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Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it’s...
Yes, Kent, I would. Or at least Steven Hawking would. In a new documentary for the Discovery channel, he makes the worrying argument that …extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that...
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“It’s a free country”
David Henderson hypothesizes about why the phrase “it’s a free country” has changed in useage: First, when I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, not many people around me considered that a sassy reply....
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Markets Not In Everything: Murderabilia Edition
In accordance with their ban on “murderabilia”, eBay has removed an auction of the van used by Dr. Kevorkian to perform assisted suicides. The top bid at the time was $3,400. I am surprised that an...
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A Fine Line Between Art and…. Poll Dancing?
A New York tax appeals board has rejected the claim that poll dancing should be exempt from sales tax on the basis that it is “dramatic or musical arts performances”. I suppose one must draw a line...
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Rounding Up the Children of Illegals
Rep. Duncan Hunter wants to deport American citizens who are the children of illegal immigrants: “Would you support deportation of natural-born American citizens that are the children of illegal...
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A Greece Among Us?
Everyone from households, to corporations, to foreign nations are declaring bankruptcy, and now some U.S. cities are looking to get into the fun. According to the Financial Times, there were ten...
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Taking it to the tweets
Conor Friedersdorf is my minor internet hero. I found his recent twitter campaign to persuade fans of talk radio blowhard Mark Levin that Levin should not be trusted to be somehow badass. Is this not...
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Does being short make you more likely to be a criminal?
A new NBER paper argues yes: …we investigate whether an individual’s height is associated with criminality. Recent economic studies have uncovered positive associations between height and labor market...
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Can you believe…
…that in this day and age, our President’s stated policy can be “that American farmers should have protection from market disruptions and weather disasters.” That is from the administrations “guiding...
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#BestNewsweekCoverline
People are mourning the death of Newsweek with twitter meme roasting: the best Newsweek cover line that never was. Josh Green and Matt Cooper got it started with “What Would Jesus Eat? The New Science...
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Nanny State Watch: Raw Eggs Edition
…”cocktail cops” from the New York City health department busted New York cocktail hotspot the Pegu Club for using raw eggs in a fizz earlier this year. This was “[despite] warnings printed on the...
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Great (Numbers of) Minds Think…Too Much
According to Yahoo News, a group of four people protested a spelling bee in Washington DC. The cause for the dissatisfaction? The complication of the English language: Roberta Mahoney, 81, a former...
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Avatars
Pretty interesting peice on avatars in New Scientist: For now, Lifenaut relies on a series of personality tests, teaching sessions and uploaded personal material such as photos, videos and...
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Is Chinese Drywall Driving Foreclosures?
Daniel Indiviglio finds 74 studies nestled within the House and Senate financial reform bills. One of these is titled “the effect of drywall presence on foreclosures”. I dug into the house bill and...
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God and politics
Matt Steinglass at the Economist laments that voters require politicians to be overtly religious, and is even more bothered by laws that do so. He is specifically creeped out by an (unconstitutional)...
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South Carolina Pols: The Gift that Keeps on Giving
From Political Wire "No white folks have an ‘e’ on the end of Green. The blacks after they left the plantation couldn’t spell, and they threw an ‘e’ on the end." – South Carolina State Sen. Robert Ford...
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The greatest lead paragraph in the history of journalism
I know everyone has seen this story and I have nothing to add, but I have to point out that this is the greatest opening paragraph for a newspaper article I have ever read in my entire life: A...
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Looking for economic rationales in finreg
Anyone care to offer an economic rationale for this? …the bill gives the Federal Reserve the ability to set a limit on the fees that stores must pay to accept debit cards. The catch here, though, is...
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Glenn Beck was right
I laughed at him; mocked him even. He warned us that our government was run by totalitarians who were preparing to come crashing down upon us, taking away our precious freedoms. Sure, I warned people...
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