What it has to do with a low-carb diet. It’s not what you might think.
Barack Obama’s Never-Never Land
Thoughts on our first postmodern president.
Automatic Transmissions
Don’t be afraid to shift them in motion.
I’ve noticed that most/all of the new cars have shifters on the automatic (some are with thumb paddles on the steering wheel). But unlike a pattern of a stick, they work like a motorcycle, with an upshift or downshift, but you can’t skip gears. In general, absent a clutch, I don’t really see the point, except perhaps for stump pulling or climbing steep hills, and for the latter it still seem like the transmission will know best. As a stick driver, I have trouble knowing what to do with the throttle when I shift them. Supposedly, you’re supposed to just keep the gas on for the shift, which seems very unnatural to me.
The Fracking Fallacy
…of Tom Friedman. Friedman gets entirely too much respect for his intelligence.
Comeback Kid
Is Curiosity a sign of a new NASA?
I’ll believe there’s a new NASA when Webb and SLS are finally put out of their misery. But the problem isn’t just NASA — it’s Congress.
The Hippy MIT Geek
…who saved Apollow 13?
Geoff Landis is skeptical. So am I. It’s hard to believe that this wouldn’t have been the first thought to almost everyone in Mission Control.
[Via Geek Press]
Barack’s Daddy Issues
I always thought that the notion that George W. Bush went into Iraq to please his father was an idiotic theory, but Moe Lane has a much more plausible one with regard to the current president. He did, after all, have a whole book ghost written for him on the subject.
I also think that Romney will take advantage of the president’s visceral dislike for him repeatedly in the next three months, by getting under his skin and goading him into some very ugly stuff that will finally dispose of his supposed “likability.”
Loot
I find it interesting that many of the spam emails I get offering me quick loans (usually on the order of a thousand or fifteen hundred or so) use the word “loot” in the subject line to describe the funds (e.g., “We’ve got the loot the get back in your bankroll!”). I wonder if this is a deliberate connotation of theft, or just a poor understanding of the historical meaning of the word on the part of the spammer?
The False Dichotomy
Lileks, with some thoughts on evangelistic atheism:
Religion seeks the metaphysical truth to existence, and science explains the physical truth. The former is predicated on accepting the unprovable, and hence science is not its opposite. That’s the part I don’t get: the need to set up science as a contrapositive model. It’s like saying you shouldn’t want to see the Batman movie because the jetstream is dipping south and dragging cold moist Canadian air over the planes. Huh? I want to see Batman. But rain will be falling over most of the Dakotas. Why does that matter? It’s the Batman movie. The rain will be too late for the small grains, but may prepare the soil for next year. I think we’re talking about two different things.
I’ve never understood it, either. Of course, these are the same people who idiotically assume that because I’m skeptical about Warmageddon, that I must be a Christian creationist.
I See Clueless People
Remember, the “progressives” should be allowed to run our lives, because they’re so much smarter than the rest of us.