12/31 “Somalia, Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan. Evidence that we live in a world of war and destruction is everywhere. And yet, it is not so.” Johan Norberg explains. And when mega-killers die: George Reisman detects a pattern of journalistic bias at the NYT. Which raises the question: What will they say when Castro dies?
12/30 Alone but not lonely: Creativity and alonetime.
12/29 Tyler Cowen excerpts an important quotation comparing European and American pharmaceutical development. Richard Epstein argues that Big Pharma is over-regulated. And speaking of R&D, Grant McCracken reports on a talk by IBM’s Linda Sanford at the MIT-IBM Innovation lecture series: How significant is the academic world as a source of innovation? I was surprised. McCracken follows up with this post on how well business schools foster innovators and innovation.
12/28 In The Independent Review, anthropologist Spencer MacCallum is bullish on civilization and the evolution of private property communities. (Thanks to Johann for the link.)
12/27 Intriguing images and playful photographic composition: the world in his hands. And if fear and trembling are the essence of religious experience, then some of these roads and paths are almost mystical.
12/24 In these litigious and sensitive times, here is a perfectly safe holiday greeting. (Via Overlawyered.)
12/23 A great short film: Time-travel and the musician-philosopher as a god. (Thanks to John for the link.)
12/22 Is it better to give or to receive? Neither, said the politicians of New London, Connecticut, preferring to take by force. Here, in response, is Susette Kelo’s Christmas card. (Thanks to Joe for the link.) And Ed Hudgins has a brief reflection on the pleasures of both giving and receiving.
12/21 Stephen Browne discusses a worrisome theme from master rhetorician Mark Steyn’s new book: birth rates and the future of Europe. On the other hand, the urbane Grant McCracken makes a wise point about misplaced moral panic.
12/20 International cooperation concretized: What your cell phone is made of. Competition and distinguishing the excellent from the average. Fearing what one doesn’t understand? Sebastian Mallaby looks at capitalists we don’t trust.
12/19 The good, the bad, and the inane. A review of a new biography: Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age. (Via Arts & Letters Daily.) David Thompson revisits the “art bollocks” that is postmodernism. And in Australia more controversy over the use of tax dollars spent on political art. (Thanks to Virginia for the link.)
12/18 Time to reprise that good advice on how to survive this season’s holiday parties. And Steven Landsburg explains why Ebenezer Scrooge is an apostle of selflessness and environmentalism.
12/16 Revisiting The Horrors Of The Holocaust: An upcoming 60 Minutes program on millions of Nazi documents now being released to the public. (Thanks to Barbara for the link.)
12/15 A poignant Newberry tutorial about being an artist: Approach art like a child.
12/14 FIRE’s “Spotlight” report on free speech on campus: 73% of public universities surveyed maintain unconstitutional speech codes. One symptom: Johns Hopkins suspends a student for an insensitive party invitation.
12/13 This flabby New York Times article on the 2008 presidential election prompted this hilariously sarcastic response by Richard John Neuhaus. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)
12/12 Economist Peter Gordon finds confirmation from anthropologists that protectionists are Neanderthals. And here’s a Homo Sapiens Sapiens engineering achievement for a mountainous Italian town: sunlight in winter.
12/10 Do not rush into entrepreneurship blindly: Rob May on The Top 5 Reasons You Don’t Need 4 Easy Ways To Start Your Own Business. Arnold Kling believes we should reform education by, in part, adding more entrepreneurship courses.
12/9 Nirpal Dhaliwal states it manfully: Women want real men, not girly-boys.
12/8 A two-part article by Russell Roberts on trade, comparative advantage, specialization, and standard of living. And Rossputin explains why the productive rich should be proud of their wealth.
12/7 Why has New York declined as a center of world finance? And to what extent is Sarbanes-Oxley to blame? WSJ’s John Fund puts SOX at the top of the list while Lisa Fairfax thinks SOX is a less significant factor.
12/6 Technology and engineering through the ages: A cool list of ten inventions by the ancient Chinese. Here is Wikipedia’s article on the world’s tallest structures. And here is a history of Boeing.
12/5 Many moan-and-groaners blamed the unusually harsh 2005 hurricane season on global warming. What will they make of 2006’s hurricane statistics? And what about disaster response? Philosopher Stone links to this John Stossel column on American charitable giving and foreign aid and follows up with this commentary.
12/4 Live Science’s list of 10 “bad” things that are good for you. Which reminds me of the classic joke: A minister decided that a visual demonstration would add emphasis to his Sunday sermon. He placed four worms into four separate jars. The first worm was put into a container of alcohol.
The second worm was put into a container of cigarette smoke. The third worm was put into a container of chocolate syrup. The fourth worm was put into a container of good clean soil.
At the conclusion of the sermon, the Minister reported the following results: The first worm in alcohol: Dead. The second worm in cigarette smoke: Dead. The third worm in chocolate syrup: Dead. The fourth worm in good clean soil: Alive. The Minister asked the congregation, “What can you learn from this demonstration?” An old woman sitting in the back quickly raised her hand and said, “As long as you drink, smoke and eat chocolate, you won’t have worms.”
12/2 Dr. Roy Poses takes on another postmodern attack on evidence-based medicine. And is the Duke lacrosse-alleged-rape case a good example of postmodernism infecting the law? Professor William Anderson thinks so. (Thanks to Brent for the link.)
12/1 The BusinessPundit links to Andy Rutledge’s anti-Social-Media argument: “Excellence is not the sum of opinions. Excellence is not born of consensus. Excellence is by its very nature something far outside the average. In fact, not even good is found in the average. Average is comfortable. Average requires no great effort. Average requires nothing exceptional. Average anything is…, well, just mediocre. Think about great ideas. Not good ideas or decent ideas, but great ideas. Where do they come from? Do they come from the masses? Do they come from consensus? No, they come from individuals. The masses are not out there generating a stream of great ideas. Great ideas come from singular, exceptional sparks of inspiration and deep or intuitive understanding, and they come from uncomfortable processes. The mob dislikes depth. The mob dislikes discomfort.”