Monday, February 10, 2014

Monday's Child

1.  Wind power=Ponzi scheme?  Perhaps.  I like the commenter who says that "The problem is not wind power; the problem is capitalism!  The insistence that investments actually pay a return!"  (In fact, sir, the idea of a return just means that the investment saves more resources than it uses up.  That seems like the very definition of "sustainable," right?)

2. Not surprising that Congresss tells some itty bitty fibs.  More surprising that "major" networks ignore the fibs.  So, well done, CBS.

3. As with any Ponzi scheme, the Girl Scouts can get nasty.  Whoever actually has to SELL the cookies is left holding the bag.  What you want to do is get orders for cases of cookies from your "associates" down the chain.  And if they try to return them, you attack.

4.  A sweet pup story.  And a dog kiss for the fireman.

5.  Not sure, at all , that this is real.  But it is perfectly plausible, at least for male readers.

moremoremore!



6.  Excellent headline: "NASA Sued for Failing to Investigate Martian Jelly-Donut Rock"  I assume the follow-up will reveal that the plaintiff's real name is "Homer Simpson."

7. Interesting, and provocative.  But remarkably different from what I think that "market" means.

8.  If the President were serious about closing Guantanamo, he could make it a solar "power" company.  It would be closed in a month.  Or so says Jay Leno.

9.  The "heat and eat" scam.  But since it's a government scam, it's legal.

10.  What happens if you search for "Dennis Rodman"?

11.  Greensboro believes that spending on hotel more than pays for itself.  Next:  all roads run downhill, in both directions.  And pigs fly!  Here's my question:  given that Greensboro builds two or three of these things that "more than pay for themselves" every year, why is the tax rate in Greensboro still positive.  They should be taking in so much from these projects--if the econ impact studies were accurate--that the tax rate should be negative, right?  How come it's not?

12.  Anvils....away!

13.  Sweden runs out of garbage, is reduced to importing garbage from Norway.

14.  Hundreds of thousands of people are going to have to call on the phone and wait half an hour to have this conversation:  "That number is wrong!"  "But it says so on the form."  "I know, but it's wrong."  "Why is the form wrong?  I think YOU are wrong."  "It's my information; it's wrong."  "Okay, let me fix it....nope, the system is down, you'll have to call back.  In the meantime, we can't process your application...."  "*%&^$%^*$!"  Or something like that.

15.  Bohemian Rhapsody school closing.  Awful.  Like something I would do.  The "mouth guitar" at the end is especially bad.  Some more information, as if you wanted it.

16.  The potties of Sochi.  I can not imagine that the LMM, the Queen of our house, would be amused at these throne room arrangements.

17.  I have come to the conclusion that Elizabeth Warren is actually a performance artist, not a nut.  Here is one of her latest "installations."  It's quite well done.  You have to read it carefully to realize that it's a hoax.  Please, merciful God, tell me that this is a hoax.

18.  A remarkable discovery.  Thank goodness for studies, conducted in our "Schools of Education."  Real science is stuff like this...I'm just sayin'.

19.  Motion-activated singing bass croons Talking Heads song, scares off burglar.  Why spend thousands on a security system when you can have Big Mouth Billy the Singing Bass:  "Intruder!  The Police Have Been Called!  Take Me to the River! Drop Me in the Water Immediately!"

20.  Even I think this is likely to be a problem.  Just use a well-shaken diet soda can, folks.

21.  P-Kroog temporarily forgets he is a hack shill for the Democrats, and mistakenly writes an actual sensible economics column.  I predict it won't last. Still, a welcome change from his usual pap.

22.  The EPA is pretty unfriendly to business.  But if enviro-mental groups want to sue the EPA, the EPA is surprisingly helpful and friendly.

23.  I cringed when I read this.  But to be fair, how would a school celebrate black history month?  "Authentic" recipes....from what? There is no way to serve "black" foods without stereotyping (which I admit is offensive).  Still, what about healthy foods?  In any case the watermelon was a bad idea.  A very, very bad idea. I have some black acquaintances who will generally just not eat watermelon in public.  It's not that they don't like watermelon, either.

24.  No colors allowed.  And no hoodies, either.

25.  Snow forecast:  More stuff you won't find on BrendanNyhan.com.

26.  An amazing "Amazing Grace"

27.  Wow, kill the dogs, and then make the squirrels into pets.

28.  Hell hath no fury like a woman whose husband cheats on her with their adopted daughter.   "My bloody Valentine," indeed.

29.  Pro-tip:  Pranks are better if they are funny.

30.  The banality of preparing a weapon of mass destruction for inflicting that destruction. Interesting because it seems so innocent.

31.  An interesting invention, but an obvious moral hazard problem:  the lady's date will be all, "Do you smell tear gas?  I smell tear gas!  Quick, the gas masks!  We need the gas masks!  While they are still warm!"  And then he puts on the gas mask and makes that motorboat noise: wubbawubba-wubbawubba!  I think it would get old, for the lady.  Guy keeps sayin', "Oh, guess I was wrong!  I'll watch you put it back on, now."

32.  This is appalling.  And excellent.  The disco drum machine background is terrific. Ima get one of those hats.  And it turns out the appalling-tude was not an accident.  They can reproduce the magic at will.

33.  PETA performance art.  Pretty clever, actually.

34.  Interesting.  I guess we have arrived, in some sort of way.

35.  Mommas, don't let your babies grow up to be "Violence Interruptors."

36.  If this is right, then someone should be able to pay higher salaries to these current adjuncts, charge lower tuitions to the currently overcharged students, and provide a better education.  Actually, that's probably true.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

#3. As the lady says, "Somebody has to be accountable to those cookies"!

Tom said...

"...Elizabeth Warren is actually a performance artist, not a nut." Why can't she be both? Anyway, that kind of "artist" is now common on the internet and there's a descriptive name for such person: Troll, Ugly, annoying troll.

"The report found that 68 million Americans don’t have bank accounts and spent $89 billion in 2012 on interest and fees ... The average un-banked household spent more than $2,400

Umm... 89B/68M is 1308.82 -- Where's the 2400 come from?

Tom said...

There's a business even more ubiquitous than the PO: groceries. Elizabeth Warren would have us believe that there is $89B lying on the table and the nation's grocers are not moving to pick up any of that. Either all the grocers are really dumb or Warren is using KrugmanNomic type analysis.

Jeff R. said...

I confess I don't get the difference between a market and an exchange network that Wired piece discusses. An exchange network just sounds like a specific type of market that has a lot of repeat transactions, strong reputation effects, high trust among the participants, and some drippy talk about how it works great 'cause they all become each others' BFFs. That's swell, but not all markets can work like that, nor would you really want them to, I suspect. Furthermore, I've never heard of "using game theory to mathematically examine the properties of human societies," but the Hayekian term "scientism" comes immediately to mind.

Academic Dog said...

Tom, a household has more than one person.

Unknown said...

RE: the amorous pig in China, ME: wonder if Captain Beefheart was detained for questioning?

Billy Jones said...

Mr Munger, Thank you for your link to my blog in #11. We can use all the help we can get here in Greensboro exposing the corruption.