Saturday, January 15. 2011
 Mechanical engineering: Simple animation to explain complex principles
Clean Comedy: Henry Cho
Pajamas: Once Again, Progressives Prove Willing to Politicize Everything
Mankiw posts a good video to show students while teaching about index funds and the efficient markets hypothesis
Update on Norwegian young radicals:
The radicals also have a hefty sense of entitlement. They do not request things -- they demand them. They are perpetually shocked, indignant, and concerned about something. Their shock, indignation, and concern is most frequently directed at Racism, Poverty (which they are demanding – demanding! – be Made History), War, and all the other Important Causes. These evils, they reckon, are best controlled by expanding the State, dismantling what remains of the European heritage, and empowering left-wing internationalist institutions like the EU and the UN. Like China's Maoists the Gen-Y radicals pursue a perpetual, institutionalized revolution in which all humanity is subsumed into isms, ologies, and bureaucratic duckspeak.
Roger Simon: The Sixties Were Violent, Not Today
Prelutsky: The Bloodthirsty Left
Powerline: Lincoln on the blood libel of 1860
How Al Qaeda stays in business
The Muslim Brotherhood Path to Victory
Good idea or not? Obama to ease travel restrictions to Cuba, allow more U.S. cash to island. I think it's OK. The Castro thugs will be dead soon, anyway.
Half of US states now suing to stop Obamacare
The Emperor of Ice Cream
Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be the finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
1922. Bio of the late-blooming Hartford insurance exec here.
Friday, January 14. 2011
This pic from Retriever:
These from Gwynnie, an autumn ago:
This is a bit old news, but still not widely understood. Education loans: The Sweeping Federal Takeover You May Not Know About. One quote:
...perhaps the most troubling aspect of this new federal intrusion in the higher education marketplace is its underlying assumptions about the best way to control college costs. Whether it has been efforts to increase Pell Grants, or now this student loan fix, President Obama and his allies in Congress, driven I believe by the best of intentions, have assumed that increasing federal aid will help students better afford college. And there is no doubt that college costs have skyrocketed recently, more than doubling the rate of inflation over the past twenty years. However, every time the federal government has increased aid to students, colleges have turned around and raised tuition and fees accordingly.
An Englishwoman talks, anonymously, about her recent years in Birmingham. It's about "societal suicide," and it seems to be a disease of Western Civilization. A quote from her report:
To a London reader, born and bred with multiculturalism, I know that my stories may come across as outlandish and exaggerated, and that I must surely be a BNP voter — I have observed people's expressions as they have listened to my tales of life in Brum. When I recently told a friend how a large Taliban flag fluttered gaily on a house near St Andrew's football stadium for some months, her cry of "Can't you tell the police?" made me reflect how far many of our inner cities have been abandoned by our key workers: our doctors and nurses drive in from afar, the police, as mentioned before, have shut down their stations and never venture in unless in extremis — they and ambulance crews have been known to be attacked — even the local Imam lives in a leafier area.
From Chicago Boyz last summer: Is “Liberal Guilt” a Myth?
Freedom House says it is.
Political freedom has always been a rarity, and a great inconvenience for governments.
On their abortion manifesto.
Nobody working in the medical field ought to be required to participate in abortions. The very idea of requiring it seems insane to me.
Suspect's Downward Spiral - Police Records Show Accused Killer Growing More Erratic Before College Suspension
Sometimes you end up wondering who is more crazy - the MSM, or the lunatics. Or the politicians.
Almost everybody had a friend or an acquaintance who unraveled and became psychotic during late adolescence. I had a friend who did, first year of college. Still my friend, but he is a shell of a person. Too sad for words, and an eternal heartache for his parents. He was a star athlete and a math wiz, and now he can hardly feed himself or dress properly, and studies asteroids hitting the earth shut up in his room except when old friends take him out for lunch.
Of course, those asteroids might hit - but who cares? Who has time to worry about that? It's like worrying about Global Warming. Daily life beckons. Don't worry, be happy.
"The other line always moves faster."
