Monday, September 30, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

Recalling, 2018 by Claire Scully (British, b. 1986)

Recalling, 2018  by Claire Scully (British, b. 1986)

























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Sunday, September 29, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

The Pergola by Henri-Jean Guillaume Martin (1860–1943)

The Pergola by Henri-Jean Guillaume Martin (1860–1943) 





















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Saturday, September 28, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

Gathering for Vespers, 1939 by Theodore Van Soelen

Gathering for Vespers, 1939 by Theodore Van Soelen




















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Friday, September 27, 2024

History

 

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 





















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Data Talks

 

The Waltz, 1893 by Félix Edouard Vallotton (Swiss, 1865-1925)

The Waltz, 1893 by Félix Edouard Vallotton (Swiss, 1865-1925)






























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Thursday, September 26, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

























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Data Talks

 

Folding Chairs, 2014 by Sharon Sprung (American, b. 1953)

Folding Chairs, 2014 by Sharon Sprung (American, b. 1953)





















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Wednesday, September 25, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

The Garden Part by Susan Entwistle

The Garden Part by Susan Entwistle 

























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Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Manuel Komninos by C.P. Cavafy

Manuel Komninos
by C.P. Cavafy

One dreary September day
Emperor Manuel Komninos
felt his death was near.
The court astrologers—bribed, of course—went on babbling
about how many years he still had to live.
But while they were having their say,
he remembered an old religious custom
and ordered ecclesiastical vestments
to be brought from a monastery,
and he put them on, glad to assume
the modest image of a priest or monk.
 
Happy all those who believe,
and like Emperor Manuel end their lives
dressed modestly in their faith.

History

 

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I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

Waves of Petals 1956 by Kasamatsu Shiro (Japanese, 1898-1991)

Waves of Petals 1956 by Kasamatsu Shiro (Japanese, 1898-1991)

































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Monday, September 23, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

The Doringbome - Pietersburg, 1944 by Jacobus Hendrick Pierneef (South African, 1886-1957)

The Doringbome - Pietersburg, 1944 by Jacobus Hendrick Pierneef (South African, 1886-1957) 




















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Sunday, September 22, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Why is there any contest?

From The US Has Low Prices for Most Prescription Drugs by  Alex Tabarrok.  I first took an economics course in high school in 1977.  47 years ago it was already well-established that competitive free markets both generated high levels of nominal economic inequality (i.e. before taking into account various government income transfer programs) but also had the best levels of improvement in the material well-being of the poor.  A corollary to this was the fact that while the rich lived better lives by being able to consume the newest in scientific, medical, and technological innovations, such innovations inevitably eventually became accessible, indeed, the norm, for everyone.

What was less obvious then and much more obvious now is that the S-curve of innovation was already then steepening.  In 1900, the average time between an innovation introduction (such as electric refrigerators) and universal consumption of that innovation was nearly fifty years on average.  Two generations between introduction for the rich before it was available and used by everyone.

Especially from the sixties onwards, with the miracle of Moore's Law, and the consequent digitization of everything, the mean time between innovation and mass utilization has shrunk from 45 years to 5-10 years.  Think of the rocket like take-up of smartphones after 2007.  That is the steepening of the innovation S-curve.

There are consequences to this phenomenon of rapid innovation and commoditization.  From Tabarrok:

The US has high prices for branded drugs but it has some of the lowest prices for generic drugs in the world and generic drugs are 90% of prescriptions. I’ve been saying this for years but here is the latest study:

U.S. prices for brand-name originator drugs were 422 percent of prices in comparison countries, while U.S. unbranded generics, which we found account for 90 percent of U.S. prescription volume, were on average cheaper at 67 percent of prices in comparison countries, where on average only 41 percent of prescription volume is for unbranded generics. U.S. prices for brand-name drugs remained 308 percent of prices in other countries even after adjustments to account for rebates paid by drug companies to U.S. payers and their pharmacy benefit managers.

Branded drugs are expensive but that is why we have insurance which works reasonably well, albeit far from perfectly. For example, insurance and the low price of generics is one reason that out-of-pocket costs for medical are low in the United States.

If you don’t want to pay high prices for branded drugs just use generics! As I wrote 20 years ago, in what was called a heartless and cruel post:

People talk about the high price of pharmaceuticals as if high prices lasted forever. In fact, within a year of the expiration of a pharmaceutical’s patents, prices will typically fall by more than 50 percent as generic producers enter the market. Patents nominally last for 20 years but the effective patent life is much lower because patents are typically granted years before a product has cleared FDA review. The effective patent life of the average new pharmaceutical in the 1990s averaged just 12 years [new reference for today, 13.5 years, AT]. Competition from competing but non-infringing pharmaceuticals makes the de facto patent life even shorter.

Thus, my response to the seniors and others clamoring for lower pharmaceutical prices is to be more patient. Does this sound harsh? Consider this, the people who are demanding price controls are not simply asking for lower drug prices they are asking for lower prices on the newest drugs. Lower prices for drugs introduced 15 years ago are already here. Remember, those drugs were recently considered the very best modern medicine has to offer, so it’s not like I am expecting those who can’t afford the newer medicines to go back to using leeches.

Price controls or other such plans such as reimportation may bring cheaper pharmaceuticals for a short period but we will then have a much smaller supply of new drugs forever. Only the shortsighted would buy that prescription.

