Daily-Column

… -1/12? This is evidence that reality is a computer that has overflow at infinity, because the result is useful in String theory and therefore helps explain the physics of the universe. Feel free to blather now.

First: an observation on house prices being driven by land use regulations: Rethinking Urban growth boundaries: A related unintended consequence of urban consolidation is that ‘densification’ has often ceased to occur at its historically natural locations nearer the urban core and has instead shifted further away into less efficient locations (i.e. far away from employment and amenities). The reason for this is that the price of land is forced up so much by the growth constraint that households are unable to afford the ‘premium’ price commanded by more efficient locations, and are forced to locate instead at ‘less unaffordable’ but also less efficient locations. Essentially, budgets are squeezed so much by high land prices that households are forced to trade-off both space (smaller homes) and location efficiency (i.e. live further out). ...

John Gruber, arguing for Nintendo to just develop for iOS, states his admiration for Disney: One thing that has long fascinated me about Walt Disney was that he was always looking for the next big thing, and never worried about protecting the last big thing. This really doesn’t square with Disney’s long-term support for the Copyright Term Extension Act where Disney is constantly trying to protect their last big things. Nintendo, currently, is utterly dependent on reinventing the wheel of their existing franchises, and I suspect that is what needs to change more than any deep seated lack of progress on the hardware front. ...

Let Me Explain Why Miley Cyrus’ VMA Performance Was Our Top Story This Morning: So, you may ask, why was this morning’s top story, a spot usually given to the most important foreign or domestic news of the day, headlined “Miley Cyrus Did What???” and accompanied by the subhead “Twerks, stuns at VMAs”? It’s a good question. And the answer is pretty simple. When The Onion turns more real than the “real news”, you know something is going wrong. ...

Could a coach transfer from the NFL to the Premier League? Coach Lasso takes on Tottenham Hotspur: