There are only two cities in the USA that have two buildings taller than the two tallest buildings in Houston.

There is no building as tall in downtown Manhattan, four in midtown Manhattan and six in Chicago.

LA has just one building taller than the Wells Fargo Tower and Atlanta has just one.

The skyline from my balcony is fairly impressive.

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?text=houston+skyline&action=f...

Many of the pictures here were taken from my balcony.

"I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat."

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/07/anybody_got_a_plan.php...

Posted in full

Anybody Got A Plan?
David Kurtz | July 14, 2010, 5:08PM

Democrats in Congress wield the power of the majority and the advantages of incumbency but they're also facing a potential trouncing at the polls in November.

So how are congressional Democrats planning to use the tools still at their disposal to hold on to their majorities?
...

OK, well, I mean what popular proposals are Democrats planning to make Republicans vote against between now and the August recess, when the 2010 campaigning really heats up and they can beat them up over their no votes?
...
Um, OK, what about a coordinated legislative strategy on jobs and the economy that builds relentless pressure on Republicans as the elections approach making them vote for popular items that drive a wedge between them and their base?
...
Alright then, maybe a coordinated communications strategy with the White House?
...
Hmmm, how 'bout coordinated communications strategy amongst themselves?
...

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2010/07/conservatives-dont-care-about-...

I really would be interested in hearing the conservative response.

I really think the answer is they want government as small as possible, not that they want the deficit to be smaller.

I had thought that the current view of the way things are had decided long ago that gravity doesn't exist. Then I heard about spending fortunes on graviton detectors.

Anyway, I think this article is fascinating.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/science/13gravity.html?_r=1&ref=science

I am not sure what to make of this.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/06/mental-heal...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/opinion/24ricks.html?ref=opinion

I found it very interesting and would like to know what other people think of it.

THANKS

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/06/08/are-the-ten-co...

not to shabby an article

"10) Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ASS...."

Right there Exodus 20: 17

See we are, always were and should be governed as a Christian nation!!!

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/06/mental-heal...

It is a neat link showing the game in real life with paper

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2010/06/world-cup-simulated-odds.html

Basically, the best teams are:

Brazil
Spain
England
Argentina
Netherlands

How can I put a GIF file into a post? I wanted to include a picture and I only had a choice of saving it as a GIF or a bitmap

This is another topic where the evidence can never be good enough to "prove" anything. It will always be subject to a huge amount of uncertainty.

In any event,

"Sea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) in the Atlantic's Main Development Region for hurricanes had their warmest May on record."
"This is the fourth straight record warm month, and the warmest anomaly measured for any month. The previous record warmest anomaly for the Atlantic MDR was 1.46°C, set last month. Third place goes to June 2005 and March 2010, with a 1.26°C anomaly."
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1503

None of this "proves" anything.

However, it does seem more likely than not that the earth is warming. It seems to me that the most likely reason for this warming is AGW.

Of course, that is my uneducated opinion, I could be wrong.

Last night at 1 AM, we heard a loud noise and started smelling something burning in our AC unit.

We are only able to survive right now because the hall is very cool and we are blowing air in through the front door. We are going to have to spend the night in a hotel, maybe more than one night.

Oh, I wish I were in Reno.

HEY!!!!

It does seem to work.

I find it interesting that it took years to recover from the Clinton/Bush (whatever you want to call it) recession of 2001.

The next longest to recover jobs were 1990 then 1981. so the last three recessions were the slowest to recover.

Next appears to be 1958.

It is really scary that it takes so long to add jobs over the last 30 years. Especially since some of us need jobs fairly soon.

It is not as easy as it could be. Did you upload a file? If so you need to put the link into the post. Something like this http://hechtmail.com/files/Pictures1/ where is equal to the name of the file you uploaded. Finally, you should change the input format to full HTML by expanding the "Input format" below.

http://hechtmail.com/system/files/DSC06200.JPG

I know that we use oil in all sorts of things like clothing and other crap.

