As they say on the car ads, your mileage may vary.
[...]
Doing a fine version of "Gimme Shelter" at the 25th Anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert.
(I haven't watched it all, but so far, I think U2 and Buddy Guy submitted the best performances.)
[...]. . . may I suggest the 2009 Gift Guide of the inimitable Dave Barry. It includes the "Poop Box" and the "Educational Sperm Snow Globe".
(Link via the inimitable his ownself Michael Greenspan.)
[...]Eugene Volokh says the British rule makes more sense.
I absolutely agree.
Alas, though, Volokh concludes:
Certainly the American rule, much as it offends some people’s sense of linguistic logic, is correct in American usage, because it is usage and not logic that defines linguistic correctness.
My wife and I received this fine thank-you letter.
It reinforces my belief that a little money spent on some of the DonorsChoose projects can produce significant returns.
[...]As I get older, I've become oddly interested in pictures of decay and ruin. These pictures of abandoned or ruined businesses and shopping malls are an example.
[...]. . . are turning up in large numbers. Here are three:
"The Top Twenty Internet Lists of 2009".
The Fimoculous annual list for 2009. ("This page aggregates all of the lists related to 2009.")
"The Noughtie List: the 2000s in Review".
[...]I don't know anything about it, but number 5, "Powered by Thorium," sounds amazing.
(Related: see "Nuclear's next generation".)
[...]Detailed baggage allowance information is available on all routes and ticket classes for over 100 airlines! All of the information you need to avoid expensive airline luggage fees is provided along with helpful airport specific links.
[...]. . . that he's really, really smart. A laugh-out-loud takedown of Mr. Biden's tacit claim. It should be noted, though, that his is a reasonably common condition. Many of our elected officials think they are really, really smart.
A big problem for our country is that they are [...]
It's an old point, but it's beautifully made again by Jeffrey Friedman. What is a huge advantage of decentralized decision-making over centralized, top-down control?
In unregulated markets, this diversity of viewpoints is precisely what makes capitalism work. One capitalist thinks that profit can be made, and loss avoided, by pursuing [...]
If you want to lower the price of something, increase its supply:
The solution is out there, but it will require a fundamental change in the way we think. Competition among insurers, without decreases in underlying medical costs, may actually harm people through bad service and arbitrary denial of claims. [...]
Both are excellent. Managers and policymakers would do well to pay attention.
"How to Think Like Bill Gates".
"Stuff I've learned at Microsoft".
[...]. . . maybe it's restricting certain amino acids. Fruit flies lived longer without lots of methionine.
Now, obviously, fruit flies aren't people. But if restricting methionine turns out to be important, it will be a shame. It's in some otherwise good foods.
[...]. . . another dozen links to discussions about global warming.
An interesting explanation of how anyone with a spreadsheet and some time can reproduce the "hockey stick".
The devil, as they say is in the details. In each of the steps there is some leeway for, shall we say, intervention. [...]
"1.5 lbs. of nails pulled from Peruvian's stomach."
Doctors in the city of Cajamarca said they removed 1.5 pounds of metal from Abanto's stomach, including nails, coins, and rusted copper wire and scrap metal. . . .
The 26-year-old construction worker ate the metal for months, and told Peru's Channel 9 [...]
Two restauranteurs summarize their rise to the top.
Former "runner for local bookies", Barbara Lynch.
Famed pizza-purveyor-to-the-stars, Wolfgang Puck.
[...]Felix Salmon, in "The economics of kissing-and-telling," asks several interesting questions but provides no answers.
Eugene Robinson at the Washington Post quotes a colleague's "theory about philandering":
Roberts postulates that famous, powerful men who stray would be smart to choose women who have just as much to lose if [...]
I told you big change was coming to higher education:
Kira Cassels applied to 11 colleges and got in to every one. The kitchen of her Laurel home came to resemble a high school guidance office, the breakfast table buried beneath brochures and financial aid forms from destinations such [...]
John Feinstein recounts a conversation between a young Tiger Woods and Arnie:
In 1997, at the first Masters in which Woods played as a professional -- he won by an astonishing 12 shots -- he and Palmer played a practice round at Augusta National Golf Club. Afterward, the two had [...]
. . . so please don't abuse it.
A student who stole a clock from my university's library was recently caught. The student was apparently intoxicated at the time he stole the clock. Or inebriated. Or drunk.
But the university police chief didn't use any of these words. He was quoted [...]
"Timber Program Becomes Vast Entitlement".
A federal program that began as a safety net for Pacific Northwest logging communities hard-hit by battles over the spotted owl in the 1990s has morphed into a sprawling entitlement — one that ships vast amounts of money to states with little or no historic [...]
By Shannon Love on Chicago Boyz:
"Scientific Peer-Review is a Lightweight Process".
Peer review isn’t even central to science. Science functioned fine for centuries without peer review and scientists who work in secret or proprietary environments do not use it. Instead, peer [...]
