8/6 Philosopher Denis Dutton on elitism and the significance of "reverse dominance hierarchy" and whether we humans have evolved a Pleistocene-era small-group zero-sum mentality that makes it difficult for (some of) us to understand modern economic reality. And here is economist Tim Leonard "Origins of the Myth of Social Darwinism: The Ambiguous Legacy of Richard Hofstadter's Social Darwinism in American Thought" (PDF). (Via David Bernstein at The Volokh Conspiracy.)

8/4 Despite the slowdown, some economic good news. But are Americans developing a case of old-fashioned wealth envy? And Jonah Goldberg wonders whether capitalism breeds whiners. (Thanks to Anja for the link.)

7/30 Radley Balko has some good questions for candidates McCain and Obama.

7/25 New frontiers in mosaic art: check out Mosaika Art and Design's portfolio.

7/24 Fascinating and fun to read: social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister wonders: Is There Anything Good About Men? (Thanks to Johann for the link.)

7/23 Neal McCluskey is appropriately Mad as Hell, And Not Taking Public-School Myths Anymore! Jerry Kirkpatrick encourages teachers to be peddlers of ideas. Perhaps someone can get through to this guy who clearly wasn't paying attention in science class. (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.) On the other hand, this professional educator was paying attention - to her psychic. (Via ifeminists.)

7/21 Steven den Beste assesses, in somewhat curmudgeonly fashion, criteria for successful forms of alternative energy. New data suggests that male lust is blind. But since (hopefully) your surgeon is not blind, are green or blue the best colors for surgeons' scrubs? And if you actually clicked on the above three links, you'll probably want to learn your score on the Nerd Test. (Thanks to Jerry for the link.)

7/18 Gennady Stolyarov of the Heartland Institute has a trio of brief articles here, here, and here on individual rights and funding mechanisms for information technology, one of which quotes me.

7/16 In some countries, "There are fundamental public health problems, like hand washing with soap, that remain killers only because we can't figure out how to change people's habits." So some non-profits are learning from the for-profit sector advertising techniques to change and improve people's habits. (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.)

7/14 Astrophysicist and NOVA scienceNOW host Neil deGrasse Tyson enthusiastically presents "Manhattanhenge", one of two days each year when the sun sets precisely in line with New York City's grid layout. (Thanks to Eric for the link.) And it will be interesting to see how this plays out: BlackLight Power's new energy source. Does it work or not? If so, is the theory behind it correct? If so, what explains the scientific establishment's resistance? (Thanks to Brett for the link.)

7/12 In The Australian, Carl Mortished praises oil futures and speculation. (Via Rossputin.) Café Hayek has a brief history lesson that might just make your eyes tear up: regulating onion futures speculation. And Peter Cresswell explains how, in part, the recent sale of New York's Chrysler Building to Abu Dhabi is an unintended consequence of Keynesian economics and environmentalist anti-development policies.

7/10 It's the summer travel season for the northern hemisphere, which raises the question: which nation has the most obnoxious tourists? And speaking of obnoxiousness, here's an eye-opening post on the dark side of compulsory volunteerism. (As if compulsory volunteerism weren't dark enough on the face of it. Via Café Hayek.)

7/9 David Bernstein looks at the track records of liberal and conservative Supreme Court justices on individual rights. And the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is on top of the disgustingly Orwellian treatment of a student employee at Indiana- University-Purdue-University-Indianapolis. Update: Here is a Wall Street Journal report on the IUPUI issue.

7/7 Is compassion a virtue? (Via Arts & Letters Daily.)

7/3 Richard Posner on why women get better grades in college. And Brandon Berg on feminism and female privilege, adding to earlier lists here and here.

7/2 Campaign finance reform as an opportunity for marketing principled liberty: "But it is the libertarians, and only the libertarians, who ask the precedent question of why we have so much corruption in politics. The answer is simple: Because government does so much that invites corruption, that caters to corruption and that perpetuates corruption. Things that have nothing to do with the core functions of government … If the politicians didn't do so much that they were never meant to do, then no one would try to buy them. That would be the best 'campaign finance reform' of all."

6/30 Poking fun at the enemy. I'm late to the game of Penn & Teller's series of short videos. Here are three: signing petitions to ban water, two nasty and petty WalMart critics, a (painfully hilarious) look at recycling fanaticism. Of course, some lefties write as though they're setting themselves up for a Penn and Teller routine, so here is Johan Norberg's critique of Naomi Wolf's shockingly bad Shock Doctrine.

6/29 Fascinating developments in automobile manufacturing. Which makes one wonder why Ford is doing this in Brazil and not the United States. (Thanks to Karen for the link.) And Sean Casten, CEO and President of Recycled Energy Development, give examples of how regulation of the energy industry slows innovation in energy efficiency.

