TRANSIT OF VENUS. Got up this morning, looked toward the east, saw a fair amount of haze around the sun, decided to go about my day.

Fortunately, NASA's TRACE spacecraft is above the haze and pointed in the right direction. The full transit was visible by day in Europe.

Imagine," said Bologna astronomer Corrado Bartolini. "We can't even tell when a car will reach Zamboni Gate in traffic, but we know to a fraction of a second when Venus meets the sun every 122 years."

Yup. Complex adaptive systems, including road networks, do what they darn well please. Hence Hayek and his Fatal Conceit. On the other hand, Venus transits always come in pairs (conjugate pairs?) with two in eight years and then the 122 year interval to the next one. Tonight, that rare performance of Sousa's "Transit of Venus" March. Looks like the weather will hold off for the concert.

HONORING PRESIDENT REAGAN. Ronald Reagan's boyhood home is in Dixon, Illinois, not far from DeKalb. This week, the crowds at the presidential library and the Capitol will make most of the news, but the boyhood home has been drawing a great deal of traffic and tributes as well. I went there today and observed others coming and going and taking pictures. Among the tributes left was a computer-generated card from a woman who has been doing Christian missionary work in the former Soviet Union since 1992. Tear down this wall, indeed.

This Nikita Demosthenes tribute includes a picture from Illinois.

Fox News have provided a schedule of official events. The coverage is likely to be pool coverage, meaning these times will likely govern programming on other networks.

POLICY WONKERY IS NOT EASY. Dan Drezner writes a book review. An observer with a differing point of view begs to differ. Professor Drezner responds.

Actually, what I was saying that there was a need for an economist to use the language of the average Joe. That requires two things -- a good economist and a good writer.

Ayup. My guess is that economics turns off a lot of students with dense prose and a surfeit of graphs -- used to be guilty of presenting it that way myself. On the other hand (tradeoffs, always tradeoffs) there are a lot of aspiring literary critics out there, and those folks take the cake when it comes to murky writing.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The same number of young hopefuls, 70,000, are receiving letters from Harvard University this year inviting them to participate in a competition with a similarly high failure rate. The letter sent to each recipient, selected mostly on the basis of test scores, says "congratulations on your academic achievements" from America's oldest university and urges them to apply for the class of 2009.

The "American Idol" contestants mostly knew how lousy their chances were. They had seen the show before and realized that almost no one got anywhere near Hollywood. But the impressionable high school juniors who are persuaded to apply to Harvard this year because of the unexpected attention from its admissions office are going to be less well informed of their chances.

Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews, who is worth reading, is less than impressed with the marketing efforts of the most selective colleges.

If memory serves, some of the academic league tables use "selectivity" as a criterion for ranking the college. The harder it is to get in, the higher the ranking. Positive first partial derivative and all that. To repeat: incentives matter. (Hat tip: The Cranky Professor.)

RONALD REAGAN, TERMINATOR. Outside the Beltway and Andrew Sullivan compare and contrast the Reagan and current Bush presidencies, and the continuing tussle between the libertarian and traditionalist constituents of the Republican Party.

GET TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER. Hugh Hewitt finds a Peter Robinson tribute to President Reagan that is on point.

'Some people think I'm simplistic and being simple. My theory of the Cold War is that we win and they lose. What do you think about that?

HOME RULE. The transition to civil authority continues in Iraq, with nine militia organizations agreeing to disband, or to become army or police units.

THE TITLE OF THE ACADEMIC POSITION THAT I HELD AT THE TIME WAS PREPOSTEROUS. Read the whole thing. (Via Newmark's Door, where there are links to several other articles worth reading.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST.

President Bush's comparison the other day of the war on terrorism with the war on Nazi Germany was not without validity, although few historians probably would sign on to the idea. In each case, U.S. men and women launched an invasion to free people from a brutal and despotic regime. In each case, Americans became liberators, even if Iraq's prospects over the long term remain uncertain.

And 60 years ago, though we tend to forget this, there were critics who blamed the president for what they considered a trumped-up war rather than blame those who had attacked America.

