Or, How Eating Habanero Peppers Proves I'm Smarter Than Other Mammals. It's chili pepper harvesting time again! While most Chicagoans seem enamored with growing tomato plants, I think habanero peppers should be the crop of choice. OK, to be honest, I'm actually too lazy to grow my own, but I have a couple of friends and a neighbor who go through the effort and I reap the … [Read more...] about Bite me, Bambi!
The Republican Pledge To America – A Very Quick Impression
The Republicans' have now revealed their new Pledge to America, an idea based loosely on their old Contract With America. I haven't read any of it yet, but it's 48 pages long. Somehow that strikes me as a bad sign for the future of small government... Update: Yeah, I looked it over and there's nothing much here we haven't heard before, from the impossible, through the vague and … [Read more...] about The Republican Pledge To America – A Very Quick Impression
Making Lawyers Pay
There's one bad policy pattern that politicians tend to repeat over and over, and according to Nathan Koppel at the Wall Street Journal, this time they're inflicting it on lawyers: The Mississippi Supreme Court is considering a proposed rule to require lawyers in the state to provide at least 20 hours of pro bono work. The rule has been proposed to try to help the thousands of … [Read more...] about Making Lawyers Pay
Scientists Model Early Glass Slipper Technology
Breaking news:New computer simulations have shown how a glass slipper, as described in Grimm's Cinderella, could have been created using a unique combination of quartz-rich silicates found only in northern Germany. When heated to just the right temperature, as was available in primitive furnaces of 14th century middle Europe, the model demonstrated that glass could … [Read more...] about Scientists Model Early Glass Slipper Technology
Public Defense Is Free
Thirty years ago, Philip B. Crosby wrote Quality Is Free, in which he explained how a business that improved its products could earn higher profits. The basic insight was that the earlier you catch a product defect, the cheaper it is to fix: Catching a defect during your outgoing quality assurance testing is a lot cheaper than dealing with a product return from a customer, … [Read more...] about Public Defense Is Free