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Dubai, one of the seven United Arab Emirates on the south coast of the Persian Gulf, is a small tribe (now numbering about 300,000) of pearl fishers and date-palm cultivators who found themselves, in 1966, living on top of a small-to-medium-sized lake of oil. They arranged to have this oil pumped out and sold as [...]
Archive for the ‘Wretched excess’ Category
May 5th, 2009
I suggested in last week’s post on the dumb fly-over of New York Harbor that the desired photo, and lots like it, could be better made on a computer than with actual airplanes burning thousands of pounds of fossil fuel. And indeed, Will Sherman provides these nice examples of AF1 in various places including [...]
April 28th, 2009
Let me get this straight: flying an Air Force One around lower Manhattan with a fighter plane chasing it, which scared the pants off the locals (I wonder why?) was a photo session, to get a picture of the airplane near the Statue of Liberty?
Never mind the idiot who thought it would be a [...]
March 24th, 2009
Six years ago, an assistant principal in Arizona took leave of his senses and ordered a strip search of Samantha Redding, a thirteen-year-old girl, for Advil (ibuprofen). The victim’s suit against the school district is now headed for arguments in the Supreme Court in April.
Everything about this story is deeply nuts. First, Advil??!! This [...]
September 27th, 2008
Category: Woolgathering, Wretched excess
A 13 million digit prime number has been discovered at UCLA. This is something with so many handy uses around the house – though a little tedious to use for a password – I’m sad that these poor schlubs are getting less than a penny per digit for it. Perhaps there’s some kind [...]
February 11th, 2008
Category: Woolgathering, Wretched excess
In the Wildavsky Forum Lecture that led to his most recent book, Bob Frank had the audience in stitches with an exploration of the wristwatches of the rich. The key exhibit was a device with several plush-covered wrists, each of which can hold a watch and wave it back and forth to keep it wound. [...]