The editorial board at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tackle the parallels, and lack thereof, between the war against the fascists of the 1940s and the war against the fascists of the 00s.

A little historical perspective. Some of President Roosevelt's critics on the right came unhinged, to the detriment of the right opposition in the 1950s. President Reagan had a similar effect on some of his critics on the left, which continues to affect the left opposition these days.

WHEN NEW YORK FREEZES OVER. I have now viewed The Day After Tomorrow. Jed at Boots and Sabers has reviewed it. I concur, especially this.

This Ice Age is a duplicate of the last Ice Age, appoximately 10,000 years ago. The implication early on was that this was a cyclical event brought about by Mother Nature, and we could look forward to another Ice Age sometime in the future. Yet, somehow, when the Ice Age actuallly arrived, Mother Nature was off the hook, and it became something we managed to bring on ourselves.

There is also the little matter of the helicopter flying around near a tornado, but anything can happen in a cartoon.

HONORING PRESIDENT REAGAN. President Reagan will return to Washington on Wednesday, June 9. Friday, June 11, is a national day of mourning. Outline of the schedule as the press now has it is here.

THE ICE IS FINALLY MELTING. Here it is, the seventh of June, and the ice hockey season is about to end. The Stanley Cup will be settled tonight, in Tampa, (Tampa??) even if it takes a count, a recount, a second recount, and a Supreme Court ruling to settle it. In the north country, the Milwaukee Admirals completed a sweep of the Wilkes-Barre Penguins to win the American Hockey League's Calder Cup, which looks like a hockey trophy, not like something that ought to be placed in the lobby of an office building, its name notwithstanding.

HALF OF LIFE IS SHOWING UP. Does it come as any surprise that if a school grants students 50 out of 100 possible points simply for being enrolled,

we have students who have successfully completed the first three marking periods and they are, with pen and pencil, calculating how little work they can do and still receive a passing grade.

Hey, nobody ever said slackers weren't clever. Joanne Jacobs, who picked up the story, notes that teacher's unions in the affected districts are objecting to the policy as an infringement on academic freedom.

That students will figure out how to game the system ought not to surprise any economists. People. Respond. To. Incentives.

RESTORING THE NORMAL APPEARANCE. Thanks for your patience with the temporary template. I have been able to reconstruct something resembling the original template, with a few features borrowed from the newer templates, and the link list will be restored and brought up to speed over the next few days. I have also saved the template text to disk so as to avoid the kind of hassles that plagued me earlier in the week.

AMERICAN KAMIKAZE. The things one learns when one goes to a breakfast fly-in (this morning, the 40th annual DeKalb Chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association, with a little help from the DeKalb-Sycamore vintage car club -- what does it tell you when the station wagon you rode around in as a kid now qualifies as vintage?) One of the displays inside the mess hangar had the title that heads this post. We're really talking about a first-generation cruise missile. Before the Luftwaffe's V-1 ramjets, there was the Interstate TDR-1 attack drone, and 189 of these things were built at the aircraft works in DeKalb. Here are the specifications for this aircraft, here a listing of some others. Perhaps it might be more accurate to call the TDR a first-generation smart bomb, as it had to be controlled by a pilot flying a control plane with what we now understand to be a Weapons Service Officer.

In the second seat, directly behind the CPP, is the Drone Control Pilot DCP. This is his primary job He is hunkered down over a small (six inch face) television screen receiver. The picture is transmitted from a TV camera located in the nose of the drone. The TV picture he sees is what he would see if he were in the drone looking straight ahead. As soon as he has a picture of the target on his TV screen he notifies the CPP.

At this point, the Control Plane Pilot can leave the area - increase his "open out" or "standoff range" from the target, since the Drone Control Pilot has taken over and guides the drone on its "run-in". He finally crashes the drone against the target or performs other functions such as dropping bombs or laying smoke.

One of these cruise missiles was used to sink a Japanese freighter during the Guadalcanal campaign, and several were used during the siege of the Japanese navy base at Rabaul. (Do I have enough books? -- details or compare prices.)

MR. GORBACHEV, TEAR. DOWN. THIS. WALL. Thank you, President Reagan.

