Exasperated Calculator

The 100 most notable books of 2007.

Plenty of books that you won’t have seen yet. Plenty that I’ll never even consider reading as well…

The horrible shoes ‘Crocs’ are not only ugly, but also dangerous.

I really don’t understand the Crocs thing. For kids, sure – kids have no taste and do stupid things. But all the adults? Arrrgggh!

A $1 per gallon increase in petrol price would reduce obesity by 15 per cent.

Makes a nice amount of sense on an intuitive level too. Makes you wonder what the other unintended consequences of a carbon tax might be.

From a very funny column by Michael Lewis:

This is what happens when you lend money to poor people.

As always, with these things, there’s a bit of a grain of truth in there. Especially in this bit:

I trusted these people to get their teams of lawyers to vet anything before they signed it. Turns out, if you’re poor, you don’t need to pay lawyers. You don’t like the deal you just wave your hands in the air and moan about how poor you are. Then you default.

A clock in France’s Pantheon was fixed by “cultural guerillas” who broke in and conducted their restoration in secret.

It’s a wonderful idea. Of course, if it’s a Harry Seidler building conventional guerillas might be preferred.

Don’t send your children out on railroad tracks for coal.

OK, it’s from the 1920s. Which just shows the ‘warning about the obvious’ thing some liability specialists love to point out isn’t that new a trend.