The Heterodox Academy is not “outraged conservatives.” It is, well…heterodox.
Category Archives: Economics
Data Storage Crystals
…allowing data to be preserved for billions of years. Pretty science fictioney.
This would be a boon for cryonicists, who have been looking for years for a persistent way of maintaining their personal records.
Explaining Trump’s Appeal
A timely essay on the current state of the nation from Charles Murray.
[Sunday-morning update]
A bridge too far: I agree with Ace that Trump finally damaged himself last night, at least with actual Republicans. It’s one thing to say we had bad intel; it’s entirely another to say that Bush deliberately lied us into war. That’s the ravings of the left, not a leading Republican candidate.
Venezuela
…is heading for complete disaster.
This would be us under a Sanders administration, if he got a compliant Congress as well.
The Right To Repair
Yes, I have this crazy idea that when you “buy” something, you own it, not rent it.
Obama’s Climate Legacy
Looks like SCOTUS just wrecked it, 5-4. Couldn’t happen to a nicer dictator.
The stay implies that they think the administration is likely to lose on the merits when the case is argued. But this points out the stakes of the election, given that the next president is likely to appoint more than one justice.
[Wednesday-morning update]
Jonathan Adler explains the ruling. (Note: He is more concerned about climate change than I am.)
Hillary Clinton
…and her ode to serfdom.
There is nothing “progressive” or new about collectivism. It’s the oldest game in civilization.
Mosquitos
Imagining a world without them:
“The ecological effect of eliminating harmful mosquitoes is that you have more people. That’s the consequence,” says Strickman. Many lives would be saved; many more would no longer be sapped by disease. Countries freed of their high malaria burden, for example in sub-Saharan Africa, might recover the 1.3% of growth in gross domestic product that the World Health Organization estimates they are cost by the disease each year, potentially accelerating their development. There would be “less burden on the health system and hospitals, redirection of public-health expenditure for vector-borne diseases control to other priority health issues, less absenteeism from schools”, says Jeffrey Hii, malaria scientist for the World Health Organization in Manila.
They kill more humans than any other animal species, by many orders of magnitude. I wouldn’t miss them.
[Update a few minutes later]
We have the technology to wipe out all Zika-spreading mosquitos.
Why stop there? Go after every species that vectors blood. As the article notes, though, gene drive is not without risk.
Economic Freedom In America
…has rapidly declined under Obama.
Well, that’s what it was all about.
NASA’s Non- #JourneyToMars
Eric Berger reports on Wednesday’s House hearing.
If NASA is smart, they’ll be putting a plan together for a return to the moon, to present to the next administration, preferably with a lot of public/private partnership.
[Update a few minutes later]
Keith Cowing had a roundup related links yesterday. And here‘s Doug Messier’s summary and Jeff Foust’s story.