The Currysphere

— This link from Kathy Kinsley goes a long way toward explaining the success of Currysphere nations in Internet Commerce, especially where it depends on B2B Web companies (Of Spice, Spray, and Senility Sally Frautschy of the University of California at Los Angeles found that diets rich in curcumin, a compound in the curry spice … Continue reading “The Currysphere”

— This link from Kathy Kinsley goes a long way toward explaining the success of Currysphere nations in Internet Commerce, especially where it depends on B2B Web companies (Of Spice, Spray, and Senility

Sally Frautschy of the University of California at Los Angeles found that diets rich in curcumin, a compound in the curry spice turmeric, reduced the accumulation of beta-amyloid protein in rat brains. Rats treated with curcumin also fared better in memory-dependent maze tests than did rats on normal diets. The finding may explain why in India, where foods are loaded with turmeric, just 1 percent of people over 65 contract Alzheimer’s — the lowest incidence of the disease worldwide.

Turmeric is a root vegetable, a member of the ginger family like the galangal used in Thai and Malay cooking. So load up and be smart, spread democracy and libertarianism around the world, entrepreneur and grow rich. Curry recipes top right.

Swift retirement

— No sooner does Mitt Romney enter the Governor’s race in Massachusetts than acting Gov. Jane Swift withdraws. Boston.com | Latest News | Region. Swift’s poll numbers were a big problem: The most recent poll showed Romney leading Swift 75 percent to 12 percent if he entered the race. I wonder how much of this … Continue reading “Swift retirement”

— No sooner does Mitt Romney enter the Governor’s race in Massachusetts than acting Gov. Jane Swift withdraws. Boston.com | Latest News | Region. Swift’s poll numbers were a big problem:

The most recent poll showed Romney leading Swift 75 percent to 12 percent if he entered the race.

I wonder how much of this is driven by Swift’s unjust treatment of falsely-convicted Gerald Amirault? At least he now stands some slim chance of getting justice. Bye, Jane – don’t slam down your crown on the way out. Link courtesy of Josh Marshall.

The Anglosphere Illusion

— This links to the complete text of Owen Harries’ article The Anglosphere Illusion from The National Interest cited below. Here’s a teaser: Today, a few thoughtful and eloquent individuals–among them Robert Conquest, writing in the pages of this magazine, and John O’Sullivan in various journals–have been making the case for an English-speaking political union. … Continue reading “The Anglosphere Illusion”

— This links to the complete text of Owen Harries’ article The Anglosphere Illusion from The National Interest cited below. Here’s a teaser:

Today, a few thoughtful and eloquent individuals–among them Robert Conquest, writing in the pages of this magazine, and John O’Sullivan in various journals–have been making the case for an English-speaking political union. The argument is that the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a few other smaller entities have so much in common in terms of political culture, values and institutions that they should draw together and enter into some sort of formal arrangement to act in concert–to create, that is, what some are now referring to as a political “Anglosphere.”

Now this line of argument almost exactly replicates one advanced by a group of highly intelligent, well-educated and well-connected young men at the beginning of the last century.

So this old saw has been circulated before, but without the trendy dressing-up with “memes” and “networks.” See “Toward an English-Speaking Union” by Robert Conquest and “The Anglosphere Project” by John Lloyd.

The Comical

— Matt, Ken, Bill, and The Doctor raise a burning question: Is the San Francisco Chronicle the worst newspaper in the world? It’s not for nothing that we call this paper “The Comical.” With columnists such as Jon Carroll, Joan Ryan, and Stephanie Salter, and an editorial page editor, John Diaz, who considers it his … Continue reading “The Comical”

— Matt, Ken, Bill, and The Doctor raise a burning question:

Is the San Francisco Chronicle the worst newspaper in the world?

It’s not for nothing that we call this paper “The Comical.” With columnists such as Jon Carroll, Joan Ryan, and Stephanie Salter, and an editorial page editor, John Diaz, who considers it his god-given right to alter the meaning of letters to the editor by careful cutting, it’s hard to imagine a worse paper, but there is one that comes to mind: The Comical before it took over the Examiner. That’s right, it’s better than it used to be, and on the plus side they print Debra Saunders, the token libertarian, the political coverage by Matier and Ross and Greg Lucas (though they don’t give Lucas the billing he deserves), and lifestyle columns by Adair Lara, perhaps the last honest liberal in the Bay Area. Scott Winokur is a very good local news reporter, but at the Examiner he was a columnist, a status that he didn’t get at the Comical due to their all-skirts, all-the-time policy on editorial page columns. If they ditched Diaz and reassigned a few writers, it would almost be worth reading.

