1. Food trucks in Manhattan...
2. Imports work for America! (I'm a little skeptical of these "job creation" studies, even if I agree with the direction they take).
3. Buzz Aldrin: Mars in 20.
4. This obit reminds me of Alexandra Cooper's mother (who is very much not dead). But these descriptions are along the same lines...
5. "Reject" people who disagree with you? Really? Not persuade them, or talk to them? Reject, without even considering their arguments?
LOTS more after the jump...
6. Part of the "polarization" problem may simply be different information sets. And, yes, I understand that while the NYTimes is biased it is less biased than a whole lot of "news" sources on the right.
7. Teaching college students to write better.
8. Steven Pearlstein should quit. Or admit he's an grumpy, unprincipled old git.
9. England discovers it has wurst-envy. Because Germany's wurst is much bigger, and stronger. Downside: a bunch of Brit losers-on-the-dole would actually have to find jobs.
10. The media is the Praetorian Guard? Maybe, but Anne Coulter is hardly my model of "what to do" in foreign policy.
11. On the other hand, even a blind squirrel (with a giant Adam's apple) may find a nut now and then. This Signe Wilkinson editorial cartoon is truly remarkable. Pres. Obama has refused to close Gitmo, has refused to release the prisoners who are cleared for release at Gitmo, and has stepped up attacks on civilians across the middle east. He was complicit in massacres in Libya, and is dithering about Syria in a way that makes massacres more likely. Drug enforcement and seizures have gone up, not down. Deportations have gone up sharply. Obama II is Bush IV. And who does Signe Wilkinson blame for all this? "Neocon Professors." Seriously? There was an election in 2008, and another in 2012. George W. Bush was not running, but his policies won, because Barack H. Obama is a sell-out and a coward. That ought to be Obama sitting there, the leader who is refusing to lead, not "neo-con professors." There are no neo-con professors in the current administration, unless BHO put them there. So, I guess perhaps the media really is Obama's "Praetorian Guard."
12. "[T]he most striking impact of school police officers so far, critics say, has been a surge in arrests or misdemeanor charges for essentially nonviolent behavior — including scuffles, truancy and cursing at teachers — that sends children into the criminal courts."
13. Cities have long been cosmopolitan, and rural areas illiberal. But the essential conservatism of rural areas is now being overtaken by the essential collectivism of cities. Cities are the new bastions of illiberality. There, is some hope. Because the voluntary connections below the surface in cities, though invisible, are quite robust.
14. Poverty and Progress, by Deepak Lal. Interesting.
15. Shameless. The newest front for the "fair trade" fraud is retail clothing.
16. Hipster heaven, and a great idea. Drink excellent whiskey while restoring an old ax, and do it with a bunch of other people who have never actually USED an ax, either. When you finish, congratulate yourself on what a down-to-earth hipster you are. (Okay, Anonyman is clearly THIS kind of hipster. He does this every weekend. Without the ax, or the other hipsters, though).
17. Arrest him, officer. He looks....dark-skinned and he spoke in Spanish. Very scary.
18. Like stealing money from a baby. This is pretty awful.
19. The scourge of gay nepotism. It doesn't help to stick your fingers in your ears and sing "LA-LA-LA!"
20. No HO-HOs? YES, HO-HOs!?
21. WhoNeedsATruck?
22. All we need for prosperity is more taxes. Or something like that. I'm all for enforcing the laws. But it is a mistake to think that it is possible to collect these taxes, at current rates. The equilibrium politically is a combination of published rates and practical enforcement. You can't increase enforcement without reducing rates, or inducing capital flight.
23. This may be more complicated than it seems. But not sure that Seattle has much to "showfer" this...
24. Erik Moberg: Evolution and Properties of States. He has a new version of the book, apparently.
25. Oh, man. Now I'm going to have to change the instructions for what I want on my tombstone.
26. Can they put "mellow" on the label, or just the chemical content?
27. Turns out NC Repubs are out to "destroy history." I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds bad.
2. Imports work for America! (I'm a little skeptical of these "job creation" studies, even if I agree with the direction they take).
3. Buzz Aldrin: Mars in 20.
4. This obit reminds me of Alexandra Cooper's mother (who is very much not dead). But these descriptions are along the same lines...
5. "Reject" people who disagree with you? Really? Not persuade them, or talk to them? Reject, without even considering their arguments?
LOTS more after the jump...
6. Part of the "polarization" problem may simply be different information sets. And, yes, I understand that while the NYTimes is biased it is less biased than a whole lot of "news" sources on the right.
7. Teaching college students to write better.
8. Steven Pearlstein should quit. Or admit he's an grumpy, unprincipled old git.
9. England discovers it has wurst-envy. Because Germany's wurst is much bigger, and stronger. Downside: a bunch of Brit losers-on-the-dole would actually have to find jobs.
10. The media is the Praetorian Guard? Maybe, but Anne Coulter is hardly my model of "what to do" in foreign policy.
11. On the other hand, even a blind squirrel (with a giant Adam's apple) may find a nut now and then. This Signe Wilkinson editorial cartoon is truly remarkable. Pres. Obama has refused to close Gitmo, has refused to release the prisoners who are cleared for release at Gitmo, and has stepped up attacks on civilians across the middle east. He was complicit in massacres in Libya, and is dithering about Syria in a way that makes massacres more likely. Drug enforcement and seizures have gone up, not down. Deportations have gone up sharply. Obama II is Bush IV. And who does Signe Wilkinson blame for all this? "Neocon Professors." Seriously? There was an election in 2008, and another in 2012. George W. Bush was not running, but his policies won, because Barack H. Obama is a sell-out and a coward. That ought to be Obama sitting there, the leader who is refusing to lead, not "neo-con professors." There are no neo-con professors in the current administration, unless BHO put them there. So, I guess perhaps the media really is Obama's "Praetorian Guard."
12. "[T]he most striking impact of school police officers so far, critics say, has been a surge in arrests or misdemeanor charges for essentially nonviolent behavior — including scuffles, truancy and cursing at teachers — that sends children into the criminal courts."
13. Cities have long been cosmopolitan, and rural areas illiberal. But the essential conservatism of rural areas is now being overtaken by the essential collectivism of cities. Cities are the new bastions of illiberality. There, is some hope. Because the voluntary connections below the surface in cities, though invisible, are quite robust.
14. Poverty and Progress, by Deepak Lal. Interesting.
15. Shameless. The newest front for the "fair trade" fraud is retail clothing.
16. Hipster heaven, and a great idea. Drink excellent whiskey while restoring an old ax, and do it with a bunch of other people who have never actually USED an ax, either. When you finish, congratulate yourself on what a down-to-earth hipster you are. (Okay, Anonyman is clearly THIS kind of hipster. He does this every weekend. Without the ax, or the other hipsters, though).
17. Arrest him, officer. He looks....dark-skinned and he spoke in Spanish. Very scary.
18. Like stealing money from a baby. This is pretty awful.
19. The scourge of gay nepotism. It doesn't help to stick your fingers in your ears and sing "LA-LA-LA!"
20. No HO-HOs? YES, HO-HOs!?
21. WhoNeedsATruck?
22. All we need for prosperity is more taxes. Or something like that. I'm all for enforcing the laws. But it is a mistake to think that it is possible to collect these taxes, at current rates. The equilibrium politically is a combination of published rates and practical enforcement. You can't increase enforcement without reducing rates, or inducing capital flight.
23. This may be more complicated than it seems. But not sure that Seattle has much to "showfer" this...
24. Erik Moberg: Evolution and Properties of States. He has a new version of the book, apparently.
25. Oh, man. Now I'm going to have to change the instructions for what I want on my tombstone.
26. Can they put "mellow" on the label, or just the chemical content?
27. Turns out NC Repubs are out to "destroy history." I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds bad.
8 comments:
Buzz is ignoring the central question: WHY should humans go to Mars? Scientific knowledge is not the answer; the rovers and low orbit surveys are good and far cheaper. So... What?
Eventually, the technology will improve to the point where it pays to send people. The needed innovations are pretty dramatic, IMHO, but I know one way to tell if we have reached that time: put your plans up on Kickstarter. When you can raise the needed funds that way, Go!
Add one to Maguire's five points: right under "Use shorter sentences", we need "User shorter paragraphs". The famous magical "seven, plus or minus two" applies to human cognition at all levels.
I work as a programmer, among a core group of about ten people and an extended group of about thirty. While there are many obstacles to producing a quality product, the toughest nut is -- believe it or not -- English composition skills. My colleagues tend focus their attention on communicating with a compiler in the context of our program product. That's less than half the job. They discount the need for their output to communicate with human readers, including their future selves. And their writing is just a bad as Maguire's example. The cost of their bad writing includes program errors, slow and difficult fixes and extensions, and time spent on rewrites.
Really?
Really. This is generally true of the left and particularly true to 0.
Cities have often been the bastions of enlightened living that abolish the prejudices which taint rural life.
Laughable. Cities have never been "bastions of enlightened living". They've simply been bastions of the condescension, tainted with all sorts of biases. That these condescending snobs think rural preferences represent a "taint" whereas their own preferences don't is galling. Not even the appalling Jim Crow were successful at destroying black families and communities, but the "progressive" policies of "enlightened" people in cities destroyed them inside of a single generation.
#27: But Munger, the guy who says the Republicans are destroying history is, according to his own words, a "respected historian, who some would call eminent." Have some ever called you eminent? That's what I thought.
Hey Munger, you are eminent.
Munger's not just eminent. He's preeminent!
I have to say I enjoyed the Pearlstein link quite a bit.
He's MMinent.
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