Clipmarks | Rustee's Favorite Clips collection

Economics in One Clip

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:04:18 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

One reason that Bastiat's example has power is that it applies not just in one area of policy but all areas. If it isn't true that breaking windows creates wealth, it is not true that government spending and inflating is a boon to the economy. It only ends up draining wealth from the private sector, which is the only source of wealth creation.

Clip Source: mises.org

A kid throws a rock at a window and breaks it, and everyone standing around regrets the unfortunate state of affairs. But then up walks a man who purports to be wise and all knowing. He points out that this is not a bad thing after all. The man fixing the window will get money for doing so. This will then be spent on a new suit, and the tailor too will get money. The tailor will spend money on other items, and the circle of rising prosperity will expand without end.

What's wrong with this scenario? As Bastiat put it, "It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another. It is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace, he would, perhaps, have replaced his old shoes, or added another book to his library. In short, he would have employed his six francs in some way which this accident has prevented."

If the broken window really produces wealth, why not break all windows up and down the whole city block?

Tags: economics

Cigarette Tax Burnout

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:55:36 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

In New York City and State, tobacco taxes have been raised so many times that the retail cost can exceed $9 a pack -- about double the national average. Few budget-savvy smokers in the Big Apple pay that tax. Patrick Fleenor, an expert on tobacco taxes at the Tax Foundation, estimates that there is "now a 75% gap between cigarette sales in the city and cigarette consumption." In other words, three out of four cigarettes are bought elsewhere or are contraband.

In New Jersey, about 40% of the Marlboros and Virginia Slims that are lit up escape the $2.57-a-pack tax. In Washington State, evasion was so rampant that the legislature decided in 2005 to lower the 75% tax on cigars and other tobacco products as a way to raise revenue and help state retailers.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Politicians in Annapolis are scratching their heads wondering what happened to all those chain smokers who were supposed to help balance Maryland's budget. Last year the legislature doubled the cigarette tax to $2 a pack to pay for expanded health-care coverage. Eight months later, cigarette sales have plunged 25% and the state is in fiscal distress again.

As House Majority Leader Kumar Barve put it, fewer people smoking is "a good thing." Yes, except that Maryland may be losing retail sales more than smokers. Residents of Maryland's Washington suburbs can shop in nearby Virginia, where the tax is only 30 cents a pack, and save at least $15 per carton.

The Maryland pols are so afraid this is true that they've made it a crime for residents to carry two packs of cigarettes that weren't purchased in the state.

Out-of-state purchases, tax-free Internet sales and a cigarette black market are booming.

Tags: taxes, government, tobacco

Surprise! The Most Aggressive Dog Breed

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:44:40 GMT

clipped by: Rustee

Clip Source: www.flickr.com

Clip Source: www.mirror.co.uk

Forget pit bulls and Rottweilers - it's the tiny sausage dog that's the most aggressive breed.

One in 12 dachshunds have tried to bit their owner, a study found. And 20 per cent have snapped at strangers or attacked other dogs.

Chihuahuas, an even smaller breed, were the second most nasty.

But the pit bull - notorious for its aggressive nature - was ranked six in the Top 10 list of aggressive dogs.

The study published in Applied Animal Behavior Science quizzed 6,000 owners.

Top 10 aggressive dogs: 1 Dachshund 2 Chihuahua 3 Jack Russell terrier 4 Akita 5 Australian cattle dog 6 Pit bull 7 Beagle 8 English springer spaniel 9 Border collie 10 German shepherd.

Shapeshifting Sun

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:47:11 GMT

clipped by: Rustee

Clip Source: virtual.finland.fi

Tags: photography

Believing Global Warming

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:43:16 GMT

clipped by: Rustee

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the mass hysteria phenomenon known as global warming. Much of the science has since been discredited. Now it's time for political scientists, theologians and psychiatrists to weigh in.

The real place where discussions of global warming belong is in the realm of belief, and particularly the motives for belief.

The first is as a vehicle of ideological convenience.

Take just about any other discredited leftist nostrum of yore – population control, higher taxes, a vast new regulatory regime, global economic redistribution, an enhanced role for the United Nations – and global warming provides a justification.

A second explanation is theological.

A light carbon footprint has become the 21st-century equivalent of sexual abstinence.

Finally, there is a psychological explanation.

What's remarkable is the extent to which penance sells among a mostly secular audience. What is there to be penitent about?

Magnetic Rain

Fri, 23 May 2008 05:46:20 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Texas sized blobs eh? Whoa.

Clip Source: spaceweather.com

MAGNETIC RAIN: There's a rainstorm underway on the sun's eastern limb. You'd better bring your asbestos umbrella, though, because the "droplets" are Texas-sized blobs of hot plasma:

Prominences are clouds of hydrogen held above the surface of the sun by magnetic fields. While this particular cloud appears to be raining like a summer shower on Earth, the true situation is more complicated. Look carefully: Some of the plasma raindrops are falling "up." That's because the motions are controlled by not only gravity but also magnetism, a force of little importance in terrestrial rainstorms. The solar magnetic field is rooted below the sun's visible surface; roiling motions in the body of the sun itself cause magnetic fields high overhead to shift, wriggle, and "rain" in all directions. No wonder prominences are so much fun to watch.

