Word of the Day

perspicacity \pur-spuh-KAS-uh-tee\, noun:

Clearness of understanding or insight; penetration, discernment.

His predictions over the years have mixed unusual aristocratic insight with devastating perspicacity.
-- "Why fine titles make exceedingly fine writers", Independent, November 3, 1996

Gas Buying Tip

With the price of gas so high these days, I've included an interesting tip on how to save money when filling up:

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A one-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

Ron Paul, Mounting a Charge

(via WSJ)

While 8% is not exactly a dominating figure, it is much more than Paul had several months ago. Paul has been gaining popularity, primarily through grassroots and on-line support. He has raised $10.5 million and has established himself as more than just a fringe candidate. While unlikely that he will seriously challenge for the Republican primary, it is encouraging to see this surge.

Another take-away from the chart is the impressive lead that Mitt Romney holds over all other candidates. With this lead in NH, and a slight lead still in Iowa, Romney is in a very good spot.

Do you support the Treasury's plan to freeze rates on some mortgages?

Let me preface my answer by acknowledging that I have not done my homework on this and do not know all (or even many) of the details.

However, in general I feel that parties need to be held responsible for their own actions. This accountability should be no different now. Lender's should have known better than to give money to the borrowers with poor credit, and the borrowers should have known better than to over extend themselves by getting into mortgages they should have known would be difficult to handle.

I feel that having the Treasury enter the situation partially absolves both parties from facing the consequences of their actions. I feel that the consequences, unfortunately do need to be felt, so that we won't be making the same mistake 10 years from now.

That's my two cents.

Edit - Link to the poll on WSJ.com

BCS

My friends at Pro-Football-Reference.com have a very nice post sharing their thoughts on the final BCS bowl outcomes. Below is an excerpt, in which they support the final pick of OSU-LSU.

LSU and OSU have their black eyes, but consider what they’ve done, too. LSU wasn’t losing after regulation in a single game this year. Yes, we know they lost in overtime, but in terms of deciding how good the Tigers actually are, that’s important. College football could still have the rule that games tied after regulation are counted as ties; in which case, no one would argue against LSU. They’ve got the two best losses — by far — of any two loss team. They also have the toughest schedule of any two loss team. They won the toughest conference in the country. I’m not much of an LSU fan, and I think they’ve been over hyped by the media — but they’re the most accomplished of the two loss teams. Ohio State and Kansas are the only one loss teams, and I don’t think anyone is arguing for Kansas these days. The Buckeyes are not a controversial selection except by Big 10 haters, but consider: Ohio State didn’t lose to the Stanford of its conference (USC), or a .500 team (Oklahoma, Georgia), or get blown out by anyone (Virginia Tech). A two-loss Buckeyes squad wouldn’t deserve to make the title game, but OSU did not have a bad loss like everyone else in college football. Except the Tigers.

Huckabee Rising in Iowa

(per the WSJ)

The biggest problem with Huckabee is that he is soft on Economics. He's not supportive of free trade, and this to me, is deeply troublesome.

Song of the Day

A quick note on Song of the Day - from now on the Song of the Day will not only include a song and an artist, but will also include the actual music. This will be in the form of a Youtube video. Sometimes it will be a music video - other times it will simply be the music. To kick off this new format, we have:

People Got To Be Free
- The Rascals

Word of the Day

incongruous \in-KONG-groo-us\, adjective:

1. Lacking in harmony, compatibility, or appropriateness.
2. Inconsistent with reason, logic, or common sense.

I have since often observed, how incongruous and irrational the common Temper of Mankind is.
-- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

This is How Much Energy I Produce

Your Body is Producing 274 Watts!

This is 10% MORE wattage than the average person

• You could light up 3 light bulbs
• You could power 69 iPods
• You could power 1 Xbox 360
• 4 of you would be needed to keep a refrigerator running

See how much you produce by clicking here.

The Business

Dr. Ron Paul on Monetary Policy

This is a little long, but well worth it.



For more on Dr. Paul's campaign, click here.

Bid News in the Supreme Court - 2nd Amendment Rights

(Per WSJ)

This is a Tesseract

(Per Wikipedia)

In geometry, the tesseract, also called 8-cell or octachoron, is the four-dimensional analog of the (three-dimensional) cube, where motion along the fourth dimension is often a representation for bounded transformations of the cube through time. The tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square; or, more formally, the tesseract can be described as a regular convex 4-polytope whose boundary consists of eight cubical cells.

For more on this, click here.

Quote of the Day

- Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive , what they conceal is vital.

Stevie Wonder Does "Superstition" Live on Sesame Street

Not sure it gets too much more awesome than this...



Link to the song on Wikipedia

Neat Webpage

This is a very cool page with inconic photos recreated as if it they were in a computer game. The FAQs on this page about how they were created, what each image is, etc. is also pretty neat. Below is Quang Duc burning himself in protest of the Vietnam War.

A Joke Heard On Halloween

Senator Bill Frist dressed up as Groucho Marx and handed out candy to kids that trick-or-treated at his house. Nancy Pelosi dressed up as Karl Marx and took the candy from the kids who worked hard to trick-or-treat and gave it to those kids who stayed home.

UK Upsets No. 1 LSU!!