Month: August 2009

As The Right Gets Loonier


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They really do begin to remind me of the loony left in Britain in the 1980s. Facing a huge shift away from their priorities and their record in the 1970s, Thatcher divided the opposition and ruled. It took Labour until 1997 to regain the center of the country, because they reacted to defeat by doubling down in the craziest ways. That’s what the GOP seems to be doing now. They can score a few points, but the dumbest aspect of their current strategy is the attempt to demonize an inherently likable president. That can work – but not when it gets reduced to this kind of bloggy inanity.

Palin “News”

Meg Stapleton:

Yet again, some so-called journalists have decided to make up a story. There is no truth to the recent “story” (and story is the correct term for this type of fiction) that the Palins are divorcing. The Palins remain married, committed to each other and their family, and have not purchased land in Montana (last week it was reported to be Long Island).

Less than one week ago, Governor Palin asked the media to “quit making things up.” We appreciate that the more professional journalists decided to question this story before repeating it.

Counting Calories

The Economist ponders menu labeling:

Menu labelling may…encourage restaurants to provide healthier dishes. In response to New York’s menu-labelling law, Cosi, a restaurant chain, created a new menu with healthier items and lowered the calorie content of some of its existing sandwiches. As a result, it says, people are switching to the lower-cal products. National chains like Starbucks, McDonald’s, Denny’s and Dunkin’ Donuts have all introduced less calorific items since menu labelling went into effect in New York. Changes in consumer taste, they say, not menu labelling, are the reason for these changes. But worries about having to print supersize calorie counts on their menus may have played some part. The proof is in the reduced-fat pudding.

The Politics Of Scientists

Scientistsliberal

Robin Hanson points to the above graph from a recent survey and posits:

If the public knew the truth, I expect two effects:

  1. The public would consider scientists to be less authoritative as a neutral source on policy questions, and
  2. Since scientists are respected, the public would become less conservative and more liberal.

But it seems to me that scientists may simply be responding to the redefinition of conservatism in America as a fundamentalist Protestant religious grouping that denies evolution, favors (intellectually indefensible) Bibical literalism, and has a problem with the Enlightenment. Many scientists might remain conservative in the sense I hold – belief in limited government, pragmatic change, individual freedom – but feel they have to call themsleves "liberal" considering the views of those who now go by the name "conservative."

The Trouble With iPods

Oliver Sacks discusses the neuroscience of music

[O]ur exposure to different types of music, and hence our musical literacy, has certainly expanded, but perhaps at a cost. As Daniel Levitin has pointed out, passive listening has largely replaced active music-making. Now that we can listen to anything we like on our iPods, we have less motivation to go to concerts or churches or synagogues, less occasion to sing together. This is unfortunate, because music-making engages much more of our brains than simply listening.

Vacation Time II

Dumpster-swimming-pool

In case you missed this, a company is converting dumpsters into swimming pools:

“It’s a very simple concept,” said Jocko Weyland, Macro-Sea’s project manager. “There aren’t that many places to swim in New York.” And Dumpsters “are everywhere; they’re ubiquitous.”

Interview with the founder and more photos here.

(Hat tip: Laughing Squid)

Vacation Time

If Jeffrey Goldberg and I ever decide to take a vacation together (look, it's possible), I think I've found the perfect place. Beirut:

The last question came from Bertho, a 28-year-old Lebanese tour operator who was the host of the main event that Thursday night in June: the Bear Arabia Mega Party, at the Oceana resort about 30 minutes south of Beirut. Scores of gay men — most of them “bears,” a term used the world over for heavyset, hairy guys usually older than 30 — were coming from across Lebanon and the Arab world, as well as Argentina, Italy, Mexico, the United States and elsewhere.

Discussion of Middle Eastern politics with a healthy dash of back hair. What's not to love? I suspect it was seeing beautiful Israeli soldiers as a teenager on a trip to the Holy Land that made me a Zionist. As a troubled teen from East Grinstead, it was quite an eye-opener.

Markets In Everything

Scott Carney interviewed a Somali pirate for an article. One answer about the economics of hijacking:

A single mission with 12 armed men and boats costs a little over $30,000. But a successful investor has to dispatch at least three or four missions to get lucky once.

A little like pharmaceutical research, but with a little more action.