Weblog

Ann Althouse lists some dining gaucheries she finds annoying
I have experienced just two from her list. I have had fish entrees served with the head and tail still attached and it didn't bother me a bit. And I've had expensive cocktails served in cheap plastic cups which did. Somehow my Bombay Sapphire martini just didn't taste as good. Go figure?

Unprepared and feckless US allies expect the America to pay for all joint military operations (Strategy Page)
Even those like Libya or the Balkans that are in their own backyards. Sheesh.

Osama may be dead, but his long-term strategic game plan is still winning (Danger Room)
That is: Force the US to bankrupt itself playing whack-a-mole against global terrorists threats.

What people really need and want (whether they realize it or not) (Front Porch Republic)
Steady work, stable families, and rooted communities.

Why America’s young adults will continue to leave urban centers for the suburbs (New Geography)
Because urban school districts are terrible and so they don't want to start or raise families there.

Weblog

A profile of Kirkpatrick Sale (Jack Hunter, The American Conservative)
The modern heir of Ned Ludd, Pierre Proudhon, and long time anti-state activist.

Firefox 5 locks down, almost ready for release (Seth Rosenblatt, CNET)
And I was just getting comfortable with the current version too.

Chinese hackers are planting cyber bombs throughout America's power grid (Richard Clarke, Wall Street Journal)
So says former U.S. gov cyber security chief Richard Clarke.

"Treasure Hunter" Bill Warren to seek Osama bin-Laden's watery grave  (Brian Palmer, Slate.com/)
If this guy actually manages to find ObL's remains (kinda doubtful) they may not be in such good shape.
"Research on pig carcasses dropped to a depth of around 300 feet shows that marine scavengers such as lobsters, crabs, shrimp, and possibly sharks can dismember a carcass within a few days. (If the bag containing Bin Laden's body is well-sealed, it can help deter the smaller scavengers.) Once the large scavengers have started the process, a wider array of animals moves in. The pig research suggests that a dead body can be picked clean in less than a month."

Substitute meat product made from human shit (Lori Zimmer, Inhabitat.com/)
Better than Soylent Green I guess. But I'd still have to be awfully hungry to eat a shit sandwich though.

Virtual money really stolen (Keir Thomas, PC World)
"Assuming the story isn't fabricated, allinvain's story could represent the world's first heist of virtual money. It's almost certainly the biggest." Just like with government issued money you gotta secure it.

Ranking the states by how "free" they are (Mercatus Center/George Mason University)
Based on criteria like gun rights, tax rates, nanny-state interference in personal behaviors, religious and sexual liberty, drug policy, and home schooling laws just to name but a few. My own state of Michigan ranks #27.

High Gas Prices = Low Regard for Rural Culture (Edward Leap, Taki's Mag)
"For progressives to hope for higher gas prices, especially because of their orthodox belief in the highly questionable topic of climate change, is a reflection of urbanite disdain for those who actually need to drive out in remote “hick” areas where the distances are greater."

Bush Whitehouse sought dirt on University of Michigan prof and blogger Juan Cole says ex-CIA guy (James Risen, NY Times)
"Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war."