All posts by Manuel Werner

Lac Mégantic et al: The Self-Regulation Lottery

If you don’t know what a lottery is then you’re probably only just visiting this planet from some other place in the galaxy where there is no uncertainty, where the human equivalent species controls everything and every outcome. The Oxford dictionary defines a lottery as “a situation whose success or outcome is governed [entirely] by chance” . I added the word “entirely” because it is crucial to the definition of a lottery and am very disappointed that the Oxford dictionary  was not sufficiently specific.  Continue reading Lac Mégantic et al: The Self-Regulation Lottery

Open Letter to Bernanke, Merkel and other G20 leaders: the Upside of Inequality

Spoiler alert, this is not a trick question. Give one human $10 (about 7.5 Euros for Ms Merkel) and another, luckier one, $1,000,000. The question is which of these two will spend a larger proportion of their gift on buying stuff? Continue reading Open Letter to Bernanke, Merkel and other G20 leaders: the Upside of Inequality

Greed, Growth and Garbage: the unsustainable family

So, why are these words bunched together in the same phrase? Anyone who came up with the obvious, they have a neat arithmetic progression of 5, 6 and 7 letters, please go to nerd management training. They all begin with a hard G is an observation of such breathtaking obviousness, not to mention triteness, that it might just be the right answer, but it isn’t. Tacky attempt at alliteration? Ok, give up? Greed begets growth which begets garbage. Continue reading Greed, Growth and Garbage: the unsustainable family

Open Letter to Warren Buffett: How to pay your fair share

Dear Mr. Buffett, 

Let me begin by thanking you for your awesome, courageous, public admission that you were taxed at a lower rate than your secretary. The entire world, including me – as if I matter in a world of seven billion humans – has but the greatest admiration for your frankness. Who would have thought, the poster boy – er, gentleman – for the super duper rich pleading to pay more in taxes. Well, and please forgive me for being a tad forthright, but, so far, I haven’t heard any more about this truly generous and fair offer.  Continue reading Open Letter to Warren Buffett: How to pay your fair share

How Much Does a Leaf Blower Cost?

It’s a gorgeous early spring day, the minus 15 Celsius wind chill factor notwithstanding, and I’m thinking, “what’s missing?” But not for long. The controlled explosions of two Makita ®  BBX7600N, 75.6 cc Gas Backpack Leaf Blowers come as a beautiful post-apocalyptic symphony to my ears. Continue reading How Much Does a Leaf Blower Cost?

You’ve Got to be Kidding! Internet Information Reliability

 

As pains your chest and left arm take your breath way you are fortunately at the keyboard and immediately Google “chest pains.” This is your lucky day because there’s lots of information on this currently urgent topic. The pain in your head, however, has just overshadowed the one in your chest as you try to figure out which of the 233,000,000 results you should be consulting. Continue reading You’ve Got to be Kidding! Internet Information Reliability