Vahelduseks positiivsemalt ja kriitikata...peaaegu

Bryan Caplan juhib tähelepanu tegevusele, millega on ka Vabalogis viimasel ajal liiga palju tegeletud:

So while I've been complaining that complaining makes other people worse off, Will indirectly suggests that complaining makes you worse off. Complaining amplifies your frustration by keeping your attention focused on your grievances.

Mnjah, tõsi ta on...ehk siis järgneb Vabalogi "positiivne programm".

- Koomiksid on vist eestlaste jaoks peamiselt kolmest neljast kaadrist koosnevad väiksed naljad ajalehe viimastel lehekülgedel. Loomulikult on ka erandeid.

Minu jaoks on koomiksid midagi märksa keerulisemat. Sadakond kastidesse kogunenud inglise ja soome keelset ajakirjamahu täisandvad väljaannet, kust võib leida Gaiman'i, Moore'i, Miller'i, Kirby ja isegi Lee loomingut, annavad tunnistust sellest, kui keerulisi teemasid ja kui fantastilisi lugusid on võimalik koomiksite abil jutustada.

Samas tuli minu jaoks üllatusena, et koomikseid kasutatakse osades riikides majanduslike ja regulatiivsete reformide selgitamiseks ja seda üpris edukalt:

Through the Max comic series for adults, the Bulldozer project turned the entrepreneur into the hero. Max not only dramatized how regulations hurt the average person, but also educated people about the reforms and the reform process. Even though BiH had no history of adult comics, Max was widely read.

USA keskpank (Federal Reserve) on samuti juba aastaid enda tegevuse selgitamisel koomikseid kasutanud. Mis kõige parem, neid koomikseid on võimalik internetist tellida ;-)

- Kas Titaanil võib olla elu? Chris McKay näib arvavat, et Saturni kuult on lootust leida vägagi eksootilist elu:

They think the microbes would breathe hydrogen rather than oxygen, and eat organic molecules drifting down from the upper atmosphere. They considered three available substances: acetylene, ethane and more complex organic gunk known as tholins. Ethane and tholins turn out to provide little more than the minimum energy requirements of methanogenic bacteria on Earth. The more tempting high-calorie option is acetylene, yielding six times as much energy per mole as either ethane or tholins.

- Julian Sanchez selgitab lühidas essees, miks "turufundamentalism" ei ole lihtsalt veel üks pime usk:

"These people think markets can steer themselves without the guidance of a helpful nanny state?" they wondered. Like cavemen hearing about television sets, they could only assume that this was some sort of sorcery. How else would you get the little men inside the box? They might understand the claim that in some particular sector, markets required no intervention -- though they'd be skeptical -- but the notion that, on general principle, complex systems ran themselves just fine without benign intervention seemed like it could only be the product of a quasi-religious faith.

Of course, this gets things almost precisely backwards.