Category: The Dish

Eeww.

A scientific study finds that wealth is inversely correlated with intelligence in determining how best to spend a small amount of money. (Hat tip: Marginal Revolution.)

Why people are leaving institutional religion behind. On the other hand, I also see this guy’s point:

I can’t stand outside and throw stones. The very things that pain and disappoint me in the church exist in myself, and I don’t like them there either. Often I feel like a hypocrite among hypocrites – all of us pretending to live something we are constantly contradicting.

A swipe at Edwards and a defense. Count me among the latter.

A reader writes:

Do you think God knows that you won’t have very good answers to the points Sam Harris brings up at the end of his last reply?

A scholarly study of a day’s rants at Ace of Spades, one of the more conspicuously drooling froth-monsters of the bloggy right. Money quote:

The blogosphere is a gold mine for writers. I don’t mean you can make a ton of money doing this — I mean it in a figurative sense, which is the only sense in which most writers, online or off, will ever see much gold of any sort. That is, you can observe certain human behaviors under glass — the glass of your monitor, in this case — in much the same way Ibsen used to observe the behaviors of that scorpion her kept in a beer mug on his desk.

Let us follow the tail-swishings of one Ace O. Spades …

Mr. Fish, let me introduce you to Mr Barrel.
 

A reader writes:

Agree with you entirely about the perils of biking as transportation in a major city. At least DC is relatively bike friendly, I average about one near miss a week in Dallas, and the vast majority of my commute is on a limited access bike path, so it’s probably about one near miss every 10 miles. Like you, I’ve been doored (and broken a rib), have lost a couple of wheels to people who suddenly turn into me, and have a twelve stitch scar on my head from some jerk that ran a red light (that did convince me of the wisdom of the helmet).

I’ll admit to frequently having a bad attitude when I ride, but it’s defense, not offense.

As a side note, Lifson’s complaint about Critical Mass is just wrong. He claims it just assembles randomly at any possible time. Anyone who’s ridden in a major metro area knows that it always assembles on the last Friday of the month at around 6. It’s eminently avoidable, just like we bikers avoid all kinds of intersections because they’re dangerous. The only reason so many drivers get caught is because they assume they own the road and are totally oblivious toward anyone else on those roads. If you’ve ridden in a Critical Mass (and if you haven’t, you should), you know that it’s totally liberating to be, even for an hour, the dominant form of transportation on city streets.

On the other hand:

Fitchburg, Massachusetts, 9 am today.

A review by a friend.

An orgy of blog video narcissism! And why the hell not? Althouse vlogs herself watching Idol. Scott McLemee vlogs himself watching Althouse vlog herself. Tim Lambert vlogs his dog watching vlogs. Matt Yglesias produces a critique of pure vlogging. Julian Sanchez vlogs vlogs. Megan resists. Drum dissents. Garance agrees with Drum. Drezner tweaks. I thank God for interns.

Now go vlog yourself.