Miscellaneous

The Panacea What are the three biggest problems confronting the United States today? There are lots of candidates, but I think most people, regardless of moral or political or religious persuasion, would put these three in the top 5: the economy, rogue nations and the atom bomb, terrorism. Fortunately, someone

Colons, Tebow, and Other Gosh, I hope so: "Colonoscopy Lowers Rate of Cancer Deaths, Study Finds [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/health/colonoscopy-prevents-cancer-deaths-study-finds.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=igw] ." I'd hate to think

Miscellany Ron Paul easily leads the yard-sign race in my neighborhood. I'd put one in my yard (which would be a first for me), but I don't know where to get them. * * * * * * * I mean, who else is willing to say things like this: "We&

Bullets I came into this morning's post with nothing. Absolutely nothing. I had to engage in some good old fashioned Firefox tab-opening and surfing to assemble this morning's post. Unfortunately, I didn't find much, but a few things jumped out. * * * * * * * Does anybody here

After disputes over its nuclear program, Iran is threatening to stop exporting oil. Which means the U.S. may have to tap into its backup reserve: Mitt Romney's hair. Today President Obama visited a factory in Wisconsin that brought back 100 jobs from China. It's got

From the Notebooks Nassim Taleb writes at the beginning of his first book, Fooled by Randomness: "We are still very close to our ancestors who roamed the savannah. The formation of our beliefs is fraught with superstitions--even today (I might say, especially today). Just as one day some

The son of Hugh Hefner has been arrested on a charge of domestic violence. When he heard this, Hugh Hefner said, "Son, there's a right way and a wrong way to disrespect women." Conan On Valentine's Day, Americans spend $367 million on their pets.

Received in an Email The Bavarian Beer Purity Law [http://itotd.com/articles/519/the-bavarian-purity-law/]. Great stuff for the drinking historian. Excerpt: The short version of this law, which was enacted on April 23, 1516 by Bavarian Duke Wilhelm IV (a.k.a. William IV), is that

Letters to Children You should also read C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia and the fiction of George MacDonald. MacDonald, however, is difficult to read. If you can only bear to read one thing, please read his story “The Golden Key.” It is a bizarre little story that

The big news this week? Flannery O'Connor. Not really, of course, but Dappled Things ran a great essay about O'Connor's influence on Bruce Springsteen [http://dappledthings.org/1148/naming-sin-flannery-oconnors-mark-on-bruce-springsteen/] . Excerpt: > Springsteen began reading O'Connor&