The Daily Dozen

1. The quest to shrink the SLR. Faster, please! Be sure to check out the associated slideshow contrasting the performance of an $850 dSLR to a $600 super-zoom compact camera.
   
2. How partisanship biases perceptions of the economy.
3. Principles of experimental design. "1) Something is better than nothing. You learn more from doing something than from thinking about what to do. 2) When you do something, do the smallest easiest thing that will help, that will tell you something you don’t know."
4. Did changing the drinking age from 18 to 21 save lives? Maybe not. "The major implication of these results is that the drinking age does not produce its main claimed benefit. Moreover, it plausibly generates side effects, like binge drinking and disrespect for the law--the very behavior that events planned for this month's alcohol awareness theme are designed to deter."
5. You wouldn't know it from watching TV, but there's a good chance that a majority of high-school graduates are virgins. Not only that, but there's more: "Most high-schoolers don’t use meth. Most high-schoolers don’t binge drink. In fact, most high-schoolers don’t use drugs at all."
6. Looks like Crossway heard my complaint the other day about the ESV Study Bible for the Kindle not including any Biblical text. They just updated it to include the Gospel of Luke. Unfortunately/fortunately, I already bought it by that point. I haven't had a chance to read much of it yet, but am impressed with what I see and how they set-up the navigation.
7. When it comes to data analysis, is the simple better than the complex?
8. Housing starts near a 50-year record low.
9. George Mason's law school ranked the #5 part-time program by U.S. News. I started out in the part-time program last year, so I'm sure that explains it.
10. Obama seeks a high-speed rail system across the US. As much as I love trains, this sounds like a tremendous waste of resources. This type of transportation makes sense in places like Japan and Europe with high population densities that make good use of rail for most of its length. Check out the population density of the US and tell me if you think this is a good idea. (HINT: There's an awful lot of empty space between the coasts.)
    
11. Bike touring Montana. I think I'm jealous!
12. Five fast-food restaurants to feel good about. All but Au Bon Pain are in walking distance from me and I frequent them all often -- my two favorites being Chipotle and Cosi. If you have to eat fast food, here's what is good to order. Why am I suddenly hungry for a barbacoa burrito?