When I lived in France, I became convinced that the primary purpose of the French government was to undermine the French economy. It’s become clear to me that the population is now in cahoots. There have been sweeping protests across the country in response to proposed legislation to reduce the bureacracy involved with regard to hiring and firing young employees. “Employ at will” — the law of the land in the U.S. — is quite literally a foreign concept. And working age French citizens have demonstrated a profound unwillingness to accept changes to a system that fosters economic waste and laziness. (Most, however, were delighted to accept the 35-hour work week a few years ago, despite the fact that the most rudimentary education in economics would lead one to the conclusion that it was a ludicrous policy.)
An article in the NY Times by Elaine Sciolo is insightful: “It is a collective failure of the French system,” said Louis Chauvel, a sociologist who studies generational change. “You earn more doing nothing in retirement at the age of 60 to 65 than working full-time at the age of 35. And we have organized society so there is no room for new entrants.”
And get this, in a poll of 22 countries, France was the only one in which a majority of the population disagreed with a free market economy. (36% of the French endorsed open markets, contrasted again 59% of Italians, 65% of Germans, 66% of Brits, 71% of Americans, and 74% of Chinese.) If France wants to preserve its social welfare system, it was little choice, but to press ahead with economic reform. Marie Antoinette is rumored to have said, “Let them eat cake,” I think that the French would benefit from learning a different gateau-related phrase: You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
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A few years ago, I was in Washington Square Park when a friend of mine ran up to me and said, “There’s a Jewish guy singing Reggae and he’s ridiculously good. And he’s not Jewish like you…he’s one of those serious Jews. You know — with the beard and the hat.”
“Lubavitch?” I asked.
He nodded and I followed him to the stage where I saw that he was right. The performer, Matisyahu, has since been signed to a major label, put out albums, and appeared on a variety of television shows. You can check out a recorded live performace, Live at Stubbs. Or since the Passover season is upon us, The So Called Seder: A Hip Hop Haggadah.
Matisyahu has seemingly kicked off a whole generation of edgy Jewish music. In fact, I think that I saw Yitzchak Moshe Jordan (Y-Love), performing that same day in Washington Square Park. And if you want something that sounds a bit more urban, check out JewDa.
Think Microsoft employees can’t poke fun at their company’s products? Think again. This bit of CSS code was posted on a Microsoft webpage:
/* fix for the IE 1px-off margin error */
* html .StupidIEMarginHack {
margin-right: 1px;
}
* html .StupidIEWidthHack
{
width: 100%;
}
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This weekend, while dealing with tendonitis in my left knee, I found myself on the couch watching Brainiac. I had never seen the show before, but it struck me as a ligthweight version of Mythbusters. One of the assertions that the Brainiac cast validated was that paper can only be folded in half seven or eight times. I had heard this when I was younger, but always wondered what would happen with longer strips of really thin paper. Despite Brainiac’s confirmation that the upper limit was eight, I found that a high-school student, Britney Gallivan, had folded a paper in half 12 times in January 2002. And that wailing sound? A fact-checker losing his/her job.