Random links

Yes... it's been a week since the last post, but I'm still alive.

A tale of two despots: Mubarak gets jail; Qaddafi gets a pass?

"So let me get this straight: one former dictator ultimately decides not to unleash massive force against anti-government demonstrators, and eventually leaves power more-or-less peacefully, if not exactly voluntarily. His reward? He winds up in jail (maybe deservedly). Another dictator responds by using loyal military units to repress unarmed demonstrators, and when they arm themselves, he starts using all the means at his disposal to defeat them and remain in power. But ... Washington ends up trying to find him some sort of safe haven for him. ... what lesson will future autocrats draw from these events?"

How to Keep Going and Going

"In an eight-decade study, parental divorce in childhood was the strongest predictor of early death in adulthood."

Britain mulling changes to royal succession rule so first-born girl could take throne

"Britain's government said Saturday it has begun the process of reviewing the ancient, discriminatory rules of royal succession, so that if Prince William and Kate Middleton's first child is a baby girl she would eventually become queen." I'm confused - is it really so much more discriminatory to insist on male monarchs taking priority than it is to say that one individual by birth gets to be in charge of a country?

The secret to success isn't a secret.

It's work. For a longer version of this argument see Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. Somehow "work" doesn't really sell too well.