Holy cop cameras, Batman

The only way I'd consider it is if they reduced my property taxes. But that would never happen ....

health care

Reading through this story (via Instapundit) I remembered a short story I read a while back about a person who invented a robotic doctor. The AMA insisted that they could only be used under a Doctor's supervision and the protagonist refused, but his partner somehow did an end-run and worked out a deal with the AMA. Fast-forward a few years and the disillusioned inventor visits a Doctor's office where the MD is basically an alcoholic figurehead while the robot flawlessly manages all the medicine. Seeing the Minute-Clinics and Wal-Mart's clinics reminds me a little bit of that story.

You're kidding ...

So you can't make smog disappear in two months by ruthlessly oppressing your people and promising like Capt. Picard to "make it so"? I'm shocked. Shocked!

Higher intelligence wetware

This is an interesting read. Of course my favorite part fits with what I've been saying for years:

Studies show that practice and perseverance contribute more to accomplishment than being smart does. 

 (another tip of the hat to Instapundit)

This is a bad idea

An international law banning 'defamation of (Islam) religion'. How about an international law protecting free speech, instead.

Advanced searching on Craigslist

UPDATE: Looks like Craigslist has documented this info here.  The info below is no longer accurate.

There are several tricks for creating more powerful, focused searches on Craigslist.

• The NOT search - placing a dash "-" in front of a search term will exclude items that include that word. So if you're shopping for a car and you want to look at Hondas but you don't like Civics you can search for "honda -civic".
• The OR search - placing a single quote in front of multiple terms will search for items that include any of the terms. Craigslist searches are by default AND searches - that is an ad has to include all of the entered terms to turn up in a search. So if you want to search for Civics or Accords you can search "'civic 'accord".
  
• Combined AND/OR searching. Parentheses can be used to combine two OR searches. So if you want either a Honda or a Toyota, but you only want to see newer models you can search "('honda 'toyota) ('2005 '2006)"

Thanks to the crew at Lifehacker for the first two tips.

Don't quit drinking ...

I don't want to say that people who quit drinking get stupider, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Speak it, brother!

America doesn't have a system for air security, it has a system for bothering people.

Amen.

Really?

If this is true:

there "is no official policy" at NASA regarding sex on space missions. "There really has been no research conducted on the area to know whether it [sex in space] would be a good thing or a bad thing," he said, "but it probably is inevitable."

then that seems like a foolish and obvious oversight.

I think they're lying. At least I certainly HOPE they are.

depressing but not surprising

Cop arrests a designated driver for DWI, writes in report that her breath smelled strongly of alcohol, then drops charges when her blood test comes back 0.0 for alcohol content. Luckily the police department stands behind the officer.

Hmm. Orwell might have a thought about

this.

No death penalty for child rapists.

I'm disappointed. Can we brand their crime on their foreheads, then? And castrate them?

Is this a Juno Effect?

Mayor denies pregers pact. Principal 'foggy in his memory'. Doesn't really seem to matter if there was an actual 'pact' - however that might be defined - but it definitely sounds like at least some of the girls were trying to get pregnant. I hope this isn't in some way related to Juno, which I thought was a fabulous movie. I watched it with my kids, and was a little uncomfortable with my girls watching it. I don't think it really glamorized teen pregnancy, but Juno is such a compelling character that she might make it seem a bit more attractive.

Speechless and sad

This kind of think really tears me up. I have two daughters and they're all I can think about when I read about this horrible act. I want to send them to self-defense classes and then lock them in their rooms.
I think we've become over-protective of our children in recent years. I have to consciously try to make myself let them do things that we never thought twice about when I was a kid - like walk to a friend's house a block away. I want them to develop a sense of independence and self-reliance, but stories like this - few as they are - make it harder for me to not smother them with "no, you can't do that".
Happiness will be a long time away from those families.

Forget Carbon Dioxide

we need to figure out how to turn down the sun.

anti-anti-bacterial soap

interesting

and a little scary.

Blind Hammer

bowls a perfect game to win league.

And he's 78. Apparently there's still time for me to improve my game.

Eco-adventurers should have brought a mechanic along

I thought this was just funny 'til I read that they actually killed a guy ....

So far the crew has enjoyed far better luck than it experienced during its first attempt, which ended when when Earthrace collided with a fishing vessel off the coast of Guatamala. One fisherman was injured and another lost at sea. Earlier voyages have ended with propeller failures and when the Colombian navy fired upon the boat.

They should probably find a new hobby.

I think

this is dead on:

As a product of the Korean GI Bill I can hardly denounce the concept. The problems really came when the intellectuals convinced people that "investment" in trade schools and such like wasn't as desirable as "investment" in higher education meaning universities. At the same time, the State Colleges became "State universities" and in the "upgrade" put more into graduate schools to the detriment of undergraduate education. We then poured more money into the "university" system which is quite unsuitable for education of more than about 25% of the population (I'd put that at a lower figure, but we can stay with that).

Now a lot of students who would do well at "college" level education can't get that; they have to go to "universities" and learn French Narrative Theory in Freshman Comp.

If investment is needed in "education" -- and it is -- it's in training in technical skills. Most of that could be done in high school. Of course the high school teachers don't want to work that hard and will stand in union solidarity with the college professors who want the large number of students willing to borrow money to go listen to foreign graduate students teach introductory math courses in incomprehensible dialects, but it's "world class" isn't it? Doesn't everyone deserve a "world class university education"?

So we continue to neglect the great majority of our citizens to benefit a handful of intellectuals. And they never catch wise.

                                        -- Jerry Pournelle

via the usual suspect
I don't pretend to know the history of it, but I completely agree that most of what I learned in college (the first time - for the BA) was useless. I had a lot of fun in college. But I didn't learn much that I've ever used again - except as answers to trivia questions.

crime and guns and stuff

The writer of this article from the BBC (via instapundit) seems to find it paradoxical that that the US - with it's legal guns and high rate of homicide - feels safer than the UK where guns are banned. Statistics showing the burglary rate for various countries might be relevant. The US sits at No. 17 on the list with a rate of 7 per 1000 people - well below the UK at No. 7 (13/1000) or No. 1 Australia with a staggering  21 burglaries per 1000. (Let me add now that I haven't vetted the site providing the stats, so consider the source)

It's true that our murder rate is higher than the UK's - 4 per 100,000 people (3.6 using guns) vs. the UK's 1 per 100,000. Hey that's 4 times the UK rate, it's 400% higher. That's what you'd see in the headlines, but look at the numbers 1/100,000 vs. 4/100,000. That's not much real difference, certainly not compared to the burglary rates.

Guns are dangerous - no question about it. And tragic accidents happen with guns all too often. And they always make the headlines.

Unfortunately, it's also true that there are bad people in the world. Guns provide a way for 'regular' people to defend themselves and their loved ones regardless of age or physical condition. They are equalizers. Criminals in the US have to consider the real possibility that anyone they might decide to rob may have a gun.