Posts filed under ‘Ephemera’
Intelligence Doping
| Peter Klein |
Posner and Becker weigh in on “intelligence doping,” using drugs to increase cognitive performance (see our earlier remarks here). Both argue, on utilitarian grounds, against regulating Provigil and similar stimulants. I bet they’d go for the new Snickers bar too.
Biblical Wisdom for Academics
| Peter Klein |
The gang at St. Maximos’ Hut has been running a series on the Proverbs and Psalms, highlighting verses that apply to faculty life. To wit:
On faculty recruiting: “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” (Prov. 20:13)
On peer review: “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.” (Prov. 27:1-2)
On people who teach 8:00am classes: “He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.” (Prov 27:14)
And perhaps you’ve seen this one before — a prayer before faculty meetings:
Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings
from the wicked who assail me,
from my mortal enemies who surround me.
They close up their callous hearts,
and their mouths speak with arrogance.
They have tracked me down, they now surround me,
with eyes alert, to throw me to the ground.
They are like a lion hungry for prey,
like a great lion crouching in cover.
Rise up, O LORD, confront them, bring them down;
rescue me from the wicked by your sword. (Ps. 17:8-13)
The list also includes economic topics such as capital, financial planning, market institutions, information, etc.
Big Brother Is Watching You
| Peter Klein |
Yahoo has changed the look of its home page, including the placement and format of RSS feeds. David Gerard sends along this scary image of what greeted him when he logged onto his computer this morning.
Pre-Internet Blogging
| Peter Klein |
From the great Wiley Miller. The number of listeners seems about right.
Lesser-Known Counterparts of Common Words
| Peter Klein |
This week Anu Garg’s A.Word.A.Day is featuring lesser-known counterparts of common words, e.g.:
-
prepone (v. tr.): to reschedule an event to an earlier time
-
nocebo (n.): a substance producing harmful effects in someone because it is believed to be harmful, but which in reality is harmless
-
dystopia (n.): an imaginary place where everything is very bad, as from oppression, disease, deprivation, etc.
- inhume (v. tr.): to bury
- prequel (n.): a book, movie, drama, etc. set in a time preceding that of an existing work
Can you think of more?
The Grad Student’s New Best Friend
| Peter Klein |
Forget coffee, Red Bull, and Krispy Kreme. Try Snickers Charged, which combines the decadence of a regular Snickers bar with 60mg caffeine. Delicious, nutritious, and sure to see you through that next dissertation chapter!
One taster’s report: “Shortly after downing the Snickers . . . my heartbeat began to accelerate. Within minutes, my hands were trembling and my stomach was a bit upset, but I was typing about twice as fast as I usually do.” Perfect!
Religious Figures for Modern Times
| Peter Klein |
Remember Saint Hubbins, the patron saint of quality footwear? He has nothing on Lord Balaji, described in a recent WSJ story as the Hindu god of H-1B visas.
Local officials were on a tear to turn Hyderabad into the next Bangalore, the high-tech capital of the neighboring state of Karnataka. They started referring to Hyderabad as “Cyberabad.” They fixed roads and wooed Microsoft and General Electric Co. to set up offices there.
Hoping to capitalize on all the activity, technical colleges sprouted up in the city’s outskirts near Mr. Gopala Krishna’s temple. Students started trickling by on their way home from school; many complained about their failed attempts to secure U.S. visas. That gave the priest an idea to sell the students on the deity by giving him a new persona, “Visa God.” Mr. Gopala Krishna counseled the students in English, then told them to walk around the temple 11 times to get their wish. “I used to say, ‘Go, this time you’ll get it,'” he recalls.
Soon, Mr. Gopala Krishna started seeing dozens — then hundreds — of new visitors a day. In 2005, some local newspapers wrote about the Visa God, just as new U.S. visa restrictions were taking a toll. Mr. Gopala Krishna and his relatives also launched a Web site and a newsletter called Voice of Temples, with features like a primer of sample prayers for help in visa interviews.
The temple’s popularity surged. Last year, a public battle between Mr. Gopala Krishna’s family and the local government, which briefly wanted to take the temple over, only boosted its appeal among the young and subversive. Now devotees of the Visa God say they have to reach the temple by 6 a.m. to avoid the daytime rush.
What Bad Academic Writing Does to the Brain
| Peter Klein |
From the brilliant Jorge Cham (via Per).
Click to enlarge.
Fun With Words
| Peter Klein |
You know the game where you take a common word, add or change one letter, and create a new definition? Our good friend Randy W. sends these examples, including some economics and management terms:
1. Cashtration: The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone: The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating.
I tried but all I could come up with is
6. Jive-forces analysis: a model analyzing the effect of intra- and
inter-industry rivalry on the truthfulness of corporate disclosures.
Dear readers, give it your best shot!
