10/30 A site lovingly devoted to Japanese gardens around Kyoto. (Via Brett Holverstott.) And Michael Newberry has a new series of plein air Greek landscapes.
10/28 What is the purpose of grading students? And are all of our students above average? Lester Hunt has a new book out – an anthology of essays on the grade inflation epidemic in higher education.
10/27 On BBC’s website, Melvyn Bragg has a series of discussions with guest experts about philosophers in history.
10/24 
Philosopher Stone has some striking numbers comparing the two Koreas and links to the peripatetic Don Parrish’s trip report to North Korea. With its low energy pro- duction and con- sumption, North Korea must be an environmentalists’ heaven! (The full image source is here.)
10/23 Law professor David Bernstein connects Canadian and American assaults on freedom of expression. I will be using Bernstein’s book as a text next semester in my Free Speech and Censorship class.
10/22 Must reading from George Reisman who details the degree to which we have been a mixed economy and far from laissez-faire for decades and how massive government intervention is the fundamental cause of the current crisis. In his inimitable style, journalist John Stossel has a very good exploration of mortgage-failure part of the problem:
(Via The Agitator.)
10/21 Presentation Zen asks, Is education killing creativity? And in the San Francisco Chronicle, Shikha Dalmia and Lisa Snell explain why universal pre-school has failed to deliver its promised results.
10/20 Awesome: Astronomers vote for the top Hubble space photographs. (Thanks to Lall for the link.)
10/19 Ted Keer’s Radicals for Happiness site has a wide-ranging series of under-appreciated items. Via Larry Ribstein’s Ideoblog, here is an older clip from the movie “Home Tome Story” arguing the win-win and progressive nature of commercial transactions. And for Marilyn Monroe fans, here’s a clip of the young actress from the same movie.
10/17 Joseph Bast of the Heartland Institute has this excellent letter in response to a disturbing Wall Street Journal article: At Moment of Truth, Where Was Dagny Taggart? Meanwhile, Gary Becker argues that we’re not headed for a depression.
10/15 In this election season, Reason‘s Tim Cavanaugh shows how the American way of politics is being undermined by fancy-pants French critical theory. And the Atlas Society’s Edward Hudgins explains how anger, partly mis-directed, is fueling the 2008 vote. (Thanks to Doug for the link.) And in response to America’s strong leftward drift, Dr. Helen starts an interesting discussion: Is it time to “go John Galt”? (Via The InstaPundit.) Dr. Helen’s earlier blog post on the topic with a long list of comments is here. Meanwhile, in The Wall Street Journal Judy Shelton has this refreshing Capitalist Manifesto. (Via Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.)
10/14 David Boaz on the question of the week: Is this the end of American capitalism? Johan Norberg has this relevant lesson from the Great Depression. Nobel laureate Vernon Smith explains why there’s no easy way out, and Jonathan Macey explains how the regulators’ ham-fisted efforts are making things worse. This blame game video seems on target to me, though I know that both political parties have contributed to the screw-up. (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.) And speaking of the Great Depression, I have been haunted by these words for the past two weeks — Ben Bernanke in a speech from 2002, on Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz’s thesis about government meddling’s causing the Great Depression: “Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna: Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again.”
10/11 Why do we laugh? Hobbes, Freud and Kant walk into a bar …. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)
10/10 Pictures of modernist gas stations. And architect Richard Neutra’s house, originally designed for Josef von Sternberg, where Ayn Rand and her husband lived for several years.
10/8 Tomorrow in my introductory course, we start a unit on Sex and Ethics. So this John Stossel column, “The Sky Isn’t Falling”, is timely.
10/7 It’s the tenth anniversary of The Shadow University, which I will be using again next semester in my Free Speech and Censorship course.
10/6 P. J. O’Rourke reflects on the connections between the theodicy issue and having the most inglorious type of cancer.
10/4 Dick Armey tells it like it is. And so does Lester Hunt. (Thanks to Anja for the first link.) Updates: Bad moral philosophy’s contribution to the mortgage crisis: Fannie Mae CEO wanted to work for “an altruistic business”. In The New York Post, Stanley Kurtz explains the high-pressure political tactics used by community organizers to force compliance with the Community Reinvestment Act. Relevant to explaining the political enthusiasm for the bailout: Johan Norberg lists some financial institutions’ substantial donations to the Obama and McCain campaigns. Russell Roberts sums up the story clearly and concisely: “Part of the answer is a political class greedy to push home-ownership rates to historic highs”. Sardonic humor alert: this image is just about right.
10/3 The indispensable The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (2nd edition) is now available for free online including my contribution, “Ethics and Economics”. Other contributors include “Nobel Prize winners Gary Becker and George Stigler, former presidential economic advisors, financial columnists, and economists such as Armen Alchian, Don Boudreaux, Deepak Lal, Anna Schwartz, Lawrence Summers, and Murray Rothbard.”
10/2 Who says logic isn’t useful for capturing the subtle nuances of real life? Here are some outstanding Venn Diagrams.