When you take a photo of your item for sale on Ebay you should take a close look at the photo before you post it. (via Right Thinking)

Brad De Long offers some sobering facts for the "Friends of Castro" crowd.

The hideously depressing thing is that Cuba under Battista--Cuba in 1957--was a developed country. Cuba in 1957 had lower infant mortality than France, Belgium, West Germany, Israel, Japan, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Cuba in 1957 had doctors and nurses: as many doctors and nurses per capita as the Netherlands, and more than Britain or Finland. Cuba in 1957 had as many vehicles per capita as Uruguay, Italy, or Portugal. Cuba in 1957 had 45 TVs per 1000 people--fifth highest in the world. Cuba today has fewer telephones per capita than it had TVs in 1957.

You take a look at the standard Human Development Indicator variables--GDP per capita, infant mortality, education--and you try to throw together an HDI for Cuba in the late 1950s, and you come out in the range of Japan, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Israel. Today? Today the UN puts Cuba's HDI in the range of Lithuania, Trinidad, and Mexico. (And Carmelo Mesa-Lago thinks the UN's calculations are seriously flawed: that Cuba's right HDI peers today are places like China, Tunisia, Iran, and South Africa.).

The source for the statistics are these two papers (pdf): RENAISSSANCE AND DECAY: A COMPARISON OF SOCIOECONOMIC INDICATORS IN PRE-CASTRO AND CURRENT-DAY CUBA and THE CUBAN ECONOMY IN AN UNENDING SPECIAL PERIOD. (via Minuteman)

The End is Near

But apparently not as near as these nuts in Japan, who expected it to end yesterday, thought. Of course, as other end-of-the-world cults have done when their deadlines passed, they can just claim that it was their actions that prevented the end.

Some Friday Humor

Actual maintenance complaints submitted by US Air Force pilots and the replies from the maintenance crews.

Problem: "Left inside main tire almost needs replacement."
Solution: "Almost replaced left inside main tire."

Problem: "Test flight OK, except autoland very rough."
Solution: "Autoland not installed on this aircraft."

Problem #1: "#2 Propeller seeping prop fluid."
Solution #1: "#2 Propeller seepage normal."
Problem #2: "#1, #3, and #4 Propellers lack normal seepage."

Problem: "The autopilot doesn't."
Signed off: "IT DOES NOW."

Problem: "Something loose in cockpit."
Solution: "Something tightened in cockpit."

Problem: "Evidence of hydraulic leak on right main landing gear."
Solution: "Evidence removed."

Problem: "DME volume unbelievably loud."
Solution: "Volume set to more believable level."

Problem: "Dead bugs on windshield."
Solution: "Live bugs on order."

Problem: "Autopilot in altitude hold mode produces a 200 fpm descent."
Solution: "Cannot reproduce problem on ground."

Problem: "IFF inoperative."
Solution: "IFF inoperative in OFF mode."

Problem: "Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick."
Solution: "That's what they're there for."

Problem: "Number three engine missing."
Solution: "Engine found on right wing after brief search."

Charles Krauthammer has a good column in the WaPo today on rebuilding Iraq.

There is a large and overlooked truth about the American occupation of Iraq: Whereas in postwar Germany and Japan we were rebuilding countries that had been largely destroyed by us, in Iraq today we are rebuilding a country destroyed by its own regime.
...
Iraq today is a social, economic, ecological and political ruin not because of allied bombing but because of Baath Party rule. Since 1979 Hussein had managed the economic miracle of reducing by 75 percent the gross domestic product of the second-richest oil patch on the planet. That takes work. Hussein's capacity for destruction was up to the task. He reduced the Shiite south to abject poverty. He turned a once well-endowed infrastructure to rot by lavishing Iraq's vast oil resources on two things: weaponry and his own luxuries. And in classic Stalinist fashion, he destroyed civil society, systematically extirpating any hint of free association and civic participation.
...
Upon the detritus of 30 years of indigenous misrule, we come to rebuild. This is not to say that we lack self-interest here. We are embarking on this reconstruction out of the same enlightened altruism that inspired the rebuilding of Germany and Japan -- trusting that economic and political success in Iraq will have a stabilizing and modernizing effect on the entire region.

