The Manchild Chronicles

Proving that you went to school in the wrong decade:

Vulture brings us the best quotation of the day from their “Run, Fat Boy, Run” post:

This summer the newly elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s morning jogs had les bien-pensants in a lather. “Western civilization, in its best sense, was born with the promenade,”
a “leading intellectual” sniffed on French television in July. “Walking
is a sensitive, spiritual act. Jogging is management of the body. The
jogger says I am in control. It has nothing to do with meditation.” Quelle vulgarité!

Michael Jackson and other crazy rich people seem to have similar tastes.

retconned – Google Search

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_retcons 

In England

More on Sylvester Graham and Dr. John Harvey Kellogg

About.com even has a guide

Village Voice has covered it

and a nice book for Christians, also on Google Books

Planned Parenthood jumps in

The modern myth

I dont’ know what this is, but it passes for comedy in Britain and it involves Britney Spears

And ultimately: tantric masturbation

And a small Kellogg related item

Tracy Morgan responds to Tina Fey on SNL; is there still a writer’s strike? cause the jokes are missing.

Iraq’s Insurgency Runs on Stolen Oil Profits – New York Times

He said most fighters were seduced not by dreams of a life following Mr. bin Laden, but by a simpler pitch: “Here’s $100; go plant this I.E.D.”“Ninety percent of the guys out here who do attacks are just people who want to feed their families,” Major Kendrick said.

The First Brigade’s commander, Col. Scott McBride, concurs. “I don’t know that I’ve ever heard one person say, ‘I believe in a caliphate,’ ” he said.

Major Obvious checks in

An old article explaining the role of the oil futures market in setting prices; a lot of what we see at the pump is determined long before hand by the buyers and sellers. I liked this one because it links to older predictions and speaks to the level of uncertainty in oil prices, even among experts.

http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2005/06/oil_futures_and.html

A current article outlining inflation adjusted oil prices; worth it for the graph alone:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/business/worldbusiness/04oil.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Here is the same thing written more clearly:
http://www.inflationdata.com/Inflation/images/charts/Oil/Inflation_Adj_Oil_Prices_Chart.htm

The nominal price is the one that people experience and has the largest impact on how consumers think of the price of gas (e.g. it’s always going up)

One interesting thing: CPI, the official estimate of inflation, doesn’t take oil prices into account because they are so unpredictable.

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this is a little technical:
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2008/02/trade_exchange.html

Basically, when you remove oil from our import/export calculations, the falling dollar has led to more exports and fewer imports (e.g. more American firms are selling their goods abroad)

Despite being a crisis for students studying abroad, it very good for employment and American made goods