Long-time SC regulars may recall that rdf posted here for a while. Apparently he has passed away . SC certainly wasn't his primary online home, but he provoked some good discussions here and participated in the community, so I thought I'd put up a note.

My impression was that rdf appreciated the contrast between "blue" and "red" in terms of political debate, so this picture of his seems as good a marker to put here as any. RIP.

UPDATE:  With the recent appointment of new moderators for the site this appraoch to community self-rule is no longer needed or desirable.  The article is being retained for future reference in the comments found below.

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All who wish to make a commitment to their community of peers are free to do so, and in so doing they agree to be bound by the covenant they enter into and agree to be subject to the deliberations and decisions made by the group as may be deemed necessary to enforce that commitment.

Well, maybe they are.

Hat tip to Tyler Cowen.

See Story

That is the title of this latest entry at The Art of the Possible, a libertarian/liberal fusionist website for deep discussion on the sometimes colliding, sometimes overlapping world views.

I took the liberty in creating an SC Folding@Home team .

For those of you not familiar with F@H, I'll let their FAQ do the talking. Essentially, you run a program that runs only when you are not actively using your computer. It does complex mathematical calculations involved in protein folding, which has applications in treating many diseases.

Promoted by Brendan (and timestamp changed) -- everyone get in on the fun!

There has been some interest in starting a stock market challenge over at Marketwatch . Of course, everyone who is interested in playing is welcome to join.

We do need to set some rules:

Starting cash amount [$100,000]:
Public portfolios [y]:
Portfolio resets [n]:

Hat Tip to Logan at Freedom Democrats for continuing to cover Kevin Carson's discussion of Libertarianism and Liberalism.

***This is actually a follow up to Logan's original posting on the matter from a few days earlier.

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Private protection has a strong and under appreciated place in our society says Sheldon Richman

This is Richman reflecting on a speech by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel:

In making the case for private nonstate protection, he pointed that we already are protected to some extent from government invasion by private organizations. How so?

In the used-to-be-popular TV show Who wants to be a millionaire? contestants had the option of using an "ask the audience" lifeline . In the US version, the audience as a whole almost always indicated the correct response. The idea that by putting enough people together we can somehow aggregate their knowledge is a popular one, and certainly true on some level. On the other hand, anyone who has sat through one too many meetings about team building or has tried to convince a stubborn majority they've made a mistake knows that sometimes a whole bunch of people are just a whole bunch of wrong or a whole bunch of dumb =) Definitive proof below the fold...

That's the title and topic of this month's Cato Unbound .

For those not familiar, see About Cato Unbound . It's basically a lead essay on a provocative topic followed by two reaction essays which is then followed by further discussion.

For any of you who are interested, the Marginal Revolution Book Forum is now on the last chapter.

See here .

You may recall that this last chapter was the one cited in some recent discussions here about resources, the environment and innovation.

Thought you might like to know and read about it from someone far smarter than me. :) Enjoy.

And no, I'm not stretching when I say that. In fact, the environmentalist linked here admits as much and with no qualms.

Hat tip to Steve Horwitz in his third of three posts on environmentalism. See link for others.

The Op-Ed in question is by environmentalist David Shearman from Australia.

A recent discussion about limited resources and economic growth and their relationship as it affects our sustainability got me thinking about a book I just finished last week: The Logic of Life by Tim Harford .

Some random resources and excerpts for a debate on whether NASA should send humans to Mars.

Being dead certain about issues in a complex world is not easy. Last week, Tyler Cowen praised uncertainty in a posting that got quite a bit of play in the blogesphere and on his site. I guess it's more messy to talk about what you are uncertain about because the list is much longer and more open to interpretation than talking about certainties.

Great Article in the NY Times .

It's a great and quick read that encapsulates, in simple laymen's terms, the essence of the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle and why it matters. It also puts the policies and methodology of the Federal Reserve in seriously sharp relief.

Thanks to knocienz for the idea. Basically any two people can sign up to debate on Thursday evening (time to be determined by them) and we will provide a moderator to ask questions (or they can get anyone they'd prefer to moderate) and an audience. The audience is encouraged to use chat to discuss the debate as it occurs, while the debaters and moderator will have a diary set aside where only they can comment. After the debate we'll have a poll to see what the audience thinks about the issue. More details below the fold...

pre-white paper...hopefully.

Just wondering if anyone could offer definitions of money other than the standard "medium of exchange". Not belittling that standard as it is a good partial definition, but I think it insufficient to cover the whole understanding of what money is and its total function in general populations as well as nation states.

Alright so we need to choose a topic to discuss for our first debate night. Sounds like this first one will be kind of a dry run for the real thing where we actively solicit outsiders to come and participate. That being the case we don't need to choose the most provocative topic, just something to get the local juices flowing.

Any ideas?

Since the site is currently anemic with regards to conservatives (no offense Ender, and LZ) maybe something that is a splitting point between progressives and libertarians would be more appropriate?