Monthly Archives: January 2008

MECHANISM DESIGN: CHANGING AUCTION RULES.

MECHANISM DESIGN: CHANGING AUCTION RULES. The founders of the field of mechanism design received last years Nobel Prize in economics. I have been on the lookout for an explanation of mechanism design. Sebastian Mallaby has an article which gives an … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Politics | Leave a comment

HUNGER ARTISTS.

HUNGER ARTISTS. There is a frightening counterpart to competitive eaters: the hunger artist. Kafka’s great story, “A Hunger Artist”, begins: “In the last decades interest in hunger artists has declined considerably.” I had thought that Kafka had invented the whole … Continue reading

Posted in History, Literature | 4 Comments

THE DEATH OF A CHAMPION.

THE DEATH OF A CHAMPION. The weekend Wall Street Journal had an obituary for Eddie “Bozo” Miller. In his prime, Miller was regarded as the word’s greatest eater (see this wikipedia article). The 1981 Guiness book of records claimed that … Continue reading

Posted in History, Sports | Leave a comment

LIFE IN NEW YORK.

LIFE IN NEW YORK. The New York Times reported here on how two men in New York tried to cash a man’s social security check and presented the man’s corpse as identification evidence. What is notable is that the Times … Continue reading

Posted in Journalism | 2 Comments

A CALL FOR FISCAL STIMULUS TO AVOID A RECESSION.

A CALL FOR FISCAL STIMULUS TO AVOID A RECESSION. Kids, Professor Larry Summers had an article in The Financial Times for January 6 (link via RealClearPolitics) calling for a fiscal stimulus—in particular, temporary benefits consisting of payments to taxpayers and … Continue reading

Posted in Economics | 10 Comments

LONG WINTERS.

LONG WINTERS. The article I linked to yesterday also had a moving description of the death of a farm family during a long winter in the Little Ice Age. By looking at what happened to the insects in their sod-walled … Continue reading

Posted in History, Literature | 1 Comment

NORDIC COOKING.

NORDIC COOKING. In the article I linked to in yesterday’s post, the description of how cod was prepared in medieval Greenland was striking: “’One common way of preparing cod was to gut it, dry it, and then cook it in … Continue reading

Posted in History | 5 Comments

PEOPLE MOVING AND IDEAS NOT MOVING.

PEOPLE MOVING AND IDEAS NOT MOVING. I posted here on how DNA studies in the British Isles are showing that “Ideas moved. People less so.” To quote James Marshall, linked in the previous post, “The peoples of Great Britain and … Continue reading

Posted in History | 1 Comment

HOW MY FATHER CAME TO SING IN A BOYS CHOIR.

HOW MY FATHER CAME TO SING IN A BOYS CHOIR. I can’t sing. My father couldn’t either. This is not just understatement. I have been repeatedly assured by people who should know that I can’t sing.. I posted yesterday about … Continue reading

Posted in Football, Sports | 2 Comments

MY FATHER AND CURLY LAMBEAU.

MY FATHER AND CURLY LAMBEAU. The Green Bay Packers have had a wonderful year and are in the playoffs. Our family are Packer fans because my father grew up in Green Bay. My father’s high school football coach was Curly … Continue reading

Posted in Football, Sports | 2 Comments