Matt Yglesias writes a bunch of smart things most of the time, and then he says something that just makes me cringe:

You could just get together a list of every registered Democrat in the country, then take a statistically valid random sample of 1,000 or so of these people fly them all to a big hotel in Dayton (shades of Balkan diplomacy), and tell them they’re not leaving until some candidate has the support of 600 people. [emphasis added — tew]

Obviously Matt Yglesias has never been to Dayton.

I was in New York City for the first time over Halloweeen. It was pretty okay. I would describe it as just like Chicago, only on an island and with a 200 year headstart. The downside of having such a large population is that even though the assholes-per-capita number (0.053) is probably the same as other places, you’re running into them more often simply because there are more of them.

The best thing I saw in NYC was the public library, specifically, the Newton exhibit. If you’re at all the kind of person who would totally spazz out upon seeing, for instance, a first edition of the Principia interleaved with Newton’s handwritten notes for the second edition, you should certainly go.

And, if like me, you found the scene in Quicksilver where Newton stuck a knitting needle in his own eye unbelievable, you will be thrilled to see the actual notebook he was taking notes in while he was doing it, along with a hand-drawn diagram of where he was putting that needle.

It’s on until February 5th.

There are some interesting insights in this essay by Paul Graham, on why American things (cities, buildings, cars) can be so ugly.

We don’t especially prize design or craftsmanship here. What we like is speed, and we’re willing to do something in an ugly way to get it done fast.

He does get a little self-contradictory in parts, though. Americans lack taste, and therefore tend to build things quickly and superficially, but Americans have taste, so they’re increasingly choosing things like iPods and imported cars.

Still, some things to think about.