A blog about ideas, literature, math, economics, language, law, technology, society, etc.
In the past few days, a video has been circulating of an interview where Bertrand Russell credits smoking with saving his life.1 Russell explains: In fact, you know, on one occasion [smoking] saved my life. I was in an airplane, a man was getting a seat for me, and I said, "Get me a seat …
Continue reading "A Story about Bertrand Russell’s Plane Crash"
I promise to have some real posts soon---an announcement describing my freshman writing course about math, and a two-part series on the late economist Albert Hirschman, including a discussion of how his theories apply to the tech world---but for now a few links: There's big news in math with Yitang Zhang's proof of a big …
Continue reading "Links: Number Theory, Mel Brooks, Garden Hermits, Gay Marriage, Passwords, etc"
Apple is the news, charged by Congress with evading taxes. In any discussion about taxation, the following quote from the great judge Learned Hand1 should be kept in mind: Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will …
Continue reading "Remember Learned Hand Before Criticizing Apple’s Tax Practices"
A good article by Dexter Filkins in the New Yorker on Syria. A really complicated situation. An interesting etymology from the recent New Yorker article (paywall) by Rivka Galchen about Elmhurst Hospital: The word "pedagogy" comes from the Greek term for the slave who escorted a child to school. (p. 55) No comment about whether …
Two summers ago, I sat in on a wonderful introductory poetry course taught by John Whittier-Ferguson. Among the poems we read was Sir Philip Sidney's sonnet Astrophil and Stella 63 ("O Grammar rules…"). In this sonnet sequence,1 Astrophil is less than successfully wooing Stella. By this 63rd sonnet he resorts to linguistic trickery: You have …
Continue reading "A Sonnet for Morgenbesser: Dear Astrophil, Love Stella"
UCLA English professor Robert Watson writes a very interesting article about the economics of higher education: Bottom Line Shows Humanities Really Do Make Money I have a good deal to say about the misleading arguments often made about the cost of higher education. Perhaps at some point I'll take the time to say that here. …
This week's New York Times magazine features an article by Adam Davison about economists Larry Summers and Glenn Hubbard. Forgive me for being superficial and ignoring the weighty macroeconomic topics discussed in the article; instead I'm going to offer three thoughts about the basketball tie-in. On Scrawny Moderately Athletic Kids The article begins with Larry …
Continue reading "Larry Summers and Glenn Hubbard Shooting Hoops"
If you haven't read Eric Naiman's fascinating article about the hoax of Dostoevsky meeting Dickens yet, you should. (It's a long but fun read; give yourself time to enjoy it.) A great New Yorker article on NASA's Curiosity rover to Mars, by Burkhard Bilger. A few questions: (1) There's a high failure rate in these …
It's been a busy few weeks with research and the end of the semester. I promise I'll get to writing substantive posts very soon. In the interim, I'd like to express my incredulity at John McPhee's ignorance of the "irregular restrictive which" until it was pointed out to him by New Yorker editor William Shawn: Mr. …
Continue reading "John McPhee and the Irregular Restrictive Which"
Many things in life are decided by groups of people making judgments together---in courts, committees, board rooms, legislatures, etc. Collective decision-making has much to recommend it: groups of people can pool their wisdom, no one person can rule by fiat, organizations can benefit from the cohesion of people working together, etc. And, of course, there …
Continue reading "The Irrationality of Committees and Courts: A Voting Paradox"