Commercial websites that intentionally promote and facilitate adultery should be suable by the injured spouse and children.

On the difficulty of making peace in the Middle East. (more…)

Derbyshire on good English translations of Chinese poetry.

This report seems to support the idea that red flags were ignored.

The obvious hypothesis is that Hasan’s superiors didn’t dare fire him for reasons of political correctness. If there is a plausible alternate hypothesis, I’d like to hear it.

Human brains.   (more…)

This genuinely puzzles me.

Social Security has begun cashing in its government IOUs. (more…)

World Number One in the chess rankings (which is not the same thing as world champion) 19 year-old Magnus Carlsen gives an interesting interview. 

A highlight:

SPIEGEL: Mr Carlsen, what is your IQ?

Carlsen: I have no idea. I wouldn’t want to know it anyway. It might turn out to be a nasty surprise.

SPIEGEL: Why? You are 19 years old and ranked the number one chess player in the world. You must be incredibly clever.

Carlsen: And that’s precisely what would be terrible. Of course it is important for a chess player to be able to concentrate well, but being too intelligent can also be a burden. It can get in your way. I am convinced that the reason the Englishman John Nunn never became world champion is that he is too clever for that.

SPIEGEL: How that?

Carlsen: At the age of 15, Nunn started studying mathematics in Oxford; he was the youngest student in the last 500 years, and at 23 he did a PhD in algebraic topology. He has so incredibly much in his head. Simply too much. His enormous powers of understanding and his constant thirst for knowledge distracted him from chess.

SPIEGEL: Things are different in your case?

Carlsen: Right. I am a totally normal guy. My father is considerably more intelligent than I am.

Also covered: impact of computers on training, Kasparov, work ethic, family, and girls.

A one-page story on free will.

It used to be that the adult group most pro-abortion was the younger group most likely to want to get rid of an inconvenient kid. That’s changing, according to Gallup. (more…)

The Obama Administration has one:  (more…)

Believe it or not, this post is related to theology. It’s just hidden.

One thing I’ve found is that I seem to be very sensitive to plot holes. I’m going to define “plot holes” as things in a story that don’t make sense within the logic of the story. Harry Potter flying on a broom is not a plot hole. A plot hole would be Harry Potter failing to remember a spell he used two books ago that would have gotten him out of his current jam. (Not that I know of any such incident.)

I kept hearing about how great the new Battlestar Galactica is. And I’ll admit it’s interesting viewing. I’m a little bit into season two now.

But early into season one, quite early actually, I got that sickening feeling in my stomach that the writers were building up mysteries that they didn’t know the answer to either. This is a common problem in these new style complex shows like Lost. The writers make up more and more “interesting things” but fail to connect them together into a rational logical whole. (more…)

Hat tip to Brandywine Books.

I’m not one of those chappies that as a regular thing gives gallery owners more than a civil how-do-you-do and a lift of the chapeau, but I’m not above parting with a bit of the Wooster plenty to encourage art of the right sort.

I’ve heard so many times what great financial shape China is in, I was starting to actually believe it.

But communist (or not so communist) dictatorships just aren’t capable of good financial management. That’s why this article may well turn out to be the real truth. (more…)