Buttermilk & Molasses

Jimmy Fallon --> Neil Young --> Fresh Prince

What could be better than the theme song to "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air"? How about Neil Young singing it? Okay, how about Jimmy Fallon singing it as Neil Young? He nails it pretty well. (Hat tip to Jason Kenney for this one.)

That Limbaugh. What A Stitch.

Even during the worst of the Bush era, I don't remember anticipating an actual military coup. I was just hoping for a fair election, or the legislative pleasure of term limitations.

Talking Point Memo has a few details on Rush Limbaugh's latest moment of over-excitement, as he considered President Obama's planned trip to West Point, the U.S. Army military school.

Rush Limbaugh may have crossed another line today in his anti-Obama rhetoric -- openly joking (at least, we hope he's joking) about a military coup.

Limbaugh noted that President Obama will be delivering his upcoming speech on Afghanistan, from the United States Military Academy at West Point.

"My question is: Will they detain him?" said Limbaugh. "Hopefully."

What a punk.

Is this how the conservatives and populists intend to engage over the next three years?

Will the Placebo Effect Drive Medicine Out of Business?

WIRED's feature on the increasing effectiveness of placebo drugs -- those tablets of inert sugar designed to present a baseline measurement for an actual drug being tested -- is fascinating for a number of reasons.

It's an interesting story, and well-told. It's educational and interesting. And it raises lots of questions.

Foremost among them: Why are placebo drugs beginning to test as equally effective as the real drugs being given patients? Are the actual drugs under development simply less effective, or is something going on with our collective psyche that's strengthening the placebo effect?

Two comprehensive analyses of antidepressant trials have uncovered a dramatic increase in placebo response since the 1980s. One estimated that the so-called effect size (a measure of statistical significance) in placebo groups had nearly doubled over that time.

It's not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It's as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger.

The fact that an increasing number of medications are unable to beat sugar pills has thrown the industry into crisis. The stakes could hardly be higher. In today's economy, the fate of a long-established company can hang on the outcome of a handful of tests. Why are inert pills suddenly overwhelming promising new drugs and established medicines alike? The reasons are only just beginning to be understood. A network of independent researchers is doggedly uncovering the inner workings—and potential therapeutic applications—of the placebo effect. At the same time, drugmakers are realizing they need to fully understand the mechanisms behind it so they can design trials that differentiate more clearly between the beneficial effects of their products and the body's innate ability to heal itself.

A special task force of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health is seeking to stem the crisis by quietly undertaking one of the most ambitious data-sharing efforts in the history of the drug industry. After decades in the jungles of fringe science, the placebo effect has become the elephant in the boardroom.

Too bad the drug companies want to harness the power of the placebo effect to sell more drugs, rather than strengthen our ability to improve our health without them.

Art, Food and Music = Project Winterfeed

RVANews has the scoop on a new initiative by graphic designer Noah Scalin, who has pulled together 15 graphic design students from his socially conscious design course at VCU to raise awareness about local foods in Central Virginia.

Project Winterfeed is part exhibit, part food resource event and part benefit:

Project Winterfood will house an art exhibition made up of work that celebrates three winter foods: apples, spinach and sweet potatoes. The artwork has been donated by local artists and will be on sale during the exhibition. All proceeds from the artwork will go to benefit The Central Virginia Food Bank and Gallery 5, a non-profit gallery that supports using the arts to promote positive social action.

At the event, there will be a gathering of partners involved in the Richmond area food community to answer questions and share information about local food options, resources, and benefits. Visitors will be able learn more about how they can easily enjoy food from local farms as well as restaurants that use locally sourced ingredients. The community partners include such local businesses as the Farm to Family Veggie Bus, Dominion Harvest, Savor Cafe, Ipanema Cafe, Rostov’s Coffee & Tea, Ukrop’s, Ellwood Thompson’s, The Byrd House Market, and more to come which will be listed on the website as the project continues.

During the event there will be live fiddle music , sample & tasting booths, and delicious coffee provided by Rostov’s Coffee & Tea. Each visitor will leave with a complimentary take-home brochure designed by Project Winterfood. The brochure will contain information & resources as well as recipes that include the three featured winter foods.

So, when's the event? Wednesday, December 2, from 7:00 until 10:00 p.m. at 1509 West Main Street.

The Rise and Fall - Visualizing Empires in Decline

This amazing visualization is best viewed directly on Vimeo with its slightly larger screen, and viewed in it's entirety. Essentially, it's a soft bodies visualization of the evolution of four European empires from 1800 to today -- Britain, Portugal, Spain and France.

One of the things that blew me away watching the visualization was how relatively powerful Portugal appeared through the early 1800s (which is when Brazil broke away) and how Spain simply got chiseled away over the better part of a century until it was almost nothing.

There are no powerful life lessons here about the rise and fall of empires -- you might want to read a book or two for that. No, what the video shows -- in extremely clear and simple terms -- is exactly how four of the most powerful colonial empires in Europe lost their oomph.

The Boho Muppet Rhapsody

It's been all over Twitter, but the recently released video by Muppet Studio is an impressive bit of puppetry. And the music isn't bad, either. They even get away with a fair amount of Muppet-inspired reworking of the original material.

