Exhibit 1:
- one million French citizens never brush their teeth
- half of all French do not brush their teeth in the evening
- 57% of French children under five have never brushed their teeth
- the average French citizen uses between one and two toothbrushes in a year
Exhibit 2:
I'm at a loss for words. Really
“yet tell us how it ought to work”. A quote from Mort Zuckerman, owner and contributor to U.S. News & World Report, The Atlantic and the New York Daily News, about journalists in the July 27 issue of the New Yorker.
It’s this combination of ignorance and arrogance that so irritates me about journalists. There has been no issue that better illustrates this than climate change; an unfathomably complex problem trivialized into good vs. evil by self-righteous idiots. This was in plain view in Newsweek’s last issue which Robert J. Samuelson, a Newsweek contributor, took them to task for.
NEWSWEEK's "denial machine" is a peripheral and highly contrived story. NEWSWEEK implied, for example, that ExxonMobil used a think tank to pay academics to criticize global-warming science. Actually, this accusation was long ago discredited, and NEWSWEEK shouldn't have lent it respectability. (The company says it knew nothing of the global-warming grant, which involved issues of climate modeling. And its 2006 contribution to the think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, was small: $240,000 out of a $28 million budget.)
Exacerbating the problem is that the typical journalist, steeped in obsolete Marxist orthodoxy in college, becomes calcified in this manner of thought when surrounded by those nearly all think the same way. This causes a maddening blinders effect to data that doesn’t support the original narrative.
Take for example this new study from the journal Science:
Abstract
Previous climate model projections of climate change accounted for external forcing from natural and anthropogenic sources but did not attempt to predict internally generated natural variability. We present a new modeling system that predicts both internal variability and externally forced changes and hence forecasts surface temperature with substantially improved skill throughout a decade, both globally and in many regions. Our system predicts that internal variability will partially offset the anthropogenic global warming signal for the next few years. However, climate will continue to warm, with at least half of the years after 2009 predicted to exceed the warmest year currently on record.
Anyone with an open-minded, fully functioning brain can see that the conclusions of this study are somewhat ambiguous. The study acknowledges that previous models excluded such non-trivial factors such as the Ocean (oops) but produced new better models that suggest that AGW will kick in for real in 2009 – never mind that such claims of better model accuracy get made on a regular basis. Every researcher thinks they’ve figured it out until the model doesn’t fit.
Reuter’s predictable take on the subject.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Global warming is forecast to set in with a vengeance after 2009, with at least half of the five following years expected to be hotter than 1998, the warmest year on record, scientists reported on Thursday.
Except that new data that Reuters should have been aware of was available before this article was written that shows that 1998 was not “hottest year on record”. Sloppy work from NASA was discovered which skewed recent temperature data and has been officially corrected.
We’ll never see it reported though. Our self-anointed, under educated fixers of the world have predictable, simplistic narratives to write elsewhere.
It's so sad that things like this have to exist.
Tethered for a cause
South Bend -- A 19-year-old college student spent 12 hours chained to her family's porch Saturday as part of a national protest against confining dogs for long periods of time.
Jenny Lawson wore her dog collar from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. as part of a national "Chain Off 2007" event that involved 99 people in 32 states.
Protesters chained themselves to doghouses or in yards, according to Dogs Deserve Better, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit that campaigns against chaining or penning dogs for long periods of time.
Lawson, a sophomore at Earlham College in Richmond, said she collected pledges and planned to donate the money to the advocacy group.
"I kind of didn't want to do this at first because I didn't want to seem crazy, but then I realized it's about all I can do for chained dogs right now," she said.
Lawson said friends stopped by to keep her company, and she did allow herself to go inside for bathroom breaks.
"I'm not crazy," she said.
And they're pretty good at it to boot.
Link, via Boing-Boing/PoeTV
Wow, two posts in one day!
This is pretty interesting, Boing-Boing noted a beta program by Simplify Media that allows you to share your iTunes tracks or view/listen to a friends music when online. If yer a pal and you're interested, lemme know, I'd be eager to try this out.
I just found this (via Wired) and it looks pretty amusing. Go to simpsonizeme.com and simply upload a picture of a person's face (according to the article, you should use a hi-ish res straight on head-shot), and voila. I haven't actually tried this, but figured I'd put it out there to see is anyone would.
If you can, see "Rescue Dawn" by Werner Herzog and featuring Christian Bale. Over the past few weeks I've been re-newing my appreciation for Werner's films and found myself incredibly excited at the idea of seeing him in narrative mode again.
