DID THE TARP MONEY REALLY GET PAID BACK? “No, not really.”

PATRICIA NEAL has died.

LATEST ECONOMIC SPIN: Malaise is the “new normal.” You could make this go away tomorrow with a guarantee of no tax increases and a moratorium on new regulations. This will not be tried, unless politicians get really desperate.

Related: Fed set to downgrade outlook for US. “The Federal Reserve is set to downgrade its assessment of US economic prospects when it meets on Tuesday to discuss ways to reboot the flagging recovery.” Think they’ll discuss the proposal above?

DIRTY TRICKS: Activists Say Tea Party Imposters Infiltrating Elections. Find the people behind this, and hold them personally responsible. Name names. Loudly. Cockroaches scurry when you turn on the lights.

STACY MCCAIN: After Two Blog Posts, She Was Contacted by Five Literary Agents and . . . now has less traffic per month than I get in an average week, and yet is deemed so popular that she’s scheduled to appear later this month on The Today Show. Shucks, I was on the Today Show before I even had a blog. And not since. Must get too much traffic. . . .

CAN A MAN BE TOO UGLY TO DATE? “I’m not ugly in a mysterious or interesting way, like a number of popular actors. I look like what I am: a broken man.”

HMM: Market Data Firm Spots the Tracks of Bizarre Robot Traders. “Unknown entities for unknown reasons are sending thousands of orders a second through the electronic stock exchanges with no intent to actually trade. Often, the buy or sell prices that they are offering are so far from the market price that there’s no way they’d ever be part of a trade. The bots sketch out odd patterns with their orders, leaving patterns in the data that are largely invisible to market participants.”

UPDATE: Some thoughts here on what’s going on from Brian Erst.

PUSHING BACK in Illinois.

CHANGE: Democrats Against ObamaCare — The 1099 Repeal Fiasco, and the Snooki Tax. Try reading the bills first, next time.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: Bork’s Revenge.

CLARICE FELDMAN: From Cordoba To Marbella.

RAZORBLOGGING: Okay, I shave with a Fusion — actually, with Fusion blades in a fancy handle from The Art Of Shaving — but now there’s the Fusion ProGlide. Is it better? Or just a gimmick?

UPDATE: Charlie Martin emails in favor of the ProGlide: “I’ve been using one for a couple of weeks, and I’ve got to say it’s pretty durn good. They’re not joking about the ‘gliding’ feel, even with my beard, which has the consistency roughly of the copper wire in a lamp cord.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: As always on this subject, the email pours in. A reader emails:

I’ve been using the Fusion Proglide Power for about a month now. While it doesn’t give me the shave my Sensor did before Gillette went with the awful “Comfort” blade (stupid Germanic ancestor facial hair (glad the ancestors got out of there though)), the blades give me a consistent shave longer than the original Fusion I had before, at least so far.

The power option so far seems to be about the same as the original Fusion Power, somewhat unneeded, but the Glide’s power button had a popular shade of blue illumination.

The Fusion Hydra Gel shaving gel (ultra sensitive) is a big step forward for Gillette, though. Rather than Alien Movie Egg Internal Green Slime colored like the previous Gillette gels I’ve tried, it is now blue, which at least for me is a lot easier to look at first thing in the morning.

Reader Merv Benson writes:

I have been alternating between the Schick Hydro 5 and the Pro Glide Power. I give a slight edge to the Schick although the Pro Glide comes pretty close if you use the special Gillette Hydro shave gel. The Pro Glide does have a much simpler trimmer application.

Reader Jay Johnson emails:

I shave my face and my whole head every day. I am on the cusp of reverting all the way back to the old double-edged razors. In the interim, I have abandoned completely the Fusion series of blades. I think they do not last an adequate amount of time, and they do a poor job of removing the shaved hairs from the cartridge, because there are too damn many blades in the thing.

Combined with the fact that they’re obscenely expensive and not that good, I have now reverted back (not a possibility of reverter) the 2 blade Gillette Sensor series. I find that the shave is excellent, the blades are reasonably cheap, and I’m not succumbing to slick advertising.

I also use Proraso shaving cream. That’s the kicker for me. It’s the absolutely best thing to lather on before running a razor across your face. You can get the private labelled “C.O. Bigelow” stuff in the tubes at Bath & Body Works.

Steve Adkins emails:

have been a fan of your site for some time, and I enjoy when you occasionally detour from politics into other subjects.

I use a Fusion razor and one of my greatest irritants is buying new blades. I turned to the internet for a solution to my problem. After a short search, I found a youtube video of a man explaining how he extended the life of his blades by simply swiping the razor(about 40 repetitions) in the opposite direction on some denim fabric after he was finished shaving. He used the pant leg from an old pair of jeans for this purpose.

I thought it was too good to be true, but worth a shot. On 9/1/10, I will reach the one-year mark with my current cartridge. I am amazed. This was certainly not my idea, but I felt compelled to pass it on to you.