Everybody
Thursday, January 13. 2011
Re Grand Central Station: "It's bloody gorgeous." As I was walking around late this afternoon, making my rounds, a Brit couple, rightly perceiving me to be a friendly, approachable, and respectable bloke, asked where where they might find a cab. We were near Grand Central, so I suggested they try the main exit from the station. Usually some cabs there. "Seen the inside of the station?" I asked. Well, this nice, refined older couple followed me in through the side door and down the escalator to check it out. I hope they found a cab or, as Brits are wont to do, found a cozy nook for a drinky. I did recommend the Campbell Apartment for a good cocktail, which many people do not know about.
As a country boy who lived in the city for around 6 years in younger days, I still get a rush of energy and inspiration just by visiting for a day or two. And that is despite the fact that, most places I go, you cannot smoke a ceegar indoors thanks to the sanctimonious jerk Nanny Bloomberg.
More pics from today, below the fold -
Continue reading "Pics: Hanging out around midtown"
From American Spectator:
Okay, folks. Listen up. There are thousands of great colleges around the nation at which you can learn any skill or profession you choose. And in none of those colleges will you be so indoctrinated in contempt for your nation, its history and values as you will be in the Ivies. Give yourself a boost in life: for all the supposed benefits you'd get in an Ivy League school, you'll learn more and gain a more realistic view of your nation and the world if you attend a college that's not among the Ivies. Learn elsewhere, and graduate without having your nose so stuck in the air that you believe America isn't a force for good in the world. And trust me, guys: chicks dig the uniform, regardless of which college you graduated from.
Read the whole thing. Irony aside, I think we should have ROTC everywhere. In my view, there are four noble (or potentially noble) professions: Medicine, Law, Clergy, and Miltary. The rest of us like me are just regular Citizens - a highly noble thing in itself in America.
FIRE: 2010: A Pivotal Year for Campus Liberty. An update from this fine organization.
HDV video for sports. Mount it on your helmet, your hat, or whatever. The GoPro.
Watch the sample ski helmet-mounted vid on their site. Great stuff.
Another one of those depressing marriage quizzes: The Sustainable-Marriage Quiz.
Is it the job of a marriage to sponsor "personal growth?" That sounds very 1960s. I think it is adolescent to think of marriage as an answer to life's questions, challenges, and dilemmas. A loyal and committed companion and partner is what it is.
When a man makes up his mind without evidence, no evidence disproving his opinion will change his mind.
Robert A. Heinlein, 1978 (h/t, Vanderleun)
Re Cultural Literacy: She asked for it..., the comments were good fun. Thanks, y'all. She enjoyed noting them very much. She watched Seven Beauties last night, That movie was too much for me delicate sensibilities, regardless of Giannini's performance.
Are you familiar with the McSweeny's site? Apparently lots of folks are, but it's new to me.
Verbing? I don't approve of it.
Why Paul Theroux cannot write an autobiography
How many people can the earth support?
The Idea of "Affordable Housing": Memphis
The Vegas IRA: Gambling on Wall Street v. Gambling in Las Vegas (h/t Betsy)
Dr. Sanity: FASCIST PIGS, FANATICAL IDEOLOGUES, AND DELUSIONAL ILLNESS
Insty: HAVE YOU NO DECENCY, SIR?
For EPA, climate tough in Senate
Corn asserts When It Comes to the Rhetoric of Rage, the Right Has the Edge
Twittering Why didn't they kill Palin instead
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED… Death Threats Against Sarah Palin at Unprecendented Level
My Name is Betsy. I'm a Killer
From Coyote:
We libertarians cringe when presented with a “national tragedy” like the shooting of Gabriella Giffords. Not because we are somehow more or less sensitive to vilence and loss of life, but because we begin bracing for the immediate, badly thought-out expansion of state power that nearly always follows any such tragedy, whether it be 9/11 or Columbine or Oklahoma City or even Pearl Harbor. Those looking to expand the power of the state, and of state officials, make their greatest progress in the emotional aftermath of a such a tragedy. These tragedies are the political equivilent of the power play in ice hockey, when defenders of liberty find themselves temporarily shorthanded, and those wishing to expand state power rush to take advantage.
