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Monday, September 30. 2013

Boys vs. girls on the math SAT test

Film review: Rush

How Blackberry blew it

Universities - Once upon a time, students’ political leaders kicked against authoritarianism; now they enforce it.

How Many People Is Too Many People?

Take the Food Out of Food Stamps - Poor people need money, not groceries

Rebel Without A Caste - Why Ted Cruz Drives Them Crazy

Senator Obama Calls President Obama A Failed Leader

The Dangers of a De Blasio Victory in New York City’s Mayoral Race

Bomber Bill Ayers’ College Tour

IPCC Hedges Bets On Warming Pause For Lifetimes

I just broke down in tears in boarding area at SFO while on phone with
my wife. I've never cried because of a science report before.

Manbearpig Lives! Environmentalists Claim Global Warming Unleashes Plague of Hybrid Animals

John Boehner is a Genius

Has McDonald’s Declared War on the Middle Class? - Only if you define war as consensual trade in a free market.

Big Labor: In a showdown with Gov. Scott Walker, democracy is the big winner.

Worse Is the New Normal - Mid-20th-century assumptions of generational progress no longer obtain

Urban Heat Island - could it account for much of the century scale warming attributed to AGW?

China's 'love hunters' seek brides for picky billionaires

Government Is Largely Responsible for Soaring Inequality:

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:44 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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Once upon a time, students’ political leaders kicked against authoritarianism;

Not in my adult life. I can only read about it, never see it. In the distant future an historian will demonstrate how the promise of liberation was a mask for totalitarianism.

#1 ErisGuy on 2013-09-30 05:53 (Reply)

How Many People Is Too Many People?

In the last century, the National Socialists and International Socialists did make an effort to de-populate Europe and China. Of some people, anyway. Let their efforts be a model for the Greens in their efforts to depopulate the world. Any change they’ll begin with Africa?

#2 ErisGuy on 2013-09-30 06:05 (Reply)

Re: Rush
As a fan of racing but not of Hollywood, I am very skeptical of this movie. Hollywood is the biggest liar out there. Movies based on actual events or on a book are never true to the original story and most of the time are contorted for some their agenda.

However this is probably different. I saw an interview with Niki Lauda who was an advisor for the film and he was impressed by is faithfulness to what actually happened. It could be that he's just taking up for the movie he worked on, but his assessment give it some credibility.

As a facing fan, I hope it's as good as "Grand Prix" and "Le Mans" eare in their day.

#3 mudbug on 2013-09-30 07:46 (Reply)

Saw Rush Saturday. I would rate it even higher than the classic, Grand Prix. (Of course LeMans is a very different type of movie.)

I rarely see anything in the theater and would rather watch pre-1968 films at home. But I've been anticipating this since Howard was in the pits at Monaco back in 2012 and was not disappointed. Rush is excellent story-telling and does justice to both Lauda and Hunt. The pacing is excellent and the action scenes are fantastic.

#3.1 Mr. Dart (Link) on 2013-09-30 11:19 (Reply)

Re: Soaring inequality

Government produces (or abets) most of the pain in our society. It is the only thing powerful enough to and stupid enough to think it's helping.

#4 mudbug on 2013-09-30 08:37 (Reply)

I saw "Rush" over the weekend, it was a very good movie given its budget, length, and need to appeal to a general audience. I followed the 1976 Formula One season very closely, have read all of Niki Lauda's books, and know the background of the movie very well. The film has many fewer of the typical Hollywood formulas and cliches than I expected, and the acting was very good indeed. I'm a huge Lauda fan, and the man himself has spoken of his approval of "Rush".

I haven't seen the Ayrton Senna documentary that got such good notice a couple of years ago. I would like to see a similar film to "Rush" covering the 1982 season with the Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi rivalry. That story could make a very good film, with the elements of betrayal and the tragic character flaws exhibited by the larger than life Enzo Ferrari in the hands of a skilled screenwriter.

Really, I dislike most movies and am bored by the formulaic nature of most Hollywood fare, but "Rush" was really worth seeing. If you are a Formula One fan in particular, don't miss it.

#5 Seppo on 2013-09-30 09:53 (Reply)

Seppo,
You should definitely see "Senna"! I think you can even see it on YouTube. I saw it on Netflix so you might be able to get it there, too.

#5.1 mudbug on 2013-09-30 20:13 (Reply)

This might belong in the Insults post but I like this line from the urban heat island link:

QUOTE:

In the words of John von Neumann, father of the computer and of algorithms, “There’s no sense in being precise when you don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

Also, from that post, it seems the real solution is not urbanization but to plow NYC under and drive the populace into the countryside. I don't like this solution as down South we already have a terrible Yankee infestation, we certainly don't need more people going on and on about how great their cause of global warming is/was.

#6 JKB on 2013-09-30 11:23 (Reply)

Obviously, the SAT math portion is sexxxxxist!

RUSH: I keep hearing good things about it (although WSJ's review called it "Formula Won" for being formulaic). SENNA I have on DVD, and it is biased in favor of him and against Prost, but it is all old race footage, not reproduction.

Blackberry is a sponsor of Mercedes GP's Formula 1 cars this year. I'm guessing next year it won't.

Brit U's are not likely going to grow replacements for Monty Python, at this rate

Ted Cruz: A REPUBLICAN! From TEXAS! How could he graduate from Harvard and be so DUMB and STUPID and NEANDERTHAL? Maybe they are asking the wrong questions because they have this humongous ginormous blind spot.

Three great finales and two bad: I only watched LOST, and that was a terrible ending. I suspect they thought "maybe it will come to us", but it didn't and they couldn't find it (because it was lost).

AGW Hybrid Animals: The Arctic Ice is not decreasing. Incidentally, have you ever heard of ligers, the lion-tiger hybrid? I have.

McD's, hated by lefties around the world.

China's one-child policy has a bitter harvest.

.

#7 Sam L. on 2013-09-30 11:28 (Reply)

"that was a terrible ending”

Yes, it was, but it was implicit in the first episodes. After seeing the first two episodes, I told my wife: “This kind of drama has only three endings. I bet they are in purgatory and will be ‘gathered up’ at the end.”

I held off buying any of the DVDs of “Lost” until I saw the end, then bought none of them. Wistfully, I wonder, though, because some of the characters were well developed.

I’ll put “Rush” on my Netflix list, but after “Bobby Deerfield,” I never wanted to see another race car movie again.

#7.1 ErisGuy on 2013-09-30 16:20 (Reply)

Anybody who has been to college knows that women aren't very good at math. Look at the results of the Putnam mathematical competition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Lowell_Putnam_Mathematical_Competition

#8 Ray on 2013-09-30 18:54 (Reply)

It took me a minute to realize the whole "take the food out of food stamps" wasn't satire. we already know how giving people money instead of vouchers would evolve: welfarers would start pissing away the money, and democrats would come in and tell us that kids aren't getting fed, and old people are starving to death, women dropping dead on every street corner, so we must make sure these people get vouchers for food on top of their cash allowances. Take it to the bank.

#9 Hoss on 2013-09-30 22:45 (Reply)

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Monday, September 30. 2013

Monday morning links