Shots in the Dark

I love this post by David Henderson on Econlog pointing out their different stances on…walls.

Elizabeth Warren forms an exploratory committee.

The blue animations below are “roost rings” in Kansas—nesting birds—expanding as the birds wake and begin foraging for food in the morning. (Thanks to Paul Kedrosky.)

I like that he’s going to have a good post-Harry Potter career; he seems like a nice guy. Plus, how can you not like the looks of this?

…he would be flayed alive if he said this…but I imagine he will (and probably should) take some satisfaction from it.

The feminist website Jezebel yesterday posed the question, “Are Women Choosing Romance over Careers in Science and Tech?”

Jezebel reports on a series of studies funded by the National Science Foundation on the minority status of women in STEM—science, technology and math. Their findings?

…when women concentrate on romantic goals, whether due to environment or personal choice, they demonstrate less interest in STEM and more interest in fields traditionally thought of as feminine, like arts, languages, and English. Yet, the same is not true for men.

Jezebel goes on to argue that this has to do with the gender-socialization of girls, but either their explanation is too tortured or I am not smart enough to understand it, because I can’t really explain it to you.

Futurity.org reports further on these studies with the headline, “Women kiss science goodbye.”

Their lede:

When a woman’s goal is to be romantically desirable, she distances herself from academic majors and activities related to science, technology, engineering, and math….

Which is funny to me, because I think a female scientist is a hot combination…

I am having an existential crisis: Facebook has just recommended Larry Summers as a friend for me. Do I want to be friends with Larry Summers? What if I asked him to be my friend and he said no? I am paralyzed with indecision.

Two small points. For someone who aspires to be tech-savv—and maybe on Facebook’s board—Summers has a strikingly barren Facebook page; if it were a street, you could see the tumbleweed blowing down the middle of it.

Also, I’m guessing that he was recommended to me because we have 10 friends in common. Nine of them are journalists. I understand why they’re friends with me. (I’m a lot of fun.) But should they all be “friends” with Larry Summers, who is surely both a source and a subject of their reporting?

The dilemmas of the digital age.

Oh, I forgot one other thing: Professor Summers, it’s Facebook—don’t post an official portrait, because it either makes you look clueless or suggests that you told someone else to create your Facebook page and instructed them to put up that picture. Also, no offense, but you haven’t looked like that in about ten years. Literally, ten years—I think that’s the picture taken when you became Harvard president.

So my wife and I took a “Hidden Harbor” cruise last night of the Brooklyn waterfront… I should have brought the real camera, but these iPhone photos are still nice.

“We stand by what we said.”

—Texas governor Rick Perry, defending his comment that Ben Bernanke would be treated “pretty ugly down in Texas” and that the idea of QE3 was “almost treasonous.”

Bo Derek has just endorsed the California legislation banning the sale of shark fins.

Does Rick Perry threaten Ben Bernanke in this video?

Asked at an Iowa event to talk about the Fed—the crowd laughs in anticipation of a good, vicious retort—Perry says, “If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous in my opinion.”

As ThinkProgress points out, treason is a capital offense.

And what exactly does treating him “pretty ugly down in Texas” suggest? They’d take Bernanke out back and beat him with a pipe?

What is going on with the Republican Party? It seems to have been taken over by a bunch of crazy people. If you look back at recent GOP candidates, it’s impossible to imagine John McCain, Bob Dole, George H.W. Bush (his son, I’m not so sure) threatening the chairman of the Federal Reserve. And let’s not forget—we’re talking about monetary policy here. It’s something that reasonable men and women can disagree on. While adding to the money supply would increase the national debt and probably increase the possibility of inflation—not necessarily a bad thing at the moment—it would improve access to credit, lift the stock market and inject stimulus into a struggling economy. How could one possibly frame the issue in terms of treason?

Right now, the strongest case Obama can make for his reelection is simply to remind voters to consider the alternatives.