Categories: "Culture"

more soup power

February 29th, 2012
Along the way to dispute the identity of money and wealth, I said that money developed from commodities that held intrinsic (albeit subjective) value and had those other characteristics, ... more »

overcoming tragedy on econtalk

February 24th, 2012
on the nobel prize-winning study of how people sometimes overcome the tragedy of the commons, pointing out how people are able to develop arrangements on their own for dealing with public goods. Elinor Ostrom, Vincent Ostrom, and the Bloomington School… more »

Smith: Theory of Moral Sentiments, on econtalk

February 20th, 2012
This side project was a six part book club discussion of "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759), which besides the Wealth of Nations (1776) is perhaps the most well known writings of 18th century economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) Theory of Moral Senti… more »

one of my favs

February 2nd, 2012
Groundhog Day has a couple points going for it out of the box - Bill Murray and Harold Ramis most importantly.  But Andi MacDowell is sincere and the rest of the ensemble cast give heartfelt and amusing performances.  Plus, the story is one for the ages. more »

on the perpetuation of ignorance

January 29th, 2012
One of my regular podcasts is The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, which features a "science or fiction" segment where the host tries to stump the panel to distinguish obscure science news items from roughly plausible science fictions, following up with… more »

College Bowls, 2011-12

December 11th, 2011
I watch more college football than the (formally) professional variety, so found myself reviewing the 2011-12 bowl schedule, which this season extends from the "Gildan New Mexico" to the "Allstate BCS National Championship Game". Between those limits, t… more »

the singularity on econtalk

January 3rd, 2011
The subject matter for this episode holds my interest, but the discussion ended with a stark and bleak dystopian vision that I originally had no interest in writing about (which writing here shows I changed my mind about that).  A couple interesting his… more »

psychiatry on econtalk

May 31st, 2010
on the limits of the science surrounding psychiatry, made more interesting to me by having had some indirect but close encounters with practitioners. Psychiatry (5/31/2010) - Louis Menand of Harvard University talks about the state of psychiatry. Draw… more »

profit and non-profits on econtalk

April 19th, 2010
They talk around, about, and through the questions about what distinguishes non-profit from for-profit enterprises. Love, Money, Profits, and Non-profits (4/19/2010) - Mike Munger of Duke University talks about the world of profit, money, love, gifts,… more »

the music biz on econtalk

March 22nd, 2010
Of possible interest to my musician friends The Music Industry and the Internet (3/22/21010) - Steve Meyer, music industry veteran and publisher of the Disc and Dat Newsletter, talks about the evolution of the music industry and the impact of the digi… more »