Issue 52: Finally Back

Happy President’s day to everyone out there. The Blog Wyrm staff thanks everyone for their patience while we dealt with some health issues. It knocked us off our game for a couple of weeks but we are finally back with some new material.

Regardless of where one falls on the normative side of economics, honest people should agree that effective policy decisions can only be made based on good data and sound reason. Nonetheless, poor arguments and badly supported conclusions abound. This week Common Cents examines two recent articles by people in positions to advise and set policy and finds them woefully lacking in logic.

Under the Hood takes a second look at the physics of scattering within the context of classical mechanics. This column, the first in a series of four, lays the groundwork for the most important classical example, hyperbolic scattering from a center exerting a inverse-square law force.

Well it’s finished. After many years of planning and over 3 years of construction, the Secret Wars story line is over and the reboot of the Marvel Universe has occurred. Over the next month, About Comics reflects on what it meant, how the creative team pulled it off, and whether it was really worth it.

Enjoy playing videogames? Don’t we all! Ever wonder whether you could jump up onto a ledge or dodge a hazard or whether it is impossible? This week’s Aristotle to Digital discusses a recent computer science analysis that shows how these kinds of questions are intimately tied to the notion of hardness and decidability.

Enjoy!