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

6/28 Reena Kapoor has this exasperated response to Indoctrinate U, a documentary about p.c. run amok on college campuses. And John Palmer has an item on why, not to be outdone by American universities, one British council has banned "brainstorming". I had no idea how insensitive I've been all these years. Meanwhile, at the other end of the rhetorical sensitivity spectrum, Isaac Amirian investigates the often-used category scheme People I Agree With, and People Who are Just Like Adolf Hitler.

6/27 Jerry Kirkpatrick, author of Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism reflects on excellent teaching and "turning caterpillars into butterflies." By contrast, here are two chilling examples of anti-human environmentalism, one urging children to "find out what age you should die at so you don't use more than your fair share of Earth's resources."

6/24 A brave article by Jed Perl on the vacuous nihilism of the high art world. A key quotation: "For Matthew Barney, Richard Prince, and now Cai Guo-Qiang, having a retrospective at the Guggenheim is like being a Visigoth who has been given the keys to Rome. At the Guggenheim, the staff no longer curates exhibitions. They simply invite an artist to come in and rape the place."

6/23 Architect Peter Cresswell has a fine collection of posts on examples of excellence in architecture. Architecture student Brett Holverstott discusses his three favorite architects. And for fun, a New York City apartment that is also a scavenger hunt puzzle. (Thanks to Chris for the link.)

6/20 Dark humor from the grim past: a collection of Soviet Communism jokes. (Via EclectEcon.) My favorite: Question: "Why do the KGB operate in groups of three?" Answer: "One can read, one can write, and one to keep an eye on the two intellectuals." Some interesting observations here: "The symbol of the Communist Party of the United States is copyrighted, as is their website. The website sells advertising space. The Communist Party of USA website has an on-line gift shop selling anti-capitalist slogans, bumper stickers, t-shirts and books (postage extra). You can pay with any major credit card. The site moves at a sluggish, socialist snail's-pace." And for the punsters: "Why do Communists only drink herbal tea? Because proper tea is theft." More seriously: Steve Butterbaugh posts the text of Ayn Rand's short essay "The Only Path to Tomorrow", originally published in Reader's Digest one year after the publication of The Fountainhead and eighteen years after she left the Soviet Union. Lest we forget: Worth an online tour are Bryan Caplan's Museum of Communism and a Czech Museum of Communism.

6/19 The lessons of politicized health science: the case of AIDS. Update: Lester Hunt has this commentary. And art as political propaganda: the table of contents for the latest issue of Art in America sums up the current zeitgeist very well. (Via 2 Blowhards.)

6/18 Over at the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship, Professor Shawn Klein has three one-minute videos on three courses he teaches - Introduction to Philosophy, Business and Economic Ethics, and his new Sports Ethics course.

6/16 Rossputin has this sharp response to junk science believed by those who should know better. And Not PC explains where the new atheists are weak.

6/12 More fruits of the Enlightenment: The New York Times reports that U.S. life expectancy reaches new record high. (Subtitle: "Environmentalists blame George Bush.") Here is an eye-opening historical table with data on Life Expectancy by Age, 1850-2004.

6/11 Is the old adage false? "Americans see a solution for every problem. Europeans see a problem with every solution." Rich Karlgaard on rising Euro optimism. Maybe this is a sign of new times: after slipping again in the international art-sales rankings, France moves to deregulate its art markets. Yet whatever the troubles in Europe and America, be glad you're not an albino in Tanzania.

6/10 This is cool: a fifty-five meter wide photo of the Milky Way, on display in St. Louis. At the other end of the size spectrum, scientists discover bacteria that have survived in 120,000-year-old ice in Greenland. And evolutionary enlightenment at last: Why men have breasts. Didn't need to know about the manzeer, though.

6/9 The future of international politics? In Orbis, John Fonte on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the ideological war within the West: liberal democracy versus transnational progressivism. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)

6/6 Progress round-up: Johan Norberg notes that, excluding Iraq, worldwide terrorism has declined 40% since 2001 and combat deaths in sub-Saharan Africa have decline 98% since 1999. Here is the full report (PDF). Norman Borlaug on agricultural productivity in the twentieth century. And our flourishing sports culture means that so many people can make big money doing what they love - Sports Illustrated lists the top fifty money-making athletes and notes that Tiger Woods will likely become the first billion-dollar athlete. (Interesting that while such numbers bring out some ignorance and envy by commentators, business professionals' earning similar amounts brings out much more vitriol.) However, I can confirm that, as of yesterday, progress has not been made here: Chicago O'Hare is the nation's most time-draining airport.

