No what?

haha wow, unbelievable.

Heh

I hope this works in my office...

Blast From the Past

So when seeing what Pandora had to offer for artists with a likeness of Fiona Apple, it played this song... which made me laugh out loud and then I was overcome by the desire to do the robot.



You know you want to do it...

Care Bear Stare Effect

This is old, but I think he's got it right. Click that.

Let 'em fornicate

For the record, this is my theory in terms of economic impact:

availability of low cost birth control < unplanned pregnancy < government funded abstinence programs

What I'm getting at here is, economically, the most efficient thing that could be done is to correct the mistake, in the Deficit Reduction Act from 2005 which led to the large price increases in birth control available from on-campus medical providers. College and university health centers were accidentally left off the list of providers eligible for pharmaceutical discounts. Furthermore, spending $1 billion dollars on an abstinence program that provides no signs of success, instead the teen birth rate has increased for the first time in 14 years. It seems like the least efficient thing we could be doing is funding this sort of program... maybe we'd be better off just letting this one go.

More from Slate.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, CAMEL!

Rolling Stone magazine and Camel have succeeded in pissing off about 186 Indie artists and are now getting their just deserts.

On Monday the 186 artists filed a class action suit against Camel, Rolling Stone and their parent companies R.J Reynolds and Wenner Media, respectively, after artists names were used in the "Indie Universe" feature which appeared within a fold out for Camel's "The Farm" campaign.

Read more here.

Cato Says "It's a moment of idiocy" and it is

Cato, you mad? Yesterday, the House passed a long debated energy bill that the president will be signing today. Cato calls it "A moment of idiocy, of real idiocy" as a jab at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who announced to politicians just before voting that “You are present at a moment of change, of real change.”

Although I do see the need for environmental concern and efficiency, I don't think it should come at a cost of regulation. It is a dangerous thing to let regulators get their grubby little hands on something that is much bigger than themselves. As Cato points out in their blog, the impact of this bill will impact a lot more than meets the eye. Including the price of automobiles. On the other hand, it seems likely that the price of hybrids may fall comparatively.

touche

Aw snap, Slate!

New book

From Howard Bloom's the Lucifer Principle:

" We must build a picture of the human soul that works. Not a romantic vision that Nature will take us in her arms and save us from ourselves, but recognition that the enemy is within us and that Nature has placed it there. We need to stare directly into Nature's bloody face and realize that she has saddled us with evil for a reason. And we must understand that reason to outwit her.
For Lucifer is almost everything men like Milton imagined him to be. He is ambitious, an organizer, a force reaching out vigorously to master even the stars of heaven. But he is not a demon separate from Nature's benevolence. He is a part of the creative force itself. Lucifer, in fact, is Mother Nature's alter ego."

Holy legal war

Apparently, in response to a legal disagreement over a plot of land in Dhanbad India the Judge has subpoenaed two Gods. The plot of land adjoins two temples dedicated to the Gods Ram and Hanuman. The priest claims the land belongs to him while the congregants insist it belongs to the Gods.

Read more about it from Reason.

Cost-Benefit analysis of going green

This article provides a fairly objective look at the benefits and drawbacks to electric cars in comparison internal combustion engine cars that are on the more fuel efficient side. It brings up some interesting points such as the fact that the electricity used to charge electric cars often comes from coal. Electric cars still come out ahead slightly in terms of overall emissions, but it is interesting to take into account the externalities involved.

Don't do drugs

Okay, if you want to be vaguely amused and terrified at the same you may want to check out this Canadian PSA. Courtesy of Brian Beutler via his blog. I'm hoping people will tape their reactions to this PSA the way people do with 'two girls and a cup'... which by the way who cares? Yeah, Oooohh! Gross! Whatever, get over it! It's old news.

Moving on though, Paul had a good start for a PSA, the gist of it would be be afraid to do anything because you're head could spontaneously detach itself from your body. It would feature Eric Szmanda a.k.a Greg Sanders from CSI. Long story, but serious CSI fans would probably get it.

Aww snap!

Alright, sorry to get a little uncouth here, but I love this article.

While on this sucker punch bender, I might as well through this classic in there.

Giving Thanks

I had planned on writing this yesterday, but the festivities consumed more of my day than I expected. In spirit of the holiday, I want to give thanks to those who understood all the assy irony in the writing in my last blog. I am thankful that I was able to spend yesterday with my family and some very dear friends. The list could go on and on, but most of all...

I am thankful for web comics.

Noooooooooooooo!!!!!

I can handle the war on Christmas. I could handle a war on Easter. Hell, I could handle a war on my very own birthday. But this has gone too far! Who would impose a war on Thanksgiving? Read it here.

