DHS was created after 9/11 to stop terrorism.

Now they're raiding Diddy's home because he was allegedly involved in 'human trafficking.' We already had laws against rape! I guess the feds are involved because he used planes?

Why you never create new government bureaucracies.

meanwhile unvaccinated (mRNA) Canadians are still not eligible to receive organ transplants if they get sick and need an organ

which is especially messed up because 2 jabs from so many years ago are completely worthless in 2024

Canadian healthcare is totally backward & broken

Before the 14th century, Hindu deities were always shown unveiled.

In Mughal paintings, Hindu goddesses are veiled or on a higher floor.

But in districts where Mughal influence was limited, Hindu goddesses remain unveiled.

ggd.world/p/can-big-data…

The average Costco store's annual sales are over 5x the average GDP of a member state in the Holy Roman Empire circa 1500. At least going by the Angus Maddison GDP/capita data.

4. Boston Avenue Methodist Church, Tulsa, OK (1929)

The most iconic church from the Art Deco era. It captured the spirit of the Roaring Twenties impeccably, finished just before the country plunged into the Great Depression.

2. Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, MO (1914)

It's hard to believe you're still in America when looking up at the vast Byzantine dome. It's also one of the world's largest mosaic collections: 41m+ tiles in total.

World's largest Muslim country normalising relations with Israel.

You can claim that Zionism is collapsing as much as you want to.

Clearly it isn't.

Can Big Data Reveal the Origins of Purdah?

Using ‘Google Arts & Culture’, I have analysed thousands of museum exhibits, to trace South Asia’s cultural evolution over five millennia.

What did I learn?

ggd.world/p/can-big-data… cc Alex Tabarrok 🛡️ Shruti Rajagopalan Arpit Gupta

Spinal surgery for stenosis that made it painful for Glenn Loury to stand for more than 10 or 15 minutes. He says his heart’s in good condition and he’s generally in good condition for a guy in his 80s (holy crap— he looks good!). And he lost 30 pounds this year.

And good news…

The best meme I’ve seen so far! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Last night I watched for the thousandth time Branagh's immortal version of the St. Crispin's day speech.

Today, for the first time, I read a more important speech:

Patton's Speech to the Third Army.

Absolutely not safe for undergraduate courses, will not excerpt here.

notice which occupation has an entire culture dedicated to the idea that they face a uniquely dangerous work environment that isn't even on the list

Kentucky votes to keep drunk drivers on the road.

I am happy to announce that the 2024 Simon Rottenberg Award is awarded to Colin Camerer from Caltech.
His insights into human behavior using sports and games has had far-reaching implications and a huge impact in economics research.
Colin Camerer Caltech
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

My great honor to sound the keynote at the 70th Owens Conference on globalization tomorrow, at SMU/Dallas Fed.

I’ll speak on the root cause of chaos at the Southwest border. Audience should fasten seatbelts. And I’m excited to learn from Adam Posen Peterson Institute +many others.

So many law students at so many elite law schools (Berkeley, Yale, Stanford, Harvard) don’t understand how the first amendment works. I wonder how this has come to pass?

The US has a progressive tax system. By this estimate, the richest Americans pay double the effective overall tax rate of the poorest Americans

LFG

Though Americans were able to finish a transcontinental railroad more than 150 years ago, California is so incompetent at building new rail that I expect to be able to take a self-driving car from Los Angeles to San Francisco before I can take a high speed train.

Would love a good urban econ paper on these systems, now all over LatAm. La Paz one amazed me. ~$20m/km to build, wait time of literally 5 seconds + can run down blvd median (as in El Alto) + hills no problem = solves mass transit issues of transfer time, speed and cost, no?