Laws/Regulations
Washington Post — As Frustration Grows, Airports Consider Ditching TSA
by JOHN ADAMS •
A wise decision —
Some of the nation’s biggest airports are responding to recent public outrage over security screening by weighing whether they should hire private firms such as Covenant to replace the Transportation Security Administration. Sixteen airports, including San Francisco and Kansas City International Airport, have made the switch since 2002. One Orlando airport has approved the change but needs to select a contractor, and several others are seriously considering it….
For airports, the change isn’t about money. At issue, airport managers and security experts say, is the unwieldy size and bureaucracy of the federal aviation security system. Private firms may be able to do the job more efficiently and with a personal touch, they argue.
Uncategorized
Prevent a Hangover – Wired How-To Wiki
by JOHN ADAMS •
The best way to prevent a hangover is to drink only in moderation. Still, Wired offers a few other tips —
We have been to the moon and split the atom, but a true cure or foolproof preventative measure for the hangover remains elusive. It’s just not fair.
Most doctors will tell you there is no way to cure a hangover, save waiting for your body to metabolize and get rid of the alcohol. While that may be true, there are number of things you can do to speed things up.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 12-31-10
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
It’s a mild day for Whitewater’s last day of 2010, with a predicted high temperature of fifty-two degrees.
The Comment Forum will be on hiatus today, but there’ll be posts throughout the day.
The City of Whitewater has an Emerald Ash Borer Management Program, and I’ve been reading it over. I’m working may way through it, and afterward, I’ll send it along, with some questions, to experts in the field, to see what they think of it. The program is scheduled to be presented to Whitewater’s Common Council at its mid-January meeting.
I’ll post what I learn from experts in the field.
The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that on this day in 1967, Wisconsin enjoyed a
Green Bay Packers Triumph in [the] “Ice Bowl”
On this date the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys played in what many consider to be the greatest game in NFL history – The Ice Bowl. With the thermometer dipping to a shocking 13 below zero and a wind chill of minus 46, Bart Starr scored the winning touchdown from the 1-yard line with 13 seconds remaining, sealing a record third straight championship for the Packers, their fifth in seven years. Green Bay defeated Dallas, 21-17, to win the NFL Championship. [Source: Packers.com]
Science/Nature
Baby Tree Kangaroo Joey Begins To Explore Outside Her Mother’s Pouch (VIDEO)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Six-month-old female Matschie’s tree kangaroo joey Nokopo (named after a village in Papa New Guinea) still remains safely in her mother’s pouch. She is the third joey to be born at the Saint Louis Zoo, and is also the third baby to be born to mother Kasbeth and father Iri.
Via Baby Tree Kangaroo Joey Begins To Explore Outside Her Mother’s Pouch (VIDEO). more >>
Uncategorized
Open a Champagne Bottle with a Saber – Wired How-To Wiki
by JOHN ADAMS •
Free Markets
Will new Walmart be good for Whitewater? — Walworth County Today
by JOHN ADAMS •
I think so — small-town Whitewater will benefit from a greater number of choices.
See, Will new Walmart be good for Whitewater? — Walworth County Today.
Laws/Regulations, Libertarians
Presenting Reason.tv‘s 2010 Nanny of the Year — Busybodies, Babes, and Bacon!
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s the description accompanying the video:
They touch our lives in so many ways, and Reason.tv acknowledges those who tell us that if it looks good, tastes good, or feels good, it should be illegal.
Live (to tape) from the fourth floor of the Sepulveda Center in Los Angeles, California–it’s the 2010 Nanny of the Year Awards!
Over the past year, Reason.tv has recognized plenty of busybodies who relish minding other people’s business, but who deserves to succeed 2009’s winner (Meddlin’ Mike Bloomberg), and take home the 2010 Nanny? Will it be the heartland mayor who sacked the Lingerie Football League? The Peach State pol who sued a man for growing a vegetable garden in his own yard? A member of the food police?
Remember, it’s a dishonor just to be nominated. So get your awards season started off right, and tune it to the only show that delivers busybodies, babes, and bacon!
more >>
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 12-30-10
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
Whitewater’s forecast calls for a rainy day at a balmy forty-three degrees.
The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that Prohibition led to violence:
1922 – Authorities Confiscate Illegal Alcohol
On this date authorities in Madison confiscated 1,200 gallons of “mash” and fifteen gallons of moonshine from the home of a suspected bootlegger. As the illegal liquor trade flourished in Madison’s Greenbush neighborhood during Prohibition, two rival gangs, one on Regent Street and the other located on Milton Street, fought to gain control until the “Rum War” erupted among these factions in 1923. [Source: Bishops to Bootleggers: A Biographical Guide to Resurrection Cemetery, p.189]
Economy, Free Markets, Libertarians
Dorian Electra: I’m in Love with Friedrich Hayek
by JOHN ADAMS •
Simply wonderful.
