Today (Dec. 6th) is St. Nicholas Day. Saint Nick is the cultural ancestor of Santa Claus (via Sinter Klaas in the Dutch tradition). Nicholas was a 4th century bishop of Myra (now in Turkey), and became the patron Saint of Russia, and of children. He had a fondness for the…
Advertisement (almost a full page ad) for a huge new casino opening soon in St. Louis, published in the November 30, 2007 St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I didn't know that happiness was so easily achieved. And from this ad, it appears that everyone comes out ahead at the casino.
It's that time of year again, when we gear up for the rewards (or disappointments) promised in our celebrations of the Yule Season. Christmas Time! Days of saccharine movies, maudlin songs, a hope for fluffy white snowfall that is somehow miraculously easy to drive through and falls only on grassy…
Adam Smith argued that everyone will ultimately benefit when each person acts out of self interest. For a long time now, economists have now shown that Smith's view was naïve, and that even rational people will act in ways that leave everyone worse off. This dysfunctional process leads to an…
Huffpo published this piece on a businessman who takes anti-consumerism seriously: Travel company operator Hal Taussig buys his clothes from thrift shops, resoles his shoes and reads magazines for free at the public library. The 83-year-old founder of Untours also gives away all of his company's profits to help the…