Recently, the White House responded to a petition to “begin construction of a Death Star (the planet buster from the Star Wars movies) by 2016. They declined, partially on the grounds that it would be too expensive, with the numbers having been crunched by the folks over at centives.net, saying that the steel would cost around $852 quadrillion. However, we think that in reality, it would actually be much cheaper, and is a proposition that Mr Obama should reconsider.

Firstly here is a link to the original post analysing the cost on centives.net, an excellent blog on “quirky economics” from how much of a cut Domino’s take on your toppings to the game theory involved in The Hunger Games. I recommend that you take a bit of time to read this before getting started on our article.