Has the right hit bottom yet?

The next Debate at Lolita is taking shape (click here and scroll down). Opponent needed.

UPDATE: Found.

2012 prophecies

Feh.

And check out some of what people are asking at NASA's Ask-an-Astrobiologist.

NYT columnist nomination

Speculations about whom the NY Times will hire to replace William Kristol as their "second conservative" (assuming they do) here. I think David Frum, whom I admire, would not be best utilized in that spot, being too similar to David Brooks in the scheme of things. Victor Davis Hanson has some interesting things to say, but also too many uninteresting things that could be dismissed as tough-guy wingnuttery. Heather Mac Donald would be an inspired choice, bringing both reportorial skills (in thin supply on the page, post-Safire), a deep knowledge of New York City and an unpredictability that would discombobulate knee-jerk-left-liberal Times readers. (Via Secular Right.)

Go to Europa

Coming soon (albeit with some delay): a decision on which far-off moon gets the next major space probe, Europa or Titan. (NASA can afford only one, although as Bob Park says, "3 or 4 billion dollars no longer sounds like much.") Nature offers a slight preference for Titan, on the grounds that a Europa mission would only be recon for a future mission below the ice. On the other hand, Europa is by all accounts much more likely than Titan to have some form of life.

It is a close call, but I'd say go where the life might be, use ice-penetrating radar to see if any shadowy forms are swimming around, and maybe invest some "stimulus" funds in an icepick.

UPDATE 2/24: Good.

Clinton Road song

Ever since I first wrote about Clinton Road of West Milford, NJ, this blog has received a steady influx of visitors seeking information about the mysterious thoroughfare. Given such public interest, I have written a song about the subject.

CLINTON ROAD

The hellhounds are running.
The hellhounds are running
On Clinton Road.

A two-lane highway
Surrounded by parkland
And public utility land.
It is isolated,
So isolated
That stories of ghosts
And witches abound.

There is a pond
Where the ghost of a boy
Will rise up to warn you
Not to drown
Like he did.

If a tree falls
In front of your car,
Go back!
Reverse!
For another tree
Will soon fall
Behind to trap you.

An old iron smelter
Is a witch’s tower
And demonic rituals
Are performed in there.

Do powerful forces
Rule on this asphalt?
Or do bored local teenagers
Make up these stories?

They say
The hellhounds are running.
The hellhounds are running
On Clinton Road.
Clinton Road,
New Jersey.

Copyright © Kenneth Silber.

Art market debate

Should be interesting: "The art market is less ethical than the stock market."

Orbiting teapot

Granted, it's implausible that a teapot is orbiting the sun between Earth and Mars. But I can think of some ways it might be the case: The teapot was ejected into space during the Tunguska impact or other collision. Or it was discarded from a manned space mission and given sufficient momentum to escape Earth and lunar orbit, or detached from a space probe en route to the outer solar system. Or left behind by aliens, or by spacefaring denizens of Atlantis. Perhaps, if humans put it there, it was as a whimsical or conspiratorial response to Bertrand Russell's musings.

Interestingly, though, none of the above involves either (a) circumvention of reasonably well-established physical laws or (b) a scenario that humans would concoct because they desperately want it to be true. And so, it's arguable that some things people have been known to believe, including some religious beliefs, are even less plausible than the orbiting teapot.

Obama may be not so good

Well, it's starting to look like my Obama's-pretty-good file is going to get some stiff competition from my Obama's-not-so-good file. The new president has:

-- Resorted to poor economic logic and crude scapegoating by criticizing executives for redecorating offices.

-- Signaled an obeisance to feel-good but likely ineffective arms-control vagaries in the matter of space weapons.

-- Moved to raise fuel-efficiency standards, allowing unfunded mandates rather than a straightforward pricing of carbon emissions to dominate policy.

Let's see which file grows faster.

'90s radio spot

I'm slated to be on the Gabe Wisdom Show on Wednesday, January 28 at 7pm ET to talk about "The Soaring Nineties." I mention it early because things look to be busy between now and then.

