NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why I Froze My Eggs (And You Should, Too).
Archive for 2013
May 4, 2013
NARRATIVEFAIL: Tornado spike in 2011 attributed to climate change. So what to make of this year’s tornado drought? Obviously, another troubling sign of climate change.
BILL QUICK’S DISASTER-PREP FORUM HAS BEEN AROUND FOR A WHILE. Now he’s added a blog, too. There’s lots of useful and interesting stuff. Check it out if you’re interested in such.
THIS IS WORTH REPEATING, FROM BYRON YORK:
It is simply not reasonable to believe there is something the GOP can do — pass immigration reform, juice up voter-outreach efforts — that will create that result.
That doesn’t mean future Republican presidential candidates should not work to increase their share of the Hispanic vote. They could, for example, actually campaign in areas with large numbers of Hispanic voters.
But here is the real solution. Romney lost because he did not appeal to the millions of Americans who have seen their standard of living decline over the past decades. They’re nervous about the future. When Romney did not address their concerns, they either voted for Obama or didn’t vote at all. If the next Republican candidate can address their concerns effectively, he will win. And, amazingly enough, he’ll win a lot more Hispanic votes in the process. A lot from other groups, too.
It would do more than any immigration bill or outreach program ever could.
Yes, it would.
HOWARD NEMEROV REPORTS FROM the NRA Annual Meeting.
LOST IN TRANSLATION: Restaurant offers cancer – with chips.
“APPALLING IRRESPONSIBILITY:” Senior scientists attack Chinese researchers for creating new strains of influenza virus in veterinary laboratory.
FUNNY, BUT BLOOMBERG NEWS’ LISTING OF BILLIONAIRES doesn’t seem to include Mike Bloomberg, though of course the Koch Brothers are given prominent play.
WITH ALL DELIBERATE SPEED: FDA wrapping up safety review of chemical in antibacterial soap after 40 years of delays.
A SOCIAL FAUX PAS: Aaargh! Ladies of English town misunderstand intent of pirate night.
A women’s group in southwest England had an embarrassing encounter at a recent meeting when members misinterpreted the idea behind a visiting speaker’s talk about pirates.
The Parkham Women’s Institute, a venerable institution traditionally devoted to home-spun handicrafts and good works, decided to get into the spirit of Captain Colin Darch’s talk by dressing in pirate garb. Neckerchiefs, eye patches and pirate hats were widely sported, with a toy parrot thrown in for good measure.
Unfortunately, Captain Darch’s topic focused on his 2008 ordeal at the hands of Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, when he was held hostage for more than six weeks.
Pirates didn’t used to be figures of fun; that changed when piracy disappeared thanks to extensive pirate-suppression efforts by the British and American navies. Now that piracy is returning, the joke is likely to fade.
ZOOM! X-51A Waverider achieves history in final flight.
The final flight of the X-51A Waverider test program has accomplished a breakthrough in the development of flight reaching Mach 5.1 over the Pacific Ocean on May 1 a little after 10 a.m. Pacific Time.
“It was a full mission success,” said Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate.
The cruiser traveled over 230 nautical miles in just over six minutes over the Point Mugu Naval Air Warfare Center Sea Range. It was the longest of the four X-51A test flights and the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight ever.
Hurry it up. I want to be able to visit Sydney for weekends.
PHIL BOWERMASTER: Dollar Jobs: A Thought Experiment.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “If you want to introduce someone to libertarian thinking, encourage them to try this experiment. Spend a few days reading nothing but technology news. Then spend a few days reading nothing but political news. For the first few days they’ll see an exciting world of innovation and creativity where everything is getting better all the time. In the second period they’ll see a miserable world of cynicism and treachery where everything is falling apart. Then ask them to explain the difference.”
IN THE MAIL: From Robert Buettner, Undercurrents.
ROGER SIMON ON THE BENGHAZI REVELATIONS: “Barack Obama is bloody lucky he’s a Democrat, because if he were a Republican, he’d be in deep trouble right now, close to the brink of extinction.”
IS AMERICA’S ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT IN TROUBLE? “One of America’s greatest strengths has always been its entrepreneurial culture and the willingness of its citizens to take risks on new ideas and new businesses. That culture isn’t gone, but this data sure does suggest that it is at least in trouble. Hopefully this is only a side-effect of the recession and not the sign of anything permanent. If it lingers on as a trend, however, we’ll have to do some serious thinking about what we can do to reverse it.”
Well, we could start by not demonizing entrepreneurs and the successful, the way this administration has been doing since 2008.
ANN ALTHOUSE: “It seems to me that when you’re talking about girls under the age of 14, if there is an occasion to buy a morning-after pill, there is an occasion to report a serious crime.”
SO IS NPR TRYING TO DRAW A CONNECTION BETWEEN PALEO DIETING AND NAZISM HERE? Paleo Diet Echoes Physical Culture Movement Of Yesteryear.
But those old-time strongmen knew some stuff about training.
AT AMAZON, Mother’s Day Gifts Galore.
Also, today only: Save Over 30% on Select Wolverine Digital Scanners. Digitize those old slides before they go bad!
WITH PRE-PRINTED SIGNS ATTACKING THE NRA, IT DOESN’T LOOK VERY GRASSROOTS: Gun control supporters launch frenzied campaign to revive bill.
A cynic might suspect that the real purpose of exercises like this is to try to keep the Democratic base agitated until 2014.
FILMMAKER NAKOULA IS STILL IN JAIL: The Benghazi Talking Points. “Even as the White House strove last week to move beyond questions about the Benghazi attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2012, fresh evidence emerged that senior Obama administration officials knowingly misled the country about what had happened in the days following the assaults. The Weekly Standard has obtained a timeline briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence detailing the heavy substantive revisions made to the CIA’s talking points, just six weeks before the 2012 presidential election, and additional information about why the changes were made and by whom.”