The Reconstruction

…it can justify showing up for work later. Of course, at this point, I’m really looking forward to the day when I have a real career-type job to show up for at all, early as it may be.

Yesterday, a good friend e-mailed me a copy of the Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) press release that was issued in response to a new National Academy of Sciences study that concludes that “a preponderance of scientific evidence shows that even low doses of ionizing radiation, such as gamma rays and X-rays, are likely to [...]

The end-of-term rulings from the Supreme Court this past week have inspired an enormous amount of discussion; rather than repeating what has already been said, I’d rather share a handful of observations and links to some of the better coverage of the topic. On the Kelo v. City of New London case regarding eminent domain, [...]

The war in Iraq is finally proving to be a liability for President Bush. I say “finally” because the facts do seem to be clear: the war was based on a false pretense (with the “Downing Street Memo”, one might even say “lie”), and the occupation was poorly (if at all) planned; this has resulted [...]

When I was an undergraduate, most of my research focused on the effects of boutique and reformulated fuels on the structure of the refining industry and pricing in retail markets. As it turns out, that research is pretty relevant to the current debate over Congress’ new energy bill. This is because boutique and reformulated gasolines [...]

Economic forecasting is an inexact science at best. We’re usually unsure as to whether we’re in a recession until after the recession has passed, which certainly does not aid in policy decisions. In the spirit of free-market solutions, I’d like to propose a betting market for recessions. If such a thing already exists, I apologize– [...]

The release of the Supreme Court’s opinion in Gonzales v. Raich, the medical marijuana case, has dealt a major blow to supporters of medical marijuana and advocates of limited government and free markets. Its effect on the average stoner, however, has likely been limited to a minor buzzkill. There are two fundamental problems with the [...]

Salon posted an immensely informative article on the stem cell debate today. Writing in a question and answer format, Farhad Manjoo manages to cover the entire spectrum of issues surrounding stem cells in his piece: what an embryo is, the relationship of embryos to in vitro fertilization, an explanation of cell line quality, the argument [...]

Since the revelation that Mark Felt is “Deep Throat”, conservatives across the U.S. have been hard at work rewriting history to paint Felt as a traitor, Nixon as a hero, and Clinton’s dalliances as the moral equivalent of Nixon’s betrayal of democracy. These Nixon supporters are obviously incapable of understanding the import of Nixon’s attempts [...]

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner have a new column titled Freakonomics (after their book) in the New York Times. The inaugural column addresses research showing that monkeys can not only use money, but make rational choices in ways strikingly similar to humans. All the relevant stuff is linked on their site. Part of the Times [...]