Category: The Dish

As Cartman might put it, why the fuck not? The concept of cumul.us (mad props on the name, btw) is fascinating:

The site launched just a few weeks ago, and represents a new approach to weather forecasting based on the wisdom of crowds — in short, the notion that a bunch of people (both expert and amateur) predicting the weather will make better predictions in aggregate than single sources alone.

This sounds more dubious:

You can predict the weather yourself. When you make prediction for a particular time and place, the site will go check all of its data sources and record what really happened, and give you a score based on how right you were. It could turn out that a random person is a better predictor of the weather than a professional meteorologist or organization. That person could even be you. Since the site will be tracking the accuracy of all of this, you’ll be able to see who is more right, and follow them.

Don’t ask. (H/t: Cabinet.)

No love lost from Glenn, Hinderaker and RedState. The consensus:

Trent Lott long ago stopped being useful and started being bitter. He hates the Porkbusters. He hates conservatives. He hates most anything other than establishment Republican ideals of entrenched power and earmarks.

Did Larry Flynt play a role? I doubt it. Bonus Malkin meow here.

"More bookish than a book" says Forbes. I hope Steve Jobs takes the concept and amps up the design a notch. Why not an iRead? I have to take exception to this, however:

Even reading a blog will cost one or two dollars a month, a concept that seems as unfair as charging guests to use the bathroom in your home.

What I’d buy is a small printing device that can download any book and print it out in a classic simple paperback style: a consumer-friendly print-on-demand. And make them look like the classic Penguin covers, please.

A pro-Clinton website tried to pay people to leave positive comments about Clinton on blogs. No, I’m not kidding. After a burst of publicity, they added this post:

We had to call this mission off. Also, we want to make it clear: we are not endorsed by the official Hillary Clinton campaign. We are an independent grassroots effort that seeks to ensure Hillary’s election.

But it does remind me of the creepy, cloying cronyism of the Clinton machine’s style. Can you imagine Ron Paul’s supporters wanting to be paid to advocate for their guy? Ugh.

An inverse correlation?

Tyler Cowen notices a strange discrepancy between the American and European press on economic forecasting:

I believe the "America is due for a comeuppance" view remains very popular across the Atlantic.

But Larry Summers is one of the doom-mongers, as Greg Mankiw notes.

Paula Marantz Cohen laments a lost culture of shopping:

The waning of department store culture entails a loss of beauty. That bygone experience, no matter its gender oppressiveness or its health hazards, was an esthetic one. Not just the product counted, but the experience of buying it; not just the ends, but the means. Everything contributed — from the color-coordinated restaurants and swankily snooty hair salons to the changing rooms with triptych mirrors and upholstered armchairs. I can still whiff the inimitable mix of cigarette smoke and Chanel #5 that wafted through the aisles, still recall the comforts of fawning saleswomen, still hear the spike heels clicking down the polished aisles and see the long red fingernails tapping on the glass counters. Gone is the sense that going to a department store was a peek into a magical woman’s world.

I really need a Lileks-style illustration for this, don’t I? The essay is a lovely one, marred only by a reflexive blaming of the hippies. I’d say "cigarette smoke and Chanel #5" is a close match in the ugh department for patchouli and B.O.

The wife of a governor endorses the wife of a former president. Ah, progress …

The latest Muslim obscenity:

A British schoolteacher has been arrested in Sudan accused of insulting Islam’s Prophet, after she allowed her pupils to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Colleagues of Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, said she made an "innocent mistake" by letting the six and seven-year-olds choose the name.

Ms Gibbons was arrested after several parents made complaints. The BBC has learned the charge could lead to six months in jail, 40 lashes or a fine.