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January 29, 2007

The Decemberists

Terry Gross interviewed Colin Meloy of The Decemberists in NPR today. Good stuff.

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January 28, 2007

Assorted time management tips

From John Quiggin on Crooked Timbers. I really liked tip 3:

(It) is particularly relevant for people prone to distraction, which obviously includes all of us here. My core business is producing academic journal articles (and the occasional book). In this business, it’s easy to drift along, reading lots of interesting stuff, making notes, and imagining you are making progress, but not actually getting anywhere. So in homage to Taylor and Stakhanov, I discipline myself by setting word targets. I try to write 500 to 750 words of new material every day. 500 words a day might not sound much, but if you can manage it 5 days a week for 40 weeks a year, you’ve got 100 000 words, which is enough for half a dozen journal articles and a small book. So, that’s my target. If I haven’t written enough one day, I try to catch it up the next day and so on ...

(Greg Mankiw gave the same advise).

Tyler Cohen has some suggestions on Speed Reading

Another way to read quickly is to cut bait on the losers. I start ten or so books for every one I finish. I don't mind disliking a book, and I never regret having picked it up and started it. I am ruthless in my discards.

Also this:

Do the most important things first in the day and don't let anybody stop you. Estimate "most important" using a zero discount rate. Don't make exceptions. The hours from 7 to 12 are your time to build for the future before the world descends on you.

(More time management tips here)

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January 27, 2007

The cooling world

Frosty E. Hardison, a 43-year-old computer consultant and an evangelical Christian "believes that a warming planet is 'one of the signs' of Jesus Christ's imminent return for Judgment Day". And he has managed to put a spanner in the plans for showing 'An inconvenient truth' in her daughter's school.

The local school board is now hunting for a documentary that will give an opposing perspective so that they can have balance.

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January 23, 2007

Raising money for Orphanages

"The novelist Natasha Radojcic, has partnered with writer and publisher Allison Weaver in a project with two purposes: raising money for orphanages and running a literary magazine. For a $5 donation, you can contribute to the cause and--maybe--get published, too.(... accepted manuscripts will be paid a minimum of $200--that’s a pretty decent return on investment.)

You can read the details at Fernham. This looks like a really good cause to support. Do note that I dont know any of the people nvolved.

By the way, happy new year to all my long suffering readers.
I am going to start blogging again from this month.

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