[A] Christian Science Monitor takes a look at growing and declining religions. The mainline protestant denominations are having trouble as people drift either towards more rigid or demanding denominations or away from religion entirely, it helps explain the increased religious polarization.
[B] Pew has a breakdown of the religious inclinations of the incoming congress.
[C] The future worth of RGIII, the apparently very marketable Redskins QB. Speaking of the Redskins, the mayor wants the name to go.
[D] I recently posted on Putin’s decision to sign off on legislation to ban adoptions to the US. Slate’s William Dobson makes the case that this is indicative of Putin’s weakened grip on his country.
[E] In addition to shaking things up with ending phone subsidies, T-Mobile is offering free 4G for tablets. Very limited data, likely, but that’s still really cool.
[F] Utah recently celebrated its anniversary of statehood. Here’s the story of how it happened.
[G] I’ve long complained about the uselessness of the FAA regulations on in-flight electronics. Nick Bilton argues that they’re not just useless, but hazardous.
[H] Most rightist Israelis support a two-state solution. If only they can figure out how to get from here to there.
[I] The UK’s NHS is going after “inefficient doctors” who are prescribing brand name drugs. This only makes sense, as far as I’m concerned. Except when the cheaper alternatives don’t work or present complications. When my wife was pregnant, we had to jump through a lot of hoops for coverage of a pregnancy-friendly anti-histamine.
[J] If you place a preference for your preferred food preparation instruments over the death of women and children, do you have blood on your hands? It only makes sense, from what I hear.
[K] It’s funny how for a while Sweden became the exemplar of liberal governance, when there are more than a couple things that conservatives can point to. Or would be able to point to if they were interested in developing a health care plan. Or will be pointing to if they continue to lose this debate.
[L] A look at the legal ramifications of self-driving cars. There is some skepticism, but I think the comment “lowtechcyclist” almost perfectly nails it. At least up to point 8 or 9.
[M] The Missouri Synod has reportedly been making some serious gains among minority groups with some impressive outreach generally.
[N] This makes me think of the little gauge on my car that tells me what mileage I am getting and how it makes me a more fuel-efficient driver. (I swear I had a post of mine on this to link back to, but I can’t find it.)
[O] The Power of Negative Thinking. Also, the healthy upside to neuroticism.
[P] Is democracy striking back at the technocracy?
[Q] China is spending bunches trying to boost its music industry. That seems a difficult for a country that has such issues with intellectual property rights. And kind of hard to impose on the top down.
[R] The Washington Post looks at the coal situation in India. One of the reasons that I don’t have a whole lot of hope that anything significant will happen with regard to global warming is that few developing countries are going to hinder their development for the sake of the environment. But India is an interesting situation.
[S] A pixar animator is looking to create a new superhero for each day of the year. The girl in the confederate outfit jumped out at me.
[T] Megan McArdle tackles the eternal question of whether government workers are overpaid or underpaid. The difference in skill sets makes comparisons difficult. So often, it depends on what they do. My wife would take an enormous pay cut to work for the government. Others get a raise.
[U] Debtor prisons in 2012. (and in 2011)
[V] Will online schools cause collegiate bankruptcies?
[W] The genesis of the McNugget! Also, of the McRib! I love it when restaurants, markets, and science all combine to deliver a something that tastes acceptable and is more affordable than the alternatives. Keep it coming!
LATE ADDITION:
[X] I previously linked to an article about how Jay Rockefeller (and Democrats in general) may be in trouble in West Virginia. Rockefeller has announced that he will not seek re-election.
M: That word always reminds of the time that Joe Garagiola of the Today Show said “There’s a synod of bishops in Rome”, and the switchboard lit up with people demanding “How dare he call the Pope an SOB!”
Random thoughts on [R].
A majority of the world’s seven billion people, and their children, will never experience the lifestyle of the US/Canada, Western Europe, or Japan, even ignoring personal transportation, due to lack of electricity. We (globally) don’t have the capital to build and deploy the necessary generation and transmission/storage capacity.
Global linkage of coal and railroad capacity. China has had trouble meeting the demands on its rail system to move coal from where it is mined to where it is burned, driving imports. As the article notes, India is having similar problems. Conversion of eastern power plants in the US to western low-sulfur coal was an almost entirely unexpected event following the introduction of the cap-and-trade program to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions in the 1990s because no one believed the US railroads could expand their capacity so rapidly. The US rail route carrying the most annual tonnage is the link across Nebraska carrying Wyoming Powder River Basin coal to points east (IIRC, it carries more tonnage than any other rail segment of that length in the world). Nor is the US immune to rail capacity problems; a few years ago, a coal-fired plant near San Antonio began purchasing coal from Colombia and moving it from the Gulf Coast port where it was offloaded to the power plant by truck because of insufficient north-south rail capacity between Wyoming and Texas.
