Nerd News: Time for John Mearsheimer to Retire?

Hmmmm.  See this too from a former student of the poli sci prof at the University of Chicago.

Ave atque Vale, Tadeusz Sawicz

Hail and farewell to the Polish fighter pilot who engaged the Nazis over Poland, France, and England.

Nerd News: No Edu-Crat Left Behind

*Sigh.*

Two years after Pittsburgh Public Schools received $40 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to increase teachers' effectiveness, the district has spent or allocated nearly a third of it on consultants and contractors, mainly from outside the state. 

Administrators told board members that they need consultants to perform specialized work outside the expertise of district personnel. 

"We're on track right now to be able to provide teachers and support teachers in improving their practice, in a way that hasn't been done before," said Sam Franklin, executive director of the district's Office of Teacher Effectiveness, whose $110,000 annual salary [my emphasis -- MM] is paid with Gates money.

"Life" Magazine's 75 Best Photographs

Via Barcepundit comes this link to a remarkable collection of photographs.

LOL: the Lorem Ipsum Wine

Just look at the label for this bottle of French wine.  Need some info about (do)lorem ipsum?

Startup Hopes to Hack the Immigration System with a Floating Incubator

Um ... what?   Hmmm ... Is it so crazy that it just might work?   I'm intrigued.  Blurb after the fold.

6 Ideas for the Ash Heap of History

Here's an interesting list from Foreign Policy. 

Great Moments in Research: Recipe Substitutions

So this is what researchers from Harvard, the University of Michigan, and the University of Bologna (Italy -- no lunch meat jokes, please) have been doing.  I suppose you could classify this as applied chemistry?  Oh, here's the full academic article as PDF via the Cornell University Library.

DO NOT WANT: Live-Action "Akira" Is Set In ...

Neo-Manhattan.  Ugh!  This thing is going to be a desecration, a total desecration.

Marmite Madness on the M1 Motorway

This one's for Alessandra and her mom who loves Marmite, though I'm sure 20 tons might be a bit ... much.  Here's the official Marmite website.

Quotes of the Day: Congress

I laughed out loud to read this snarky observation about Congress:

I remember when “Insane Clown Posse” was just the name of a band, and not a description of our political class.

Oh, absolutely.  The band's website, by the way, is here.  I can't help but give you one of my favorite quotations from Mark Twain:

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress ... but I repeat myself.

Now that the bon mots are crowding my memory, I must post one of my favorite lines from the fabulous musical film “1776”: 

I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm; and that three or more become a Congress!

Awesome: Epic Trick Shot Battle

On Tyranny, Liberty, and Founding Principles

Here is an interesting essay.  Constitution, schmonstitution?

String Theory: Violins and Mad Cow Disease

I don't even know what to say to this:

Musicians have warned that the works of Purcell, Handel, Vivaldi and Bach may never again be heard as their composers intended – because of EU rules to stop people catching "mad cow disease" from their instruments. 

Regulations which tightly control the use of certain types of animal tissue are unwittingly threatening the centuries-old technique of making musical instrument strings out of beef gut. 

The craft is covered by the same strict controls on raw materials from cows, even though campaigners say that to catch Creutzfeldt – Jakob disease, (CJD) – the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy – from violin or cello strings from an infected animal you would need to eat several metres of them.

I do think the word "unwittingly" is all too accurate.  Anyway, have you ever heard of anyone trying to eat violin strings? I mean, I know there's that romantic stereotype of "the starving artist," but this is ridiculous.

Awesome Ad: "The Last Dictator Standing"

This is an advertisement for Nando's, a chain of chicken restaurants in South Africa.  How many dictators can you identify?  Oh, and the parody of the famous scene from "Titanic" is just too perfect.

The History of the English Language in 10 Minutes

Amusing!

Classic Milton Friedman

Harvard econ prof Greg Mankiw has an intriguing post on what Milton Friedman might say to the Occupy movement.  Get a load of the dipstick in the first video who asks, "Isn't it necessary to forcibly redistribute wealth?"  Um, NO.  Note too how courteously Friedman disassembles these young clowns who have more idealism than sense.

Thoughts on Constitutional Conservatism

Food for thought.  As for rule by technocrats, we all saw how well that turned out in Europe.  I repeat what Churchill once said: 

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe.  No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise.  Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.

Couch Potato Chronicles: "Star Trek: DS9"

Here's a shout-out to La Parisienne, who's currently marathoning Deep Space Nine, the second-best of the new Star Trek shows.  (The first and best is the Next Generation, natch.)  So here's a great little mashup of DS9 characters and moral alignment from the world of gaming:

I've always thought I was Chaotic Good myself.  Anyway, below the fold I've listed some of my favorite DS9 episodes.  (Oh, and Sisko totally looks waaaaaaaaaaaay better bald with facial hair.)

Dim Bulbs in the Government

Meanwhile, I'm stocking up on incandescents ... I mean, heatballs!