Monday, January 20, 2014

Monday's Child

1.  I did not realize that "4-20" was connected with smoking of the weed.  Some truths, and not truths, about what it "means."  But it's widely enough known among the REAL hipsters that people have been stealing the 420 mile sign in Colorado.  So they changed it to 419.99.  To me, THAT is a cooler sign, anyway.  I'd steal it.

2.  You should, on the other hand, talk to Bill Murray.  He may be the most interesting man in the world.

3.  O, Davidson!  Some of the earliest experiments in the Americas using X-Rays.   Long history of this sort of night-time thing at Davidson.  In my case, it was attaching the male parts of a bull (Yes, a butcher will sell you this) to the office door of an administrator in January 1979, about 2:00 am.  Very scientific.  Now, I'm sure there are security cameras.  I don't remember why the administrator had offended us, but I'm sure it was a very good reason.

4.  Pretty amusing, tho very NSFW.  A video/song, about PBR, from Scuzz Twittly.  Not sure that country stars wear a "budgie smuggler" like that tho.   If you want to see budgie smugglers in action, here is...I'm not sure what this is.

5.  This was interesting, because I was sure someone was going to get hurt.  But no one did.  And that truck is pretty strong.

MOREMOREMORE!



6.  World's least eligible bachelor.  Pretty remarkable, actually.  Something about the human spirit and rotten porcupine.

7.  I had tweeted this a while back.  Amazing reviews of this "product," at the bottom.  And it does appear to be legit.

8.  Richard Epstein on the effects of the bureaucratic mindset.  An interview. (Richard comes on at about 9:20 on this segment). I like Richard a lot.

9. Self-interest is poisoning the climate?  Actually, silly posturing just wasted a lot of resources.
In particular, Germany's feel-good policies on the climate were a big net harm to the environment.  If some factories and power plants are now producing pollution, at least they are producing something OTHER than sanctimony.

10.  Take me out in my bass boat.

11.  Or duck boat.  David Theroux on the A&E "Duck Dynasty" kerfuffle.  Part I.  And Part II.  For myself, I find the whole thing confusing.  I think gay folks clearly have the same rights to civil contract of marriage as everyone else.  I think religious groups can approve, permit, or prohibit the sacrament of marriage within their church, as they see fit, and utterly beyond state control.  I think Phil Robertson can think, and say, whatever he wants on the issue.  And I think that A&E can broadcast, delay, edit, or cancel that ridiculous show that I've never watched anyway.  To treat any part of this as a "rights" contention strikes me as odd.  But David Theroux makes several good points in the two essays, not least about the response to the "hate speech." Oh, and I also don't believe there is such a thing as hate speech; I'm just saying that if there IS, the response is closer to hate speech than the "offense."

12.  Stories like this are why Mr. Overwater invented the internet.  The flying purple dildo and the MRI scan.  Science!

13.  We must fight now.  Because we always have.

14.  Must be a slow news day.  President makes claim that is obviously true, makes headlines. Bas von der Vossen on the insane war on drugs.

15.  Unfortunately, true.  The fact that Wendy Davis is a convincing and sincere liar really DOES make her an effective politician.  "She would be a good governor."  Because she's a good liar.  

16.  You might want to be a little careful with this thing.

3 comments:

John Thacker said...

people have been stealing the 420 mile sign in Colorado. So they changed it to 419.99. To me, THAT is a cooler sign, anyway. I'd steal it.

Here's a similar story from Duke, Munger. On Flowers Drive near Baker House (near the hospital), there were a bunch of parking signs on each space that said "Reserved for 72," "Reserved for 71," and so on with various parking permit numbers. 20 or 30 years ago, the "Reserved for 69" sign kept getting stolen by Duke students each time they replaced it. (Presumably to hang up in some dorm room.) So eventually it was replaced so that the signs went "Reserved for 68," "Reserved for CH-30," "Reserved for 70," and so on. Not as cool as "68.99999," though.

Anonymous said...

The comments at #5 are disturbing.

Anonymous said...

I was working a problem on the board for my students that yielded an answer of 420. Much snickering ensued.