http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness/ quotations web site. Other topics include wine, military news, economics, history, libertarianism, and other random things which happen to strike my fancy. Backup site is at http://quotulatiousness.blogspot.com/ (if there are no posts showing, hit the backup blog for explanation). Comments have been turned off, as the spam was getting too much to handle. Comments can be emailed to me for posting.]]> en-us 2008-05-15T09:23:37-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004554.html I'm finding some odd intermittent problems with the main page template: if I edit it online, it accepts the change I make, but then seems to randomly delete strings of text from the file when saving it. Sometimes it's just... Administrivia Nicholas 2008-05-15T09:23:37-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004553.html Jacob Sullum pens the headline of the week: How Hysterical Do You Have to Be for Newsweek to Suggest That You're Overreacting to a Drug Menace? This doesn't quite make up for Newsweek's anti-crack hysteria circa 1986 or its anti-meth... Media Nicholas 2008-05-15T08:52:32-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004552.html Lawyers and scientists have completely different ways of discovering truth. The lawyers’ way is dueling witnesses. This is as good as any in determining which of two people is lying about a police shootout. It is no good in... Quotations Nicholas 2008-05-15T08:45:19-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004551.html Elizabeth got a very confusing message from Rogers (our ISP) yesterday, saying that "to improve our service" they'd be eliminating all but one email account from each customer account. That is, of the _five_ free user accounts we were previously... Technology Nicholas 2008-05-15T08:24:16-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004550.html Media Nicholas 2008-05-14T15:58:56-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004549.html "Understand that this will never, ever change. You will always be lazy, and you will always procrastinate. I know it's tough for you to hear, but it's a harsh truth that you need to internalize." Ouch. That truth hurts.... Randomness Nicholas 2008-05-14T11:52:36-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004548.html In perhaps the least emphatic possible way, Megan McArdle picks a favourite among the various contending educational reform notions: But while taking away much of the teacher's union's power is definitely not sufficient, it does seem to be necessary. They... Politics Nicholas 2008-05-14T09:09:49-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004547.html Would you find it odd to walk into a place that billed itself variously as an "internet café" and a "cybercafé" in the year 2008, only to be told "Sorry, [we] don't have wireless [internet]?" This happened to me... Quotations Nicholas 2008-05-14T09:04:29-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004545.html A mini-milestone to mark the start of the fifth year of blogging: the 150,000th visitor came in a few minutes ago from ncsu.edu (I'm guessing that'd be North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC). Typically, it was a very short... Administrivia Nicholas 2008-05-13T09:26:22-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004546.html Until his name came up as a potential running-mate for John McCain, I don't remember ever hearing about Bobby Jindal. I think this will change regardless of whether he joins McCain or not. Megan McArdle is a fan: With a... USA Nicholas 2008-05-13T09:12:09-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004544.html Now in all probability if the "good old U.S. military" actually does invade Burma it will incinerate every vestige of armed opposition in its path. Burmese Army units will stand about as much chance as ants before a kid's... Quotations Nicholas 2008-05-13T09:00:38-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004543.html When you can't afford studio time to record a music video, what are your options? In Britain, you can take advantage of the omnipresent Big Brother cameras: But all is not lost. Boing Boing reports... The Get Out Clause, an... Britain Nicholas 2008-05-13T08:54:18-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004542.html Katherine Mangu-Ward realizes that she missed some key elements after her move to Massachusetts: Massachusetts must have been a terrifying place in 1995. A relatively recent arrival in the commonwealth myself, I had no idea that the mid-90s was a... USA Nicholas 2008-05-13T08:48:59-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004541.html I found this article to be an eye-opener: I knew that many people seriously over-estimated the value of organic foods, but the situation is much, much worse than I thought: Myth three: Organic farming doesn't use pesticides Food scares are... Science Nicholas 2008-05-12T12:57:46-05:00 http://bolditalic.com/quotulatiousness_archive/004540.html USA Today asked the three remaining major-party candidates how they feel about Title IX and about performance enhancing drugs. Refreshingly, all three said neither steroids nor gender participation are any of the government's business, and that, being private entities,... Quotations Nicholas 2008-05-12T09:02:58-05:00