On the ingenious end of the scale, the state of Wisconsin has begun spraying cheese brine onto its roadways to keep them ice-free during the long winter months. Cheese brine is essentially salty water used during and then leftover from the cheese-making process. If it is not recycled into some non-cheese-related use, it goes into…
In a recent post, Aaron Barlow referenced Shia LaBeouf’s recent plagiarism of much of Justin M. Clowes’s independent short film, Justin M. Damiano, in his own independent short film, HowardCantour.com. I don’t think that it is an exaggeration to assert that exponentially more people have heard or read about the plagiarism than have seen either…
I am intrigued by the Chicago State University claim that the hedges trimmed to spell out the institutional initials are protected as part of its trademark because they are a distinctive landmark on the campus. Let’s consider some of the elements of this assertion. First, there is a difference between simple initials and a logo.…
No one is entirely sure if it began as a joke, but someone tweeted ahead of the New Year about how “cool” it was that the United States would be celebrating its 2014th birthday. Huffington Post published a very brief post that included the tweet with no editorial comment. A slew of people then posted…
Yesterday, I ventured out of the house—just barely beyond the front doorway—just enough to confirm that I preferred to remain inside. I do not have a baseline for what is “too cold,” but when I become cognizant of the individual hairs inside my nostrils, it is too cold for me. “Polar Vortex” is a wonderful…
As the snow piles up and the Arctic Vortex descends on most of the continental United States, we can probably all use something heart-warming to read. Jerry Coleman passed away today at age 89. He may not be a household name nationally, but elderly and diehard Yankees fans will remember him as a solid second-baseman…
How ancestry defines identity and what it means to be American are two inextricably linked and fundamental questions for most Americans. By extension, they have become the focal concerns of many academics across a number of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. We think of those issues as especially pressing and complex for immigrants…
The ASA resolution denouncing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians has provoked a great deal of discussion. I think that it may be beneficial to delineate some of the conclusions that might be drawn from that discussion. Some of the discussion has been very beneficial because it is focusing attention in a much-needed way on the…