Lessig not running for Congress

Here's his announcement.

Kosovo's declaration of independence

Kosovo has declared independence. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Also, read more from a reporter there, Jasmina Tešanović, 1, 2, & 3.

Lessig interview

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080220-lessig-talks-to-ars-about-his-potential-run-for-congress.html

Lessig '08

Should Lessig run?

http://lessig08.org/

Justice and Incentives

From PostSecret:

Consider the ethics of vigilante justice.

NIU Shooting

DeKALB, Ill. — The day after five students were gunned down in an afternoon science class on the campus of Northern Illinois University here, survivors struggled to manage their grief as the authorities released more details about the shooting and the gunman.

Link

Is gun control the answer?

Who wins from the "war" on drugs?

Who wins from the "war" on drugs? Take a guess, and then click through to see if you're right.

Global anti-smoking initiative

Could a global anti-smoking initiative be effective?

Lifetime Medical Costs of Obesity: Prevention No Cure for Increasing Health Expenditure

A recent Dutch study finds, lo and behold, that everybody dies of something - and those with a healthy lifestyle do so most expensively:

"Until age 56 y, annual health expenditure was highest for obese people. At older ages, smokers incurred higher costs. Because of differences in life expectancy, however, lifetime health expenditure was highest among healthy-living people and lowest for smokers. Obese individuals held an intermediate position."

Rational scale of harmfulness of various substances, licit and otherwise

Though advocates of decriminalization tend to gloss over any real harm done by intoxication and addiction, proponents of continued criminalization often conflate the physiological actions of all the illicit substances with heroine. Here's a graphic presenting the "harm" versus "dependence" for a variety of drugs of abuse. The colors aren't helpful, but the legal substances are: khat, solvents, alcohol, and tobacco.
The linked article details the way in which harm and dependence were assessed; the graph is someone else's representation of the data presented in the article, whihc is too bad, because I'd like to know the scale of the axes.

The fatties vs. druggies question

Hope we won't be deciding drug legalization on the merits of the government's anti-obesity campaign.

Battle Against Obesity

Mississippi bill would forbid restaurants from serving food to anyone who is obese.

(Click title for the article)