quinta-feira, 28 de fevereiro de 2013
Midia
"Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the [U.S.] media." -- Noam Chomsky
(e ele não sabe como esta no Brasil)
(e ele não sabe como esta no Brasil)
Ação afirmativa
Thomas Sowell analisa as políticas de ação afirmativa ao redor do mundo
Veja vídeo entrevista
Veja vídeo entrevista
quarta-feira, 27 de fevereiro de 2013
Linguagem e poupança
Keith Chen: Could your language affect your ability to save money?
Vídeo palestra
What can economists learn from linguists? Behavioral economist Keith Chen introduces a fascinating pattern from his research: that languages without a concept for the future -- "It rain tomorrow," instead of "It will rain tomorrow" -- correlate strongly with high savings rates. Read more about Chen’s explorations »
Keith Chen's new research suggests that the language you speak may impact the way you think about your future. Full bio »Vídeo palestra
Excesso de cientistas na América
The Ph.D Bust: America's Awful Market for Young Scientists—in 7 Charts
By Jordan Weissmann
Politicians and businessmen are fond of talking about America's scientist shortage -- the dearth of engineering and lab talent that will inevitably leave us sputtering in the global economy.
But perhaps it's time they start talking about our scientist surplus instead.
I am by no means the first person to make this point. But I was compelled to try and illustrate it after reading a report from Inside Higher Ed on this weekend's gloomy gathering of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In short, job prospects for young science Ph.D.'s haven't been looking so hot these last few years, not only in the life sciences, which have been weak for some time, but also in fields like engineering.
The graphs below, drawn from National Science Foundation data and some of my own calculations, depict Ph.D. employment at graduation. It's not a perfect measure of the labor market for young science talent -- ideally we'd have data on graduates nine months or a year out of school, since some people need a little extra time to job hunt. But looking at these figures over time, it seems pretty obvious that there's no great run on trained scientists in this country.
Eleiçoes
… is from page 283 of Robert Higgs’s 2004 volume, Against Leviathan; specifically, it’s from Bob’s essay “Escaping Leviathan?”:
Scholars have been slow to appreciate that elections are and always have been for the most part a sham – a mere ceremony intended to make people believe they have some control over their fate even as they are mercilessly bullied, bamboozled, and fleeced by their rulers.
Liberade americana
O Homeland Security é o monstro burocrático criado após o 11 de setembro, teoricamente com a finalidade de impedir o ingresso de inimigos no território. Hoje é a menina-dos-olhos do presidente Barack Hussein Obama, que conta com ele para desarmar a população e, de quebra, intimidar seus inimigos políticos. Uma de suas grandes realizações foi instalar nos aeroportos aquelas máquinas de raios-x que revelam às autoridades o tamanho dos pênis e os modelos das calcinhas. Nenhum terrorista foi jamais descoberto por esse meio. Em compensação, milhões de velhinhas passaram mal, milhões de senhoras e senhoritas se sentiram bolinadas, milhões de empresários perderam encontros de negócios e milhões de maridos estão até hoje tentando explicar por que chegaram tarde em casa. Mas nem tudo é prejuízo: é possível que algum namoro tenha começado nas filas de espera. Uma das funções básicas do Homeland Security é, por definição, impedir o ingresso e a permanência de imigrantes ilegais nos EUA, mas, com o mesmo desvelo com que vasculha as partes íntimas dos viajantes nos aeroportos, o departamento se empenha em facilitar o ingresso e assegurar a permanência dos invasores: sabendo que a massa dos ilegais não vem por via aérea, desarticula a vigilância nos postos de fronteira, franqueando a passagem dos indesejáveis, e faz corpo mole na hora de expulsar os que já entraram, alegando que são muitos e não há condições de pegar um por um. Não é preciso dizer que o presidente Barack Hussein Obama enxerga nos ilegais um delicioso contingente de futuros eleitores do Partido Democrata, assim como vê na metade nacionalista, conservadora e armada da população americana um inimigo a ser destruído por todos os meios, a começar pela sua rotulação – por enquanto oficiosa – de radical e terrorista. Por isso mesmo, o departamento que acha impossível expulsar doze milhões de ilegais não recua ante o projeto infinitamente mais ambicioso e complexo de desarmar uma quantidade doze vezes maior de cidadãos americanos; e aliás, como vimos, já se prepara para isso estocando armas e munições, o mais convincente argumento contra os obstinados e recalcitrantes.
