Driver of Motorized Bar Stool Charged with Drunk Driving

Seriously, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. See this report: Ohio man charged with drunken driving on bar stool. He had fifteen beers, then went riding around on his special vehicle created from a bar stool attached to a deconstructed lawn mower... see the photo if you don't believe me!

American Health Care System: 10 Surprising Facts

Here is a nice list of 10 Surprising Facts about the American Health Care. These aren't surprising to me of course, they are "surprising" in the sense that they are seriously under-reported in the media. We all hear, everyday it seems, about various flaws -- real, debatable, and imagined -- in the US health care system. But we don't very often hear about its positives, the good things about it. And it is exactly those good aspects that are threatened by trying to reform our system in the direction of say Canada's or Great Britain's.

For the record, I agree changes to our system are needed, but not the kind of changes that those on the political left are calling for. I support the views found at FIRM: Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine.

Unintended Consequences of the Ban on Strong Dishwasher Detergent

Another great story revealing unintended consequences of government laws and regulations. See the article: Spokane residents smuggle suds over green brands. Regular dishwasher detergents were banned in one county, but the green alternatives to clean dishes to the satisfaction of many residents. So... they end up driving further (something environmentalists wouldn't like!) than they otherwise would so they can still purchase the desired detergents.

Is California Going to Ban Black Cars?

Sound to silly to be true? Check out this article: California to reduce carbon emissions by... banning black cars?! Since it is not yet April 1, I assume this is not a joke.

Atlas Shrugged: 52 Years Old, but an Amazon.com Category Best Seller

Yes indeed, Atlas Shrugged is currently the #1 bestseller in Amazon.com's Fiction and Literature category. It ranks higher than many new releases, such as John Grisham's latest. Oh, and that is just the ranking of the mass paperback edition... other editions of Atlas Shrugged also rank 7th and 8th on this list at present, while her novel The Fountainhead ranks 13th.

Atlas Shrugged has remained a popular novel over the years, its length of 1,100 pages not deterring readers. But the eerie similarities between parts of its storyline and the goings-on in Washington these days is what is clearly driving this significant increase in interest.

Earth Hour vs. Human Achievement Hour

See this provocative video posted at CEI's website, a comparison between so-called "Earth Hour" vs. "Human Achievement Hour". I favor the latter attitude.

FYI, it seems an alternate name for this is "Edison Hour".

The Cantina Band Theme on the Harp

Check out Creighton Griffiths playing the theme from the Star Wars Cantina Band on the Harp! Well done! I watched a few of the related videos listed here, and found these other two Cantina Band versions by others: on the Chapman Stick and on the Piano. My favorite is the harp though... he looks to be the youngest of the three (impressive!), plus I'm just a fan of the harp as an instrument anyway.

How Many Will Choose To Shrug?

Here is an interesting item... apparently a resignation letter from an AIG employee to their CEO. The most disturbing aspect of this is on page 2, where he notes "the only motivation" remaining for AIG employees: fear from politicians "naming and shaming" them. This letter, the events that prompted it... again, this is very reminiscent of Atlas Shrugged. I wonder how many other people -- at AIG or elsewhere -- will be as brave as Jake DeSantis and choose to "shrug"?

Warnings For the Health Insurance Industry

Paul Hsieh has written a great two-part (still quite short) essay entitled "Health Insurance Industry Sells Its Soul to the Devil". An important read for those who want America to move to a single-payer, "universal healthcare" model like many other countries have.

Music Recommendation: Two Songs by Sleepthief

The latest two songs that I've really taken a liking to, that I was introduced to via my personal Pandora station, are two songs by a group named Sleepthief. I had never heard of them before, but according to the Wikipedia entry about them, they are an American group who had their first album, Dawnseeker, in 2006. The entry also describes them as follows:

Sleepthief is most often compared to musical groups such as Delerium (in its output from the mid-1990s onward) and Balligomingo, which produce emotive, melodic, synthesized music with what is often described as New Age-influenced ethnic characteristics from other cultures. Also similar to these groups is Sleepthief's use of pop music-based song structures with performances by female singers: eleven vocalists contribute to The Dawnseeker, many of whom are established recording artists, and some having worked with the aforementioned groups previously.

Normally I'm not a huge fan of heavily-synthesized music, but I definitely like these two songs because they are a rich combination of female vocals, synthesizer effects, and other instruments (or so it seems to my untrained ear). Here are two YouTube videos where you can listen to the two songs I really like from this album:

• Eurydice - this is their lead single, and an official video I believe.
• Just Say It - I actually like this song even more. This isn't an official video though.

There are moments in that second song where there is a near perfect avalanche of sounds.

Coming Next? Make Them Stay at AIG

The blog Titanic Deck Chairs had a nice posting titled AIG Bonuses and Retention Contracts -- A Proposed Solution. Does this seem farfetched? I could see Barney Frank and the others at least suggesting this solution. I'd like to think there would be enough of an outcry from other legislators -- and the "American people" -- to keep it from happening.

Regardless, this was an interesting, provocative post, with a great reference to Directive 10-289, from Atlas Shrugged here!

Dramatic Cupcake Dog

I don't know that I've ever seen a dog stare quite like this one: Dramatic Cupcake Dog.

Animation on Public Walls

This video called Muto is worth seeing... amazing what these people did to draw on public walls and then piece together a video of it.

Fun with the Microwave

This interesting website, Easy Mac Micro Maniac, has lots of videos of microwaving various objects just to see what happens to them. Some are more interesting than others. I'd say my favoritesare soap, gummy worms, foam football, and the one that they declared the "winner" as well... eggs! In some of the videos it takes a little time before anything interesting happens, but you know when that will be by the "meltdown" marker on their timing dial.

