Nobrainer’s Think Tank

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It’s been nearly a month since I began my quest for the perfect shave.

I have been boring you all to tears with the same generic post of “I used this and that and it was ok.” My work remains incomplete. Expect continued boring shaving posts because it’s just the easiest way for me to keep a record of all the tests. However, per Tom’s request, I’ll give my status update for where I’m at.

Razors: My goal was to get the closest shave possible. I’ve found that none of the blades I’ve tried have given me an acceptable shave with the grain, with all models performing more or less the same. In shaving against the grain, they again all performed equally.

So while I don’t feel I’ve given adequate time to the Sensor, I’ll still summarize my feelings.

• The Fusion is just too big for its own good.
• The Mach3 is probably the best combo of idiot-proofing and good shaving. The Mach3 seems a lot less likely to create nicks and cuts.
• The Sensor is a little less comfortable, although the SensorXL may be better.
• The double-edge safety razor requires much more attention but shaves as well. I don’t like getting that thing near my neck, but I did like it against the grain.

The tradeoff is between comfort and price. If comfort isn’t an issue, I’d suggest the DESR. Because of this testing, I have enough blades to last for a solid year. Right now I’m not sure which type I’ll buy when I finally run out. The Fusion is right out. The Sensor probably isn’t in play either as it’s not as cheap as the DESR and not as comfortable as the Mach3.

Shaving creams:
Again, I don’t feel I’ve done adequate testing here. Nonetheless here’s my rundown.

• Edge Advanced Gel - Extra Protection: The gel is a pretty decent product, though I haven’t tested it with the cheaper blades.
• Edge ActiveCare Deep Cleansing Shave Cream: I’ve used it twice, I’ve hated it twice. I don’t want to use it anymore even though I probably will.
• Gillette Fusion HydraGel - Ultra Sensitive: I took this on my last trip to Atlanta. After a few brutal days I was fairly impressed.
• Nivea for Men Sensitive Shaving Gel: I haven’t used it a lot. The last time I did use it, I didn’t like it. I’m still willing to give it another few shots.
• Williams Mug Soap (and a cheap shaving brush): I haven’t really used this one enough to know.
• Shave Secret Shaving Oil: This is the one I’m most enthused about. It’s not messy. You don’t have to re-apply it if you want to make a second pass. And it’s great for traveling. Maybe it’s just because it is a novel product and maybe I’ll tire of it eventually, but I really believe that it helps deliver a comfortable shave.

Here I’ve got to recommend the Shave Secret. Pony up a few bucks the next time you get a chance and buy a little bottle. If you don’t like it, you can send the remainder to me.

I’ll also note, that I like the Nivea for Men After Shave Cooling Balm. However, it doesn’t cool too much if you used a crappy shave cream to start with.

Dr. Dave, the man behind Spam Karma has this to say:

if you have been trusting enough to leave User registration enabled for guests, DISABLE IT IMMEDIATELY

He doesn’t go into what the exact problem is, for fear that more people will learn about a potential exploit.

I disabled this option several weeks ago after some random users began registering. Since Spam Karma can be set to go easier on comments by registered users, I assumed it was part of a spamming ploy.

So if you’ve been trying to register, I’m either really sorry or I hate your guts you spam delivering motherfucker.

This announcement has been brought to you by the letter S. You may now return to the daily grind.

As you may already be aware, Chicago has recently passed legislation requiring “big box retailers” to pay a living wage. This evening, the alderman who proposed the legislation was a guest on Kudlow & Company. His argument, was that it is a societal imperative that anyone working 40 hours a week should be living above the poverty line–a common belief.

As you, my loyal readers have guessed, this legislation bothers me. It doesn’t only bother me in the general living-wage-argument way; the guy defending this legislation bothered me, too.

In the general way, nobody, no one, no way, never addresses the real situations at play here. Everyone operates on assumptions. For example, the proponents generally suggest that anyone not making less than the living wage is living in poverty. That wouldn’t be true if a worker has a spouse who earns $60,000/yr. A person in this situation benefits from the legislation for reasons other than those stated supported the new law. So how often does this happen? How many people who will get the new wage are actually living in poverty? How many are high school kids with affluent parents? How many of those affected aren’t even full time? Where is this data in the nightly news report?

