The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has decided to resign after an independent report into the Church of England’s handling of abuse allegations against John Smyth found that Welby “could and should” have referred the matter to the police back in 2013. This post looks at the complex process for choosing Welby’s successor. Declaring the […]
How an Archbishop of Canterbury is appointed
How an Archbishop of Canterbury is appointed
13 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of religion Tags: British politics
Hikoi organiser will walk in the name of the Treaty – but not talk about it (at least, not to people who lack “expertise”)
13 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights Tags: constitutional law

Source: TheFacts Bob Edlin writes- An editorial in The Press – reproduced in The Post – acknowledged that it should be possible to have a respectful, informed national conversation about the interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi and its application in present-day New Zealand. This would include such fundamental questions as whether an ongoing partnership […]
Hikoi organiser will walk in the name of the Treaty – but not talk about it (at least, not to people who lack “expertise”)
Shell wins appeal in landmark Dutch emissions case
13 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, property rights Tags: nuisance suits

The ruling was handed down as the COP29 climate summit is staged in Azerbaijan, says Sky News. The absurd lawfare campaigns by climate alarm supporters, who like everyone else rely on oil and related products every day for fuel, heating and much more, won’t end here though. – – – Shell has won its appeal […]
Shell wins appeal in landmark Dutch emissions case
Climate Litigation: The Dutch Case and a Pattern of Vexatious Lawsuits
13 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming, law and economics, property rights Tags: nuisance suits
Climate lawsuits like the Dutch case reveal the folly of allowing ideologues to dictate policy through legal harassment. If left unchecked, this trend will do far more harm than good—eroding institutions, stifling progress, and undermining trust in the very systems that activists claim to protect.
Climate Litigation: The Dutch Case and a Pattern of Vexatious Lawsuits
Move over, modern medicine: it’s time to collaborate with Rongoā Māori
13 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in health economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: cranks

Rongoā Māori is the “indigenous way of healing”: a combination of herbal and spiritual medicine used by the Māori of New Zealand. As The Encyclopedia of New Zealand notes, there were both supernatural and human illnesses, with the former treated through spiritual means (e.g., prayers, dunking in water, and other treatments described below), and the […]
Move over, modern medicine: it’s time to collaborate with Rongoā Māori
PNAS publishes an opinion piece arguing that the politicization of science is bad (contradicting the NAS President’s views)
13 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in discrimination, economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: affirmative action, political correctness, racial discrimination, regressive left

I’m actually surprised that the article below was published in The Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS), one of the more high-quality science journals, just a tad below Science and Nature in prestige. It has had a reputation for being “progressive” (e.g., woke), one that I discussed last year when Steve Pinker had […]
PNAS publishes an opinion piece arguing that the politicization of science is bad (contradicting the NAS President’s views)
1814
12 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history, economics of media and culture Tags: economics of borders, maps
Green Blues…As Fog Persists For Days In Germany, Green Energy Output Falls To Near Zero!
12 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economics of climate change, energy economics, environmental economics, environmentalism, global warming Tags: celebrity technologies, Germany, wind power
At 5 p.m. last Wednesday, Germany’s 1602 offshore wind turbines in the North and Baltic Seas stood still…solar output was also near zero. Germany had to scramble to keep supply going. The enemy of green energy: the high pressure system By KlimaNachrichten In the words of Professor Claudia Kemfert: It is a myth to believe…
Green Blues…As Fog Persists For Days In Germany, Green Energy Output Falls To Near Zero!
Ananish Chaudhuri: The sheer lunacy of contemporary progressive politics or How I became a right-wing extremist
11 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in discrimination, gender, law and economics, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, public economics Tags: Age of Enlightenment, economics of pandemics, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
With Kemi Badenoch taking over the leadership of Tories in the UK, newspapers have been replete with how this represents a radical turn to the right. Similar headlines appeared when Labour was booted from power in New Zealand. There was a time when I would have thought: “Shame. Why can’t these people not be more…
Ananish Chaudhuri: The sheer lunacy of contemporary progressive politics or How I became a right-wing extremist
THE WIDE WIDE SEA: IMPERIAL AMBITIONS, FIRST CONTACT AND THE FATEFUL FINAL VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK by Hampton Sides
11 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in economic history Tags: Age of Discovery

(Captain James Cook) One of the most important questions in evaluating the men that made up the Age of Exploration rests on their motivation. Were they driven by visions of wealth or conquest as most were or was it the desire to map the 18th century world for future generations? For the explorer, James Cook, […]
THE WIDE WIDE SEA: IMPERIAL AMBITIONS, FIRST CONTACT AND THE FATEFUL FINAL VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK by Hampton Sides
Hedy Lamarr and ‘WiFi’ during WWII
10 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, entrepreneurship, movies, war and peace Tags: World War II

Hedy Lamarr, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in 1914 in Vienna, Austria, is best known for her work as a Hollywood actress during the Golden Age of cinema. However, her contributions to science and technology, particularly her co-invention of a technology that laid the groundwork for WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS, have garnered increasing recognition. Lamarr’s […]
Hedy Lamarr and ‘WiFi’ during WWII
Prediction Markets for the Win
10 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, financial economics, politics - USA Tags: 2024 presidential election
The prediction markets predicted the election outcome more accurately and more quickly than polls or other forecasting methods, just as expected from decades of research. In this election, however, many people discounted the prediction markets because of large trades on Polymarket. Paul Krugman, for example, wrote: Never mind the prediction markets, which are thin and […]
Prediction Markets for the Win
At a Climate Policy Tipping-point
09 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming

Joe Oliver explains at National Post We’re at a climate policy turning-point. Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images. Much as the term “tipping-point” is overused regarding physical and natural systems, it is relevant to socio-political systems. Oliver’s article was written before the US election vote between two candidates with completely opposite climate/energy […]
At a Climate Policy Tipping-point
The Russian October Revolution 1917 I THE GREAT WAR Week 172
09 Nov 2024 Leave a comment
in defence economics, economic history, Marxist economics, war and peace Tags: Russian revolution, World War I
November 8, 1939—Failed Assassination Attempt
09 Nov 2024 1 Comment
in defence economics, economics of crime, law and economics, liberalism Tags: Nazi Germany, World War II

On November 8, 1939, Adolf Hitler narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Munich. The attempt took place in the Bürgerbräukeller, a popular beer hall where he annually commemorated the anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, an early failed coup that Hitler had led in an attempt to seize power in Germany. The bomb was […]
November 8, 1939—Failed Assassination Attempt

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