viernes, 4 de septiembre de 2009
1899: A Very Good Year for Books
According to Google Books, it's the year Raymond Chandler's Killer in the Rain was published, along with Stephen King's Christine and a landmark biography of Bob Dylan -- not to mention the Italian edition of Freakonomics and Portuguese edition Super Crunchers. These are mistakes, obviously, and they point to even more troubling errors that bedevil Google's digital library project, as Geoffrey Nunberg explains. Update | 4:51 p.m. See a response from Google's metadata team here.
miércoles, 2 de septiembre de 2009
Biblical Property Rights
Photo: Kevin Lallier
Deuteronomy 23:25-26 reflects the limits on altruism:
When thou comest into thy neighbor's standing corn, then thou mayest pluck ears with thy hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbor's standing corn.
It's O.K. to take a bit of the owner's produce for sustenance; but to ensure that what is taken is not for commercial purposes, the taker cannot use machinery (a sickle) that would raise his marginal productivity and thus raise his output beyond what might be for immediate sustenance.
The owner does have some protection, but he is also supposed to charitable. This seems like a pretty reasonable compromise between altruism and property rights.
Deuteronomy 23:25-26 reflects the limits on altruism:
When thou comest into thy neighbor's standing corn, then thou mayest pluck ears with thy hand; but thou shalt not move a sickle unto thy neighbor's standing corn.
It's O.K. to take a bit of the owner's produce for sustenance; but to ensure that what is taken is not for commercial purposes, the taker cannot use machinery (a sickle) that would raise his marginal productivity and thus raise his output beyond what might be for immediate sustenance.
The owner does have some protection, but he is also supposed to charitable. This seems like a pretty reasonable compromise between altruism and property rights.
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