November 19, 2011

Hydrophophia

"EU says water is not healthy," declares a British headline. Of course it does. After three years of exhaustive study, a well-pensioned panel of EU scientists has conclusively concluded that water purveyors cannot make the hare-brained claim that th...

September 5, 2011

American resilience and China

A good friend sent along this remarkable picture of an American soldier who devised a brace for a weapon that now occupies the shortened end of his leg, amputated courtesy an Afghani IED:   Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Tim...

August 28, 2011

I Already Own a Bullet Train

If you're of a mind someday to whisk conveniently between Fresno and Buttonwillow -- and, hey, who doesn't daydream about that? -- California will have you covered.  Traveling 220 miles per hour (mph), you'll get from "nowhere" to "nowhere" in a...

August 9, 2011

Black Swans Coming

As of Saturday, August 6, Apmex, the world's largest trader in precious metals, suspended the checkout counter until 7 pm EST Sunday, waiting for Asian markets to open.  The implication was that the new prices would be more than a smidge differe...

August 2, 2011

Ceiling Our Fate

Just either side of the contentious debt limit vote in the House on Friday, the United States Congress addressed among its most footling duties: naming and opening new post offices in Mississippi and New York.  Were anyone in Washington to think...

January 18, 2011

The Great Depression II

One basis for deciding whether we are in a "recession" or a "depression" is distinguishing how recessions become depressions.  With the hindsight of history, we already know.Parallels between America's current economic crisis...

May 22, 2010

The Speaker Who Won't Speak with the People

Everywhere we turn, we stumble over Nancy Pelosi. Or rather, we stumble over the micro-regulations Nancy Pelosi adores. These regulations are vast new bureaucratic steps that exact compliance in the most everyday of transactions.In my case, I stumble...