Read it. And for sure watch the video.

Dry cleaning machine that fits in your closet.

KeySmart compact key holder.

D20 Cake Mold.

Hot Dog Toaster.

Dr Who Sonic Screwdriver Toothbrush.

Ryno one-wheeled motorcycle.

Food Cycler.

MittenFlask. I am not making this up.

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May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

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Is there nothing that can’t be solved with the judicious application of bacon? Apparently not, as this year’s Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine winners can attest.

The boffins from the US and India took home the gong for their paper on treating “uncontrollable” nosebleeds by packing the nose with strips of cured pork.

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New York Mayor Bill de Blasio launched a new program giving illegal immigrants free access to the city’s zoo, its museums, and other attractions in order to cajole them into signing up for a new city-wide ID program that would allow them to rent apartment, get city assistance, and other things.

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Even as the administration has received congressional backing for its strategy, with the Senate voting Thursday to approve a plan to arm and train Syrian rebels, a series of military leaders have criticized the president’s approach against the Islamic State militant group.

My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

Paul Mirengoff of Powerline weighs in here.

Arrrrrr.

Read it.

I’m not sure I buy it but it’s an interesting notion.

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Have individuals with known terrorist ties been apprehended trying to cross illegally into the United States through Texas? It seems like a straightforward question to address to the Secretary of Homeland Security. Asked the question by Rep. Jason Chaffetz at a House Homeland Security hearing yesterday, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson took the phlegmatic approach and vaguely denied awareness of such a case.

Asked directly if he was aware of four such individuals who were apprehended trying to cross into Texas on 9/10 last week, Johnson gave the question the full Obama kissoff, scratching his nose with his middle finger while conceding he has “heard reports to that effect.” However, according to Johnson, he doesn’t know the accuracy of the reports or how much credence to give them. Observing his demeanor and affect, one might conclude that the whole business is somebody else’s job. Why bother him?

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There are some very interesting things happening in this field.

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Ha! Take that, diet soda!

On the other hand, maybe they’re full of it.

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Liver damage and cancer is bad. Period. But obviously I’ve got some issues, at least that’s what everyone tells me. I hate the “scale-up game” between rats and humans. It just doesn’t work. Rats and humans aren’t the same, and we don’t metabolize things the same. With that said, to just give you an idea of the magnitude we’re talking about, if I wanted to consume 0.5 grams/kg of safrole, and assuming I can extract out 0.04% safrole from Sassafras root chunks in water, I’d need to boil up 170 pounds of sassafras root…in about 400 gallons of water. If I had to dig up 170 pounds of Sassafras root every day for 2 months I’d die from exhaustion long before the cancer got me. Now obviously you don’t want liver damage. Or cancer. I don’t even want an LD1, let alone an LD50. But hopefully you can see how ridiculous this is. But the best part is that hepatocarcinogenic metabolite, 1?-hydroxysafrole. Remember that one, the one that messes with the DNA? Well, it’s not even found in humans (4). Really? Seriously.

Scott Johnson pulls the tablecloth off of the elephant in the room.

We have a profoundly serious problem of illegal immigration, but we also have a problem of legal immigration, Unfortunately, it is a problem that can barely be discussed. Is there anyone who thinks the continued stream of Muslim immigration from countries with active jihadist groups is a good idea?

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For the fifth year in a row, retired cop Lee Lofland rounded up a fantastic roster of writers, law enforcement, forensic specialists, psychologists, pathologists, explosive experts, firefighters, paramedics, agents from the ATF, FBI, Secret Service, and every other specialist related to crime you could think of. In addition, bestselling authors, Michael Connelly, Lisa Gardner, Alafair Burke, Robin Burcell, and John Gilstrap either gave classes or talks.

I find this fascinating. I often read ‘police procedurals’ and ‘techno-thrillers’ because I find the nitty-gritty details as engaging as whatever passes for a story, and oftimes more.

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Since its beginning, U.S. taxpayers have spent $22 trillion on Johnson’s War on Poverty (in constant 2012 dollars). Adjusting for inflation, that’s three times more than was spent on all military wars since the American Revolution.

…

But today the Census will almost certainly proclaim that around 14 percent of Americans are still poor. The present poverty rate is almost exactly the same as it was in 1967 a few years after the War on Poverty started. Census data actually shows that poverty has gotten worse over the last 40 years.

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Steve Sailer reveals a dirty little secret.

Portland has the whitest “core city” in America, so it continues to attract young liberal white people who want to live an urban life without many blacks and Mexicans around. This is continuing to happen even though there aren’t many jobs in Portland.

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Last year I wrote that Obamacare could leave doctors holding the bag for claims for patients who don’t pay their insurance premiums. That’s because the law includes a three-month grace period during which health insurers must continue to cover patients who sign up, but don’t pay the price of their insurance. If the patients eventually make good, there’s no problem. But if patients don’t pay the owed premiums, the insurance company has to cover the cost of claims filed during the first month. Providers are stuck with the tab for any claims filed during months two and three.

