Results for “knausgaard” 69 found
Assorted links
1. Me on Italian vs. French food (in German).
2. The culture that is England, at first I thought this was parody, I guess she won’t be friends with me. My favorite line was “I have to.” Killer video.
3. 44-pp. overview of some Chinese financial institutions.
5. Amazon is now raising the prices of many books, including university press books.
6. A profile of Warren Mosler and Modern Monetary Theory.
Assorted links
The world’s longest interview
Defying the stereotype of the tight-lipped Scandinavian, popular Norwegian crime writer Hans Olav Lahlum set the world record for the longest interview on Thursday after spending more than 30 non-stop hours chatting in an online broadcast.
Lahlum, who rarely paused for more than a few seconds, discussed topics ranging from U.S. presidents to his fictional characters during the online show hosted by VG Nett, the online arm of Norwegian tabloid VG.
The new record awaits approval from Guinness World Records.
Fast-talking Lahlum, who is also a left-wing politician, historian and top chess player rarely stumbled during the gabfest, which also covered such scintillating topics as his preferences for mixing puddings and kebabs.
“I think I can safely say that tonight I might go to bed a little earlier than usual,” he said as he and interviewer Mads Andersen beat the old record of just over 26 hours.
Shortly after surpassing the previous record, Lahlum plunged into a weighty discussion on world literature in general and Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in particular.
“Do you have a plan for how you will get Lahlum to stop talking when the interview ends?” one viewer asked VG on its online forum.
There is more here, and the article explains this is part of a broader Norwegian trend toward “slow TV”:
Norway, a pioneer in slow programming, has spawned several lengthy television hits in recent years, and public broadcaster NRK earlier this year aired a 12-hour show centered on a burning fireplace with experts discussing the intricacies of fire wood.
In 2011, it broadcast 134 hours non-stop of a cruise ship going up the Norwegian coast to the Arctic, bagging the world record for the longest continuous TV program along the way.
And an earlier broadcast of an eight hour train journey from Oslo to Bergen was so popular, NRK had to repeat it.
As I’ve mentioned before, so far the Norwegians are having an awesome century.
For the pointer I thank Øystein Hernæs.
Catch-up splat
Having been traveling, I neglected some of the more controversial issues of the last week, but here are a few points of catch-up.
On the immigration study, I liked Reihan’s recent post very much. It is now the case that 23 student organizations at Harvard’s Kennedy School are protesting the fact that the dissertation was awarded, while nominally defending academic freedom of course.
For all of the brouhaha over Niall Ferguson, everyone is forgetting what Robert Skidelsky wrote in 1977, Skidelsky too it seems. I don’t agree with either the immigration study or with Ferguson (at all, in either instance), but the response has been a case study in…something or other. There is a glee and also a selectivity to it all which I am uncomfortable with, to say the least.
Within the span of a week, it is remarkable how rapidly the UK has moved toward a serious debate over leaving the EU, and that is after the UKIP election results were revealed (calling Timur Kuran!). Our London cabbie, on the drive to the airport, still calls it “the EEC.” With apologies to Thomas Friedman, I say this movement is for real.
The Novel Coronavirus seems to be human-to-human transmissible in a manner which is very worrying (more here). When your thought is “that one might be too deadly to be a real problem,” it isn’t actually good news. Fortunately the French health minister tells us that “Nothing is being left to chance,” including presumably which mutated strains of the virus will survive and spread.
What’s remarkable about the IRS tax scandal is that it was admitted, keep that in mind when revising your Bayesian priors. Don’t forget about Bloomberg too. Are all of our phone calls being recorded?
I do understand the back story, but still I become uneasy when the Secretary of HHS goes on a fundraising campaign from affected parties. In lieu of naming rights, you get…what? Can you say you “gave at the office”? The voting booth? Can they then rent out the mailing list of which companies gave?
The Republicans on Benghazi have learned from the Democrats on Mitt Romney and leveraged buyouts; define your opponent early in the public eye. It is working, if only because most media accounts, even sympathetic ones, do not include pictures of a radiant and smiling Hillary Clinton with the story.
A twelve-year-old stabbed his eight-year-old sister to death.
Might we have a budget surplus in two years’ time?
The WSJ reviews Knausgaard, and “Babs” Walters will be retiring.
“What have the old gods done for us lately?”
Could it be this pizza?
OK people, now you can go nuts in the comments, get it out of your system.
Assorted links
1. A Chinese attempt to bootstrap a fiat, state-contingent currency/insurance hybrid, I predict it will do less well than Bitcoin.
2. Peter Leeson paper on gypsies (pdf). I am myself less inclined to favor a “rational” explanation in this case.
3. 42% of Americans unsure if ObamaCare is still law.
4. Interview with Knausgaard, Canadian.
5. The wisdom of David Brooks.
6. Janos Starker passes away at 88, and comparing Bush and Degas.
*My Struggle*, volume two
It arrives at my house today, by Karl O. Knausgaard. Last year I read volume one and found it to be the equal of the great continental novels of the early part of the 20th century. Here is Rachel Cusk at The Guardian on volume two; “…this deserves to be called perhaps the most significant literary enterprise of our times.” That is not an exaggeration. Here is related coverage from Literary Saloon.
Assorted links
Self-recommending and immediately pre-ordered
My Struggle: Book Two: A Man in Love, by Karl Knausgaard.
Here is my coverage of book one. For the pointer I thank David Archer, who also points me to the broader 2013 book preview.
Assorted links
1. The influence of Bork on antitrust.
2. James Wood on Knausgaard and others.
3. The nature of Australian worker’s compensation.
5. When women dare to outearn men (pdf), and summary here.