Nov 26th, 2008 | tongue-in-cheek | No Comments
My two favourite economics blogs are facing-off. In a Freakonomics post, Justin Wolfers shamelessly ripped off The New Yorker’s cartoon caption contest and asked readers to submit their preferred caption for a Bush/Krugman photo in the White House. Shortly afterward, Tyler Cowen challenged his Marginal Revolution readers to come up with better ideas. Then Wolfers made the rivalry official with this post. It included an offer for a side bet and a killer announcement:
we have a very special guest judge: Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman has agreed to pick the winning entry.
I wonder whether they asked President George Bush as well. Whose ego would have given up when determining the best caption winner? I am so excited I will not drink any more coffee today.
The Bush-congratulates-Krugman photo that started it all was first spotted on The Economist blog. You can submit your ideas to the first two links above.
Nov 25th, 2008 | london | No Comments
And when I stumble upon pieces like The Ecentric’s Guide to London I miss it even more.
Nov 21st, 2008 | no-brainer | No Comments
There is no secret ingredient. Genes help to get you in the top percentiles but after that you are on your own. And it seems it is all about work, work, work and a bit of luck. Malcolm Gladwell takes a book and a media blitz to say that. I managed it in one line. This New York Times review sums up most of my concerns about his arguments.
Nov 20th, 2008 | math, quote | No Comments
Our difficulty is not in the proofs, but in learning what to prove.
The quote is from Chapter 13 of Algebra by Michael Artin (Emil’s son). Naturally (as most of mathematics), it often applies to any area involving reasoning.
On another note, Algebra is by far the best math textbook that I have come across so far.
Nov 14th, 2008 | math | No Comments
I will devote the coming weekend exclusively to Rings (here and here) and Ideals (here and here). Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve will help me relax in between theory and problems. If you see me posting after 12pm tonight something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.
Nov 7th, 2008 | assorted links | 1 Comment
source: econphd.net
1. Physics/Math rule them all. Greg Mankiw says Larry Summers is vindicated.
2. An intuitive sense of humour or why English people do not get German jokes.
3. A history lesson in video games. It was about time.
4. They made a killing. CIA-led coups, gaming the markets and forensic economics - beautiful.
Nov 6th, 2008 | no-brainer, tongue-in-cheek | No Comments
Scientists claim to have found the thin line between love and hate. Although I feel a bit uneasy about some of their techniques (see this), the study observations ring true.
However, there was also an important difference. The areas of the frontal cortex associated with judgement and reasoning are typically less active when viewing a lover compared to someone more neutral, meaning they are less likely to feel critical of their partner.
The hate-filled subjects, though, only showed a reduction in one small part of this area, while the rest was still active.
So, hate - rationality = love. Cool.
Ma’am, I got a question. If I used to rationalize my actions all the time when I was younger, does that mean that I hated myself? And do I love myself now?
Nov 5th, 2008 | politics | No Comments
He did it. He brought back the sense of childlike wonder to millions who believed.
Nov 2nd, 2008 | media | No Comments
Idealist is a new Bulgarian media covering selected bits of everything (economics, business, politics, finance, science, art, social processes… the list goes on). It starts as a blog but a magazine is in the works as well. The print edition will be a weekly emulating The Economist/Time format and certainly some of their great writing. I will be checking it out regularly.
Many thanks to Nikoleta Popkostadinova (a friend and one of the writers) for letting me know.
