Links and updates

• The Washington Post and New York Times have picked up on the biofuels tax credit story first reported on by Chris Hayes at The Nation (and which I'd blogged on here).
• NotPC points to a wonderful video of a Formula 1 car doing doughnuts. On snow. On artificial snow. In the desert: Dubai's indoor ski venue. Rand may have preferred the lit cigarette as symbol of man's mastery of nature. I'll take this.
• Tyler Cowen's review of the film The End of Poverty. Tyler usually walks out of movies he doesn't like. Forcing himself to sit through it would not have been cheap.
• Lubos Motl recommends a film Roissy would like.
• KiwiBlog approvingly cites New Zealand's Treaty Negotiations Minister on moves towards compensation. Cowen previously wrote on the impracticability of intergenerational compensation. It's worth reading.
• Solow on Posner on the economic crisis
• If ever there were a case for scalping, it would be at Bayreuth. The annual festival of Wagnerian opera has a nine year waiting list for tickets: you have to apply for tickets nine years in a row to have a chance at getting a ticket. Reznor previously discussed anti-scalping mechanisms. At Bayreuth, they go even further:

  If you are wealthy, buy a ticket on the black market. WARNING! In recent years the attitude of the Festival management has hardened not only towards the "scalpers" who trade in black-market tickets but also those who buy such tickets. A "scalper" is anyone who asks more for a ticket than its face value. The Festival management regard such tickets as void and invalid. There have been instances of individuals with black-market tickets being forcibly ejected from the Festspielhaus and in at least one case dragged from their seats. It is reported that offenders are advised to leave Bayreuth immediately and not to return. So if you use a black-market ticket, you must be prepared to be black-listed for life.

  The FAQ also notes that you can buy expensive package tours, including tickets, from approved agents. Sound familiar?