Archive for October, 2010

DIVING TO 400 FEET DEEP in the mountains of East Tennessee.

UPDATE: Yeah, yeah, Fontana Lake is in North Carolina. But it’s in our mountains, dammit.

AMITY SHLAES: “The estate tax is one topic getting lost in the dust of the midterm races. That’s a pity. This tax, now quiescent, is set to roar back like a stallion in 2011 if lawmakers don’t rein it in with new legislation.”

JOURNALISM: “Last night news broke that Anchorage’s CBS affiliate KTVA News 11 reporters were caught on tape discussing ways in which they could potentially embarrass the Senate campaign of Republican Joe Miller.” Funny, there was a time when I would have found this inherently unlikely. Has the press changed, or is it just easier to get caught now?

UPDATE: A reader emails that it’s not “journalism,” it’s “journolistism.” Good point!

ANOTHER UPDATE: “It’s easier to get caught.”

AN UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE OF TUESDAY’S ELECTIONS: San Francisco Mayor Nancy Pelosi? “That scream you just heard was this queen reacting in horror to such a possibility. . . . Conservatives will be shocked to learn that in her backyard, Pelosi is not widely viewed as truly representing our core liberal to progressive values.”

ARTICLE ON HOW TO ELIMINATE FOOTNOTE GLUT IN LEGAL WRITING has 174 footnotes.

BLAST BOXERS: Penis Armor for men.

CHANGE: MoveOn supporter remorseful after roughing up conservative in Arizona. “MoveOn and Republicorps member Fred Highton says he regrets initiating a physical altercation with a conservative Tea Partier at a political event at the University of Arizona earlier this month. ‘If I’m going to take part in these political events, I need to learn some self-control,’ Highton said.”

UPDATE: Related: Obama To Protesters: Heckle The Other Side.

WHAT “TEEN MOM” STARS EARN. On the one hand, it’s more than they deserve. On the other, it’s not that much for such a successful reality show.

SPACE BUCKYBALLS: “Astronomers have discovered bucket loads of buckyballs in space. They used NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to find the little carbon spheres throughout our Milky Way Galaxy — in the space between stars and around three dying stars. What’s more, Spitzer detected buckyballs around a fourth dying star in a nearby galaxy in staggering quantities — the equivalent in mass to about 15 of our Moons.”