L.E.D. LIGHTS DETHRONE COMPACT FLUORESCENTS. That shouldn’t be hard. I jumped on the CFL bandwagon early, but the CFLs have absolutely failed to live up to their promised longevity. (I haven’t noticed any visible electricity saving, either, though that may just be a function of how much electricity we use for other things).
Archive for 2010
September 7, 2010
EYE SCANNERS coming to an airport near you.
BRYAN PRESTON: It’s Time To Worry About Houston. “Voter fraud and a suspicious fire threaten the November elections in Texas’ largest city.”
JAIL TIME for biofuel subsidy fraud.
MARKDOWNS ON Fall Outdoor Essentials.
TERMINATOR ROBOTS in miniature, flying form?
Don’t be ridiculous. That’s never going to happen.
TREATING ARTHRITIS with topical NSAID creams.
THE BOOT is no respecter of position.
SALON.COM, 1999: We are all page-view whores now.
WaPo, 2010: Us, too!
STANDARD ADVICE ON GOOD STUDY HABITS turns out to be wrong. “In recent years, cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying. The findings can help anyone, from a fourth grader doing long division to a retiree taking on a new language. But they directly contradict much of the common wisdom about good study habits, and they have not caught on.”
IN THE MAIL: From David Drake, In the Stormy Red Sky.
J. CHRISTIAN ADAMS: Doing the DOJ’s Job for Them: Demanding Valid Voter Rolls Before November. “I have sent notice letters to 16 states informing them that they are in violation of the National Voting Rights Act. Private lawsuits may follow if they do not comply.”
Related: Small Sample of Philly Voter Rolls Reveals Hundreds of Ineligible Names. Including some registered voters born in 1825.
WHAT WE NEED NOW? The “Public Sector Pension Sustainability Act.”
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Krugman Is Wrong to Wish for World War II. “One can read Krugman-like arguments in Greek newspapers today — that only more massive borrowing can stimulate Greek demand, provide jobs, and grow Greece out of its recession. As if present-day deficits and aggregate debt with soon-to-be-rising interest payments don’t really matter.”
MEDICAL NEWS from 1969.
AUDITING AL SHARPTON: “An accounting firm hired by Al Sharpton’s National Action Network found the civil-rights group in such financial disarray that it flunked its record-keeping — and may not even survive, The Post has learned.”
Plus this: “The organization has suffered recurring decreases in net assets — and has been dependent upon advances from related parties and the nonpayment of payroll tax obligations — to maintain continuity.” Taxes are for the little people.
ROGER SIMON: Holocaust Denial: George Soros vs. the Tea Parties.
DANAH BOYD: How Censoring Craigslist Helps Pimps, Child Traffickers and Other Abusive Scumbags. They told me if I voted for John McCain, bluenoses would be shutting down Internet sites that they found offensive. And they were right!
WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT THE HOMELESS: “Doesn’t wash! Doesn’t pass the smell test! Wow. Just… wow.”
REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.
OUR PARANOID ruling class.
Related: The secret to Maslow’s success: “Maslow was influential because he was very smart, wrote well, and had many good ideas. But he was also influential because his theory told many of the cultural elites of the era that they were objectively more mental healthy and more psychologically developed than were their opponents. Flattering poppycock, and also dangerously undemocratic. . . . Maslow wanted to give an objective validation that, for example, the Viet Nam war protestor was objectively superior to the Viet Nam general, the environmentalist was objectively superior to the captain of industry etc. Many cultural elites ate it up, just as Soviet elites ate it up when their psychiatrists said that anyone who didn’t love the government was mentally ill and needed electroshock treatment post-haste.”
Plus, a warning about “socially convenient beliefs.”
THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED OVER THE LONG HOLIDAY WEEKEND:
My Washington Examiner column on environmentalists and “eliminationist rhetoric.” But can I really be serious?
Michael Barone on the higher education bubble. Plus more on the subject from Roger Kimball and The New York Times. And a mortgage-bubble analogy.
More on the public pension tsunami.
Rand Paul polling surprisingly well.
More developments in the Eddie Bernice Johnson scandal.
More on bedbugs. When I was a kid, thinking about living in the 21st Century, bedbugs weren’t among the things I thought we’d be talking about.