If all product reviews were written with such passion the world would a more entertaining place.
Rant of the Week: 2/17/08 – 2/23/08
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Monthly Archives: February 2008
Essay of the Week: 2/17/08 – 2/23/08
This photo essay from Zombie Times is this week’s essay of the week. Thankfully, the situation it documents is confined to Berkeley. But we should not forget that the contest between revolutionaries and nationalists has been fought out for real on a national scale in many countries. And the results have never been pretty.
Compare and Contrast
Lately, it has become common to compare Obama’s speaking abilities and popular appeal to Reagan’s. Its kind of tricky to judge the validity of this comparison. Most of Reagan’s famous speech’s happened after he was already President were as most of Obama’s speeches so far have happened on the campaign trail. You can’t really draw a fair comparison between the two types of speeches.
But there is one similarity between the two men. They both rose to prominence with a famous speech they gave at convention for another man. With Reagan it was a speech he gave at the convention that nominated Barry Goldwater called “A Time for Choosing.” With Obama, it was a speech that he gave at the convention that nominated Kerry called “The Audacity of Hope.”
In both cases, the candidate that they where supporting would go on to lose. But in both cases, the speech’s laid the groundwork for their personal future campaigns. This allows us to compare their speaking ability at a similar points in their careers.
So here is the closing portion of “A Time For Choosing”….
And here is the closing portion of “The Audacity of Hope”……
Putting Humpty Dumpty back togather again
All the kings horses and all the kings men are working really hard of late.
Here is Naked Capitalism on the attempts of the powers that be to salvage something from the Bond Insurances companies.
Here is Tanta on how the Government’s Sponsored Agencies are going to go about guaranteeing Jumbo mortgages in an attempt to provided stimulus.
And here is Brad Setser to remind us once again why we have not crashed yet.
HIGAMI 2
There is some excellent technical juggling and diabolo on this video. This makes the third time ever that I’ve seen the 4 diabolo 360. Some great excaliber tricks, too.
Mr. Tabarrok decides to become a Chartist
Professional economists normally have no use for Chartists. The idea that you can predict future price movements based on past behavior of the Chart has not empirical support. Most economists will tell you that there is not much to separate a Chartist from witch doctor.
But one might imagine that Alex Tabarrok has come around Click Here to continue reading.
A lot of people hurt due to strong winds in New York
There was a strong wind in northern New York on Sunday and it caused a mass causality event in Rochester. This from America’s North Shore Journal….
At about 12:38 p.m. EST today, the Monroe County 911 Center received a cellphone call reporting a 20 car pileup on I390. In the next few moments, a dozen more calls flooded in. Gates Volunteer Fire and Volunteer Ambulance were dispatched.
Just six minutes later a State Police officer on scene requested “as many EMS rigs as possible”. As late as 12:50 a caller reported that collisions were still occurring.
Gates responded, declared a Mass Casualty Incident, and additional resources were requested. The professionals in Monroe County and Rochester City Fire and EMS responded. Chili, Churchville, Greece, Henrietta were among the initial responders from the local region. Rochester City Fire and Airport Rescue responded with extrication tools and manpower. The commercial agencies, Rural Metro and Monroe Ambulance sent ambulances and personnel.
It’s flu season. The local hospitals were jammed. Space was made, people called in, trauma beds made available. One by one the ambulances rolled out with the injured.
Apparently the total number of cars involved in this accident was 36.
This demonstrates why you will be on your own in any major disaster. If 36 cars can strain first responders, just think what would happen if hundreds or thousands of people got hurt.
Photos Round 2
Long time readers of this website will perhaps remember my previous attempt to add a photo section to this website. I called it an experiment. As such, it failed.
It failed primarily from lack of time. If I had been willing, or able, to take more time to upload random (or selected) photos from my everyday […]
To lead and be led
As a young boy I clashed constantly with my oldest brother. I dislike being told what to do or even the way things are, especially if I am not impressed with the authority and consider myself of comparable sagacity. Without inquiring too closely of recent history, I can admit that even very late in my Click Here to continue reading.
The Joys of Industrial Food Production
The Silverware thief sent this link to a New York Times article on a strange disease that occurred in a large scale slaughter house. The heart of the article is this….
On Nov. 28, Dr. DeVries’s boss, Dr. Ruth Lynfield, the state epidemiologist, toured the plant. She and the owner, Kelly Wadding, paid special attention to the head table. Dr. Lynfield became transfixed by one procedure in particular, called “blowing brains.”
As each head reached the end of the table, a worker would insert a metal hose into the foramen magnum, the opening that the spinal cord passes through. High-pressure blasts of compressed air then turned the brain into a slurry that squirted out through the same hole in the skull, often spraying brain tissue around and splattering the hose operator in the process.
Read the whole article if you want to find out how this process caused some factory workers to come down with serious medical problems.