Tuesday assorted links
1. Lottery-based science funding, from New Zealand. And Matt Warner of Atlas on state capacity and liberty.
2. Girls named Alexa are being teased a lot.
3. Obituary for the great George Steiner (NYT). Much as I admire the knowledge of Lehmann-Haupt, the piece does not come close to reflecting just how much Steiner knew and could command in his writings and language.
4. Markets in everything. Yup. And the purity spiral in the knitting world, with reference to Timur Kuran.
5. “This may provide exploratory evidence that “state capacity” in certain domains eg innovation, health and education – might be important. This adds to the debate on “state capacity libertarianism” and in terms of current UK policy may inform on whether investing in an “ARPA organisation” or other areas of state capacity is a positive return on investment.” Here are the regressions. Lots at the link, and very nice visuals, a dose of sanity in exposition too, all from Ben Yeoh.