Biden More Than Fills Cheney's Shoes (and scrapes some shit off in the process)

The NYTimes Magazine once again proves the value of long-form journalism in its lengthy piece by James Traub on the ways in which Vice President Joe Biden has comfortably transitioned into being one of the most influential vice presidents in history. The piece begins with a look at Biden's critical on-the-ground role in Iraq, transitions to an exploration of his evolving relationship with President Obama, and delves into his impact on daily policy discussions in the White House.

I've always liked Biden -- as far back as his flubbed presidential run in 1988 -- and suspect that he's far better suited to a policy-driven backseat driving role than a full-time position in the Oval Office. How much time is he spending in the back seat? Plenty, it seems, and he's spending it much differently than his predecessor, Dick Cheney:

The president and the vice president are very different men both temperamentally and generationally, and they move in different social circles. “Everyone wants this to be some kind of buddy movie — ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,’ ” as one senior White House official, who asked not to be named so he could speak freely, put it. “Presidents and vice presidents are never close friends. It’s a working relationship; it’s more like the C.E.O. and the chairman of the board.”

Yet, on foreign policy, Biden has largely realized his wish to be the president’s all-purpose adviser and sage. He attends the president’s daily briefing every morning with James L. Jones, the national-security adviser; often Biden will stay behind for a few minutes to raise other issues. He has a weekly lunch with the president and no staff members. He sits in on most of the “principals’ meetings” of top national-security officials, which occur about once a week; unlike Cheney, a silent presence at these sessions, Biden has plenty to say. Biden attends every important meeting on foreign policy the president holds. “It’s me and him, and the cast of characters changes a little bit,” Biden told me not long ago during a conversation in his White House office. “I have the benefit of watching him react, and him watching me react. Very seldom a week goes by that he doesn’t call me down to his office, or wander in here and close the door and say, ‘Wait a minute, what about this?’ ”

Empire-building is not encouraged in the Obama administration. Biden has five aides who focus on foreign affairs, a large number save in comparison to Cheney, who had more than a dozen. No vice president had ever sought, or gained, the autonomy, or the supremacy over other power centers, that President Bush granted to Cheney. “He was his own separate branch of government,” as Ron Klain, Biden’s chief of staff, puts it. “He took the office of the vice president out of the White House phone directory, and out of the White House budget.” Biden is seeking to “normalize” that relationship, Klain says. At the same time, people around Biden point out that he benefits from Cheney’s self-aggrandizement: Biden can reduce the scope of the office to something like its historic dimensions and still be the second-most powerful vice president in history.

Business Opportunity. Must Sell 10,000 Cupcakes. A Month.

The cupcake scourge that has been sweeping the American retail landscape for the past several years has become a full-fledged industry. (Brandon Fox was so on top of things way back in 2005 when a cupcakery was something novel and fascinating.)

In fact, Richmond is home to a number of cupcake outfits struggling to churn out a host of uniquely lip-smacking muffins -- including Sally Bell's Kitchen, which has been doing so long before actual trends were even invented.

The NYTimes delves into the sweet business of cupcakes with an article that explores four different models that have emerged in the marketplace -- chains, web-only, cupcakes-plus and the sole bakery. It all sounds rather exhausting, especially the life of Austin's successful cupcake maven, Tiffany Bacon:

Ms. Bacon pays her $2,400-a-month rent by selling an average of 10,000 cupcakes a month. She charges from $1 to $2.50 a cake, depending on the size. Business had been increasing 300 percent each month until last spring, when Dell Computer shut down a nearby manufacturing operation. After that, business fell off 10 percent in June.

Ms. Bacon and her husband, who works with her, take a combined salary of $36,000 to $50,000 a year. Any extra money is rolled back into the business. “There are no vacations,” said Ms. Bacon. “We’re working 80-hour weeks.”

A few other places to get your cupcake fixes around Richmond -- and to help the fledgling industry hit its 10,000 cupcakes a month margin goals -- include:

• Short Pump's Too Sweet cupcake boutique

• Short Pump's Frostings cupcake shop

• The newly opened Carytown Cupcakes

Life of Freelancing Is No Slice of Pie

Freelancers around the globe will be busy during this time of recession repopulating this pie chart with their own saucy messages for clients who aren't paying their bills in a timely manner -- yet continue foisting work their way. (Thanks to Richmond designer Carrie Fleck and Boing Boing for this one.)

As cute as the pie chart is, the email exchange captured on the original site is a stitch. Hard to tell whether it's satire or a tragically realistic look into the life of freelance design. But there are more pie charts to clarify matters.

Richmond Habitat Changes the Land Game in Town

I'm admittedly no expert in land trusts, but I've been struck by a recent news story on Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity's new community land trust initiative. (sorry, I missed the press conference, Chris!)

Essentially, the organization has placed about 20 parcels of land in a South Richmond neighborhood into the trust. Houses will be constructed on the parcels, and sold to low-to-moderate income individuals and families. The homebuyers will lease the land -- which will lower their mortgages (they're not buying the land) and offsets increasing land values.

Carol Hazard's story lays it all out.