I'm going to post a series of video clips that, with any luck, will clearly demonstrate why I think Werner is an amazing filmmaker/storyteller and general bad-ass.
First, an interview with Bale on Charlie Rose where they discuss Bale's career, Rescue Dawn and Werner.
If ever there was any doubting the expression “don’t let the patients run the asylum” one only has to look to G.L.C.A. member Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH. Like most institutions founded for the greater good it had a noble charter. It was one of the first colleges that codified gender equality for both students and faculty. Also like most institutions created for the greater good its idealism often came at the expense of practicality. The school had chronic enrollment problems and was forced to operate on a shoestring until the middle of the 20th century.
Parasitism always involves a certain degree of opportunism frequently in the form of selecting hosts uniquely weakened or compromised in some way. Being dirt poor with a history of bucking convention made Antioch a perfect host for the post WWII communist academics and their Marxist ideology. Under this banner Antioch was remade into the preeminent source of leftist student radicalism in the country. When investigated by the House Unamerican Activities Committee they responded:
“freedom begins not in suppressing unpopular ideas but in holding all ideas up to the light”
This sort of thing was extremely popular in the 60’s and enrollment soared to over 2,000 bringing financial prosperity for the first time. Unfortunately this didn’t result in the improvement in the curriculum which to this day has students create their own study plans which are not graded and remains almost entirely focused on social activism.
The school degenerated into a freak-show in the 90’s attracting national attention when under pressure from feminist activists imposed "Sexual Offense Prevention Policy" which enforces severe penalties on male students if explicit permission isn’t received at each stage of sexual activity. “Do you want to have sex?” is far too ambiguous.
The goal is 100 percent consensual sex, and it works like this: it isn't enough to ask someone if she'd like to have sex, as an Antioch women's center advocate told a group of incoming freshmen this fall. You must obtain consent every step of the way. "If you want to take her blouse off, you have to ask. If you want to touch her breast, you have to ask. If you want to move your hand down to her genitals, you have to ask. If you want to put your finger inside her, you have to ask."
Then in 2000 it had convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal give the commencement address.
Today with funds nearly dried up and only a few hundred believers remaining the college announced its closing but is leaving open the possibility it may reopen:
The school hopes that alumni will provide financial help, that it will attract investors and that it can develop more partnerships with the Yellow Springs community, said Mary Lou LaPierre, vice chancellor for university advancement.
Yeah I'd love to be making those Alumni fund raising calls. Talk about blood from a rock.
UPDATE: Here's a good NYTimes Op-Ed from an NPR reporter that went to Antioch in its heyday that comes to the same conclusions:
Each semester, the college seemed to create a new program. “We need to take education to the people” became a mantra, and so satellite campuses began to sprout around the country. Something called Antioch University was created, and every faculty member whose marriage was going bad or who simply couldn’t hack living in a village of 3,000 people and longed for the city came up with a proposal to start a new campus.
“It was liberalism gone mad,” a former professor, Hannah Goldberg, once told me, and she was right. The college seemed to forget the pragmatism that had been a key to its ethos, and tried blindly to extend its mission beyond education to social reform. But there were too many new programs and too little cash reserve to deal with the inevitable growing pains.
States are renamed as countries with similar GDP.
Russia, India and China don't really fit any State but for for comparison's sake Russia and India are closest to Florida but about $100 Billion smaller. China is currently equal to the sum of California and Nevada ($2.5 billion trillion).
Germany's economy, despite having less than 8% of China's population is still $350 Billion larger than China's.
Earlier this week NPR had a story about Argentina’s once abysmal economy roaring back with 8.5% annual GDP growth crediting the resiliency and innovativeness of the Argentine people in creating a booming export market. The individuals profiled were a boot maker with less than 10 employees and a member of a collective of seamstresses. Both had found relative prosperity in the foreign market for their goods. As I was thinking about what a great comeback story this was I heard the following which naturally made me suspicious.
"..Neighborhood assemblies, leftist parties and the militant students inspired us. I learned about Marx and Trotsky, and workers' control."
NPR is notorious for having a soft spot for leftist Latin regimes and frequently skew their reporting on economic issues based on the regime in power. For example continued emphasis will likely be placed on Mexico’s economic failure now that free market oriented Felipe Calderón is in power while successes are more likely to be featured for those with leftist leanings. This story is no exception and demonstrates cherry-picking in the tradition of Walter Duranty.
