It’s important for us to realize the great progress humanity has made in the last 200 or so years. Life expectancy at birth is a summary measure of human wellbeing.
For nearly all of human history, life expectancy at birth was around 30 years in all regions of the world. Then around 200 years ago, global health inequality became a reality. The website, Our World in Data, presents data extraordinarily well. Continue reading “Progress in Life Expectancy”
Before the advent of television in India, people who could afford a radio were definitely familiar with the signature tune of “All India Radio”, the government run public radio channel.
We had a radio at home when I was growing up. I remember with great fondness the AIR signature tune. I post it below. First a bit about AIR, also known as Akashvani (literally “voice from the sky.”) The wiki says: Continue reading “All India Radio Signature Tune”
Ronald Reagan was arguably one of the best presidents that the US has had in the modern age. He understood the value of freedom and liberalism. Here’s his last speech as the president of the US.
I found this on twitter. I use twdown.net to download twitter videos. Right click on a video on twitter, copy the video link, and paste it to twdown. Then “save link as” and you are done.
Greetings from India.
David Deutsch tweeted the following:
David is right. The exchange of money for a painting is just a trade that does not alter the total amount of goods and services (resources) available in an economy. Person buying the painting acquires property rights over the painting, and the seller has the money–which represents claims on resources. The seller of the painting can do whatever he wants, including giving it to charity. The buyer could have given the money to charity instead of acquiring the rights to the painting. Continue reading “Money”
Indians know Oct 2nd as “Gandhi Jayanti.” Most Indians celebrate Gandhi as the one who is responsible for India’s independence from the British Raj. That’s patently false but being false has never deterred the ignorant. Most people — not just Indians — are ignorant anyway.
Gandhi was a monster. I have wasted a lot of time arguing why. Here are a few of my previous posts on Gandhi. Indians should be told who the man actually was. This one is not about Gandhi.
This post is about two of my favorite musicians who were born on Oct 2nd: Don McLean in 1945, and Sting in 1951.
To celebrate those two singers, here are two of their songs. First the 1971 super-hit song by Don McLean. Continue reading “AMA – The 2nd Oct edition”
On this day, Sept 29, Ludwig von Mises was born in 1881. Happy Birthday, dear Ludwig.
“He who is unfit to serve his fellow citizens wants to rule them.”
― Ludwig von Mises
Bureaucracy
“All rational action is in the first place individual action. Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts.”
― Ludwig von Mises
Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis Continue reading “Quotes – Mises”
The fundamentals of economics is fun to learn. They are also somewhat counter-intuitive, until you internalize them and then it becomes part of your intuition.
Friedrich von Hayek held that “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”
Social engineering and economic planning fails precisely when social scientists, instead of being students, presume to be able to intervene into things that are not amenable to design. The worst offenders in this regard are ignorant politicians. They push the country into needless poverty. Continue reading “Lessons from Economics”
The biological world presented a mystery to people for millennia. The variety of life forms on earth was clearly immense. It was also clear to some observers of the biological world of life on land and in water that they were the result of evolution that led to the formation of new species of plants and animals. It was well understood that the various life forms evolved from earlier life forms, and that all life was related to all others. The difficulty lay in explaining the mechanism for evolution.
Some other observers held a different view. They argued that the variety of life forms on earth were created by an act of creation. That implied that there was a creator who designed and seeded earth with the all kinds of life we see on earth. They are called “creationists” and are distinct from “evolutionists” who believed in evolution. Continue reading “The Imminent Energy Shock”
This is the final part of the set of posts related to my road trip from Newark, DE, to Dallas, TX. (Previously, part 1, part 2 and part 3.) I was slightly apprehensive about the drive not because of the distance — around 2,500 kms — but because my car had a roof-top bag. I’d never done such a thing. It turned out fine.
Let me tell you why all my road trips turn out fine. Notice that little red Ganesha on my dashboard? In exchange for him removing all obstacles, I give him sweets. He never fails to deliver. Honest. Continue reading “On the Interstate – Part 4”
(Previously part 1 and part 2.)
I believe that part of my fascination with road trips derives from a movie I had watched many times during my teenage years. It was Easy Rider, now a classic American movie.[1] A bunch of guys on their Harley Davidson motorbikes.
I was attracted by the American landscape but what made it addictive was the sound track. Many of the songs became my favorite, the most loved being “Wasn’t born to follow” by The Byrds, which I append at the end of the post. The lyrics are magical. Continue reading “On the Interstate – Part 3”
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 