Assorted Links (5/28/2011)

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately:

Wolfram Alpha Turns 2: ‘People Just Need What We Are Doing’

wired.com

“Steven Wolfram, the man behind computing-application Mathematica and the search engine Wolfram Alpha, has a short attention span that’s married to a long-term outlook.” I am a big fan of Wolfram Alpha – I use it regularly in my teaching and research, particularly for its symbolic math capabilities!

Texas and the Lesser 49

jaypgreene.com

“Yes it has been an unusual decade with lots of private sector job destruction, and you could come up with a few other caveats, but this is looking like the 1970s all over again: the rest of the country is in the tank while Texas booms.”

Not So Cool Rules

professional.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal writes that the regulatory tax on Americans is now larger than the income tax.”

What’s Stopping Job Creation at Medium-Sized Firms? It’s Washington’s “Climate of Uncertainty”

mjperry.blogspot.com

“Consider that the main point… is not about uncertainty. It is about the hubris of academics and organizers ‘governing’ society who have never actually run anything.”

SCOTUS Makes It Official: California A Failed State

blogs.the-american-interest.com

“The controversial US Supreme Court decision that could ultimately force California to release tens of thousands of prison inmates is more than a shockingly broad exercise of judicial power.  It is also an official declaration by the highest constitutional authority in the land that California meets the strict test of state failure: it can no longer enforce the law within its frontiers.”

The Gates Farewell Warning

professional.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal argues America can be a superpower or a welfare state, but not both.”

David Mamet’s Coming Out Party

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Interview, Bari Weiss interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet. The newly minted conservative shares his views on liberalism, higher education, diversity, theater, the Toyota Prius, NPR and more.”

Mark Helprin: Memorial Day Beyond Stone and Steel

professional.wsj.com

“Mark Helprin writes in The Wall Street Journal that the best tribute to those who have died in the service of their country is probity and preparation, shared sacrifice, continuing resolve, and clarity in regard to how, where and when to go to war.”

When Kennedy Blinked

online.wsj.com

“Charles McCarry reviews Frederick Kempe’s Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, And The Most Dangerous Place on Earth.”

Friday Fun: Net Neutrality

townhall.com

Stephen Crowder provides an entertaining yet insightful analysis concerning “net neutrality”, linking it (by analogy) to the classic tragedy of the commons problem!

The Numbers Game: Is College Worth The Cost?

www.freakonomics.com

“According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, 57 percent of Americans say “the higher education system in the United States fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend.””

The running out of resources myth

opinion.financialpost.com

“The premise behind the question “Are we running out of natural resources?” is terribly mistaken. There is indeed a finite quantity of fossil fuels and other resources in the Earth’s crust. But that does not mean that we will ever run out…”

Google Correlate: Linking the Fed to Nausea Remedies

blogs.wsj.com

Harvard Business Review editor Justin Lahart provides a classic example (using Google Correlate) of how meaningless correlation can be…

Mediscare—The Surprising Truth

professional.wsj.com

“Thomas R. Saving and John C. Goodman write in The Wall Street Journal that Republicans are being portrayed as Medicare Grinches, but ObamaCare already has seniors’ health care slated for draconian cuts.”

Noonan: Word of the Decade: ‘Unsustainable’

wsj.com

“The American establishment has finally come around, in unison, to admitting that America is in crisis, that our debt actually threatens our ability to endure, that if we don’t make progress on this, we are going to near our endpoint as a nation.”

So You Have a College Diploma

iowahawk.typepad.com

A bit over the top perhaps, but nevertheless a good comedic contribution to the ongoing debate about the so-called higher education “bubble”.

The Problems with Precaution: A Principle without Principle — The American Magazine

www.american.com

“‘Better safe than sorry’ isn’t always safer. In fact, when it comes to policies to protect public health and the environment, this type of thinking could harm us.”

Henninger: The Building Blocks of a GOP Agenda

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal’s Wonder Land column, Daniel Henninger writes that leading governors and members of Congress know them: entitlement reform, fiscal restoration and lightly taxed long-term economic growth.”

Professors to Koch Brothers: Take Your Green Back

professional.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Donald Luskin writes about the controversy over a $1.5 million gift given to Florida State University by David and Charles Koch.”

Shelby Steele: Obama’s Unspoken Re-Election Edge

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Shelby Steele writes that the Obama presidency flatters America to a degree that no white Republican can hope to match.”