Brokovich, center, and Green Peace expert investigators

Famous fraudster and eminent medical authority Erin Brokovich is shuffling off to Buffalo to find the cause of Tourette Syndrome afflicting teen-aged girls.

The Associated Press reported that two doctors concluded that 10 of the girls were suffering from a condition called conversion disorder — one that causes symptoms but has no physical cause.

That’s no reason not to make a movie out of it.

Off to the safety of Libya!

Egypt runs out of foreign capital as Islamists take over.

After months of refusing to bargain with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Egypt’s government has begun negotiations for a $3.2 billion loan, or less than the amount of capital flight in December alone. The involvement of the IMF evidently did little to reassure the Egyptian investors who sat out Sunday’s Treasury auction.

It seems unlikely that Egypt’s central bank will be able to prevent a banana-republic devaluation of the Egyptian pound, and a sharp rise in prices for a population of whom half barely consumes enough to prevent starvation. The difference between Egypt and a banana republic, though, is the bananas: unlike the bankrupt Latin Americans, who exported food, Egypt imports half its caloric consumption…

Nearly half of Egyptians are functionally illiterate. Nine-tenths of adult women have suffered genital mutilation. Almost a third of Egyptians marry first or second cousins, the fail-safe indicator of a clan-based society. Half of Egyptians live on less than $2 a day, and must spend half of that on food.

I made MY money, sucker

Sixteen scientists say global warming is a crock. The disdain and contempt heaped on “deniers” by the entire establishment press won’t stop, of course; the CO2 scare will just be allowed to fade away while the centrists dream up another bogeyman with which to scare the populace and grab more power.

Although the number of publicly dissenting scientists is growing, many young scientists furtively say that while they also have serious doubts about the global-warming message, they are afraid to speak up for fear of not being promoted—or worse. They have good reason to worry. In 2003, Dr. Chris de Freitas, the editor of the journal Climate Research, dared to publish a peer-reviewed article with the politically incorrect (but factually correct) conclusion that the recent warming is not unusual in the context of climate changes over the past thousand years. The international warming establishment quickly mounted a determined campaign to have Dr. de Freitas removed from his editorial job and fired from his university position. Fortunately, Dr. de Freitas was able to keep his university job.

The Moron of NOPO, Sam Romeo (artist's likeness)

The NOPO Pol led a bunch of Mianus types in a suit against the town over excessive sewer line costs, and he had a point, maybe: too much police overtime, bad construction, whathaveyou. But now, after four years of litigation, a settlement has been reached whereby each plaintiff will receive $2,400 off their sewer bill, spread out over twenty years. So that’s $120 per year. I’d guess that these people spent far more than that on legal fees and for sure the town did. Waste of money.

Food Stamp recipients: + 44%

Direct Payments to Individuals: +32%. According to Obama’s last budget direct payments will account for 2/3 of all federal spending by 2016

Federal benefits (Soc. Sec., federal unemployment benefits, etc.) received by 49% of all house holds, up from 39% in 1983 and a 44% increase from when he took office.

Hope for a change.

But I want it!

I’m not saying that home sellers also confuse their needs with market reality, just that their carefully thought out pricing decisions oddly mirror that process.

10 Glen Court, for instance, has failed to sell for $1.295 since July 2010.  Pulled from the market last November it’s back again , but with the same price. This time it will be different.

And over in the east 8 Arnold Street, which sold for $871,50 in 2006, did not sell for $969,000 or even $949,000 so the owner has fired his broker and has relisted it with a new one at a new price, $929,000. I don’t think that’s enough but, given his mortgage situation, he certainly “needs” to get what he’s asking. I hope he does, but I doubt he will.

Stupid is as stupid does

Following in the footsteps of the hated Bush, Obumpski has now come up with yet another way to subsidize an alternative to oil: natural gas for vehicles.

President Bush was an enthusiastic supporter of fuel cells, until he was an enthusiastic supporter of ethanol made from switchgrass. President Obama has come out strong for biofuels and electric cars, but he didn’t mention those in his State of the Union address this week. Now he wants researchers to invent new ways to use natural gas to power vehicles.

The hope is to create a market for natural gas, which is pouring from the ground in record amounts in the United States, and in turn driving down natural gas prices to levels not seen for 10 years.

It’s easy to use natural gas in internal combustion engines, but it’s hard to store much of it on board a car, so natural gas vehicles typically have a much shorter range than gasoline powered ones. The White House announced today that the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) will announce a research competition for either improving natural gas powered vehicles, or developing a cheaper way to turn the gas into an energy dense liquid fuel. (The announcement referred to ARPA-E’s previous funding rounds as “competitions,” so it’s likely this will just be another funding round, not something like the DARPA challenge competition to develop autonomous vehicles.)

Notice anything funny about both these morons’ plans, other than the billions of dollars they’ve wasted on them? (and the humor in that depends on whether you’re rich as Warren Buffet’s secretary or a regular working slob). Everything they propose involves the government (erroneously) picking a new technology winner and then flooding that choice with tax payer’s money. And when one idea goes bust they don’t pause to reflect on whether there might be something wrong with the federal government attempting to guess what might work, but instead just move onto another boondoggle.