Reason magazine -- Dave Barry Interview

"All I Think Is That It's Stupid --
Dave Barry on laughing at Very Big Government"

Flour, Eggs, Sugar, Chocolate . . . Just Add Chemistry

"'When you add water to flour and stir,' she says, 'these two little proteins - glutenin and gliadin - grab water first, and each other, to make these springy elastic sheets of gluten.'"

Catallarchy � What Does The Free Market Require?

"Does the free market require intelligent thought and predictive ability among its participants to function"

Coyote Blog: Latest NEA School Report is Absurd

"Latest NEA School Report is Absurd"

Coyote Blog: Fisking the NEA's Improvement Ideas

"Fisking the NEA's Improvement Ideas"

The NitPicker's Guide to the Lord of the Rings

"The following is a lengthy list of deviations to be found when comparing the text of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and the translation of those texts to film as undertaken by Peter Jackson, et.al."

Tales of the Shanghai Ikea

The FTC's website on Credit

"Soon you'll be able to get your credit report for free. A recent amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months, from www.annualcreditreport.com. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the nation's consumer protection agency, has prepared a brochure, Your Access to Free Credit Reports, explaining your rights and how to order a free annual credit report."

The Banty Rooster - The Banter - A Must Read Email From an American Soldier!

"Then, after a routine for here but hardly routine day in the OR, my day was made. I'm referring to the interaction I witnessed and helped facilitate between a young injured soldier and a high ranking official. Here is how it happened:"

King William's College general knowledge quiz

"King William's College quiz

Pupils at King William's College on the Isle of Man have suffered this fiendish general knowledge quiz for 99 years. The average score is just two. Answers in the new year
"

Christmas sheet music

http://www.mfiles.co.uk/other-christmas.htm


http://www.noelnoelnoel.com/leadsht/shtmx.html


http://www.freesheetmusic.net/Holiday.html


http://www.christmas-carol-music.org/


http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/

Eat 'Supermeals' to Protect Heart

"Eating meals that include all ingredients known to improve cardiovascular health could add years to your life, according to new study findings released Friday."

Monument to fallen mouse erected

"China has erected a monument for a little thought of, but important martyr -- the mice, guinea pigs, rabbits and monkeys who gave their lives to science, especially the testing for SARS vaccine."

Harbin Pictures

The temperature in Harbin reaches forty below zero, both farenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year. The city is actually further north than notoriously cold Vladivostok, Russia, just 300 miles away. So what does one do here every winter? Hold an outdoor festival, of course!

In Damascus, they voted for George W. Bush

While the results of this year's American election may have liberal Democrats and much of the extended international community shaking their heads in disbelief, a surprising number of Arabs seem to have not only expected President George W. Bush's return to power but also supported it.

Caltech Michelin Lecture

"Aliens Cause Global Warming

A lecture by Michael Crichton
Caltech Michelin Lecture
January 17, 2003

My topic today sounds humorous but unfortunately I am serious. I am going to argue that extraterrestrials lie behind global warming. Or to speak more precisely, I will argue that a belief in extraterrestrials has paved the way, in a progression of steps, to a belief in global warming. Charting this progression of belief will be my task today.
"

Belfast Telegraph

"Alexander the Great was one, as was Billy the Kid and John McEnroe. Now scientists believe they can explain why some people are left-handed, and it's all to do with coming out on top in a fight."

Telegraph | News

"Men and boys who use laptop computers on their knees could be risking their fertility, according to new research."

The Original Code

"Standards of the Comics Code Authority for editorial matter as originally adopted"

CNN.com - Dude -- professor studies 'dude' - Dec 8, 2004

"A linguist from the University of Pittsburgh has published a scholarly paper deconstructing and deciphering the word 'dude,' contending it is much more than a catchall for lazy, inarticulate surfers, skaters, slackers and teenagers."

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Ideas / Friedrich the Great

"Dismissed by critics as a free-market extremist, economist Friedrich Hayek is gaining new attention as a forerunner of cognitive psychology, information theory, even postmodernism. A reintroduction to one of the most important thinkers you've barely heard of."

How birthrates color the electoral map

Despite the endless verbiage expended trying to explain America’s remarkably stable division into Republican and Democratic regions, almost no one has mentioned the obscure demographic factor that correlated uncannily with states’ partisan splits in both 2000 and 2004.

Despite the endless verbiage expended trying to explain America’s remarkably stable division into Republican and Democratic regions, almost no one has mentioned the obscure demographic factor that correlated uncannily with states’ partisan splits in both 2000 and 2004.

The New York Times > Business > Your Money > Everybody's Business: My Favorite Mistake? Not a Million-Dollar One

"MY mother's mother, God bless her soul, used to say when a mistake was made, 'Don't worry, you'll do it again.' By that she meant that the human animal is so constructed that we barely learn from our mistakes, so let's not let them get to us. We're all human, and we all make mistakes."

Eminem Is Right by Mary Eberstadt - Policy Review, No. 128

If yesterday’s rock was the music of abandon, today’s is that of abandonment. The odd truth about contemporary teenage music — the characteristic that most separates it from what has gone before — is its compulsive insistence on the damage wrought by broken homes, family dysfunction, checked-out parents, and (especially) absent fathers

TCS: Tech Central Station - Stem Cells and Philosophy

TCS: Tech Central Station - Stem Cells and Philosophy:
"What this is, it seems to me, is not science but scientism; and when men argue that philosophical or theological objections to theory X or procedure Y ought to be discounted, and the decisions about its use made purely on the basis of 'good science,' it is very difficult for a detached observer to conclude that they really mean what they say."