"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance."
LearnOutLoud's Art Masterpieces is a collection of essays on some of the most important works of art ever created. These carefully selected writings provide exciting commentary on the work of such masters as Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Michaelangelo, Titian, Sandro Botticelli, Rembrandt and many more. If you've ever wanted to gain a deeper appreciation of the great works of Western painting, then this audio series will be an invaluable compliment to your exploration.
Twenty-two paintings are covered in this collection and each MP3 file covers a different painting and has a high quality image of the art work embedded into it (which can be viewed in iTunes). Also included in this collection is a supplemental PDF which features images of all 22 paintings.
The bra was invented by an engineer of German extraction called Onto Titzling in 1912. He was living in a New York boarding house, and one of his neighbours, a voluptuous opera singer called Swanhilda Olafson, complained that she needed a garment to hoist her vast bosom aloft every evening — so Titzling obliged, using some cotton, elastic and metal struts. Unfortunately, he failed to patent the device and, in the early 1930s, a Frenchman named Philippe de Brassière began making a suspiciously similar object. Titzling took him to court, but the unscrupulous Frenchman won the day. And that's why the garment all the ladies are wearing is called a brassiere, not a titzling.
Bette Midler sang about this court case in the film Beaches, so obviously it's true, isn't it? Don't be ridiculous. It's a total fabrication, based on a spoof 1971 history by Wallace Reyburn, and is just one of a thousand tales and myths that punctuate the history of the small double-dome of cloth that encases the female chest.
Today we remember the victims of Katrina, but we should not forget that government levees have been failing in minor and major disasters throughout their history. Recall, for example, the Great Flood of 1927. The similarities are startling. A known threat was approaching and yet all the government spending and planning completely failed. In fact, in both cases the government turned a normal problem into a major disaster. The African American population was hurt disproportionately in both cases. In 1927 Herbert Hoover promised aid and assistance that failed to materialize (this was a major reason for the black exodus from the Republican to the Democrat party). In both cases it was individuals and organizations — both commercial and charitable — that did the real work of reconstruction. FULL ARTICLE
In early-1900s North America, infant and young child mortality was commonplace. Children seemed to have very little resistance to disease, dying of illnesses such as rickets, typhoid and diphtheria. Doctors recognized malnutrition as a prime culprit for much of this heartache.
How to solve the problem eluded the medical profession until 1930 with the invention of Pablum, a pre-cooked, chock-full-of-vitamins, infant cereal that generations of children around the world have loved and eagerly devoured. Adults, on the other hand, have turned up their noses at the mush, likening its taste to that of boiled Kleenex. Pablum and its companion, Sunwheat Biscuits for toddlers, were the brainchild of a dedicated team of doctors and researchers under the leadership of Dr. Alan Brown.
On our honeymoon, we were surprised to find a bottle of absinthe available in a whisky shop in Scotland. Now I know how it compared to the genuine stuff of the 19th century:
The liquor absinthe is believed to have been created in 1792 by Pierre Ordinaire, a French doctor. Henry-Louis Pernod of Pontarlier in France first commercially produced absinthe in 1797. The name absinthe is derived from the Latin absinthium and from the Greek apsinthion, both words meaning wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), which is the drink's chief ingredient. Also made with angelica root, aniseed, fennel, hyssop, licorice and star aniseed, the liquor has a high alcohol content and a harsh taste. Thujone, which is present in wormwood, is the chemical that is responsible for the hallucinogenic effects of the liquor.
I could do without the vast majority of "funny" material circulating in email, but this one had me in stitches. Read it aloud. Or better yet, ask my wife to read it aloud to you:
Room Service (RS): "Morny. Ruin sorbees."
Guest (G): "Sorry, I thought I dialed room-service."
RS: "Rye… Ruin sorbees… morny! Djewish to odor sunteen??"
When I was new to economics (a few years ago) I read the Austrians and the popularizers of the Chicagoite mainstream in about equal portions. I was unclear at first about the differences between Austrian and mainstream neoclassical theory, but there were 2 things that struck me as wrong with what turned out to be the mainstreamers:
intersubjective utility comparisons — see in particular The Armchair Economist by Steven Landsburg, who argues that he might want to see movie X quantitatively more than his wife wants to see movie Y (or vice versa);
objections to Austrian Business Cycle Theory — namely, the counterargument that successful entrepreneurs are, almost by definition, good at predicting future market conditions and therefore should not, as the Austrians contend, be fooled by "false" interest rates into making malinvestments.
I spent about a year struggling with #1, but concerning #2, what seemed clear to me from the beginning is the Austrian counter-counterargument, which is nicely reviewed and summarized in today's daily article at Mises.org, "Why Don't Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Business Cycle?" by Brian Stanley.