6/5 Do voters know enough economics for democracy to work? A good summary article by George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan of his "The Myth of the Rational Voter" thesis. (Thanks to Frank for the link.) The full book was published in 2007 by Princeton University Press. And does this British Columbia (kangaroo) court know enough about free speech for Canada to remain a civilized and truly liberal nation? (Thanks to Charlie for the link.)

6/4 Japan round-up: I am re-reading Shogun, one of my very, very favorite novels. Here is Marsha Enright's essay reviewing Clavell's life and writings: "James Clavell's Asian Adventures." Turner Wright at Matador Study itemizes ten Japanese customs worth knowing before your next trip. And Tyler Cowen has these thoughts on Japanese cooperation.

6/3 Still a classic: sociologist Stephen Katz's How to Speak and Write Postmodern. (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.) Or as I would have titled it: Analytics of Discursive Postmetanarrative Textualizations - Post-colonial Fragmentation or Neo-Antistructuralism?

5/31 We individualists have our work cut out for us. David Boaz notes the collectivist ethic the two leading presidential candidates share. (Via TomPalmer.com.) And John Stossel reports: "I'm the, to my knowledge, lone libertarian in the mainstream media, and I take some heat for that. To my knowledge there are zero conservatives ... on the networks."

5/29 So I paid $4.15 a gallon to fill up my car today. I'm happy to contribute to rising profits of American oil corporations and I thank them for delivering the goods successfully. At the same time I am ticked off at the politicians, both domestic and foreign, who are hobbling production efforts, collecting enormous taxes, and emoting false sympathy for the consumer's pain. The Tax Foundation notes that between 1977 and 2004 the 29 largest energy companies in the US earned $630 billion in profits. A nice big number. During the same period, however, the US federal government collected $2.1 trillion in taxes ($1.5 trillion in excise taxes on gas and diesel, $518 billion in corporate income taxes, and $40 billion in taxes on "windfall profits"). So at whom should we be pointing fingers of blame? Certainly rising international demand from India and China is a factor, but the foreign governments that control 94% of the world's supply are refusing to increase supply to meet demand - for example, despite many requests and increasing pressure from the US government, "the Saudis have let their output fall from 9.5m to 8.5m bpd over the last two years". The Saudi government is the world's biggest player in the oil markets, along with the other top thirteen oil companies in the world, all of which are owned by foreign governments or are government-created monopolies. Privately-owned Exxon, at fourteenth largest, is a relatively tiny player. At whom should we be pointing fingers? So why doesn't the US tap its own large reserves in Alaska, the Caribbean, and Colorado? Because the government has consistently forbidden it. Meanwhile, this wicked ignoramus of a politician (at 1:10 in the video clip), has the gall to call for a nationalization of the American oil industry: . So to whom should we be giving the finger?

5/28 Biology and ethics: Maybe they're right - gay marriage and polygamy lead to marriage between man and beast? More seriously, Steven Pinker on how some bioethicists are using "dignity" to undermine autonomy.

5/27 Did Aristotle travel to Egypt, take books from the library at Alexandria and plagiarize them? Were the Jews responsible for the slave trade? Brendan Boyle reviews Mary Lefkowitz's saga of a vicious Ivory Tower battle among classicists, History Lesson: A Race Odyssey (Yale University Press). (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)

5/26 Larry Ribstein on money and the drive to succeed. On the other hand, all that money might make you a victim of hyper-frantic consumerism.

5/22 At Philosophy 101, Anja puts rising prices into perspective. Gas at $4 per gallon is expensive, but remember that "Starbucks venti latte costs the equivalent of $23 per gallon while Budweiser beer runs $11 per gallon."

5/21 Johan Norberg quotes a concise explanation of 1968 and the culture wars from Brink Lindsey's The Age of Abundance.

5/20 Commencement advice from humorist P. J. O'Rourke. And before leaving for his summer hiatus, Professor David Mayer has posted his Thoughts for Summer 2008, ranging from gas prices, ethanol, the upcoming presidential elections, the Supreme Court's docket, and the John Adams miniseries.

5/19 Live Science profiles Oscar-winning computer scientist Ron Fediw. His algorithms transformed movie simulations in Pirates of the Caribbean and the Harry Potter series, as well as Terminator 3 and Poseidon.

5/17 In Scientific American, science sociologist Harry Collins explains why Scientists Know Better Than You - Even When They're Wrong. (Thanks to Johann for the link.)

5/16 Little known writings of dietician Friedrich Nietzsche: Eat dangerously!. And apparently "Fat Is Dead is selling briskly, as are the accompanying recipe pamphlets Beyond Food And Evil; Human, All Too Fat A Human; and Swiss Steak Zarathustra." (Thanks to Chris for the link.) No doubt the next works in the series will be Twinkies of the Idols, including ruminations on the fact that Gouda is dead.

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.

