The Menace of Strategic Default by Luigi Zingales, City Journal Spring 2010
APR
05
2010
The Menace of Strategic Default by Luigi Zingales, City Journal Spring 2010
Social network analysis is an interesting area of inquiry. Social networks are maps of all of the relevant ties among all the nodes (people or groups) being studied. The network can be used to measure the value that individuals get from the social network. This video presents a great example:
Gary Becker’s blog recently opined: The optimal level of security on air travel is much higher than would be the case if an exaggerated fear of air travel due to possible terrorism were not so prevalent. For this reason, checking of shoes, laptops, liquids, and even body scanners may be often useful, even when they…
Issue Some small California cities obtain government services from larger public entities under contracts. These cities are known as Lakewood plan cities or contract cities. It appears that some of these cities are “ripped off” by larger public entities. For example, in 2002 and 2003, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy committed (and was convicted…
It’s the flickering that’s the culprit. Oftentimes, replacing the magnetic ballast with an electronic ballast will solve the problem (it reduces the modulation depth – see http://lrt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/21/1/11 ). Alternatively, remove the lighting and replace it with incandescent task lighting or, if feasible, natural light through windows or sky lights.
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder is an inspiring book about Dr. Paul Farmer, Haiti, Partners in Health, and Farmer’s belief that “the only real nation is humanity.” The book’s title is taken from the Haitian proverb ,”Beyond mountains there are mountains.”–as soon as one problem is solved, another…
In general, it is a crime in California to record a communication (wherein there was a reasonable expectation of privacy) without the consent of all parties. See California Penal Code Sections 630 – 638 ( http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=2039854621+2+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve). Here is a link to state-by-state summaries regarding privacy-related laws (see http://www.rcfp.org/taping/states.html).
Image by upturnedface via Flickr Someone asked: “What is the proper lettering size for a warning sign for a large propane tank, and how do I go about writing a SPCC?” Image via Wikipedia I responded: “Trigonometry tells us that .017453 in/ft x D ft = height of 20/20 letter in inches . So, in…
Image via Wikipedia Eustasy is associated with land movement (subsidence, plate movement, seismic activity), thermal expansion, and the movement of water stored on land to the sea. The GFDL climate model estimates that at 2 times the current CO2 levels, the sea level rise in 100 years due solely to thermal expansion would be approximately…
Image via Wikipedia Claude Lévi-Strauss died last week at 100. I first heard of him when I read Structural Anthropology in college. He identified myth as a type of speech through which a language could be discovered. His theory attempted to explain how myths are similar across cultures. He posited fundamental units of myth, mythemes….