Over at the New York Times, Elisabeth Bumiller and Thom Shanker team up to deliver a story on possible cuts in defense spending that, one must say, is not entirely misleading. While picturing Defense Secretary Leo Panetta as straining every nerve and sinew to achieve the near-impossible—cutting our grossly swollen defense budget by 10 percent…
Nobel Prize Winner Meets Capitalism, Gracelessly Succumbs
I’ve been reading Sam L. Savage’s sometimes too breezy but often quite informative The Flaw of Averages, largely a paean to distributions, which are in fact quite interesting. Among other things, he tells the story of the famous Black-Scholes equation, which tells you how to minimize the risk in your stock portfolio over time. Myron…
HAPPY NEW YEAR—So Not the New Yorker Once More!
For New Yorker-approved humor, go here. “I know it’s not much consolation, but in a lot of ways, I’m more of a prisoner than you are.” “I think you know why you’re here. Nobody’s going to miss a couple of dumb teenagers from Hoboken? That was not smart, Larry. That was definitely not smart.” “It’s…
The dangers of writing a headline while drunk: “Mitt Romney is wild like a stallion”
So you won’t have to read the article (by Roger Simon for Politico), Mitt did not beat an Iowa citizen’s face into mummy with his flint-like hooves. Too bad!
Skipping Friday, pretty much
It’s Saturday in Samoa. The country, which pretended it was east* of the International Date Line to appease pushy Americans finds that its economy is now more Asian than American, and decided to skip Friday entirely this year to get in sync with the people who make the Pacific happen these days. The NYT has…
Ron Paul: I’m not a bigot, I just pretended to be one to manipulate the masses and cash in on their stupidity
No, that’s not Ron talking, but, from all accounts, if he bothered to tell the truth about the Ron Paul Freedom Report, that’s what he’d say. I refer you to knowledgeable libertarian blogging heads like Shikha Dalmia, Steve Horwitz, and David Wiegel. Dalmia summarizes Horwitz as follows: “Horwitz recounts chapter and verse demonstrating that comments…
Harvard Hush-Up: A little veritas goes a long way
Over at the Nation, Charles Gross has a fascinating article on disgraced Harvard professor Marc Hauser, who was found guilty of “eight counts of scientific misconduct” by a “secret investigating committee” at Harvard and who resigned from Harvard earlier this year. Gross is a a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton University and does…
Dude, he’s always been your grandmother!
Young Russian kid plays “Dizzy Atmosphere”
Not bad at all, but I didn’t really get the introductory riffs. The old guy with the violin, who plays near the end, sounds like a reincarnation of Slam Stewart.* Posted by “kzorty”. (This seems to be his only offering.) *Not a compliment, though Slam turns up on some of the earliest bop recordings, with…
SNTNY!
If you can’t handle intense, one-of-a-kind humor, go here. “Yes, we are having guests for dinner. But you won’t be dining with us.” “You’re the ones who should be worried. I hear that, these days, they’re all gay.” “If you won’t help me find Flossie, I know people who will. Cat people, just like me.”…