Marginal Revolution University

LeBron's plan for (voluntary) world dominion proceed apace.

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The Final Frontier, and the Border

UN caters to illegal aliens...

(Nod to Angry Alex)

Most Schools are About Average

Stephen K makes some good points, as always.

(Nod to Lord Sutch, who knows)

I'll see your civit dung coffee and raise you one.....

I am assuming that India will be taking Ghana to the WTO over this obvious breach of copyright.

If the title of the post seems more out to lunch than usual to you, check here.

It's a groovy way to go

Last week, Mrs. Angus and I visited the shores of Hudson Bay in Manitoba to try and see polar bears. We were successful (click on pic to see a larger image)!



We also saw several arctic foxes



We stayed in a strange hostel on wheels called the Tundra Buggy Lodge right out on the edge of the bay!



We were there for three days and saw between 12 and 30 bears per day!





We also spent a bit of time in the town of Churchill and in Winnepeg. My impression of Manitoba is that it is caught in a time warp. It's still 1977 there. Three or four locals actually said "right on!" to me without any trace of irony.

Choctaw Poker

Oklahoma is known for (besides me and Mrs. Angus) oil & gas, pig farming, self-storage, churches, and Indian Casinos. The one closest to our house is called Riverwind. It's actually Chickasaw, not Choctaw, but....

Anyway, they run two "big" poker tournaments a year. The "Big Slick" was last November. I won a seat into that tourney by winning a single table satellite and then finished 11th out of 186 entrants for a decent payday.

The other big tourney is called the "Storm". I just won a seat into that this afternoon via placing in the top 20% of a mega-satellite (where the buy in is 20% of the buy in to the big tourney and last 20% of the field left standing wins a seat). The Storm is May 9th. Come by and sweat me if you feel like it!

Do androids dream of electric cigs?

"With its slim white body and glowing amber tip, it can easily pass as a regular cigarette. It even emits what look like curlicues of white smoke. The Ruyan V8, which produces a nicotine-infused mist absorbed directly into the lungs, is just one of a rapidly growing array of electronic cigarettes attracting attention in China, the U.S. and elsewhere — and the scrutiny of world health officials.

Marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking and a potential way to kick the habit, the smokeless smokes have been distributed in swag bags at the British film awards and hawked at an international trade show.

Because no burning is involved, makers say there's no hazardous cocktail of cancer-causing chemicals and gases like those produced by a regular cigarette. There's no secondhand smoke, so they can be used in places where cigarettes are banned, the makers say."


I am pretty sure that nothing can go wrong with a product that sprays atomized nicotine down your throat. Kudos to you Ruyan Group LTD. Full story is here. FYI, according to the AP "Ruyan" means "like smoking". It doesn't say in what language.

Setting vs. Rising

"How you gonna sing a song that runs
From the mouth of where the singing comes
From the mouth of where the song is sung
Do you call a setting sun a sun rising?

How you gonna get the soil and the glory
When you want to be a harvester of light
But the soil only turns under the moon's shitty story?

There may be churches burning down next year
If I'm a city then my citizens will pass no pails along
There may be temples of temptation to take refuge in my dear
If I'm a city then my citizens will cast a vote

As to:
Where you pray Vs. What you're praying for
What/who you love Vs. What you bow before
Where you beg and what you're begging for"

--Spencer Krug

India: the fun just never stops

This just in from Reuters:

"BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) – An infant boy was married off to his neighbours' dog in eastern India by villagers who said it will stop the groom from being killed by wild animals, officials and witnesses said Wednesday.

Around 150 tribes people performed the ritual recently in a hamlet in the state of Orissa's Jajpur district after the boy, who is under two years old, grew a tooth on his upper gum.

The Munda tribe see such a growth in young children as a bad omen and believe it makes them prone to attacks by tigers and another animals. The tribal god will bless the child and ward off evil spirits after the marriage.

"We performed the marriage because it will overcome any curse that might fall on the child as well on us," the boy's father, Sanarumala Munda, was quoted as saying by a local newspaper.

The groom, Sagula, was carried by his family in procession to the village temple, where a priest solemnised the marriage between Sagula and his bride Jyoti by chanting Sanskrit hymns, a witness said.

The villagers then ate a feast with rich food and alcohol to celebrate.

The dog belongs to the groom's neighbours and was set free to roam around the area after the ceremony. No dowry was exchanged, the witness said, and the boy will still be able to marry a human bride in the future without filing for divorce."

India = Comedy Gold

As evidenced by previous KPC posts (here, here, and here), India is a comedy gold mine. Now LeBron points us to another classic case: Cow Urine Soda.

Here is a different article about it, from Reuters.

This the best bit:

"The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or National Volunteer Corps, said the bovine beverage is undergoing laboratory tests for the next 2 to 3 months but did not give a specific date for its commercial release.

The flavor is not yet known, but the RSS said the liquid produced by Hinduism's revered holy cows is being mixed with products such as aloe vera and gooseberry to fight diseases such as diabetes and cancer.

Many Hindus consider cow urine to have medicinal properties and it is often drunk in religious festivals.

The organization, which aims to transform India's secular society and establish the supremacy of a Hindu majority, said it had not decided on a name or a price for the drink.

"Cow urine offers a cure for around 70 to 80 incurable diseases like diabetes. All are curable by cow urine," Om Prakash, the head of the RSS Cow Protection Department, told Reuters by phone."

Snarky observations follow:

1. "The flavor is not yet known". Really?? They don't know what cow urine soda is going to taste like?

2. Om Prakash seems to be suffering from an extremely serious misunderstanding of what the word "incurable" means.

3. Extra bonus, stolen from commenter Lars on Marginal Revolution: "Doesn't Budweiser already produce this beverage?"

I'll be sleeping on the couch tonight!

My boy Rafa, beat Mrs. Angus' favorite Roger Federer in a tense 5 set battle to win the Australian Open. This clearly cements Rafa as the best player in the world and it kept Federer from tying Pete Sampras' record of 14 slams.

No matter who you root for people, this is as good as it gets. This is Borg- McEnroe type stuff. Repeated epic matches on the biggest stages of the sport.

A breakfast treat

We woke up this morning and the Nadal - Verdasco semifinal was still going, so we took breakfast upstairs and I chomped on my Gorilla Munch while Rafa finished off the 5th set. The match was 5 hours and 14 minutes, the longest in the history of the Australian Open, and it set up the dream final of Federer - Nadal, though Federer will be much fresher with an extra day off and an easy straight set victory over Roddick in his semifinal.

Nadal beat Federer last year on his surface (Roland Garros) and on Roger's surface (Wimbledon) so it will be very interesting to see if he can recover enough to give Fed a match on this hardcourt surface. This will be Rafa's first grand slam final on hardcourts. If he wins, I'd put the probability of him winning the grand slam at maybe .3 or so.

Tensions will be high at Chez Angus 'cause Mrs. A will be rooting for Federer and I'll be rooting for Rafa!

Brain Hurts.....Head Stuck in the Edge of the Universe

Coolest.

Thing.

Ever. here