The San Jose Mercury News, however, is on a fast downward spiral. They’ve adopted the Edward Scissorhands approach to letters to the ed lately, and their editorial page gets worse with each passing day. Jacobs used to keep them on an even keel, but since she left, the editorial pages seem like the same sort of battling narcissists you get from Ryan and Salter an the Com. One day last week, the right side of the two-page editorial section was devoted entirely to Marie Cocco and Ellen Goodman, arguably the two most vacuous columnists in the business, and the only ones with the ability to make me nostalgic for Molly Ivins.

Give them another six months, and the Murky will be the clear champion at the bottom of the cesspool.

Netscape’s folly

— Megan McArdle wrote a pithy and insightful column on the MS/Netscape deal for Salon: Legal observers, however, were not fooled: the antitrust case might be over, but the door was wide open for civil suits. Sure enough, Netscape soon stepped through with a civil filing claiming treble damages — and I happily anticipated at … Continue reading “Netscape’s folly”

— Megan McArdle wrote a pithy and insightful column on the MS/Netscape deal for Salon:

Legal observers, however, were not fooled: the antitrust case might be over, but the door was wide open for civil suits. Sure enough, Netscape soon stepped through with a civil filing claiming treble damages — and I happily anticipated at least a few more years of wrangling over technical and economic arcana.

So now another blogger has crossed-over into the ranks of the Working Journalists.

Coding tests

— USS Clueless – Interviewing college grads says he likes to give syntax tests to job applicants, such as one where the right answer is: do { *destination = *source; } while (*source != 0); Personally, I would code this as: while ( (*dest++ = *source++) != 0); since this form is more compact and … Continue reading “Coding tests”

— USS Clueless – Interviewing college grads says he likes to give syntax tests to job applicants, such as one where the right answer is:

do {
*destination = *source;
} while (*source != 0);

Personally, I would code this as:

while ( (*dest++ = *source++) != 0);

since this form is more compact and it’s an idiom that “C” programmers had better understand if they are maintaining other peoples’ code.


I interviewed for several jobs last year before settling on the pre-IPO startup I selected, and several of them gave me coding tests. I’ve been programming for over 20 years, and this kind of thing annoys me immensely. I think it’s reasonable to ask people system design questions, such as “how would you go about solving this problem?”, but programming tests that focus on syntactic details are just plain wrong unless you’re looking for an obedient code-monkey with no ability to think creatively or to solve problems. You have only so much time in an interview, and wasting it with this kind of thing takes away from the time you should be spending looking for more important things.


I’m working for a company that builds products conforming to the 802.11 standard. As it turns out, I was one of the people who designed the original MAC protocol spec for 802.11. Should anyone seriously have asked me about “C” syntax in an interview for this job?


One interesting experience I had at [high-profile router startup] was with a guy who was supposed to be the OS expert who wanted to talk about inhibiting scheduling in a pre-emptive OS. I explained all of the various methods for doing that, including system calls and the CLI machine instruction on Intel processors. The yahoo wanted to know what happens if two processes issue a CLI but only one issues a STI, believing that this instruction nests.


When I pointed out to him that there’s a single bit interrupt mask in the CPU, so the example was far-fetched at best, and then explained that the first STI would restore scheduling, he got mad at me and said I didn’t know what I was talking about.


I don’t think that company is going to do very well.

My goodness

— Sarge isn’t real impressed with Nick Denton (Sgt. Stryker’s Daily Briefing: March 10, 2002 – March 16, 2002 Archives): Certain animals, when threatened, will puff themselves up in attempt to ward off predators with an impressive display of size accompanied by ominous growlings or other such threatening noises. Nick Denton is such an animal. … Continue reading “My goodness”

— Sarge isn’t real impressed with Nick Denton (Sgt. Stryker’s Daily Briefing: March 10, 2002 – March 16, 2002 Archives):

Certain animals, when threatened, will puff themselves up in attempt to ward off predators with an impressive display of size accompanied by ominous growlings or other such threatening noises. Nick Denton is such an animal.