Posted by SELVA BRASILIS
Vida perigosa
"A vida ou é uma ousada aventura ou é nada. Segurança não existe na natureza, nem mesmo as crianças a experimentam totalmente. Evitar o perigo não é mais seguro no longo prazo do que a exposição." (Hellen Keller)
terça-feira, 26 de fevereiro de 2013
Brasil mata
Evolução e determinantes da taxa de homicídios no Brasil
Por Adolfo Sachsida
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Anarquismo
“Anarchists did not try to carry out genocide against the Armenians in Turkey; they did not deliberately starve millions of Ukrainians; they did not create a system of death camps to kill Jews, gypsies, and Slavs in Europe; they did not fire-bomb scores of large German and Japanese cities and drop nuclear bombs on two of them; they did not carry out a ‘Great Leap Forward’ that killed scores of millions of Chinese; they did not attempt to kill everybody with any appreciable education in Cambodia; they did not launch one aggressive war after another; they did not implement trade sanctions that killed perhaps 500,000 Iraqi children.
In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.”
― Robert Higgs
In debates between anarchists and statists, the burden of proof clearly should rest on those who place their trust in the state. Anarchy’s mayhem is wholly conjectural; the state’s mayhem is undeniably, factually horrendous.”
― Robert Higgs
O segredo de gerenciar seu tempo
The Simple Secret to Time Management: Jedi Time Tricks
"... The secret to mastering your time is to systematically focus on importance and suppress urgency. Humans are pre-wired to focus on things which demand an immediate response, like alerts on their phones—and to postpone things which are most important, like going to the gym. You need to reverse that, which goes against your brain and most of human society.Look at what you spend your day doing. Most of it, I'll warrant, is not anything you chose—it's what is being asked of you. Here's how we fix that, young padawan:
Say no. Most of us follow an implicit social contract: when someone asks you to do something you almost always say yes. It may feel very noble, but don't forget there's a dying princess you need to save, and you just agreed to slow yourself down because you were asked nicely. You may need to sacrifice some social comfort to save a life (as a bonus, people tend to instinctively respect those who can say no).
Unplug the TV. I haven't had a TV signal for 7 years, which has given me about 12,376 hours more than the average American who indulges in 34 hours a week. I do watch some shows—usually one hour a day whilst eating dinner—but only ones I've chosen and bought. You can do a lot with 12,000 hours, and still keep up with Mad Men.
Kill notifications. Modern technology has evolved to exploit our urgency addiction: email, Facebook, Twitter, Quora and more will fight to distract you constantly. Fortunately, this is easily fixed: turn off all your notifications. Choose to check these things when you have time to be distracted—say, during a lunch break—and work through them together, saving time.
Schedule your priorities. Humans are such funny critters. If you have a friend to meet, you'll arrange to see them at a set time. But if you have something that matters to you more than anything—say writing a book, or going to the gym—you won't schedule it. You'll just ‘get round to it'. Treat your highest priorities like flights you have to catch: give them a set time in advance and say no to anything that would stop you making your flight.
First things first. What is the single most important (not urgent) thing you could possibly be doing? Do some of that today. Remember there's a limitless number of distracting stormtroopers—don't fool yourself by thinking "if I just do this thing first then I can." Jedi don't live by excuses.
Less volume, more time. There's always millions of things you could be doing. The trick is to pick no more than 1-3 a day, and relentlessly pursue those. Your brain won't like this limit. Other people won't like this limit. Do it anyway. Focusing your all on one task at a time is infinitely more efficient than multi-tasking and gives you time to excel at your work.
Ignore. It's rude, unprofessional, and often utterly necessary. There are people you won't find time to reply to. There are requests you will allow yourself to forget. You can be slow to do things like tidy up, pay bills, or open mail. The world won't fall apart. The payoff is you get done what matters.
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segunda-feira, 25 de fevereiro de 2013
Nas trevas
"We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen." -- Thomas Merton
O mito da Idade das Trevas
Decentralization Hidden in the Dark Ages
by Jonathan Goodwin
"... The Dark Ages were not so dark. In this time, law was custom. King and lord were under the law and were bound to serve and defend the law. Each individual had veto power if he could demonstrate the validity of his veto in the law, the old and good law. That the law was not written was not a detriment to the people, but a check on the king. The king was as uncertain in the law as were the lords.