That’s amazing. Reader David Himrich emails:

I shave with the King of Shaves Razor:

I found that the Fusion blades plugged up on me. This King of Shaves razor seems to clean out better and maybe that is why it seems to last longer. I use King of Shaves gel, too.

I’ve never heard of that one. Not too expensive, anyway. And, from a particularly brave reader, we get this:

I agree the modern safety blades are very good, but I have to say I’m a straight razor man myself. It takes time to get the knack (you’re lightly scraping, not slicing your beard), but it’s well worth it. I find it easier on the skin, it’s a better shave and you get cred with your woman for manliness. Besides, I won’t be sending Gillette any money since good straight razor lasts a lifetime. It also doesn’t hurt that cakes of shaving soap go for about a dollar.

Braver than me. And, of course, it’s another case of life imitating The Onion.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader David Wheeler emails:

I am a long time reader of Instapundit and always enjoy your product discussions. I think those of you using blades to shave with are missing a great experience in shaving. I use a Panasonic Pro-curve wet/dry electric razor with English shave cream applied with a brush (this is important), not an aerosol. The quality of the shave cream alone might be enough to make the difference, but combined with the incredibly close shave delivered by the Panasonic with absolutely NO nicks is a wonderful experience. The shave cream provides lubrication and wetting for the whiskers, prevents razor burn so common with electrics and leaves your face feeling truly great after a shave. I have a fairly heavy beard and need to shave every day, so the comfort factor is important. You have to try it to understand and it is an investment, but well worth it in my opinion.

Hmm.

FINALLY: Beware of what Mickey Kaus calls the Gillette cycle of despair. “Why do Gillette’s fancy razors seem to work so well when they are introduced, then gradually get worse and worse until a new, fancier razor is introduced? . . . My sneaking, completely unproven suspicion, of course, is that the seeming improvement with each newer, fancier, priceier razor has little to do with all the various innovations Gillette advertises (e.g., two blades, three blades, five blades, a “snow plow guard” that prevents hydroplaning, etc.) and a whole lot to do with the quality of the steel that’s used in the blades. The investigative mission, should you decide to accept it, would be to somehow prove that Gillette uses high-quality steel when it introduces a new razor, and then gradually lets the blade quality get degraded, saving the company money until it introduces the next innovative shaving system (the main innovation being that it uses the high quality steel again).” (Thanks to reader Joes Leopold for reminding me of this).

FASTER PLEASE: Two New Paths to Regenerative Medicine. “Two research reports published Friday offer novel approaches to the age-old dream of regenerating the body from its own cells. Animals like newts and zebra fish can regenerate limbs, fins, even part of the heart. If only people could do the same, amputees might grow new limbs and stricken hearts be coaxed to repair themselves. But humans have very little regenerative capacity, probably because of an evolutionary trade-off: suppressing cell growth reduced the risk of cancer, enabling humans to live longer. A person can renew his liver to some extent, and regrow a fingertip while very young, but not much more.”

TWO AMERICAS: THE REALITY. “A large majority of voters have been asleep at the switch, and public employees have been awarding themselves constantly-increasing salaries and pension benefits. Those benefits have now swelled to the point where there is no possibility that taxpayers can fund them.”

MEGAN MCARDLE: “What Was Michelle Obama Thinking?” “Whether or not people should resent it, they will, and his party’s already in big enough trouble without reinforcing the Red State sense that this administration is full of out-of-touch elites. I’m astonished that Obama’s advisors gave this trip the green light.”

Plus, from the comments: “I think it’s weird when Democrats tell us how horrible CO2 is, how we can’t keep our houses at a reasonable temperature and then keep the white house balmy and travel by plane unnecessarily, taking their entourage with them. I wouldn’t care as much if it was a conservative did it. The conservatives aren’t telling me how I need to sacrifice for the greater good.”

8 TIPS FOR moving in together.

OOPS. “The procedure for offloading a grain truck includes pulling into the elevator, opening the dump gate and hydraulically lifting the bed until empty. It also requires lowering the bed before driving away. The last step is critical, as illustrated here.”

HOW TO RUN AN efficient inflatable space station.

WHEN I SAW THE HEADLINE, I THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT NIGELLA LAWSON: Every Kitchen Needs A Nice Rack.

MY WASHINGTON EXAMINER COLUMN TODAY: Further Thoughts On The Higher Education Bubble. (Bumped).

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: “As the New York Times remembers Hiroshima, try this quiz. Name the two greatest losses of civilian life in the Pacific war. Hint. In both cases the civilian casualties were greater than Hiroshima’s. In one case the event took place on American soil.”

SHOCKINGLY, I DIDN’T FIND THIS ON LIKETOTALLY80S.COM: “Girls” by the White Animals.

ARTIFICIAL LIFE FORMS evolve basic intelligence.

RECOVERY SUMMER! Rasmussen: Consumer confidence hits year-long low.

“UNEXPECTEDLY” . . . SPREADING? Canada Sees First Jobs Loss of the Year. “Canada’s economy unexpectedly shed 9,300 jobs in July, the first month it failed to create any this year, suggesting the country’s recovery from the recession is starting to cool.”