4/26 Some pathetic racist conspiracy theories. (Thanks to Anja for the link.) And Robert Bidinotto has this perceptive diagnosis of the psychology of conspiracy theorists. And all I can say about this is: Keep those sorcerers away from me.

4/25 Fascinating statistics: a video interview with Thomas Sowell about his Economic Facts and Fallacies. (Thanks to Anja for the link.) And here is Thomas Sowell on writing: "the only way I know to become a good writer is to be a bad writer and keep on improving." (Via Not PC.)

4/24 Science predicts the future and it's not all science fiction. (Thanks to Craig for the link.) And while we solved the problem of politicized religion hundreds of years ago, now we're learning about politicized science. (Thanks to Anja for the link.)

4/23 In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: business ethicist Alexei Marcoux's overview of the current state of the debate in the business ethics literature.

4/22 Excellent rebuttals: David R. Henderson takes apart a sloppy mish-mash assessment of Milton Friedman's views by The New York Times's Peter Goodman. And Richard Dawkins explains, more patiently than I would, why Darwin was not the cause of Hitler. Both of which raise the question: Why do so many journalists and academics have problems with basic scholarship?

4/15 A shocker: What Iran can teach us about the virtues of capitalism.

4/14 Thinking about why we think: Philosopher Michael Ruse has Darwin on his mind. And pleasant news that more students are thinking about majoring in Philosophy. (Thanks to Shawn for the link.)

4/13 Why the sudden grounding of so many planes: actual safety issues or dysfunctional politics? (Via TIA Daily.) Checking in with Walter Olson and the latest zaniness from the world of litigation. And Lincoln McLain has a series of one-liners answering the question: "If you could change one thing about the 'environmental movement,' what would it be?"

4/12 Classical Values has coverage of the current wave of assaults on free speech in Canada, of all places. One of the bloggers under attack, Ezra Levant, has these wonderfully forthright words for his government inquisitors. (Thanks to Ralph for the link.) And in Iran, some odd choices in censoring Western magazines. (Via Philosopher Stone.)

4/11 A Washington Post article on the booming homeschooling movement. (Via Division of Labour.) FLOW's Michael Strong urges the freedom to innovate as a key component of educational reform. And in related educational-innovation news, I have joined the Board of Advisors of the Reason, Individualism, and Freedom Institute, headed by Marsha Enright.

4/10 Not a pretty picture, though a warped consistency: Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir as thinkers and human beings.

4/9 Larry Ribstein lists several factors contributing to rising CEO pay levels. Tyler Cowen raises further questions about measuring the marginal product of CEOs. Don Boudreaux asks whether anti-takeover legislation protects incumbent CEOs from market forces, thus contributing inappropriately to some high CEO salaries. And Cato's Daniel Mitchell explains how taxes on American corporations' foreign earnings cost us all in competitiveness, profits, and jobs.

4/7 Shawn Klein looks at several "What if …" history scenarios.

4/2 A guided tour of alchemy and an Isaac Newton manuscript.

4/1 Larry Sechrest on Mises and the anti-capitalist mentality. And Professor David Mayer explains why it's justice versus "social justice."

3/31 Don Boudreaux on celebrating North Korea's tiny carbon footprint.

3/30 On the economics of health care disparities, Richard Epstein proposes some good places to start. Peter Gordon puts in perspective automobile safety over the past century. And when disaster strikes: comparing the effectiveness of private and government sector responses to Hurricane Katrina. (PDF)

3/29 Developing Intelligence points out ten dissimilarities between brains and computers.

3/28 Several very sad anecdotes race and psychological poverty in America. (Thanks to Karen for the link.) A report on the stagnation of the European poor. (Via Erudito.) Exactly right, metaphysically: Nothing causes poverty. Meanwhile, Steven Horwitz champions Wal-Mart for the Nobel Peace Prize and wonders why the self-proclaimed friends-of-the-poor aren’t more enthusiastic.

3/27 A cautionary tale about the New York art market: are old masters or contemporary works better for your soul and investment portfolio? (Thanks to Michael for the link.)

3/26 A fine law review article by Timothy Sandefur rebutting creationism's use of postmodernism. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)

3/25 A powerful TED talk by Cambridge physicist Neil Turok on entrepreneurship in African education. (Via Division of Labour.)

3/24 Fruits of the Enlightenment: IBM scientists have built a switch that "can control the flow of information on a chip using pulses of light instead of electrons." A sixty-three year old mathematician solves the decades-old "Road Coloring Problem." (Thanks to Virginia for the link.) And a TED video of Segway-inventor Ted Kamen's latest: a high-tech prosthetic arm. (Thanks to Anja for the link.)

