http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/ en-us vp@dynamist.com Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:45:37 -0600 http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003105.html I rarely post here any more (see me on Google+, Facebook, and @vpostrel on Twitter), but this video on one of FIRE's most ridiculous cases ever is too good not to share. It makes an eloquent case for FIRE's work--and... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003104.html When David Shipley first talked to me about becoming a columnist for Bloomberg View, I asked him which of my many interests he wanted me to write about: economics? policy? design? culture? He basically replied "everything." Hence, my most recent... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003102.html In my first column for Bloomberg View, where I'll be appearing every other Friday, I compare "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to two other media phenomena that also debuted in 1986: Spy magazine and the American Girl line of dolls and... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003101.html You can follow me on Twitter at @vpostrel and @deepglamour and on Facebook. I edit and contribute to a now-occasional group blog at DeepGlamour.net. I have ended my WSJ column and will be writing for Bloomberg View when it debuts... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003100.html http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003099.html Pre-order now for delivery by May 10. (I wanted a lower price, but the publisher wouldn't budge.)... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003098.html Here's a video of a talk I gave at the Kauffman Foundation's annual bloggers conference. You can see the other videos by scrolling down the page here. I think the dynamic described in the talk, and in Colin Campbell's book,... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003097.html For the past week, I've been complaining that journalists covering possible radiation dangers from Fukushima plant have abandoned the old convention of putting radiation exposures in context (usually by comparing them to chest x-rays). The result is that all "radiation"... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003096.html When Apple introduced the iPad last year, it added a new buzzword to technology marketing. The device, it declared, was not just "revolutionary," a tech-hype cliché, but "magical." Skeptics rolled their eyes, and one Apple fan even started an online... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003095.html My latest WSJ column takes up a perennial question. Here's the opening: The Academy Awards show is ridiculous. Guests arrive in broad daylight wearing the most formal of evening gowns. Presenters, including some of the world's most accomplished performers, read... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003094.html Although a few months old, this speech is so good I thought I should share the video. Jonathan Rauch - FIRE's CFN 2010 from FIRE on Vimeo. Buy Jonathan's excellent book, Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought here.... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003092.html As you've no doubt noticed, I don't post much here any more. I do a lot of quick, bloggy posting on my Facebook page and on Twitter (@vpostrel and @deepglamour, depending on subject matter). And I still edit a group... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003091.html The hardest economic question is, What comes next? What, in other words, are the new sources of economic value? How can businesses grow and our standard of living rise? Sometimes the answer is simply more of the same. Growth comes... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003090.html People who oppose changing the law to permit financial compensation for kidney donors sometimes argue that introducing money might change the social norms that now encourage donation and actually reduce donations. On Dec. 23, Ronald Herrick gave a kidney... http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/003089.html This is a story about artisanal cheese and hand-polished wooden toys, organic spinach and exquisitely smocked baby dresses—the burgeoning small-scale economy so beloved by members of the "creative class." But it's also about another, much-discussed growth industry: the production of...