Assorted This and That

Green lobby must be treated as a religion - John Kay

Appreciating Our Moral and Mental Development-Arnold Kling

"In reality, the human race is changing. The physical improvements in humans have been emphasized by Robert Fogel in The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death. He coined the term "technophysio evolution" to describe the phenomenon. He points out, for example, that people have become so much larger and active over the past three hundred years that today's human could not survive on the diet of our recent ancestors"

Did the U.S. just provoke Iran?- Juan Cole

Crazy Eddie's "Culture of Deceit"

What are the jobs Americans won't do? By Daniel Gross

Disastrous Uncertainty: How Government Disaster Policy Undermines Community Rebound, by Emily Chamlee-Wright and Daniel Rothschild

The Neurology of Self-Awareness By V.S. Ramachandran

98 ways to visualise data

Yet Another Worry for Those Who Believe the Glass Is Half-Empty

"A study by researchers in the Netherlands has found that people who are temperamentally pessimistic are more likely to die of heart disease and other causes than those who are by nature optimistic.

The study, led by Dr. Erik J. Giltay of the Psychiatric Center GGZ Delfland and published in The Archives of General Psychiatry, followed 941 Dutch subjects, ages 65 to 85, from 1991 to 2001. Subjects were ranked in quartiles as pessimistic or optimistic on the basis of their reactions to statements like, “I still have positive expectations concerning my future” and, “I often feel that life is full of promises.”

Your snap judgments are spot on

It's raining men in China

Ten Years Later - David Warsh

Boring AEAs

Huge crowds at US porn convention

The scale of the Adult Entertainment Expo reflects the huge growth in a business which is said to be bigger than Hollywood and worth $57bn (£29bn).
Estimates of its annual contribution to the US economy range from $12bn-$20bn

The system is the solution by Donald J. Boudreaux

Dead cat bounce

A Country Less Dependent on Oil Is Free to Make Other New Year’s Resolutions

Why are women more religious than men?

Trials and error by Tim Harford

Beeps per minute

EPA Improves Its Mileage Estimates,But Stats Still Don't Tell the Whole Story