1. My former student Dan Alban calls my attention to two good pieces in Slate: French bureaucracy is impeding the French wine industry and an economics experiment increases farm worker productivity. [Sorry I forgot the link earlier.]

2. Jon Sanders asks a good question: If computer models have difficulty predicting hurricane tracks then what does that say about models of global warming?

3. Reason number 982 to hate politics: Democrats whack John McCain for being married to a multimillionairess but in 2004 their nominee was married to a billionairess (wikipedia says Heinz Kerry owns 5 houses). In any case, I'll be voting for Barr if I vote at all so I was pleased to see Brad's post containing Barr's polling numbers.