The early Middle Ages offer an example in history of political organization different than what we today understand as government, or the state. One need not romanticize the period to take away from it valuable examples of how life might function in a more decentralized condition."
domingo, 24 de fevereiro de 2013
quinta-feira, 21 de fevereiro de 2013
A profecia de Ratzinger
La profecía olvidada de Ratzinger sobre el futuro de la Iglesia
Marco BardazziRomaUna Iglesia redimensionada, con menos seguidores, obligada incluso a abandonar buena parte de los lugares de culto que ha construido a lo largo de los siglos. Una Iglesia católica de minoría, poco influyente en las decisiones políticas, socialmente irrelevante, humillada y obligada a «volver a empezar desde los orígenes».
Pero también una Iglesia que, a través de esta enorme sacudida, se reencontrará a sí misma y renacerá «simplificada y más espiritual». Es la profecía sobre el futuro del cristianismo que pronunció hace 40 años un joven teólogo bávaro, Joseph Ratzinger. Redescubrirla en estos momentos tal vez ayuda a ofrecer otra clave de interpretación para descifrar la renuncia de Benedicto XVI, porque coloca el sorprendente gesto de Ratzinger en su lectura de la historia.
La profecía cerró un ciclo de lecciones radiofónicas que el entonces profesor de teología pronunció en 1969, en un momento decisivo de su vida y de la vida de la Iglesia. Eran los años turbulentos de la contestación estudiantil, de la conquista de la Luna, pero también de las disputas tras el Concilio Vaticano II. Ratzinger, uno de los protagonistas del Concilio, acababa de dejar la turbulenta universidad de Tubinga y se había refugiado en la de Ratisbona, un poco más serena.
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A tragédia dos Wilsons
“Either the Constitution means what it says, or it doesn’t.”
America’s founding fathers saw freedom as a part of our nature to be protected—not to be usurped by the federal government—and so enshrined separation of powers and guarantees of freedom in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But a little over a hundred years after America’s founding, those God-given rights were laid siege by two presidents caring more about the advancement of progressive, redistributionist ideology than the principles on which America was founded.
Theodore and Woodrow is Judge Andrew P. Napolitano’s shocking historical account of how a Republican and a Democratic president oversaw the greatest shift in power in American history, from a land built on the belief that authority should be left to the individuals and the states to a bloated, far-reaching federal bureaucracy, continuing to grow and consume power each day.
With lessons rooted in history, Judge Napolitano shows the intellectually arrogant, anti-personal freedom, even racist progressive philosophy driving these men to poison the American system of government.
And Americans still pay for their legacy—in the federal income, in state-prescribed compulsory education, in the Federal Reserve, in perpetual wars, and in the constant encroachment of a government that coddles special interests and discourages true competition in the marketplace.
With his attention to detail, deep constitutional knowledge, and unwavering adherence to truth telling, Judge Napolitano moves through the history of these men and their times in office to show how American values and the Constitution were sadly set aside, leaving personal freedom as a shadow of its former self, in the grip of an insidious, Nanny state, progressive ideology.
quarta-feira, 20 de fevereiro de 2013
As mentiras da medicina
Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science
Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. So why are doctors—to a striking extent—still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice? Dr. John Ioannidis has spent his career challenging his peers by exposing their bad science.
Guerra, bancos e bancos centrais
Neste palestra Lew Rockwell explica a conexão entre o sistema financeiro e a guerra.
http://xrepublic.tv/node/420
http://xrepublic.tv/node/420
Governo
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." -- George Washington, in a speech of January 7, 1790
terça-feira, 19 de fevereiro de 2013
Fórum Pós de Ciência Política
III Fórum Brasileiro de Pós-Graduação em Ciência Política
31 de julho, 01 e 02 de agosto, UFPR, Campus Reitoria, Curitiba – PR
O III Fórum Brasileiro de Pós-Graduação em Ciência Política é um evento nacional que procura constituir um espaço de debates para as pesquisas realizadas em nível de pós-graduação na Ciência Política. O evento reunirá na UFPR em Curitiba, nos dias 31 de julho, 01 e 02 de agosto de 2013, estudantes de graduação, pós-graduação e docentes de todo o país. Essa terceira edição vem consolidar o sucesso das edições anteriores, realizadas na UFMG em 2009 e na UFSCar em 2011, reflexo da expansão da área no Brasil. A temática escolhida para o III Fórum, “As dificuldades contemporâneas da pesquisa em Ciência Política no Brasil”, pretende incentivar o debate acerca das múltiplas agendas, temas e abordagens presentes nas pesquisas em Ciência Política realizadas no país.