DORIANELECTRA | December 19, 2010 |
A love song for economist F. A. Hayek.
Original song by Dorian Electra.
Filmed by Clara Lee, Madeline Scholl, and Ciaran Finlayson.
Lyrics:
Hey there Friedrich Hayek, ya lookin really nice
Your methodology is oh so precise
You break down social science to the fundamentals
Rules and social order are the essentials
Chorus:
The use of knowledge in society
by each of us we make the economy
It’s not magic that somehow our plans all align
The result of human action, not of human design
Tell me your thoughts on resource misallocation
Distorted price signals and misinformation
Interest rates that are made artificially low
Telling producers where resources should go
Chorus
Since these low interest rates, like you said, are lies
Malinvestments come as no surprise
Soon these mistakes will all be revealed
and then corrected, unless they’re concealed
Chorus
Sometimes I dream all day ’bout bein’ Mrs. Hayek
We’d share milkshakes, watch sunsets, and kayak
We’d work together on that business cycle theory
Oh darlin’ you’ve been workin’ hard, you must be weary
Come to my couch, on which you can rest
I’ll make tea, we’ll talk credit and interest
Then I can talk about my interest in you
Of course we’ll talk ’bout the economy, too
Just me and you (x2)
Me and You
Oh, oh
Me and You
(Red F.A. Hayek poster at 0:14 designed by LibertyManiacs http://www.zazzle.com/libertymaniacs )
Featured Books:
“Individualism and Economic Order”-F.A. Hayek
“The Road to Serfdom”-F.A. Hayek
(Hat tip for link to the Volokh Conspiracy.) more >>
Uncategorized
Clay-Pigeon Golf Shot
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s a considerable feat, linked via Wired: a clay-pigeon golf shot.
Another incredible golf challenge comes to us by way of the European Tour, which brought four of its members to the arid sands outside Dubai to see if anyone could hit a descending clay pigeon with a typical, iron-struck golf shot.
After what seems like hours, England’s Simon Khan finally wins the prize: a lifetime of fame and glory on the interwebs. Congrats, Chaka!
Via, Clay-Pigeon Golf Shot. more >>
City, Development, Planning
When Foolishness Passes for Wisdom, All Explained Via PowerPoint
by JOHN ADAMS •
A man, living in an ordinary wooden house, has a preference for candlelight. He chooses against electric lighting, and places dozens of candles in each room of his house. Much of his time is spent lighting candles, with the rest spent telling his neighbors about the benefits of life-by-candlelight. So happy is he with this arrangement that he decides to add still more candles, and leave them burning all day.
“The lovely glow of candlelight through my windows will nicely present my house to the entire neighborhood,” he declares.
One day, he comes home from work, to find that his house is in flames, with firefighters doing all they can to contain the conflagration. A crowd has gathered on the sidewalk nearby.
When they see him, they ask, “Aren’t you the homeowner who filled room upon room with candles, and kept them burning all day and night, even when you were not in your home?”
“Why, yes I am,” he cheerfully replies.
The crowd finds his good mood puzzling. “How can you be happy about having filled room upon room with candles, and kept them burning all day and night, even when you were not in your home, until your house burned down?” they ask.
“No, no,” he replies. “You have it all wrong.”
“It’s not that I’m someone who filled room upon room with candles, and kept them burning all day and night, even when I was not in my home, until my house burned down.”
“It’s that this is the loveliest and grandest fire anyone in town has ever seen!”
A version of this scenario can be found in small-town Whitewater, Wisconsin, population 14,454. At Whitewater’s October 25th Community Development Authority, some of Whitewater’s leading excuse-makers planners discussed ways to explain a distressed tax incremental district as a success story. Rather than acknowledge their own mistakes, and imprudent spending, one finds them sitting around, taking about how to make lemonade out of lemons.
Tax incremental financing has been a failure for Whitewater, and all the attempts to rationalize away this abject failure (most communities do not have distressed districts!) through dodgy PowerPoint presentations and speculative ‘multipliers’ cannot change the fact. That won’t keep these gentlemen from trying, though.
A video of the CDA session is embedded below, with the discussion of tax incremental financing beginning at 15:28.
Expect more rationalizations at a public hearing sometime in the new year.
Cartoons & Comics
Indiana Team Recreates Batmobile
by JOHN ADAMS •
Impressive.