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It’s time to remind ourselves what the “rotten apples” metaphor means and what it does not. It means that a even very few corrupt individuals in an organization need to be detected and dealt with quickly, because the rot otherwise quickly spreads and infects the whole system. Someone getting away with stuff is an object [...]
Archive for November, 2011
November 20th, 2011
November 20th, 2011
It has now been two weeks, and the PSU affair is still, almost universally, treated as a localized problem in a small town in Pennsylvania involving mistreatment of kids (not players, not students). But that’s not what the Penn State crisis is: Penn State is just the place where a much more pervasive sickmess was [...]
November 20th, 2011
Category: Biofuels, Energy and Environment
Mike O’Hare nails it. The target paper “presents a principal inference not supported by its results, that rests on a fundamental conceptual error, and that has no place in the current discussion of biofuels’ climate effects.”
November 20th, 2011
Category: Humor, Technology and Society
This is the best joke I have heard about faster-than-light neutrinos: The bartender says “Sorry, we don’t serve faster than light neutrinos”. A faster than light neutrino walks into a bar.
November 20th, 2011
Category: Campaign 2012, Religion and Politics
Newt Gingrich is rising in the polls to challenge Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination now that Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain have gotten their turn and flamed out. Given the desperation of anti-Romney GOP primary voters, it has to be asked why they felt that these three people all merited a serious [...]
November 19th, 2011
Category: Economics
Bob’s new book, the Darwin Economy, is pretty neat. He raps about evolution and economics with Paul Solman for eight minutes here.
November 19th, 2011
Category: Film
Filmmakers Steve James and Peter Gilbert started with the idea of making a 30 minute TV show about kids playing basketball at an urban playground. Instead they got pulled into the lives of two remarkable families and you will be too by the astounding 1994 documentary “Hoop Dreams”. The film follows two African-American basketball players [...]
November 18th, 2011
Category: Drug Policy
Morgan Fox at Cato Institute sees great profit potential from legalizing marijuana because “experts” tell him that the market in this commodity may be worth as much as $120 Billion a year, which is more than wheat and corn combined. An impressive claim indeed, but is it true? You are going to hear many numbers [...]
November 17th, 2011
I just love this woman: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) mocked Rick Perry’s suggestion that she debate him about his idea for a part-time Congress. “He did ask if I could debate here in Washington on Monday — it is my understanding that such a letter has come in. Monday, I’m going to be [...]