The piece I wrote last July was theoretical. The notification letter I’m holding in my hand, addressed to my wife’s pediatric practice, is reality. And reality costs, in this case, over $600. That’s the outstanding balance owed the practice by a patient insured by BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona. It’s a balance that my wife might have to eat, or else try to collect herself.

My, what a surprise! Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.

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The question of whether we all see the same colours has a long history in philosophy and science. In the past, there seemed little reason to expect huge differences. We know that almost everyone has three types of “cone cells” in their retina that each respond to a different bandwidth of light. The colour of an object depends on the particular combination of those signals, but although the exact sensitivity may vary between people, overall one person’s colours should roughly match another person’s. The exceptions were thought to be colour-blind people, where one of the cones is faulty. With reduced sensitivity at certain wavelengths, they struggle to tell the difference between reds and greens, for instance.

In theory, though, it could go the other way: according to some estimates, an extra cone would offer a hundred different variants to each colour that humans normally see. We know that this happens in nature: zebrafinches and goldfish both have a fourth cone that seems to help them differentiate apparently identical colours. About 20 years ago Gabriele Jordan at the University of Newcastle and John Mollon at the University of Cambridge proposed a way that it might be possible in humans too.

The crux of Jordan’s argument lay in the fact that the gene for our red and green cone types lies on the X chromosome. Since women have two X chromosomes, they could potentially carry two different versions of the gene, each encoding for a cone that is sensitive to slightly different parts of the spectrum. In addition to the other two, unaffected cones, they would therefore have four in total – making them a “tetrachromat”. For these reasons, it’s thought to be a condition exclusive to women, though researchers can’t totally rule out the possibility that men may somehow inherit it too.

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How about that Global Warming, eh?

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More and more, the key to being a prosperous state is, find out what California’s doing and don’t do that.

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Actually, if I had it to do all over again, I’d have put my 20 in the Navy and then got out and gone into SQL Server development, for which no college degree is necessary (unless you want to work for one of those tiresome companies who want you to have a degree in SOMETHING whether it’s related to what you’ll be doing or not), and I’d be making just as much salary as I am now, plus a government pension.

And to Hell with your daddy and Yale….

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“What if you never had to worry about food again?” Soylent’s website asks. For an idealistic, overachieving, and incredibly harried generation, a bland, nutritionally complete slurry that promises effortless waste-free consumption at a manageable price point just may be the ultimate comfort food. Soylent only costs around $3 per meal. It can be purchased in bulk online and prepared in seconds. You don’t have to idle in drive-through lines to sustain yourself, and you sure don’t have to source and chop organic carrots. Soylent renders microwave ovens, refrigerators, stoves, forks, knives, plates, dishwashers, and apparently even toilet paper as unnecessary as turntables and bookshelves. Say goodbye to shopping, prepping, clean-up, even chewing. A cup is your kitchen. Molars are little more than decorative heritage utensils from a bygone era.

Read it.

Read it.

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So shut up about my use of salt already.

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Amazon got the biggest headlines for its drone delivery plans, but it’s an idea that’s catching on across the shipping industry. At a nautical trade fair in Hamburg this week, the shipping research firm DNV GL revealed designs for a new electric vessel that would ferry cargo with zero crew members — roughly the nautical equivalent of Amazon’s automated delivery drones. Dubbed “ReVolt,” the concept ship is designed for short sea voyages, carrying up to 100 standard TEU containers at a relatively slow 6 knots. But because the ReVolt has no crew, it doesn’t need living quarters or safety equipment, resulting in a much more efficient trip between ports.

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Many medical studies show positive health effects from higher vitamin levels. The only problem? These studies often can’t tease out the effect of the vitamins from the effect of other factors, such as generally healthy living. Studies that attempt to do this typically show no impact from vitamin use — or only a very tiny one on a small subset of people. The truth is that for most people, vitamin supplementation is simply a waste of time.

But don’t throw them away, because in another year or two ‘science’ will demand that you take them again.

I take vitamins because that way my mother-in-law will shut up about me taking vitamins. Worth the price, in my opinion, but your mileage may vary.

Read it.

Just in case you should want to do that.

Steve Sailer pulls back the curtain.

Education Realist points out that the Drive for Diversity stalled out due to earlier Education Reforms. Teacher qualification tests were toughened up in some states, and Congress passed a law in 1998 intended to drive out of business bad education schools whose graduates couldn’t pass the test. Instead, the ed schools, no fools, just dropped affirmative action and stopped giving out diplomas until students had passed the state professional exams.

Funny how that works. Requiring actual, you know, performance really shoots ‘diversity’ right in the ass.

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In the competition to see which Western country can send the most jihad fighters to the Middle East, Finland, Britain, and Belgium have recently been mentioned as contenders for the title of “Greatest Supporter of Jihad”. However, it may come as a surprise to most readers that, on a per capita basis, Canada incubates, radicalizes and sends out more mujahideen to join not just the Syrian front but every battlefield where ISIS is fighting, or where there is an Al Qaeda franchise.

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To understand why the Islamic State not only decapitates its “infidel” captives, but also mutilates and mocks their corpses—and all to sadistic laughter—one need only turn to the Koran and deeds of Islamic prophet Muhammad.

