Manufactured Scarcity FTL
594303
Why Nintendo thinks it's acceptable to manufacture so little of products there is a clear overwhelming demand for is beyond me. The second this was announced, I knew I needed to have it. Not once have I actually had the chance to do that. It was sold out by the time I was able to check online at Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, etc.

Get it together Nintendo!
495428
Here is a good evaluation of the world's dependence on petroleum, why it is so important, and the inescapable fact that there is not an unlimited supply. The world's transportation structure cannot function without oil, and no alternatives have been developed. It may not even be possible to continue to function as a modern economic system if and when the supply of oil is gone.
2258844
then you should also read "Mastering the Infinite Game" by Charles Hampden-Turner and Fons Trompenaars, which applies the concepts to show East Asian values (based on infinite games) have transformed business  practices.  Highly recommended!
4028756
I completing understand the tenents of capitalism, particularly supply and demand.  However, to go from $60 to over $180 is crazy.  Do not buy this, because it continues the problem.  There are other sets available in stores for much less.
487432
In this updated second edition(seven years of updates!), the authors expand on the "Planet Moon" Project.
We take a long, hard look at existing technologies and systems and visually depict what is possible for humanity to achieve on our nearest celestial neighbor, in the short term. While we base some of these designs on NASA plans, we fully expect multinational private capital and enterprises to drive lunar development. We believe, if we put our hearts and souls into the Planet Moon Project, the Moon could become the next frontier to establish a variety of  peaceful,progressive, international, intercultural and interdisciplinary activities. Opening up such a new dimension in human pursuit will enable the creation of millions of new,imaginative and productive occupations in all walks of life, extending new horizons for human thought and activity. As the world becomes more interconnected and interdependent for resources, the Planet Moon Project, the authors believe, offers the inevitable "breakout" strategy. The only question is...which nation(s) is willing to lead us out of the cradle to our cosmic destiny ?!

So.....please buy the book and look at all the original artwork including those magnificient color plates. No warp drives here, just plain proven hard technology which the authors believe is sufficient to attain these results. Hope Hollywood movie directors use books like these for depicting our future in space.
1060442
An excellent resource for modelling interstellar trade for any RPG.  It tackles various economic and freight related issues, and all of these can be adapted as needed for different settings.  Perfect for GMs and players who want more numbers and nuts and bolts to their trading.
1724463
I agree with much of what Mr. Ruppert has to say in this documentary about how people assume infinite expansion is possible in an essentially finite ecosystem. However, I was more interested in viewing this Great Recession piece in retrospective.  At present the global economy is more jeopardy from over supply of oil than from under supply. A great irony given the fact that peak oil prophets will some day be proven correct.  Only, civilization may find a much different way to collapse long before then.
2041793
Even though this work is written by two colleagues who have pursued successful careers in the corporate environment, one senses that it should be classified in the domain of science fiction. It is both a lagging indicator and a conservative vision in didactic format, less clear than Stephenson's  Snow Crash or Diamond Age, both of which painted the larger societal matrix in which the new corporation would exist.
Much of what the authors present in their service economy seems at odds with what folks such as Howard Rheingold, in Smart Mobs, suggests can and will be supplied by smart toasters and lamp posts or communities of digitally connected flocking humans using advanced wireless technologies and wearable computers. Even though the authors attempt to portray a sensitive and connected community, one feels like the new consumer will be as helpless as royalty, their every need instantly anticipated by an army of servants, flesh and digital- the ultimate pampered consumer, looked after because that creates the new world of work.
Missing are those slaving in the depth of this utopian castle, those who have to grow the food, build the technologies and deliver the goods. Missing from this volume is the economics of a global society that provides the platform for delivery of these services.
Complex, complicated and complexity are all different concepts that the authors, like so many others in the business management publishing arena, have conflated. The volume proclaims a catastrophic transformation must come about to take us from a managerial corporate model to the service economy- yet they are not as convincing as George Land in his original 60's volume, Grow or Die. And the authors choose to ignore the need to simultaneously change the economic underpinning such as suggested by Marjorie Kelly in The Divine Right of Capital or the works of David Korten and others who point out that the "product->service model is not the transformation that will build the kinder/gentler vision but rather a return to the concept that corporations exist for the public good-and what that means in the  new century.
The work is one dimensional and extrapolist, seen from the back seat of a corporate limo, or somewhere above the "glass ceiling; a world that does not realize that there are workers in the shirt factories of Bangladesh whose daily wages will not afford them the luxury of bus fare across town to their shanties that are without basic sanitation. One wonders who is helping them plan their menus, making sure that the groceries have been delivered and their children have arrived safely from school. It is seen through the eyes of the technology marketers who hop around the world with their portable pc's, pda's and mobile phones who can not understand why everyone doesn't want to be wired to the Internet. In this volume we have a vision from one side of the "digital divide".
893965
3D printing has captivated the imagination.  Oh what one can do with these marvelous machines.  I must say, however, that this "book" was not worth the price.  Amazon has a  lot of other good books--like Fabrication--that will give you much more information and stir your imagination.
1711762
This is an interesting volume that shows a lot of the creative process. However, like the show, the volume appears to have been made on a sort of limited budget. This soft cover volume is just good enough, and will not compete with fancier coffee table books.  Readers may be surprised that the sketches and prototypes of props, sets, and costumes are often crude, compared to things made for today's movies and television shows. The tools of those days don't compare to those of today. Of course, many times the final product was only good enough to get the ideas on the televison screen. It will serve as an inspiration to those making films today, whom feel that they can and will make improvements to the art. Recommended for artists, filmmakers and hard core fans of Star Trek shows. Part of the ever growing library of Star Trek books.
716203
Like many other post-scarcity science fiction novels, this story deals with a privileged human's psychology and how it reacts to pressure. Use of cybernetic implants to corral and assign tasks to alternate personalities is an interesting idea employed in this book.
3444397
In this episode Star Force rescues another species that is starving due to unrestrained population growth, the root cause of which is male testosterone coupled with fighting over fertilizing the eggs, coupled with a culture in which their self-destruction thrives (sorry, could not help it).  Wonder who the author is referring to?  There are some interesting ideas here, the one of most interest to me is the prison system for a leader of the rebels.  The model suggested leverages the desire to live and avoid boredom to "re-educate."  And, to that the systems adds physical health and productive activity, however for quite some time with little contact with others, including keepers/guards.  Having worked closely over the years with some aspects of the legal system, for those that have the interest and openness to see the reality of the prison system in this country:  what a tragic waste of human potential.  Spending in excess of 30K per prisoner per year, much could be done with modern technology coupled with a values-based mission to rescue many of the people sent to prisons; not all, of course, but far more than what is possible currently with our focus on punishment.  Clearly, it is not working.  Thanks to the author for this thought experiment.  Look forward to more.
1328368
Since Adam Smith first published the Wealth of Nations more than 200 years ago, there has been an episodic tension in the dismal science between the concepts of deceasing returns to scale embodied in the image of the invisible hand and increasing returns to scale due to specialization and the division of labor in the pin factory.  Generally, most of us are more steeped in the views of competition, supply and demand and creative destruction arising from a view of the traditional factors of production of capital, labor and land.  Only in fits and starts has the economics profession turned its attention to the importance of knowledge and readily observed increases in wealth.