O III Fórum, terá espaço para que alunos de graduação submetam propostas de painéis referentes à pesquisas de iniciação científica.
Submissões de proposta de trabalho até 17 de março de 2013.
Informações e submissões acesse: http://www.forumcienciapolitica.com.br/apresentacao/
segunda-feira, 18 de fevereiro de 2013
Educação financeira
HERE is a test. Suppose you had $100 in a savings account that paid an interest rate of 2% a year. If you leave the money in the account, how much would you have accumulated after five years: more than $102, exactly $102, or less than $102?
This test might seem a little simple for readers of The Economist. But a survey found that only half of Americans aged over 50 gave the correct answer.
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Mais material:
Sources
"Do Financial Education Programs Work?", Ian Hathaway and Sameer Khatiwada, working paper 08-03, April 2008
"Financial Literacy: What Works? How Could It Be More Effective?", William G. Gale and Ruth Levine, October 2010
"The Impact of Financial Literacy Education on Subsequent Financial Behaviour", Lewis Mandell and Linda Schmid Klein
"The Financial Education Fallacy", Lauren E Willis, presentation to American Economic Association
Economist.com/blogs/buttonwood
This test might seem a little simple for readers of The Economist. But a survey found that only half of Americans aged over 50 gave the correct answer.
Leia mais
Mais material:
Sources
"Do Financial Education Programs Work?", Ian Hathaway and Sameer Khatiwada, working paper 08-03, April 2008
"Financial Literacy: What Works? How Could It Be More Effective?", William G. Gale and Ruth Levine, October 2010
"The Impact of Financial Literacy Education on Subsequent Financial Behaviour", Lewis Mandell and Linda Schmid Klein
"The Financial Education Fallacy", Lauren E Willis, presentation to American Economic Association
Economist.com/blogs/buttonwood
segunda-feira, 11 de fevereiro de 2013
Pensamentos
The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for
it.
- Henry David Thoreau
Society is like a stew. If you don’t stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.
- Edward Abbey
When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.
- Jean-Paul Sartre
- Henry David Thoreau
Society is like a stew. If you don’t stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top.
- Edward Abbey
When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.
- Jean-Paul Sartre
sábado, 9 de fevereiro de 2013
De onde chega a guerra?
"In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful." -- Leo Tolstoy
Educação universitária argentina
Punto de Vista Economico
"There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: the bad economist confines himself to the visible effect; the good economist takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen." Frederic BastiatEstadísticas sobre la educación universitaria argentina
Una nota de Alieto Aldo Guadagni en La Nación ofrece una radiografía de la educación universitaria de la Argentina, a partir del censo de estudiantes de la UBA 2011.
Dejo la nota completa y una selección de párrafos abajo, que nos permitirá abrir el debate.
Dejo la nota completa y una selección de párrafos abajo, que nos permitirá abrir el debate.
Los datos corresponden a las 13 Facultades de la UBA más el CBC y muestran que, entre 1992 y 2011, la población estudiantil de la UBA se incrementó un 56% y llegó a los 263.000 estudiantes. El mayor crecimiento le corresponde a Ciencias Sociales, con un 231%: pasó de 6646 estudiantes, en 1992, a 22.016, en 2011. El alumnado en las facultades de Ingeniería y Ciencias Exactas crece mucho menos y por debajo de este promedio general, por eso, mientras en 1992 por cada 100 estudiantes en Ciencias Sociales había 200 en Ingeniería y Ciencias Exactas, ahora hay apenas 72.http://puntodevistaeconomico.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/estadisticas-sobre-la-educacion-universitaria-argentina/
Direito e economia
O Centro de Direito e Economia (CPDE) da FGV DIREITO RIO e a Associação Brasileira de Direito e Economia (ABDE) realizam, nos dias 17 e 18 de outubro, o VI Congresso Anual da Associação Brasileira de Direito e Economia.
O evento tem como objetivo o intercâmbio de experiências e conhecimentos com foco na interdisciplinaridade entre Direito e Economia.
Até o momento quatro palestrantes internacionais já confirmaram.
