Adumbration

I've never before seen a three+ hour movie go by so quickly, all the more significant by the film being in German and subtitled.  Suspense, action, and drama -- a war film that looked as harrowing and awful as I can imagine submarine operations to be. more »

... a picture of the participants: Davis unwilling to see the reality of the southern defeat, Benjamin a sycophantic toady, and Breckinridge of one purpose - get the confederacy to admit defeat as soon as possible. more »

The recent news includes more stories about how Boeing's engineering uniion, SPEEA, is planning on conducting a strike if they can't get the company to agree to their contract terms. more »

I listen to a few podcasts, when I'm driving or walking around the city, doing laundry or working in the yard. Among them I find econtalk to be informative and engaging, due in part to the in-depth and calm discourse of the interview format between the diverse assortment of guests and host Russ Roberts. more »

Theory and practice for those considering the benefit of stimulus programs. This edition of EconTalk (Ramey on Stimulus and Multipliers) discusses the empirical studies that have been performed related to computing the economic "multiplier" more »

Several thoughts come to mind with the story depicted by the images here about this natural gas deposit that has been burning in the former Soviet Union since 1971.  Perhaps the most concise would be simply that the roads to hell are paved with good… more »

We might tell ourselves that the moon landing was about exploration and science, but perspectives of time and profession show the years of the space race in the context of the cold war. Those Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions were footnotes to the main story, that the United States could launch the biggest god-damn bomb in the history of the universe and land it in the middle of the Kremlin. more »

A recent program features the topic of decaying infrastructure in water distribution around cities in the nation. more »

I have a long standing interest in alcohol and drug prohibition;  this episode explores the notion of "bootleggers and baptists" in the direct relevance of the US "noble experiment" with alcohol prohibition. I found it difficult to find completely clear… more »

These two fascinating pieces surround people who were in the center of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia; the guests each authored biographies.  The one about Trotsky has a chilling conclusion from Robert Service: "This is one of the terrifying things… more »