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This map, originally from Strange Maps , and coming to me through A Secondhand Conjecture , shows you just how dominant the American economy is. Each state is matched with the appropriate country whose GDP it most closely matches. Of course, in almost every case the population of the American state is far, far less than the foreign country to which it is being compared (e.g., Idaho compared to Ukraine). Just click the map for a larger view. And below find the companion, which shows you how many states in the US it takes to equal the GDP of Japan, Germany, China, and the UK--also from Strange Maps .

I've been uncomfortable with blogrolls from the very beginning (which was, by the way, .001667 of a century ago). Within the DE blogosphere it seems essential to list those blogs you check into or comment upon, and that's OK. And what criteria do you use for the rest? Obviously, here at Delaware Libertarian I want to hit the standard Libertarian sites, not that anyone reading this is likely (A) not to have ever visited them if the reader is a libertarian, or (B) to visit them if the reader is not a libertarian. Still, I guess it's expected. But I also wanted to cast the net a bit wider than that. Just one problem, I thought: will anybody see placing links on these blogs as endorsements? Then I thought: why the hell should I care? Because placing them here IS an endorsement that you should be aware of what's going on at these places, and if you aren't savvy enough to realize that I don't agree with everything (or anything) running down the left side of the p...

I love Discover Magazine's Top 100 Science Stories of the Year. Unfortunately, that's the geek in me looking for clips on dark matter and soil problems causing the fall of ancient civilizations. But every so often you find news you can use. Top story number 15 is Male Circumcision: A New Defense Against HIV , which documents the fact having your newborn baby boy visited by a mohel can actually reduce his risk of transmitted HIV by a whopping 60%!!! "Circumcision is thought to prevent infection because the underside of the foreskin is rich in immune cells that are particularly vulnerable to HIV. Small tears in the foreskin during intercourse can also allow the virus to slip into the body." What's really interesting (and dismaying) about this story is that apparently this 2006 study only reinforces a 1999 study done in Great Britain that has been studiously and intentionally ignored by the World Health Organization. The study estimates that implementing a poli...

I travel on business 35-45 days per year. I watched this and I have a sudden urge to get tested for a lot of things.

If you buy books--and the odds are if you are reading this you buy too many--you need to stop shopping online at Amazon or Borders or Barnes & Noble. Why? Because there is a better deal out there. Check out Abebooks.com . "ABE" stands for Advanced Book Exchange, not an old bald guy in a dusty store. It is a consortium of several thousand online booksellers and several million titles (old and new) in a consolidated marketplace. The search engine is powerful, and best of all the whole place is market-driven. You will usually find far more copies available in a range of conditions and prices than you do from Amazon, and Abebooks stands behind its transactions. Often you can even scoop the bookstores; both Pat Buchanan's and Glenn Beck's new books were available here (sometimes in review copies or paperback advance proofs) several days before they went on sale in bookstores, and at cheaper prices. You do have to watch postage charges carefully, but that's true...