Daily Links From Glimpse From a Height

• Will Gutenberg Laugh Last?
  Don’t assume not.  Among the reasons: 1. We may be discovering that e-books are well suited to some types of books (like genre fiction)  but not well suited to other types (like nonfiction and literary fiction) and are well suited to certain reading situations (plane trips) but less well suited to others (lying on the […]
• 3D Cameras Bringing That Minority Report Screen Closer
  Yes, the premise of Minority Report is creepy – using telepaths to predict criminal behavior and lock up the malefactors before they do anything wrong.  But the things that everyone remembers are Tom Cruise manipulating a wall-sized screen with his hand like a conductor, and his being relentlessly bombarded by personalized ads.  The second would get […]
• Partners For Peace
  “Eschewing the traditional snowman, sculptors utilized Jerusalem’s snowfall to fashion a replica M-75 rocket on the Temple Mount, causing a flurry of activity on the social media network Facebook on Thursday. The large replica of the missile, of the sort fired by Hamas at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during the November 2012 mini-war Operation Pillar […]
• With Friends Like These…
  …Hagel may not need any enemies: Iran’s Foreign Ministry dumped more fuel on the fire of former Senator Chuck Hagel’s (R–NE) nomination for Secretary of Defense by announcing its approval for President Obama’s pick. It’s no secret that Hagel, an outspoken critic of sanctions on Iran, has preferred a policy of engagement and direct talks […]
• Golden State Exodus
  Not exactly news to many of us, but explained well: The number 1 topic of conversation amongst the despised 1% in California today is when you are leaving California or whether you can leave. Property owners who cannot move their apartment building or office complexes can move their homes and change their residency. On a […]
• Innovation Decline
  Feeling smug about our innovation compared to the Chinese?  Don’t: In short, the United States does not have a tech sector. It has mature consumer businesses operating under the technology label. They walk like mature consumer businesses, quack like mature consumer businesses, and fly like mature consumer businesses. They are run by patent lawyers rather […]
• New York and Fracking
  As Gov. Cuomo considers his fracking options: Oil and gas drilling companies are increasingly finding it more economical to recycle drilling water for future jobs rather than disposing of it in the injection wells, which has enraged environmentalists. More than 16 percent of water used in Marcellus Shale fracking operations is being recycled, up from […]
• Papayan Politics
  And empty Golden Rice bowls: In the absence of access to Golden Rice and similar nutritionally enhanced foods, the world’s poor are suffering and dying unnecessarily, but not because of the failure of intellectual property. A far more critical factor is the gratuitous regulation demanded by activists and created and maintained by bureaucrats. This is […]
• Who Really Cares?
  That’s the title of an excellent book by AEI’s Arthur Brooks showing the baleful effects of trying to replace friends, family, and community with government services.  Melanie Phillips shows how far Britain is down this path: Another example occurred at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust, where over three years from 2005 between 400 and 1,200 patients died […]
• India Slowing Down?
  It certainly looks that way.  It could be cyclical, of course, but these growth economies are supposed to slow their growth, not actually slow down. Cars, housing, and now, investment: India has a number of structural problems, mostly a dysfunctional political class that makes our look efficient, and corruption that makes Maxine Waters look honest.  […]