Mr. Deity is a bi-monthly video series that looks at God and the Universe with a smile (and sometimes, a wink). In the first film about Creation God decides which evils to nix and which to keep. Great soundtrack, too.
Category: Politics
Truth in Advertising, a 12-minute film about the dysfunctional, corrupt world of corporate advertising, though the parable could really cut across any kind of office or industry. (nsfw)
A few weeks ago, China’s anti-satellite missile test generated at least 517 pieces of debris big enough to be tracked. Those images are wild. We are being orbited by enormous amounts of our own crap. Tragedy of the commons, I guess.
A guy won a trip to Space… and then had to cancel because the IRS wants $25,000 in taxes for the winnings. [via mises]
Edward Stringham has compiled a new anthology, Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice. Folks, that’s 700 pages of radical libertarian goodness:
Anarchy and the Law assembles for the first time in one volume the most important classic and contemporary studies exploring and debating non-state legal and political systems, especially involving the tradition of natural law and private contracts.
Should markets and contracts provide law, and can the rule of law itself be understood as a private institution? Are the state and its police powers benign societal forces, or are they a system of conquest, authoritarianism, occupation, and exploitation?
From the early works of Gustave de Molinari, Edmund Burke, Voltairine de Cleyre, Benjamin Tucker, David Lipscomb, and Lysander Spooner to the contemporary thinking of Murray Rothbard, David Friedman, Anthony De Jasay and Bruce Benson, Anarchy and the Law features the key studies exploring and debating the efficacy of individual choice and markets versus the shortfalls of coercive government power and bureaucracy. In so doing, the book also features debates involving Roderick LongÄôs argument against a nationalized military and Robert NozickÄôs critique of stateless legal systems, as well as the work of such scholars as Nobel Laureate economist Douglass North, Tyler Cowen, Robert Ellickson, Randall Holcombe, Randy Barnett, Barry Weingast, Terry Anderson, Andrew Rutten, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, and others.
Whereas liberals and conservatives argue in favor of political constraints, Anarchy and the Law examines whether to check against abuse, government power must be replaced by a social order of self-government based on contracts.
The Mises Institute published a video called Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve. Must see.
The God Delusion (review: dnf)
Comprehensive, but a bit scatterbrained. I made it about 1/3 of the way through.
“With the deceptive, exciting, children-friendly packaging of witchcraft in the Harry Potter series, our youth today view witchcraft not only as good and fun, but also as harmless fantasy.” Myth versus truth in the Harry Potter caseÄìat least she’s persistent. [via librarycrunch]
Interesting commentary on photo essays that appear on government websites.
FedEx doesn’t want to ship contents labeled as “rocket fuel”. The containersÄìamong them Rocket Fuel, Neon, Nitrogen, and even CertaintyÄìwere phony package design samples for the Greenwood Space Travel Supply Company, but still too borderline to get shipped.
The Central Division of the Los Angeles Police Department keeps a weekly map of the downtown homeless population. I wonder what data they are gathering besides headcounts. I’d love to see this map cross-referenced with the weekly crime stats, weather, events, etc.
When I was at the Atlanta History Center on Monday for the exhibit of Martin Luther King’s papers, one particular item really caught my eye: Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, a comic book!! I wrote myself a note to look for it, and I’m glad I was able to track it down. [via bully says]
What I Did On Martin Luther King Day
Last night I got to check out the opening of the Martin Luther King Papers exhibit at the Atlanta History Center. The places was pretty much packed, which was great to see. We arrived at around 1:30 in the afternoon, and our time-ticket wasn’t until 5:15!
Anyway, we came back after lunch. On display they had hundreds and hundreds of original documents from his life as well as some great photos by Flip Schulke and others. What really struck me, and what I really liked about the exhibit, was the focus on his intellectual biography.
Martin Luther King is occasionally reduced to a nice little rhetorical soundbite or posterboy for a specific political movement. That’s not inaccurate, per se, but incomplete. The exhibit showed a pretty impressive history of introspection and inquiry. There were original copies from dozens of his sermons, notes from his many speeches, books from his personal library with marginal annotations, his huge files of index cards for future reference. It makes you remember that he was not just a politico, but a thinker who wrestled with Big Ideas and tried to live them as well. There’s really too much to take in on one visit. At least bring some comfortable shoes to stand and read and read and read. So go check it out. It’s here in Atlanta until May, and a collection of this size probably won’t ever happen again.
The Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain made a comic book about Fair Use. Law professor James Boyle talked with NPR about it.
Jason Kottke sums up the “iPhone” trademark dispute quite nicely: “booorrrrr-ring“
Photos of surprisingly colorful and exuberant bus stop architecture from the old Soviet Union.
Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century (review: 3/5)
I’ve been sitting on this one for a while. I’m not really sure how you review something like this, so I’ll just say it’s a cool, encyclopedic book. Bruce Sterling calls it a “dizzyingly comprehensive chunk of treeware,” which sounds about right. Worldchanging is the meatworld reference book associated with the collaborative Worldchanging website.
Inside, you’ll find short articles on about a million green-related topics. Let’s see… forestry, women’s rights, microfinance, product design, DIY, bioplastics, sustainable ranching, social entrepreneurship, climate change, etc. It is a very pretty book: full-color throughout, nicely designed on heavy paper, and with lots of photos (though woefully short of cool, original infographics). The obvious problem is inherent to an encyclopedia, where no topic is covered in depth, and no entry can be as refined or nuanced as it ought to be (e.g., only 7 pages on “Understanding Trade”). It’s an honest start, and there’s some inspiration to be found if you’re already inclined.
We don’t need another anthology of feminist essays. “They read like progress reports, but also like P.R., calculated proof of feminismÄôs vitality and diversity. Each new anthology builds the same case from scratch.”
Richard Dawkins makes the scientific argument for keeping Saddam Hussein alive. “His mind would have been a unique resource for historical, political and psychological research: a resource that is now forever unavailable to scholars.” It’s an interesting thought. While there is a lot of good social science work analyzing tyranny, for the psychological angle “the sample size is small.”
Mark Larson 