Spare Change?

The Onion has once again made me laugh more than anybody has a right to. Now I like Obama but this was too funny not to link to . And here is the rest of it.

Read more!

Time is a tickin'

This is a great article in the NYTimes about making decisions. read the article and then think about how these ideas could be affect very complex systems and decisions. It would seem that the more involved the decisions are the more time spent on average making them and the lower the net reward would be for making the right choice. It seems to me just another reason to decentralize and allow eliminate the number of complicated decisions in favor of allowing people to organize their lives to fit their own circumstances. We should remember these kinds of trade offs when we promote, create or design any type of system, space or object.

Read more!

The Ethyl Poisoned Earth

Here is a great piece on one element of our countries environmental history. Since global warming is the favorite environmental topic of the day I think it is important to remember so of the other ways we have affected our globe. This article goes in to a good amount of detail on the introduction of lead into our gasoline supply the damage that followed. A particularly interesting item is how there were quickly concerns about the health affects due to in part workers in ethyl plants dying due to lead poisoning. The Surgeon General Investigated with the following result "The Surgeon General's committee found no firm evidence of a threat to the public, but its members pointed out that its timetable had been insufficient for a thorough investigation, and further studies were strongly suggested. The public took this finding as a clean bill of health, and soon Ethyl was pumping again." It seems like yet another example of how an agency promoted as one that protects citizens was key in prolonging the damage being done. This is similar to the recent Supreme Court case I wrote about earlier where the regulator body approving a product, the FDA in that case, eliminates the culpability of the products producer. This is the never talked about negative of regulation, especially incompetent regulation.

Read more!