For totalitarian market planners, one-off stories of exorbitant drug costs are a staple of their criticism of free markets.  And of course there are such instances.  And it is always true that the first innovation to market will tend to be expensive and only affordable by the wealthy.

What is now clear is that the Classical Liberal free market does a spectacular job of advancing well-being for everyone.  In general, in the US, for virtually all consumables in all sectors,

90% of what is consumed is one-quarter to one-half as expensive as any other developed market and the time frame for the 10% that is more expensive to come down to commodity prices is now faster than anywhere else in the world, on the order of 5-12 years.

That is truly astonishing.  A miracle of well-being.  Yet the process by which that is achieved, the Classical Liberal model (rule of law, equality before the law, due process, innocence till proven guilty, checks and balances, republican constitutionalism, natural rights, property rights, human universalism, right to self-determination, individualism, freedom, consent of the governed, etc.) in combination with Rational Empiricism/Scientific Method is reviled by Intellectual-Yet-Idiots everywhere (to us Taleb's phrasing).  

Totalitarianism, Autarky, Central Planning always fails everywhere.  Classical Liberalism combined with Rational Empiricism/Scientific Method (usually undergirded by universal humanist values) always works everywhere.  Why is there any contest?

Offbeat Humor

 




























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Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

Tramway in Prague by Jakub Schikaneder (Czech, 1855-1924)

Tramway in Prague by Jakub Schikaneder (Czech, 1855-1924) 

















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Saturday, September 21, 2024

Productivity collapses once you pay more to "approve" a project than the project costs to implement

From Foundations: Why Britain has stagnated by Ben Southwood, Samuel Hughes, and Sam Bowman.

Full of interesting findings, such as:

The planning documentation for the Lower Thames Crossing, a proposed tunnel under the Thames connecting Kent and Essex, runs to 360,000 pages, and the application process alone has cost £297 million. That is more than twice as much as it cost in Norway to actually build the longest road tunnel in the world.

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

The Promised Land, 2015 by Bo Bartlett (American, b. 1955)

The Promised Land, 2015 by Bo Bartlett (American, b. 1955)



















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Friday, September 20, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

The birth of Venus, 1879 by William Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905)

The birth of Venus, 1879 by William Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905)






























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Thursday, September 19, 2024

That fishing trip

From Redneck Haiku Double-Wide Edition by Mary K. Witte.  

Jake's tall tale winner
is a true recounting of
his last fishing trip.

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

Venetian Night by Natale Gavagnin (Italian, 1851-1923)

Venetian Night by Natale Gavagnin  (Italian, 1851-1923)































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Wednesday, September 18, 2024

History

 

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I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

New York Restaurant, 1922 by Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967)

New York Restaurant, 1922 by Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967)





















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Tuesday, September 17, 2024

When I get a little money, I buy [Mike Huemer's] books; if any is left, I buy food and clothes.

There is a new book out, Progressive Myths by the philosopher Michael Huemer.  Look interesting, so I go to investigate.  The blurb is:

Do women really get paid 30% less than men for the same work? Do American police regularly murder unarmed black men just for being black? Is global warming really going to destroy human civilization? This book answers these and other questions about the state of our society. A sober look at the evidence reveals that many factual claims used to support progressive political views are false, exaggerated, or radically misleading. After exposing a series of these myths, the author explains how and why progressive myths have become popular, why they are harmful, and how we can avoid being taken in by political myths.

OK.  Good enough.  But I am really sold it based on the endorsements:

"When I get a little money, I buy [Mike Huemer's] books; if any is left, I buy food and clothes."    –Erasmus

"If only I had listened to Mike Huemer, millions might not have had to die in the 20th century."    –Karl Marx

"This book is terrible. Never listen to Mike Huemer."    –Satan

With endorsements like that, who could say no?

History

 

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I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

The Moon Journey by John Caple (British, b.1966)

 The Moon Journey by John Caple (British, b.1966)

























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Monday, September 16, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

Data Talks

 

Reader, 1922 by Félix Vallotton (French, 1865–1925)

Reader, 1922 by Félix Vallotton (French, 1865–1925)





















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Sunday, September 15, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

Siamese cat sitting amongst grasses by Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe (1901-1979, British)

Siamese cat sitting amongst grasses by Charles Frederick Tunnicliffe (1901-1979, British)



















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Saturday, September 14, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

Flora, fresco Villa of Ariadne in Stabiae near Pompei, c. 15-45 AD

Flora, fresco Villa of Ariadne in Stabiae near Pompei, c. 15-45 AD






























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Homo faber


homo faber
noun
 
ho·​mo fa·​ber ¦hō(ˌ)mōˈfäbə(r), -ˌbe(ə)r; -fābə-
1: the human being as the maker or creator
 
2: in Bergsonism : the human being as engaged in transforming both the self morally and material things —contrasted with homo sapiens
 

Friday, September 13, 2024

History

 

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I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

Place Pigalle in Parigi, ca. 1907 by Federico Zandomeneghi (Italian, 1847 - 1917)

Place Pigalle in Parigi, ca. 1907 by Federico Zandomeneghi (Italian, 1847 - 1917)































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Thursday, September 12, 2024

History

 

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I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks

 

Venus and Cupid, 1570 by Alessandro Allori (Italian, 1535–1607)

Venus and Cupid, 1570 by Alessandro Allori (Italian, 1535–1607)


















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Wednesday, September 11, 2024

History

 

An Insight

 

I see wonderful things

 

Offbeat Humor

 

Data Talks