A supervolcano in the heart of America’s northwest has the potential to blanket the US in a ‘nuclear winter’. If it were to erupt, the Yellowstone supervolcano would be one thousand times as powerful as the 1980 Mount St Helens eruption, experts claim. While it has lain dormant for more than 70,000 years, scientists say that we can’t rule out the possibility eruption this may some day take place – although they say the chances are extremely slim. The volcano at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Montana sits atop a huge reserve of molten rock and last erupted 640,000 … Continue reading →

(NaturalNews) The police and surveillance state predicted in the forward-looking 1940s classic “1984” by George Orwell, has slowly, but steadily, come to fruition. However, like a frog sitting idly in a pan of steadily-warming water, too many Americans still seem unaware that the slow boil of big government is killing their constitutional liberties. The latest sign of this stealth takeover of civil rights and freedom was epitomized in recent Senate testimony by FBI Director James Comey, who voiced his objections to civilian use of encryption to protect personal data – information the government has no automatic right to obtain. As … Continue reading →

Imagine a time when it all began In the dying days of a war A weapon that would settle the score Whoever found it first would be sure to do their worst They always had before…  . The big bang took and shook the world  Shot down the rising sun  The end was begun and it hit everyone  When the chain reaction was done  . –          Neil Peart . It’s that time of year, for the 70th time.  I am not sure I have anything new or creative to add, yet I do not want to let this anniversary pass … Continue reading →

Is the famous conspiracy about a secret government that runs the world completely nonsense or does the idea actually have any supporting evidence? Conspiracy theories — hypotheses claiming that historical events could have occurred due to the nefarious actions by hidden parties — still remain largely neglected by researchers and considered as implausible and irrelevant. On the other hand, conspiracy theories usually attract a lot of attention from a wide array of people, prompting heated debate on issues ranging from the world’s shadow government to the chances of an alien invasion taking place. While most researchers do not take these theories seriously, some scholars insist that they do deserve attention. The “cryptocracy,” or … Continue reading →

I am delighted that Mr. Noah Smith has sharply criticized Austrian economics; he does so in 2014 and again in 2015. He may not know much about the subject (a little knowledge often leads to grave error) but he writes in an entertaining manner, he spells the name of this school of thought correctly, he is vociferous in his critique (actually pretty nasty, but that is ok), and, most important, he writes for a mainstream news outlet. As far as I am concerned, no publicity is bad publicity. Even unsuccessful attacks on the praxeological school such as his two articles … Continue reading →

You may have noticed that men are looking so clean-shaven these days! While some men like to let their facial hair fill in for extra warmth during the colder season, others have just shaven off their “Movember” moustaches. If you aren’t familiar with the term Movember, let me explain: The month of November is dedicated to men supporting prostate cancer research – and growing a formidable moustache for a good cause. To celebrate the close of this annual prostate cancer awareness campaign, I’d like to take a moment to recap what we know about the risk, treatment and prevention for … Continue reading →

Jacques Chirac, when he was mayor of Paris, offered the municipal workers a deal: They could have a short workweek if in exchange they agreed to verification that they actually worked during those hours. The workers, or their leaders, rejected the offer with contumely, from which the most likely conclusion is that they were already working fewer hours than the mayor proposed, and wanted to keep this secret from the public. Other interpretations for their refusal are possible, of course, for example that the municipal workers were so imbued by public spirit that they wanted to work as many hours … Continue reading →

Geeky is the new sexy. If, like me, you love a good puzzle, then you’re no longer just someone who’s up for a wordsearch of a Sunday afternoon. No, you’re a zeitgeist-busting puzzle-solver. And puzzle-solvers are cool now. Whether it’s Mark Zuckerberg’s hackathons or otterfaced heart throb Benedict Cumberbatch in the Imitation Game, our stock is high. NSA coder Edward Snowdon is so popular that there are multiple agencies desperate to get their hands on him. With the summer ahead, I’ve packed in the puzzle books and plan to spend long hours by the pool cryptic-crossword-ing away. But now there’s … Continue reading →

For the last three weeks, gold has experienced something that has never happened before – hedge funds aggregate net position has been short for the first time in history.   However, as Dana Lyons notes, this week saw another ‘historic’ shift in gold positioning as commercial hedgers shifted to the least hedged since 2001… so the ‘fast’ money is chasing momentum and the ‘smart’ money is lifting hedges into them. Via Dana Lyons’ Tumblr, It’s no secret that commodities have taken a drubbing during the deflationary spiral over the past year. And precious metals have been right up front in … Continue reading →

Lew Rockwell ran my article on going to jail for not filing your tax returns. I was besieged by the victims of jailhouse lawyers who use word magic to beat the IRS. How dare I say such a thing! The IRS can be beaten by saying the magic words! One of them said these gurus are courageous. I replied: “They are fools.” He then sent my reply — no confidentiality — to his IRS-beating guru, an ex-con. I got back a letter from the guru. None of the people whose checks and filed forms in the loooonnnnng stack of links … Continue reading →