Argentine President Nestor Kirchner is highly regarded in leftist circles for replacing two right wing justices with women on the Argentine Supreme Court – one an Atheist no less – and rejecting the market liberalizing recommendations made by the IMF during the economic crisis. Instead of advancing policies making trade easier Kirchner is an unapologetic protectionist boasting:
"We had our own recipe," President Nestor Kirchner said last week, verbally thumbing his nose at those outside Argentina, such as the IMF, whose prescriptions he has rejected. "If we had followed ... the Fund and all the rest," he added, "we know how we Argentines would have faired."
What is that recipe? NPR would like us to credit the policies of this plucky Socialist but in reality they are little more than a speed bump to the colossal market forces projected by China.
Two years after hitting rock bottom, Argentina's economy is on the rebound.
Although the 10-month-old government led by President Nestor Kirchner has taken
credit, economists are praising the soybean — a small, round legume packed with
protein that is at the margin of Argentina's beef-heavy cuisine but at the heart
of its economy. Soybean prices have soared to their
highest levels since 1988, bringing in billions of dollars in foreign currency
and powering the economy's 8.7 percent growth last year. Taxes on soybean exports, meanwhile,
have been a godsend for the cash-strapped government, providing a huge chunk of
its budget surplus. In recent years, soybeans have swept
across Argentina's vast plains, replacing other crops and cattle to become the
nation's top export. The nation's once formidable
industry is still in ruins, and widespread unemployment in sprawling, urban
slums remains, but the small towns that dot the sparsely populated pampas are
bustling. An emerging group of soybean-growing
businessmen equipped with cell phones and sport utility vehicles is driving the
boom. They have amassed huge tracts of land, building expansive agro-industrial
operations that have begun displacing the region's gauchos and small-scale
farmers. But a growing chorus of economists, agronomists
and environmentalists is warning of the dangers of the soybean bonanza, which is
occurring to a similar degree in neighboring Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
Never before has Argentina's agricultural production
been so concentrated in one crop, a tendency observers say is favorable only as
long as soybean prices remain high.
From sugar cane to coffee, monoculture
economies historically have spelled ruin in Latin America, as boom inexorably
has been followed by bust. In addition, Argentina in
recent years has become increasingly dependent on imports of other agricultural
products, from milk to potatoes. Agronomists, meanwhile, caution that the
expansion of soybeans is leading to deforestation and causing soil depletion as
many farmers neglect to rotate the legume with other crops.
Argentina is the world's third-largest soybean producer
behind the United States and Brazil. Most of the soybeans are exported to China
and other Asian countries, where they are crushed into a meal used as feed for
livestock.
On the subject of poverty and inequality, here's a good article about the value of early childhood education in reducing them.
The article pretty much echos the conclusions that I reached (using the same data, largely) from a research project last year on the role of the education system in reducing or perpetuating poverty and inequality.
The Pew Charitable Trust just released a study recently that shows that median income for those in their thirties has fallen generation over generation for the first time in modern history and concludes that it shows that the “American Dream” is imperiled by “CEO salaries” and “income inequality” -- among other things -- and that our only salvation is through government intervention.
My goodness! Imagine a lefty think tank concluding that! That’s like the oil industry being opposed to climate change legislation. Its no wonder every major news source will reprint the report’s conclusions without an iota of skepticism.
It goes without saying that the economists working at a think tank like Pew believe capitalism unchecked will invariably end with the great many of us serving a few thousand czars that own everything; that no matter how well read or credentialed they become they still see the world with the same lazy Marxism they were first exposed to by the hacks teaching their first freshman survey courses.
While I think there is plenty in the study that leaves room for concern I also see a great over-eagerness to again take a single negative metric, frame it in such a way to be “unprecedented”, suggest that it demonstrates that market freedom imperils us and through intellectually dishonest slight of hand and a stupid, complicit media transform correlation into causation. I defy anyone to explain how Steve Jobs getting paid $260 million dollars this year directly depressed any thirty-something’s income. It’s simply a retarded conclusion.
A more realistic, less ambitious explanation for the income drop is that people are simply starting their careers later. This is a very well known phenomenon and has been reported on by NPR on several occasions. Microeconomics is basically the study of how people make decisions. Until our generation the decision to work was largely driven by necessity. The unprecedented wealth of our parents now makes work more optional. Many 30 something’s have used this additional discretion to do things such as acquire more education (or be lazy) that would have been economically unfeasible in previous generations.
In short the same argument lefty econs use to explain away the income discrepancy between the US and Europe can be employed here: the same or greater opportunity to make money exists; they are just choosing to work less.
