Hmm

Placebos have real effects on the body (via Newmark).

A sad day

Jude Wanniski passed away yesterday. RIP. Imperfect? Yes. Invaluable in helping to illuminate what is happening in the worlds of economics, politics, and war? No doubt.

Illusion

I think I may have linked to this site before, but I'm not sure, and it's pretty cool, so here it is (possibly again).

They do exist

Scott Stossel in the Globe reveals himself as a love-to-lose loser. Asshole.

Stick your neck out

Paul Graham on the role of risk in business.
Jude Wanniski implicitly so for politics and Iraq.

Occam

There are a lot of theories going around as to why Google is selling 14,259,265 shares in a secondary offering (get it? Put a 3 and a decimal at the beginning, and it's pi). Why are we ignoring the simplest one? Google management knows (ok, thinks) that their shares are very overpriced, and so now is the time to sell more.

More Malthus

Levitt on peak oil and its consequences. As we run out of oil, whenever that may be, prices will go up. As prices go up, consumers will both figure out how to be more efficient with oil and to make do with less of it (higher mpg cars and fewer miles driven, for instance). Companies will also do that, and also pour more resources into other energy sources. In short, we will adapt. The transition may or may not be painful, but it will happen naturally from people responding to incentives. If you think this will happen sooner rather than later, put your money where your mouth is by buying more energy-efficient goods, and perhaps investing in alternative energy research, I'm sure there are good ways to do so. Trying to get the government more heavily involved in the situation is likely to make it worse.

An end to the controversy?

Probably not, but still encouraging news in stem cells.

Suck it Malthus

Bailey on Diamond.

Quick hits

Is Iran a threat? Read someone who actually understands nuclear physics and how the international system works.
Where the civil rights movement should go next.
What caused the Vietnam War.

Changing people's minds

Looks like you don't do it changing minds, but by changing people.

I feel like Jeff Foxworthy

Redneck montage (via Balko). Some excellent mullets in there. Turn your sound up.

Lovely

Kelo just keeps getting worse (via Catallarchy).

Noice

Giving Malkin a nice smackdown.

Tempest, teapot

I cannot believe all the controversy surrounding the Hawks trying to acquire Joe Johnson. I mean, it's Joe F'ing Johnson. He's a nice player, I wish the C's hadn't given up him on so quickly, he seems like a good teammate, but give me a break. Sportsguy's intern is acting like this would be the greatest signing at least since Shaq went to LA. He's a great third banana, he's probably a good second banana, but he is not a franchise-transforming player, and not a steal at $70M, especially when you're giving up two first round draft picks as well. And remember, these are Atlanta's picks, they will almost certainly be lottery selections. Is Belkin causing more problems than he is solving for the Hawks? Could be, but the other owners aren't exactly covering themselves in glory either. Whatever you want to say about Belkin, remember, he is not submarining a great deal.

Awesome

Statler and Waldorf, at it again. I never knew that Waldorf hangs with Flavor Flav.

Incentives matter

At least to apathetic American high school students.

Moooovie Rumours

Zoolander 2 may be in the works, and Steve Carell might be The Joker. Put me down as rooting for both.

Krappy Krugman

Boudreaux on Krugman's admiration for the French economy. I think his point is (and it's right, even if it's not his point) that given France's policies, only the strongest will work, so the averages will look better for productivity statistics. That's why they produce as much as we do, per hour worked. I suppose it's better than having policies that accomplished the opposite, i.e., encouraging the worst workers to work and discouraging the best, but it's still bad long-term policy.

I knew it!

Bernoulli's principle as the reason for why airplanes fly is incomplete, at best (via Newmark).