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 [...]
. . . that's how you fix the K-12 schools. It's no mystery. If you don't believe me, read about Leroy Anderson Elementary School in San Jose and listen to Charles Weis, superintendent of schools in Santa Clara, CA: “We know what needs to be done; we know how to do [...]
"Keep the Car Running". Live, Ottawa, 10/14/07.
Dave Grohl said that "he listens to the song every morning when he wakes up". So there.
[...]A lot of good advice here. Samples:
"Show your passion for helping your customers solve problems - and talk to them like you talk to your friends. A real, enthusiastic, human voice is every small business's edge"
— Andy Wibbels, AndyWibbels.com
"Don’t start a company unless it’s an obsession and [...]
In fact, according to Gene Weingarten he was really, really unfunny.
There are worse qualities in a president.
[...]Johns Hopkins faculty outline mini-courses on various topics.
Includes "How These Things Work: Business Management Writ Large". I'd skip Berle and Means, but the Mokyr, Hayek, and Chandler volumes are good for autodidacts or anybody else.
Link via Metafilter.
[...]. . . is "interval" or high-intensity training.
It might even help reduce heart disease and Type II diabetes.
[...]The crackdown on BitTorrent has just moved unauthorized copying to a venue much harder to police.
[...]Interesting account of how a firm called Backblaze constructs huge amounts of cloud storage inexpensively. They need to because they offer unlimited, automatic backup over the Internet for just $5/month (per computer and "except your operating system, applications, temporary files, or those over 4GB").
Not very. Clock speed of 1.024 MHz and 2 K of main memory.
And that, friends, was just 40 years ago.
[...]This is no doubt quite old, but I just recently ran across it. Very funny and has this absolutely beautiful evisceration of sociology:
For sheer lack of intelligibility, sociology is far and away the number one subject. I sat through hundreds of hours of sociology courses, and read gobs of [...]
I've posted a few times recently about the beautiful but extremely expensive Bugatti Veyron. Here's a video clip of a guy driving his Veyron off the road and into salt water.
(Link via Steve Margolis.)
[...]"We’ll learn what’s truly important to the Massachusetts Legislature: offering families more choices, catalyzing educational innovation, and tackling underperforming schools - or placating the teachers unions."
I'd hope for the choices but I'd be unwilling to be against the teachers' union.
[...]At last, a translation for The Rest of Us:
Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in September suggests that economic activity has continued to pick up.
We successfully talked some people into rebuilding inventory and spending money they don't have. Suckers.
[...]. . . Jeremy Piven left Speed-the-Plow early. (New York Times, 10/9.) Piven was painted in newspapers and on TV as either a liar or a nut. But the arbitrator's decision--44 short pages that make interesting reading--in his favor raises considerable doubt about that characterization.
Looks like another case of [...]
It's easy: find something that a whole lot of people really want that the market isn't already providing, make and market it well, and sell it cheap.
These kids haven't made $170 million yet, but they bear watching: "Ten Teen Entrepreneurs To Watch".
[...]. . . into your hearts it will creep."
I've stoutly resisted pessimism and paranoia about our current fiscal and political situation. But this story is just a little bit scary.
San Francisco resident Carla Ruff's safe-deposit box was drilled, seized, and turned over to the state of California, marked "owner unknown." [...]
Philip Greenspun has me thinking about shorting muni bonds.
See also the unhappy news in "Public Pensions Face Ugly Choices".
[...]. . . and decides that it is just unnecessarily superb. Excerpts:
The Bugatti shifts occupants around like a Star Trek transporter: from a standstill to 60 miles per hour in 2.7 seconds, to 125 m.p.h. in just over 7 seconds and on to [...]
Ya gotta love #8:
8. Make Sure the Teachers Show Up for Class
“The most important question to ask when considering an application or making an enrollment decision is this: What is the degree of attention paid by this school to the undergraduate educational experience? If superstar faculty members never [...]
"The Shorter, Faster, Cheaper MBA".
"MBAs Confront a Savage Job Market".
The MBA Class of 2009 was hit harder than expected by the recession. At some top schools, 1 in 5 are jobless 3 months after graduation
[...]In "Goodbye to Reforms of 2002" Floyd Norris of the New York Times writes:
Sarbanes-Oxley was passed, almost unanimously, by a Republican-controlled House and a Democratic-controlled Senate. Now a Democratic Congress is gutting it with the apparent approval of the Obama administration.
What theory of regulation or public choice gives [...]
Dealbook, New York Times:
Fewer Harvard M.B.A. graduates took jobs on Wall Street this year than in the past as a result of the sharp contraction in the financial services industry. But for Ray Soifer, a former banking analyst and Harvard Business School alumnus, the reduced number of graduates flocking [...]
"Tax refugees staging escape from New York". 1.5 million from 2000 to 2008. "More than 250,000" left for Florida; they were problably "escap[ing]" into retirement.
But the outflow is still impressive and this is rather ominous sounding for New York's fiscal future: ". . . the families fleeing New York [...]
Philip Greenspun argues "yes".
The stimulus money is apparently not being used to invest in infrastructure that can be used by the future generations who will be paying for it. It is being used to delay restructuring by states whose payroll and pension expenses cannot be sustained via local [...]
. . . for health care reform. I'm not at all convinced it's necessary, but at least it's more reasonable--and cheaper-- than many of the ideas proposed:
I think a better role for government would be shining a light on the existing private healthcare plans in a way that would help [...]
"I would not make it as a supermodel today" says Cindy Crawford.
The world continues to go to hell in a handbasket.
(Link via MLN.)
[...]From McSweeney's. Sample:
Horatio thinks he saw a ghost.
Hamlet thinks it's annoying when your uncle marries your mother right after your dad dies.
The king thinks Hamlet's annoying.
Laertes thinks Ophelia can do better.
Hamlet's father is now a zombie.
[...]In this recession there's a lot of vacant space in shopping centers. And merchants are concerned about signing long-term leases.
Answer? "Pop-up" stores.
To highlight its new denim offerings for the back-to-school season, J.C. Penney opened pop-ups at a handful of local malls, including Westfield Santa Anita in Arcadia and [...]
Net migration, both before and after the Great Recession, according to analysis by the Praxis Strategy Group, has continued to be strongest to the predominately red states of the South and Intermountain West.
This seems true even for those seeking high-end jobs. Between 2006 and [...]
Alan Richman energetically and lovingly recounts visits to "The Seven Temples of the Food World".
"Thinking About Opening a Restaurant? Think Twice." Yes, it does seem as though running a successful restaurant is an extremely tough job.
[...]There are many issues in America today which need the attention of a responsible government-- Healthcare, Banking & Finance, Telecommunications, Intellectual Property, etc. etc. But we will never achieve the best possible regulations until we reform the body that creates those regulations--Congress.
I agree. We need a grassroots [...]
