Video Scoreboards: Dumb Idea That Won't Die

Who needs cheerleaders?

The RISD is preparing a bond package to place before voters in May. In early drafts of the package, $2 million was penciled in for new video scoreboards at the RISD's two football stadiums. That was reportedly whittled down to $400,000 by foregoing new video capabilities. In this time of state budget deficits threatening public school education, even that much is best deferred.

Even if I thought the RISD could afford them, video scoreboards are still a dumb idea, for reasons I explained a month ago. After the jump, the RISD refuses to let this dumb idea die.

Richardson to Dentist: This Won't Hurt a Bit

Over a year ago, the presidents of three homeowners' associations in southwest Richardson lobbied the city to stop "half-hearted" development. What is half-hearted development? The answer was kind of fuzzy, but presumably converting old fast food restaurants into doctors' offices is considered to be half-hearted redevelopment. And it's clearly not wanted.

What I said about this topic when it came up in November, 2009, can be read here. After the jump, what's new.

Coming to Richardson: A New York State of Mind

Paul Krugman -- Nobel laureate and New York Times columnist (I don't know which of those makes him more suspect to Texas readers) -- has been looking into the conventional wisdom that the Texas economy has been a great success in this recession. He compiles a telling graph showing unemployment trends for Texas and New York for the last decade. I challenge you to tell which state is which without looking at the legend. Krugman suggests that "the miraculous Texas immunity to the recession is mythical."

After the jump, Krugman's explanation for why Texas, for a long time, has had faster-growing employment and population than the Northeast.

Winter in the Steger Garden (2011)

From Flowers

Twitter Tracks: Football, Lame Ducks and More

Twitter tracks from December, 2010:

• 2010 12 01 - Where politics, business and sport collide - Nate Silver's blog about TCU and the Big East: http://goo.gl/LiQPo
• 2010 12 02 - Funny how that works. Headline: "If Democrats are the big spenders, why do Republican states get the money?" http://goo.gl/811HL
• 2010 12 02 - The Moral Landscape, by Sam Harris: Science & morality are not different realms. Science has more to say about morality than religion does.
• 2010 12 03 - Coco Avant Chanel (2009): No corset! Anarchy. A portrait of a talented, ambitious young woman on the rise. With Audrey Tautou! See it.
• 2010 12 05 - Northwestern is coming to Dallas this season! and playing in the Cotton Bowl stadium on New Year's Day. Thank you, TicketCity Bowl.
• 2010 12 05 - And Wisconsin is back in the Rose Bowl. God's in his heaven - All's right with the world.
• 2010 12 07 - "Chaos" is Randy Moss's nickname. Headline: "Chaos could end Fisher's Titans tenure"
• 2010 12 07 - 14 years after DART opens, Jacquielynn Floyd discovers commuter rail. Her scoop: It's less stressful than driving. http://goo.gl/aEO8u

After the jump, more Twitter tracks.