There is such a thing as being considerate, and although it may come as a surprise to you, you should not presume that everyone loves your dog.

Casey is my 4th peke and because their under body is so low to the ground snow clumps form all over his body where the snow attaches to his hair. I put his turtle neck on him more for me so I don't have to freeze my hands breaking up the clumps when we get done with our walk.

I am 25 and it's all very lovely and like a costume. It's beautiful and romantic ... it's not like standing up there in my everyday underwear. It's a theatrical show and everyone is there to have a good time.

Is there anything fluffier than a cloud?

If there is, I don't want to know about it.

I think there is such a thing as "kitty grass" but I am not familiar with it.

Many recipes call for softened or room-temperature butter, but there is such a thing as getting your butter too soft.

So what will we do with global warming? I don’t know. I just hope the place warms enough so I don’t have to worry about the cold anymore.

There is such a thing as a happy ending, but I know I couldn't have done it without help.

Are we getting hosed? Maybe. If we’re going to get hosed we’re going to get hosed. At least this time they’re being considerate enough to tell you up front.

I hire really smart people who work themselves to death so I don't have to.

One way or another we have to pay up -- even if it feels like we're getting hosed.

Sitting alone with one’s thoughts is the hardest part of jail.

David Samuels offers a knife-sharp pen portrait:

The pay-per-view broadcast starts at 7 p.m. on Saturday night and goes until ten. By five, maybe 3,000 people are already in their seats, most of them gathered in the upper reaches of the arena.

Behind us, Tito Ortiz and Jenna Jameson are taking their seats. Ortiz’s face looks puffier than it did when he was fighting regularly, while the famous porn star looks ghastly. Her stick-figure legs are covered with tattoos, and a pair of angel wings sprouts from her back. Her eyes make her look like a Siamese cat, less vacant than otherworldly. She talks to Ortiz, greets her fans, looks exasperated, and plays with her hair, but the weird look in her eyes never goes away. It’s like she is looking into an arctic hell where the sun never shines.

Ouch.

From the archive:

The distant future evolution of our Sun might be controlled (literally, asteroengineered) so that it maintains its present-day energy output rather than becoming a highly luminous and bloated red giant.

I wonder if you could create a meth algorithm to alter photos of people so that they looked like they took it.

Had there been cameras at Calvary, would twenty centuries of believers have been moved to hang photographs of the scene on their altarpieces and in their homes?

Many sit vacant and dilapidated for months as lenders go through the process of taking them back through foreclosure and then putting them on the market.

Rampage

As a prank, students from local high schools have been taking advantage of the county's Speed Camera Program in order to exact revenge on people who they believe have wronged them in the past.

Students duplicate the license plates by printing plate numbers on glossy photo paper, using fonts from certain websites that "mimic" those on Maryland license plates. They tape the duplicate plate over the existing plate on the back of their car and purposefully speed through a speed camera. The victim then receives a citation in the mail days later.

County Council President Phil Andrews said that this could hurt the integrity of the Speed Camera Program.

From the archive:

Typography is not simply a frou-frou debate over aesthetics orchestrated by a hidden coterie of graphic-design nerds.

There is, however, some reality to the idea that the U.S. is seeking "administrative revenge" against this person for demonstrating that their security is weak.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

The Speed Camera Pimping Game

When did the phrase "save money" come to mean buying something at a discount, rather than not spending money at all?

Just wondering ...

From the archive:

Layaway ... what’s that again?

Saving

Common sense is not much use in a financial panic.

To be blunt, credit is successfully reestablished when financial elites say, "When." Credit is close to a synonym for the mood of the ruling class. To say an economy is based on credit is to say it is based on animal mysteries. Glamour, prestige, élan, sprezzatura, cutting a figure ... that is what the economy is made of. It is a rather terrifying thought.

See also:

Where are all the acorns?

Mysteries require judgments and the assessment of uncertainty, and the hard part is not that we have too little information but that we have too much.

The Unwisdom of Crowds

Chris Anderson:

When I was at The Economist, there was a policy to rotate everyone every three years. The idea was that fresh eyes were more important than experience. "Foreign everywhere" was the mantra.

Each time, it changes my life and puts me back on a steep learning curve with a new subject to immerse in and a new pace of travel and speaking. I've got a new foreign land to explore.

Decius:

Noticing is easier in a foreign place because mundane things are unusual. It's the sameness of the familiar that closes minds.

From the archive:

What amazes Chipchase is not the standard stuff.

Richard Hamming:

I finally adopted what I called "Great Thoughts Time." When I went to lunch Friday noon, I would only discuss great thoughts after that.

Do something new every three years

Many studies have shown that people display an apparent overconfidence. In particular, it is common for a majority of people to describe themselves as better than average. The literature takes for granted that this better-than-average effect is problematic. We argue, however, that, even accepting these studies completely on their own terms, there is nothing at all wrong with a strict majority of people rating themselves above the median.

From the archive, a HPSCI report from a couple of years back:

We are not looking at Muslims who practice their faith fundamentally -- there is nothing wrong with practicing religion in a fundamental way.

More recently:

Don't think I don't I tolerate gay people because I do. I tolerate them with all my heart.

Overconfidence?

How much do the wealthiest households earn in the US?

This interactive test will give you the opportunity to test your knowledge about the distribution of income in society and to learn more about it.

How did you do? Here's what it told me:

Good! Your score is 72.3 out of 100. Your pattern was kind of close to the actual one.

See also, from yesterday, Salary Increase By Major:

Suddenly, I am no longer unnerved by the emergence of grey hair.

Test your knowledge: Income distribution in the USA

Roberto Bolaño:

Of course, I knew that Lihn was dead, but when the people I was with offered to take me to meet him I accepted without hesitation. Maybe I thought that they were playing a joke, or that a miracle might be possible. But probably I just wasn’t thinking, or had misunderstood the invitation.

From the archive:

About a third of Americans believe in ghosts.

See also:

Biological evolution is still a relatively new concept for a majority of Muslims, and a serious debate over its religious compatibility has not yet taken place. It is likely that public opinion on this issue will be shaped in the next decade or so because of rising education levels in the Muslim world and the increasing importance of biological sciences.

Meeting with Enrique Lihn

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