Author: Aaron Weber

And Baby Makes Three

Someone suggested today that New Hampshire’s license plate motto would be so much better if you could add “Baby” to it. As in, “Live Free or Die, Baby.” Sort of like in Terminator II. The alternate motto of course is “Home of Tax Free Shopping, Baby.” Yes, that’s a real NH slogan. Maine might also benefit: “The way life should be, baby.”

Of course, Florida already has that kind of motto. Their license plates say “Election Fraud and Hurricanes, Baby!” Or is it only in my imagination that those are the only attractions in the state?

Preserving the Marketplace

You lamented when Wordsworth closed, but you have ordered your latest Harry Potter from B&N or the Coop? Fools! Shop at Harvard Bookstore! Reservations for the book are available, but optional, and the sale price is 20% off the cover. Goes on sale Friday night (Saturday Morning) at midnight.

I won’t be there because Harry Potter is beneath me.

Marketplace

The Ducati Monster 620 retails for $6,000 new. This gentleman wants to sell one, used for $4000. Now, in my general world-view, you might get 50-60 percent of your purchase price if you have a 2-3 year old bike with a single owner in immaculate condition. This is a 2-owner bike that’s been in at least one wreck and is scratched. I’d imagine that in such a case that the first person bought it new for $6,000, the second person bought it used for $4,000, and could sell it for between $2,000 and $2,500, if it were in perfect condition. Given that it’s not, I’d consider $1,500.

Where the hell do you get these valuations? The amount of money you need to pay for your crack addiction does not equal the value of your third-hand beat-up entry-level notoriously finicky hard-to-maintain Italian sportbike.

Even if it is very pretty.

Clothing

The other day Nat suggested that it would be funny to make a t-shirt with the slogan “e^2pi*i is the loneliest number” and when I figured out what he meant, a few minutes ago (the answer is “1”) it occurred to me that, while it might be funny to have a shirt with an alternate expression of “one” on it as the loneliest number, aren’t there other, lonelier numbers? I mean, could e^pi*i be lonelier? That’s got one less pi*i, and it’s negative. Or maybe i is really the loneliest number. It’s imaginary, you know. That’s gotta be pretty lonely.

Not in the New York Times

Someone pointed out to me that just linking to some random Times article is the highbrow equivalent of posting random quizzes nobody else cares about: it’s what you do when you have nothing interesting to say.

So, here’s two links to random crap that is not from the Times
The Poor Man parodies Powerline:

But, more importantly, the MSM seems to have conveniently forgotten about a little thing called 9/11, the day that everything changed forever. Sure, prior to 9/11, it was wrong for Michael Jackson to rape the shit out of little kids, and I am on the record saying so. But that innocent world is gone forever.

Stewie, from the Family Guy, hates on his babysitter’s boyfriend:

HA! I got your hat! Take that, hatless! Now go back to the quad and resume your hackey-sack tourney! I’m not going to lie down for some frat boy bastard with his damn Teva sandals and his Skoal Bandits and his Abercrombie and Fitch long-sleeve, open stitched, crew-neck henley smoking his sticky buds out of a soda can while watching his favorite downloaded Simpson episodes every night! Yes, we all love Mr. Plow – oh, you’ve got the song memorized, do you? SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE! That is exactly the kind of idiot you see at Taco Bell at one in the morning – the guy who just whiffed his way down the bar-skank ladder.

Poorly Constructed Polling Systems

According to Yahoo News, 2/3 of US adults believe in creationism. OK, that’s a little surprising, but also fair: probably 2/3 of the US is pretty religious and that means in most cases a creationist outlook: “God directly created mankind.”

What amuses me about the survey is that it opposes “Creationism” and “Intelligent Design” as though they were two distinct things. Participants were asked “Do you believe that humans evolved from earlier species, that humans were created directly by God, or that humans are so complex that something else must have created them (i.e. God, or maybe Xenu.)

So, you could really rephrase one of their subsequent questions “Which of the following things do you think should be taught in our science classes: “God,” “Something godlike,” or “Science.” If you chose “Science should be taught in science classes” you were apparently among the minority. Or, perhaps, just perhaps, the poll was totally broken.

I’m gonna guess it’s the polling. Because the alternative– that people don’t want science to be taught in science classes– is really just too terrible.

Good Content Online

Like technology journalism, a lot of motorcycle press focuses on cool crap, and pretty much ignores anything useful. Also it often requires you to pay for it. Good free sites include: Minnesota Motorcycle Monthly, Motorcycle USA (see especially this article about why being in a hurry can be fatal), the Canada Motorcycle Guide Online, and Australia Motorcycle News (MCNews.com.au), which has a great review of the 2004 Thruxton I have been eyeing covetously.