The Unbroken Window

They had a special shelf out with selected books on it that have not been borrowed for 5 years (or something like that, I forget the time). None of those books appear to be interesting to me. So that leaves me wondering, would you prefer it if your library did more of this? And if [...]

Read Full Post »

I spent way too much time reading economics, history, political theory, philosophy and all things related to learning more and teaching economics. But at the same time, I try to have at least one book or article going at all times that are far removed from it. Last month one of those books was Lenore [...]

Read Full Post »

The Life and Times of an American Playboy. Funny, before I learned he was doing that, I sent him this.  And it’s good to see this in the description of the movie:
The Life and Times of an American Playboy is an independent short film, currently in production [...]

Read Full Post »

More from Rose George’s wonderful book. I promise this is the last post on human waste!
… the material itself is as rich as oil and probably more useful. It contains nitrogen and phosphates that can make plants grown … it can be both food and poison. It can contaminate and cultivate. Millions of people cook [...]

Read Full Post »

If you ever really need to go to the bathroom to do #2 and you have no place to go, try employing the Su-Jok therapy of Korean scientist Park Jae Woo. Should you have the urge to go, take some sort of a blunt object (like a pen) and trace a line with great pressure [...]

Read Full Post »

I just finished watching Ken Burns’ recent documentary on America’s National Parks. The scenery was great, but Burns’ interpretation of the meaning of the National Parks was a bit confused. The entire series seemed to be a celebration of democracy – that the creation of the National Parks was an essentially American idea, to create [...]

Read Full Post »

I just read Robert Wright’s the Moral Animal. My favorite story was this one:
It has been found that Chimpanzees have testes that weigh more relative to their body weights than do other primates such as gibbons. Interestingly, there is an evolutionary explanation for this. Female chimpanzees are actually quite promiscuous while female gibbons are monogamous.
Think [...]

Read Full Post »

Here is the first:
(The wants of the poor) would be prudent to relieve, but folly to cure.
Bernard Mandeville (1723)
Here is the second:
It is a very singular government in which every member of the administration wishes to get out of the country … as soon as he can, and to whose interest, the day after he [...]

Read Full Post »

I’ve lived in a dense inner city, I’ve lived in the edge of a city, I’ve lived in suburbia and I’ve lived out in the middle of nowhere. With the possible exception of my childhood in Queens, I don’t really believe we (me) had any meaningful relationships with more than one or two of our [...]

Read Full Post »

So this was a fun paper to read:
Short Criminals: Stature and Crime in Early America by Howard Bodenhorn, Carolyn Moehling, Gregory N. Price  -
This paper considers the extent to which crime in early America was conditioned on height.    With data on inmates incarcerated in Pennsylvania state penitentiaries between 1826 and 1876, we estimate the parameters [...]

Read Full Post »