Thursday rapid fire

• Shoplifting as Social Commentary - We truly have it easy and are getting soft when we (the West that is, not the US) this happens. Germany should sentence them to live in Darfour for a year as punishment.
• E-Machine Shop - It would seem that Instapundit's era of cottage industry here. Originally from a Wired article (not online yet). You can design something entirely online, they fab it and ship it off.
• Men Smarter than Women in Australia - The article doesn't actually provide much useful information on the distribution. It also doesn't address Paulos' notion that the reason women aren't at the good end of the Bell curve is a matter of personal taste and habit (i.e. they are more likely to occasionally clean (taking up valuable time) and maintaining personal relationships whereas men are more likely willing to live in filth and lose everyone in their lives in the pursuit of a goal.)
  
• Cars, PHEV, and Green Tuning
• Another superb article + photos from Michael Yon always worth reading