The Laboratorium : Cato Versus Caesar

The Laboratorium : Cato Versus Caesar: No. The irony here is that the nation’s preeminent libertarians—who ought to be exquisitely attentive to freedom of contract, institutional design, and observing the letter of the law—couldn’t get their rights right. They built this Streeling of libertarian thought, with its $20 million annual budget and world-wide reputation, on a shareholding structure that is either actually or nearly under the control of people who do not share many of their values and have not for decades. The entire enterprise may well have been for years only one death away from Koch domination. If so many libertarians are now so worried about a Koch takeover, one has to ask, why have they spent so many years building a brand with an unshielded thermal exhaust port?

Unpacking Kony 2012

Unpacking Kony 2012:
As someone who believes that the ability to create and share media is an important form of power, the Invisible Children story presents a difficult paradox. If we want people to pay attention to the issues we care about, do we need to oversimplify them? And if we do, do our simplistic framings do more unintentional harm than intentional good? Or is the wave of pushback against this campaign from Invisible Children evidence that we’re learning to read and write complex narratives online, and that a college student with doubts about a campaign’s value and validity can find an audience? Will Invisible Children’s campaign continue unchanged, or will it engage with critics and design a more complex and nuanced response.
That’s a story worth watching.

Economics in the Crisis - NYTimes.com

Economics in the Crisis - NYTimes.com: And the inadequacy of policy is something that should bother economists greatly – indeed, it should make them ashamed of their profession, which is certainly how I feel. For times of crisis are when economists are most needed. If they cannot get their advice accepted in the clinch – or, worse yet, if they have no useful advice to offer – the whole enterprise of economic scholarship has failed in its most essential duty.

And that is, of course, what has just happened.

I'm not convinced

Efraim Halevy: What The Libyan Intervention May Have Cost Us | The New Republic: Indeed, has there been much to glorify? There is little semblance of a central government, and intertribal fighting shows no signs of abatement. Are the Libyan people better off now than they were before France and Britain, with the United States "leading from behind," rushed to the rescue of the 2011 revolution? It’s time to take a painful assessment of the Libyan intervention—not least because it may have limited our options for dealing with both the butchery in Syria and the looming Iranian nuclear threat.

A Trip Across the Solar System

A Trip Across the Solar System:
Right at this moment, robotic probes launched by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and others are gathering information all across the solar system. We currently have spacecraft in orbit around the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn. Several others are on their way to smaller bodies, and a few are heading out of the solar system entirely. Although the Space Shuttle no longer flies, astronauts are still at work aboard the International Space Station, performing experiments and sending back amazing photos. With all these eyes in the sky, I'd like to take another opportunity to put together a recent photo album of our solar system -- a set of family portraits, of sorts -- as seen by our astronauts and mechanical emissaries. This time, we have some closer views of the asteroid Vesta, a visit to the durable (if dusty) Mars rover Opportunity, some glimpses of Saturn's moons, and lovely images of our home, planet Earth. [34 photos]

A view of the Sun on March 7, 2012, seen in extreme ultraviolet wavelengths by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly aboard NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Looping lines reveal solar plasma that is rising and falling along magnetic field lines in the solar atmosphere, or corona. The brighter prominence at upper left is named solar active region 1429, which has already released several large solar flares, some accompanied by large explosions of solar plasma known as coronal mass ejections. (NASA/SDO)

Giles Milton: THE MAN WHO STOLE THE MONA LISA: THE GREATEST ART THEFT IN HISTORY

Giles Milton: THE MAN WHO STOLE THE MONA LISA: THE GREATEST ART THEFT IN HISTORY: The biggest winner in the whole sorry saga was the Louvre: it now found itself with a world famous painting to hang on its walls.
Peruggia’s extraordinary theft had turned the Mona Lisa from a moderately well-known painting into an internationally recognised masterpiece.

Rick Santorum and prenatal testing: I would have saved my son from his suffering. - Slate Magazine

Rick Santorum and prenatal testing: I would have saved my son from his suffering. - Slate Magazine: I'm so grateful that Ronan is my child. I also wish he'd never been born; no person should suffer in this way—daily seizures, blindness, lack of movement, inability to swallow, a devastated brain—with no hope for a cure. Both of these statements are categorically true; neither one is mutually exclusive.

Parents Forget Child, 3, at Chuck E Cheese, Find Out on Evening News - Yahoo! News

Parents Forget Child, 3, at Chuck E Cheese, Find Out on Evening News - Yahoo! News: Parents of a 3-year-old girl had some explaining to do after they forgot their daughter at a Chuck E Cheese and did not realize it until they saw her picture on the evening news.

The girl, named Harmony, was left behind at the theme restaurant in Bel Air, Md., after she attended a large party with her parents. According to a report from the Harford County Sheriff's Office, both of Harmony's parents, who share custody, assumed the girl had gone home with other relatives.