Read Sarge’s piece in full and you’ll see why. I have to agree with him.

Update: One of the great conceits of the left is their belief in their superior intelligence; you know a book title beginning with “Stupid…” has to come from a lefty like Michael Moore, and one ending with “… is a big fat idiot” has to come from a lefty like Al Franken. They’re overcompensating for the fact that higher-income, better-educated, and older people tend toward a more conservative point of view than others. The net result of all this sneering, attack-politics is a cheapening of political dialog.

Nick’s search for intelligent liberals on the web is going to be hard road, as is the search for intelligent liberals off the web. Oh, they exist all right — Ken Layne and Matt Welch are classical liberals, and they’re awfully bright — but the left establishment has turned so introverted and anti-American since Clinton that it turns against the classical liberal voice, with its insistence on reason, in its never-ending quest for ideological purity.

Liberals aren’t afraid to post their opinions on the web because of the Freepers, who will pretty well leave them alone, as much as the PC Police, but it’s not PC to admit it.

A crack in the foundation

— A Georgia court finds that state’s child support guidelines unconstitutional: NOW, THEREFORE, this Court hereby declares the child support guidelines codifed in section 19-6-15, O.C.G.A. (hereinafter, the “Guidelines”) to be null and void as the Guidelines violate numerous provisions of the Constitutions of both the United States and the State of Georgia for the … Continue reading “A crack in the foundation”

— A Georgia court finds that state’s child support guidelines unconstitutional:

NOW, THEREFORE, this Court hereby declares the child support guidelines codifed in section 19-6-15, O.C.G.A. (hereinafter, the “Guidelines”) to be null and void as the Guidelines violate numerous provisions of the Constitutions of both the United States and the State of Georgia for the reasons set forth below.

A Tennessee court made a similar finding:

This is an appeal by the State of Tennessee from a determination of the Juvenile Court of Knox County which held Tenn. Comp. R & Regs. 1240-2-4-.03(4), issued pursuant to T.C.A. 36-5-101, unconstitutional as violative of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Dee Ann Curtis Gallaher also appeals, contending that the Trial Court was in error in setting child support. We affirm the Trial Court in its finding the Regulation in question unconstitutional and vacate the judgment as to child support.

Under this reasoning, all child support formulae in the US have to be re-written. This is marvelous.

Terrorist in Oakland

— Terrorist scum Gerry Adams takes a break from killing innocent women and children to march in Oakland’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade: GERRY ADAMS COMES TO TOWN St. Patrick’s Day weekend. He’ll be part of the parade here. Over in Oakland, Adams will walk down a new street named after him by builder Kieran Scallay. … Continue reading “Terrorist in Oakland”

— Terrorist scum Gerry Adams takes a break from killing innocent women and children to march in Oakland’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade:

GERRY ADAMS COMES TO TOWN St. Patrick’s Day weekend. He’ll be part of the parade here. Over in Oakland, Adams will walk down a new street named after him by builder Kieran Scallay. Her Majesty’s government objected to the tar being so honored

Thanks to Martin Pratt for pointing this out, so we can give him a proper reception.

Terrorist supporters in America II

— Inappropriate Moira Breen points to the Brit blogger who condemns the terrorist IRA: Martin Pratt has a nice feisty blog. I’ve always wondered why, amid all the Yank-bashing, this topic has gotten little press: [T]he biggest terrorist threat to the safety of the citizenry of this country remains militant Irish Republican in origin. Strikes … Continue reading “Terrorist supporters in America II”

— Inappropriate Moira Breen points to the Brit blogger who condemns the terrorist IRA:

Martin Pratt has a nice feisty blog. I’ve always wondered why, amid all the Yank-bashing, this topic has gotten little press:

[T]he biggest terrorist threat to the safety of the citizenry of this country remains militant Irish Republican in origin.

Strikes me that Americans could legitimately be hammered for supporting terrorists – against Britain.

Breen also says Pratt also has some cogent context on the Graudian’s pissy contents. Joe Bob says check it out.