At its best, HBO's House of the Dragon echoes questions about politics that drove the early seasons of Game of Thrones. How does one obtain or lose power? Why are those who desire it so often unfit? The right bloodline and a loyal army—or a big dragon—can take you only so far.

The dragons and armies play a bigger role in the spinoff series, but the show's recently completed third season occasionally embodied the spirit of its predecessor.

The third episode finds Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, having seized the throne with a daring raid on Westeros' capital, planning a hasty coronation and banquet. She's thwarted by a deluge of other problems, large and small. The treasury is empty. Key allies seek favors. And who gets which bedroom in the palace?

With an entire episode dedicated to Rhaenyra's first day in her new job, House of the Dragon shows how successful leaders aren't defined by battlefield glory—mostly, it's about managing endless meetings and demands.

The post Review: <i>House of the Dragon</i> and the Pursuit of Political Power appeared first on Reason Magazine.

On eBay Live, livestreaming is for the entrepreneurial everyman. It is a no-frills, decentralized QVC for the modern age.

The interface is clunky, the sellers are unpolished, and the viewer numbers are low. The site is more like a digital garage sale than a Sotheby's auction, but it's just as thrilling to watch a bidder win a rare baseball card as to watch one win a Rothko.

Items for sale include Rolex watches, Funko Pop toys, commemorative coins, and Michael Kors backpacks, which sellers hawk to audiences of anywhere from 10 to 1,000 other souls. These online auctioneers set countdown clocks, sometimes as short as 10 seconds. Bids start as low as $1.

Tuning into a sub-100-viewer eBay Live auction is strangely intimate. Sellers, often in makeshift home sets or nondescript warehouse backrooms, fill the time between auctions with banter and often play music on their own speakers. Sellers also respond to the audience, affectionately referred to as "chat."

One bidding frenzy drew me in. Ten seconds and a flurry of clicks later, I became the proud owner of a $3.81 Dragonite Pokémon card. I know nothing about Pokémon, yet I felt a surge of joy hearing my username declared the winner. There is a simple pleasure in buying and selling real things in a digital auction house.

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