Stossel on Bailouts and Bull

John Stossel gave a great 20/20 program on Friday, March 13. He covered a handful of topics, and these are available as separate videos on YouTube as follows:

• Part 1: Stimulus, Bailouts, and Crisis (7:46)
• Part 2: In favor of privatizing some of our roads (7:02)
• Part 3: Feds vs. States on Medical Marijuana (6:49)
• Part 4: On Universal Pre-K (6:17)
• Part 5: On the Border Fence (6:16)
• Part 6: America: The Land of Opportunity (6:45)

Good stuff!

Amazing Photos Taken at Unusual Angles

Here is a great posting with 100 photos that each have a unique perspective because of the particular angle they were taken at, often due to the alignment of various objects in the background and foreground. These range from mildly interesting to very, very funny.

I Can Hear What Teenagers Hear

According to this website, I can hear a sound that only (or mostly) teenagers can hear. I have no idea if this is a hoax site or a valid phenomenon. But, what I can say is that I could hear the sound emitted... and my wife could not. And it is not because I am younger than she is -- afterall, I'm 35 years old, and so no longer near my teen years! The reason I could hear it is that I can very often hear extremely high-frequency sounds, ones that most humans cannot hear. For instance:

• I can hear the sounds emitted from some products intended to scare away rodents by emitting annoying sounds that they can hear but that most humans can't.
• I can hear sounds emitted from various household electronics that most humans can't hear. This used to happen with a defective computer monitor that my parents had -- well, at least I thought it was defective since it constantly emitted a high-frequency noise (they couldn't hear it). I've had a few other cases like this with gadgets as well.

I'm not sure if this high-frequency skill of mine is related to my tinitis or not. I've had tinitis in both ears for my entire life (either from birth, or at least as long as I can remember). Interestingly, the tinitis sound is similarly a very high-frequency noise -- one that I hear all time: 24x7x365. I don't hear it when there is enough other noise around, but I always hear it loud and clear whenever I'm in an otherwise quiet environment: a cave, out in a country field, or every night while trying to get to sleep! This is the reason I benefit from a fan or other "white" noise to help me sleep at night.

WSJ Item on Rand's Relevance

I liked Yaron Brook's opinion piece that was published by the Wall Street Journal recently: Is Rand Relevant?

Glenn Garvin on Unions and Mortgage Bailout

Here is a good column about the "Orwellianly named Employee Free Choice Act", from Glenn Garvin of the Miami Herald: "No choice in Free Choice Act". This beginning speaks to a change of opinion by primary supporters of the act that I didn't know about:

If consistency is really the hobgoblin of little minds, then Hilda Solis and George Miller must be America's top ghostbusters. They think the secret ballot is the cornerstone of democracy, except for American workers deciding whether to join a labor union.

Miller is the U.S. House's chief sponsor of the Orwellianly named Employee Free Choice Act, a bill much-coveted by labor unions that would do away with secret-ballot voting when they're trying to organize a company workforce. And Solis, a former congresswoman from Southern California who is President Barack Obama's newly confirmed labor secretary, is EFCA's chief cheerleader.

Oddly enough, Miller and Solis used to think secret ballots were the very lifeblood of democracy. In 2001, introducing himself as someone ''deeply concerned with international labor standards,'' Miller wrote Mexican officials urging them to allow workers to vote on unionization with secret ballots.

''The secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose,'' Miller wrote, adding that the practice ''will help bring real democracy to the Mexican workplace.'' (The American workplace, I guess, is quite another matter.)

That is precious.

I poked around, and found this late February column he wrote on the mortgage bailout plan which was good too: Common sense missing in Obama bailout.

What Does $1 Trillion Look Like?

I've seen many images like this lately, and most don't do much for me. But this page's building up of images to show just how large $1 Trillion is... I find this series impressive.

On the Crime in Mexico

Here is a good 10-minute video from The Cato Institute: Ted Galen Carpenter on Drug Prohibition's Role in Mexico's Violence.

Bizkit the Sleep-walking Dog

Here are three funny videos of "Bizkit", a dog that apparently has vivid dreams:

• Video 1 - short, but with funny ending
• Video 2 - includes some barking apparently while asleep
• Video 3 - funny how the dog remains asleep while standing for a while!

Star Trek Movie Trailer

Based on this trailer, I'm definitely looking forward to the next Star Trek movie!

On Our Not-So-Private Health Care System

Don Watkins makes some excellent points in his posting What Free Market in Health Care? Keep those in mind the next time you hear calls for government-run health-care: what they should say is government run to a greater extent than it already is. And ask yourself: if you don't aspects of our current system, what is the root cause of those negative aspects -- a truly free-market, or the various government interventions over the past many decades?

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, and the Tea Party Protests

My friend Paul Hsieh wrote a great two-page (short) article titled "Ayn Rand the Tea-Party Protests". Like countless other articles in the past few months -- including articles in just about any major newspaper or business magazine -- he begins by noting the resurgence in interest in (and sales of) Ayn Rand's epic novel Atlas Shrugged. But then what sets Paul's writeup a part from most of the others is his accurate attention to Rand's ideas and philosophy. Many other recent articles either only cover the book sales increase aspect of the story, or mangle (intentionally or not) Rand's views in ways great or small. So if you don't read any other similar such articles, please do read Paul's two-parter here.

On Evolution and Chickens Movement Capabilities

Here is a cool video from YouTube that shows the ability that a chicken has to control their head's position relative to its body's movement. (thanks to Diana for the link)