Jacob Grier

My old flatmate Alex Kingsbury recently returned from his second stint of war reporting from Iraq. His first trip led to an affecting cover story for U.S. News, his second an appearance on “The Daily Show.” Congrats to Alex!

The Aztek has been out of production for two years, but it’s still tearing up the sales charts. 25 cars sold in 2007! That probably ties it with back issue sales of the equally strange-looking Aztek: The Ultimate Man comic. Clearly, Aztek is a name with branding issues.

I’m a proud member of the group AutoBlog describes as those “who appreciate the practical design of the Aztek’s interior layout, smooth ride and the world’s best built anti-theft device (i.e. its looks).” Its humor value is also a big bonus.

Hat tip: Courtney, closet Aztek lover.

Previously:
The Aztek that should have been
A car that makes children cry

Cato’s Randal O’Toole praises Houston in the Chronicle:

Houston is the freest major city in America, with no zoning and only moderate government intrusions into how property owners use their land. This freedom has made Houston the most affordable major city in America, with housing costs that are less than half of most other major urban areas. This freedom has also created an innovative and growth-friendly environment that is creating tens of thousands of new jobs each year.

Read the whole thing here.

Chad links to an interesting article in the NYT about the relative decline in prestige and fulfillment accruing to law and medicine. A number of reasons for the growing dissatisfaction are given, but I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that it misses an important one: doctors and lawyers are both heavily protected by professional associations and state licensing laws.

Licensing restricts entry into the professions and raises the returns on education for the people who practice them. But by putting up barriers to entry, they also allow the gatekeepers to subject aspirants to arduous training often disconnected from their true needs. For lawyers, this means an imposing law school entrance exam, three years of difficult, stressful, expensive study, tests that have little to do with lawyering, an even more difficult bar exam, and then, for many, years of tedious work as an associate. The med school education of doctors is probably more worthwhile, but it’s followed by extremely stressful and arguably dangerous (for patients) years of internship and residency in which lack of sleep is practically a form of hazing. Without the protection of licensing and groups like the ABA and AMA, I very much doubt that these forms of education would persist.

In other words, these professions still earn good money but are now largely composed of people who have self-selected as willing to put up with years of mandated drudgery. Is it any wonder that self-expressive work and entrepreneurship now hold so much more cachet?

This, anyway, is my uninformed outsider’s opinion. My many friends who have recently or will soon graduate law school are welcome to step up and defend the system.

You’ve probably heard by now about Dennis Kucinich’s odd debate moment regarding his UFO siting. He is, however, in surprisingly good company:

When Chris Matthews, in a post-debate interview on MSNBC, asked Richardson what he thought of Kucinich’s response to the UFO question, Richardson smiled, giggled a little and explained that as governor of a state that depends on the UFO-enthralled tourist dollar, he was not in a position to criticize. (Though, he hastened to add, he has never personally seen a UFO.) He also said it was time for the government to “come clean” on the Roswell matter…

According to numerous media accounts, when Jimmy Carter was governor of Georgia in 1973, he filed a report with the International UFO Bureau in Oklahoma City claiming that he’d seen an unidentified glowing object four years earlier in Leary, Ga. He said later that he did not believe the object to be an alien craft, and some “ufologists,” as specialists call themselves, think he saw a halo around the planet Venus.

Ronald Reagan believed he had seen UFOs at least twice — once on the coast while driving to Hollywood with his wife, Nancy, and once, as governor of California, while flying on a plane near Bakersfield. In “Landslide,” their 1988 book about Reagan’s second term, journalists Doyle McManus, The Times’ Washington bureau chief, and Jane Mayer, now of the New Yorker, wrote that Reagan’s staff worked hard to keep the UFO sighting stories under wraps.

Kucinich is careful to stress the “unidentified” part of unidentified flying object, distancing himself from the appearance of belief in extraterrestrial visitors. As a service to him and any other presidential candidates with their eyes on the skies, I suggest carrying around my elementary school list of things that might be mistaken for UFOs.

[Via Tobias.]

Previously:
Whatever happened to Grandfather Twilight?

Best news I’ve heard today: When Murdoch takes over the Wall Street Journal, it will likely become free online.

My old coworkers used to make fun of me for never having seen a John Cusack movie, just one data point in my cinematic cultural illiteracy. But according to this interviewer, Cusack himself doesn’t find his movies worth talking about, so maybe I’m not missing anything after all. What Cusack does want to rant on is the war in Iraq and the Cato Institute:

“Do you think all these people work at the Cato Institute?” he continues. “No. Even the people who work at these places, I’ve met them. They don’t have any monopoly or insight into anything. Where does their intellectual or moral clout come from? Nowhere. The guy’s talking in front of a camera, reading from a teleprompter, bitching at people. I know enough to be intimidated by serious men and women, but I won’t be cowed by people like that.”

