“So, the Big Mac isn’t just some dumb lump of something resembling meat.” - How McDonald’s Explains the World http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/big-maconomics-how-mcdonalds-explains-the-world/256431/
It needed to be said. (h/t politicalprof)
(via sbkent)
Demand for gasoline in the U.S. is at its lowest point in more than a decade; domestic oil production is at an eight-year high. http://www.npr.org/2012/02/26/147451538/what-happens-if-the-keystone-xl-pipeline-isnt-built?sc=fb&cc=fp
The First Served: Turkeys and Thanksgivings in America
…That was not a finger-on-the-nose bit of Old Ben playfulness. Earlier in the turkey letter, Franklin is arguing hard about whether there ought to be hereditary legacies in American life, and he makes the keen point that there are two kinds of honor in the world: the Old World’s “descending honor,” in which people pass on their goods and their status to their children, and the New World’s “ascending honor,” in which children strive to impress their parents by moving up in society on their own. For Franklin, ascending honor—what we would now call meritocratic advancement—is the American goal, and descending honor the American danger. The eagle is to him an avian example of descending honor in action: looking classy but swooping down to feed on the helpless. The turkey is the bird of ascending honor: silly and vain, pluming itself too much on the small stuff but sharing the feed with the other birds in the yard and ready to give hell to anyone who tries to make trouble.
- In this week’s Comment, Adam Gopnik writes about Thanksgiving and the history of the turkey.
(via motherjones)
A design that will control a real plant with your iPad
If you don’t have a green thumb but are into technology and have a smart device, this may be what your looking for. Designer Samuel Wilkinson has created a design where plant meets app.Senator Al Franken fact checks Senator Chuck Grassley on the history of marriage.
(h/t The New Republic)
This has been Real Talk With Al Franken. Tune in again next week.
