Marginal Revolution

Mexican alchemy?

A method of producing synthetic diamonds using tequila - Mexico's favourite alcoholic drink - has been discovered, scientists there say.

Not from The Onion.  I thank Michael Makowsky for the pointer.

Assorted links

1. Dark flow?

2. Canadian banks

3. Photo of Bora Bora.

4. Is shipping food really an environmental problem?

5. More good reasons not to trust former Nazis. 

6. First pictures of extrasolar planets.

Sentences to ponder

The scientific method & capitalism are similarly inhuman systems. They also happen to be the primary sources of our progress.

That is Kebko, from the MR comments section.

Now is the Time for the Buffalo Commons

The Federal Government owns more than half of Oregon, Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Alaska and it owns nearly half of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.  See the map for more.  It is time for a sale.  Selling even some western land could raise hundreds of billions of dollars - perhaps trillions of dollars - for the Federal government at a time when the funds are badly needed and no one want to raise taxes.  At the same time, a sale of western land would improve the efficiency of land allocation.

Does a sale of western lands mean reducing national parkland?  No, first much of the land isn't parkland.  Second, I propose a deal.  The government should sell some of its most valuable land in the west and use some of the proceeds to buy low-price land in the Great Plains. 

The western Great Plains are emptying of people.  Some 322 of the 443 Plains counties have lost population since 1930 and a majority have lost population since 1990. 

Now is the time for the Federal government to sell high-priced land in the West, use some of the proceeds to deal with current problems and use some of the proceeds to buy low-priced land in the Plains creating the world's largest nature park, The Buffalo Commons.

Hat tip to Carl Close for the pointer to the map.

The tonic, again

Best to clear your mind and emotions of group loyalties and resentments and ask, if this belief gave me no pleasure of rebelling against some folks or identifying with others, if it was just me alone choosing, would my best evidence suggest that this belief is true?  All else is the road to rationality ruin.

I don't have to tell you who that is.