From the nifty photo meme (dreadwinaard's is the most recent and has the questions).  I don't generally do these sorts of things, but I did poke at some of the images on google, and was surprised.

( not much here, cut for vanity )

The main argument is that people are not as predisposed to violence as we might think.  Collins cites a wide array of evidence, from military behavior in the field to, most intriguingly, video studies of the micro-expressions of violent perpetrators.  People are more naturally tense and fearful, sometimes full of bluster but usually looking to avoid confrontation unless they have vastly superior numbers on their side.  The prospect of violence makes people feel weak and scared.  The greatest dangers of violence arises from atrocities against the weak under overwhelming conditions, ritualized violence enacted in front of supportive audiences, or clandestine terrorism or murder.

I know many of you have a bit of book fatigue from MR, but that is because it has been such a splendid year for the written word.  Violence: A Micro-sociological Theory is one of the most important social science books of the last few years. I'll go even further and say the same is true for any random one hundred pages you might select from the volume; it is also a wonderful book for browsing.

If you know Sowell only through his work as a syndicated op-ed writer,though, you might not feel inclined to cut him much slack. While I've enjoyed and admired some of his columns, he's unquestionably a combative debater, as well as far more of a Republican hack, er, cheerleader than seems necessary.  ...

But his work as an economist and a book-writer is quite different. When he isn't quarreling over what current policies should be but is instead organizing data, examining details, and analyzing processes and results, he's substantial, calm, and impressive.  ...  As a book-writer, Sowell is whatever the positive opposite of "glib" is -- patient and methodical, able to herd huge numbers of facts without letting them overwhelm his narrative or his argument. He's even capable of the occasional touch of quiet and droll humor. He jokes about one proposed law, for example, that it was so badly written that it should have been called "the lawyers' full employment act."

“In my view, it is a mistake to look for strategies that build mutual trust because it ain’t going to happen. Neither side has any reason to trust the other, for good reason,” he says. “Land for peace is an inherently flawed concept because it has a fundamental commitment problem. If I give you land on your promise of peace in the future,after you have the land, as the Israelis well know, it is very costly to take it back if you renege. You have an incentive to say, ‘You made a good step, it’s a gesture in the right direction, but I thought you were giving me more than this. I can’t give you peace just for this,it’s not enough.’ Conversely, if we have peace for land—you disarm, put down your weapons, and get rid of the threats to me and I will then give you the land—the reverse is true: I have no commitment to follow through. Once you’ve laid down your weapons, you have no threat.”

Bueno de Mesquita’s answer to this dilemma, which he discussed with the former Israeli prime minister and recently elected Labor leader Ehud Barak, is a formula that guarantees mutual incentives to cooperate. “In a peaceful world, what do the Palestinians anticipate will be their main source of economic viability? Tourism. This is what their own documents say. And, of course, the Israelis make a lot of money from tourism, and that revenue is very easy to track. As a starting point requiring no trust, no mutual cooperation, I would suggest that all tourist revenue be [divided by] a fixed formula based on the current population of the region, which is roughly 40 percent Palestinian, 60 percent Israeli. The money would go automatically to each side. Now, when there is violence, tourists don’t come. So the tourist revenue is automatically responsive to the level of violence on either side for both sides. You have an accounting firm that both sides agree to, you let the U.N. do it, whatever. It’s completely self-enforcing, it requires no cooperation except the initial agreement by the Israelis that they are going to turn this part of the revenue over, on a fixed formula based on population, to some international agency, and that’s that.”

What George Stigler showed is that ordinary intuition about bundling is wrong. Your intuition is that the reason that the seller engages in bundling is to force you to buy something that you do not want. However, as Stigler pointed out, if that were the case, it would be cheaper for the seller to leave out the unwanted good and just charge you for what you want. That is why grocery stores do not bundle milk with broccoli -- it's cheaper for them just to sell you the milk.

Somehow, I've been browsing a lot of incredibly cool photography related stuff online, and frankly, much of it is brilliant and well worth reading.  This might have something to do with the fact that I got a new camera (or have a nifty low-end DSLR that I can borrow with regularity).  The following sites are really interesting (but given my competence level, much of the stuff I've been reading involves basic learning of some variety):

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photo.net - Probably the least immediately useful site, but massive and full of very interesting/useful information.  Some is out of date, some isn't (but thats the brilliance of having a site created before digital photography).  Much of the best information is not obviously available (such as: I have no clue if there is an index page for their many detailed lens reviews).  For just one page, try Building a DSLR System. 

Digital Photography School - If you only bother to visit one of these sites, start with this one.  Photography tips, articles and case-studies in a blog format (also the best designed site of the lot).  Low-brow with easy explanations and a variety of authors.  Wonderful, relevant information and explanations with many examples, often from flickr or the huge forums (the site hold many forum events which feed the blog and vice-versa).  Great samples: Introduction to Sports Photography, Simplify Your Images (with fabulous samples from Madison's JohnnyBlood), 12 Tips for Photographing Stunning Sunsets (with AhmedZahid's breathtaking collection of photos) and Introduction to White Balance.

Luminous Landscape - Has some of the worst layout/web-design that I've seen in ages but is only read for its very technical well-written content.  Try Expose (to the) Right, Understanding ProPhoto RGB (a very complicated but useful explanation about color-space), A Digital Workflow Primer, or any of the other millions of tutorials that I haven't yet read.

Dan Heller Photography - Covers the business side of photography with great depth and competence.  A Introduction to Business for Amateur Photographers or A Primer on Model Releases (as in: when do you need to get your subject's signature).

Finally, I already linked to his flickr page, but Ryan Brenizer writes some cool stuff for Amazon's Digital Photography products blog.

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Also, to those that don't see the shit on facebook, I have photos from recent parties up on my flickr page.  Also, in more absurd news, two of my top four pictures (as sorted by page views) are of simulated urination (from the trip to Europe).  Really fucking creepy.

Am I being too allegorical? Then let me speak plainly: our main problem in health policy is a huge overemphasis on medicine. The U.S. spends one sixth of national income on medicine, more than on all manufacturing. But health policy experts know that we see at best only weak aggregate relations between health and medicine, in contrast to apparently strong aggregate relations between health and many other factors, such as exercise, diet, sleep, smoking, pollution, climate, and social status.   ...   So I want to say loudly and clearly what has yet to be said loudly and clearly enough: In the aggregate, variations in medical spending usually show no statistically significant medical effect on health. (At least they do not in studies with enough good controls.)

He ... moved to Wisconsin, home of the iconoclastic populist Robert LaFollette and a state that columnist Mary McGrory likened to "a portly Teutonic old lady, full of beer and cheese, with a weakness for wild men and underdogs."