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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: August 2009
PLEIN-AIR.
PLEIN-AIR. This article by Daniel Grant in last weekend’s Wall Street Journal says that painting outdoors came into its own in the nineteenth century. Technology helped—the century saw portable easels and convenient tubes of paint. I took a particular interest … Continue reading
Posted in art, Uncategorized
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WHY THE “BIG MEN” IN NEW GUINEA OPPOSE FREE MARKETS.
WHY THE “BIG MEN” IN NEW GUINEA OPPOSE FREE MARKETS. The anthropologist Keir Martin explains why the Papua New Guinea society discourages the less well off from taking actions to help themselves. He calls attention to the importance of giant … Continue reading
PURIPURI AND WITCHCRAFT—SOMETIMES IT’S NOT RATIONAL TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS.
PURIPURI AND WITCHCRAFT—SOMETIMES IT’S NOT RATIONAL TO MAXIMIZE PROFITS. Keir Martin, an anthropologist, explains in this article in the Financial Times why some farmers in Papua, New Guinea, do not plant all their land even though they would make more … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, History
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FAIRY ENCHANTMENT—PISHOGUE.
FAIRY ENCHANTMENT—PISHOGUE. The article about bog butter points out that it was apparently not stored for ritual purposes. It quotes a museum official: “There are accounts dating back to the 1850′s with people used to wash their cattle once a … Continue reading
Posted in History
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BOG BUTTER.
BOG BUTTER. Annalisa knows of my interest in bogs, which comes from my belief that my Danish ancestors and my Irish ancestors were bog people. She sent me this article about the discovery in a Kildare bog of an oak … Continue reading
Posted in History
2 Comments
KEEPING TRACK OF THE SEEDS.
KEEPING TRACK OF THE SEEDS. I liked this article by Jack Sanders in our local Darien Times for two reasons. First, I am delighted to know what a chickadee is capable of doing. Sanders writes about how: “A study several … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Science
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A FACTOR OF TWO—OR OF THREE?
A FACTOR OF TWO—OR OF THREE? Select any stock and look at its price movements for a day–or a month–or a year. What is the correct price for that stock? Richard Thaler cites Fischer Black, who “once defined a market … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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DRUNKEN WALKS.
DRUNKEN WALKS. I posted here a couple years ago on a comment by Annalisa that “there appears to be a good deal of randomness as to which stocks do well and which decline.” I have posted several times since on … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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FLAUBERT’S CONTEMPT.
FLAUBERT’S CONTEMPT. Flaubert has the same kind of contempt for the characters in MADAME BOVARY that Salinger has in THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, without the protective screen that the first person narration by Holden Caulfield provides. That is, it … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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HOLDEN CAULFIELD’S CONTEMPT.
HOLDEN CAULFIELD’S CONTEMPT. I have a lot of the same feelings about THE CATCHER IN THE RYE now that my kids do, and a lot of it is due to my experiences since I read it. Mary McCarthy’s point that … Continue reading
Posted in Literature
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