"Do not be fooled into believing that because a man is rich he is necessarily smart. There is ample proof to the contrary." — Julius Rosenwald
Commerce
“Mathematics Can Be Applied to All Areas of Life” — Not So, Says Murray Rothbard
"...the crucial point is that mathematics cannot contribute to economic knowledge." - Murray Rothbard
A Megadownload
"Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." — Mark Twain
A ‘Titanic’ Auction
Unconfirmed history has it that someone said about the Titanic, "God himself could not sink this ship." Whatever the case, confirmed history records that she did sink - and in the process scattered treasures across the ocean's floor.
In Praise of… “Functional” Technology
Writer Thomas Hayden has made quite a stir in the blogosphere recently with his provocatively titled post “In Praise of Crap Technology” on the site The Last Word On Nothing. Acting as a sort of modern day Martin Luther going up against the seemingly unassailable papal fortress of the Steve Jobs legacy, Hayden eschews high-end toys like the iPhone in favor of cheap, sturdy stuff that actually works. He cites his $20 Coby MP3 player, his Roadace 404 bike, his durable-but-unlovely pair of eyeglasses, and his son’s hand-assembled wooden garbage truck as examples of the “crap” technology he so loves. “I’ve stepped off the escalators of feature creep and planned obsolescence, and all the expense and toxic e-waste that come with them,” he says. “Crap technology, it turns out, is green technology.” Hear-hear, I say. I too am interested in a phone that functions primarily as a device for making and receiving calls. I refuse to buy a Kindle because I think the centuries-old invention of the book works just fine. My go-to guitar is a $100 ($75 on sale) Rogue acoustic that may have been thrown together in China but plays really damn well. Additionally, I have to confess
Is This the Way the World Actually Works?
The people responsible for a mess are supposed to clean it up. What if they don't see it as a mess, though, but as an opportunity? In that case, would the mess ever get cleaned up?
Get ‘em While They’re Hot — You Have a Month and a Half Left to Buy 100-Watt Edison Light Bulbs
Soon, if the Obama administration has its way, we’ll move seamlessly from the diminished light bulb to the energy-efficient vacuum that will take 90 minutes to clean a carpet that now takes five, and an energy-efficient hair-dryer that will require an hour to dry a head of hair now dried in three — in order to “put more dollars in your pocket” as Secretary Chu likes to say.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Bureaucracy Strikes Again — A Tax on Christmas Trees
The Federal government mandates that the Christmas tree sellers pay the 15-cents per tree, whether they want to or not. The Federal government directs that the revenue generated by the 15-cent fee goes to the Board appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out the Christmas tree program established by the Secretary of Agriculture.
Ongoing Movie Box Office Decline Suggests Recently Popular Genres Are Fading
The U.S. cinema box office continues its long decline. New release Tower Heist finished below expectations, coming in second behind returning champ Puss in Boots.
The Brett Ratner-directed Tower Heist got relatively good reviews—69 percent positive, according to Rotten Tomatoes—but the good reviews and star power of Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy failed to propel it to the top spot, earning just $25 million while Puss brought in $33 mil.
‘Paranormal Activity 3′ Surpasses Expectations, ‘English’ Shunned
U.S. moviegoers avoided theaters over the weekend, except those showing new release Paranormal Activity 3. But fans of Rowan Atkinson and his Johnny English master-spy character needn't worry about the film's poor performance at the box office--odds are he will live to see tomorrow.
What Have Taxes Done for You?
Far less than what they’ve done TO you: Income taxation inaugurates a permanent war between the people, who want to keep what they earn, and the government, which wants as much of it as it can get. The government tries to make the war less obvious by deadening the pain when possible. The withholding tax makes it unnecessary for most Americans to write checks to the IRS; indeed, they eagerly await their refunds. But the war is part of the American psyche nonetheless. All Americans sense that an awesome power lurks, ready to grab an increasing portion of anything they earn. That adversary relationship has far-reaching consequences for a society founded on the principles of the Declaration of Independence, according to which government was the rights-guarding servant and the people the master. But the income tax turns that relationship on its head. Americans lived without the fears and burdens imposed by the income tax for over 100 years (except in the Civil War era). They built a decent and prosperous society. The income tax has been a key factor in the growth of government. When enacted, only the few richest people in America paid the tax. It became a tax for the masses during World War II, under that reputed champion
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