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Even Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution isn’t immune to what I shall now call the libertarian penchant for bad jokes!
How do we know that Adam and Eve were not Chinese? Because they ate the apple, not the snake.

Wow! 22 nominations for the blog mela. Makes me feel better already. Yup, health is back on line and the world looks good!
The one new flavour I got was in the number of Hindi blogs nominated. There were a few earlier (where is नुक्ता चीनी Nukta Chini now?), but this mela is in some […]

Via Fark.com comes this story:

A judge today wiped out a couple’s debt of £384,000 which had spiralled out of control from an original loan of £5,750 due to “extortionate” interest rates.
Tony and Michelle Meadows, from Southport, Merseyside, faced losing their home after they were taken to court by London North Securities for failing to […]

I am feeling a bit under the weather and the blog mela posting will be delayed by a few hours. I’d try and post it tonight if possible. If not, tomorrow morning. Apologies for postponing your reading pleasure!

Just to show that bad jokes are not a prerogative of the cartel, here’s one from Micha Ghertner at Catallarchy. (Oh, yes, they’re libertarian too!)

Here’s the spanking new comment policy for AnarCapLib. With a little help from the resident webguru, you’d see it whenever you are about to comment!
Comments are welcome and you are free to disagree with what’s posted.
However, please remember that you are a guest on private property. Abusive comments will be erased and your IP banned. […]

A brief post by Tom Palmer on Iceland reminded me of Jesse Byock’s excellent book Viking Age Iceland. As a sidelight, Palmer gives an interesting minimalist definition of libertarianism in a comment on his post.
For the more academically inclined, David Friedman has a paper on the legal and political institutions of Iceland from […]

The next Bharteeya Blog Mela will be hosted here on October 28.
For the trivia inclined, I started blogging on October 28. A few famous people started their lives (Bill Gates, Julia Roberts, my kid brother) and some lives ended (John Locke). The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28 and it’s the Greek […]

I go to visit a friend in a nearby town. I buy some stuff from him. I meet some of his friends and buy some stuff from them also. Happy with my trip and my purchases, I return home.
As I am about to enter my house, a highwayman stops me and asks me for […]

Interesting pictorial on pollution and development. Scroll down to see the India - China comparison.

The Sena tiger was always spotty, but now he’s going potty.
In an expletive-laden 800-word editorial in the Saamna mouthpiece yesterday, Thackeray used uniquely Marathi abuses like ‘Lavanda,’ ‘Akkarmashi’ and ‘Upatsumbha’ to describe Sardesai and attacked the nature and style of his journalism.
Mid-Day was a bit shy of translating the words. Lavanda sounds very close […]

Rajni Bakshi and I are looking to start a study group on traditional Indian social and political systems. We intend to meet periodically in Bombay amongst ourselves as well as with other learned people to discuss various issues on this theme.
We’ll start with the question (framed by Rajni): What are the various Indian traditions […]

I love it when an author makes a snarky side comment in a novel. Here’s one from Focault’s Pendulum. (pg 154)
“Historical materialism?” Agliè smiled. “Oh yes, I believe I’ve heard of it. An apocalyptic cult that came out of the Trier region. Am I right?”

I’m such a newbie that my techie friends now help out even without me asking (they just read my mind!)
Premshree has created a Live Journal feed for AnarCapLib. You’ll find it here.
Thanks Prem!

Sometime back, I wrote about the Morgan Spurlock documentary, Super Size Me where Spurlock eats exclusively at McDonald’s and gains 25 pounds and his cholestrol shoots up. Some reviews criticised Spurlock for being biased (e.g. purposely cutting out any exercise) and some hypotheised that it’s not unknown to eat healthy at McDonalds.
Five months later, […]

The Bharateeya Blog Mela has been close to my heart and I’ve enjoyed hosting, participating and winning the prize. I’m not terribly happy with the way it’s going right now so time to blog my thoughts.
Firstly, I don’t like the idea of voting for the “best” post of the month. Please note, it’s not the […]

In my last post on anti-discrimination laws, I asked whether the readers of this site saw the need for laws against discrimination in hiring people.
In the comments section, Sameer asks a question, which immediately rules out any chance of his membership to the Cartel. :)
quote SuperSam:
“Without a law, how would you ensure that the […]

If you were trying to comment today and got a message like “Your comment could not be submitted due to questionable content” please accept my apologies and repost your comment.
The webguru was a bit ambitious in his comment spam trapping and ended up blocking all comments — including mine!
Thanks Chandrashekhar and Amol for pointing […]

Just a quick plug here, folks: The next Blog Mela will be hosted on my site, so please do head on over and nominate your favourite posts. Remember, you too could rig win your way to a $10 Amazon gift voucher from Shanti Aunty.

Christopher Reeve died today. Apart from being a childhood icon, he was someone I respected immensely for his brave battle against paralysis.
During tea, I mentioned Reeves’ death to some friends in the neighbouring office. And was dismayed by the response. “Oh! It’s a release for him” — “I would not want to […]