Nuanced counterterrorism

Stop disappearing people who may or may not be terrorists, but continue blowing up people who clearly are terrorists. I agree with both decisions, and hereby add them to my Obama's-pretty-good-so-far file.

Sometimes influential

Political scientist Eliot Cohen has a thought-provoking WSJ op-ed to the effect that government officials generally don't pay much attention to outside commentators; serving recently as an aide to Condoleezza Rice, he found he was focused on info from inside the government, and punditry was basically background noise.

Historically, though, there have also been times when pundits seem to have influenced government, as with Commentary in the late 1970s paving the way for much Reagan foreign policy, and supply siders at the WSJ doing the same for tax policy. It also may be that Eliot's thesis is particularly true in foreign policy, dependent as it is on confidential communications. Economic policy in recent months was evidently influenced, at least for a while, by academic economists saying put government money into the banks, rather than buy up their bad assets.

In the film Arguing the World, Irving Kristol said that a journal with a circulation of 100 people could change the world. As for the impact of little-read blogs, that remains to be seen.

Obama whiskey

From Ireland, a story that has received little notice:

While Mr Obama prepares for his first hours in office, staff at the Cooley Distillery in north Co Louth are already preparing for his last day in the White House.

Today an American wood cask has been filled with a special blend malt whiskey which will be put in storage to mature before being given to the US President-elect when he eventually leaves the White House.

I wonder how different the quality will be if he has one term or two.

How about people who fire into the air?

From California, a minor case study in ludicrous, clueless "activism":

Four months after persuading the City Council to name James Madison Park after local resident Tony Cerda, Edward Samaniego is taking aim at Alexander Hamilton Park.

Pomona has no business honoring the first secretary of the Treasury (1789-1795), Samaniego told the City Council on Monday.

"Alexander Hamilton was in that famous duel with Aaron Burr," Samaniego noted. "We certainly don't need any more examples of people shooting people as role models in Pomona!"

Post-speech

I watched the speech. Not bad. Reasonably interesting and nothing notably objectionable. Meanwhile, I was trying to do some of my office work by going to the White House website to look up a recent directive involving the Law of the Sea Treaty, and got this:

The page you requested wasn't found at this location. The Obama Administration has created a brand new White House website, and it's possible that the page you were looking for has been moved.

So, change has come.

Obama Art

By Dan Summer

As we start the Obama era tomorrow, Im looking forward to seeing how he implements the arts in the educational curriculum. The ridiculousness of cutting arts in the schools hopefully can be behind us, and the kids in the schools can partake in creative stuff, other than the usual, verbal minutia. Reading some articles about Obamas appreciation for the arts, gives me some hope.
It will take time of course. But according to this the white house may become an art house, unlike anything we have seen before.

A pretty good president-elect

I'll probably watch Obama's Inauguration speech on my DVR, though I may not have much time to comment on it. I'm sure it will be very skillful oratory, and will use some of the characteristic Obama oratorical techniques discussed in an interesting Financial Times piece this weekend.

As for how Obama has performed as president-elect, I give him a solid B+, which is considerably better than I expected. The fairly centrist tenor of his appointments and statements is a very welcome surprise, and something that I have a moderate amount of hope will carry forward into actual governing. A left-liberal friend of mine was recently delighted to hear me say I thought Obama's performance so far was "pretty good." What I should have added is that if I continue thinking Obama's pretty good, that has glum implications for how my friend will think of him.

Not too simulating

Contrary to Glenn Reynolds, I don't think our universe being a computer simulation is "statistically...the way to bet." For one thing, statistically, most known computer simulations have dragons, aliens, women being uniformly hot chicks, and other such features that don't entirely correlate with our reality. For another, I don't see how you can use statistics or other reasoning techniques derived from our reality if our reality is, you know, made up. I also don't think "hologram" and "simulation" are as closely linked as Star Trek might suggest.

So say we all

Some clever propaganda posters for a worthwhile cause.

Plane trouble

If you work near the lower Hudson River, or commute across it, tonight may be a good night to work late and let the emergency vehicles do their thing.

Audit this

Two scenarios for the Treasury Secretary-designate's tax situation.