Smith appreciated the beauty and allure of intricate systems.
When fabulous clothes are outlawed, only outlaws will be fabulous.
Many textile merchants wound up as bankers. These useful IOUs were a major reason why.
Somebody had to invent those techniques you learned in elementary school.
Before industrial production, textiles could make excellent currency.
When there's business to be done over long distances, you don't want to depend on a scribe.
But any sufficiently familiar technology is indistinguishable from nature.
Even as specific states or regions rise and fade in prominence, their inhabitants continue to enjoy the benefits of their civilization's cumulative experience and knowledge.
Making masks, face shields, and other protective equipment is the bottom-up, COVID-19 version of rolling bandages or knitting socks for the troops.
A generation later, three major themes still resonate.
In 18th century France, wearing the wrong fabric could get you in big trouble.
New technologies help create a sense of personal privacy in public.
What Barack Obama has in common with a cellophane candy wrapper
A new wave of social critics claim that freedom's just another word for way too much to choose. Here's why they're wrong.
Science is about exploring the unknown and cannot offer guarantees.
It's OK to judge a politician's looks. Just don't confuse them with character.
Waiting for perfectly "clean" opportunities to apply your principles means you could lose them altogether.