Newmark's Door

"The 25 Most Underrated Colleges In America"

Engineering schools are prominent among the "underrated". 

"Cases of children accidentally ingesting pot on rise, study says"

Hmmm . . . sounds kinda like the occasional accident with guns. I eagerly await the Liberals' demand for more pot control. 

"NYU Neatly Embodies Everything Wrong With Higher Education in America"

I don't know about "everything": how many tedious meetings do they have?  

As for NYU's compensation practrices, the "understandably infuriated readers" mentioned in the article should really hate this: "A Dastardly Clever Scheme".

It has some terrible tornadoes . . .

. . . but some people think it's nice to live in Oklahoma: "45 Best Things About Living In Oklahoma".

"Why coffee is called 'joe'"

With a quote from my department chair, Lee Craig.

"Believe it or not, eyebrows are undoubtedly the most important feature on your face"

Interesting idea, poor examples. 

"Can you tell an assault rifle from an assault weapon?"

An excellent test for gun control advocates. 

You supposedly can't live on just a salary in Silicon Valley

You need equity. Sheesh. (Link via Metafilter.)

Four that might interest economics faculty

The recent placement record of Princeton's economic department. Harvard's.

A short video advertisement for a graduate economics textbook. (Who knew Recursive Macroeconomics could sound so interesting?)

And this, worthy of a research project: "Can any older professors give perspective on all this grade whining?"

". . . unutterably depressing reading"

Felix Salmon has read Detroit's Proposal for Creditors so you don't have to. 

"Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have 'Nothing to Hide'"

GW law professor Daniel J. Solove replies to an argument commonly advanced these days: "Only if you're doing something wrong should you worry, and then you don't deserve to keep it private."

Another Solove piece in the Washington Post. And another, a law review article, exploring the issue at greater length.

(Link fixed now. Thanks, Dave.)

Excellent question

Paul Gregory: "'Austerity' To Blame? But Where's The Austerity?"

Washinton, D.C. doesn't seem to be hurting.

"Never Mind Inequality: Silicon Valley Enriches All of Our Lives"

Amen to this.

All throughout the country, unions are pounding tech companies with regulation: taxi unions oppose smart-phone ridesharing apps, hotel unions have threatened apartment owners who rent out their rooms, and college faculty unions are fighting low-cost online courses.

At least unions are honest: the best (and perhaps only) way to fight inequality is to stall progress.

But slowing technology will rob us of a more educated and innovative society. For instance, White House Science Fair Awardee, 17-year-old Brittany Wenger, designed a low-cost way to radically increase early cancer detection. Wenger told me that she taught herself advanced computer programming with the help of web tutorials—resources she never would have had at even the best high schools.

Why won't these ?!#!#%*#! people just sit still and be taxed??

Monaco has an unfair advantage in recruiting top soccer talent: players move to avoid high taxes. 

So do corporations.

And so are--soon probably a lot more will--Americans. (Bonus follow-on to that link: "Midland Ain't Pretty, But It Works".)

Energy: the future looks very good

Shale oil.

Oil and gas in general.

Solar.

Most interesting of all: guess who's having second thoughts about nuclear?

 

John Mauldin versus an NC State economist

Well, it's not really "versus" because Mr. Mauldin doesn't provide the full text of John Seater's comments. It's understandable that he didn't want to copy into his column what I'd guess was were lengthy comments, but he should have posted them on his website and provided readers with a link so they could judge the dispute for themselves.

And while it's ad hominem, Mr. Mauldin seems to be an entertainer and a world-class schmoozer--not that there's anything wrong with that--so if John's full comments were available, I'm nearly certain he'd win.

An update for the poor guy who was confused by Texas

I excerpted him here.

BBC News[!] provides a pretty good answer: "10 Reasons Why So Many People Are Moving to Texas".

Bonus: "17 Reasons Why Houston is the Best City in America".

"The Paradox of Dumb Money"

The dumb money is learning it's dumb and is taking steps toward becoming really smart. But if they become smarter, that will create more opportunities for the "smart" people to become even smarter, making the dumb people relatively dumber. Again.

Got it?

"Find Your Perfect Music Teacher: Take lessons online over live video"

Could be good for some people. 

"The Ultimate Comedy Library: 57 Books Every Comedy Fan Should Read"

Tina Fey's Bossypants and others.

"10 Regrettable Retro Food Recipes"

It's amazing that America survived the canned-vegetable-and-Jello years. 

"The Real Reason Older Men Like To Date Younger Women"

Not what you think. (Link via Instapundit.)

Another one of Mother Nature's jokes, kinda like that difference in the ages of  sexual peaks. 

"Malicious Focus Group Convinces Marketers Cinnamon Mountain Dew Is The Next Big Thing"

The Onion, of course. (For another short, funny--but unsettling--article on focus groups, see Will Leitch's "Group Thinker".)

"She Sells Sanctuary"

The Cult, live in London, 1987. Live in Austin, 2012. Compare and contrast. There will be a quiz later.

(Also, the album version. There's a reason why most albums are recorded in studios with sound engineers.)

 

The hot new food in New York City

Cronuts.

The dessert is made from sheeted pastry dough, like a croissant, and fried like a doughnut. The pastry is then stuffed with vanilla cream, rolled in sugar, and topped with icing.

"Congress needs to stop subsidies to sugar farmers"

It sure the heck does.

But I, for one, won't hold my breath.