No longer fearing the electorate, the president shows his true colors. I think that it’s going to backfire on him in 2014, though.
A Chemistry Museum
What would good displays look like?
The Green Movement
…is anti-human. Not news, but it’s always useful to remind people.
A Calorie
…is not a calorie:
“Our current system for assessing calories is surely wrong,” said evolutionary biologist Richard Wrangham of Harvard University, the co-organizer of the panel.
In a wide-ranging discussion of how food is digested in everything from humans to rats to pythons, the panel reviewed a new spate of studies showing that foods are processed differently as they move from our gullet to our guts and beyond. They agreed that net caloric counts for many foods are flawed because they don’t take into account the energy used to digest food; the bite that oral and gut bacteria take out of various foods; or the properties of different foods themselves that speed up or slow down their journey through the intestines, such as whether they are cooked or resistant to digestion.
Of course, in addition to that, the thermodynamic theory of nutrition doesn’t take into account how your metabolism responds to different kinds of calories. In a just world, much of the lipophobic nutrition industry would be sued into oblivion, or in prison, bearing responsibility for millions of premature deaths, and sufferers of ill health. Instead, they still seem to be in charge of the FDA.
Growing Human Hearts
The Inviolable Second Amendment
Part one of the Virtual State of the Union address:
[Update a couple minutes later]
OK, so it wasn’t a “mistake.” Washington Democrats are once again trying to get warrantless searches against gun owners.
Tar. Feathers.
“Monopoly-Money Grades”
How universities have devalued their currency.
I had always thought that this kind of grade inflation started in the sixties, when many professors didn’t want to cost students their draft deferments by flunking them out, but a lot more has been driving it in recent decades. Time to rein it in.
[Update a few minutes later]
It’s not just grade inflation — it’s also degree inflation:
Of all the metropolitan areas in the United States, Atlanta has had one of the largest inflows of college graduates in the last five years, according to an analysis of census data by William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. In 2012, 39 percent of job postings for secretaries and administrative assistants in the Atlanta metro area requested a bachelor’s degree, up from 28 percent in 2007, according to Burning Glass.
“When I started recruiting in ’06, you didn’t need a college degree, but there weren’t that many candidates,” Ms. Manzagol said.
Even if they are not exactly applying the knowledge they gained in their political science, finance and fashion marketing classes, the young graduates employed by Busch, Slipakoff & Schuh say they are grateful for even the rotest of rote office work they have been given.
“It sure beats washing cars,” said Landon Crider, 24, the firm’s soft-spoken runner.
He would know: he spent several years, while at Georgia State and in the months after graduation, scrubbing sedans at Enterprise Rent-a-Car. Before joining the law firm, he was turned down for a promotion to rental agent at Enterprise — a position that also required a bachelor’s degree — because the company said he didn’t have enough sales experience.
His college-educated colleagues had similarly limited opportunities, working at Ruby Tuesday or behind a retail counter while waiting for a better job to open up.
“I am over $100,000 in student loan debt right now,” said Megan Parker, who earns $37,000 as the firm’s receptionist. She graduated from the Art Institute of Atlanta in 2011 with a degree in fashion and retail management, and spent months waiting on “bridezillas” at a couture boutique, among other stores, while churning out office-job applications.
“I will probably never see the end of that bill, but I’m not really thinking about it right now,” she said. “You know, this is a really great place to work.”
A lot of young people have sure gotten a lot of terrible advice over the past couple decades. Any other industry that committed this kind of massive, multi-billion-dollar fraud would rightly have its leaders in jail.
Government Corruption
A sincere discussion between experts on the topic:
“President Karzai said that Afghanistan needs earnest and sincere cooperation of the international community, particularly of the United States in its fight against corruption,” says the press release. “The President called awarding of contracts to relatives and affiliates of Afghan senior officials, a major source of corruption, underscoring that the United States should avoid it.”
Senator Menendez is currently under investigation by the FBI for allegations that he attempted to secure favors for his friend and campaign contributor Salmon Melgen. Menendez recently reimbursed Melgen for $60,000 worth of flights to the Dominican Republic, where Menendez allegedly solicited prostitutes. Menendez is also accused of lobbying for a port-security contract in the Dominican Republic in which Melgen had a financial interest. Menendez has denied wrongdoing, calling the allegations against him “smears.”
Yes. Right.
“Smears.”
City Mouse, Suburb Mouse
Thoughts on the Left’s war on suburbia, from Lileks.
Human-Robot Relations
Nice to see Clara doing other than space stuff.