I just read the best obit of Jerry Falwell that I could imagine, by Christopher Hitchens. A taste:
"The discovery of the carcass of Jerry Falwell on the floor of an obscure office in Virginia has almost zero significance, except perhaps for two categories of the species labeled "credulous idiot." The first such category consists of those who expected Falwell (and themselves) to be bodily raptured out of the biosphere and assumed into the heavens, leaving pilotless planes and driverless trucks and taxis to crash with their innocent victims as collateral damage. This group is so stupid and uncultured that it may perhaps be forgiven. It is so far "left behind" that almost its only pleasure is to gloat at the idea of others being abandoned in the same condition."It only gets better from there.
On the theme of climate whatnot, I recently came accross an interesting article in Wired about a new method of modeling phytoplankton which should have quite an impact on the long-term climage change predictions. I.e., make those predictions less of a wild-ass guess. Faster please.
Which reminds me,Plankton farming strikes me as a reasonable way to take care of that CO2 we're pumping out, keeping this in mind of course:
"Some Silicon Valley technocrats are betting that it just might. In an effort to ameliorate the effects of global warming, several groups are working on ventures to grow vast floating fields of plankton intended to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and carry it to the depths of the ocean. It is an idea, debated by experts for years, that still sounds like science fiction — and some scholars think that is where it belongs.
But even though many questions remain unanswered, the first commercial project is scheduled to get under way this month when the WeatherBird II, a 115-foot research vessel, heads out from its dock in Florida to the Galápagos and the South Pacific...
The idea is similar to planting forests full of carbon-inhaling trees, but in desolate stretches of ocean. “This is organic gardening, not rocket science,” said Russ George, the chief executive of Planktos, the company behind the WeatherBird II project. “Can it possibly be as easy as we say it is? We’re about to find out.”
For Mr. George, this is not just science and environmentalism but business, possibly big business. Around the world, new treaties and regulations are forcing corporations to look for ways to offset their carbon emissions, and Planktos and its competitors may be able to charge millions of dollars for their services."
More evidence from the New York Times that in the marketplace of ideas climate change hysteria is increasingly being put in the half-price bin:
I was running errands the other day when a pleasant young woman with a
clipboard tried to stop me. “Do you have a moment for the environment, sir?” she
asked.“No,” I barked as I evaded her, “I don’t!” I felt guilty, but also
vindicated. I mean, of course I have a moment for the environment. Saying you’re
not for the environment right now is like saying you’re not for education,
children, world peace, Africa or a cure for cancer. These days you would have to
be a fool or a lobbyist to dismiss global warming and natural resource issues.
But is it possible that all this marketing is cheapening the cause?Must every
hotel, restaurant, shampoo, detergent and beverage that is environmentally
responsible talk so much about it? Yuban “sustainable development” coffee. Paul
Mitchell “protecting our planet for generations to come.” Levi’s Eco jeans.How
much green-standing can we stand? It’s enough hot air to melt Antarctica. In no
time, an inconvenient truth has become an obnoxious one. But from what I can
see, there’s as much selling as thinking going on. The other night I attended a
magazine party in a photography studio that had been turned into an elaborate
garden with 10-foot-high privet hedges fashioned from shrubbery trucked up from
the South. After the party, the walls of greens went into a chipper for
recycling.“It’s giving back to the environment in a good way,” the decorator
told me.
I've been meaning to post this for a month and haven't gotten around to
it, so allow me to present the creative trimming of a winter coat. 
This is kind of a scary picture, but unfortunately
the only one I took of myself with the whole deal. My goal: to attain
the longest chin whiskers possible during the official winter months.
This look could be categorized as "Olde Tyme Bartender" or US President circa 1860-1900. I sported this business for one entire day and it felt ridiculously uncomfortable. I spent the entire day desperately wanting this off of my face.
This one was alright. Not nearly as uncomfortable as
the previous incarnation, but still weird (for me at least). This went
on for about five days. Apparently, it lookeddisappointingly normal. 
This is only slightly different than the last. Notice the subtle narrowing of the handle's? 
And here, finally, is the full blown Ben-stache. Yay.