3/23 It's the Spring Festival - celebrating life (flowers), fertility (rabbits), and pleasure (chocolate). Unless one is on the other side, in which case one is celebrating death and suffering. (Via Rebirth of Reason.) (I wonder if that report will prompt a movement lobbying the FDA and FTC to mandate warning labels on crosses as being dangerous to one's health.) Update: John Enright links to this disgusting report, in the United States of all places, of another religious health threat.

3/22 Grant McCracken believes that there is new life for the independent bookstore: "Bookstores, independent bookstores, especially, create a value over and above the supply of printed materials and we must understand and act of this value, before it's too late." And Live Science explains how the Greek agora changed the world.

3/21 "Liberating the entrepreneurial spirit for good." Here is the CEO of FLOW, Michael Strong, with the March edition of their FLOW Vision News.

3/18 Professor Allan Gotthelf of the University of Pittsburgh on Ayn Rand's theory of concepts.

3/17 A set of high-resolution photographs from a space shuttle mission. (Thanks to Karen for the link.) And a well-illustrated survey of the early history of photography.

3/16 Two quotations about courage have crossed my horizon this week. Here is Terry Goodkind: "Sometimes, making the wrong choice is better than making no choice. You have the courage to go forward, that is rare. A person who stands at the fork, unable to pick, will never get anywhere." (Wizard's First Rule) And here is Henry Hazlitt: "Moral courage is the rarest of all the rare things of this earth. The war has shown that millions have physical courage. Millions were willing to face rifle and cannon, bombardment, poison gas, liquid fire, and the bayonet; to trust themselves to flying machines thousands of feet in air, under the fire of anti-aircraft guns of enemy planes; to go into submarines, perhaps to meet a horrible death. But how many had the courage merely to make themselves unpopular? The bitter truth must be told: the many enlisted or submitted to the draft on both sides of the conflict not because they were convinced that they were helping to save the world, not because they had any real hatred for the enemy, not to uphold the right, but simply that they hadn't the moral courage to face the stigma of 'slacker' or 'conscientious objector.' ... Fear of death? No; the soldiers faced death bravely. But they feared unpopularity. The dreaded the suspicion of their fellows. What was needed in war is needed no less urgently in peace. How many persons in public or even in private life have the courage to say the thing that people do not like to hear? ... "What can it profit a man to be able to think if he does not dare to? One must have the courage to go where the mind leads, no matter how startling the conclusion, how shattering, how much it may hurt oneself or a particular class, no matter how unfashionable or how obnoxious it may at first seem. This may require the courage to stand against the whole world. Great is the man who has that courage, for he indeed has achieved will-power." (The Way to Will Power, 1922) (Thanks to Bob H. for the Hazlitt quotation.)

3/15 At eSkeptic, Steve Salerno dissects media sensationalism and the decline of objectivity in journalism. (Thanks to James P. for the link.)

3/14 Ibn Warraq asks an important question: Which Koran? Here is a darkly-amusing commentary on the English-speaking world's response to some of the more absurd radical Islamist claims. (Thanks to Bob H. and Barbara for the links.) And here is more Pat Condell.

3/13 A cool test of perceptual and conceptual focus. (Thanks to Joe for the link.)

3/11 A fun demonstration of how to create a new font.

3/9 Women and the achievement of excellence in science. "Norman Augustine, retired CEO of Lockheed Martin, and Burton Richter, Nobel laureate in physics, once pointed out that MIT alone-its faculty, alumni, and staff-started more than 5,000 companies in the past 50 years." Meanwhile, "Representative Brian Baird, the Washington-state Democrat who chairs the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, looked at the witnesses and the crowd of more than 100 highly appreciative activists from groups like the American Association of University Women and the National Women's Law Center and asked, 'What kind of hammer should we use?'" to enforce gender equity. Christina Hoff Sommers surveys the debate. (Via The InstaPundit.) An interesting historical point about when women got the vote in New Jersey. And the Toronto Star identifies the world's ten worst countries for women.

3/8 Lots of wisdom in ten minutes: Randy Pausch's last lecture. (Thanks to Karen for the link.)

3/7 Professor Lester Hunt announces a one-day conference the University of Wisconsin will be sponsoring on March 29: The Nature of the State.

3/6 Anti-human environmentalism: "Burn the rich". (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.) And here are two reviews of Mine Your Own Business by Don Boudreaux and Ross Kaminsky.

3/4 Twenty-eight powerful photos from Life magazine.

