Wednesday, February 18, 2009

This and That

Some random things I came across recently and thought you'd enjoy:

8 comments:

  1. Economics is equilibrium thermodynamics using the calculus. Economics has positive feedback, territory where delta-epsilon smoothing fails: 1637 Netherlands, Hunt brothers and silver, "Whip Inflation Now!", Long Term Capital Managment, America's debt orgy climax. Economics is Prigogine non-equilibrium thermodynamics, Mandelbrot fractals, Feigenbaum constants, chaos theory.

    Problems can be solved locally while they are still simple and options are few. Imposed centrality beyond a non-iterative primitive framework is mathematically excluded from success.

    Uncle Al loves a good experiment. The Second Amendment elicits honest citizens' local input when government is stupid and vicious. Acquire labware and consummables, folks. Theory is falsified.

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  2. Re: Health Care
    Quoting: "Yet the average insurance premium for a single adult is $900 a month, according to a spokesman for the State Insurance Department."

    That's quite a sum - especially if compared with Germany where the premium is 8.2% of your gross salary with a cap at a maximum of 300 Euros (~ 400$ atm). And your spouse & kids are covered, too.

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  3. Hi Bee,

    “If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.”

    That’s reminiscent of an old joke which goes:

    Question: What would you call 200 lawyers being chained to the ocean bottom?

    Answer: I’m not certain, how about simply a good start? :-)

    Best,

    Phil

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  4. Am I supposed to feel bad for the kid to "has to" take a friend's amoxicillin (generic antibiotic) for the flu, which is a VIRUS?

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  5. Am I supposed to feel bad the journalist didn't know that?

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  6. It seemed to me he proposal regarding referees' name being published, if imposed, will act as a disincentive to accept papers as the punishment for bad referee-ing in accepting seems to be greater than the reward, while there's nothing for rejecting.

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  7. Hi Nirmalya,

    Yes, I would think in both cases it should be left to the referee to decide whether or not he wants to be anonymous. You might have reasons also to remain anonymous if you are recommending a paper for publication. I would find it a good idea though if a final report was publicly available in either case. Best,

    B.

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  8. lol Bee, great quote.
    And what if all cosmic black holes were laid 'end to end'

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