A funny thing happened on the way to this Monday…The Great NJ Toilet Paper Shortage, Smartphone Slaves

-o-Guest writer-o-

The generally jocular Jen is out of town this week, so her partner, Brian, will be stepping in to bring you all of the funny things that happened on the way to this Monday. You may remember him from such wonderful posts as the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and San Francisco. (I’m the one in the middle)

-o- New Jersey’s Budget Battle-o-

A budget stalemate among legislators in Trenton, NJ has led to a shortage of toilet paper. Usually these hyperbolic budget battles only have esoteric consequences, like the default of the U.S. government, by NJ has found a way to bring it a little closer to home. An inability to approve a paper products budget has led to the capital building only having enough toilet paper to last the week. Perhaps they can wipe with their nonsense bills, or common sense, or maybe there’s an app for that…

Check out Time‘s article.

-o-Smartphone Slaves-o-

A new article in The Economist sheds light on the downside of hyper-connectiveness. When you are expected to be on email all day, where is the line between home and work? Is it a good idea for managers institute the last-minute changes to products and force their underlyings to implement whatever new change he’s thought up? I, thankfully, don’t have a smart phone because I believe they destroy souls, but for those of you who do, think of ways to unplug…for a few hours…for your sanity

(Source: The Economist.com)

Check it out: http://www.economist.com/node/21549904

-o-SXSW-o-

For those of you not cool enough to know, SXSW stands for south by southwest, the annual technology convention in Austin Texas. Last year over 20,000 people attended and in 2007, SXSW launched twitter into internet stardom. So check out their website.

(Source: Caitlin Kenney/NPR)

-o-Leftist comedy-o-

A SXSW panel asked the question: is political comedy inherently leftist? The internet has of course seen some truly despicable and racist Obama jokes, but typically, when we see political satire its lampooning republicans or conservative values. Maybe liberalism just naturally inhabits the comedic vanguard? Maybe its nothing more than bad timing… left-wing nut jobs just aren’t as plentiful as right-wing nut jobs in this day and age?

Decide for yourself: Article

-o-And on a lighter note-o-

Just a ‘for fun’ thing to check out: America’s richest counties.

Most are in and around DC, so that’s cool for us.