Tags: science, astronomy, sun

Top Five Paranormal Phenomena That Could Be Real

Tue, 20 May 2008 18:12:25 GMT

clipped by: Rustee

Clip Source: www.area51.org

#5 UFOs

After all, who wants to admit that there are things that we just can’t explain and that they’re “violating” our airspace. Might be enough to keep you up at night.

#4 Electronic Voice Phenomenon

If it’s not the radio, and it’s not the house settling, and we stipulate that it’s not fake, we’re left with a genuine mystery. Does it prove there’s an afterlife? Certainly not — that’s a leap. It does suggest, yet again, that our science cannot (currently) explain everything we encounter.

#3 The Sirius Mystery

The Dogon have a 400-hundred-year-old statue that depicts all three stars.

#2 Psi

While there is more than enough B.S. to go around, it might take a B.S. (or a PhD) to understand the technical data coming out of university laboratories in support of this phenomenon.

#1 Bigfoot

Tribes of Native Americans throughout CA, OR, WA, and BC have their own legends of the huge hairy man who lives in the deep forest

Sightings by European settlers in the Northwest date back to the 1800s.

Listen to the Aurora

Tue, 20 May 2008 05:49:55 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks: Lots of samples at the source.

Clip Source: www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu

"Natural Radio" describes naturally-occurring electromagnetic (radio) signals emanating from lightning storms, aurora (The Northern and Southern Lights), and most importantly, the Earth's magnetic-field (the Magnetosphere).

This is a presentation of Earth's natural radio emissions that occur in the extremely-low-frequency to very-low-frequency (ELF-VLF) radio spectrum--specifically, at AUDIO frequencies between approximately 100 to 10,000 cycles-per second (0.1 - 10 kHz).

PUWHS2.WAV

Tags: science, physics, astronomy

A Few Things Moore Forgot in Sicko

Sat, 10 May 2008 19:18:31 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

Michael Moore forgot to mention what the United States does have that other countries do not: A Declaration of Independence. A Constitution. A Bill of Rights. The concepts of individual rights, personal choice, free markets, private investment that develops most of the world's new medications, and the benefit of a private relationship between physicians and their patients without third-party interference.

In his hymn to every other nation's superiority to America—in proportion to their commitment to collectivism—Michael Moore forgot to mention any American values at all.

Clip Source: www.capmag.com

When Mr. Moore filmed two of his relatives buying health insurance in fear before they traveled to America, he forgot to mention that many Canadians travel to America for the express purpose of spending their own money for more than $1 billion in American health care each year.

Michael Moore forgot to mention why he jammed seriously ill patients into a small boat to take them to Cuba, in order to film a stunt attempting to prove the superiority of Cuban health care-when, for much less money, he could have written them a check for care in America. It must have been compassion.

Most importantly, when Mr. Moore mentioned that "every industrial country" except the United States has adopted medical socialism, he did not mention why that means that we should.

Many of those countries have long waiting lists and severe rationing of health care. Should the United States?

Money: Necessary and Useful...Not Inherently Corrupt

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:57:45 GMT

clipped by: Rustee

Clip Source: mises.org

It's time we demystify the role of money in society. It serves a useful purpose.

You need money to serve as a proxy for goods and services to exchange later.

There is no arguing with the injunction to serve others, but there is a problem with the phrase "give back." It implies that people with money have taken something from others. But presuming that the businessperson has been successful through enterprise, their wealth comes not from taking but from cooperating with willing buyers.

Even the richest person, provided the riches comes from mutually beneficial exchange, does not need to give anything "back" to the community, because this person took nothing out of the community.

Thus is the institution of money not inherently corrupt or tainted; it is highly useful and necessary, and arises merely in response to the desire of people to cooperate.

Tags: money, economics

Global Warming Nonsense

Sat, 03 May 2008 07:12:06 GMT

clipped by: Rustee

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

The concept of malaria as a "tropical" infection is nonsense. It is a disease of the poor. Alarmists in the richest countries peddle the notion that the increase in malaria in poor countries is due to global warming and that this will eventually cause malaria to spread to areas that were "previously malaria free." That's a misrepresentation of the facts and disingenuous when packaged with opposition to the cheapest and best insecticide to combat malaria – DDT.

It is true that malaria has been increasing at an alarming rate in parts of Africa and elsewhere in the world.

But throughout history the most critical factors in the spread or eradication of disease has been human behavior (shifting population centers, changing farming methods and the like) and living standards. Poverty has been and remains the world's greatest killer.

But anyone truly worried about malaria in impoverished countries would do well to focus on improving human living conditions, not the weather.