I was very amused to hear that my favorite alma mater is thinking about discontinuing its cooperation with well known college rankings magazines. Of course the decision is based only on the highest principles. Of course….[cough]
So in light of this brave stand I hope they are willing to reciprocate the trust the absence of impartial data demands of prospective students. Why I think the following would only be fair:
Dear Admissions Committee:
Thank you for your inquiry about my high school and SAT transcripts. It is no mistake that you have not yet received them. I have decided not to recognize the false precision and authority of these artificial measures. Your admissions selection process is too important to be based on data from an outside, synthetic measure that is so fundamentally flawed and incomplete. Does a weather report convey all that is beautiful about a sunny fall afternoon in Vermont? Of course not! A four digit number is just as insufficient to describe all the character, culture and beauty contained in all the welcoming hallways and anterooms that dwell within my mind. Look over there past my shrine to Donald DeFreeze. There is a tire swing hanging from rafters reclaimed from an old barn with multi-hued bears frolicking with much merriment. Why even my whimsy exudes acceptance and tolerance! Oh if only some day I could have friends of such diversity in which to share my gaiety. But I digress…the SAT is nothing more than a construct of the corporate machine which seeks to grade our wonderful, unique, free-thinking minds like cuts of beef. Like a blast of poisonous carbon monoxide thousands of for-profit corporations like Kaplan and Princeton Review seek to extract payment with the promise that we can outperform our peers. How is it moral to take money to make someone else a loser? I suppose others can receive absolution from that pagan creed of Capitalism but I know as Friends we’re simply too good for that. It’s a pity others can’t be as concerned about social-justice as we are. There are just so many greed-battered souls that litter this Caligula’s wasteland of Amerikkka it shouldn’t be a surprise that I had so many as my high school teachers. So oppressed were they by this controlling, paternalistic society and so deprived of the sensitive, worldly and engaging re-education within your walls are they that they seek to damn all free spirits in their charge to their sad fate. As my llama power animal has often told me, hurt people hurt people. In consideration of this truth I proudly view my grade point average with the same regard as a tattoo marking the forearm of a Survivor; a mark of unspeakable oppression.
Absent of my brands of conformity I’m sure you’d like to have some information about me in which to base your consideration. I descend from principled, non-conformist, English stock who were among the first to lead the fight against slavery. Through determination and hard work they left my parents with a legacy of world renown. My parents did their best to build on what their progenitors left them and pushed forward with an agenda of non-violent, compassionate progressivism. As they were somewhat less industrious than their forbearers their accomplishments were rather modest but their passion was just as strong! My upbringing in this environment has influenced me greatly. I value peace in this world more than anything. So much so that I sold all the land my grandparents left me to allow my family and I to tour the country converting the ignorant to our culture of peace in our new bio-diesel bus and help fund a yearly trip to Palestine to help me understand peace even better. Included with this letter is a tastefully designed view book constructed of paper I made myself filled with autumn pictures of me trying to impose peace on others through high decibel wisdom and colorful signage. I also included a video of me helping my Palestinian peace friend Khaled build the beautiful, traditional “Katyusha” firework for a peace festival in his basement.
Some lesser institutions of learning might receive the enclosed with some skepticism. "How can any of this information be verified? Even if it is true, how does this demonstrate that you've received a legitimate education? ", they may ask. To which I'll respond with righteous outrage, "Did you not read my essay on my impressive values? Did you not see the pictures of me with friends of many colors and creeds...smiling....in the fall!? Are you so obtuse as to not see that my quality is self evident?!" I know you will let me tell you the story of me using my tongue of tolerance rather than the imposed language of greed to which other institutions will only listen.
Thank you for your consideration,
Earl M. Coolege
Update: I wonder if this is the type of student they're now shooting for? They seem to approve....
As a rule I despise country music. In the rare instances I actually allow myself to pay attention when it's played in grocery stores or Jiffy Lubes I always find I can predict what the lyrics are going to be despite never hearing the song before. Unfortunately doing so triggers a deep sense of self loathing because somehow these odes to morons apparently somehow resonates with me. The rather crappy movie The Beach was sort of the same way. As a rule I also hate hippies and this movie was all about hippies being hippies but for some reason the movie made we want to visit Bankok until the following changed my mind:
UPDATE:
Why the surprise? Everyone knows Cindy Sheehan needs to train with Bangkok masters for her Ping-Pong Show for Peace.
I followed a link from Boing Boing (A Directory of Wonderful things) that featured this picture of Hillary lookin freaky. But things get really good if you follow through to Something Awful. Some folks have photoshopped her head into all manner of amusing settings.
This one was my favorite.
"watching her dreams of an atmosphere on mars fade away, or is it just a memory???"
Update: So apparently there's no linking from wherever that one came from. That's sad cause it was damn funny. This one will do however. 
Updated update: Got around the no linking thing so here you go...