3/3 Sports, ethics, and political economy: Shawn Klein will be offering a new course on Sports Ethics in the fall semester. As the secondary ticket market goes online and grows hugely, Stephen K. Happel and Marianne M. Jennings argue against laws against ticket-"scalping". And a trio of economists look at the data: do publicly-funded mega sports complexes make economic sense? Here is the abstract: "Professional sports leagues, franchises, and civic boosters, have used the promise of an all star game or league championship as an incentive for host cities to construct new stadiums or arenas at considerable public expense. Past league-sponsored studies have estimated that Super Bowls, All-Star games and other sports mega-events increase economic activity by hundreds of millions of dollars in host cities. Our analysis fails to support these claims. Our detailed regression analysis of taxable sales in Florida over the period 1980 to 2004 reveals that on, average, mega-events ranging from the World Cup to the World Series have been associated with reductions in taxable sales in host regions of $5 to $10 million per month. Likewise, strikes in Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and the National Basketball League, each of which has resulted in the cancellation of large parts of entire seasons, appear to have also had no demonstrable negative effect on taxable sales in host cities." (Via Division of Labour.)

2/29 Ibn Warraq on apostasy from Islam. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)

2/28 What do entrepreneurs want most: wealth or control? Professor Noam Wasserman, of the Entrepreneurial Management unit at Harvard Business School, looks at some of the difficult choices entrepreneurs make. (Thanks to Jeff for the link.)

2/26 A college professor is fired for teaching the nature-versus-nurture debate. And a report of an important educational tool in the anti-capitalist arsenal: Ban Legos!! One of those articles that reads like a spoof, but isn’t. (Thanks to Charles for the link.)

2/25 Rob May, the ex-BusinessPundit, has a round-up of thirty good BusinessPundit posts you may have missed. His new web log is Coconut Headsets.

2/24 More ancient genius: a computer from 65 BCE-its workings figured out. (Thanks to Jules for the link.) An inspiring animated timeline history of aviation. And in this six-minute video, a new possibility is demonstrated: how did they build Stonehenge? (Thanks to Joe for the link.)

2/23 "Picture the blog world as the biggest coffeehouse on Earth." In Business Week online, Stephen Baker and Heather Green explain why Social Media Will Change Your Business.

2/22 Is philosophy a form of biography? Let's hope not, though one must wonder in these cases: Philosophers behaving badly. (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.) Children behaving badly: a fascinating New York magazine piece on why kids lie. (Via Shawn Klein's Philosophy Blog.)

2/21 I am a big fan of the Moving Picture Institute. One of their sponsored films, Indoctrinate U, focuses on the campus free speech issues that are near to my heart. Here is David Thompson's reaction. And one of the great contemporary champions of free speech, Professor Alan Kors of the University of Pennsylvania, has been awarded the Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award.

2/20 Thanks to Nathan S. for this link to Milwaukee’s Grohmann Museum, housing “the world’s largest collection of art centered on the theme of human work with over seven hundred works spanning four centuries.” And in the Art Newspaper, UK Shadow Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey asks, Is art political?

2/19 What's a sensible policy for office romances? "The office has become the village of the 21st century," says Helaine Olen, co-author of Office Mate: The Employee Handbook for Finding - and Managing - Romance on the Job. "Our social contacts come at work. It makes logical sense that you're going to date people there." And: Are you part of the new artisan economy? Anita Campbell bets you are.

2/18 A very personal experiment in bootstrapping and upward mobility in America. (Thanks to Virginia for the link.) Philosopher Tibor Machan has this anecdote about growing up in Communist Hungary: “When I was about 12 years old, I was taking a class in my Hungarian elementary school on Marxist economics. One day we were being told about Marx’s famous goal for the communist paradise he envisioned for us all: ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.’ As most kids back in Budapest, I didn’t pay much attention to these lessons since they were nothing but pure propaganda for the ruling communists who ran the country. But I did happen to be listening to this particular presentation and once the ‘teacher’ was done, I didn’t have the good sense to resist raising my hand to ask a question: ‘What if my pal here next to me and I both start the week with a fixed amount of money but he purchases some wood and builds a nice table while I buy some wine and drink myself under a table? Will he have to share with me whatever he can earn when he sells his product?’ As I recall, I was severely rebuked for my counterrevolutionary remark … .” And Canadian economics professor John Palmer is dismayed at how so many of his students have trouble grasping the Broken Window Fallacy.

2/17 The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education's Speech Code of the Month: the University of Utah.

2/16 The universe in perspective: the relative size of Earth and various stars. The classic powers of 10. (Thanks to Eric for the links.) And a cool shot from space of sunset over the Pacific. (Thanks to Karen for the link.)

2/15 This is a wise book: David Horowitz’s meditation on facing death but still living fully.

2/14 Ronald Bailey on the pros and cons of Techno-optimistic environmentalism. But aren’t we running out of natural resources? George Reisman makes a good point: the Earth is a 4,000-mile-radius sphere solidly packed with chemical elements. But what about oil? When will we run out of oil? University of Washington geologist Eric Cheney says Never.

2/13 Please consider signing up for this excellently-conceived network of voluntary organ donors: Lifesharers. And here’s a good newspaper feature about Lifesharers in the Beloit Daily News.

