Why Are Round Manhole Covers Round?
Michael Hightower Why Are Round Manhole Covers Round? About 25 years ago the question “Why are manhole covers round?” appeared in the book “When Do Fish Sleep?” by David Feldman. Since then,…
2009
Cash for Clunkers – How to Fix It
One of the fundamental ideas of Cash for Clunkers is sound, in my opinion: Get people interested in buying more fuel efficient vehicles. But the wastefulness of destroying perfectly usable…
Cash for Clunkers – Who Sets the Price?
In the discussion following yesterday’s Cash for Clunkers article, John Rodes made an excellent point: "It IS obvious that different "factors" are "present" and the most obvious is price. Simply…
Cash for Clunkers – Doin’ The Math
I hate to see old cars die. They represent the efforts of so many people—designers and engineers, mechanics, accountants, miners, and myriad others. And a car is such a personal…
Desi Arnaz Offensive – Who knew?
During the Sotomajor confirmation hearings an amusing moment occurred when Sotomajor mistakenly implied she would shoot Sen. Tom Coburn. Coburn quipped, "You’ll have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do." There…
Motorcyclin’ Misfits
Finding images for the Spotter’s Guide made me realize there are a few types of Motorcyclist out there that don’t necessarily fit one of those categories. Much as in the…
A Spotter’s Guide to Motorcyclists
While visiting my folks in the DC area over Memorial Day weekend I saw a ton of motorcycles out for Rolling Thunder. It’s nice to see so many people riding,…
Writers, Not Timberlake Let Down SNL
Rarely am I excited to see an episode of Saturday Night Live. It gets TiVoed, but it’s one of the shows that I watch when most other options have been…
Just How Big Are We?
At the end of Men In Black, the point of view continuously pulls back to reveal our galaxy resides within a marble. We then see that this marble is part…