Earlier this month I wrote about the decision to effectively close down the economy as a trolley problem and how the issue of asymptomatic spreaders complicates it. Furthermore, because the way a failing economy kills is less visible, it's easier to overlook it ( Read more... )

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After the initial spate of panic buying the first week of March, when people filled their carts with massive amounts of toilet paper, cleaning supplies, bottled water, and various foods, it would be reasonable to assume that the subsequent supply problems in grocery stores, mass-market big box stores, and warehouse clubs were the result of hoarding ( Read more... )

If you've studied psychology, ethics, or several other branches of the social sciences, you've probably come across the Lifeboat Problem and the Trolley Problem. Both of them challenge students to look at how we respond to situations in which it's simply not possible to save everyone, and in particular, to look at the unconscious assumptions that ( Read more... )

It's that annoying time again, when the government decrees that the clocks be moved forward. As if life isn't hard enough for me already, struggling to live in a world made by morning people, for morning people, suddenly everything has to start an hour earlier, leaving me perpetually an hour behind, scrambling to catch up ( Read more... )

Here's another interesting panel discussion topic from the Windycon programming list. In most space opera we see at least a nod toward the existence of trade between the worlds. In many, at least subplots deal with Our Heroes having to confront the shady side of commerce, of black markets and smugglers or even outright pirates. However, how much ( Read more... )

During the depths of the Great Depression, vast numbers of men wandered the country, searching for work. With few amusements to pass the idle hours, they had to make their own. And one of the ways to while away the time camped with other unfortunates was to whittle away at a buffalo nickle, transforming the Indian head on one side or the bison on ( Read more... )

I'd just received word that we've been waitlisted for Ohayocon, a large anime convention I'd hoped to get into, but which is incredibly competitive in the jurying process. And I was thinking about how it was probably just as well that I hadn't bought more merchandise on credit for the last two conventions of this year. The last I need would be the ( Read more... )

The discussion started with what annual income a family should have to be able to afford an upstairs unit in a New York City row house in a sort-of-safe neighborhood. The figures are pretty eye-popping for people who live in areas with more modest housing expenses, but what was truly astonishing was the reaction of many readers to those numbers: ( Read more... )

Recently there's been a lot of talk about "inverted yield ratios." This is a market signal that big businesses and financial institutions look for when worried that a recession is coming. Basically, short-term bonds have better interest rates than long-term bonds, which means that investors don't have confidence in the economy. There are others, ( Read more... )