But our self-interest does not detract from the truth that what we are doing in Iraq is morally different from what we did after World War II. In Iraq, we are engaged in rescue rather than the undoing of our own destruction. We've undertaken the maddening task of cleaning up someone else's mess.

A kangaroo was hit by a car and killed in Austria. Yes, that's Austria, not Australia. Apparently the kangaroo had some difficulty reading maps and confused the two countries. No, actually it was someone's pet that escaped from it's cage. But if you hear of any mustachioed, Australian house-painters spouting off about the Jews, notify the authorities.

Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday, we were posting but blogger wasn't publishing. I finally found out it was a problem with our password.

According to my soulmate calculator:

The Soulmate Calculator

Your probability coefficient: 2.17295427195E-11.
You have to meet 46,020,296,557 American singles who are between 30 and 47 years old who are living in your city or willing to move there.

I guess I'm just lucky I met my wife when I did, because she fits all the criteria I entered. I don't think I could've withstood the strain of dating another 46+million women in NY until I found her.

Investigators believe that the $950 million in cash that troops found stashed around Baghdad is most of the $1 billion that Hussein's son removed from the Iraqi central bank.

Saudi columnist Sulaiman Al-Hattlan has an op-ed in todays NYT telling fellow Saudis to stop blaming the outside world for their problems.

It is time to stop blaming the outside world for the deadly fanaticism in Saudi Arabia, which some Saudis have done in saying that the Sept. 11 attackers had been brainwashed elsewhere. As Mansour Al-Nogidan, a former religious fanatic who has become fundamentalism's strongest Saudi intellectual critic, wrote in a Saudi newspaper last Sunday, Saudi Arabia suffers from a homemade brand of fanaticism propagated by members of the conservative Wahhabi school of Islam. Hamza Al-Muzini, a prominent Saudi linguistics professor, recently wrote in another Saudi daily that his young son is being taught the culture of death at school, and that many teachers influence young Saudis with their extremist political agenda, a situation tolerated by the Ministry of Education. After this article, Dr. Muzini received death threats from Saudi fundamentalists.

Because of the dominance of Wahhabism, Saudi society has been exposed to only one school of thought, one that teaches hatred of Jews, Christians and certain Muslims, like Shiites and liberal and moderate Sunnis. But we Saudis must acknowledge that our real enemy is religious fanaticism. We have to stop talking about the need for reform and actually start it, particularly in education. Otherwise, what happened here on Monday night could be the beginning of a war that leads to the Talibanization of our society.

I wonder if the same piece was published in the Saudi daily, Al Watan, that he writes a column for?

Prof. Lemon has a great post on income redistribution.

Here is a little game I play with my students that is somewhat related to that topic. I would be interested in seeing what other academics think of this little exercise.
At the beginning of class I ask my students how many of them are in favor of progressive redistribution -- taking from those who have a little more and giving it to those who have a little less. About half to 60% of the class stands up (I make them commit to their position by standing up.) I then tell them what I actually was thinking about was the progressive distribution of their grades, taking a few grade points from those who are above the median grade and distributing those extra points to those below the median. (I also propose less severe redistributions that would not put everyone at the median, but still would have the effect of collapsing the grades to the class median.) The immediate reaction is that almost all the students sit down, only one or two students actually remain standing or stand up. Assuming that most of them thought I was originally referring to income (or wealth, not the same thing), I then ask them to explain why they were in favor of income/wealth redistribution but not grade distribution.

Go read the rest.

Two million song downloads and counting for Apple. Not bad for 16 days worth of work, eh? And to think that most music execs were expecting to do one million downloads per month. They are all knuckleheads if you ask me.

Well, what do you know? All those trillions of dollars analysts were throwing around several years ago weren't just hot air. They actually turned out to be conservative in some cases. As the folks at Business Week note, those "starry-eyed" projections in 1999 that had U.S. business-to-business e-commerce reaching a "staggering" $1.3 trillion by 2003 were off by a factor of nearly two. Looks like were gonna do $2.4 trillion this year. And for all of those bubble-heads out there, you'll be interested to know that about 40% of the 200-plus public Internet companies made a profit last quarter. Analysts expect that share to rise to 50% by the end of the year.

