Quieter July 21, 2008
Posted by ocmpoma in : other , 2commentsLast time I fell off the posting wagon, it was mostly due to a move that really ate up my time, and before I knew it several weeks had past with little to no activity from me here.
This time I know that there is going to be a hiatus; it’ll probably be a rather long one — for now I’m going to say that posting here is going to cease for an indefinite period.
My apologies to my vast and undyingly loyal readership!
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Quiet July 19, 2008
Posted by ocmpoma in : other , add a commentSorry my posting here has been rather light lately — other things have just been taking up much more time than normal.
Here’s an interesting discussion over at MR on why wine has a price listed on the menu, but beer doesn’t. I think several of the commenter’s are spot on: a big indicator to me is the fact that in most places, wine, and sometimes cocktails, have prices on the menu and no other beverages, alcoholic or non-alcoholic, do not.
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Weekly photo #88: Roadside July 16, 2008
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Back when I lived on Fort Ord, I liked to run and walk the dobie back toward where the old ranges were — and this stand of trees is along the road that led uphill, to where the observation tower is.
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Interest piqued July 14, 2008
Posted by ocmpoma in : other , add a commentNow, this is an author recommendation.
Money quote:
“Lawrence Watt-Evans’s stories aren’t about the intelligence or rationality of his characters. Nonetheless, Watt-Evans writes intelligent characters, and he’s willing to deal with the consequences, which are huge.”
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Graphic art July 11, 2008
Posted by ocmpoma in : other , add a commentIt’s overdue, so I’ve added indexed to the blogroll. Here’s my favorite:
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Weekly photo #87: Falling Fountain July 11, 2008
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I took this week’s photo in DC, at the National Gallery of Art. If you’ve never been, there’s an underground walkway connecting the two branches of the museum (or, at least, there was last time I was there…) Fountains in the plaza above funnel into this ladder fountain which you walk past as you traverse from one branch to the other.
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Weekly quote #33: Mike Munger July 9, 2008
Posted by ocmpoma in : economics , add a commentThis week’s EconTalk has Mike Munger as guest, talking with host Russ Roberts about public transportation. The quote shows up at a little after the twelve-minute mark of the podcast, and is spot on as to why I don’t really see the difference between the public and the private sector (except for the public sector’s (usually) greater access to legal power):
“It’s not just true that people respond to incentives in markets. People respond to incentives in every situation they find themselves. And so, the way that we compensate drivers — it doesn’t matter if it’s a market setting or if he’s employed by the government, it’s going to have implications for his behavior.”
People respond to incentives, period. Regardless of whether it’s a railroad tycoon or a parliamentary tycoon, the incentives are directly influencing the decisions being made.
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Correlation paradox July 8, 2008
Posted by ocmpoma in : economics , add a commentWikipedia’s article on the resource curse defines it as the problem that “…countries with an abundance of natural resources tend to have less economic growth than countries without these natural resources.”
Mark Thoma at Economist’s View has a post up describing recent work indicating that this particular curse might be as real as… well, as any other curse. His post quotes an India University news article, on the work of IU and Duke economists Michael Alexeev and Robert Conrad, which says that the idea of the curse, which is decades-old, can be chalked up to bad data analysis and the old ‘correlation as causation’ issue:
“In essence,” Alexeev said, “the logic of the earlier work was as follows: Most countries with high GDP have good institutions. Natural resource-rich countries, however, have high GDP but poor institutions. Therefore, natural resources must lead to poor institutions.”
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Pyro July 8, 2008
Posted by ocmpoma in : other , add a commentFor those of you who don’t regularly check out Chris photoblog, which is called… errr…. a photoblog, her latest batch of shots is great. Check them out.
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