5/15 Talk about cultural imperialism: There are roughly 40,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States, "more than the number of McDonald's, Burger Kings and KFCs combined." I feel so oppressed. Meanwhile, Don Boudreaux has this make-trade-not-war suggestion for our Chinese foreign policy.

5/14 From the Ellwood House and Museum, just down the road from me in DeKalb, Illinois: How barbed wire won the West. (Thanks to Merlin for the link.) Speaking of that, Lester Hunt wonders where all the Westerns have gone.

5/13 This looks extremely cool: Microsoft Research's Worldwide Telescope. From the site: "Want to see the same images that scientists at NASA use for their research or perform your own research with those images? Or do you want to see the Earth from the same perspective that astronauts see as they descend to Earth? How about taking a 5 minute break and viewing a panorama of a different city? Install WWT and start your explorations."

5/12 When nutmeg was more valuable than gold: Heather Whipps on How the Spice Trade changed the world.

5/10 Janet Rae-Dupree in The New York Times on brain science, creativity, and changing habits: "don't bother trying to kill off old habits; once those ruts of procedure are worn into the hippocampus, they're there to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately ingrain into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads." (Thanks to Beverly for the link.) And Stephen Baker explains why he thinks we need Renaissance people more than ever. For example, "the triumph of the iTunes wouldn't have happened without someone who could bring together music, software, business, and design. We could even throw in anthropology."

5/8 At the web log for the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship Anja Hartleb-Parson and I have a series of new posts on business ethics and entrepreneurship. Anja and I will be blogging there regularly now.

5/7 An interesting (though quirky) article by political scientist David Schaefer on Robert Nozick (thanks to Bob H. for the link), which prompted a response from philosopher Lester Hunt.

5/6 For your reading pleasure? Samples of horrible academic writing from Philosophy and Literature's Third Annual Bad Writing Contest. (Thanks (?) to Bob M. for the link.) Update: David Thomspon links to several more recent examples, with not one molecule of irony apparent in any of them.

5/5 Artworld round up: Very ordinary political propaganda wins the Turner Prize. On the other hand, new frontiers in self-deformation and self-destruction. Perhaps this guy has a sense of humor about the art world? (Thanks to Chris for the link.) Notice this deep insight: "Steven's 'Trader Joe's Cashew #4' is such a complete and absolute brutally dissecting view of the industrial conflict between capitalism and modernism that is hard for even the most verbose of critics to add too. Regardless of Steven's relation to me as a colleague and studiomate, the intense complexity I feel for this work is also complete and absolute." The tricky thing about the art world is the problem of indistinguishability-how does one separate the serious from the spoof and the significant from the trivial? A philosophy book waiting to be written. Wait-it already was, twenty-eight years ago, and has been reissued: "Mr. Danto argues that recent developments in the artworld, in particular the production of works of art that cannot be told from ordinary things, make urgent the need for a new theory of art." I read Danto's book as an undergraduate in 1980 or so, and he was writing in response to where the art world had arrived in the 1960s. For half a century, the art world has gone … nowhere.

5/3 Erudito describes Richard Hamilton's Who Voted for Hitler as an excellent example of "how historical sociology should be done." Which gives me an opportunity to plug this fine documentary.

5/2 The greatest human being who ever lived comes to New York.

5/1 The New York Times on the rising number of college entrepreneurship programs. (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.) "According to the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, Mo., more than 2,000 colleges and universities now offer at least a class and often an entire course of study in entrepreneurship. That is up from 253 institutions offering such courses in 1985. More than 200,000 students are enrolled in such courses, compared with 16,000 in 1985." Which reminds of this cool, new place.

4/30 In the name of entrepreneurship and innovation, let's create another bureaucratic, rent-seeking government agency? Jeff Cornwall says Just say "No". Which is a little easier remembering the wise words of Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, and Will Rogers.

4/29 Psychological limits and updating the "crow-epistemology" numbers: Not seven but four?

4/28 Attorney Tom Kirkendell reflects on the US's extraordinarily high incarceration rates and, given that much of it is a consequence of our wrong-headed war on drugs, links to this exchange in the LA Times between Reason's Jacob Sullum and Heritage's Charles Stimson.

Archives: Worth Reading 2008, Worth Reading 2007, Worth Reading 2006, Worth Reading 2005, Worth Reading 2004, Worth Reading 2003.