PlanGrid - Blueprints on the iPad for Construction

PlanGrid - Blueprints on the iPad for Construction: This is of course a gross over simplification, but the interesting thing to note is that this entire exchange of information is digital up until the point where the actual construction takes place. Because all the design information is digital, tons and tons of amazing software have been created to make that part of the process better and more efficient. In fact, architects and engineers have gotten so good at being efficient, that all together they now typically only make up 8% of the total cost of a building. Meanwhile, the poor guys in the field have, by many estimates, gotten worse and worse.

When Do Reporters Start Calling Mitt Romney a Liar?

When Do Reporters Start Calling Mitt Romney a Liar?:

Two days ago, Barack Obama went before AIPAC (which is commonly known as "the Israel Lobby" but would be better understood as the Likud lobby, since it advocates not Israel's interests per se but the perspective of the right wing of Israeli politics, but that's a topic for another day), and said, among other things, the following:

"I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say. That includes all elements of American power: A political effort aimed at isolating Iran; a diplomatic effort to sustain our coalition and ensure that the Iranian program is monitored; an economic effort that imposes crippling sanctions; and, yes, a military effort to be prepared for any contingency. Iran’s leaders should understand that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And as I have made clear time and again during the course of my presidency, I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests."

This didn't surprise anyone, because it's the same thing Obama has been saying for a while, in scripted and unscripted remarks alike, in both speeches and interviews. Yet later that day, Mitt Romney went out and said the following:

"This is a president who has failed to put in place crippling sanctions against Iran. He's also failed to communicate that military options are on the table and in fact in our hand, and that it's unacceptable to America for Iran to have a nuclear weapon."

So here's my question: Just what will it take for reporters to start writing about the question of whether Mitt Romney is, deep within his heart, a liar?

The Poetry of Science: Richard Dawkins and Neil deGrasse Tyson - YouTube

The Poetry of Science: Richard Dawkins and Neil deGrasse Tyson - YouTube

Cal Thomas column: Rachel Maddow and my lesson in civility - saratogian.com

Cal Thomas column: Rachel Maddow and my lesson in civility - saratogian.com: A clip was played from Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC program. It featured her commenting on the subject. I stupidly said before thinking: "I think she’s the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception." I then added, "and all the rest of the crowd at MSNBC, too, for that matter."

It didn’t matter that far worse things have been said in print and on TV about me. I am not supposed to behave like that. I co-wrote a book with my liberal Democratic friend, Bob Beckel, called "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America." We also write a column together for USA Today. One of the principles in which I believe is not to engage in name-calling; which, to my shame, I did.

The next morning I felt bad about it, so I called Ms. Maddow to apologize. It wasn’t one of those meaningless "if I’ve offended anyone..." apologies; it was heartfelt. I had embarrassed myself and was a bad example to those who read my column and expect better from me.

NBC's Chuck Todd on geographic bias - POLITICO.com

NBC's Chuck Todd on geographic bias - POLITICO.com: Nothing chaps my ass more than New York-centric coverage of American politics. Because its through the New York prism that we incorrectly cover American politics 60% of the time. To me, the ideological bias in the media really hasn’t been there in a long time. But what is there that people mistake for ideological bias is geographic bias. It’s seeing everything through the lens of New York and Washington.

So, for instance, I’ve always thought we collectively as the media covered this recession horribly, because the two markets that actually weathered it better than almost any in the country were New York and Washington. That didn’t mean we didn’t cover it, but we only covered it statistically. We didn’t cover it from the kitchen table. Imagine if we still had news bureaus in Denver, in Miami--these places were it was really front line, front and center.

Quote For The Day

Quote For The Day:

"Just because we support legalized prostitution doesn't mean we want to live it," - Cato staffer Jonathan Blanks, on the Koch takeover bid.

Hahahahahahaaha

골뱅이 for lunch, anyone?:

As far as class goes, things are pretty good—it’s been easier to get back in teacher mode than I expected, but my students make it easy and fun to be in the classroom. The most notable experience so far was my 7th period class today. We started off with what I originally considered a quick throw-away game; we were practicing yes/no questions, so the students all had to stand up and take turns asking each other a yes/no question (choosing their target by chucking my stuffed hippo around the room, obviously)—if the answer was yes, they got to sit down, but if the answer was no they had to stay standing and wait for another chance. The last person standing would be named the loser. Now, it went smoothly for the first 2/3 of the game, but as the end neared the remaining boys realized that they were going to have to become more strategic in their answers if they wanted to avoid losing. As such, honesty was thrown out the window, and what commenced was the longest exchange of boldfaced lies I’ve ever witnessed. Not only are some of my students neither male nor female, they also weren’t wearing underwear and didn’t have legs. The culmination of this was when one of them, who had just announced that he was neither man nor woman, asked the only other boy left standing “Do you have…” and then pointed where I think you can guess he pointed. His target stood for a moment as the gears turned in his head—which was more important, his manly pride or the outcome of the game? By this point, the class was in chaos—boys were practically rolling on the floor, my coteacher was holding her sides in pain from laughing too hard, and I had completely lost it—so I just decided to wait it out and see where he went. Apparently, integrity and dignity bedamned. He proudly announced “No, I don’t have,” chucked the hippo back at his opponent, and asked “Are you human?” And here’s where I got confused. The kid capitulated and said yes! Now, obviously, that’s the correct answer, but he’d already told the class he wasn’t a man. Is gender something he could sacrifice, while his humanity was too integral to the core of his being? Was he just tired and wanted the game to be over? I prefer the “abandoning my humanity is a bridge too far” interpretation, myself. But you can decide however you want.

Virgin Oceanic’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - IEEE Spectrum

Virgin Oceanic’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea - IEEE Spectrum: The pilot’s head will be within the pressure-�resistant transparent dome on the front of the pressure hull. This will give him a much better view than researchers get in government subs, which sport just a couple of small portholes. The original plan was to use high-strength glass for this component, but when the glass dome was tested in a pressure chamber, it cracked under the pressure it would experience at just 5000 meters. The thick glass is now fissured all around the edges where it meets a titanium ring.

In the trench, such cracks wouldn’t be just a disappointment, they’d be deadly. So Virgin Oceanic hired a company to make a new dome out of a 1270-kg ingot of synthetic quartz. Then a company that makes lenses for NASA telescopes spent one year hollowing it out into a hemispherical shape. This new dome will be tested in a pressure chamber at Pennsylvania State University this spring.

The Big Lies Of Mitt Romney I: "No Military Options On The Table With Iran"

The Big Lies Of Mitt Romney I: "No Military Options On The Table With Iran":

It's probably time to start the series. Here's what Romney said yesterday:

"This is a president who has failed ... to communicate that military options are on the table and in fact in our hand. And that it’s unacceptable to America for Iran to have a nuclear weapon."

These are two bald-faced lies. Here is what Obama said just last week to Goldblog:

In the conversations I've had over the course of three years, and over the course of the last three months and three weeks, what I've emphasized is that preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon isn't just in the interest of Israel, it is profoundly in the security interests of the United States, and that when I say we're not taking any option off the table, we mean it ... I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don't bluff. I also don't, as a matter of sound policy, go around advertising exactly what our intentions are. But I think both the Iranian and the Israeli governments recognize that when the United States says it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say.

Nothing the president said to Jeffrey he has not said before. But he was more explicit than ever. That Romney simply invents positions that Obama has not held and does not hold is nothing new. He lies.

The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building:


(Source: AFB; Image: Helen Keller in 1956, via.)

What did I "see and hear" from the Empire Tower? As I stood there 'twixt earth and sky, I saw a romantic structure wrought by human brains and hands that is to the burning eye of the sun a rival luminary. I saw it stand erect and serene in the midst of storm and the tumult of elemental commotion. I heard the hammer of Thor ring when the shaft began to rise upward. I saw the unconquerable steel, the flash of testing flames, the sword-like rivets. I heard the steam drills in pandemonium. I saw countless skilled workers welding together that mighty symmetry. I looked upon the marvel of frail, yet indomitable hands that lifted the tower to its dominating height.

Newspapers Struggle to Lift Digital Revenue - NYTimes.com

Newspapers Struggle to Lift Digital Revenue - NYTimes.com: Last year, researchers at the Project for Excellence in Journalism persuaded six companies that own 121 newspapers to share private data about the financial performance of many of their papers. And the findings were grim. [...]

A report that encapsulates the data and includes interviews with newspaper executives will be released on Monday. While not a scientific sample, the data comes from a diverse set of newspapers in the United States. (The information was shared in a way that kept the names of the companies confidential.)

:/

Jennifer Nagy: Is It Easier To Deal With Divorce When You Made The Choice To Leave?: Unlike many divorcing couples, I had the perfect life and the perfect relationship. I lived in a condo on the beach, had a great career and a kind and patient husband. I had friends, money to spend and security. The only thing that I didn't have was happiness. I didn't feel fulfilled by my life, not because my relationship was lacking, but because I didn't know myself. I didn't feel that I had been an active participant in creating my life, so I wasn't able to feel satisfaction in what I had achieved.

During the nine years we were together, I tried everything to remedy my happiness "issue." Although some changes would bring temporary happiness, it would eventually slip away and I would once again feel empty and sad. Finally, I made the difficult decision to return to my hometown alone and start my life over.