4/28 John Stossel proposes: How About Economic Progress Day? (Thanks to Eric for the link.) John Tamny wonders why, despite the clear data, some academics consistently undersell capitalism. And marketing professor Jerry Kirkpatrick, author of In Defense of Advertising, nicely debunks subliminal advertising.
4/27 Beautiful photographs of bridges around the world.
4/26 Cultural and religious control-freaks and more cultural and religious control-freaks. Closer to home: controlling yet more “inappropriate” sexual expression. And of course this is just plain control-freaky.
4/25 The entrepreneurial transformation of American business. Key quotation: “since 1980, more than 5 million jobs have disappeared from Fortune 500 companies, while 34 million new jobs were created at small businesses.” In Slate, new data on men’s and women’s work loads. And Warren Farrell has good advice to women on how to increase your income.
4/24 Cultural trends: What do people actually use the Internet for? And the always-worth-reading Grant McCracken on the decline of accidental social networks.
4/23 Fascinated by China: In Far Eastern Economic Review, Carlson Holz worries about the pressures on Western intellectuals’ integrity. Depressingly, R. J. Rummel has revised his Chinese democide numbers upwards: 73,000,000 deaths. Rich Karlgaard wonders whether Shanghai or Beijing is the future of China. And Mark Vallen comments on an exhibition of American art in China and quotes this amusing line from Colin Powell: “If you give 1.3 billion Chinamen access to home shopping on television, (communism) is over, because there is no way communism can compete with a salad shooter for $9.95.”
4/18 Philosopher Tibor Machan challenges a false alternative: Are humans by nature good or evil? Ph.D. candidate Joe Duarte reflects on life choices that make a profound difference. And here is an interesting development in artificial brain repair.
4/17 Law professor Larry Ribstein wonders if Hollywood is warming up to business. Key quotation: “rich capitalists have funded films like ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’ Why not pro-capitalist films?” (Thanks to Roger for the link.) And over at Uncle Eddie’s Theory Corner, discussion of philosophical themes in two films The Devil Wears Prada and The Pursuit of Happyness.
4/16 Excellent data, dynamic graphics, and passionate presentation: a talk by Hans Rosling on world development. (Thanks to Anja for the link.) Here is Rosling’s web log.
And Don Boudreaux has anecdotes and data pointing to the conclusion that cancer is not the killer it once was.
4/15 Business Week’s most livable cities in the world.
4/13 Today is Thomas Jefferson’s birthday. Historian David Mayer remembers Thomas Jefferson. Here are the official White House biography, the website for Jefferson’s home at Monticello, and Genevieve LaGreca’s toast to Jefferson’s achievements.
4/12 An interesting technical and business challenge: the $100 laptop and the rural poor. As my friend Eric Adkins puts it, “Some kid with a $100 laptop and loads of free time is going to invent something brilliant.”
4/11 Is Europe’s economy suffering from Eurosclerosis? Also check out Olaf Gersemann’s Cowboy Capitalism. (Thanks to Anja for the links.) And: socialism or individualism? Craig Depken quotes wise words spoken in 1907 by Nicholas Murray Butler, then president of Columbia University.
4/10 Gramscian warfare: Lazarus Long explains what Americans need to learn about ideological warfare. And Sascha Volokh has some charming word play while exploring postmodernism’s unintended consequences.
4/9 In Topoi, philosophers Kevin Mulligan, Peter Simons and Barry Smith ask: What’s Wrong With Contemporary Philosophy. Answer: Lots.
4/7 The creation of Zarathustra—the powerful and passionate sculpture by Peter Schipperheyn. (Thanks to Michael for the tip.)
4/6 An embarrassment to higher education: Florida Gulf Coast University’s speech code. And advice for graduating students: Avoid the seven deadly sins of resumé design.
4/4 Like Che and Mao: another murderous thug not to idealize: Leon Trotsky. (Thanks again to Bob H. for the link.)
4/4 He probably won’t get tenure: teaching evaluations for Professor Socrates. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)
4/3 Good news from the historian’s across-centuries perspective: Steven Pinker on declining rates of violence. (Thanks to Anja for the link.) And uncertain news from Caitlin Flanagan on college women’s sexual judgment and practice across the decades.
4/2 Australia round-up: A review of Donald Horne’s The Lucky Country by Keith Windschuttle. A key quotation: “second-rate has always been the wrong adjective for Australia. It tells more about the insecurities of those who use the label than anything else. It is especially untrue today when to be an Australian is to be a citizen of the world, and yet still live in the best country on Earth.” In Spiked, Guy Roth has some choice words for fashionably snobbish pooh-poohing of Australian culture. And that’s not even to mention that one of my son’s favorite television shows, The Upside Down Show, originates in Australia.