RAJAN RISHYAKARAN on the Burmese cyclone response. Or lack thereof. And here are more thoughts from Megan McArdle.

XP SERVICE PACK 3: An existential threat? Maybe it’s all a scam to boost Vista sales. . . .

I’VE SAID BEFORE that I’d believe that people were feeling the pinch of gas prices when they started driving more slowly. I haven’t seen much evidence of that around here, but there’s this report: Drivers Conserving Gas As Prices Continue To Rise. A close reading, however, suggests that the trend is less than universal: “Most drivers still appear to be winking at posted speed limits because they say their time is worth more than the gas they’d save by slowing down.”

CHICAGOBOYZ: Academia’s jihad against military history isn’t working.

I MENTIONED DVDS EARLIER, and here’s a buy two get one free Blu-Ray sale for those who are interested.

I’VE LINKED TO JERRY POURNELLE A LOT LATELY; if you enjoy his work you should at least consider subscribing. I did.

THE TELEGRAPH: Does Britain need more ‘manly men’?

MICHAEL SILENCE: In ironic twist, the NYT refuses to release information.

It’s not that ironic anymore. Much of “journalism” these days seems to involve deciding what we shouldn’t be told.

JERRY POURNELLE:

As a product of the Korean GI Bill I can hardly denounce the concept. The problems really came when the intellectuals convinced people that “investment” in trade schools and such like wasn’t as desirable as “investment” in higher education meaning universities. At the same time, the State Colleges became “State universities” and in the “upgrade” put more into graduate schools to the detriment of undergraduate education. We then poured more money into the “university” system which is quite unsuitable for education of more than about 25% of the population (I’d put that at a lower figure, but we can stay with that).

Now a lot of students who would do well at “college” level education can’t get that; they have to go to “universities” and learn French Narrative Theory in Freshman Comp.

If investment is needed in “education” — and it is — it’s in training in technical skills. Most of that could be done in high school. Of course the high school teachers don’t want to work that hard and will stand in union solidarity with the college professors who want the large number of students willing to borrow money to go listen to foreign graduate students teach introductory math courses in incomprehensible dialects, but it’s “world class” isn’t it? Doesn’t everyone deserve a “world class university education”?

So we continue to neglect the great majority of our citizens to benefit a handful of intellectuals. And they never catch wise.

Some related thoughts on debt and education here.

I’VE ALREADY MENTIONED FAREED ZAKARIA’S NEW BOOK, and comments on it by Lexington Green. Now here are some more thoughts worth reading, from Ross Douthat and Jim Manzi, who comments: “U.S. share of global economic output (on a purchasing power parity basis) has declined very slightly over the past twenty years – from about 21% to about 20%. But what has really happened over this period has been the rise of China and the rest of non-Japan Asia at the relative expense of Western Europe and Japan.”

MORE ON BEIRUT: Gateway Pundit has a roundup.

DON SURBER: “Welcome to wild, Wonderful West Virginia, presidential candidates. Buy Internet ads.”

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON OFFERS advice to the Republicans, and concludes with this observation: “Moving toward a lite version of the Obamian/European ‘bipartisan’and socialist view of government and calling it a new conservatism is a prescription for utter disaster. No one can out-Obama Obama.”

Indeed.

NOW! HAMPSHIRE is a new site by Patrick Hynes. Check it out.

UH OH: History of corruption clouds primary in northern Indiana.

IT HAS A NICE JETSONISH LOOK: VW Confirms 1L Concept Will Become Reality in 2010. “The VW 1L is so named because, in theory, it only consumes one liter of fuel per 100 kilometers traveled. For those of us in the US, this translates into about 235 MPG. Definitely far and above anything on the market currently.” It is kinda low and small. But if they keep the Jetsonish look, it’ll sell. If they shift to something more boring, it won’t.

“PICK OBAMA: He’s taller.”

MEGAN MCARDLE: Is the Middle Class really doomed? “I’ve now seen this video at several liberal blogs, and someone has to stop it. Apparently, that someone is me, since no one else has stepped up. . . . As you can imagine, this thesis is extremely beloved of liberals, who like its endorsement of more government benefits, while ignoring the fact that this could equally well argue for having women stay home.”

UPDATE: Reader J.D. Evans is unimpressed: “In response to whether the middle class is doomed: hasn’t this doom been looming for decades? Perhaps this question can be a sort of test for the many similar proclamations we constantly hear from the left.”

Well, it’s often used as an excuse for adopting Euro-style economic policies. But those aren’t helping the middle class in Europe.

GERARD VAN DER LEUN looks at Delta’s latest cost-cutting move — no more ticket-jackets! — and observes: “I know I am far from alone when I say that after years of flying many times a year, often on a whim, I am now at the point where only the most powerful forces in life — love and death — can get me on a plane. It is not that the whole experience is uncomfortable, which it is, but that the process has become — through a Satanic collusion between the airlines and government — utterly dehumanizing. Bean-counters and bureaucrats have combined to create the one central experience of American life in which you are reduced to a hunk of meat.”

MARC AMBINDER: 7 Reasons Why Clinton Should Stay in the Race.