Incarceration and race in America

This month on the Cato Unbound site, there is an interesting debate on incarceration and race in America, with a lead-off essay by Glenn Loury and responses by James Q. Wilson, Bruce Western, and John Lott. I haven’t been through all of it yet, but there’s lots of provocative stuff.

Arenas comeback: so far, so good

Late posting this, but here’s the DC Sports Bog review of Gilbert’s return to the court last Saturday.

President Obama with Wizards jersey

This is from Bulls-Wizards game he attended earlier this month.  Neat picture.

Professors on video change lecture approaches

This article from Chronicle of Higher Education confirms the common sense expectation that professors will watch what they say and otherwise be more careful in their lectures when they know the video cameras are on.

Inside Obamanomics

This piece from about a week ago in New York magazine looks at the Obama Administration’s economic team and where policy is headed.

Some of the policy discussion has been overtaken by events, as more detailed plans to deal with toxic assets held by banks were announced last week.

The discussion about the central personalities–Treasury Secretary Geithner and National Economic Council Chair Summers–remains interesting and relevant. The author also does a good job of setting the broader context of how the new administration’s policies represent a departure from Rubinomics as well as from the policies of the last several Republican administrations.

National Cherry Blossom Festival: Jero and the Opening Ceremony

I stopped by the Opening Ceremony of the National Cherry Blossom Festival at the National Building Museum this afternoon. American enka singer Jero performed, as did the Washington Ballet/Washington School of Ballet. Despite the chilly, drizzly weather a whole lot of folks came out.

I liked Jero. He sang three songs. The music is pretty standard enka. He’s got a really nice voice and is a charismatic performer.

Compilation of useful sites for neighborhood info

CNet News provides a nice compilation of sites and links.

Fixing the Grid

Wired News carries a feature on ways to improve the electrical grid.

Disadvantages of leveraged ETFs for medium/long-term trading

Interesting article on the Seeking Alpha site explains why leveraged ETFs, though very useful in day-trading and other short-term strategies, have disadvantages when held for any length of time. Independent of whether they go up or down.

Japan: Pollen-monitoring bots

From CNet News, a report on pollen-monitoring system being rolled out by a weather information company in Japan. The robots change color according to the amount of pollen in the air, and transmit that info (in addition to temperature, humidity, etc.) to the service, which in turn updates subscribers via cellphone.