Month: November 2004

  • A writing exersize: answering some basic objections to individual rights.

    Introduction: A brief argument for individual rights: Man requires certain values in order to live. As a rational being, he must be free to exercise his reason in order to achieve his values. The initiation of force by other men is the only way others can prevent a man from exercising his reason, since force…

  • Intellectual Ventures (and Technological Evolution)

    (I created a Wikipedia article from this post.) Check out this MSNBC profile on Intellectual Ventures, a company created by Microsoft alumni Nathan Myhrvold with a bold new business plan: create a marketplace for intellectual property. Rather than produce any material good, the company does nothing but buy up patents and lease them to the…

  • Blog Icons

    If you want blog icons like the ones you see on the left of this page, I have a collection of 100+ here.

  • Gmail

    By the way, I still have a ton of Gmail invites for anyone who wants one. Gmail just added some cool new features like POP access and forwarding, so you should check it out if you haven’t already.

  • Purple America

    In response to the recent ballyhoo about “red vs blue” states, a Princeton prof created a color-gradated county-level map which makes the real trend clear: large urban cities vs. America. Kerry’s support came primarily from those who didn’t attend high school (50% ) and post-grads (55%). In areas with a high-concentration of both, such as…

  • Good riddance

    Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe gives Arafat the obituary he deserves. Also read Elan Journo’s piece: Arafat’s Undeserved Honor: The West’s Shame

  • Could racist hiring policies be America’s undoing?

    It’s an open secret that government bureaucracies in the United States hire minority racial groups significantly over their proportion in the general population. According to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the EEOC overhired blacks by 623%, the U.S. Dept. of Education overhired by 462% and HUD overhired by 430%. Other federal agencies beat…

  • Firefox 1.0

    Firefox 1.0 is out! You should download a copy from my website right now! If you haven’t heard of Firefox before, it’s a new web browser descended from Mozilla and Netscape. Compared to Internet Explorer, it is faster, more secure, more customizable, theme-able and extensible. It’s designed to be compatible with the latest internet standards,…

  • USAF publishes report on "psychic teleportation"

    The U.S. Air Force recently published a “Teleportation Physics Report,” which among other things, calls for $7.5 million to conduct “psychic teleportation experiments.” An Air Force Research Lab spokesman justified the report by stating “If we don’t turn over stones, we don’t know if we have missed something.” What kind of philosophic corruption makes such…

  • Bush will lose

    Tradesports odds are 2-1 against Bush, folks. Looks like it’s all over. After starting the day with a slight lead, he fought for control, then fell hard. I’ve been predicting a Bush victory for months, too – good thing I don’t have any money riding on the election. Wait, where are those tax forms… Update:…