Gotta run now and see how my auction is faring on eBay...

Barely 15% of French adults read a daily newspaper. After reading this article about Le Monde in the Financial Times, one wonders why that percentage is not closer to zero.

"By conservative estimates, at least 290,000 people are missing in Iraq, and answer to their whereabouts likely lies in these graves," said Bouckaert.

I wonder what Susan Sarandon and all of the other Hollywood knuckleheads think of this comment? Oops. I forgot. They don't think. They feel. Sorry about that, folks.

According to the Commerce Department, U.S. households have $3 trillion currently invested in low-yielding, highly liquid savings accounts. If that ain't a cash mountain, I don't know what is...

Michael Fumento has some comments about the SARS hysteria.

University of Toronto medical historian Edward Shorter calls SARS reaction "a media-fanned wave of mass hysteria" and "mass psychosis." He's right.

According to the World Health Organization, 6,903 cases of SARS were reported from mid-November to May 7. There were 495 deaths. It also reports flu causes between "three and five million cases of severe illness and between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths" per year, with 36,000 in the United States.

Thus, flu internationally inflicts far more serious illness and death in a single day than SARS has caused in 20 weeks.
...
How lethal is SARS generally and specifically in countries with good health care? The global death rate is about six percent, in the same league as other forms of pneumonia.

While the death rate is 7 percent in China, none of the 101 cases in Europe and the United States have been lethal. (For those without calculators, that's zero percent.) Not that this stopped the May 1Washington Post from reporting, "Surprisingly, the highest death rates appear to be occurring in the most advanced parts of the world." Surprising, indeed. (via PowerLine)

According to a new study, people's personalities change over time.

From this large sample of volunteers recruited and examined over the Internet, lead researchers Sanjay Srivastava, Ph.D., and Oliver P. John, Ph.D., working at the University of California at Berkeley, found that certain changes do occur in middle adulthood. Conscientiousness increased throughout the age range studied, with the biggest increases in a person’s 20s; this trait is defined as being organized, planful, and disciplined, and past research has linked it to work performance and work commitments. Agreeableness increased the most during a person’s 30s; this trait is defined as being warm, generous, and helpful, and has been linked to relationships and to prosocial behavior. Neuroticism declined with age for women but did not decline for men; this trait is defined in people who worry and are emotionally unstable. It has been linked to depression and other mental health problems. Openness showed small declines with age for both men and women. Finally, extraversion declined for women but did not show changes in men. (via FuturePundit)

That's why I'm so much damn more agreeable these days! (Actually, I am, as any of the readers of the blog who knew me in my late twenties can testify. Frightening, no?)

Barbie is Jewish, according to the new website of the Al-Madina regional branch of the Saudi religious and morality police.

Also shown is a photo of several Barbie dolls, along with the text: "The enemies of Islam want to invade us with all possible means, and therefore they have circulated among us this doll, which spreads deterioration of values and moral degeneracy among our girls." On the photo, under the heading "The Jewish Doll," is a story titled "The Strange Request." The story reads: "One girl said to her mother: 'Mother, I want jeans and a shirt open at the top, like Barbie's!!' The dolls of the Jewish Barbie in her naked garb [sic], their disgraceful appearance, and their various accessories are a symbol of the dissolution of values in the West. We must fully comprehend the danger in them." (via Best of the Web)

Hmmm....according to this Barbie Trivia site:

The full name of Barbie® doll is "Barbie Millicent Roberts." She is from Willows, Wisconsin and went to Willows High School.

Sounds pretty Waspy to me, probably Lutheran, perhaps they are using some sort of strange Nuremberg criteria. Maybe some of her plastic once passed through a Jewish owned factory. Or, maybe, they're just a bunch of LOONY, ANTI-SEMITIC, RELIGIOUS FANATICS who haven't progressed past the 7th Century.

Fifty-three Democratic lawmakers in Texas are on the lam.

"The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is asking the public for assistance in locating 53 Texas legislators who have disappeared," the bulletin read. "Anyone who has information regarding the current whereabouts of the legislators listed below is asked to call 1-800-525-5555."