2/12 Last year I heard this fine lecture on poetry by Walter Donway, who has a new book of poems out: Touched By Its Rays.

2/11 Here are the 20 ugliest college campuses. And here are 20 beautiful campuses. John Palmer chimes in with two ugly Canadian campuses. I’ve been very fortunate and pleased with the aesthetics of my choices: University of Guelph, Indiana University, Georgetown University, The College of New Jersey, Adrian College, and, of course, the lovely Rockford College.

2/8 A striking point about incremental progress in a post from Logic + Emotion: “Think about it—we used to have few choices in how we engaged with an organization. If it were a bank, say 20 years ago—you had a teller, a checking account and that was pretty much it. Then ATM's came along. And banking by phone. Then over the Web. Then more services over them Web. Then you could dabble on your account with your mobile phone. And maybe you could even comment on the Banks company blog expressing your frustrations with their new ATM interface.”

2/7 Why mathematics is a beautiful thing. Here are the contest winners.

2/6 Here’s a report on an experiment in employee-empowerment and health insurance at Whole Foods. (Thanks to Joshua for the link.) Lin Zinser and Paul Hsieh explain why it’s morality versus universal health care. A cautionary tale of brain surgery. (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.) And why we should let the free market fix healthcare.

2/5 Great timeline graphics on world economic development: history test. A classic essay by Theodore Dalrymple on what poverty is. (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.)

2/4 A Wall Street Journal profile of Debra Ross, who combines an entrepreneurial career with homeschooling her children. Kristyn Kusek Lewis reminds of some “secrets” of self-made millionaires. Marisa Lee and Liana Guzman, founders of Saving Second Base, have advice for non-profit entrepreneurs. (Thanks to Stephanie for the link.) And Sam Davidson has advice on making your passion your profession.

2/3 A recent Mark Steyn column has this anecdote about the dynamism of capitalism and technology: “This past week's issue of the Economist has a heart-rending vignette from one of the most ruthlessly capitalist industries on the planet: ‘In 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free.’ ‘That was the moment we realized the game was completely up,’ an EMI exec told the magazine. In the United States, album sales in 2007 were down 19 percent from 2006.”

2/2 A must-read, with thanks to Bob H. for the link: “Victor Davis Hanson’s tour-de-force account of mistakes in wartime.”

2/1 The Wisdom Journal has 12 Things I Learned By 42 That I Wish I Knew At 22.

1/31 A good post from Robert Bruner, Dean of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. A key quotation: “Artists in business are visionaries, inventors, entrepreneurs, and general managers, people who create something larger out of the assembly of resources, 2+2=5. They are quick learners; they recognize problems and opportunities ahead of the crowd; they shape large visions and enlist others in support; they communicate well and are socially-aware (in the ‘macro’ sense of understanding big issues in the world and in the ‘micro’ sense of reading a room full of people to understand their issues); they serve with integrity; and leaders have a bias for action.” (Via Mark Lerner.)

1/29 Russ Roberts has a wry post on just how evil Walmart is. Noah Stahl defends the for-profit corporation against the usual slanders.The Prometheus Institute has published its quarterly online magazine (PDF). And British Heritage magazine’s profile of the excellent Margaret Thatcher.

1/28 I contributed a blurb to the back cover of Professor Jerry Kirkpatrick's new book: Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism. I recommend it to anyone interested in the important connections between philosophy and educational policy and practice.

1/27 Courage and technology: Watch these guys fall off a mountain and glide. (Thanks to Eric for the link.) Courage and political revolution: this documentary on Estonia’s “Singing Revolution” sounds moving. As is Tibor Machan’s account of his escape from Communist Hungary as a youth.

1/24 Professor David Mayer has his 2008 Prospects for Liberty essay up at his website. And I recommend his Thomas Jefferson, Man versus Myth essay, now available from Amazon.

1/23 A new tutorial from Michael Newberry on warping negative space. An intriguing hypothesis from novelist Lee Child, creator of the Jack Reacher character, about the origin of the thriller. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.) And at the Atlasphere, John Enright’s review of Quee Nelson’s The Slightest Philosophy.

1/19 Economist Larry Sechrest has a fine essay on the heyday of entrepreneurial American shipbuilding—and why it ended. (Thanks to Sean for the link.) And economist Craig Depken has a brief item on Atlas shrugging in the railroad industry, circa 1908.