David Warsh attempts to bring Adam Smith's story back into balance.  Using Paul Romer's seminal paper, "Endogenous Technological Change," published in the Journal of Political Economy in 1990 as the centerpiece, Warsh first weaves a story of economic growth theories since Smith.  Warsh argues that the early dominance of the decreasing returns of the invisible hand is partially due to the general sense of scarcity as embodied in early thinkers like Malthus and because its analysis and maths are more tractable.  It thus required the mathematical maturation of the profession for the question of the pin factory and increasing returns (and declining costs) to find a resolution.  Yet even as the theories and the profession itself become more mathematical in the 20th century, Warsh sticks to a literal and easy-to-read narrative.  His story covers virtually every major economist from Smith and Ricardo in the early years to the Nobel laureates Arrow to Solow prior to Romer.  He traces the eras of neglect with the slow discoveries as to the factors leading to growth.

The story really begins in earnest after World War II when the hidden X factor of technological change -- in what came to be expressed as total factor productivity -- came to the fore to complete the economic growth equation.  Like the missing "dark matter" still being sought to explain why the universe doesn't fly apart, this TFP "X factor" remained elusive for many years and was generally viewed as something external - or exogenous -- to the standard understanding of growth in output.  What Romer was able to argue in what came to be called New Growth Theory, was that this mysterious "dark matter" was itself knowledge and that it was an internal product -- that is, endogenous -- to the economic system.

While Warsh has too great a tendency to lionize Romer, this story is indeed a fascinating yarn and very informative for the non-economist.  The theories that have emerged from Romer and other new growth theorists have special relevance in today's Internet and information economy where increasing returns to scale and network effects so manifestly surround us.

So, if you can put up with a bit of journalistic license and economists-worship, do check out this fast, 400-pp read.  It's a rousing good tale and educational to boot.  Not all economists can have beautiful minds, but a few fortunate ones can formulate beautiful equations.
1795498
The author skillfully dovetails this volume into Part 1.  Although futuristic science fiction, the author has been able to weave human emotions, values and reactions into a plausible tale. The technology employed into making the story flow seems 21st Century plausible. There is one drawback to this series, however.  The sellers, true, to form, have packaged the story into relative short truncated volumes, while pricing the subsequent volumes at a sum equal or more than the first volume!
2877670
Okay, so this isn't pretty--but it's important! Too many brand new resources costing us millions of trees and barrels of oil (that's where plastic comes from) are put into office and school supplies. Let's lighten the load--this is a great idea! Nice and clean, a great surface for decorating if you're an artist, too! My only complaint is that the cardboard stock used is a little thin, but this can be worked around. Thank you for creating this!
1760815
Nothing of value is free. Even the breath of life is purchased at birth only through gasping effort and pain.
Robert A Heinlein
3257412
This set periodically goes in and out of production.  When it goes out of production, the price immediately spikes, often by 100%.  It's been as high as $140 in the past.

This shows that it's a good set for investment, provided you can buy it at the right price.  Once LEGO discontinues it for good, demand has already shown that the prices will go up significantly -- and that could be tomorrow or it could be two years from now.

Do I think it's that great of a set?  No, not unless you're a huge fan of Minecraft.  There's not many unique or interesting pieces, and it's a fairly straight forward build with fairly standard bricks.  The piece count seems high at first, but it's all very small bits and pieces.  Perhaps if I had gotten several of them and pieced them together, I would have enjoyed it more.  Or maybe I just need to be a Minecraft fan.

Either way, you know if you want it or not.  Just make sure you get it at the right price.  No sense paying collectible prices when LEGO is still periodically releasing them.