Why are they missing? Mass kidnapping, alien abduction? No, without the Democrats present, the Republican-controlled House does not have the two-thirds quorum needed for a vote on legislation to redraw congressional districts which might lose the Democrats seven seats. I think Bismark may have been unfair to sausage-makers.

Update: I see Max has just posted the same item. Mediocre minds think alike, I guess.

Did someone say "Slippery Slope". The efforts of the busybody nannies who think they know what's best for everyone continues unabated. A lawyer in San Francisco is suing to ban Oreos, arguing the trans fats that make the filling creamy and the cookie crisp are too dangerous for children to eat. The millions of parents of these children are obviously too stupid or clueless to make this decision on their own. Notice that Mr. Joseph isn't asking that warning labels be added indicating possible dangers of trans fats, no, that might leave some individual choice. No the correct step is to ban these products. In fact why don't we go one step further and have daily mandated menus of allowed foods, organized by race, gender, size and age. Oh and let's not forget to ban all dangerous activities. We'll start with skiiing, scuba diving, rock climbing, all contact sports. Oh and driving, let's not forget driving ... and alcohol. Oh, the hell with it, let's just force everyone to become Amish (without the religious part of course).

CapMag presents a lecture by Ludwig von Mises, given in Buenos Aires in 1959, on Capitalism in three parts. Part 1 (Mass Production and the Standard of Living), Part 2 (Opposition from the Intellectuals) and Part 3 (Capital and Wages). It is well worth reading.

Larry Soloman examines Cuba's much touted 'accomplishments' in education and medical care.

Via Michele comes the St. Clair Inc. Safety Sign Builder and related contest. My entry:



But actually Barbara should do a few since she has actually worked in the chemical industry where real idiotic signs like these are commonplace. (She once had to watch a multi-hour safety video).

My favorites so far are here

Update: (another one)



and another (I'm stopping now)



This one was suggested by the Evil Overlord List. (See #9)

Thanks to the boost from hosting last weeks Carnival of the Vanities we have moved from Large Mammals to Playful Primates in the Blogosphere Ecosystem.

Quote of the Day

"It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now. The experience of a number of European countries has borne this out. This country's own experience with tax reduction has borne this out. The reason is that only full employment can balance the budget and tax reduction can pave the way to full employment. The purpose of cutting taxes is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which will bring a budget surplus."

--George W. Bush, er, no wait, it was by John F. Kennedy, December 1962

From Scrappleface:

ScrappleFace Editor Stays On Despite Scandal

(2003-05-12) -- Scott Ott said he will remain in his post overseeing the work of the vast editorial staff at ScrappleFace.com despite accusations of plagiarism and "quote fabrication." The scandal at ScrappleFace is the second to hit a major traditional media outlet in a week. The first involved a newspaper based in New York.

Donald Luskin thinks that blogs are superior to and will surpass traditional media as sources of news and opinion.

Of course anything that's wrong with the mainstream media -- bias, error, sensationalism, and so on -- can be wrong with the blogosphere as well. But there are six critical differences, all in favor of the blogosphere.

1. When you surfing the blogosphere you are never deluded by the false sense of security conferred by an undeservedly authoritative brand-image like that of the New York Times -- you are in the wild west, and you know it.
   
2. In the blogosphere you are massively diversified -- you can easily and rapidly access many competing sources of information and points of view.
   
3. Blogs tend to cite their sources diligently, and provide hyperlinks directly to source material -- if you want to do your own fact-checking, establish context, or just learn more, you can easily do so.
   
4. Blogs can act as a digest of and gateway to the conventional media -- so you have the best of both worlds.
   
5. Blogs tend to be written by people who read blogs, and blogs often refer to each other, link to each other, police each other, and so on, so errors or biases are quickly discovered and exposed -- in the heyday of the Internet this used be called "collaborative filtering."
   
6. Because blogging permits anyone to be his own author/reporter/pundit/publisher is he wishes, you can personally participate in the process of the formation of news and opinion in the blogosphere -- it's not just passively acquiring information, it's being an insider to an information-processing community.
   

Speed Bump