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.