1984
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Flash mobs and flash robs
Walter Russell Mead talks about the mobs we don’t want to talk about. The Mayor of Philadelphia takes it to heart. Meanwhile, London burns, and this dingbat is in complete denial. Update (10 August). Aha. This isn’t random violence perpetrated by criminal layabouts. It’s a cry for social justice: Here are some of the demands Read more
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Over-rated virtues
It turns out that benevolence, like nice, is totally overrated. I’m plumping for thrift and courage, myself. Update (10 August). Silly me. I forgot industry, a sure sign that I’ve been goofing off. Read more
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Time to panic?
One of the Instapundit’s readers has a frightening question about the current debt ceiling negotiations: And so maybe, just maybe, Republican strategy (what little there is of it) has badly misread the opposition. Obama tried to add 400 billion in taxes to a deal he had already agreed with Boehner at the last minute. Boehner Read more
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Michelle Obama does Sysiphus
The CDC reports that Federal anti-obesity programs aren’t working. Therefore, we need a bigger program! But here’s the money quote: The fattest states also tend to be poorer southern states, where there’s also relatively little stigma against fat. The thinnest states tend to be wealthier, and to include more university-educated Americans who choose to exercise Read more
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Survival modeling on the job
I often joke that some bureaucracies are so tight that you can’t get hired unless one of their employees dies. For a lot of the feds, it ain’t a joke. The good news for grads in math, stats, and management science is that the staffs in Carter Administration outfits like the Department of Energy were Read more
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I gotta have one of THESE!
The Instapundit stumbles onto the brilliant idea of a strategic bacon reserve. After all, if it’s good enough for China… Read more
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Use the Cloud at your peril
Microsoft ‘fesses up to what everyone with half a brain knew already: Uncle Sam, wielding the Patriot Act*, can glom on to any and all of your data stored out on the Cloud. Not to mention assorted hackers, rogue server-farm employees, implausibly denied oriental cyberwarriors, and careless mooks who misplace laptops full of unauthorized downloads. Read more
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OK, it’s official. A million bucks down a rathole.
I predicted the City of San Antonio’s Bike Sharing Program would be a bust, and it appears I was right. So there’s $1,000,000 of YOUR tax dollars blown. The only upside I see is that the B-Cycle kiosks are a strong signal of good locations for private bicycle shops like the Blue Star Bike Shop. Read more
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Here comes the DYSCALCULA epidemic
Back in grad school, whenever a statistical problem had us stumped, we would joke about having a bad case of dyscalcula, comparing ourselves to dyslexics because the problem was so puzzling we weren’t sure we understood the question, let alone had a clue about finding the answer. Well, dyscalcula is making its real-world debut. Oh Read more
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Is there an echo in here?
Just spotted in my RSS reader, I saw a less than neutral headline about the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling that the passage of the state’s law restricting collective bargaining by public employee unions was proper and within state law. Too bad neither CBS nor USA Today can afford a headline rewrite guy. Tip from The Read more
The Random Texan 