Three questions. Does Cusack actually think Cato is pro-war? Has he ever looked at the institute’s website? And where do we hide the teleprompters?

Tom Firey and Michael Cannon respond at the Cato blog.

Richard Dawkins on Bill O’Reilly:

A fantastic mismatch of intellect if ever there was one.

[Via Mungowitz.]

Coming soon to this blog, the war against smacking bans.

Your headline of the day, courtesy of The Tennessean.

I wasn’t really following the story of six American University students who protested Karl Rove’s speech at the school until I noticed a name yesterday: one of the six is none other than my friend and old barista coworker Joel Gardner!

In what’s being called the “Moon Rover” incident, Joel passed by the scene and spontaneously mooned Karl Rove. Now he and five others have warrants out for their arrests for crossing a police line during the protest. I don’t know the details of the case, but Joel’s a super nice guy, so I hope he’s able to get out of this without serious consequences. (You might also remember Joel from the night David and I caused the coffee roasting disaster, but he bears no blame for that!)

His brother is writing about the case here and here, and posts this image in support:

Until the Times covered it today, I had no idea downtown Houston’s tunnel system was thriving with so many businesses or so extensive. It’s also almost entirely private:

It was not centrally planned; it just grew, inspired by Rockefeller Center in New York. But it is not connected to a transit network. And, befitting Texans’ distrust of government, most of it is private; each segment is controlled by the individual building owner who deigns to allow the public access during business hours — and then locks the doors on nights and weekends. Some parts, like those belonging to the former Enron buildings now leased by Chevron, are closed to outsiders altogether.

If for no other reason except that “biggest hog” is still one of the top search queries bringing visitors to this site, it’s worth linking to the story of Monster Pig, a 1,050 lbs. behemoth killed in Alabama. The beast is magnificent and, sadly, now dead.

When the first Hogzilla was exhumed, I jokingly said, “This could be the start of a bad redneck horror movie.” Turns out I was right!

Update 5/29/07: Eh, not so much. Photo manipulation at work.

Previously:
This could be the start of a bad redneck horror movie
That’s the second biggest hog I’ve ever seen

I really enjoyed this article from the SF Gate about a reporter who wanders around town asking all the people hanging out in parks and coffee shops during the workday what they’re doing. Having spent the last three years working on and off in restaurants, bars, and coffee shops, I’m a part of that culture, but I still often wonder: who are these people?

The sentiment I most agree with among the interviewees is the wonder at how people with 9-5 jobs manage to get their errands done. If I ever go back to a typical work schedule, one of the perks I’ll miss most is the ability to get stuff done while everyone else is at work, stores are empty, and traffic is light.

Oh, nostalgia.

Two things I don’t miss about being a barista: waking up at 5:15 am and dealing with crazy people.

Previously:
Coffee slingin’

DRM cripples downloaded tracks. Now ownership of CDs is being restricted too?

Independent merchants selling and buying used CDs across the United States say they are alarmed by stepped-up pawn-broker-related laws recently enacted in Florida and Utah and pending in Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

In Florida, the new legislation requires all stores buying second-hand merchandise for resale to apply for a permit and file security in the form of a $10,000 bond with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. In addition, stores would be required to thumb-print customers selling used CDs, and acquire a copy of state-issued identity documents such as a driver’s license. Furthermore, stores could issue only store credit — not cash — in exchange for traded CDs, and would be required to hold discs for 30 days before reselling them.

At least one Florida town has enforced the law, resulting in the cited merchant pulling used CDs from its store.

The nominal purpose of the laws is to protect against the sale of fraudulent or stolen goods. But is this the real motive? Perhaps the true beneficiaries are music companies who don’t like used CDs competing with new ones. Ars Technica speculates:

Why this trend, and why now? It’s difficult to say, but to be sure, there is no love lost between retailers who sell used CDs and the music industry. The Federal Trade Commission has scrutinized the music industry for putting unfair pressures on retailers who sell used CDs, following a long battle between the music industry and retailers in the mid 90s. The music industry dislikes used CD sales because they don’t get a cut of subsequent sales after the first. Now, via the specter of piracy, new legislation is cropping up that will make it even less desirable to sell second-hand goods. Can laws targeting used DVDs be far behind?

If this kind of legislation is being pushed by the music industry, I’m not convinced it’s doing itself any favors. Sales of compact discs are plummeting. Potential sale of used product is good for cars and books, so it might be one of the few advantages remaining to CDs over downloads, too. The possibility of finding used CDs I want is also one of the only things that gets me into boutique music stores instead of going straight to the internet to buy music.