Hard Puzzle.:)

Polar Bear In A Snowstorm Puzzle

The Toronto Zoo worked with Lowe Roche to create these polar bear puzzles, available for $7 in their gift shop.

The candle makers demand trade protection

Frederic Bastiat's 'Petition of the Candle Makers'. The sun's 'unfair trade advantage' needs to be curtailed !

We are suffering from the ruinous competition of a rival who apparently works under conditions so far superior to our own for the production of light that he is flooding the domestic market with it at an incredibly low price; for the moment he appears, our sales cease, all the consumers turn to him, and a branch of French industry whose ramifications are innumerable is all at once reduced to complete stagnation. This rival, which is none other than the sun, is waging war on us so mercilessly we suspect he is being stirred up against us by perfidious Albion (excellent diplomacy nowadays!), particularly because he has for that haughty island a respect that he does not show for us.”


Hat tip to Mish

"The evidence doesn't matter, the proof doesn't matter, due process doesn't matter"

When Jason Grodensky bought his modest Fort Lauderdale home last December, he paid cash. But seven months later, he was surprised to learn that Bank of America had foreclosed on the house, even though Grodensky did not have a mortgage.

http://goo.gl/FSVv

modern day bread lines

a stunning admission by none other than the CEO of Walmart on what modern day bread lines look like. To wit:

 

Profits And Baby Formula – Our pal, Rich Yamarone, over at Bloomberg picked up an eye-opening statement made by the Wal-Mart CEO last week.

 

I don't need to tell you that our customer remains challenged…You need not go farther than one of our stores on midnight at the end of the month. And it's real interesting to watch, about 11 p.m. customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items – baby formula, milk, bread, eggs – and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight when government electronic benefits cards get activated, and then the checkout starts and occurs. And our sales for those first few hours on the first of the month are substantially and significantly higher.

Talk about shopping only for necessities. The mid-night trip for baby formula says it all.

Smart Greek Dude

"A nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its
warriors will have its laws made by cowards and its wars fought by
fools."
—

Thucydides


"Some legislators only wish to vengeance against a particular enemy.
Others only look out for themselves. They devote very little time on
the consideration of any public issue. They think that no harm will
come from their neglect. They act as if it is always the business of
somebody else to look after this or that. When this selfish notion is
entertained by all, the commonwealth slowly begins to decay. "
—

Thucydides

"In general, the men of lower intelligence won out. Afraid of their own
shortcomings and of the intelligence of their opponents, so that they
would not lose out in reasoned argument or be taken by surprise by
their quick-witted opponents, they boldly moved into action. Their
enemies,on the contrary, contemptuous and confident in their ability to
anticipate, thought there was no need to take by action what they could
win by their brains."
—

Thucydides

Groucho for President

Wives are people who feel they don't dance enough.

I remember the first time I had sex - I kept the receipt.

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

Greg Mankiw The Problem with Biofuels

Some people who oppose Pigovian taxes, such as a gasoline tax, say we should reduce our gasoline consumption by subsidizing substitutes, such as biofuels. A new CBO report estimates how expensive that is:

The costs to taxpayers of using a biofuel to reduce gasoline consumption by one gallon are $1.78 for ethanol and $3.00 for cellulosic ethanol.

Given the magnitude of that number, isn't it far better to tax gasoline and reduce income taxes than to subsidize biofuel, which in turn requires increasing taxes to pay for it?

Remembering George Carlin's "Stuff" Routine

Here's Why The Price Of A College Education Makes No Sense Anymore

“How can that be?” Hough asks rhetorically. “College degrees bring higher income, but at today’s cost they can’t make up the savings they consume and the debt they add early in the life of a typical student.”

As a well-heeled Manhattanite quipped recently, “Hey it’s gonna cost me $250,000 to send my kid to an Ivy League school. I’d rather just use the money to buy him a business, and let him figure it out in the real world.”

http://tinyurl.com/2w2uaek