The Wall Street Journal’s Melinda Black has an interesting piece in today’s edition entitled “The Sleepless Elite.” One to three percent of the population require less than six hours of sleep to function well. In fact, she points out that not only do these short sleepers function, but they are upbeat, tend to be thin and energetic.
[Introduction to Economic Controversies (2011)]
It was nearly 40 years ago that Murray Rothbard changed my life. I was then a PhD candidate in economics at the New School for Social Research in downtown Manhattan, while also teaching principles courses at a local university. And I was rapidly losing interest in the whole subject.
[Introduction to The Bastiat Collection (2011), a fantastic new edition, containing all his most important works in a pocket size at an incredibly low price. It is a treasure. An MP3 audio file of this article, narrated by the author, is available for download.]
Tyler Cowen has an interesting post up, What determined the playing length of an audio CD? Turns out Sony wanted a smaller diameter CD at first, but soon settled on a 120mm diameter so that the 74 minute version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (the favorite piece of a Sony VP’s wife) could fit on a single CD. Interesting story, but the 74 minute length, and corresponding physical diameter of the CD, is not really arbitrary.
I’ve discussed before the practice of defensive patenting and defensive patent publishing–companies acquire patents or publish their trade secrets to prevent others from suing them for patent infringement (or to prevent them from patenting the same idea).
Mansharamani uses the work of Roger Garrison and other Austrians to great effect. Buy this book in the Mises Store.
With insurance the client pays a small amount of money (the premium) in exchange for a more certain future, in which his wealth will not fluctuate as wildly in different possible scenarios.