Protein: We know who you are and we know what you’re trying to do. Morons.
Reason: Beware Bipartisan School Reform - If everybody on the Hill is happy, Americans probably shouldn't be.
Surber: Require youths to listen to Rush
Wednesday, January 12. 2011
From Assisted Suicide at Tablet:
The Arabic word taqqiya is frequently used to denote the kind of dissimulation practiced by Muslims in the Middle East. Westerners tend to abuse the term, as if any Muslim who lies, for instance, about a car robbery, was practicing taqqiya, when he’s just trying to avoid arrest as any other suspect would. Taqqiya is a doctrine particular to the Shia, a Muslim minority who, because they have had much to fear over the last millennium from their more numerous Sunni neighbors, are permitted to lie under duress about their real religious sentiments. The concept, however, is a useful reminder that this is a part of the world where saying the wrong thing to the wrong person can be costly.
Nonetheless, Westerners are very sensitive to the idea that some cultures do not value truth-telling in the same way that we do. For reporters it can be embarrassing if your beat is to cover, say, the Palestinian Authority, since the bulk of your work is taking dictation from frequently malevolent fabulists and having to pass it off as though you were interviewing someone actually worth speaking to. But the convention of our press corps is to treat the utterances of Muamar Qaddafi with the same respect due the prime minister of Canada. To fact-check an entire political culture is beyond the pale of Western journalism, so instead we pretend that Arab societies respect the truth as much as we do, for to say otherwise is to sit in judgment over another culture.
Unfortunately, there is no getting around the fact that societies where the truth is just one among many possible narratives are going to fare worse than societies where truth is valued.
Unlike all of the amateurs with their pet theories about why somebody would kill strangers, I offer no opinion. I don't know the guy. I would rather post about something else.
This post was prompted by this case in the UK: Fattest man in the world suing NHS for "letting me grow."
If a patient of mine got fat, or killed people, can I be called liable? I have been twice named in medical malpractice lawsuits. It is an appalling, demoralizing, painful, and time-consuming experience. It makes you want to quit medicine.
The first case was a teenaged gal who got herself knocked up. The claim by the teen and her anti-abortion parents was that, since she was an impulsive kid, it was my medical duty to make sure she used birth control. I had mentioned it to her, but I had not written that down in my deliberately-sketchy notes.
My second was a guy who cut his wrists in a suicide attempt (or gesture?). He and his wife and lawyer decided that they could make a case that I had prescribed an inadequate amount of antidepressants to prevent him from doing this. Even though the guy's main problem was a personality disorder, they found a psychopharmacologist to testify that the fellow's mood swings and tantrums represented Bipolar Disorder. He was wrong, but that didn't matter.
Both cases sued me to triple the max of my insurance. The first case was a charity treatment case, in a clinic to which I donate one day per week. I suspect they figured out on Google that my husband is a banker. Both plaintiffs lost in trial, but both experiences left me feeling dragged through a sewer, slimed. A trial lawyer can always find somebody to pay to say you did something wrong. In my field of work, everything is a judgement call, and there is rarely or never a right and wrong.
I had felt, with both patients, that I had had a good, constructive, and friendly relationship, and that I had helped them quite a bit. Interestingly, both sued me for their behavior and their behavioral choices, as if I were responsible for those - as if I were God.
Like most docs I know, I try to do the best that I can to help the people I see, but my powers are limited. Still, lawsuits are always in the back of every doctor's mind in the US. My guess is that about half of medical tests are done with lawsuits in mind (eg $700 CT scans for tension headaches). Lots of hungry, parasitical trial lawyers out there, and plenty of people who are willing to toss away a relationship with a doctor if they think they can hit the jackpot by doing so. They can always find another doctor (although few doctors are willing to see litigious patients. I will refuse to treat anyone who has sued a physician. In other ways too, I select the people that I am willing to help. It's my prerogative.).
The lesson: Evil lurks in human hearts. No doubt about it.
She was the first person blamed for the Arizona massacre by angry, hate-filled, destructive Lefty fanatics who have had her in their sights for two years. She speaks out now, presidentially.
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