: alabama

Exploring my limits through aviation – Flying Adventures – Family fun vehicle

interesting little article on the history of consumers aircraft. At one point there were “family planes” in the U.S., but…

“Unfortunately the litigious nature of American society eventually made small planes uneconomical both for their prospective purchasers and the companies making them. For some years, several companies stopped making small planes altogether until the liability issues were worked out more clearly – but even now, its more expensive to own a simple single engine 4 seater that does around 100 knots than it was 50 years ago – I think the cheapest 4 seater you can buy today is a really stripped down Maule at about 120K USD . “

You can still buy a few of these planes. Taylor Craft,  Maule and Piper.

It’s interesting that liability killed personal and affordable aircrafts in the U.S. Kits still exist to build your own plane which circumvents the liability claims of the manufacturer by putting the liability of the plane on you i.e. you fuck up the manufacturing you’re dead, which is funny when you think about it that our legal system makes it harder for professionals to provide realiable well built transporation.

technorati tags: airplanes, transporation

Literate Cities 2004 | education

University of Wisconsin study of the most literate cities in the U.S. taken the regionalsim of the U.S. these days these studies always turn up some predictable things (creative centers like Seattle and Minneapolis rank rather high) and some surprising things (the most well educated concentration of people in the u.s. live in Plano, TX).  Washington, DC has the most newspapers with Newark, NJ next and of course Minneapolis in third, Akron, OH has the most libraries, Kansas City, MO is in second, San Francisco has the most book sellers (although ranks rather low for people with b.a.s or higher). All of which is of course rather interesting to see, for instance San Francisco’s high number of book sellers but lower number of libraries and higher education achievement suggests a high number of advanced readers/ self-educators who prefer to own books themselves while Plano, TX’s advanced learners suffer from a surfiet or libraries or good book stores to further their education at (and probably less capital to start businesses with too I’d imagine). Least educated populos Santa Ana, CA #77 and Newark, NJ hence Newark might have a lot of newspaper, but not a lot of higher educated people, book stores, libraries etc. Washington D.C., Boston, MA, Atlanta, GA, and San Francisco lead with the most number of publications. As usual some surprises (Texas is chocked full of college grads while Florida and Miami rank ridicilously low).

technorati tags: literarcy, numbers

Oy vey! Are the Elders of Zion setting up a crime syndicate in Japan? – MSN-Mainichi Daily News

Quotes:

” and contains no names and no photos, except something that looks like an old shot from a Nazi concentration camp, overlaid with the German “Juden Mafia” in gothic letters.”

“The Jewish mafia is in even better shape than the Turks,” asserts Jitsuwa Knuckles’ source. “A portion of the ones peddling accessories and fake brand goods on the streets in bar areas may be a part of this network.”

“The Jews are really skillful at knowing when to push and when to pull,” the source tells Jitsuwa Knuckles. “If they feel the police are getting to close, they stop selling the stuff themselves and subcontract to Iranians. So that way even if the Iranians get busted, they’re out of harm’s way.”

“Rather than acknowledge his inability to amass a single shred of evidence that would expose these conspiratorial Jews, “Dogen” instead maintains this only adds to the evidence of just how shrewd they really are.”

This from MSN and obviously taken the closing statements of the article, the point of it is to mock a Japanese publication posting what sounds like a totally ludcrious series of statements that begin by blaming “turks” for the “forienger crime wave” in Japan and ends with an examination of the “jewish” mafia. Studies show 80% of Japanese don’t have problems with immigrants living in Japan and while some visa reforms have made it easier for foriegners to live there, stories like this still can run a little shiver down your spine. While the story that Masuo is critiquing ran in a Japanese comic book from the looks of it, it still highlights A. the fascination with Japan’s racist past and B. the fact that Japanese themselves are beginning to get tired of the excessive battering the media takes at “foriengers”. It’s a plus and a minus in other words, one gets the feeling that Masuo is more of the average Japanese these days sceptical of such stories, but the undercurrent here is that race is still a scapegoating mechanism for a society that shows little interest in professing to include other cultures into it’s own.

technorati tags: jewish, politics, racism