Adumbration

Insurance as a model for protection against asteroids - concentrate the costs to those that benefit most, and spread the gain across the entire population of the planet 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 »

I am amazed and disappointed that Seattle's City Council can be considering yet one more public subsidy to sports teams.  How do we know it is a subsidy? for one thing, if the stadium enthusiasts were just in business, then all they would need is a building permit. more »

It's mis-stating the situation to blame free markets on the recent financial crisis when a free market would not protect fraudsters and financial idiots from their own risky behavior. more »

Usually when spacecraft are dying, the controllers know well enough in advance that they can command them to an out of the way place in space (or drive them to re-entry), but this one must have been a surprise failure of two redundant paths, happening in some sequence to quickly to react. more »

The debate in Washington about what they want to do with Iran, including a military strike against Iran more »

See this snopes article for the background, which references the original column in World Net Daily by Craig R Smith. As for the content... It is certainly true that we have electricity to light our evenings, and clean water to drink, a huge variety o… more »

None dare ... call it conspiracy (because maybe this really is a hoax). "It" being whether the real story of the 9/11 Pentagon crash has been revealed. Actually there are lots of people who would call it conspiracy, but not me yet... Usually my resp… more »

If the police in our town were to spray bullets into a crowded street in the hope of stopping one criminal who might be there, we would gasp in horror. Let us not then allow our government to do the equivalent on a international scale, by recklessly bombing cities around the world. more »

[At] a festival such as this, it was no wonder to find people agreeing that the drug war is a complete failure and should be abolished. However, it was also inspiring to see such a large number of people extending their confidence in the benefits of freedom to the other areas of our lives, areas in which government interference causes far more harm than good. more »