Long awaited return of the PROVONIAN

Speechless!!!

MC Solaar!

Who remembers this song? And it comes with subtitles!

IMPORTANT NOTICE

It's very important to brush up on life saving skills from time to time. Might I suggest you watch this video so that you might know what to do in case someone you know is choking.

http://youtu.be/sMLaKb32QyE

Sorry.  This link has been shut down by the man for some reason.  It was a great Sigur Ros Video.  Anyway, sorry about that.

Investing in Education

I'm curious what you fellas think about this article on the pros and cons of college education. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765577367/The-value-of-an-education-Spiraling-college-costs-and-student-debt-spark-doubts-over-payoffs.html?pg=1

Do you feel it was a good investment for you? Do you wish you had done anything differently? What advice should I give my high-school students? 

Missionary Parents and the Work of the Kingdom

My parents just got their mission call to the Germany Alpine mission. My Dad served in the Austria, Vienna mission back in the 60's so I'm excited for him to get to go back to Austria. The mission covers Austria, southern Germany and parts of Switzerland. They won't be in Switzerland because the Swiss government no longer allows foreign missionaries. I hadn't heard that! [Insert Swiss ridicule here.]

My parents are signed up to serve for 1 year and then can extend if they feel like they should. I remember when I first thought about my parents serving a mission I felt a little sad about them missing out on events in the lives of their grandchildren. But now I'm just excited. It think this is just what every older LDS  couple needs to shake up their marriage and do something that can bring them together in new ways. In fact, Taliatha and I are going to set up our own mission fund so we can go together.

Speaking of missions, I would like to add that I have finally reached the point in my life where I feel more spiritually alive and engaged in the work than I did as a full time missionary. I don't say this to brag about how great I am, but because it is so exciting for me and I hope my excitement is a little contagious. Priesthood service in the gospel is where it's at. I love my farm and other interests, but serving the Lord is rewarding in a much more satisfying way.

At our ward conference in January our stake president challenged our ward to be ready to divide within 1 year. I am on the high council and am assigned to my home ward. I am actively working with our bishopric to reactivate men in the ward and help our new convert men make it to the temple. We've already seen one unlikely reactivation and an incredible conversion.

Manly Manly Jed

Untitled from Jed Wells on Vimeo.

I'm proud of you, Glimglom. We're all proud of you.

Lars-Erik Larsson

I just put this on Facebook, but in the spirit of Brandie's last post I posted it here so you guys know just how awesome it is. This is The Winter's Tale by Lars-Erik Larsson. I heard it on our classical station out in NC a few years ago and it's stuck with me ever since as a real favorite. It's short but truly sublime--or whatever great adjective you want to use. You can thank me later.

My Brightest Diamond

This song kills me.

Ah Snap! This is cool.

(HT: Coyote Blog)

For the Love of Manufacturing

Next time you hear someone complain about the decline of the manufacturing sector in the US send them here. Total manufacturing output in the US has not gone down. We make more stuff than we ever have. We just make more for less. That's usually considered progress but for some reason manufacturing is a hallowed profession that is considered different from others. That's not just on the Left either, as the linked article shows.

Here's one of the best graphs (among many) from the linked blog:

Credit Ratings of Each State

Gil sent me this:

It reminds of me of the AAA ratings that were on bundled mortgages even though when you looked inside at the individual mortgages there was a lot of junk. To me this is more evidence for why most spending (especially social programs like medicare, medicaid and social security) should be done at the state and not the federal level. States can't print money and hide bad debt as well as the federal government. If they make too many poor fiscal choices their citizens will just leave and the state will have to restructure through bankruptcy. At the federal level, inflation can just make our debts all "disappear" over time.

Aaron, Please Help!

Sorry to keep posting economics garbage. But that's the stuff I'm reading lately and I can't help myself. Just tune me out if I'm getting pedantic. Anyway, this one is for Aaron. Aaron, is there any reason we should keep (or start) taking guys like Krugman remotely seriously? Here we have Krugman with the broken windows fallacy writ large. His arguments just seem so intuitively wrong on every level that I've been suppressing guffaws in my office for the last ten minutes after watching this clip.



I know Krugman comes off as an ideologue, but lots of economists still think this way. Help!

Stimulating Government Employees

Umm, is this blog still on? Of late I've been reading Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson online. It's full of money quotes with which I will regale you repeatedly.

Even though the stimulus bill of 2009 was sold as a "shovel-ready jobs" bill, a lot (most?) of the money has gone to shore up existing federal agencies and programs or was sent to states to support state budgets. Here's Hazlitt on why using money to retain government employees (whether you think that's a good idea or not) is unlikely to "stimulate" the economy:

The country is not merely as well off without the superfluous officeholders as it would have been had it retained them. It is much better off. For the officeholders must now seek private jobs or set up private business. And the added purchasing power of the taxpayers, as we noted in the case of the soldiers, will encourage this. But the officeholders can take private jobs only by supplying equivalent services to those who provide the jobs—or, rather, to the customers of the employers who provide the jobs. Instead of being parasites, they become productive men and women.

Manbears

Here's a two-part action-packed miniseries made by my students.
Commie Terrorists - check.
Elite Freedom-loving Commando Unit - check.
Prelude to Buttkicking Montage - check.
Complete Disregard for Continuity - Let's rock.





And find more bizarre stuff here:

http://manbearpictures.blogspot.com/

Technorella

Jed and I were waiting in line to get free hot-dogs at RC Willies and our conversation lead us to the topic of techno music. I brought up the point that techno music can transcend all ages. Jed laughed at the thought and said he would give me a six pack of Welch's Grape soda if I could get his children into techno. Watch the videos all the way through. They are beautiful.

Here is the Pied-Piper of techno.


This is a newer Disney film, just in case your boys didn't like the last one.


This song almost brought me to tears.

Go Follow Jed's Russian Mormons Blog

Go sign up as a follower on Jed's Russian Mormons blog. It looks really good. Ummm, Jed's pretty cool.

FUNKDAFIED TO THE FILL AND PHATT WITH PHLAVOR

I recently went through some bins that contained stuff from high school. I found these gems.

Uhhh . . . try Yale next time dude

Maybe this LSU grad student thought he was at an Ivy League school when he planned to hold a flag burning protest. I'm glad the police protected him (free speech and all that), but I have to admit I enjoyed seeing him get mobbed off of campus. My guess is this is exactly what would have happened at just about any big, state school in the South or Midwest.

So precious

Jed's pretty good, but these guys...

Guys, I think we squandered our one opportunity for some really great wedding photos. Jed, why couldn't you think of having my blushing bride superimposed over my bare-chested heart? You have the know-how.

Green Men

A very entertaining piece on E:60. These guys are living the dream.