Palestrantes confirmados / Keynote speakers:
Eric Brousseau, Université Paris-Dauphine, European University Insitute
Randall Thomas, Vanderbilt University
Thomas Ulen, Illlinois University
Stefan Voigt, University of Hamburg
O Congresso acontece na FGV DIREITO RIO (Praia de Botafogo, 190). Para mais informações clique aqui.
quinta-feira, 7 de fevereiro de 2013
Académicos sem futuro
Why are
Recent College Graduates Underemployed?
University Enrollments and Labor Market Realities
Political leaders, prominent foundations, and college presidents have argued that the nation must increase the proportion of adults with college degrees in order for America to remain competitive in the global economy. Supporting those positions, some have issued studies demonstrating that there is a significant earnings premium associated with the possession of a college degree. That is, college graduates tend to earn more in the labor market compared with those with only a high-school education, a differential that is large enough to justify the expenditure of increasingly large sums of money necessary to finance a college degree. A less optimistic story points out that, while there are undoubtedly many who benefit —even quite substantially economically, from higher education, a not inconsequential number of Americans who obtain higher education do not achieve the economic gains traditionally accompanying the acquisition of college-level credentials. This study uses empirical evidence relating to labor markets to argue that a growing disconnect has evolved between employer needs and the volume and nature of college training of students, and that the growth of supply of college-educated labor is exceeding the growth in the demand for such labor in the labor market.
Mais
University Enrollments and Labor Market Realities
Political leaders, prominent foundations, and college presidents have argued that the nation must increase the proportion of adults with college degrees in order for America to remain competitive in the global economy. Supporting those positions, some have issued studies demonstrating that there is a significant earnings premium associated with the possession of a college degree. That is, college graduates tend to earn more in the labor market compared with those with only a high-school education, a differential that is large enough to justify the expenditure of increasingly large sums of money necessary to finance a college degree. A less optimistic story points out that, while there are undoubtedly many who benefit —even quite substantially economically, from higher education, a not inconsequential number of Americans who obtain higher education do not achieve the economic gains traditionally accompanying the acquisition of college-level credentials. This study uses empirical evidence relating to labor markets to argue that a growing disconnect has evolved between employer needs and the volume and nature of college training of students, and that the growth of supply of college-educated labor is exceeding the growth in the demand for such labor in the labor market.
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Vida sem cerebro
Man with tiny brain shocks doctors
A man with an unusually tiny brain manages to live an entirely normal life despite his condition, which was caused by a fluid build-up in his skull.
Scans of the 44-year-old man's brain showed that a huge fluid-filled chamber called a ventricle took up most of the room in his skull, leaving little more than a thin sheet of actual brain tissue (see image, right).
"It is hard for me [to say] exactly the percentage of reduction of the brain, since we did not use software to measure its volume. But visually, it is more than a 50% to 75% reduction," says Lionel Feuillet, a neurologist at the Mediterranean University in Marseille, France.
Feuillet and his colleagues describe the case of this patient in The Lancet. He is a married father of two children, and works as a civil servant.
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A origem do dinheiro na dívida
Debt: The First 5,000 Year
David GraeberHere anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors.Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it.
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quarta-feira, 6 de fevereiro de 2013
Educação - livre contra obrigatória
Educação: Livre e Obrigatória - novo lançamento do IMB
Prefácio à edição brasileira Chega aos leitores lusófonos o texto de Murray Rothbard (1926-1995) sobre a educação. Publicado em 1972, Educação: Livre e Obrigatória é um ensaio no qual o economista e filósofo americano condensa toda a história da educação obrigatória no ocidente desde a formação das nações modernas, e argumenta contra a interferência do estado na esfera educacional.
Vivemos em uma época em que diversas máximas são proclamadas cotidianamente. É comum ouvir de jornalistas, especialistas e políticos uma convocação para a 'melhoria da educação'. Dizem que o futuro do Brasil começa na escola e que são necessárias mais políticas educacionais. Neste livro, Murray Rothbard demonstra o perigo existente por de trás destas ideias.
Em primeiro lugar, "é claramente absurdo limitar o termo 'educação' a um tipo de escolaridade formal". Rothbard inicia a primeira parte de seu livro discutindo o desenvolvimento e a diversidade dos seres humanos, os tipos de instrução e a responsabilidade pela educação das crianças. Este capítulo inicial contém enorme material para se discutir problemas que vivenciamos na realidade brasileira, como é o caso da criminalização do homeschooling (ensino doméstico). Adicionalmente, é neste capítulo que Rothbard apresenta a sua defesa da não-intervenção do estado na educação, apontando a diferença entre uma educação obrigatória e uma educação livre.