1/18 Freak show round-up: David Thompson reports on the extraordinary leftist bias of recent French school textbooks: “Economic growth imposes a hectic form of life, producing overwork, stress, nervous depression, cardiovascular disease and, according to some, even the development of cancer,” asserts the three-volume Histoire du XXe siècle, a set of texts memorized by countless French high school students as they prepare for entrance exams to… prestigious French universities. The past 20 years have ‘doubled wealth, doubled unemployment, poverty, and exclusion, whose ill effects constitute the background for a profound social malaise,’ the text continues. Because the 21st century begins with ‘an awareness of the limits to growth and the risks posed to humanity [by economic growth],’ any future prosperity ‘depends on the regulation of capitalism on a planetary scale.’ Capitalism itself is described at various points in the text as ‘brutal,’ ‘savage,’ ‘neoliberal,’ and ‘American.’ This agitprop was published in 2005, not in 1972. “… And just in case they missed it in history class, students are reminded that ‘cultural globalization’ leads to violence and armed resistance, ultimately necessitating a new system of global governance.” A recent extreme anti-humanist manifesto published by Oxford University Press—David Benatar’s Better Never To Have Been: The Harm Of Coming Into Existence: “Most people believe that they were either benefited or at least not harmed by being brought into existence. Thus, if they ever do reflect on whether they should bring others into existence—rather than having children without even thinking about whether they should—they presume that they do them no harm. Better Never to Have Been challenges these assumptions. David Benatar argues that coming into existence is always a serious harm. Although the good things in one's life make one's life go better than it otherwise would have gone, one could not have been deprived by their absence if one had not existed. Those who never exist cannot be deprived. However, by coming into existence one does suffer quite serious harms that could not have befallen one had one not come into existence. Drawing on the relevant psychological literature, the author shows that there are a number of well-documented features of human psychology that explain why people systematically overestimate the quality of their lives and why they are thus resistant to the suggestion that they were seriously harmed by being brought into existence. The author then argues for the 'anti-natal' view—that it is always wrong to have children—and he shows that combining the anti-natal view with common pro-choice views about foetal moral status yield a 'pro-death' view about abortion (at the earlier stages of gestation). Anti-natalism also implies that it would be better if humanity became extinct. Although counter-intuitive for many, that implication is defended, not least by showing that it solves many conundrums of moral theory about population.” And here is Carlin Romano’s fine take-down of John Gray in the Chronicle. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)

1/17 The Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship has published the second issue of its newsletter, Kaizen, featuring an interview with New York City artist Michael Newberry, news about the Center's courses in development, last semester's student-prize winners, and a teaser about our next issue.

1/15 Some very dangerous mountains. And pictures from early Everest expeditions.

1/13 Munira Mirza asks: Is modern art a left-wing conspiracy? And here’s a fascinating piece on How Curators Saved Afghanistan’s Treasures. A key quotation: “In 1988, they secretly moved the highlights of the collection to a vault in the Central Bank at the presidential palace. Seven men had keys to the vault. All seven keys were needed to open it, so by spreading them around and keeping their locations secret (in case of death, a key reverted to the keeper's eldest son), they were able to preserve the treasures.” (Via ArtCyclopedia.com.)

1/11 Ronald Radosh review Jonah Goldberg’s new book Liberal Fascism. A key historical quotation: “the very term ‘liberal fascism’ came from the pen of H.G. Wells, the famed socialist author who delivered a speech at Oxford University in 1932 that included hosannas to both Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany. ‘I am asking,’ Wells told the students, ‘for a Liberal Fascisti, for enlightened Nazis.’ Democracy, he argued, had to be replaced with new forms of government that would save mankind, producing a 'Phoenix Rebirth of liberalism’ that would be called ‘Liberal Fascism.’ Like the activism, experimentation, and discipline that made the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany new dynamic societies, the West too could reach such a plateau by adopting the new soft fascism that suited it best.”

1/10 The excellent Ayaan Hirsi Ali has a must-read piece in The New York Times. (Via TIA Daily.)

1/9 Historian Paul Johnson draws lessons on leadership from several key twentieth-century events. And some things haven’t changed: then- ambassadors Thomas Jefferson and John Adams report to Congress what they heard in their meeting with the Tripolitan ambassador. A key quotation: “… it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their [Qur’an], that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every [Muslim] who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”

1/8 Philosophy—I'm in it for the money.

1/7 I’m back from a break over Christmas. Some art links to start the new year off: Lester Hunt reflects on the enduring significance of the cave painters. An unknown Michelangelo sketch has been identified. Meanwhile, Donald Pittenger reflects on James Elkins's Why Art Cannot be Taught and offers this saddening observation: “art students reflect their own times (and influences) to such a degree that, after a period of years, one student's work seems indistinguishable from all the others. And this is likely to be true for all the presumed inventiveness of today's art school; in 50 years the probability is that the stuff will look pretty similar. Moreover, almost no student currently enrolled is likely to ever be self-supporting by art sales, and even fewer will be 'known' even locally. Nevertheless, cohorts of students continue to pass through the educational system and faculty members congregate time and again to conduct critiques that, in the long run, are likely to be meaningless in the history of art.”