Scrivener.net

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Around and about... 

[] All the (recent) mysteries of the universe (dark matter, dark energy, quantum gravity, the Big Bang) explained?

[HT: Hamilton and Sumner]


[] It is illegal to discriminate against Nazis (at least when providing housing) in Washington DC, Seattle WA, and Madison WI.

This we learn from Prof. Volokh while following up on the fact that in New Mexico it is illegal for a freelance commercial photographer to refuse to take the wedding photos for a same-sex wedding. Even though...
How can New Mexico argue that it has such a compelling interest in preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation when it comes to same-sex weddings, when it itself refuses to recognize same-sex weddings?

[] What they mean by an "astronomical" amount...

The cumulative devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar was such that a stack of 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (26 zeros) two-dollar bills (if they were printed) in the peak hyperinflation would have be needed to equal in value what a single original Zimbabwe two-dollar bill of 1978 had been worth.

Such a pile of bills literally would be light years high, stretching from the Earth to the Andromeda Galaxy... [via Tyler Cowen]

Zimbabwe's dictator Robert Mugabe, who created this inflation is now in Copenhagen helping shape world climate policy. ("he is set to address the summit later in the week. As a head of state, Mugabe will attend a dinner tomorrow hosted by Denmark's Queen Margrethe II.")


[] Why David Lynch turned down directing Return of the Jedi: "Wookies ... headache."


[] Female weightlifter surprised to pop out a baby during training.

"Ooops"