But according to this chart that I got from Andrew Sullivan, it seems like all those uses for oil are barely a drop in the bucket.

The main point of this post is to see if the attachment works. Obviously, WOW!!!, it seems I can attach files

This is actually big news. or maybe not.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/the-new-york-times-to-h...

Fivethirtyeight.com is the first site that actually understands the math behind elections.

I remember talking to Lisa on Election night 2008 and said that Obama was guaranteed to win CA, HI, OR and WA since McCain never even campaigned there and it was not reasonable to think that Obama could win 200 electoral votes in the east, about as expected, and not win states on the west coast.

Since those states didn't close until 11PM EST then Obama's magic number was not 270, it was 193(?). As soon as they called OH for Obama then that put him over the top.

Nate Silver understand all that. He understands it all far better than I do.

This is an old article but I found it interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/opinion/29shoup.html?_r=1

Why should we force car companies to produce cars that people don't want to buy?

If you want a car that gets 10 MPG then you should be able to buy one.

We need a gas tax so that if you DRIVE the car that gets 10 MPG then you have to pay for the damage that you cause.

"Even if you believe saving gasoline is a holy cause, subsidizing electric cars simply is not a substitute for politicians finding the courage to jack up gas prices. Think about it this way: You can double the fuel efficiency of any car by putting a second person in it. You can increase its fuel efficiency to infinity by refraining from frivolous trips.
These are the incentives that flow from a higher gas price. Exactly the opposite incentives flow from mandatory investment in higher-mileage vehicles. You paid a lot for a car that costs very little to operate—so why not operate it? Why bother to car pool? Why not drive across town for a jar of mayonnaise?"

I hate to say it but I agree with the above quote and it is from an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Since I won't pay any more money to Rupert, I read it here.

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2010/05/pigovian-logic.html

I just got a call from the recruiter who wanted to know my schedule for the rest of the week to set up the phone interview.

I need to be super optimistic and make sure I get the important points across.

http://www.brookings.edu/metro/StateOfMetroAmerica/Map.aspx#/?subject=7&...

I guess there is some wiggle room since some of the Cincinnati metro area is outside of Ohio but....

Metro Cincy 2,155,137
Metro Cleve 2,088,291
Metro Colum 1,773,120

City Colum 754,885
City Cleve 433,748
City Cincy 333.336

http://volokh.com/2010/05/06/the-further-left-you-are-the-less-you-know-...

Questions:

Do you believe that restrictions on housing development (i.e., regulations that reduce the supply of housing) make housing less affordable?
Do you believe that mandatory licensing of professionals (i.e., reducing the supply of professionals) increases the cost of professional services?
Do you believe that rent control (i.e., price controls) lead to housing shortages?

Now, I know this is a small group of people who read this but I do find it interesting that I am the most conservative person who reads this blog and I know the most about economics.

Just sayin...

http://www.frumforum.com/fiorina-and-devore-let-no-fly-list-suspects-pur...

"Question: Should people on the no-fly watch list be allowed to purchase a gun?

Tom Campbell: Ah, NO!

Chuck DeVore: Yes, if they have not been convicted of a felony

Carly Fiorina: Yes

Campbell: Oh my goodness

Fiorina: That is why Tom Campbell has a poor rating from the National Rifle Association

Campbell: I can’t believe what I am hearing. Wait until they’ re off the no-fly list then exercise your second amendment rights.

Fiorina: The no-fly list is way too large. You are seeing an issue where Tom Campbell is way too close to Barbara Boxer for my taste."

I sure hope Campebell wins the primary but ....

Napoleon Bonaparte

http://washingtonindependent.com/83904/out-of-the-bailout-bedlam-obama-e...

You really should read this. I am reading Paulson's book and am up to about September 20. The meeting described here is a little later.

We'd Stand Beside You If We Weren't So Scared

Bart Simpson

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/04/the-simpson...