Bad Hair?

I just got home from a screening of My Nappy Roots: A Journey Through Black Hair-itage (site, imdb). I guess my expectations were originally set too high. This is one of those cases where a small independent studio jumps on a great idea, but needs more people and a bigger budget to make it a real success. However, it holds a lot of promise, so I’m expecting improvements before the final cut is released.

From the very beginning, My Nappy Roots appears to be taking sides in the natural-versus-processed debate. However, as it gets further along, it settles into a more educational role. The film focuses on traditional and contemporary hair styles, cultural identity, prevailing attitudes about black hair, and how these are intertwined together. The brief discussion about pre-slave trade African hair was completely new to me, although it made sense that ethnic hair styles, along with music and language, were purposely wiped out to eliminate slaves’ prior identities. Other topics covered include the Indian wig industry and the history of the black hair care industry in America. I was also pleased that Madam C.J. Walker, America’s first female millionaire, got some well-deserved attention.*

My Nappy Roots addresses ethnocentricism, politics, and economic rivalry through interviews while maintaining a bit of objectivity. However, there’s a noticeable absence of certain voices (racially mixed individuals, blacks from the rest of the world, and the “white” hair care corporations). It also troubled me that one interviewee, in reaction against Korean competition, declared that the only thing blacks had economically was the hair industry. Rather than considering that as a reason to support black-owned businesses, it made me wonder if this attitude is keeping black entrepreneurs from pursuing other opportunities with broader markets. Those failing in the hair business should be encouraged to look for a comparative advantage in another industry.

*The Association for the Study of African American Life and History featured her in their 2010 Black History Kit that focused on economics and entrepreneurship, hence my recent familiarity with Walker’s life.

Had Your Cake

Economics is very much a study of opposites. There are positive incentives and negative incentives. Positive externalities and negative externalities. Gain and loss. Marginal benefit and marginal cost. But about a month ago, while doing some early preparations for my upcoming class this fall, something hit me: Is there a corollary to the sunk cost?

Sunk cost is probably best defined as something incurred in the past that an economist says doesn’t matter to the decision at hand, but any rational person is stubborn enough to consider it anyway. My suggestion is that, if there are retroactive and prospective costs and there are prospective benefits, (theoretically) there should be retroactive benefits. What would such a thing look like? I came up with two examples that might work:

Say a couple has dated and each half has to decide now whether or not to enter an official relationship. The sunk costs could be anything from the extra effort spent to shower right before the date to the overdraft fee on the credit card used to pay for a five-star meal. These costs have been incurred regardless of whether the couple decides to break up or “go steady.” So the sunk benefit, assumedly, would be the past benefits incurred (a pleasant evening with someone nice, the envy of everyone at school, an hour-long make-out session, etc.) Like the sunk costs, the couple would be told not to take these retroactive benefits into account.

Economics major best friend: “So what if he was a good kisser last night. Will he be a good kisser next weekend?”

My second example has to do with consuming free promotional items before choosing whether or not to buy anything, and it’s not nearly so interesting.

Science Isn’t in a Vacuum

As I mentioned before, the reading list during my “recovery” included Michio Kaku’s Hyperspace. In the chapter discussing non-name Theodr Kaluza’s harmonization of Riemann’s, Maxwell’s, and Einstein’s work, Kaku explains how historians of science neglect to appreciate how unrevolutionary it was:

Given the continuity of physics research, these historians are startled to find a new avenue of science opening up without any historical precedent. But their amazement is probably due to their unfamiliarity with the nonscientific work of the mystics, literati, and avante garde. A closer look at the cultural and historical setting shows the Kaluza’s work was not such an unexpected development. As we have seen, because of Hinton, Zollner, and others, the possible existence of higher dimensions was perhaps the single most popular quasi-scientific idea circulating within the arts. From this larger cultural point of view, it was only a matter of time before some physicist took seriously Hinton’s widely known idea…[T]he work of Riemann pollinated the world of arts and letters via Hinton and Zollner, and then probably cross-pollinated back into the world of science through the work of Kaluza. (pp. 103-104)

This relationship between scientific study and the “real world” wasn’t entirely new to me. When writing a paper on the 1900 San Francisco outbreak of the Bubonic plague,* I studied Alexandre Yersin’s research in Hong Kong a few years earlier. As part of the Pasteur Institute, it’s no surprise that he purposefully searched for a bacterium to fault, but what amazed me was how he went about it. He took local superstitions and “old wives tales” seriously! You’ll get the plague if you find a dead rat in your house. You’ll get the plague if you touch a warm dead rat, but not if you touch a cold dead rat. Et cetera. Et cetera.**

What the research on the plague and research on the fifth dimension have in common was foundations in the surrounding culture, and I don’t doubt that there are other examples. The thing to note is that good science doesn’t always outright reject that what was “unscientific.” Instead, it can utilize it quite effectively. And yet there are people who wish to keep science quarantined, forcing it to miss out on all the exciting interactions.

Human observations will continue to lead to new theories and discoveries, so what better to observe than human society in action? And as I mentioned in an earlier post, I am quite optimistic about the current video gaming subculture’s ability to devise ways to stave off nuclear warfare. No previous society has needed to create a wall between science and everything else to make successful scientific advancements. Why should we?

*Spending six months reading medical journals and old San Francisco Board of Health reports did not cure my fright of anything medical related.
**These are the two I remember, and there’s no way I’m going to look anything up right now.

