URLs du Jour

2013-02-05

  • Save Earwax While watching TV at odd hours (or on odd channels) are you ever tempted by one of those ubiquitous ads for some gadget you never knew you needed, or even thought anyone could make up?

    At Wired, Chris Sims does us all a service with "Late-Night Infomercial Reviews: The Horror of the WaxVac". It's a device for removing unwanted wax from your ears. Sample:

    If I were to ask you to describe the most pleasant sound you could possibly hear after you got out of the shower first thing in the morning, I’m pretty sure that we’d all agree that it would be the high-pitched whine of a vacuum cleaner motor, right? Well what if I told you that you could have this sound directly against your ear for up to five minutes? I know! It’s like a dream come true!

    It's very funny.

  • Not yet memory-holed at the White House website is one of the Big Lies used to sell ObamaCare:

    For the record, the President has consistently said that if you like your insurance plan, your doctor, or both, you will be able to keep them

    That was then, this is now. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office today, brings the updated news:

    Three million fewer Americans will receive health insurance from their employers. The CBO always expected that some Americans would lose their employer-health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, as some companies may direct their workers to the publicly-subsidized options available on the exchange. In this report though, they significantly increase that number, from 4 to 7 million.

    Gosh, that's a darn shame. But never mind; Obama's moved on to lying about other stuff now.

  • I'm more-or-less libertarian, but I've been pretty much immune to the charms of Ron Paul. (Unlike some fanboys at Reason.) Good thing too; otherwise, I'd have to admit that I was an idiot. Because…

    Former Texas representative Ron Paul responded on Twitter earlier today to the murder of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle at the hands of another Iraq War veteran, Eddie Routh. Paul shared this deep thought: “Chris Kyle’s death seems to confirm that ‘he who lives by the sword dies by the sword,’” Paul wrote. “Treating PTSD at a firing range doesn’t make sense.”

    Sheesh.

  • Megan McArdle interviews Northeastern University Criminologist James Alan Fox, who offers a sobering evidence-based look at mass murderers. It's a welcome respite from the "we must do something" rhetoric from the politicians.

    Link via J.D. Tucille at Reason, who asks the big-boy question: what if there's nothing we can do about mass murders?

    For too many people, the knee-jerk reaction is: "There must be something! There simply must be!"

    But what if there isn't?

  • News you almost certainly can't use: The 48th Mersenne prime has been discovered.


Last Modified 2013-02-09 2:21 PM EDT