Today is one month since I started the Newt Gingrich weight loss program, and it’s time for a progress report. As you’ll recall, my initial weight as announced a month ago was 75.0 kg; as it turned out, my weight on the first day I started the program was 75.3 kg, so I was actually starting at a higher point than I anticipated when setting my first month’s goal of losing 1.0 kg. ...

Before heading home after a recent family visit to attend the Philadelphia Flower Show, we stopped to see the Liberty Bell. One of the most interesting aspects of the bell’s history (which I hadn’t fully appreciated before my visit) is that for almost the first hundred years of its life (it was cast in 1753) it didn’t really serve as a symbol of liberty or freedom, despite the quote from Leviticus 25:10 (“Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof”) inscribed on the bell. It was simply the bell that hung in the Pennsylvania State House and was rung on special occasions, including possibly on July 8, 1776, to mark the reading of the Declaration of Independence. ...

Yesterday HoCo Connect posted an interesting article on whether Columbia’s village centers are still relevant, including a look back at the original village center vision as laid out by Jim Rouse and others. I was moved in response to offer my own two cents on the village center issue. So without further ado, my thoughts: We need to think of village centers as resources for Howard County as a whole, and not just for the Columbia village in which they’re situated. I don’t happen to live in Columbia, and hence my opinion would be considered somewhat irrelevant in the context in which the village centers were created. However I think the original village center vision is not sustainable, at least not as the main function of a center. Village residents no longer see their center as a primary destination, instead driving by it on the way to the Mall in Columbia, big box developments like Gateway Overlook, or other places scattered around Columbia and the county (e.g., off Dobbin Road). This means that village centers can survive (let alone thrive) only if they can become major destinations for others elsewhere in Columbia and in the county at large. ...

I’m still enjoying reading and commenting on the Bleeding Heart Libertarians blog. Today while reading a post on the “deserving” vs. the “undeserving” poor a commenter brought up that perennial topic, is taxation theft? More specifically, many (but not necessarily all) libertarians believe that the state has no valid claim to extract taxes from people (backed up by the implied threat of physical force), and in that sense even a democratically-elected government is nevertheless the moral equivalent of Tony Soprano and his crew. ...

For those of you who haven’t heard, the Howard County local blogosphere has a new entrant, as Corey Andrews has started a new “HoCoLibertarian” blog, “to get a foot in the door for libertarians and libertarian-leaning conservatives in Howard County.” (Note that Andrews is also planning to run for the Board of Education in 2012; for more information see his campaign blog.) To help welcome his new blog I’m going to devote this blog post to libertarians, more specifically to Bleeding Heart Libertarians, a great new group blog I’ve been following avidly (and occasionally commenting on). ...

HoCo Rising has been teasing us all week about his “big announcement.” It turned out that he’s not just raising consciousness through his blog but he’s also raising money, in this case to help eliminate homelessness in Howard County. It’s a worthy cause, and the recipient of the funds, the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center, is a worthy organization. I just donated $50 (which I’m proud to say put the campaign past the halfway mark on the way to the goal of raising $1,500) and I encourage you to donate too if you haven’t already. ...

A while back I lost a fair amount of weight and got back into the “normal” range of BMI. Since then I’ve regained some of the weight and am now just a tad above the normal range. I’ve been trying to get back down to where I was before, with not much luck. So I’ve decided to try something different: I’m entering into a “commitment contract,” a concept that’s been the subject of academic research and is being commercialized by StickK. StickK itself sounds like an interesting service, but since I have a blog I figured I could do this myself. ...

I’m interrupting my blog hiatus to discuss direct-to-consumer (or DTC) genetic testing, an issue that has recently become a cause célèbre (at least among the relatively small group of people concerned about it) and that I think deserves wider attention, as it’s an early indicator of some of the disruption that will occur around health care in the 21st century. In recent years the cost of sequencing human genomes (i.e., the DNA information that makes you you) has been dropping like a rock. While getting your complete personal genomic data is still relatively expensive (thousands of dollars), the cost of getting less complete data is now at the point where it’s almost an impulse purchase; for example, the startup company 23andme offers a service for $199 plus $5 per month that provides information on various places where your genome might differ from other peoples (“single nucleotide polymorphisms” or “SNPs,” pronounced “snips”) and some interpretation on what such differences might mean. ...

just a quick note for those of you wondering what’s happened to the blog: Due to being very busy with both home and work stuff, I haven’t had time to do any blog posts recently, and most likely won’t be able to do any posts for the foreseeable future. Perhaps in a few weeks I’ll have some spare time again, but no guarantees. JessieX - 2011-02-09 04:17 At least we’ll see you at the upcoming blogger party. :-) Thank you for your support of the blogger parties… especially and even when we were a small group gathering. Your belief in us helped me keep going … Invite your fans. :-) http://hocoblogs-ramshead.eventbrite.com/ ...

After posting lots of information it’s time for me to turn around and ask my few readers a question: I’m currently considering establishing a new bank account—not replacing my current account but supplementing it as a dedicated account out of which to pay recurring expenses. Those of you who’ve traveled Route 40 west of US 29 know that there a lot of banks on that stretch, and there must be one for me. (I’d like to bank with a bank that has a local physical presence.) ...