And the nobel goes to…
Why aren’t Nobel Prizes given away in front of a live audience of members of the Nobel community in black ties? They should make it like the Oscars.
Amazing Dunk by Deer Man
Check out his amazing dunk by the Buckman.
Religious Iconography Spotted at Dunkin Donuts
I spotted a strange alliance between fast food restaurant and organized religion. Personally, I believe in strong separation between Church and doughnut. How do you feel about these images? Note the Dunkin Donuts box near the Jesus Baby and dude.
Benji Hughes = Magnetic Baby Cakes
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Somewhere between the high-browness of Stephin Merritt’s Magnetic Fields and the endearing inanity of Brad Neely’s Baby Cakes, there’s a brilliant songwriter named Benji Hughes. Hughes’ 2008 album A Love Extreme is some true, cool stuff.
Can You Feel It? Can’t You Hear It?
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Apples in Stereo’s New Magnetic Wonder from 2007 is an amazing collection of hooks and fuzz and pure energy oozing from almost every one of the 24 tracks. One of my favorite parts of the album is found at the end of the lead track, Can You Feel It?, which was recorded live in Scotland. After some appaulse, you can hear a few different voices from the crowd begging for the band to “Turn it down! TURN IT DOWN!” The most amusing plea can be clearly heard (in a thick Scottish brogue), “Everything’s feedbacking! Can’t you hear it?” Sounds good to me. And New Magnetic Wonder never sounds better than in early spring.
Beeing Healthy in Oakland
On Wednesday of last week, a week that was already super shitty, I came home to an infestation of bees coming in and out of a small gap in the siding of my building, directly above my door. I called my landlord who said she’d drop by with some spray. When my upstairs neighbor came home a couple hours later and had 30 or so bees in her kitchen, the problem seemed like it might be getting worse. Things subsided in the early evening without having to use the spray, but because there were a dozen or so bees lingering, we thought it’d be best to call a bee pro to come by for a look.
Khaled Almaghafi visited early Thursday morning. When my landlord, upstairs neighbor and I met just outside my door at 9am, Almaghafi told us that it appeared that the queen had (literallly) left the building and that the five or so bees that were left coming in and out were lost stragglers. When we thought he was about to pull away in his pick-up truck, Almaghafi came back to the front steps with a five-gallon bucket filled with a busted hive (and some dead and dying bees) he’d just removed from a clients house. 
He invited us to try some fresh natural honey by wiping our fingers over the waxy honeycomb. Man was that stuff good. Sensing our delight, he continued to break off chunks for us to eat whole. My landlord totally got down and seemed to ignore the inevitable sticky aftermath.
Almaghafi, a Yemeni immigrant who’s been in the area since 1986, was a really interesting guy. He studied business administration at UC Davis in the 80s and seems to have a great gig going–when he’s not answering emergency calls to remove bee hives and infestations, Almaghafi is managing his own bees and harvesting their honey to sell at his shop, Bee Healthy Honey Shop. Bee Healthy is on the outskirts of Tastyville at 3622 Telegraph Ave., and Almaghafi sells his goods at the Temescal Farmers Market on Sundays.
JHSPH becomes JHBSPH, or does it?
When the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health got a bizzilian dollars from Micheal Bloomberg, it took on the moniker the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHBSPH). The uptake of the “B” has been slow–for instance email address are just @jhsph.edu. Beyond the awkwardness of inserting the initial of a large donor after the initials of another large donor, I think some of the resistance has to do with the simultaneously adopted slogan “saving lives millions at a time.” It was hard for scientists to warm up to a motto so objectively false.
I’d like to purpose a new slogan that clears all this up. It’s honest and to the point: The Johns Hopkins BLOOMBERG School of Public Health: We’re Well Endowed.
Get Behind This:
