Just in time for summer!

People, if KPC is linking to a piece called, "How to get the body you've always wanted", you KNOW it's gotta be self-recommending.

10 easy steps, no dieting, and very little exercise.

Gadgets. LOTS of Gadgets, From Koopa

Koopa sends this email:

Thought you might like this. I put together for a friend, and then ended up posting on Facebook. Have talked to a lot of you about these gadgets. Feel free to forward.How I Turned Our Apartment Into the Jetsons
  As a lot of people know, I recently bought a boatload of gadgets for our apartment. A bunch of folks have been asking me about these devices, so I figured I would do a quick post.
 The goal was to make our day-to-day living hyper efficient, through three processes:
 a. Automation - I've automated a lot of my daily routines.
b. Go Wireless - We've upgraded a lot of items to make them wireless. These devices communicate with our network, and help me track more data.
 c. Go Faster - There are two components to "go faster". Either a gadget completes an existing function more quickly, or it subsumes another function in a more efficient manner.  Here's the list (below the fold):

Boettke Goes AWOL

So, it all started with great promise.  Boettke promised to "update" us on the IHS summer camp.

Since the EYM is up there at Towson also, I have been checking back avidly to learn more.

But....nothing.  Boettke, how lame can you be, man?  Not even a "weather is here, I wish you were beautiful"?  What kind of summer camp IS that?

UPDATE:  Boettke says, "I've been posting on FB."  Really?  I ask that the case be remanded back to the trial court, and that he be convicted on the original charge.

Movies You May Have Missed

The most Lovely Ms. Mungowitz for years insisted that she hated sub-titled movies.  For some reason, this has recently not been the case.  The first time, I'll admit, it MAY have been a subterfuge on my part, somehow failing to mention that the movie might be subtitled.

But now, we are off, she will actually go to foreign movies.  And we have seen three unbelievably fantastic movies, all of which happened to be French.

Kid with a Bike (I liked this one more than did the LMM.  Hard-edged, disturbing, but wonderful)
Monsieur Lazhar  (From the set-up, you think you have seen this movie:  To Sir, With Love; Goodby, Mr. Chips.  Not so much, no)
Intouchables (I laughed so hard, but I cried several times.  Critics a bit mixed, but I have rarely seen so many unexpected moments of joy in a movie.  In some scenes, a smiling Francois Cluzet looks so much like Dustin Hoffman you may be confused)

And two other very good movies that have not really gotten much attention during the boom-crash movies of summer.  (The Avengers was fine, more than fine, but you've seen that, right?)

Bernie  (I really hate Jack Black.  But he was amazing in this movie.)
Best Exotic Marigold Hotel  (Sweet.  Perhaps a little too much "white people seduced by ancient mysteries of Asia" thing, but very sweet)

Miller Center Summer Institute

Back home now. Was in NY, at Columbia Law School, for Tikva-Hertog.

And then in Pasadena, for Miller Center. Amazing students, in both cases. Scary smart people, really interesting and accomplished.

There is a tradition (blame the Admiral, I expect) of "toasting" at the Miller Center.

These can get a bit rococo. But, in this case, even more. It was... It was.... well, I have pictures.

I did my usual shy, balanced, fair-minded discussion, in two lectures. Okay, actually, I was pretty tired, and I went full-out teller of ungentle truths, "you maggots need to get to work, nobody likes you anyway, you all suck!" on them.

At the dinner on Thursday night, the toast took the form of a male maenad (if you can be a male maenad; is that a "gonad," perhaps?), a frenzied follower of Bacchus.

He mounted the stage, which was a table. Now, this particular gonad was not a small gonad. So there was some question whether the table would be able to do its job here, adding dramatic tension.

Then, the gonad held forth, in quite an impressive Shakespearean form, about my outrages and errors of the previous day. The list was long (and, I should add, quite accurate).
We, as the British say, fell about. Well played, young gonad.

.
(Thanks for DS for the pix)

Oh Noes!

I got a Mac in the office now. It's a bit too much fun....

Tony, I promise I'll get that paper written up real soon!