6 Reasons to Hire a Pro

I promise this is the last of our Hire a Freakin' Professional... post extravagazza!



I was chatting with Russell Martin (a professional photographer) and he brought up 6 good reasons from a photographers point of view on why to hire a pro.



1. Will have a complete set of backup equipment





2. Will probably be familiar with the venue and know the best places for great photos.



3. Will be able to help plan your wedding timeline to achieve the best lighting for their portraits and make the best use of the available time. (if you plan a sunset wedding you better have a first look or the bride and groom portraits will be done in the dark)



4. Will remain professional under a stressful situation



5. Will have professional lighting equipment for most situations and will know how to balance artificial with available light



6. Will typically be familiar with the order of most religious ceremonies and will be sensitive to their different requirements



See, more than just great pictures!

Casual com brilho à mistura - Casual with added sparkle

(Scroll down for English)
Usei esta roupa para jantar fora num aniversário com família (neste caso, se me vestisse demasiado chique acreditem que me ia sentir deslocada); embora se diga que as lantejoulas são para os eventos formais à noite, actualmente muita gente quebra esta directiva (e muitas outras, se é que lhes podemos chamar de directivas). Na minha opinião as lantejoulas funcionam durante o dia se inseridas num coordenado realmente casual (por exemplo jeans com uma T-shirt branca, saltos altos e um bolero de lantejoulas). Nesta situação em particular resolvi não usar o bolero durante o dia no escritório e vesti-lo apenas à noite para jantar fora. Qual é a vossa opinião acerca de usar lantejoulas durante o dia?

I wore this outfit for a family birthday dinner out (in this case if I had been too dressed up , I’d have felt out of place, believe me)… Many would state that sequins are only to be worn for night events, but this “fashion rule” (as many other fashion rules, if one can call them that way) is starting to be neglected and ignored by many. In my opinion a sequined piece could work by day toning up a very casual outfit like jeans and a white t-shirt, for example (ok, I’d through in a good pair of heels too). For this day I decided against wearing the bolero to the office by day, putting it on only by dinner time. What do you feel about sequins in daytime outfits?

Girls Will Be Techies

Iridescent, an educational center promoting science (which likes homeschoolers, by the way). Girls in Tech, a social network promoting women’s technological creativity. Google. Microsoft. And a bunch of teen girls. End result? A phone application that tells you who you’re going to marry.

After hearing about the winning Technovation Challenge (iridescent, git) team’s idea, I had to find the video to see for myself. I never was into fortune-telling games as a kid, but I do remember another girl teaching me M.A.S.H. (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House). (I didn’t like the outcome.) However, the phone application was a rather clever proposal to make, and proves that they know their clientele.

HHhmmm... yep... i like it!

well... this was truly an interesting adventure! i was asked by accquilt to try their { GO! fabric cutter } system out and write up a little post describing it to my friends... i was really excited to try one of these babies out since way back in the rag quilt days... ( they have a rag quilt die that could have possible saved me from carpal tunnel from all the snipping i was doing! LOL )... but they were spendy and i wasn't sure they worth the money...

well... my opinion is that they ARE! now i don't say that lightly... in fact when i chose my dies to try, i chose dies that created blocks that i would have turned around and ran screaming from, hence the drunken path adventure!

here it is in all it's glory... it's really not that large and easily portable ( even though some of the dies are large, they're not heavy )


i know there was some concern about wasting fabric with this system, but it occurred to me very quickly... that if your fabric is cut into 1/4 yard cuts... you really don't. plus i think you'll see a little scrap is waaaaaay worth the end result!

haha!! tip though... uuumm... yeah... you should definitely iron your fabrics before running them through your machine. ;) or the little helpful notch guide the cutter gives you to line up your block with... will have a new friend!


but the reality is... it took me longer to pick out complimentary fabric then it did to crank them out on this system! it's super quick!! for sheba!!

here's where life got interesting ( for me anyways... LOL )...

can i just say... this quilt pattern scared the hell out of me!!! for sOOoo many reasons, but mostly because i was just SURE... i would cut out my blocks wrong in the beginning and then... i would sew them together creating a hot mess... considering it would only be a guess ( at best ) where to start the pinning at.... but this clever duck die... gives you these little helpful notches to match up your curves after it creates perfect templates!! who knew???

this is my first block and attempt at this pattern ( for reals!!! ) i think this maybe a machine for quilting dummies!! LOL i just don't know how anyone could get this block wrong using it!



seriously... i was MORE than impressed by this system. anything that gets me over my crazy fear of curves is more than worth the money to me!! now... i will admit, that i had my doubts if the machine & die would work, so i didn't put a whole lot of thought into my fabric choices ( i thought i'd probably be throwing out a bunch of fabric in multiple attempts to get it right!! )... but after i realized, i could do this! i switched gears and started designing a more ( heather ) quilt...
here's a sneaky peaky!

a little more modern and a little more me ;)

and yes! i finally got to my new kitchen towels too!! as soon as i saw the new Metro Kitchen at Hawthorne Threads... i quickly bought some to add splashes of color to my 50's style kitchen. i knew i needed patchwork and i also decided ( with having boys ) i REALLY needed more absorbent towels then the typical kitchen ones... so, i bought nice bathroom hand towels instead. i lOVE them and they are soOOoo functional!!

Here's to another crafty week!!

XO, Heather