theDrahos

A military veteran is being taken to court by the city of Huntsville, Ala., for code violations stemming from his off-the-grid lifestyle. The city’s justification for the lawsuit is that 27-year-old Tyler Truitt’s property, without city utilities, must be unsafe, WAFF48 reports. Truitt and his girlfriend Soraya Hamar live on their own two acres of property within city bounds and are completely self-sustaining, using solar panels and rainwater collectors. He constructed the utilities himself. But officials think that his property should be classified as a trailer and have stated that if he doesn’t vacate the premises, trouble will soon follow. Trailers … Continue reading →

Once more, an “insider” from The Fed exposes the reality of an academic ivory tower clueless of the real financial markets. Former adviser to Dallas Fed’s Dick Fisher, Danielle DiMartino Booth speaking in a CNBC interview slams The Fed for “allowing the [market] tail to wag the [monetary policy] dog,” warning that “The Fed’s credibility itself is at stake… they have backed themselves into a very tight corner… the tightest ever.” As she writes in her first Op-Ed, “The hope today is that the current era of easy monetary policy will have no deep economic ramifications. Such thinking, though, may … Continue reading →

A logic puzzle has baffled the internet, but its solution is apparently so simple that a child can solve it in seconds. The now-viral puzzle comes from a Hong Kong elementary school admission test for six-year-olds, who are required to solve it within 20 seconds. The test, as reported by Centauro, features a drawing of a parking lot with a car positioned in one of the six numbered spots, blocking the number from view. Based on the visible numbers, the students are asked to determine the number of the spot where the car is parked. If you can’t solve it right away, … Continue reading →

[This article is an excerpt from the May/June 2015 issue of The Austrian.] Intellectuals have long been glorified as champions of truth and defenders of society’s highest values. But in Washington, they serve as Leviathan‘s Praetorian Guard. Intellectuals are thriving in DC thanks in large part to the ruinous policy advice they proffer. The District of Columbia has 120 times more political scientists per capita than the rest of the nation. But rather than producing “good governance,” the 3,200 political scientists and legions of other would-be Brain Trusters provide endless excuses to further extend the federal sway. Intellectuals usually come … Continue reading →

A new report on the NFL’s “Deflategate” controversy – by statistical experts at the American Enterprise Institute – confirms much of what I had detected regarding flaws in the NFL’s findings, which claimed the New England Patriots had probably deflated their footballs and that quarterback Tom Brady probably had some awareness. AEI concluded that physics – not tampering – could explain the changes in air pressure. AEI’s principal observation was that the NFL’s investigators were mistaken in relying on footballs used by the Indianapolis Colts in the same game as a control group, i.e., an assumption that they were otherwise identical to the … Continue reading →

How much do you know about cars? It’s not just trivia, either. Knowing some things about cars – or at least, some car lingo – can help you come across as more car-savvy, even if you’re not a gearhead. And that can help you avoid getting ripped off by a bad apple car salesman or service advisor. The bad ones are looking for marks – and if you appear to know something about cars, probably, they’ll save the shuck and jive for the next guy. Anyhow, back to the lingo: *OBD II – This acronym refers to the Onboard Diagnostics … Continue reading →