Rhubarb Report 062

Spring break. In Canada, it was better known as "Reading Week" and it wasn't in March - it was in February. I don't remember there being a mad rush to Florida or South Padre Island. You were probably spending that week shoveling snow and longing for spring time.

I don't ever remember that week being anything like Spring Break week in Austin - otherwise known as SXSW. What started as 4 days of music from unsigned bands back in the late '80s and early '90s has become a 10 day multimedia extravaganza for music, film, and social media celebrities. As much as I appreciate SXSW, it's just not like it used to be. Austin ends up looking a lot less weird, or, perhaps more appropriately, a lot more manufactured, trendy, pretentious weird.

In an attempt to inject some "weird" back into our world this week, I bring you the the latest episode of the Rhubarb Report. Where else can you find politics, mathematics and physics, and economics all in the same 500 words? You are in the right place. Onwards with Episode 062!

1. If you head just north of all of the SXSW craziness, you find yourself at the State Capitol - home of it's own share of Austin weirdness. Case in point: HB 2416, the "Shopping Bag Freedom Act", legislation introduced by Rep. Drew Springer. Apparently, a ban on plastic bags - for environmental reasons - is officially an "over-reach of big government". I always love it when "government" reminds me of the downfalls of "big government".

The Texas Legislature functions for 5 months every 2 years. As it stands, that's not a lot of time to deal with real issues that have great impact on our state. So what happens? Legislators feel they have the time to put forth legislation on shopping bags. Seriously. I really don't need to say anything more, do I?

2. So it is recovering, or is it not? Therein lies the question these days with the economy. On one hand, the media reminds us that the country is in horrible shape and that doomsday is imminent. On the other hand, the DOW Jones Industrial Average has now had 10 straight record-breaking days and is now over 14,530. I am not a rocket scientist (though I might play one on TV someday) but these two scenarios just don't seem to co-exist. Or do they?

3. March 14 - 3/14 - is officially Pi Day. It is the day we celebrate "pi" - the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter (approximately 3.1415926535 ...). Yes, really. Math geeks, unite! On March 14, there is also a strange coincidence: it is also Albert Einstein's birthday!

Einstein was one of the great thinkers - and not just in the realm of physics. Some of his most profound quotes provide us with a beautiful and almost elegant perspective of the world. Here are three of my favorites from Einstein:

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them."

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."

How many of today's problems would have greater clarity by simply using the principles contained within these three quotes?

Photo credits: Wikipedia