People are now arguing that Thanksgiving is no longer the religious holiday it should be. Now I won't get into my religious views, I won't be that guy (so to speak...) but why can't this holiday be about acknowledging the positive elements of your life however precious little or grand they may be. And if I were to choose to send my gratitude in the direction of the people around me who have made an impact on my life, is that really such a bad thing? This is a personal opinion, but regardless of your religion or lack thereof if you can spread happiness and give and be gracious shouldn't a Christian view that as doing God's work? Not a lot of things are black and white but a good person is still a good person if they don't share your theological perspective.

So it boils down like this, maybe you naysayers should be thankful that people are still thankful, who exactly they are thanking is moot. How is that for a start? Why don't we stop finding things to cry about and start thanking people who are truly in touch with the reason for the season, and that is thankfulness.

I found this recent article from Reason amusing. Although I'm not sure they have their heads around the idea of economic Darwinism, which if I understand correctly is much like pole theory. It nevertheless made a valid and humorous point:

I have always supported the honest entrepreneur, especially when pitted against the stupid. It is good for society when money is not left too long in idiot hands. It is God's way of getting money into smarter folks' pockets. For the less religious among us, I call it Economic Darwinism, and it is often done one crumpled $5 bill at a time. As the old saying goes, "A fool and his money are soon parted."

Nobody gets it. I thought it was funny.





If you don't get it that is a chipotle burrito, wrapped in tin foil... and we are dressed as robots

fyi

Due to being a little under the weather blogging may be infrequent. I will see if it is possible for my counterparts to pick up my slack.

Well, I'll be....

And to think Paul hasn't even posted anything yet...





... no wonder I don't have any readers.

Well said comrade!

Although I already have the utmost respect for Ted Leo, today my adoration for him grew immensely. I think this news blurb on his website has made my entire week. I felt until recently that few people seemed to share my preconception that the movie Across the Universe is in every way atrocious. How can people not see that? And if you don't... in accordance with Ted Leo... YOU ARE DEAD TO ME.

This, my friends isn't even what has me all revved up. No no no, what has really got me going is what he has to say about Bono. Anyone who knows me personally and knows me well is undoubtedly aware of my boundless detestation for Bono, and I whole heartedly agree that there is a special place for him in the hell that I, too, wish existed. I won't linger too long on my feelings towards this man, but just to give you an idea a friend has a stick figure diagram that I drew of my plan to crush Bono's spirit on their refrigerator.

Anyway, what I intend to accomplish on this post is to give kudos to Ted Leo. Thank you for saying exactly what I was thinking and exactly what needed to be said. I think he's a real stand up guy and I'm afraid if you don't agree, you also are dead to me. So here's to you, Sir! Keep on fighting the good fight!

A gift exchange done right

Sufjan Stevens is already in the Christmas spirit. Any musicians out there may be interested to know, Sufjan is having a little gift exchange, or to be more specific he is having "The Great Sufjan song xmas xchange". In exchange for the rights to one of his songs, he will receive the rights to yours if you are so lucky as to be chosen.


I think I feel the urge to break out my banjo and get the band together.

Happens to the best of us

I found this rather humorous, enjoy.

Today’s Acknowledgements

Congratulations to Megan McArdle for her debate on vouchers making the NY Times.

I bid sweet adieu to the Blood Brothers, as pitchfork put it "You were very loud, and we will miss you back".

And a big congratulations to Amsterdam on your recent banana prosperity.

This is truly a tale as old as time. That's right, economists have solved the mystery of dating. Well, maybe not quite, but they have made some interesting observations. This particular study tries to determine what it is that makes someone desirable
Fisman says:

To really understand what people prefer, you need to pair men and women randomly in an experimental dating service and document the decisions they make. And so for a couple of years at a local bar just off the Columbia campus, I ran a speed-dating experiment with two psychologists, Sheena Iyengar and Itamar Simonson, and fellow economist Emir Kamenica. Some of our findings confirm well-worn clichés. But others surprised us.

The study found that many of the age old stereotypes still hold. Men seem to prefer pretty women who are less successful and intelligence than themselves. Women seemed to value intelligence and ambition, no surprise there.

Although the article is interesting it doesn't seem to control for the fact that there may be a bias in the selection of participants. Having never felt the urge to participate in something such as speed-dating, I am curious as to whether the kind of people who are more likely to participate in this sort of activity would have different preferences than those who would not. Maybe one day an economist will figure out what it is all of us enigmatic ladies want.

Need some advice...

A close friend of mine recently found out she is having a baby. I want to set some money aside that the kid can cash in when it's 18. I was thinking bank shares, CDs, or savings bonds. The issue is the American dollar is tanking, so I am considering investing overseas. If anybody has suggestions, lay them on me.

Seriously?

There is no place I expect to get tasered more than my own home... while sleeping. This is absolutely priceless.