9/30 Stephen Browne on the current state of the discipline of anthropology.
9/29 350 years of The Royal Society’s papers online. And are these colleges the future of engineering education?
9/28 “I’ve talked to a lot of entrepreneurs when I used to teach entrepreneurship in a business school. They all hate bankers. They see them as irrational misers. They have money, why won’t they share it?” Russell Roberts explains the value bankers offer to entrepreneurs. And what will take Chinese creativity to the next level? Grant McCracken thinks it’s a choice between Postrel and Florida.
9/27 Commenting on the furor over the Pope’s remarks about Islam, Lee Harris makes a perfect analogy to make clear who is responsible for any ensuing bloodshed. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)
9/26 Professor Bradley Thompson offers an important overview of big-government conservatism—including a striking connection to the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
9/25 Café Hayek talks sense about allegedly racist sports-team names.
9/23 Real liberal thinking in Sweden: Web logs by Stefan Karlsson, Johnny Munkhammar, Carl Bildt, and of course Johan Norberg. Here is the English-language version of free market Timbro’s site, and a portal to over 100 European free market think tanks: Stockholm Network. Finally, a recent article in The Economist on the state of Sweden’s economy. I liked this closing line on the perfect “Nordic” social model: “Finland’s education, Estonia’s progressive tax policy, Denmark’s labour market, Iceland’s entrepreneurship, Sweden’s management of big companies and Norway’s oil.”
9/21 Essential reading—Bernard Lewis: “one of the greatest dangers is that on their side, they are firm and convinced and resolute. Whereas on our side, we are weak and undecided and irresolute.” David Boaz has a beautifully-complementary piece on Islam and Enlightenment. And Sam Harris comes out swinging left and right, arguing that unless liberals get their heads out of the sand, “Americans will come to believe that the only people hard-headed enough to fight the religious lunatics of the Muslim world are the religious lunatics of the West.”
9/20 Where did the nation’s top CEOs go to college?
9/19 Ban the fat people! Wait—that was last month. Now let’s ban the skinny people! And let’s mandate housework. Hopefully soon, as Radley Balko puts it, and with enough Nanny-Statism we will all be truly equal.
9/18 Wal-Mart’s outstanding success—and George Will’s analysis of those who consistently hate commercial success. (Thanks to Joe for the link.) And here’s an experiment definitely worth trying: Founders College. (Thanks to Anja for the link.) Update: Ross Kaminsky has a round-up of links to politicians in the anti-WalMart gang.
9/16 How to increase your life expectancy: Tim Shaughnessy explains why you should move to New Jersey and become an Asian-American woman. How to decrease your life expectancy: Michael Tanner has data on The Great Wait—i.e., one negative result of socialized medicine. (Via Philosopher Stone.)
9/15 Author Richard Wheeler’s speech about the false dichotomy between “serious literary” and “popular” novels. Writer Matthew Stibbe has tips on how to get that writing project done. And if you do want to be taken seriously as a writer, here are ten common typos to avoid.
9/14 Sports and Higher Education? Norman Chad plugs for St. John’s College’s approach. And Margaret Soltan reports on the Auburn University sports conflict.
9/13 USA Today lists ten brilliant younger scientists. And Brian Schwartz has this heartfelt comment on the great Richard Feynman.
9/12 Artist Mark Vallen answers: Does the Rocky movie-prop statue belong in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art?
9/11 Productivity: For the first time ever there are more overweight than hungry people in the world. (This Man is measured item is via Protagoras.)
Competition: As usual, George Reisman gets it exactly right.
9/9 FEE’s Sheldon Richman talks sense about What income equality and inequality numbers mean.
9/7 Fascinated by India: An interesting post on why so many Indian immigrants become millionaires. Atanu Dey has two good posts on India’s proposed “One Laptop Per Child.” The Indian Economy Blog has a round up of recent Foreign Affairs essays on India. Aditya Dash and Gaurav Sabnis have two lively, wide-ranging web logs. The Chronicle of Higher Education has a lengthy article on Indian students in American graduate schools. And here’s a press release for Tibor Machan’s edited Ayn Rand at 100, which is being published first in India.
9/6 History textbooks: “When reality conflicts with political correctness, reality gets the boot.” (Thanks to Joe K. for the link.) And Thou shalt not laugh inappropriately: FIRE has announced its
College Speech Code of the Month.
9/4 Are Harvard’s woes a microcosm of American undergraduate education? Yale historian Donald Kagan: “This is not a battle over the control of academic turf. The turf itself is at stake. The twin purposes of a university are the transmission of learning and the free cultivation of ideas. Both are entrusted to the faculty, and both have been traduced at its hands.”
9/2 Entrepreneurship and character—a brief, Aristotelian post from Jeff Cornwall. And is it better to plunge into entrepreneurship when younger or when older? Rob May aggregates some good data and anecdotal observations.