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG GOES THE TROLLEY. That streetcar gong is there for a reason. Shot in the Dark suggests some Minnesotans will learn that lesson, the hard way. Nothing new there, either. Did you know that the first Secret Service operative to die in the line of duty died in a collision between a trolley car and President Theodore Roosevelt's horse-drawn wagon? The Service remembers and recently took actions to honor the operative, William Craig, who once also guarded Queen Victoria. President McKinley's physician also remembers.

The President himself was seriously injured in the collision of his automobile with a trolley car in which one of the secret service men was killed. It was part of my service to accompany the President on his outing trips, hunting, riding, walks, etc. We rode horseback from twenty-five to one hundred miles a day. We had many long walks, wading or swimming streams. The hunting trips were for all kinds of game, big game being his preference. My services on these trips were frequently required, not only for the President but for others who might be of the party. When at the close of the Roosevelt administration I was reIieved of duty as White House physician I realized how great had been my sense of responsibility.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Terrorists have declared they intend to fight until we are finished, however long that takes. They have the big-picture view that many Americans lack. I pray that we do not endure more attacks like those of Sept. 11 before we cast aside our divisions in favor of the concepts that unify America. I pray that happens, but in my heart I know more attacks are coming and more death will be visited upon us because of what we represent.

I am a Sept. 11 American. I know the world has changed and that Americans must defend America. Everything else we do, everything else we believe, pales in comparison to that duty.

That's Colorado Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Read the rest. (Via Real Clear Politics.)

LET THEM EAT CAKE? The new cross-Lake Michigan carferry is arriving in Milwaukee somewhere near the old Grand Trunk Western ferry docks, in the shadow of the old coke works and not far from the cement warehouse. It's a long walk to the nearest bus stop, which will put you on a bus that will take you into the heart of the South Side. There are free transfers to the crosstown buses. Does any of this bother the carferry company? No.

Lake Express spokesman Jeff Fleming stepped in to insist bus service wasn't as important as rental car, taxi and limousine service, all of which will be available. Fleming said the Lake Express would attract "high-end" passengers who would no more board a public bus at a ferry terminal than they would at an airport.

Details here. (Hat tip: Live from the Third Rail.)

RUNNING EXTRA: The editors at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel welcome the carferry, and propose that a Muskegon-Milwaukee service will complement, rather than cannibalize, the Ludington-Manitowoc service. "Nerve-racking Straits of Chicago." I love it.

BY THEIR FRUITS SHALL YE KNOW THEM. Laura at Apartment 11-D is not happy:

You know, feminism has taken a lot of hits in recent years. Sometimes even from me. But I think during times like this, we could stand a little bra burning. More empowerment. More angry chicks.

The backlash against feminism has meant a loss of the many good things about this movement. Young teenage girls should be standing up for themselves.

And what's bothering her?

Sunday NY Times magazine had an article on teenagers and hooking up. Apparently, teenagers today are avoiding dating and instead looking in chat rooms for sex partners. Even more disturbing than slutty teenagers is the fact that most of the hooking up involves girls servicing the guys. Here, read Belle Waring's take on it.

Excuse me, that's no "backlash" you're seeing. That's the predictable outcome of forces the so-called second wave feminists, back when some people thought Gloria Steinem was a hottie, set in motion, oh, somewhere between 1965 and 1970. Weblogging, alas, is a young person's game, and the young, alas, don't remember their history. Let me remind readers of a few ideas that were popular in those days. "Women say yes to men who say no" was a slogan at more than a few protests against the drafts, and "make love not war" was not for banners only. Abortion? If the pill failed, that was the fall-back position, noble talk about rape, incest, birth defects, and the life of the mother notwithstanding. Smash monogamy, nuke the nuclear family, so much for "bourgeois" constructs. Does it come as any surprise that after forty years of "affirming" alternative life-styles, anyone should be surprised that the youngsters have begun to embrace them.

SECOND SECTION: The Elder at Fraters Libertas has some thoughts, noting that some of the younger girls are rejecting the fashions of their older sisters.