Hiatus

By way of explanation. I haven’t posted in nearly a week, and I’m not feeling particularly inclined to comment online about anything, yet. This is in part due to disinterest; in part I’m planning on folding anyway when I move to the new job (it is, first, not in the US and, second, not teaching Economics – or at all – but rather in research. So doing this will not complement my work).

I was going to keep it up until the end of Semester, but I don’t find much of interest, these days. Or of interest with a contribution for me to make. Railing against terrible writing in newspapers gets ordinary, quickly.

A Softer World

Hilarious.

Cat and Girl

It’s something worth thinking about…

Back at sundown

Working, being bored by the news – between Iowa and the new year, there’s little of interest (to me). Also, reading Batman (the Dark Knight Returns). I do have to get started on new syllabi, now that I think about it.

Unintended humour

Now, I’m fairly Peter Singer, 12 Monkeys animal-rightsish. You could, with some success, round most of my morals up into Bad Things Shouldn’t Happen To Children Or Animals. I hate zoos.

So it is that I don’t usually react well to stories about “monstrous” sharks, tigers, etc. “attacking” people. If, say, some French guys came, kidnapped you, took you back to France and locked you up, I’m pretty sure that you’d try to escape. If you went camping, I’m pretty sure that you’d build a fire. It’s called being a human. When sharks “attack”, they’re just being sharks. If we’re going to share their water, we need to accept that.

So it comes to the story about the tiger escaping from a zoo in San Francisco. I’ve ignored it up until this, in today’s Huffington Post:

“Human involvement”? You mean, say, taking a tiger out of tiger-world and putting the tiger in the middle of San Francisco? Yeah – I’m pretty sure human involvement goes a bloody long way towards explaining the tragic death of an innocent teenager. He belonged in the city. A tiger doesn’t.

It’s the end of the world as we know (Bush feels fine)

Meh. The Economy isn’t doing much, these days but, then, nor am I (or, probably, you).

Very, very nicely put-together splicing of footage of President Bush to build REM’s It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) (originally found over at Boing Boing).

Writing exams

I’ve managed to pull questions from NBA/WNBA data and this paper on hedge funds. I’m making an effort, this time. I’m quite pleased with the exam so far (this is Stats: Economics is still to be written).

For now, then, Penny Arcade:

Also, this counts as a post about Hannah Montana. That’s 4, now. One more and I shall buy her CD just to freak out my wife. Ooh! Or my students. Yeah…

TRASH”E” AND TALK

My blogstats put me on to the fact that I am (not surprisingly) not the only person blogging at/from my university. I recommend to you that of a (possibly one of my?) student(s): TRASH”E” AND TALK.

I haven’t been able to decide whether I will sound more out of touch pretending to understand what that might be a reference to, or admitting that I have no idea (not true: I have no idea).

She (or so I am led to believe) writes, however, quite well. Although she should understand that, with the appropriate quantitative skills (far moreso than a mere Finance major) there is, in fact, little difference between fashion forecasting and predicting how much steel you need for a Boeing aeroplane. She is right that accounting is shit, though (two semesters, my first year as an undergrad, and I’d learned to avoid it like the plague). I hope I gave her an A.

Saul Williams

A student put me on to HBO’s Def Poetry (I don’t need television if my students all watch it). This was apropos Mos Def being a goddamn legend. I did however, via this tip, discover Saul Williams:

Unconscionably good. You can pick up his latest album here. It employs a pricing mechanism not unlike that recently made notable by Radiohead.

UPDATE: From my wife:

Pff. “Pricing mechanism.” You economists are all alike. It’s called “hey, cool, you get to pay nothing or $5.”

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… marking exams.