Life returns to normal in Montauk
The power is back on. My family and our house are unharmed. MON TIKI is unharmed. All things considered, damage to our town is minimal. This afternoon, trick-or-treating took place downtown as usual. Our...
Monthly Archive: October 2012
The Joy Of Opening Time Capsules
A million years ago, we had our Time Capsule post in which we all made predictions about who was going to be in the election. My guess was that Romney, no way, no how,...
Embarassing Annals of Libertarianism and Policy Writing.
A facebook discussion today spawned a link to the following post on my alma matter’s online edition of the policy journal.
IMPORTant Statistics: The Value of Value-Added Metrics
My regular readers are aware that I am deeply irritated by what I see as a sort of New Orientalism creeping into discourse regarding the rise of East Asia as the center of global...
George Lucas Taps Out
USA Today reports Disney is buying Lucasfilm from its sole owner, Mr. Lucas, for ~$4.1 billion dollars. Said Disney CEO Robert Iger: “This is one of the great entertainment properties of all time, one...
“Democracy Distilled” — A Brief History of US Voting Rights
While this video was sent to me a bit ago, I’d forgotten to post about it until today. I think it’s pretty cool — and with people’s access to voting having become such a...
Bookdragon Asks…
On Mike’s comment rescue of Zic’s great comment, commentor Bookdragon asks: As I’ve grown older and look like less of a target (and earned belts in judo, jui jitsu and karate), I’ve worried a...
Hurricane Sandy, and Why Sound Risk Management Should Always Trump Populist Banner Waving
I suspect that this will have zero effect on the election, because I believe that the reason we vote for candidates has less to do with logical and rational reasoning than it does tribalism...
The South Hasn’t Risen Again
Andrew Sullivan has pulled out the Electoral College maps again to make a point about race, the Confederacy, and the Republican Party: [I]f Obama loses North Carolina, Virginia and Florida – which I suspect...
Comment Rescue: The Challenges Women Face
I’ve been bugging commenter Zic to write a guest post and she gave us the next best thing with a well-written comment over at Blinded Trials. With her permission I share the comment here...
Honest Food
Hank Shaw is a blogging friend of mine and he runs the popular site Hunter Angler Gardner Cook. He is also the author of a wild game cookbook that I highly recommend. One of...
The best political ad of the season is a celebrity-endorement satire from Joss Whedon
Political ads are like soft drink ads. They don’t have anything to do with facts or the inherent quality of a product,[1] they’re really just designed to make you feel an emotion that probably isn’t deserved...
Hurricane Sandy Open Thread
I’ve been hearing nothing but bad stuff about Sandy all weekend. I’m hoping that this is another one of those instances where the news media, looking for a sexy new story to entice us...
Walking Dead Discussion Thread: S3 E3, “Walk with Me”
*Spoiler Alert: Do not read this post or the comment section if you have not seen the show. Also, for those who have read the comics, please do not discuss plot elements not revealed on the...
Treme, Season 3, Episode 6, “Careless Love”
Hurricane Sandy is about to slam into the East Cost, potentially causing flooding and damage from the Carolinas to Maine. My own home state, West Virginia, was once vaguely threatened by its arrival, although...
Black Swans and Perfect Storms
So the town of East Hampton has declared a state of emergency. School is cancelled tomorrow, emergency personnel will be knocking on doors in low-lying areas. MON TIKI is deep in a well-sheltered corner...
We have a winner for the NBA Trivia Challenge
First of all, thanks to everyone who played the Challenge – either here in the threads or by email. I had hoped that the questions asked would be hard enough that no one would...
Wrong Question, Mr. President
How about, “Where’s your photo ID?” An interesting play to secure the key “Seven-year-old with adult sense of humor” demographic.
Baseball and Providence
It all starts far, far from any stadium. There are no diamonds and no throngs of adoring fans—just a crackling radio hissing through a stale summer garage into air as golden-tinged as the dead,...
Disruption Junction, What’s Your Function?
Two news items from the world of digital commerce and culture catch my attention: 1) Facebook has started charging businesses for “better placement” of their updates to their Facebook pages. Mark Cuban is not...
