Daily Links From Glimpse From a Height
- Canadian Cabin
In my old line of work, “Stealth” meant something else entirely. But here at the Glimpse, we love cabins as clever, cozy getaways. Stock them with a few dozen hundred books, and we’re all set.
- The Classical Liberal Constitution
Richard Epstein describes his new book: More specifically, the proper scope of the police power is tied to the two reasons that lead people to join a political compact in the first place. The first reason is to control the use of force and fraud. The second is to allow state taxation and coercion to […]
- Cool Bus Stops
Denver’s got its share of odd bus stops, especially out in Lowry, but nothing like this: There’s been a lot of talk about making bus stops more functional, including announcements, apps that show when the next bus is due, and so on. I don’t think it’s as important to make them fun and interesting, but it […]
- Income Equality Is A Bottom-Up Problem
A look at the household demographics of income inequality, from AEI’s Mark Perry: Most of the discussion on income inequality focuses on the relative differences over time between low-income and high-income American households, but it’s also instructive to analyze the demographic differences among income groups at a given point in time to answer the question: […]
- Why Square Designed Its New Offices To Work Like A City
Trying to encourage spontaneous, serendipitous interactions at work. The design of the office “motivates people to move around the office and interact in casual, unscheduled ways,” he explains–just like the well-planned public spaces of a great city. Early concepts for the office were motivated by old 18th-century maps of cities. “When I think about a […]
- Another Take on Burke-Paine
This one from Ira Stoll: Mr. Levin acknowledges that, 200 years later, America’s right-left arguments don’t always map so neatly onto the Burke-Paine diagram. I found myself recognizing the libertarian hero Milton Friedman of “Free To Choose” fame in Mr. Levin’s description of Paine’s emphasis on the individual and choice. Mr. Levin refers once to […]
- The Pope’s Half-Truth
A more nuanced rejoinder to the Pope’s comments on capitalism. As Rev. Robert Sirico points out in a recent interview, Pope Francis is from Argentina where “free market capitalism” isn’t, in fact, all that free. The economic system in his home country is plagued by corruption and cronyism, which have greatly limited real economic freedom. Perhaps this […]
- Why Are Gas Prices Falling?
Alexis Madrigal posted this graph-filled gem about three weeks ago, but it’s still relevant. At least some of the answer may be increased diesel demand in Europe.
- ASICMINER’s Threat to Bitcoin’s Model
All your Bitcoins are belong to us: How much of an impact on the difficulty of Bitcoin mining such super miners will have is difficult to say. The Bitcoin algorithm adjusts the difficulty every 2016 blocks to keep the rate at about 10 minutes to solve a block. It the hardware improves then the difficulty […]
- Zappos Turns Baggage Claim Carousel Into Wheel of Fortune
This sounds like fun: This Thankgsiving Eve, travelers through Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport found their baggage claim conveyor belt festooned with what appeared to be Zappos advertising banners, but which were in fact prize markers for clothing, appliances, accessories and gift certificates. I would gladly trade the grisly post-apocalyptic set of murals at DIA […]
- The Return of Iceball
Some climatologists are now worried about global cooling: According to the scientists, the oft-cited “stagnation” in rising global temperatures over the last 15 years is due to the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean oscillation cycle, which lasts about 65 years. Ocean oscillation is past its “maximum,” leading to small decreases in global temperature. The de Vries […]
- Pssst. Wanna Buy a Phone?
Apple previews iBeacon in its stores today: If you own any iPhone more recent than the 4, walk into any US Apple retail store today and you’ll get a taste of the possibly-dystopian future of retail and the internet of things. That’s because Apple just rolled out a technology called iBeacon in all 254 of its […]
- Caution on the Yuan
Reports of the yuan replacing the euro are greatly exaggerated: At most, around 15% of China’s trade (paywall) is currently settled in yuan. Either a big chunk of global trade—more than half—would need to come from China for 8.7% of global trade to be settled in yuan, or companies outside China would need to be […]
