I’m a few days late to this JPL video showing how the Curiosity rover currently en route to Mars will make its landing next month, but it’s too cool not to share: Read More

There’s been a lot of chatter over the last few days about whether super-wealthy candidates get a hard rap in US politics or whether Mitt Romney is being held to a higher or harder standard. Romney is probably the wealthiest man ever to run for President, even in inflation adjusted dollars. (There are some claims that Washington was wealthier but it’s based on a total misreading of the value of land during the period.) But certainly there have been many extremely wealthy men who’ve run for President and won — Roosevelts, one Kennedy, a couple Bushes, etc.

But all of this talk ignores a fact so salient and obvious that it’s hard to fathom how some are nevertheless oblivious to it. Having vast wealth and aggressively working the law and tax code to avoid taxes is a very different thing if your policy agenda is geared almost entirely to benefit the super wealthy. If you’re a gazillionaire and your main pitch is to cut taxes on gazillionaires that’s just gonna put a bit more emphasis on your wealth. This logic should not be difficult to grasp. Read More