The Soviet Union, Von Neuman Predictions, and Computers

I have a friend, a young American physicist, who spent a year doing theoretical physics in the Soviet Union. He likes to go to the Soviet Union, not because it is a good place to do physics, but because it is a good place to observe the human comedy. When he went back to Leningrad recently for a shorter visit, he received a proposal of marriage and was called in twice for questioning by the KGB, all within the first week. He speaks fluent Russian, and the KGB people find it difficult to belie...

 Making Drugs Illegal Makes Them Valuable

The more difficult the government makes it to acquire illegal drugs, the higher prices black marketeers can charge. The harsher the penalties for dealing drugs, the more freedom the dealers have to commit other crimes in their pursuit of the economic and social power their trade gives them. After all, they're already criminals and have little more to lose: low risk, high reward. The tighter the crackdown by the government, the scarcer the supply of drugs, and the more potential for money and ...