Unqualified Offerings

By Thoreau
Another post in my continuing inside look at peer review in the scientific community. (I promise this won’t be as long as some of the others.)
I spent much of today reviewing a manuscript for an optics journal. The paper was on a problem that I hadn’t worked on before, but I’ve worked [...]

By Thoreau
I’ve noticed a lot of people saying, in regard to immigration, “Cultures have a right to preserve themselves.” This is said by a lot of people, including those who support allowing more people in but still retaining some limit. Now, there are lots of things to be said for or against allowing [...]

By Mona
.
Oh yes, that “liberal” sentiment is one that this libertarian has always held, and is also one of the areas in which a good many on the left seem unaware that many if not most of us “capitalist tools” largely concur with them. Certainly I recall few libertarians disputing that Gideon [...]

By Thoreau
My wife got me a crockpot for Christmas. It’s been a while since I’ve had one, so I was pretty stoked. Here’s the first thing I made:
Braised Beef With Cinnamon
3-4 lb rump roast
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp ground cloves
olive oil
1 large sweet onion
2 medium tomatoes
6 oz [...]

When Bill Kristol was born and they were handing out brains, he thought they were saying “trains” and he said, “I’ll bomb the shit out of them!”

I spent the evening rooting for the New England Patriots, which means I spent the evening rooting for myself. Everyone likes to be right. I like it more than most people. Bill Belichick’s organization plays like they believe a lot of things about football that I believe, and disdain much of the conventional wisdom I [...]

By Mona
.
Ron Paul is soooo horribly frightening that the “fair and balanced” network is blacking him out of a GOP prez candidate forum it is hosting on 1/6. Says Paul:

“They are scared of me and don’t want my message to get out, but it will,” Paul said in an interview at a [...]

I present the funniest football-related quote in forever:

Larry Csonka, the ‘72 Dolphins’ fullback and primary offensive weapon, went on record two weeks ago saying Belichick was risking a Super Bowl title by playing his starters too long, particularly quarterback Tom Brady.
“He isn’t pulling his people out,” Csonka said before ceremonies Dec. 16 honoring the ‘72 [...]

So it’s our last night in Barb City, and I’ll be engrossed in football very soon, but I have to say, those friendly small-town midwesterners of fable seem to be . . . everywhere. People in stores and on the street and even in the old folks home have been super super nice. Now, I’m [...]

Nepal consecrates itself a republic:
King Gyanendra – who heads a dynasty that dates to 1769 – dismissed Nepal’s parliament and seized power in February 2005, claiming he needed to eradicate corruption and end the long-running communist insurgency. But rebel attacks increased, the economy faltered and Gyanendra used heavy-handed tactics to silence opposition, while banning criticism [...]