It took me a while this morning to confirm a whole bunch more Facebook requests, but now I’m ahead of [Ramesh] with 894!
For the life of me, I still don’t understand what Facebook is for though.
When you figure it out, let me know.
GM’s “Business Plan”
Manzi is on the job, deconstructing it. Bottom line:
…this is not a real business plan, but simply a political document. It exists to provide political cover to members of Congress. But if that’s the case, it’s an unintentionally beautiful illustration of why industrial policy fails. It’s both economically crucial and very hard to allocate capital well; that’s why people who are good at it make so much money. Businesses struggle to do this well, and they’re really trying. What do you think the odds are that this is a wise use of money, when the people involved are barely pretending to try?
All this is doing is kicking the can down the road, and delaying (and making much worse) the inevitable and painful restructuring that has to take place. And I’m not talking about just GM, or the auto industry.
Safe, Simple, Soon
Now, the “off-the-shelf” five-segment first stage for the Ares 1 is going to a new propellant formulation, for environmental reasons. No, that won’t take long or cost much to develop or test. And apparently we don’t even have the capability in country to do it currently — we have to rely on the Swedes.
If they were worried about the environment, they shouldn’t have gone with a solid in the first place.
How long before this monstrosity is put out of its (and our) misery? They need to just take the whole concept out behind the VABarn and put it down with a sledge hammer.
The Health-Food Halo
I always laugh when I go into the candy aisle, and see all of these pure sugar concoctions labeled “fat free.” They may not have fat, but they can make you that way in a hurry. It’s also one more reason not to want to have our government, local or federal, nannying our health and diet. A lot of dietary advice is ignorant, or driven by political agendas.
What Is Happening In Canada?
There seems to be little in the US news media about it, though there is an AP story. It seems to be a major constitutional crisis. (Canadian) Mark Steyn explains.
[Thursday afternoon update]
Has the coup failed? It seems to have at least been postponed:
…the decision to suspend Parliament only gives the Tories a reprieve until late January, when they plan to table a budget that could set them up for a no-confidence vote.
Well, in this case (unlike that of GM), it’s probably better to buy time.
[Mid-afternoon update]
The putsch attempt is collapsing:
Within an hour of Prime Minister Stephen Harper winning a two-month reprieve, some Grit MPs were pulling back from the idea of trying to replace the Tory regime with a Liberal-NDP coalition propped up by the Bloc Quebecois.
Toronto MP Jim Karygiannis says the coalition idea is finished and is calling on Stephane Dion to resign the Liberal leadership sooner rather than later.
Dion is scheduled to step aside as Liberal leader once a successor is chosen May 2 but many Liberals remain uneasy about the prospect of ensconcing him in the prime minister’s office even temporarily.
Good.
Nice Little Economy You Have Here
It would be a shame if anything were to happen to it…
“We’re on the brink with the U.S. auto manufacturing industry,” Press told The Associated Press in an interview. “If we have a catastrophic failure of one of these car companies, in this tender environment for the economy, it’s a huge blow. It could trigger a depression.”
I’d be inclined to take this more seriously if it weren’t coming from someone asking the taxpayers for a multi-billion-dollar handout.
Astronaut Training
To deal with Larry King.
A Fit Of Sanity
From Ruth Marcus, of all people. Was Larry Summers right?
The Appalling State Of Higher Education
This is a depressing story about the inability to enforce rules against plagiarism, and the comments more so. I don’t think it was this way when I was in school.
And of course, it’s of a piece with a general decline of ethics among the young. And why should they care? The system doesn’t. I’m starting to think that Glenn Reynolds is right — academia is the next overfunded speculative, empty bubble about to burst.
Living On Mars
Some thoughts from Bob Zubrin, who apparently has a new book
out on the subject.
I have to say, though, that when he says:
It’s a common view that Columbus was just interested in finding a spice route to the Indies, and that was his sales pitch to the Spanish courts. But I actually believe that contrary to conventional history, Columbus was looking for unknown continents — he just couldn’t pitch it that way.
I’d be curious to know the basis for that belief, or if it’s just wishful thinking or projection. My reading of the history does not indicate that Columbus was averse to making a buck.