Tags: disease, climate change

The Price of Gas

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:59:01 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

Again, while just over nine percent of the price of a gallon of gas goes to oil company profits, approximately twenty percent of the price of a gallon of gas is composed of federal, state, and local taxes.

Those who want the government to step in and do something about the high price of gas are either forgetful of recent history or too young to remember the oil crisis of 1979. During that time, restrictions on the price of gasoline led to the inability of some to find gas at all. Price ceilings always lead to shortages. The only thing worse than having to pay "too much" for gas is not being able to find gas at any price.

Let us not be swayed by politicians out for power or by reporters out to create news where none exists. Facts and economic logic should prevail rather than rhetoric.

Clip Source: www.mises.org

Are gas prices really all that high?

A change in price can be a result of inflation, taxes, changes in supply and demand, or any combination of the three.

First, we need to take into account inflation. The result of the Federal Reserve printing too much money is a loss of purchasing power of the dollar: something that cost $1.00 in 1950 would cost about $8.78 today. As for gas prices, in 1950 the price of gas was approximately 30 cents per gallon. Adjusted for inflation, a gallon of gas today should cost right at $2.64, assuming taxes are the same.

But taxes have not stayed the same. The tax per gallon of gas in 1950 was roughly 1.5% of the price. Today, federal, state, and local taxes account for approximately 20% of gas's posted price. Taking inflation and the increase in taxes into account (assuming no change in supply or demand) the same gallon of gas that cost 30 cents in 1950 should today cost about $3.13.

The question is, why are gas prices not higher than they are?

Tags: economics

Russian Bombers Intercepted Off Alaska's Coast

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:33:11 GMT

clipped by: Rustee

Clip Source: www.militarytimes.com

More and more American and Canadian fighter jets are scrambling and intercepting Russian bombers flying off the Alaskan coast, exacerbating tensions between the former Cold War foes.

There have been 16 such intercepts since July, Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Howie Chandler told the Anchorage Daily News on March 27. That compares with just one in 2005, and none in the previous 10 years, Chandler said.

The most recent incident occurred March 25, when two F-15s from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, scrambled to intercept two Russian Tu-95 Bear heavy bombers.

The bomber patrols also raise the possibility that a routine encounter between Russian bombers and American fighters could escalate beyond the intentions of either side

But the flip side is that the bomber patrols encourage the U.S. military to be more vigilant

Tags: military, russia, air force

Ancient Chinese Bells

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:32:15 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

The importance of that discovery grows when we realize that it took the West a thousand years to develop the cathedral bell, and we didn't have it until the middle ages. Bells are very hard to make, yet China had these remarkably sophisticated Zhong bells during the Golden Age of Athens. The bells produce a rich tone, they take far less bronze to get it than a cathedral bell, and then they deliver two sounds for the cost of one.

It's easy to look right at something that's very sophisticated without seeing the sophistication. It took us eighty years to catch on to these remarkable, but unassuming, bells. The best inventions are like that. In the best inventions, elegance masquerades as simplicity.

Clip Source: www.uh.edu

Just after the turn of this century, archaeologists started finding curious sets of bronze bells in tombs throughout China. They range from 2000 to 3600 years old, and they have an odd shape.

They're called Zhong bells. Thousands of these bells had been unearthed by the late 1970s, and their strange secret still hadn't yet come to light.

The secret was actually seen and missed in 1957 when the National Music Research Institute in China played a set of these bells in concert.

The E-bell was missing in one octave. But then a player found he could get that sound by striking the C-bell on its side.

But twenty years later, Chinese musicologists, examining a set of these bells, discovered that every bell in the set had the same property -- it had two tones, either a third or a minor third apart. Then they found that many of these bells even had marks on the side to show players where to strike the bells to get the two tones. Each bell was, in fact, meant to be two bells in one.

Clip Source: www.uh.edu

Tags: music, history, china

The Most Ancient Technology of All

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 02:54:13 GMT

clipped by: Rustee
clipper's remarks:

Its function is to put reality in terms that make sense. That means dramatizing what we see -- transmuting it into something more than what's obvious.

Clip Source: www.uh.edu

What's the oldest technology? Farming came late in history. Before farming, settled herdsmen and gatherers made clothing, knives, tents, spears -- but so did nomads before them. Go back further: archaeology tells us that pictures and music were among stone-age technologies. Some really magnificent cave paintings survive, along with evidence of rattles, drums, pipes, and shell trumpets. Even the Bible -- the chronology of the Hebrew tribes -- identifies musical-instrument-making as one of three technologies that arose in the 7th and 8th generations after Adam.

Music is the most accessible art, and -- at the same time -- the most sophisticated. In almost any age, or any society, music-making is every bit as complex as other technologies.

Music is clearly as old as any technology we can date. Couple that with the sure knowledge that whales sing -- that the animal urge to make music precedes technology, and I offer music-making as my candidate for the oldest technology of all.

Tags: music, history