SCIENCE: Neanderthals Really Did Act Like Neanderthals. “Neanderthals really were sex-obsessed thugs.” What, you mean that the portrayal of them in Clan of the Cave Bear was wrong?
Archive for 2010
November 4, 2010
MORE ON the Siobhan Reynolds case.
MARKDOWNS ON coffee and espresso makers.
SUCCEED IN KINDERGARTEN and you’re set for life. I suspect that kindergarten success is just a marker for the possession of certain personal traits. But I suppose I could be wrong.
TWELVE-YEAR-OLD GIRL Prevents Kidnapping By Pretending iPod Touch Is a Phone. “This week in Stanton, Delaware, a 12-yo girl was confronted by a man driving a white van. He told her to get in. She held up her iPod Touch and said she’d dialed 911. That may have saved her life.”
TEN ENGINES LOST TO HISTORY.
ELECTION LOSS PRODUCES more eliminationist racial extremist rhetoric at DailyKos. Somebody tell Jon Stewart!
UPDATE: Reader Margaret Meigs writes: “When you click on the link there is a big Brooks Brothers ad at the top. Wow! Let’s get dressed up and join Kos on those barricades right now!” DailyKos is Stuff White People Like, so it kind of makes sense, really . . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Maybe the Krazy Kos Kidz should be listening to William Galston.
FROM MICHAEL YON: MOUNT EVEREST.
HOW TECHNOLOGY is shaping humanity. A review of Kevin Kelly’s What Technology Wants.
HAYEK VS. KEYNES: LIVE RAP BATTLE.
WANT TO HELP WOUNDED SOLDIERS? Please support Project Valour-IT.
REASON TV ANNOUNCES the Nanny Of The Month. Doesn’t he look like a guy who’d ban Happy Meals?
UNEMPLOYMENT GOING UP. “We’re not putting America back to work. If anything, we’re extending the misery. The number of unemployed rose from 2009Q2 to 2010Q2, and that doesn’ take into account all of those who came of working-adult age during that period — approximately 1.2 million more Americans.”
WHAT, EXACTLY, is the Federal Reserve doing?
Related: Investors Flee From Fed And Dollar For Euro. Maybe this is actually a sub-rosa plan to bail out Europe. . . ..
BARNEY FRANK LOSES IT:
After 30 years, Barney Frank finally lost my vote.
On election night, he lost my respect as well.
Frank’s road rage acceptance speech was an out-of-body experience. Here was the congressional king of anger, vituperation and vitriol lashing out at the Herald and Fox 25 for, in his words, “anger, vituperation . . . and vitriol.”
What, does he not own a mirror? Is he incapable of introspection? Has he never seen YouTube’s collection of his best TV hissy fits?
Barney seemed to have forgotten: He won. Big. And he was lucky he did.
The contrast between a nasty, bitter Frank and his grateful, graceful opponent, Sean Bielat, could not have been more stark.
With these people, the sense of outraged entitlement is always present, and never pretty.
Related: Actually, I do have one more thing to say to Barney Frank.
WALTER OLSON: Proposition 19, Employment At Will, And Social Peace.
ELECTION: Deeper Than Appreciated:
While the GOP’s major congressional victories will deservedly be examined closely, serious attention ought also be paid to down-ballot results in the state contests. Republicans took control of at least 19 additional state legislative bodies Tuesday for a total of 26 in which the party controls both chambers, compared with 21 for Democrats and with three still up for grabs. Among these are legislatures in Alabama and North Carolina that had not seen elected Republican majorities since the Reconstruction elections of 1876 and 1870, respectively. Those that argued just two years ago the GOP was in danger of becoming a Southern regional party were proved resoundingly wrong as state legislative chambers in New Hampshire, Maine, Wisconsin and Minnesota flipped to GOP control. Republicans even made major inroads and could end up on top of legislative bodies in Oregon and Washington. Republicans won 16 of 30 races for state attorney general, taking five such offices away from Democrats, pulling within four of their opponents’ total. The GOP also won 17 of 26 secretary of state races, a gain of six, giving the party a 25-22 edge (three states don’t have such offices).
These developments have national implications, especially for redistricting.
Looking even deeper, a lot of these were Tea Party candidates, and Tea Party folks have also moved in to a lot of precinct and state-committee posts. We’ll see more of that over the next couple of years, too.
ELIZABETH SCALIA: Tea Party Candidates Must Learn the Art of Fencing.
And reader C.J. Burch writes: “O’Donnell won independents. Republicans stabbed her in the back. Angle did just what we needed her to do. They both took fire ( oft times from Republicans) without complaint while we won the rest of the field.”
DROPPING THE MARRIAGE QUESTION from the exit polls?
WHEN “SPECIAL MATERIAL” IS SECRET MATERIAL.