Q: How can you tell if a mathematician is an extrovert?
A: He stares at your feet!
(via Fortboise)

New research suggests that more than two-thirds of Canadians are overweight, not less than half, as commonly reported.
It kills me when the news reports things like "teens having sex more than in the past" - like, how could they possibly know? Then you read the article and it turns out they mean "teens SAY they're having more sex." Self-reported surveys are bogus - people will lie about their sex life, their weight and height, and anything else. There was a survey a few years back where they went to a small town in Indiana and asked people if they had gone to church last Sunday. The researchers had actually fanned out and attended every church service in town and counted the congregations. Of course the numbers were way less than what people said. People will even lie about what magazines they read. Self-reported surveys would have you believe that the New Yorker and Harpers have huge circulations and People and Maxim hardly anything. Yeah, right.

Mark Ames claims that some men support Bush out of spite. An interesting theory.

Today is the centennial of Bloomsday. Yes it is Yes. Ulysses has its good parts and it broke new ground, but for my money the short story collection Dubliners is James Joyce's best work. I can reread it after years and still get something new from it. And "The Dead" always gives me a shiver.

Man shot by ukulele

I wasn't going to post anything about Ronald Reagan's funeral, but I can't resist a snipe at shutting down the government for a day in his honor. Aren't Republicans supposed to be against fraud, abuse and waste? It seems like waste to me. No mail gets delivered today but we still pay the postal workers.

It seems we are in the grip of the Imperial Presidency. Back in the days of Washington and Lincoln, the President was a servant of the people. Now he's a media celebrity who rules us all. This shutdown is now a custom. They even did it for Nixon in 1994. When the President visits Seattle, they shut down the freeway so his motorcade can tool along unimpeded - and the heck with how much people are inconvenienced.

I miss Jerry Brown. When he was Governor of California, he lived in a modest apartment and drove a Plymouth to work.

Ukulele lounge
Seems to require IE for viewing.
(via Ralph G.)

Gasoline-powered Ford cleans bad L.A. air
Ford's low-emission 2005 Focus is among a growing class of gas-powered vehicles that are actually greener than electrics. In some atmospheric conditions — a brown day in San Bernardino, for instance — PZEV vehicles actually clean the air, which is to say, their emissions are cleaner than the air sucked into the engine.
(Los Angeles Times story, probably requires registration)