Shocking finding of the day

Wait-- let me get this straight: If you lower taxes, then you see strong growth?

Go figure.

(Though I love the "problems" discussed in this bit-- the local economy is so strong that it's hard to find qualified people for expanding businesses and residential vacancy is remarkably low.)

Title IX Shenanigans

Hey, it's my first "The War on Duh" post!

The title: Schools distort figures to meet Title IX

The shocking truth: "Many Division I schools are distorting the number of students participating in sports so they can comply with Title IX..."

The fantastic quote: "Among the tactics is to pad rosters of women's teams with unqualified players or even men. The [NYT] found schools counted athletes who no longer wanted to compete or never played for that team, listing male practice players as women..."

Who would have guessed?!

Radiation Chart

Just as understanding millions from billions from trillions is important, so too is understanding radiation and the risks from it. Here's a handy chart that gets at the latter nicely, many thanks to Greg Cooney.

The general lesson for those in America freaking out about radiation from Japan: Take a deep breath and understand the magnitude of things.

The War on Duh

In this article from the AP, former U.S. drug czar John Walters says of the War on Drugs:

Walters insists society would be far worse today if there had been no War on Drugs. Drug abuse peaked nationally in 1979 and, despite fluctuations, remains below those levels, he says.

It's true. If you look at the past 40 years of drug abuse data, identify the year in which the maximum observation occurs, it turns out every other year will be less than that. Well done, sir, well done.