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The man accused of gunning down a Livingston teenager in his car earlier this summer told investigators the murder was an act of retribution for U.S. military action against Muslims in the Middle East.

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An attitude that is, unfortunately, all to common among law enforcement people.

Eric Holder’s Justice Department, of course, doesn’t even bother.

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Slow news day.

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There’s an old line that environmentalists are “watermelons”—green on the outside, red on the inside. A lot of environmentalists will take great offense if you say this: No no! We like economic growth and capitalism just fine! We just want it to be “sustainable,” whatever that means. And don’t ask for specificity about what “sustainability” means in detail, unless you have a lot of time and a full bottle of hootch handy. Before long you’ll figure out that “sustainable” is just a code word for green things we like, and that it has no rigor whatsoever aside from old-fashioned factor-efficiency, which economists figured out over a century ago at least.

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And why not? If they can stick the taxpayer with covering their employees’ health insurance….

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Be careful what you wish for….

Read it. And watch the video.

Andrew Napolitano is amusingly old-fashioned.

Madison knew that kings became tyrants through war. He fervently believed that by keeping the war-waging power in the hands of the president and the war-making power in the hands of Congress, the Constitution would serve as a bulwark against tyranny.

And we see how that worked out. Hey, better luck next time….

Read it.

If a ditch fills with rainwater – and nobody’s around to see it – can it still be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency?

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We’ve heard a lot of election-year class warfare talk, from makers vs. takers to the 1% vs. the 99%. But Joel Kotkin’s important new book, The New Class Conflict, suggests that America’s real class problems are deeper, and more damaging, than election rhetoric.

Traditionally, America has been thought of as a place of great mobility — one where anyone can conceivably grow up to be president, regardless of background. This has never been entirely true, of course. Most of our presidents have come from reasonably well-off backgrounds, and even Barack Obama, a barrier-breaker in some ways, came from an affluent background and enjoyed an expensive private-school upbringing. But the problem Kotkin describes goes beyond shots at the White House.

In a nutshell, Kotkin sees California, once again, in its role as an indicator of where the nation is headed. And it’s not an attractive destination.

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The following video shows a fundraising effort by “Australians” in one of those nice “moderate” mosques. Knowing how popular the ISIS flag is among members of their moderate congregation, they auctioned off an ISIS flag.

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A group of Islamic zealots have formed a vigilante squad in the German industrial city of Wuppertal, wearing homemade vests marked “shariah police” as they try to deter young Muslims from engaging in haram behavior. They have distributed leaflets describing the sleazy nightlife area they monitor as a “Shariah Controlled Zone.”

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It sounds like the start of a corny joke, but it was no laughing matter for the staff and patrons of Jus’ Beachy Bar. The two enriched fellows were at least three sheets to the wind when they arrived at the infidel hangout. When the bartender refused to serve them more alcohol, they responded by punching out customers, throwing chairs and glasses, and threatening to behead the deputies who eventually arrived on the scene.

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Despite presumably spending much of their time around caloric and fattening foods, many of the men who built fast-food companies into the empires they are today lived into their 80s and beyond. Coincidence? Probably. Not to mention that these wealthy fellows likely had access to better-than-average health care and could afford food well above the dollar-menu variety.

But maybe eating your greens is overrated.

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Global warming hysteria, as we wrote yesterday, is not science. The models on which it rests are known to be wrong, since they are refuted by observation. So why, then, does climate change hype persist?

Because a great deal of money depends on it. The purpose of global warming hysteria is to bamboozle voters into transferring vast amounts of wealth and power from the private sector to the government. This will be done via a carbon tax and regulations on, or prohibitions of, fossil fuels; but the scheme goes much deeper than that. Since virtually every human activity (including breathing) generates some quantity of carbon dioxide, global warming is an excuse to regulate pretty much everything, conferring unprecedented power on the federal government. Further, global warming justifies vast federal subsidies of “green” energy scams. The Democrats, in turn, are rewarded for those subsidies by enormous political contributions by the likes of Tom Steyer.

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Thank God for all those strict gun control laws, or the place would look like Texas.

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Avery Gagliano was kicking some international piano-playing butt while maintaining straight As at her D.C. public middle school last year.

But traveling abroad for competitions meant she wound up with more than the 10 days of “unexcused” absences allowed by the district on her record. Despite her parents’ attempts to provide school administrators with supplementary materials about the educational nature of the trips, the district refused to budge.

In fact, this spring when Gagliano returned (victorious!) from a competition in Connecticut, D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) declared her officially truant and assigned an officer to her case.

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Back in the 1960s, many Americans paid for doctor and hospital services out of pocket or through modestly priced private insurance. Health care spending was about 6 percent of GDP.

Enter President Johnson and Medicare. He bought millions of votes by giving seniors free health care that they never paid for through payroll taxes during their working years. As insidious, he helped lay the foundations for the entitlement state with Medicaid. The latter, first conceived to help poor children, has been gradually expanded to include many working families.

Today health care spending is more than 17 percent of GDP. Life extending treatments are part of the jump, but Germany and Holland spend about 12 percent and have those. The extra US costs are federally mandated giveaways, inefficiencies and abuse—about $850 billion and much more than spent on defense.