Rothbard não é pedagogo e, logo, não se atreve a fazer sermões sobre como a maneira correta de se ensinar. É necessário que o leitor esteja atento a isto, pois o objetivo principal é demonstrar que a educação pública obrigatória é uma política totalitária.
Mais
por Equipe IMB, quarta-feira, 6 de fevereiro de 2013
Vivemos em uma época em que diversas máximas são proclamadas cotidianamente. É comum ouvir de jornalistas, especialistas e políticos uma convocação para a 'melhoria da educação'. Dizem que o futuro do Brasil começa na escola e que são necessárias mais políticas educacionais. Neste livro, Murray Rothbard demonstra o perigo existente por de trás destas ideias.
Em primeiro lugar, "é claramente absurdo limitar o termo 'educação' a um tipo de escolaridade formal". Rothbard inicia a primeira parte de seu livro discutindo o desenvolvimento e a diversidade dos seres humanos, os tipos de instrução e a responsabilidade pela educação das crianças. Este capítulo inicial contém enorme material para se discutir problemas que vivenciamos na realidade brasileira, como é o caso da criminalização do homeschooling (ensino doméstico). Adicionalmente, é neste capítulo que Rothbard apresenta a sua defesa da não-intervenção do estado na educação, apontando a diferença entre uma educação obrigatória e uma educação livre.
Rothbard não é pedagogo e, logo, não se atreve a fazer sermões sobre como a maneira correta de se ensinar. É necessário que o leitor esteja atento a isto, pois o objetivo principal é demonstrar que a educação pública obrigatória é uma política totalitária.
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Manteiga
For 50 years we have been told to cut down on lard and butter while eating
more sunflower oil and margarine.
The dietitians’ rule of thumb has been saturated animal fat = bad,
polyunsaturated vegetable fat = good
But now US scientists are questioning the conventional wisdom, and asking whether margarine might have been more harmful for us all along.
Cutting down on saturated animal fat lowers cholesterol and thus reduces the risk of heart attack. However, the new analysis of a study conducted in the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of the data from which had been missing for decades, has revealed that people who followed the standard advice and substituted margarine in place of butter died sooner than those who made no change to their diet.
Mais
But now US scientists are questioning the conventional wisdom, and asking whether margarine might have been more harmful for us all along.
Cutting down on saturated animal fat lowers cholesterol and thus reduces the risk of heart attack. However, the new analysis of a study conducted in the late 1960s and early 1970s, some of the data from which had been missing for decades, has revealed that people who followed the standard advice and substituted margarine in place of butter died sooner than those who made no change to their diet.
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Music video prêmio
"... this year's theme is "Economic value is subjective."
Edward Peter Stringham, Ph.D.
L.V. Hackley Distinguished Professor for the Study of Capitalism and Free EnterpriseSchool of Business and Economics
Fayetteville State University1200 Murchison Road
Fayetteville, NC 28301
The winners get $2,500 and the professor of the winning entry gets $500. Tell your classes! Entries are due May 15, 2013.
Assign it as a new assignment (I do and
get some great videos that mention Carl Menger), as an alternative to an
existing assignment like a paper, or as extra credit assignment. Let
them know that if they place as a finalist they will get even more extra
credit.
Full details about the contest are here:
To see the current entries click here:
Regards,
Ed
L.V. Hackley Distinguished Professor for the Study of Capitalism and Free EnterpriseSchool of Business and Economics
Fayetteville State University1200 Murchison Road
Fayetteville, NC 28301
terça-feira, 5 de fevereiro de 2013
Patentes - sim ou não
Journal of Economic Perspectives Symposium on Patents
by Stephan Kinsella on February 5, 2013
In a previous post I cited The Overwhelming Empirical Case Against Patent and Copyright. Not only economists, but legal scholars are very skeptical of IP (Legal Scholars: Thumbs Down on Patent and Copyright). Nonetheless the basic IP system of patent and copyright retains is primacy and the patina of legitimacy. In the past most academic and scholarly symposia on the topic would host a gathering of court intellectual offering justifications of the IP system that more honest economists and legal scholars could not find a justification for. It was taken for granted that we need IP, that IP will always be with us, and despite the inability of its supporters to prove their case, the cries of the skeptics would remain unheeded. Thus, books and journals and academic symposia are riddled with the musings of quasi-statists and empiricists who recite the incantations needed to keep IP alive for another generation, while no one really believes it...
