Archive for 2009

GETTING THE RESEMBLANCE: Yeah, I saw Garth from Wayne’s World in that picture, too. Certainly not Julia Roberts.

SPECIALTY GPS UNITS FROM GARMIN: “The Approach G5 GPS system comes preloaded with 5,000 golf courses, allowing golfers to pinpoint exactly where they are on the links and calculate yardage to any point on the course.” Not out yet, but soon.

A BUNCH OF coffeemakers on sale. I still have the one I blogged about in 2006, and it still works fine.

UPDATE: Er, sorry, that would be the DeLonghi. I gave the Black & Decker to my brother in law, and as far as I know it’s working fine too.

SOME KITCHEN ADVICE from Megan McArdle.

THE EURO-SPEC HONDA INSIGHT gets 53 mpg. With gas prices down, people have quit paying as much attention to this stuff, but they’ll be back up sooner or later.

JONATHAN ADLER: “The LA Times reports that Eric Holder actively sought to blunt opposition to President Clinton’s pardon of members of two pro-Puerto Rican independence terrorist groups.”

NETBOOKS: Hands on with little laptops from Asus, and a bunch of minis from HP.

I AGREE: “Look, if you have a study you want funded, apply for funding. If you just want public support for a nice chunk of cash to go toward promoting alternative medicine, I say no no no no no no no.”

Not all “alternative” medicine is quackery, and not all “alternative” medical advocates are quacks and con-men. But that’s the way to bet, in the absence of strong evidence to the contrary.

MORE ON THOSE UNDERFUNDED / OVERGENEROUS PUBLIC PENSIONS: CalPERS Made A Bet — And Lost. “CalPERS made aggressive investments in real estate at the worst possible time, when inflated property values had peaked and were already beginning to decline. . . . The magnitude of the losses almost ensures that CalPERS will raise employer contribution rates. Pension fund officials have warned state and local governments that they may be hit with fee increases of between 2 percent and 5 percent of payroll beginning as early as 2010. If the recession deepens and sales and property taxes continue to fall, that will be a very difficult burden for governments to bear.”

INDEED: “One thing I find interesting in reading various authors who discuss the history of the Arab-Israeli or Israeli-Palestinian conflict is how the role of the USSR in exacerbating the conflict, and the role of its demise in providing an opportunity for a potential settlement of the conflict, is generally completely, or almost completely, ignored.”

IN THE MAIL: Poul Anderson’s David Falkayn: Star Trader. Baen is reissuing all of Anderson’s classic Polesotechnic League stories, which are among the best in libertarian-themed science fiction.

WHO’S AFRAID OF JOE THE JOURNALIST? “If a community organizer can be president and a Saturday Night Live comedian can be a U.S. senator, why can’t a plumber be a reporter?”