Tidewater News and Opinion Forum
A place for civil discussion of the events of the day for Tidewater residents without the limitations imposed by media forums.
Source: American Institute for Economic Research.
The first link above sets up the second. Most of us (I include myself) are embarrassingly ignorant about statistics. This is understandable in a way. Statistics as a discipline is difficult and arcane. But this is not understandable in a way, too.
Continue reading “The Ignorant World and What to Do About It”There is no “systemic racism” in America.
Source: American Institute for Economic Research.
The writers outline an approach to ending the Covid-19 pandemic. Elements of the plan may seem controversial to some.
Continue reading “14 Months Later: A Pathway Forward”The writer’s observations are interesting in several ways.
First, they validate the hierarchy of government systems Plato asserted 2,000 years ago: Monarchy, Aristocracy, Democracy, Tyranny.
Second, they show that self-interest operates in a government system just as it does in a market system.
Third, they suggest that government may have a natural, but absolute, size limit.
The word engram refers to “a presumed encoding in neural tissue that provides a physical basis for the persistence of memory.”
Neuroscientists presume that engrams exist in the same way that biologists once presumed that a feature of living cells contained the mechanism of inheritance. Since we know that memories are persistent, there must be a molecule or substance that records and stores them. That would be the engram, but we haven’t found it yet.
Continue reading “Is This the Most Interesting Idea in All of Science?”Source: The Wall Street Journal (behind paywall).
Stumble Joe made a foolish promise yesterday when he proposed reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by half of their 2005 levels in the next nine years.
Continue reading “Biden’s 10-Year Climate Plan”Source: Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0.0.3), 2009.
We had a discussion yesterday about the meaning of the word investment. I don’t wish to rehash it, but I’d like to share my dictionary’s entry because it is interesting in its own right.
Continue reading “Definition of Investment”My go to pundits on legal matters seem to agree that Chauvin’s trial was fair and the rule of law was upheld. I am very glad to hear that.
For what it’s worth, I disagree with the verdict. It seems to me that drugs, poor health and his own reckless behavior are the actual causes of Floyd’s death. I think it unfair for Chauvin to bear the brunt of blame under these circumstances.
I accept that justice doesn’t belong to me, but I see little cause for optimism in this particular verdict.
The writer explains that Stumble Joe’s Amtrak upgrade cannot honestly be described as an “investment” because there is no possibility that adding new operations will increase “profits” from which taxpayers will earn a return. Instead, adding new operations will only increase the cost that taxpayers pay for Amtrak.
Continue reading “Biden’s Amtrak Infrastructure Scam”This delightful video might be called “Economics in One Lesson,” although that title is taken.
It starts with the speaker, Kate, searching for rocks in a creek and ends with a demonstration of turning them into cabochons.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 