WHAT COULD GO WRONG? China’s terrifying debt ratios poised to breeze past US levels.
Archive for 2014
July 24, 2014
July 23, 2014
THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Elijah Cummings admits he doesn’t know fellow committee members’ names.
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ROGER SIMON: Congress Must Investigate The UN Role In Gaza.
THE SECRET GUILD of Silicon Valley. “They wear ironic t-shirts, and that is the outer limit of their fashion sense.”
Back in the 1990s I was at a Foresight Institute gathering talking to a VC, who pointed at a group of “cypherpunks” and joked, “The only code they’ll never crack is the dress code.”
UH OH: Democratic senator from Montana accused of plagiarism in Army War College assignment. His excuse: PTSD. Uh huh.
Related: Democrats About Ready to Chalk Montana Up as a Loss.
UPDATE: From the comments: “The War Colleges offer a nearly year-long in-residence program for senior officers who are being groomed for flag rank — a place for them to go and think deeply, after a couple of decades in uniform, about history, strategy, and the intellectual burdens of senior command. Half-assed plagiarism of half-assed papers — at this level! — is a sign of institutional rot, not just personal failings. No one noticed? What’s the general level of officer scholarship at the War Colleges? What’s the general level of quality in the contemporary flag ranks?”
There’s a lot of institutional rot in a lot of places these days.
NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Debating the National Nanotechnology Initiative.
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WHY WE CARE about other people’s sex lives. I don’t particularly, except for a general hope that they’re having fun. But, then, I’m a man: “Although the stakes may have changed, sexual judgment remains a form of self-preservation. The Archives of Sexual Behavior study isn’t the first to posit that women, in particular, are hardwired to slut-shame out of self-interest (among the judgers, women were more opposed to casual sex than men).”
PRESUMABLY, THIS WILL JUST MAKE IT HARDER FOR BIG CITIES TO ATTRACT CAPITAL: Detroit’s record bankruptcy is likely to hit investors much harder than pensioners.
Related: Puerto Rico debt crisis headed for U.S.-style bankruptcy resolution.
RICHARD EPSTEIN: Obama’s LGBT Blunder. “The President’s executive order creates a two-tier system whereby any firm that wants to do business with the United States government—and only those firms—must abide by the mandate; the Obama administration cannot impose the mandate by regulation on all businesses generally. But this raises a key normative question: should the government be able to impose by contract mandates on businesses that it could not impose on them by legislative action?”
President Ted Cruz will get a lot of use out of this precedent.
ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why Does Sleeping In Only Make Me More Tired?
IF YOU STRIKE ME DOWN, I SHALL BECOME MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE: Once Again, Attempts To Block Access To The Pirate Bay Only Increase Traffic.
ARI KAUFMAN: The 10 Most Underrated Destinations In The Midwest. Yeah, but now that The Gobbler is out of business, what’s the point?
ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: The ethics and economics of vampire re-ensoulment.
THE POSSIBILITIES OF smart contact lenses.
UM, HELEN SLATER AS SUPERGIRL? I certainly haven’t forgotten her.
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Married via Craigslist’s “Missed Connections.”
YEAH, BUT IT’S THE SEXBOTS THAT WILL REALLY SHAKE THINGS UP: We’re heading into a jobless future, no matter what the government does. “Within two decades, we will have almost unlimited energy, food, and clean water; advances in medicine will allow us to live longer and healthier lives; robots will drive our cars, manufacture our goods, and do our chores. There won’t be much work for human beings.” Hmm. We’ll see. Meanwhile, here’s something I wrote on this evergreen topic a while back.
IN THE MAIL: From Michael S. Malone, The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World’s Most Important Company.
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TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 440.