Category: Uncategorized

1. Did Wicksteed discover the Coase theorem?

2. “But two other mothers who have met him said in interviews that he is clean-cut and polite. One described him as “hot.” Another said her first impression of the donor, who showed up wearing khakis and a nice shirt, was that he is “brave” and “generous.” The parents had happily connected on Facebook and Yahoo groups for “donor siblings” — and then were shocked to discover that many of their children seemed to have the same types of developmental challenges and diagnoses.”  Link here.

3. Can innovation be sped up?

4. The rise of peer review.

5. “Antisocial behaviour was consistently rated as less genetically influenced than prosocial behaviour.”

6. “While the costs of RE [renewable energy[ have substantially declined in the past, here we show that rising interest rates (IRs) can reverse the trend of decreasing RE costs…“

1. Some case studies in assorted field growth.

2. The best classical music works of the 21st century?

3. Hayekian welfare states.

4. 100 best albums of the century? (speculative, but mostly a good list)

5. Do grandmasters live longer?

1. Human corpses keep moving for a year after death.

2. Scarce labor and low interest rates.  By Benzell and Brynjolfsson.

3. My Stubborn Attachments philosophy podcast, Elucidations, with Matt Teichman.

4. Are we living in the most influential time ever?

5. Average is Over: “These synthetic husbands have an average income that is about 58% higher than the actual unmarried men that are currently available to unmarried women.”

6. Thomas Piketty slides based on his forthcoming book; the word “Mormon” does not appear.

Nets sixth man Spencer Dinwiddie is in the process of converting his contract so it can be used as a digital investment tool, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports.

Dinwiddie’s deal, which he agreed to during last season, is worth $34 million over three years. By converting it to be used as an investment vehicle, Dinwiddie will receive a lump sum upfront that will likely be less than the total amount of the deal.

According to Charania, Dinwiddie’s plan is to start his own company to securitize his deal as a digital token. Dinwiddie would pay investors back principle and interest.

Dinwiddie’s deal includes a player option for the 2021-22 season, and it is unclear how opting out would impact investors. Last year, Dinwiddie took a business class at Harvard along with now-teammate Kyrie Irving.

Former NFL running back Arian Foster previously tried to do something similar but it did not pan out.

Dinwiddie is heading into his sixth season. Last season, he averaged 16.8 points and 4.4 assists.

From Sports Illustrated, via Mike Tamada, here is further coverage from Atlantic.

1. The signature films of many cities, a pretty accurate list.

2. Who in India actually goes to watch movies?

3. The so-called “Third World” now produces more gdp than does the “First World.”

4. The Slack channel for Progress Studies.  It has been quite popular.

5. The common ownership trilemma.

6. My Bloomberg column on negative yields.

1. Stamina succeeds.

2. Are Google Scholar cites getting more concentrated?

3. On Harold Demsetz.

4. Modal markets in everything: “This heated fake keyboard was designed to fool your cat.”

5. Good Sean Patrick Hughes thread on Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  Recommended.

6. The legal culture that is France.

1. Daisy’s 90th birthday party.

2. More on movie theatres and popcorn.

3. In defense of screen time.

4. Canine regulatory arbitrage, with bags (photos).

5. Intellectual property and the trade deficit (it’s the net asset position that matters!).

Departments of Motor Vehicles in states around the country are taking drivers’ personal information and selling it to thousands of businesses, including private investigators who spy on people for a profit, Motherboard has learned. DMVs sell the data for an array of approved purposes, such as to insurance or tow companies, but some of them have sold to more nefarious businesses as well. Multiple states have made tens of millions of dollars a year selling data.

…The Virginia DMV has sold data to 109 private investigator firms, according to a spreadsheet obtained by Motherboard.

That is from Vice, via Jake Seliger, with much more at the link.

On the topic of privacy, increasingly I am starting to believe that the practice of the obituary is unethical.  The dead person is already gone, and usually (not always) there is little at stake, other than satisfying reader curiosity.  The newspaper collects information on you for years, and without any consent from you whatsoever.  Then, right after what is the saddest day in the history of your family (you hope), they publish it all and distribute it to as many readers as possible.  That is also when you have no opportunity to present a rebuttal or alternative perspective, and furthermore corrections to obituaries are not exactly widely read.

Surely all of those worried about Facebook and privacy will agree with me on this one, right?  And I bet the newspapers will pick up on this crusade as well.

1. Has Puerto Rico been doing better than we think?

2. Steve Pearlstein on Hollywood agencies and studios.

3. “Perhaps counterintuitively, the researchers found that students who borrowed more wound up defaulting less.” (NYT)

4. Interview with Kevin Hassett.

5. Coetzee on Australia’s shame.

6. Mass customization in fashion.

1. It hurts AI students when AI professors leave a school (NYT).  Paper is here (pdf).

2. Progress Studies: a moral imperative.

3. “North Korea, for example, has over the past decade switched its time back and forth by half an hour to reflect either estrangement or reconciliation with its cousin in the South.”

4. At 1:11:00 Magnus plays blindfold chess.

5. Police called to stop massive game of hide and seek at IKEA.

6. Claudia Sahm slides on women in economics.  Or try this link.

1. Avoiding scam artists.

2. The White Horse of Uffington has been taken care of for 3000 years.

3. Interview with Enrico Moretti.

4. Do people speak faster in less efficient languages?

5. Advice from Avinash Dixit.

6. Tejas Subramaniam life update.

7. Ahem, people.  Joi Ito is on the board of the NYT.