Monthly Archives: September 2007

POLAR BEARS AND MARSHMALLOWS.

POLAR BEARS AND MARSHMALLOWS. Often when I read about animal intelligence I think of a news story about the Brookfield Zoo from a number of years ago—from a time when zoos were more lax about people feeding animals. Some of … Continue reading

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ALEX, THE PARROT.

ALEX, THE PARROT. Alex, the parrot, has died at the age of 31. This Economist article lists some of his accomplishments. He had a vocabulary of 150 words. His accomplishments would appear to require reasoning. He understood and could discuss … Continue reading

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PRUFROCK’S ETHERISED PATIENT.

PRUFROCK’S ETHERISED PATIENT. Jon Barnes in the review I posted on yesterday quotes an attack by C. S. Lewis on The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock: For twenty years I’ve stared my level best To see if evening—any evening—would … Continue reading

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AN ADDITIONAL EPILOGUE TO THE LORD OF THE RINGS? (POSSIBLE SPOILER).

AN ADDITIONAL EPILOGUE TO THE LORD OF THE RINGS? (POSSIBLE SPOILER). According to Jon Barnes in the review I posted about yesterday, Tolkien intended a further epilogue, set 16 years after the end of THE LORD OF THE RINGS. The … Continue reading

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GOOD PITCHERS WITH BAD RESULTS.

GOOD PITCHERS WITH BAD RESULTS. I remarked here that only good pitchers get a chance to lose twenty games in a year. Now Nick has posted an article on the pitchers in the last ten years who had the worst … Continue reading

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THE LAST LINE OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS (POSSIBLE SPOILER).

THE LAST LINE OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS (POSSIBLE SPOILER). Jon Barnes writes that “There is magic in the last line of THE LORD OF THE RINGS.” The line is spoken by Sam Gamgee as he returns to his … Continue reading

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LOSING ONE HUNDRED THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS IN ONE DAY.

LOSING ONE HUNDRED THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS IN ONE DAY. Kids, I was in an economics class with a man (Victor Niederhoffer) who went on to lose one hundred thirty million dollars in a day. (He would have lost more, but … Continue reading

Posted in Economics | 3 Comments

WHY TECHNOLOGY WILL PREVENT A CONTESTED CONVENTION.

WHY TECHNOLOGY WILL PREVENT A CONTESTED CONVENTION. I have been posting on how I would like to see contested conventions of the kind they have in Canada and that we used to have in the United States. Michael Barone writes … Continue reading

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NEW LUDDITES.

NEW LUDDITES. Today’s Financial Times has a review by Edward Luce of MICROTRENDS by Mark Penn (Hillary Clinton’s pollster). One of Penn’s findings is that 17% of Americans have tried and rejected the internet. He calls them the “New Luddites.”

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STUBBORN TRUCKERS (COMMENT).

STUBBORN TRUCKERS (COMMENT). Molly commented about a trucker who took out two different bridges in one day. That trucker reminded me of the story about the trucker who earlier this year discovered his truck was six inches too high for … Continue reading

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