Nobrainer’s Think Tank

Hurt

Nine Inch Nails VS Johnny Cash? Not even close. Cash in a landslide.

One

Round one goes to Johnny who performs “One” better than U2 does.

Admittedly this is round of evidence proves little because those greasy bastards in U2 suck.

In the past I have argued that even if we aren’t importing barrels of oil, we’ll continue to import things made from oil and from some other form of energy. From the Washington Post (emphasis mine):

If you’ve been to the mall lately, you’ve probably noticed that China is making scads of plastic. As the world’s second-largest plastic producer, it is furiously turning oil and petrochemicals into everything from lobster souvenirs to sneaker soles. By embedding oil in products, China is, in effect, importing oil on behalf of U.S. consumers — as much as 1 million barrels per day.

While China’s demand for energy is driving up oil prices worldwide, its cheap goods are having the opposite effect on the cost of living in the United States. A recent analysis by the U.N. World Economic and Social Survey suggests that Chinese pressure on oil imports may have raised U.S. inflation by 0.23 percent from 2001 to 2005, but cheap imports of Chinese goods decreased U.S. inflation over that same period by 0.28 percent. For the moment, the net winners are U.S. consumers.

Tyler Cowen suggests not paying too much attention to the numbers and instead focusing on the general point.

Some people will argue that “energy independence” does not mean energy independence. Instead it means not using foreign oil, which means “energy independence” is a pretty stupid way to say “not using foreign oil.” Even then, we are still, indirectly, importing foreign oil. And why we would be less concerned about importing natural gas from abroad than oil is beyond my comprehension.

I suppose, energy independence (the true kind) could happen. But it would require trade independence: complete and total trade isolation. If that sounds like a good idea, I suggest you go ahead kiss your computers, electronics, and probably 95% of the rest of your personal possessions goodbye.

Sources: (more…)

I realized, that in any given day I can easily search the web for 3 to 6 (sometimes more) random bits of information. Some are more useful than others. Nonetheless, I hope to start posting these queries on a regular schedule.

For today:

• How tall is Fred Thompson really? (I recently saw him described as 6′7″) Celebheights.com says he’s 6′6″ and speculates he may be slightly shorter as he has probably shrunk with age.
• Was Danny Masterson (AKA Hyde on “That 70’s Show”) in the movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding”? No. But Christopher Masterson was. They are brothers. Christopher also appeared on “That 70’s Show” as that guy that worked at the cheese store in the mall. You may also recognize him as Francis from “Malcolm in the Middle.”
• What does “ho” really mean? Per dictionary.com, it is “used as a call to attract attention, sometimes specially used after a word denoting a destination.”
• Why does gas in Oregon cost the same was Washington? (Oregon, like New Jersey, outlaws self-service gas pumps). I’m not exactly sure, but according to gaspricewatch.com Washington’s gas tax is 28 cents per gallon while Oregon’s is 24 cents per gallon. I suppose that 4 cents a gallon could cover the extra labor required at Oregon’s pumps.

Hopefully I will keep all these thing organized by remembering to tag them with del.icio.us. You can keep yourself updated by regularly visiting.

That clip is from the Live & Swingin CD & DVD combo. The DVD includes an entire Rat Pack show, which was filmed and aired in the 60s. Is it worth 23 bucks? You better believe it!

Ray Bradbury wants everyone to stop mistranslating Fahrenheit 451.

Fahrenheit 451 is not, he says firmly, a story about government censorship. Nor was it a response to Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose investigations had already instilled fear and stifled the creativity of thousands. … Bradbury… says it is, in fact, a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature.

Here’s a case where we can actually ask the author what the book is about. Yet everyone still misses the point. It makes you wonder about all the books we are forced to read and decipher whose authors have long since passed.

Oh well. We’re talking about academia here. In academia being right is secondary to believing that you’re right.