But what gets me even more, is the alderman’s words. He suggests that it is unconscionable for companies to pay less than the living wage. So why, then, is his legislation so restrictive? The guy is extremely concerned… but only if the store fits his definition of big box retailer.

The guys in Chicago should spend less time playing politics and more time figuring how to get the Cubs to win the World Series.

Update: Of course the guys at Cafe Hayek are blogging about this as well. Russell Roberts is bothered by the NY Times’ coverage:

Ah, only some economists are worried. But many poverty experts are not. The implication is that the optimists outnumber the pessimists. There’s a comfort, don’t you think? The Times lets us hear from one of the optimists: [snip]

It’s awkward to have a person from a law school make a claim about the economic impact of the ordinance. So to reassure the reader, we are told that she has done economic studies. So she must know, I guess, of where she speaks.

No economists worried about the impact of the law are quoted.

Update 2: Don Boudreaux weighs in on minimum wages and the difficulty of truly measuring their effects. A portion of which I will extract here:

But while hiring fewer hours of work from low-skilled workers is indeed one possible employer response to a hike in the minimum wage, it’s not the only one. Another possible response is to extract more output per hour from each low-skilled employee — for example, by increasing employees’ work pace, by giving employees fewer breaks, or by being less-forgiving of employees who report to work late.

Rarely, if ever, will you hear a living-wage proponent suggest that proposed living-wage recipients should increase their productivity in proportion to their increase in pay. This makes sense though. If the amount of work to be done remains constant, higher productivity directly leads to fewer workers. But since most living-wage activists maintain that jobs won’t be lost, they can’t suggest productivity increases. They can suggest that the employers can afford to pay more. They want to mandate someone else’s level of charity. Isn’t that sweet of them.

UVa football is right on track. After national signing day, no one was really impressed with Al Groh’s collection of 24 new signees. What had happened to the guy who pulled in so many great players just a few years before? Who knows about Groh. But we do know about the previous great recruits. They’re pretty much gone now. In the last year, some have been drafted. A few players have been kicked off the team for drugs. A few others were arrested for a fight at a local frat house. And now, 8 members, or a full 1/3 of the latest recruiting class have been denied admission to the University.

There’s a funny smell about, and it isn’t my work-out clothes. Desperation is a stinky cologne. Tick-tock, Al.

The string of stupidity continues unabated for troubled former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett. As you’ll recall, he is being charged with “two counts of aggravated robbery, four counts of robbery and one count of carrying a concealed weapon” for allegedly “flashing a gun and robbing two people in an alley behind a bar” in early January of this year.

In a single-paragraph letter Clarett wrote on July 20, he said he fired attorneys William Settina and Robert Krapenc. They filed a motion Monday saying they do not wish to continue as Clarett’s lawyers, saying he has not paid their fees and is not cooperating in his own defense.

The best defense is a good offense?

There is a chance that Clarett will return to the gridiron and glory though. He’s set up to join the Mahoning Valley Hitmen, of the newly formed Eastern Indoor Football League. So forget about returning to glory. Heck no one’s even sure of the EIFL will actually get off the ground, so you might forget about the gridiron, too.

Apparently Clarett’s brief college football career was just a blip on what is an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory. Maurice Clarett has a whole lot of loser in him.

Via OpinionJournal:

Funny Money? [link must be opened in IE]

A reader noticed something curious in a video from last night’s “NBC Nightly News.” Richard Engel, the network’s Beirut bureau chief, is reporting from southern Lebanon, and at 1:07 in the video, as he’s saying, “In Sidon, we found part of the financial district flattened,” you briefly see an image of what look like uncut sheets of U.S. hundred-dollar bills.

News reports have indicated that North Korea is quite the little US money forging entity. I’ll speculate that the DPRK is spreading its money making technology to Hezbollah through Iran.

I’m interested in what the follow up on this will be. If any of you catch something about it, leave a comment.