It was not these contributions that deprived Viennese journalists of their independence; it was their ignorance that fettered them; the great age of Viennese economic journalism had long passed away. The excellent economists who had collaborated with the press — among them Carl Menger — had found no worthy successors. […] When a government regulation was passed or an important business transaction took place, the journalists would rush to the pertinent government official or to the businessman concerned. The information the journalists received from him was then presented to the public. The government did not need to corrupt journalists; it was enough to inform them. Journalists feared nothing more than their being informed a few days later than others in their profession. To avoid such a penalty they were always prepared to represent the government's point of view. Their economic ignorance then afforded the advantage that they could plead the government case without independent mental reservations.
One of the gentler disagreements among libertarians is the question of ignorance versus malice on the part of the bad guys.
The policy of FEE throughout its half-century existence has been to assume the best possible intentions from socialists and economic interventionists who merely lack a proper understanding of economic cause and effect.
This same position was taken by Mises, Hayek, and Hazlitt: assume good faith and educate the wayward statists.
An economist must deal with doctrines, not with men. He must criticize erroneous thought. It is not his function to reveal personal motives for protecting fallacies.
On the subject of his break from this gentlemanly "good faith" strategy, Murray Rothbard wrote, [Read the rest »]
FINALLY … finally, someone has the courage to speak the obvious out loud and reveal the textbook "history" of Julius Caesar's assassination to be the conspiracy theory that it is:
Eclipses, which occur whenever the moon is directly aligned with the sun and the earth, happen with some frequency. Lunar eclipses (when the moon passes through the shadow of the earth) happen several times a year, and solar eclipses (when the moon blocks the light of the sun) happen with some regularity.
The first recorded mention of an eclipse comes from ancient China sometime around 2100bc. The Chinese believed eclipses were caused by a dragon eating the sun, and that the dragon had to be frightened away by making loud noises and shooting arrows into the sky. On this occasion, goes the story, the royal astronomers, Hsi and Ho, neglected their duties and failed to warn the emperor of the upcoming eclipse, so the proper rituals could not be observed. Although everything turned out alright, the emperor had the astronomers beheaded just to be on the safe side.
Though most astronomers have understood the basic mechanics of solar eclipses for quite some time, common people have been less enlightened about the darkness. Describing the total solar eclipse that occurred on the morning of 14 May 1230, medieval historian Roger of Wendover wrote: "it became so dark that the labourers, who had commenced their morning's work, were obliged to leave it, and returned again to their beds to sleep; but in about an hour's time, to the astonishment of many, the Sun regained its usual brightness."
Christopher Columbus was able to exploit ignorance of eclipses to his advantage during his early explorations of the New World. In 1504, Columbus was having difficulties convincing the natives of Jamaica to trade him food in exchange for European trinkets. When he stumbled upon a copy of Johannes Muller's Calendarium (1474) aboard his ship, he devised a plan to trick the Indians into being more favorably inclined towards the trades he suggested. Armed with the Calendarium's prediction of a lunar eclipse on the evening on 29 February 1504, Columbus arranged a meeting with the native chief for that evening. At the meeting, Columbus announced that God would demonstrate his anger with the natives by taking away the moon. Surely enough, shortly after Columbus issued his warning, the moon began to be swallowed up by the earth's shadow. The frightened natives pleaded with Columbus to intervene with God on their behalf, and, upon securing his crew a supply of food until they were able to leave the island, Columbus obliged. The moon was returned later that evening.
-JEFF CHAPMAN
Columbus established that omens are more reliable when manipulated by those who don't believe in them. See "the reliability of omens" for a less propitious prognostication…
In 1972, as the Old Right and the New Left briefly overlapped on questions of America's corporatism at home and imperialism abroad, then–New Left historian Ronald Radosh collaborated with "right libertarian" Murray Rothbard on this collection of historical essays on what is very unhelpfully labeled "corporate liberalism" (more accurately described by British Leninist theoretician, R. Palme Dutt, as "social fascism") a.k.a. the broad mainstream of establishment American politics in the 20th century:
One unusual aspect of the book is that the selections were made by, and three of the essays written by, two editors, each of whom launch their joint critique from widely differing perspectives. [Read the rest »]
August 30th, 2007 by 
bkmarcus
No Comments »
In early-1900s North America, infant and young child mortality was commonplace. Children seemed to have very little resistance to disease, dying of illnesses such as rickets, typhoid and diphtheria. Doctors recognized malnutrition as a prime culprit for much of this heartache.
The liquor absinthe is believed to have been created in 1792 by Pierre Ordinaire, a French doctor. Henry-Louis Pernod of Pontarlier in France first commercially produced absinthe in 1797. The name absinthe is derived from the Latin absinthium and from the Greek apsinthion, both words meaning wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), which is the drink's chief ingredient. Also made with angelica root, aniseed, fennel, hyssop, licorice and star aniseed, the liquor has a high alcohol content and a harsh taste. Thujone, which is present in wormwood, is the chemical that is responsible for the hallucinogenic effects of the liquor.
It was not 
Eclipses, which occur whenever the moon is directly aligned with the sun and the earth, happen with some frequency. Lunar eclipses (when the moon passes through the shadow of the earth) happen several times a year, and solar eclipses (when the moon blocks the light of the sun) happen with some regularity.