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- HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT. (2)
- GREECE’S ADVANTAGE IN THE CHICKEN GAME. (2)
- Nick: That makes sense. It reminds me of the stories Pater Familias would tell me about how in Boston the person with...
- Dick Weisfelder: Greece seems to me to be playing a game that Karl Deutsch called “underdog.” While one...
- FOOTBALL PLAYERS DELIBERATELY CAUSING CONCUSSIONS? (3)
- Nick: It was my understanding that boxing gloves were to protect the puncher’s hands and not the...
- Dick Weisfelder: Remember the Roman arenas? Bare knuckled boxing? Such injuries were taken as natural and accepted in...
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This isn’t about football. Or even sportsmanship. Well, it is about sportsmanship. But what...
- A 25 % CHANCE OF A EURO DEFAULT? (1)
- Nick: The fact that this has gone on for so long is pretty perplexing. The Economist is referring back to articles it...
- DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE. (1)
- Dick Weisfelder: One can be very open to new technology, but also risk averse. The recent debates about how to...
- THE EUROZONE—A CHICKEN GAME WHERE EVERY MEMBER CAN BLOW IT UP? (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This is not a matter of chicken. These are all turkeys.
- PLAYING WITH MATCHES NEAR A GASOLINE TANK. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Why would the French care? As long as they take down Britain?
- NORWAY’S CHRISTMAS BUTTER SHORTAGE. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Christmas with a butter cookie shortage–in Scandinavia. This isn’t even Scrooge. This...
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Monthly Archives: June 2009
“THERE IS NO GREATER PAIN….” (COMMENT).
“THERE IS NO GREATER PAIN….” (COMMENT). Mary Jane’s reaction to the Madoff post was that Dante had a different perspective on memories of happy times. She referred me to a line by Paola in Canto V in THE INFERNO. (Canto … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
2 Comments
THE HAPPY MEMORIES OF CRIMINALS (COMMENT).
THE HAPPY MEMORIES OF CRIMINALS (COMMENT). Dick Weisfelder commented on yesterday’s post on Bernie Madoff that perhaps other criminals, including killers, have happy memories. I am in unhappy agreement. I hesitated on whether to make the Madoff post because I … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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BERNIE MADOFF’S MEMORIES.
BERNIE MADOFF’S MEMORIES. What must if be like to be Bernie Madoff? After a life of luxury, he is universally hated and reviled, rejected by his family, and today was sentenced to 150 years in jail. And yet, I wonder. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
3 Comments
THE BOSTON MOLASSES DISASTER.
THE BOSTON MOLASSES DISASTER. Sam Anderson gives an amusing list of all the things that distracted him in the course of writing his article. One of the items is the Boston Molasses Disaster. Anderson says: “If I were going to … Continue reading
Posted in History
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YOU CAN’T REALLY MULTITASK.
YOU CAN’T REALLY MULTITASK. Sam Anderson says that despite all the talk about multitasking, with minor exceptions, people can really pay attention to only one thing at a time. The best we can do is to switch rapidly from one … Continue reading
ALLOCATING ATTENTION.
ALLOCATING ATTENTION. Economists think in terms of allocating a limited amount of a resource. Traditionally, they deal with the problem of efficiently allocating a limited income. I posted here about how economists are now thinking about allocating time and that … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Science
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AGREEING TO MY EXPERIENCE.
AGREEING TO MY EXPERIENCE. I posted here on Jonah Lehrer’s insights into Virginia Woolf. Lehrer concluded that: “Woolf realized that the self emerges via the act of attention.” Sam Anderson tells how Winifred Gallagher, the author of RAPT, a book … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Science
1 Comment
WHY FOCUS ON A DOT?
WHY FOCUS ON A DOT? Alan Jacobs in The New Atlantis takes issue here with Sam Anderson’s article and with William James as well: “This is wrong-headed in a number of ways, but chief among them is this: there’s no … Continue reading
Posted in Science
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PAYING ATTENTION TO A DOT.
PAYING ATTENTION TO A DOT. I posted here about the difficulty four year olds have in not paying attention to a marshmallow. In this article Sam Anderson points out that William James argued that it was difficult for a person … Continue reading
Posted in Science
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BAD LINE CALLS.
BAD LINE CALLS. I have previously posted (for example, here) on error rates for sports officials. The Wall Street Journal recently alerted me to a study of tennis line calls by researchers at the University of California at Davis (see … Continue reading
Posted in Sports
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