Stuff About Things

If I'd known my post on Mark Steyn was going to attract so much traffic, I probably would've spent more than an hour writing it! I'm not inclined to revisit the issue even if I had the time, but I do recommend this discussion of population decline in the Economist. I link to it not so much as a specific contradiction of Steyn's argument - and still less as a "real" picture of demographic transition - but as an example of the sort of factors Steyn simply ignores. (Link via Triple Pundit.)

Over at Arms Control Wonk, guest blogger Jane Vaynman discusses the natural history of peace.

Robert M. Jeffers discusses some implications of Samuel Alito's "open mind":

Alito refuses, as Roberts did (per Durbin), to declare Roe v. Wade "the settled law of the land." There's a reason for that. He has an "open mind."

Cervantes has an important post on the folly of antibacterials:

Consumer products companies market antibacterial bathroom soap, kitchen cleaners, toys, high chairs, car seats, doggie toys, even clothing. Bacteria can evolve resistance to the agents used in these products, which confers cross resistance to some antibiotics. These products are essentially useless -- you can't possibly make your home sterile, nor would you want to. There is no evidence that they protect people against infections, either.

Nonconstitutional partisan law scholar Ann Altmouse on Samuel Alito's observation that being a judge is different from being a lawyer:

This is evidence of a keen mind at work. Few people would ever realize that attorneys and judges play different roles. For instance, judges bang hammers (called "gavels") on things in order to make a loud noise. Attorneys do not. The man is a born storyteller!

Obligatory photo link: David Maisel may be my new favorite photographer. I'm especially taken with his aerial views of Owens Lake. According to BLDGBLOG, which is currently devoting multiple posts to Maisel's work:

Maisel writes of a "fascination with the undoing of the landscape," a kind of geo-industrial unpuzzling of the terrestrial surface and its impermanent forms.

I can't recommend Maisel's site highly enough.