If you're feeling generous as the holidays approach (or if you're just looking for itemized deductions for next year), I again recommend DonorsChoose. Their website keeps getting better and better. It's fun to donate money there.
And they're looking to hire a program associate. If I were thirty years [...]
Only a half dozen this week.
McKitrick, in an article published more than two months ago, summarized some of the problems with the data and the analysis.
McIntyre discusses an email from Michael Mann, July 2003: "This is the sort of 'dirty laundry' one doesn’t want to fall into the [...]
Supposedly, if your body makes more ketones, you will be less attractive to mosquitoes.
But the article doesn't say if you can do anything to influence your ketone production.
[...]. . . but renowned restaurant El Bulli seems to succeed by violating some cherished B-school principles.
The case also highlights the distinction between understanding and listening to customers. "Adrià 's idea is that if you listen to customers, what they tell you they want will be based on something they [...]
"140 Google Interview Questions".
"How I Hire Programmers". (Knowing stuff, being curious, and being willing to learn are helpful.)
[...]If you live there, you have my sympathy. If you don't . . . be glad: California is making almost any other state government look good. (Please note that I wrote "almost". Arizona, Rhode Island, and Michigan aren't doing so well, either.)
When I was college, one of the supposedly worst places in America, widely publicized as looking like Germany after the War, was the South Bronx. A place of absolutely ruined buildings, drug addicts, rats, poverty, and despair.
But this rather remarkable pictorial, "Then and now: 'The worst slum in [...]
But that good life is under threat today as never before. SAS’s specialty, a lucrative niche called business intelligence software, is becoming mainstream. Free, open-source alternatives to some of the company’s products are increasingly popular. On the other end of the spectrum, the heavyweights of the [...]
I hope he's figured it out, but I won't be holding my breath.
On New Year's Day 1995, a single giant wave hit the Draupner oil platform in the North Sea off the coast of Norway. By chance, the platform was fitted with laser measuring equipment which recorded the height [...]
Two entertaining pieces on how the believers are responding:
"Global Warmists Dig in Their Heels over Climategate — Kind of".
"Climategate: how they all squirmed."
NRO contributor Henry Payne gives us two for the price of one: the major media don't like this story any better than they did the story [...]
Robert Creamer, "Time for Progressive to Stand Up Proudly for Government":
This year progressives, lead by President Obama, have stopped apologizing for our view the proper role of government, and begun to assert that Reagan was fundamentally wrong when he said government was the problem. Instead, as Congressman Barney Frank [...]
A catch: the market value of the house must be $500K or more.
C'mon, folks, bring that required value down some, and you might make me move. :-)
[...]I hope they get this sorted out. Fast.
Amid widening concern over unintended acceleration events, including an Aug. 28 crash near San Diego that killed a California Highway Patrol officer and his family, Toyota has repeatedly pointed to "floor mat entrapment" as the problem.
But accounts from motorists [...]
They may be "early example of Pacific 'bling'".
Interesting, but as Fark would say, "Still no cure for cancer."
[...]The great Mark Kram account of the Thrilla in Manila.
Came the sixth, and here it was, that one special moment that you always look for when Joe Frazier is in a fight. Most of his fights have shown this: You can go so far into that desolate and dark [...]
As recounted by the MeFites. The main advice seems to be: pace yourself, be patient, and stay optimistic.
Pretty good advice for most jobs, I expect.
[...]I'm thankful I'm not a refugee. (But heartened and glad that some of the world's refugees still consider the U.S. a fine place to come to.)
Two on world poverty: A serious answer about what to do from William Easterly. Still the best answer from Sam Kinison.
And if by [...]
Some useful background: Steve McIntyre's presentation at Ohio State (Spring, 2008). As H. Ross Perot might say, "I find it fascinatin'. Jus' fascinatin'." A businessman started with a simple question: could he please see the data that supported the famous "hockey stick" showing that recent years were the hottest [...]
"Black Friday Deals: The Only List You Need".
But you might want to read this, too: "The Black Friday deals that aren't".
[...]By now you've read about the interesting information from the Climatic Research Unit that has recently been made public. Here, though, are three pieces you may not have seen.
Two months ago, Patrick J. Michaels warned that CRU seemed to have "lost or destroyed" much of the key historical temperature [...]
NPR--NPR!--discovers that markets aren't the cause of the problems in our health-care system and that the currently proposed liegislation won't fix them. Stephen Spruill at National Review Online cracks:
Democrats have accused conservatives of spreading fear and misinformation about their health-care legislation. They might want to look into this new and [...]
Scott Beaulier and Pete Boettke:
Of course, our call for debt repudiation is not a new one. Like many good ideas in economics, Adam Smith was there long before us. “When it becomes necessary for a state to declare itself bankrupt ... a fair, open, and avowed bankruptcy ... is [...]
