I keep a weblog like it's still the 90s. For commentary and dissent please visit jontaylor.ca, or various other purveyors of thought online.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Marginal Revolution: Equality Shoes

Marginal Revolution: Equality Shoes: "At 6'2', I prefer this to equality limb shortening!"

Thursday, March 25, 2010

QOTW

SteynOnline - Steynposts: "The quality of your argument is only important if you want to win by persuasion."

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Some Truckee Residents Not Cool With Penis Snow Sculpture

Some Truckee Residents Not Cool With Penis Snow Sculpture - KTXL

They rejected my headline of "Truckee Residents Choked at MTV's Behaviour"

S. Weasel

S. Weasel: "So let’s point out the utterly fucking obvious, shall we? There is no relationship between blogs and trees. Nobody is waiting around for a pingback before they go stick a spruce in the ground."

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The case against the hockey stick

The case against the hockey stick - Prospect Magazine: "Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion is one of the best science books in years. It exposes in delicious detail, datum by datum, how a great scientific mistake of immense political weight was perpetrated, defended and camouflaged by a scientific establishment that should now be red with shame. It is a book about principal components, data mining and confidence intervals—subjects that have never before been made thrilling. It is the biography of a graph."

Theodore H. Frank: I am not afraid of my Toyota Prius

Theodore H. Frank: I am not afraid of my Toyota Prius | Washington Examiner: "In the 24 cases where driver age was reported or readily inferred, the drivers included those of the ages 60, 61, 63, 66, 68, 71, 72, 72, 77, 79, 83, 85, 89—and I’m leaving out the son whose age wasn’t identified, but whose 94-year-old father died as a passenger.

These “electronic defects” apparently discriminate against the elderly, just as the sudden acceleration of Audis and GM autos did before them. (If computers are going to discriminate against anyone, they should be picking on the young, who are more likely to take up arms against the rise of the machines and future Terminators)."

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

American lawmakers look to pull out of NAFTA

American lawmakers look to pull out of NAFTA: "Forget about the trouble Canada had with the Buy America policy, there is a new game in Washington; it’s called Block Canada. A group of congressmen have given their backing to a bill that if passed, would see President Barack Obama give six-months notice that the United States was withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement."

American lawmakers look to give up supply of freshwater, oil, lumber, gold, diamonds, tourism, good faith and zinc.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror - WSJ.com: "Krugman scoffs: 'To me, that's a bizarre point of view--but then, I don't live in Mr. Kyl's universe.'

What does textbook economics have to say about this question? Here is a passage from a textbook called 'Macroeconomics':

Public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. . . . In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker's incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of 'Eurosclerosis,' the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.

So it turns out that what Krugman calls Sen. Kyl's 'bizarre point of view' is, in fact, textbook economics. The authors of that textbook are Paul Krugman and Robin Wells. Miss Wells is also known as Mrs. Paul Krugman."

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial | Ten Geekiest Best Picture Nominees | Power Grid | Geekosystem: "The makers of M&Ms, as well, found E.T. himself so ugly that they passed up the use of their candy in the film, a place that Reese's Pieces was glad to fill."

Lol at the autobiography joke.

Friday, March 5, 2010

U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion

U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Waiting to hear 'we're sorry'

Waiting to hear 'we're sorry': "How can reporters assigned to write about the IPCC's credibility problem fail to Google 'IPCC hockey stick'? It's called 'research.' For that matter, why did journalists tell us the IPCC was an 'international panel of climate scientists' (New York Times editorial board) when that organization's own website says it's 'comprised of government delegations'?"