Metal Friday

Some of the best music ever put to a heavy metal guitar. Up the irons!

Hayek vs. Keynes Round II

One of my favorite things this month and front-runner for one of my favorites this year.

The Tyler Cowen

1. Great article on the economics of the Death Star. The comments are even more robust and thoughtful than the article itself. Via Marginal Revolution. 
2. The best interactive weather forecaster and historical record I've ever clapped eyes on. Via Information Aesthetics.

The Tyler Cowen

1. New York's Canal Street dioramized.
2. Support for, and condemnation of, Atlas Shrugged.
3. A detailed but readable account of Goldman Sachs' and rising food prices.
4. Radiation dosage chart. Just in time for my trip to Japan.
5. Phenomenal interactive map of poverty in the world from 1820-today. Via Infosethtics.
6. A comparison between the London Underground's map and the real shape of the system.
7. The last Harry Potter movie's first trailer. My how we've all changed over the course of this story. (Though I think J.K. Rowling's life has probably been the most dramatically altered.)
   

The Tyler Cowen - Fun and Stuff Edition

We're back after getting some sweat on a Filipino dance floor. There's a lot of fun stuff that's happened in the past 5 days. As such, we're breaking today's edition of links into pieces. The Fun and Stuff Edition summarizes the best things on the internet in the past five days.

The Tyler Cowen - Global Affairs Edition

We're back after some sun on the beaches of Puerto Galera. There is a lot of news to catch up on and articles to recommend. As such, we're breaking today's edition of links into pieces. The Global Affairs Edition summarizes the best writing of the past five days on global issues.

1. Great insight on North Korea from Russia. I need to dig deeper into the Cheonan incident. 
2. Pacifism. Via Marginal Revolution. 
3. The resurgence of the veil and the broader implications of Islamism not as a religious force but a socio-political one.
4. Another article questioning the widely-accepted connection between prosperity and democratization. I still think they're conflating revolution and democratization. 
5. A sweepingly comprehensive overview of The Arab Spring. Ranging from a summary of the Tunisian tipping point to the historical comparisons to Communism and 'Common Sense' to the role of technology in revolutions. The picture it paints for the Middle East's future is not a rosy one but it is far more realistic than most analyses which look only forward. As always, a Maslow's Pyramid understanding of what's needed strikes me as the most obvious. 

"The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products -- principally from America -- are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character."

The Tyler Cowen

Minimal updates today. Our crack team of journalists is heading to...the Philippines. For what they assure me is the scoop of the century. On a beach. Thankfully I don't pay them anything so I can't get too bent out of shape as they slowly burn to a crisp on vacation.

We'll be back in the saddle next Wednesday fans, with more of the content that you love. Until then, enjoy.

Firefly: The Message Review

Generations of charm.

Firefly continues to oscillate between the satire and the saccharine, the mindless and the maudlin. It's starting to feel like the wheels are falling off the show a little bit, particularly with the extremely weepy conclusion to The Message. Which is something of a shame, given how tight the episode feels overall. Slightly deeper research however, reveals an explanation for The Message's jarringly heavy-handed conclusion; the news of the show's cancellation came during the production of The Message. Whedon and Minear used the final moments of the episode as a vehicle for their own farewell to the show. Cast in this light, the episode's conclusion is no less jarring but is, at least, forgivably so, putting The Message up there with the series' best.

The Tyler Cowen

1. iPhone owners...you're being watched. 
2. Genetic modification promises to save us all. Not to be a cold-hearted pragmatist, but effectively stopping 1M human deaths a year isn't going to help our over-population problem now is it?
3. OKCupid parses through it's wealth of information. Via Marginal Revolution.
4. How to talk to a North Korean.

Quick apocalypse link

The threats to our continued existence were terrifying enough without impossible to predict or forestall cosmic events. Thank you very much Cracked! (Although I do appreciate the levity with which you present these terrors.)