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segunda-feira, 4 de fevereiro de 2013
Cuba
Cubano por 30 dias
DE SÃO PAULO
PATRICK SYMMES
Com o desafio de passar um mês em Havana com apenas 15 dólares, o repórter norte-americano Patrick Symmes narra seu mergulho na sociedade cubana e os diversos "jeitinhos" a que precisou recorrer para obter comida, se locomover e até mesmo para destilar rum caseiro.Em Cuba, o salário médio é de US$ 20. Médicos chegam a ganhar US$ 30, e muitas outras pessoas ganham só US$ 10. Decidi que me concederia o salário de um jornalista cubano: US$ 15, a renda de um intelectual oficial. Sempre quis ser um intelectual, e US$ 15 representava uma vantagem significativa sobre os proletários que constroem paredes de alvenaria ou cortam cana por US$ 12, e quase o dobro dos US$ 8 da pensão de muitos aposentados. Com esse dinheiro, eu teria de comprar minha ração básica de arroz, feijão, batata, óleo, ovos, açúcar, café e tudo o mais de que precisasse.
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domingo, 3 de fevereiro de 2013
Os sete mitos da conquista espanhola
Myths of the Spanish Conquest – Indigenous Allies & Politics of Empire
Myths of the Spanish conquest prove surprisingly durable, and Matthew Restall’s aptly titled Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest is one of the best places to begin debunking. By highlighting the importance of indigenous allies both during and throughout colonization, Restall points the way to a different kind of history, of contingent outcome rather than inevitability.
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Myths of the Spanish conquest prove surprisingly durable, and Matthew Restall’s aptly titled Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest is one of the best places to begin debunking. By highlighting the importance of indigenous allies both during and throughout colonization, Restall points the way to a different kind of history, of contingent outcome rather than inevitability.
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sábado, 2 de fevereiro de 2013
Filosofia
"One more word about giving
instruction as to what the world ought to be. Philosophy in any case always
comes on the scene too late to give it... When philosophy paints its gloomy
picture then a form of life has grown old. It cannot be rejuvenated by the
gloomy picture, but only understood. Only when the dusk starts to fall does the
owl of Minerva spread its wings and fly." ~ G.W.F. Hegel, Philosophy of
Right (1820), "Preface"
sexta-feira, 1 de fevereiro de 2013
Escolas privadas em expansão
Private schools are revolutionising developing world education. If only UNESCO would admit they exist
Written by James Stanfield | Friday 1 February 2013
A so-called ‘fact sheet’ on education in Nigeria published by UNESCO in October 2012 suggests that Nigeria has some of the worst education indicators in the developing world. For example, since 1999, the number of out-of-school children has increased from 7.4 to 10.5 million, which means that Nigeria now has the largest number of out‐of‐school children in the world. Unfortunately, these statistics fail to take into account the thousands of unregistered low cost private schools that exist across Nigeria and the millions of children who attend these schools. Consider, for example, the following findings from a census of private schools in Lagos State carried out by DFID in 2010-2011:
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Fim da universidade
Ubiquity U: The Rise of Disruptive Learning
JANUARY 31, 2013 by MARK FRAZIER
Editor’s Note: This article is just one way FEE is celebrating National School Choice Week, January 27–February 2. Even if policy change comes slowly, we want to challenge readers to look for creative ways to circumvent bloated, sclerotic systems in primary, secondary, and higher education.
Tax-funded systems of education face the end of an era. Soaring tuition costs and student loan burdens are crushing household budgets. Students steeped in social networks and entertainment-rich media skip or tune out in class. In an era of torrential change, moreover, what students do retain—perhaps 20 to 30 percent—is likely to be outdated within a year or two of graduation.
Traditionally, tax-funded schools have held out the prospect that stable careers await those who endure thousands of days of instructor-led classes. Yet this prospect too is fading. We can see glimmers of this future in the gales of creative destruction worldwide. Forces transforming the labor markets of developed economies include:
Read more: http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/ubiquity-u-the-rise-of-disruptive-learning#ixzz2JeA8TL5o
O mal
-- "It is indeed probable that more harm and misery have been caused by men determined to use coercion to stamp out a moral evil than by men intent on doing evil" -- F. A. Hayek.
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