Latest Posts

April 19, 2007

Lotteries and merit

One of my favorite industries to criticize is the state-run lottery business. Philosopher William F. Vallicella writes the following: “Your chances of a significant win are next-to-nil. But suppose you win, and suppose you manage to not have your life destroyed by your ‘good fortune.’ Continue Reading...
April 18, 2007

Two new PowerBlog contributors

I’m pleased to announce that the Acton Institute PowerBlog has added two new contributors to our cast of cutting-edge commentators. Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, national spokesman for the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, associate professor of historical theology and social ethics at Knox Theological Seminary, and adjunct scholar at the Acton Institute, will be posting some of the annotated comments and links from his periodic Interfaith Stewardship Alliance Newsletter. Continue Reading...
April 17, 2007

Sailing to Byzantium with Avatars

Socrates in some sense has come full circle. In a case of life imitating art, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Central Florida in Orlando have received a grant to create life-like virtual representations of historical figures, with whom students can interact, dialogue, and inquire (HT: Slashdot). Continue Reading...
April 16, 2007

Registration is now open for the Grand Rapids Premiere

The Call of the Entrepreneur, Acton’s new documentary on the importance of entrepreneurs in society, premieres in Grand Rapids on May 17, 2007. The film will begin at 7:00pm at Celebration Cinema North with a reception to follow, and a VIP reception will be held beforehand at 6:00pm. Continue Reading...
April 16, 2007

The complexity of ‘green’ computing

As I alluded in a post last week, a number of EU governments are intent on making a switch from Windows to Linux operating systems. Part of the reason for this is the ostensibly cheaper cost of using open source software as opposed to proprietary systems. Continue Reading...
April 13, 2007

Open source, closed markets

John Berthoud of the National Taxpayers Union has a piece in today’s Washington Examiner about the battle between Microsoft and the European Commission. Berthoud writes that it is part of a larger “anti-American” program, and “another example of old-guard European protectionism.” Continue Reading...
April 13, 2007

The 100-mile suit

In the film The Pursuit of Happyness (review here), there’s a scene where Will Smith’s character arrives late for an interview with a stock brokerage firm and has no shirt on. Continue Reading...