NYT paywall getting you down?

Private browsing (firefox), or Incognito mode (Chrome), or whatever the other browsers call this feature.  Works a treat. No more 10 article/month limits.

The news media is broken, part whatever.

No, the problem is not that various parts of the Australian media (Fox Sports, the Herald Sun) are excitedly reporting on a viral video clip of Michelle Jenneke bouncing before a race a few days ago.  The problem is that this all happened, went viral, then disappeared, a few days ago.

The media is a long way behind the news cycle on this, as they are on so many things.  That, in a nutshell, is the problem they face.

Building Things

David at Digby's place adds to the pushback against Romney.

Yes, I've worked hard to earn some modest success. But make no mistake: I haven't built that. I merely stood on the shoulders of a vast network of civilization paid for by tax dollars, without which I would never have had the opportunity to succeed at all.

Read it all.

Hello Libertarians!

John Scalzi has a story for you.

Turns out, it doesn't look much like the one you tell.

I am surprised.

How did I not know...

That Paul Krugman wrote a paper on interstellar trade?

It should be noted that, while the subject of this paper is silly, the analysis actually does make sense.  This paper, then, is a serious analysis of a ridiculous subject, which is of course the opposite of what is usual in economics.

Nice.

Winning comment thread

This post over at Lawyers Guns and Money descends into awesomeness in the comment thread, as the great generals of history get characterised as football coaches.

What, Ghengis Khan's record doesn't count just because he was in the Eastern Conference?

...

On the other hand, when Alexander played the sport was integrated: Europeans, Africans, Persians, Indians - all got to take part. Napolean was facing a more circumscribed talent pool

....

Not true - Napolean famously played away games in Egypt and Syria, and wanted to play in India but those stuck up Brits wouldn't let him.

The 'right to bear arms' is a national embarrassment for the USA.

Ladies and gentlemen, Senator Ron Johnson!

"The left always uses the term 'assault rifle,' and they're really talking about semi-automatic weapons that are used in hunting," Johnson explained. "That's what happens in Wisconsin. These are rifles that are used in hunting. Just the fact of the matter is this is really not an issue of guns. This is about sick people doing things you simply can't prevent. It's really an issue of freedom.

That is, the AR-15 rifle with the hundred round magazine is just a hunting weapon...

Is it any wonder that the US stance on gun control (or the lack thereof) is seen as crazy by the civilised world?  Even other Western countries that are big on guns (such as Switzerland, where every male of military age is required by law to have a military grade weapon in their home) have restrictions to stop the rampant abuse of weaponry that just occurred in Colorado.  (In Switzerland, access to ammunition is tightly controlled, and use is tracked.  In the US, this killer bought 6000 rounds online without anyone thinking this might be suspicious).