Tim Worstall

Speccie. The point of taking exercise is maximum effort, not maximum efficiency, surely? Also, we’re ruled by morons, but then we knew that. Consider it olds not news.  

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So, should we use cost benefit analysis when trying to work out what to do about matters environmental? You know, reduce everything to numbers, to filthy lucre, before we decide exactly what we should do? Some say no. This is a pretty impressive list of economists who say we should: Arrow, Kenneth J., Baumol, William [...]

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So why is Iran being persecuted under the non proliferation treaty while Israel is not? (Hmm, hmm? Tell me that you bastards who support Israel and demonise Iran, bastards!) As is pointed out in the comments, because Iran has signed the NPT and Israel has not. There is thus no legal justification for doing anything [...]

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Can anyone find Mr. E’s perfect (if disgusting) piece about Polly’s disappointment with Gordon’s performance? Seems appropriate to run that again today really.

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Bit of a shock this morning, finding myself agreeing with Lawson on anything at all. Still: Last Thursday’s byelection result was not a victory for nationalism, but for social democracy. What makes it easy for ex-Labour voters in the east end of Glasgow to switch to the SNP is that the SNP’s symbolic policies chime [...]

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It would be easier for me to lose weight than it would for Labour to lose Gordon, and I will bet anyone £100 that I can lose a stone – and tip the scales at less than 15 stone – before Gordon Brown ceases to be PM. You know, if enough people took him up [...]

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"Even little tree shrews do it, Let’s all get drunk."

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I’ve been thinking about this a little: Those who could show they were responding to a "fear of serious violence" would be punished for manslaughter and escape a mandatory life sentence, under the plans. Proof of having acted spontaneously would not be required. The reforms, to be unveiled by the Ministry of Justice, would also [...]

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I’m alerted to this lovely piece of logic from Richard Murphy. Commenting upon the tax credits computer system screw ups. Yes it’s an HMRC cock up, but let’s be clear, the system was written by the private sector. Most people who comment will ignore that. ??!!?

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For as long as soaring food prices last, supermarkets should be required to provide hampers of good-quality food for pensioners and others on benefit at cost price or below. A social tariff should be fixed for pensioners and low-income families so that they can purchase gas and oil at below-market price that they can afford. [...]

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However, news reaches me that David Cameron’s nearest neighbour on his relaxing Cornish holiday (and by that, I mean the next house round the cliff) is none other than UKIP leader Nigel Farage.

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So, a new search engine launches called Cuil.com (pronounced "cool"). 120 billion pages they claim to be covering. So let’s do a search, shall we? For the word "worstall" perhaps? We didn’t find any results for “worstall” Some reasons might be… a typo. Please check your spelling. your search includes a term that is very [...]

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Let Dr. Rant explain it to you.

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With Carol Vorderman’s departure from Countdown a sign that the bubble has burst, the BBC will presumably be telling its own presenters to take a 90 per cent pay cut or go searching for another job. That will mean Jonathan Ross’s yearly earnings falling to £600,000 a year, Graham Norton’s to £250,000 and Jeremy Paxman’s [...]

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Labour’s choice should be made between sticking with Mr Brown until May 2010, which might be the wisest course, or switching to an early election under Harriet Harman – a high-risk strategy, but not unthinkable. It would make some sort of political sense. It’s not nice to tease the Labour Party so. Suggesting that Harry [...]

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Most serious, most serious indeed. Alan Johnson, Britain’s health secretary, got it right when he called for a national movement to tackle obesity in his Fabian Society speech. He’s taken on board the sound advice offered to governments over many years now that to have any hope of stemming the tide of overweight and obesity, [...]

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A man was airlifted to hospital after he blew up his garage attempting to make biodiesel. This new localism, the home production of any and everything, is bound to increase such events as ever more Heath Robinson machines are tried out. Will he go down in the health and safety statistics as a victim of [...]

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Hmm, interesting: When the character Carrie Bradshaw read extracts from Love Letters of Great Men in the hit movie, booksellers were inundated with requests for a copy. But there was no such book, until the British firm Macmillan spotted the gap in the market and decided to issue a new publication with the same title. [...]

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But swimming with dolphins, or dolphin-assisted therapy (DAT) as it is scientifically known, may not actually have any mental or physical health benefits to human beings at all, according to new research. Now there’s a surprise, eh? Swimming with dolphins is definitely fun, but health benefits other than swimming or having fun? Who thought that [...]

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At the ASI. Comparing Estonia and Finland from 1939:1994. It’s the markets folks.

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