UPDATE: I thought of a few more:
7. Basset specificity: relationship specific investments dog-lovers make in their hounds.
8. Strategic compliments: what you give your significant other on Valentine’s Day.
9. Perennial gale of creative distraction: the blogosphere. (OK I changed two letters on that one.)
Economists with Verve
| Peter Klein |
Jim Heckman is one. Steve Sailer, whom I enjoy reading despite many disagreements, recently shared this Heckman nugget. Referring to Heckman’s angry 1995 review of Herrnstein and Murray’s The Bell Curve, Sailer notes:
What people didn’t realize . . . is that Heckman is almost always upset. That’s his personality. In a Medieval Big Four Humours model, he’d be The Man of Choler.
Years ago, I was participating in an email discussion with Heckman, who made all of his contributions to the conversation IN ALL CAPS.
As I recall, I privately emailed him to suggest — diplomatically, I hoped — that if he didn’t find the shift key convenient, he could just eschew upper case altogether and type using only lower case, like e.e. cummings. You see, I explained, using all caps gives other readers the impression that you are shouting.
“I AM SHOUTING!” he emailed back.
Heckman’s distinctive personality is one of the things that helps make him a great scientist.
Incidentally, this story helps place the thin-skinned scholar episode in perspective.
The Nicest Thing Anyone’s Ever Said About Us
| Peter Klein |
Alf Rehn directs his readers to
my favorite gang of theorists I do not agree with at all over at Organizations and Markets (fun blog, and I have a great deal of respect for them, even though we are as far apart in thinking as people in the kinda-the-same-field-although-you-could-be-forgiven-for-thinking-otherwise can be — I even like reading Nicolai Foss’s rants, bless his little hardliner heart).
But why does he think Nicolai has a heart?
A Sociology Class I Might Actually Take
| Peter Klein |
SOC 121-015: “Introduction to Sociology: The Sociology of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s Films”
This class introduces students to the science of sociology utilizing examples from the real world of society, and the reel worlds of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg’s films. Sociological theories and research, and their application to culture, socialization, religion, technology, inequality, and media are the themes of the class. Films such as THX-1138, American Graffiti, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Schindler’s List, Amistad, and E.T. will be used as examples oft he these themes, and the fans of Star Wars and Indiana Jones will be discussed. Students will present a paper about the sociological themes of the films and the movies illuminate about the 1970s to 2000s zeitgeist.
For more information about the class, contact Professor Tenuto at jtenuto@clcillinois.edu or at the college website www.clcillinois.edu.
Link via a Star Wars fan site.
Queer Economics?
| Nicolai Foss |
An earlier post in the O&M Readers’ Favorite, the Pomo Periscope Series, concerned “queer economics.” Many commentators took issue with the association between pomo and queer, and they may well be right, so I will refrain from making that association here. I was, however, quite baffled about the queer/economics connection, failing to see any, but I think I may now be understanding what it is about (namely, codes).
In a recent article in Intelligent Life, a new Economist-sponsored internet-based outlet, Queen’s College (NY) professor Evan Zimroth discusses John Maynard Keynes’ early sex life. That Keynes in his younger years was very actively practicing his homosexuality is no secret (Austrians will recall a famous Margit von Mises anecdote). It is also well known that Keynes kept a meticulous “sex diary,” but apparently he kept a second — coded — one. The main part of Zimroth’s article is an attempt to break the code. Note: the article may be a bit too strong for some people.
(Thanks to Lasse Lien for the pointer).
Klein in Wikipedia
| Nicolai Foss |
Yes, that’s right: Some Klein fan has penned an entry on my esteemed co-blogger. Note, however, the warning at the bottom of the page: “This article lacks information on the notability of the subject matter.”
Best Book Catalog Cover I Saw Today
| Peter Klein |
Elgar’s 2008 Law catalog has a terrific image on the cover. What better way to capture the essence of lawyering, at least transactional lawyering?
Here’s a fun game: If you were to design covers for the Economics, Management, Sociology, or Political Science catalogs, what would they look like?
Thank You, David!
| Nicolai Foss |
Many thanks to David Hoopes for guest blogging at O&M. David has contributed some excellent blog posts which are among the most viewed ones on the site (particularly this one). We hope David will continue to visit O&M in the future and post comments. Thanks, David, for allowing us to benefit from your fertile mind.
The End of an Academic
| Nicolai Foss |
Three clear signs:
- Edward Elgar has asked me to edit a collection of my papers. It will be published later this year under the title Organization, Property Rights, and Knowledge: Selected Papers of Nicolai J Foss.
-
I got back a review report that condemned my submission with the following words: “It lacks the freshness of the early Foss papers.”
-
And, now, the decisive sign, I received a mail with the following content (here anonymized):
“Dear Professor Foss,
I am contacting you from a London based executive search firm called the NN Partnership. We are currently working with UU University to find them a Dean of their Business School. I would be delighted to speak to you about this and wondered if there is a convenient time to call and indeed the best number on which to reach you.
I look forward to hearing from you. With kind regards and many thanks,
JJ, the NN partnership”
I suppose all that is left for me now is to gracefully retire to my front porch where I can spend the time reading Human Action, smoking my old pipe, and yelling at the neighborhood kids. :-(
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