I agree that we will probably burn all of the coal that is readily available. In the US, coal usage is regional “problem”. We have three largely independent power grids here, the Eastern, Western, and Texas Interconnects. For 2011 (most recent year that corrected complete-year figures are available), coal usage in the states of the Eastern Interconnect dwarfed usage in the other two in absolute terms, and is a bigger component of total generation when considered in relative terms.
I don’t have anything to add to this comment, Michael, but did want to note that I liked it. And that there should be another link about coal on next week’s.
C: Disappointed the authors wouldn’t quantify RG3’s empire-building. Granted there’s a huge question mark with the surgery but similar surgery worked out very well for Adrian Petersen. I find the business side of professional sports really interesting, there’s nothing quite like it. How do you assign a value to the Washington Redskins? The same way any other business is valued — net income times X, where X is based on a market assessment and thereafter SWAG’ged? The NFL’s money- and revenue-pooling mechanisms makes that kind of wonky to calculate.
How much does the value decrease if the name changes?
Oh, and what might the name be changed to? The Senators were a baseball team that no longer exists, so that seems trite. Hopefully they wouldn’t pick a non-identity, ambiguously-plural sort of name like “The Washington Justice.”
Whatever it is, it’s better than “Redskins”…I mean seriously, this is 2013.
Too bad the Chargers is already taken.
It took me a second, but +1.
Commanders? From Commander-in-Chief?
The Washington Reds would work, (it would be ironic, but it would work) too bad that’s taken.
As is the Washington Generals
The Bullets?
Or reuse the name of an old-time DC baseball team:
Blue Legs
Olympics
Statesmen
Eagles is taken, but that could have worked.
Stars? What does DC have going for it besides being the seat of the federal government?
Oh yea. Nothing.
Then again, they don’t even play in DC. Go with the Maryland Blue Crabs.
The most direct transition would be to replace the Indian with a Roman or something and become the Warriors.
Ultimately, though, I suspect this would be a dealbreaker for moving back into DC. I don’t think DC has the leverage here.
Do they have any plans/desires to move into DC?
Some members of the city council made noises to that effect (and I think met with Snyder over the possibility*), but the current lease to FedEx runs to 2026.
But even if they were able to swing it and without giving away anything to a billionaire, there’s really no good place for a new NFL grade stadium in the city itself right now – even the current RFK site might be a bit too small for the type of facility (and parking) built these days.
*though that might have been solely about the practice facility that is now being planned for Richmond (thanks to corporate welfare giveaway on the part of McDonnell)
A question about the self-driving cars of [L], as I’m feeling too lazy to do the research: How are they doing at evading and/or properly passing bicyclists? In some cities here, during parts of the year, bicyclists are common. A population that includes me out on errands on occasion. When coming up to the red stoplight in my own dedicated bicycle lane, my working assumption is that the car at the front of the line will turn right without looking for me as soon as the light turns green, whether they’ve got a turn signal on or not. Are the computers going to be any better than humans about that?
The computers may not yet be, but it wouldn’t be hard to get them to that point. I suspect that the main problem with humans in that situation is not thinking to look, whereas the computer will always be looking. The secondary problem with humans in that situation is probably that when they do look, they sometimes either still miss the bicyclist visually or they underestimate the cyclist’s velocity; with radar it’s not hard to pick up a cyclist–we already have radar systems at traffic lights to detect bicycles and distinguish them from cars–and of course it enables more precise analysis of speed than humans are able to make.
I think driverless cars will likely be a huge benefit to bicyclists and motorcyclists.
Do taxi drivers have a union?
At least in many places, taxi drivers have to hold a medallion or its equivalent. It’s not clear to me that a vehicle sans driver could.
I dunno about a formal union, but they often have a significant amount of collective influence. I actually remember one of the first ‘ugly’ debates I had here involved medallions.
I think we’re a long ways off before cars will be able to drive completely unmanned. But I don’t think the cabbies will be able to stop it forever.
I assume you are anti-medallion? I am as well, at least as the system currently functions in the city I know best, NYC.
I imagine a group like MADD would be HUGELY in favor. And probably the casinos. We regularly have nights where we say, “Fuck this bar. Let’s go to AC. Who’s sober enough to drive?” No one is. No one ever is.
S. Am I the only person to find Angry Unicorn Man with Rainbow Logo just awesome?