Crashes and near-misses

The In-Car Camera Never Blinks (but Viewers Flinch) - New York Times

I've often wondered just how many car crashes are avoided by those wonderful "defensive driving" tips I heard in Driver's Ed classes back in high school. Turns out that the answer is "a lot." Reading the article highlights the most dangerous things drivers do. As they say, read it all. Even if its the NYT.

Another blow to the presumed superiority of Old Europe - World Times Online

A wine-tasting event 30 years ago which found California wines better than French wines was repeated with similar results.

THIRTY years had passed since the Judgment of Paris, when French oenophiles received a red nose at the hands of American upstarts in a blind wine-tasting competition.
But to the dismay of the French wine experts taking part in last night’s eagerly awaited rematch, Californian vintages have again trumped their Gallic counterparts.

Economic strength, military power, university quality, cultural influence, and now (once again) wine; just what does Old Europe clearly do better than the United States anymore?

HT: Captains Quarters

Now I'll have to find something else to blame for my glacial running speed

Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel - New York Times

At the end of the article is a passage that should delight those who celebrate irony,

Yet, Dr. Brooks said, even though coaches often believed in the myth of the
lactic acid threshold, they ended up training athletes in the best way
possible
to increase their mitochondria. "Coaches have understood
things the scientists didn't," he said.

So don't hate the lactic acid pooling in your muscles, embrace it for the fuel that it is.

Russian crooks try to steal a vacuum tube plant

From Russia, With Dread - New York Times

This article is worth reading just for the photo of Mike Matthews, owner of the ExpoPul plant which manufactures vintage vacuum tubes used in amplifiers loved by musicians. Apparently a Russian businessman is using pseudo-legal means in an attempt to steal his business.

By the way, tell me why Mike Mathews and Christopher Lloyd are never seen together.

It's Not Your Father's VA

Naval Institute Proceedings: It's Not Your Father's VA, Art Pine

And its definitely not Oliver Stone's VA either.

Freakanomics keeps on giving

A Star Is Made - New York Times

Wal-Mart and organic food

Wal-Mart Eyes Organic Foods - New York Times

Another sign that Wal-Mart is reaching market saturation in America under their current business model. Adding a much larger selection of organic foods to their grocery shelves tells me that they are either trying to expand their customer base or that a slight shift upscale is coming.

Update, 1-3-07
Rereading this while searching for a label to apply, I have another possibility why they are upping the organic food content. Wal-Mart is a family business deep down, and maybe its just the influence of some of Sam Walton's grandchildren. They are also pushing compact fluorescent light bulbs lately. I admit it, I'm cheap about some things. Almost every bulb in my house is a CF-bulb. They save me money because they use less electricity and also last longer. Less electricity means less coal or natural gas burned somewhere. Less pollution generated. Happy environmentalists. Backdoor environmentalism I guess but I do it because I'm cheap.

Call the Vatican, its a miracle!

My Way News
I'm dying to hear her explanation in court!

Oddly sensitive president

This news item at first seemed like a new urban legend but now I'm not quite so sure. It seems that President Ahmadinejad has been the butt of a text-message joke mocking his personal cleanliness. Specifically that he smells. Bad. Take a shower, dude.

Let me get this right. Our friend Mahmoud talks openly about vaporizing Israel with his shiny new nukes, is threatening to unleash suicide bombers on the west, and is bragging up his fancy-pants new weaponry intended to make the Straits of Hormuz a killing ground. No problem there. Despotic theocratic dictators do that sort of thing. The threat of assassination by sniper rifle: no biggee. Smart bomb? Bring it on. Tell him that he should think about using soap once in awhile and suddenly he gets all serious on us.

Perhaps the west shouldn't threaten economic sanctions or military action against his regime as a consequence for their nuclear ambitions; maybe we should send B-2 stealth bombers with loads of dirty and smelly laundry. That'll show him.

Iranian people wonder where all of this is going

Everyday Iranians Nervous About Push For Atomic Power

Iranians who lived through both the revolution and the Iran-Iraq war have seen this before. Escalating rhetoric, brandishing of sabers, then suddenly life just sucks for years on end.
Before the revolution Iran was a pretty secular place but the mullahs clamped down on that. Then the eight-year long war against Iraq added tragedy and privation to the existing repression. Read the entire article. In it, a few ordinary Iranian citizens express their unease about the near future exclusively in economic terms.

"One thing is obvious: If more foreigners come to this country, it means more
money, more jobs," said Ahmad Ashuri, whose business making metal screens
has declined in recent months along with Tehran's construction industry.
"But this nuclear issue means fewer foreigners are coming to the country.
Less money. "If something is our right, we need to talk properly to the
world."

Iranians do see the peaceful use of nuclear power to be their right, and if the question is framed that way its hard to argue with. Does the average Iranian believe that the most important consequences of this situation are economic only? With the testing of the new Shahab-4, Ahmadinejad's rhetoric, and Iran's long running and well-established support for terrorist organizations its hard for me to take the Iranian president's word on the peaceful thing, though. Nowhere in the article though is mention made of the source of western fears; namely that the nuclear research in Iran is meant for the production of nuclear weapons and not electricity. I'd really like to hear what the "Iranian Street" has to say about nuclear weaponry.