"What to do? Short of a gas tax that would push prices back up to $5-a-gallon — something deemed politically impossible — the only way to get lots more fuel-efficient cars is to put the costs of the gas-guzzlers on to the automakers themselves, as part of a cap-and-trade system requiring the major sources of carbon-dioxide emissions to pay for them. This would give automakers a powerful incentive to make more fuel-efficient cars and price them far more attractively than the guzzlers, thereby attracting consumers to them." I think Reich is wrong here; he's right that a marketplace for these autos has to be made, but I think the government can do it by choosing what vehicles it buys. Highway Patrolmen need high-torque, high-horsepower vehicles, but does the average civil servant? No.

"There is more than one mobile context. Decide which you’re interested in, then polish the hell out of the experience." I think of this as Speirs's Corollary of Gruber's First Law of iPhone Design. And Fraser is spot on—I launch Twitterrific the most on my phone because it's a Type 1 app. Exposure only comes when I'm seated and have time to explore.

Perhaps all of the ensuing wrangling could have been avoided if you’d simply used your Mac to help you figure out where to put all these visiting dignitaries. PerfectTablePlan not only lets you create table layouts but also helps you figure out where to put all your friends, enemies, and their respective friends and enemies. The program allows you to sketch detailed seating plans, create lists of guests, and even mark how much people like each other—a smiley face means two people are friends; a skull and crossbones icon indicates that it’s best to seat these two nowhere near each other.

The notion that government deficits may be good has an odd ring these days. For most of the past two decades, America's biggest worry has been inflation brought on by excessive demand. Inflation soared into double digits in the 1970s, budget deficits ballooned in the '80s, Bill Clinton got great credit for erasing the deficit in the '90s, and George W. Bush then pushed deficits up again. But some 60 years ago, when 1 out of 4 adults couldn't find work, the problem was lack of demand. That old problem is now re-emerging.

Craig Hockenberry on the design choices made by the Iconfactory in building Twitterrific's iPhone UI. I prefer the reading UX, which is why I've never sought another Twitter client for my iPhone.

But the deficit worriers have it all wrong. Under current conditions, there’s no trade-off between what’s good in the short run and what’s good for the long run; strong fiscal expansion would actually enhance the economy’s long-run prospects.

The claim that budget deficits make the economy poorer in the long run is based on the belief that government borrowing “crowds out” private investment — that the government, by issuing lots of debt, drives up interest rates, which makes businesses unwilling to spend on new plant and equipment, and that this in turn reduces the economy’s long-run rate of growth. Under normal circumstances there’s a lot to this argument.

Olmert’s words should be emblazoned on the wall of Hillary Clinton’s eighth-floor State Department office: “We must reach an agreement with the Palestinians, meaning a withdrawal from nearly all, if not all, of the territories. Some percentage of these territories would remain in our hands, but we must give the Palestinians the same percentage elsewhere — without this, there will be no peace.”

Buying books for your book-loving friends is almost always a win.