Sunday, November 30, 2008

There is no God! Vitamins are a waste of money!

This is enough for an existential fit. Latest study reaffirms a trend: No health benefits from taking vitamins.
Despite a lack of evidence that vitamins actually work, consumers appear largely unwilling to give them up. Many readers of the Well blog say the problem is not the vitamin but poorly designed studies that use the wrong type of vitamin, setting the vitamin up to fail. Industry groups such as the Council for Responsible Nutrition also say the research isn’t well designed to detect benefits in healthy vitamin users.
The public isn't buying. But as one observer named Patricia notes on the NYTimes' Well blog:
The nice thing about science is that science doesn’t care what the public believes.

That’s what makes it so valuable and so worthy of public support.


Thursday, November 27, 2008

Wisdom for the day

Random aphorism from Robert Fripp's Diary for Tuesday, 11th November 2008: "An honest society is an ordered society. An ordered society is an efficient society. An efficient society is a richer society. A richer society may support a poorer society."

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

WTF! They complain about this?

Isn't lower consumption a good thing? Is this the kind of problem you wish for? Apparently not for everyone, namely utility companies. In a regulated world, utilities need a degree of certainty lest "they risk building too much capacity."

James Q. Wilson was right!

Required Reading! Authorities should always sweat the little stuff: the broken windows, the dirty streets, graffiti. Let the little stuff slide and the big problems will appear with a vengeance. In the final analysis, social norms matter. The lesson: broken windows send the wrong signals.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Thought for the day

Via Synthopia a nugget from Brian Eno:
"Music has had its day. A lot of music now doesn’t really have an independent existence separate from the places it’s played in. For instance, a lot of rave music and ambient and trance and so on has very much to do with clubs and lots of people being together and so on. It’s very context-linked. And quite often on records it sounds rather dull."

Monday, November 24, 2008

Lost in bizarro world: Prince makes anti-gay remarks

How can this be? The artist formerly declared as Prince now known as Prince makes controversial remarks.
Asked about his perspective on social issues—gay marriage, abortion—Prince tapped his Bible and said, “God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, ‘Enough.’ ”

Hold on. The miniature singer who used to perform in bikini briefs, leg warmers and platform boots said what?

This is the effeminate musician who played the androgyny card big time with his wild, sexy costumes and provocative lyrics to create album-selling controversy?

The guy whose music was so darn dirty that it inspired Tipper Gore to slap parental advisory stickers on music deemed not suitable for minors?

He’s now against gays having equal rights?

Wow. Talk about alienating your base.
Why the change of heart? Hollywood asks:
What do you think? Is Prince, now a converted Jehovah’s Witness, totally off base? Will you continue to buy and listen to his music? Or do you agree with him?
If the music is good then don't worry about the politics. Why is it that patrons of the arts have to take an artist's politics so seriously?

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Why dead-end Communists suck


They never had a sense of humor, that's why Commies couldn't help themselves as they butchered millions in the name of the State.

The Communist Party of St. Petersberg has condemned actress Olga Kurylenko for her role in the new Bond flick they say aids, "the killer of hundreds of Soviet people and their allies." The group described 007 himself as, "a man who worked for decades under the orders of Thatcher and Reagan to destroy the USSR." Thatcher, sure. I don't think Yanks get to order around British secret agents.

I guess the Communist Party of St. Pete is offended because Bond has only killed hundreds of Russians, and they think this total is too meager? Or were they upset they didn't get to starve a few extra hundred?
The only good commie is ...which is the point of the Bond brand.

Hat tip to Distributed Republic.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Unplugged: Wakeman does Bowie

The always phenomenal Rick Wakeman reprising David Bowie's "Life on Mars" of which he wrote the piano part.



Hat tip: Notes From The Underground

Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Big Lie that is the Big Dig

Keller takes on F. Salvucci and the Big Dig boosters.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

You don't say?

Tilted? How about going in the tank?

Thought for the day

The Angry Economist: "I think we need less faith in our politicians and more faith in ourselves."


Nice sentiment but people have latched on to hope thinking That One will pay their gas and mortgages and cut their taxes too. To those who have high expectations of President Obama I say: "Good luck with that."

Friday, November 07, 2008

God Bless Bobby Orr, the greatest

When Bobby Orr touched the puck, the world became electrified and great things would happen.

He was the greatest hockey player. Period.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Bravo, Michelle Obama

It's great that she's drawing attention to working families and the hardships military families face. "Now that Barack has been elected president, it will be an honour to be First Lady. I will work daily on the issues closest to my heart: helping working women and families, particularly military families."

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Congratulations President Obama

The people have spoken and placed their faith and confidence in the young senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. And as a loyal American I accept the wisdom of their choice. Godspeed and good luck to the President-elect. A passage from Jim Geraghty's blog entry reflects my best wishes.
"I have many, many disagreements with Barack Obama. But tonight I congratulate him on his victory. I have seen a few critics say, 'he won't be my president,' but that is nonsense. He will be my president, and I will wish him well, particularly as he takes on the duty of protecting the American people in a dangerous world."

"A shmuck with a tape recorder"

I'm not into the hagiography of Studs Terkel "the Bard of the Popular Front" and nor is Ron Radosh. Adeptly and without reservation, Radosh blows the bloom off the red rose, opting to speak truth of the dead. That said there's something to be said to Terkel's method of opening up the American narrative to other story-tellers: the people on the ground. But let's question Terkel's ends not means.

It's worth noting that even Terkel was a useful idiot as Radosh reminds us by way of A.M Rosenthal.
No wonder that the late A.M. Rosenthal, then executive editor of the Times and later a columnist for the paper (when it was still striving to have somewhat of an ecumenical approach and was not exclusively a left-wing opinion sheet) read Berman’s review and, perhaps a bit harshly and in an over the top comment, promptly called Terkel “a shmuck with a tape recorder.” A man like Rosenthal, committed to the paper as he was, knew from personal experience and his years covering Communist Poland the reality of the nightmare underlying the Communist dream, and hence had little sympathy for the kind of narrative Studs Terkel was laying out.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

How will the CEOs manage?

Must read from Sequoia Venture Capital. And just who is Sequoia Venture Capital? More here.

Saturday, November 01, 2008