Saturday Night Stuff

Just watched "Up". It was awesome, you should watch it.

Moron. Seriously, how does this guy have a column? I could learn as much listening to dorm room conversations.

Axe body spray. Hahahahahahahaha. Stuff makes Drakkar seem like a subtle touch of class.

Growing Share of Americans' Income Comes From Government.

CNET's review of the IPad. I'll probably wait a little bit.

Here's a picture of a dinosaur.

Wednesday Wamblings

Barnes & Noble customer "service".

Food carts in Austin.

This seems like a reasoned and well thought out response.

I feel pretty certain that our robed masters are going to be the hammer on this issue.

A Tale of Two Cheaters.

Looks like my crazy ass brother was right about cell phones. Doh.

We spend a lot on the military.

Tuesday Tidbits

The Rise of Dog Identity Politics

Hatch-Schumer Payroll Tax Cut Plan.

The Problems With the Bank Tax.

Ulysses S. Grant. Underrated.

Public Priorities of People from Pew.

Pants on the Ground.

Monday Interesting Stuff

Will Wilkinson pwns Paul Krugman

What is prop trading?

"The government has chronically oversubsidized Mortgage lending and home ownership."

Women aren't big enough jerks according to this guy.

Sunday Interesting Stuff

Why do women have trouble negotiating?

Everything you want to know about the budget reconciliation process.

Radiation Offers New Cures, and Ways to do Harm.

Difficulty of regulating prop trading.

Matt Welch on the Citizens United case.

Interesting stuff

Garry Kasparov article on chess and artificial intelligence. Great read.

Mexico's economy is hugely dependent on the drug trade.

Biggest time suck ever. My Africa geography is getting much better though.

Toyota FT-86 concept.

Slime Mold Beats Humans at Perfecting Traffic.

Moscow's Stray Dogs.

Citizens United v. FEC

Predictably, there has been the hue and cry from all members of the press and the Lefty blogosphere about how the Citizens United v. FEC decisions will lead to the downfall of the United States. I was in the process of writing my own very lengthy post regarding the decision when I happened across the following post by Glenn Greenwald which pretty much nails it.

Adoption

So Leigh and I are heading to an adoption meeting tomorrow night. This will be our second round in the adoption realm; we also looked at it when we were struggling the first time but opted to go the medical route. That didn't work and I came away from the entire experience with an even more jaded view of the medical establishment than I already had- which is saying something. We took a breather after that and are going to take another look. One of the most difficult things about the decision to adopt, at least for us, is being open and honest about all the things that you give up when you have kids. That is, you have to be honest about being selfish.

Entrepreneurs

I love that word. So, good post on Entrepreneurs and Risk which leads to a good post by Felix Salmon on the same which links to a good article by Malcom Gladwell. So in case you have an hour to spare, have at it.

Grad School

Great post from Felix Salmon on the costs and benefits of grad school. Took me about an hour to read because the links he includes are fascinating in their own right.

I think about grad school on a weekly, if not daily, basis. My dad is an academic, brother #1 just graduated from law school, brother #2 is working on his third masters, sister #3 did grad school for English, sister #4 graduated with the awesome military history major that she is using for her grad school in interior design, and sister #5 is working on her masters in English. So I've got a bit of an inferiority complex about it for starters.

Things I Think Are Interesting

Megan McCardle on the commercial real estate bust.

Drug rehab centers in China don't provide treatment, but do allow forced labor. Duh. But does it work?

Bizarre (read awesome) hand draw movie posters from Africa.

Was explaining the origin of the phrase "All your (insert whatever) are belong to us" to my wife the other day. Here it is.

Tyler Cowen with interesting facts about Yemen. Definitely check out the architecture link.

Apparently, retailers should not hire good looking people.

Horns Lose

Horns lost the national championship to Alabama 37-21. The game was closer than the score as Bama tacked two on late. Personal opinion was that Alabama was the best team all year and that they deserved to win. However, it sucks to lose your stud QB on the 5th play of the game and play your true freshman QB against the best and most aggressive defense in the country. Garrett Gilbert did some growing tonight and I'm proud of him and the Horns for not wilting.

Ryan Avent on Urban Development

In another life I'd probably have gone down the path of urban planning. It's a fascinating topic for many reasons, not the least of which is the extraordinary impact that urban design and development have on our every day lives. I've also been intrigued by what distinguishes "successful" cities from those dying on the vine. I think it started for me as a result of living in Milwaukee from grade school through high school. Milwaukee could very easily have gone the way of Detroit. It still has its shortcomings, including the openly corrupt city council and public sector unions, but it has also reinvented itself in many ways and attracted people to live there. I just got back from Milwaukee and it was negative one million degrees there, so it's not faint praise to say "we actually got people to want to live here."

Anyway, here is a great, great post by Ryan Avent responding to a piece in the American Prospect on urban development (which is also worth reading). I don't agree with all of his writing, or even much of it, since he would like to centrally plan pretty much everything. However, this is worth reading.

Never Talk to the Police

Regent University Law School Professor James Duane explains why it is always a bad idea.

What a Crappy Decade

Wow. Knew it was not great, but didn't know it was that bad.