Blizzard announced yesterday, Dec. 19, that its popular virtual world World of Warcraft has hit 5 million subscribers. Napkin calculation: That’s 4273 new subscribers per day. Wow.
Archive for December, 2005
This article from the Washington Post exposes the wide divide in the Democratic Party for the War in Iraq, and broadly speaking, the War on Trr. Most of us Republicans have seen this for a long time, a horrible gaping incompetence from the other side of the aisle to exploit even the biggest of Bush […]
Women in their 20’s: Wait a year to have that baby, you’ll earn 10% more cash in your entire lifetime. Economist Amalia Miller at the University of Virginia reports her findings in a new paper, via Slate.
A New Intro to Econ Text, with a Twist
Published by December 12th, 2005 in Economics and Education. 2 CommentsFor about a year now, R. Preston McAfee of CalTech has been writing and revising his own Introductory Economics textbook, “The Open Source Introduction to Microeconomics.” He hopes that his final revision this month will serve as a starting point for many professors, who can tweak the book to their own needs, and then distribute […]
Unions: ‘We Want Less Transparency’
Published by December 12th, 2005 in Politics and Policy. 0 CommentsA new rule by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board requires State & Local governments to calculate and report the total cost of promised health benefits for public employees starting in 2007.
The rule is a response to most states’ pay-as-you-go system of employee benefits, which has plenty of problems, just like the big federal government […]
Racing Towards Complete Digital Distribution
Published by December 11th, 2005 in Technology & Innovation and Entertainment & Culture. 16 CommentsNBC has finally joined ABC by offering some of its TV shows via the iTunes music store. These including NBC shows such as The Office, Law & Order, skits from Conan O’Brien, as well as the Sci-Fi channel’s Battlestar Galactica. Some classic NBC shows are offered as well, including Knight Rider and Dragnet. ESPN said […]
Thanks to Sen. Thad Cochran (R), $13 million from Katrina recovery funds will be spent on a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers, a group arguably responsible for the levees’ failure.
As a lot of us are being owned by exams at the University of Florida, it has been difficult to stay up to date on our RSS readers. I had to skim some outstanding MR articles but still fully read several more. Here’s a full set of links to the best this week on Marginal […]
A Warning to all Ensembles
Published by December 10th, 2005 in Economics and Entertainment & Culture. 3 CommentsSix years ago, violinist David Ehrlich was fired from the Audubon String Quartet. He sued. The court ruled in his favor, awarding him $611,119.24. In the past few weeks, the other members of the quartet are finally being forced to pay up. This means selling their homes and even their instruments. This decision has caused […]
I used a relatively old, yet often unknown, technology to study for two of my final exams this semester: The internet whiteboard, a chat room centered around the ‘whiteboard’ where members draw with each other in real time.
This technology is especially useful for practicing graphical economic models with others and working through all the details […]
The Demand for “Fair Labor Standards,” Experimental Evidence
Published by December 8th, 2005 in Economics. 11 Comments70-80% of consumers surveyed say they are willing to pay more for a product made under “good labor standards.” But, given the opportunity, would they really pay more? Michael J. Hiscox and Nicholas F. B. Smyth of Harvard University try to answer this question in this new paper.
They set up an experiment in an ABC […]
Yesterday, UES had elections for the Spring 2006 officers. The elections were undeniably the most interesting of modern history, although we thankfully avoided difficult tie decisions in which the President may cast a tiebreaking vote, announce that both will share the position, or have a runoff.
Without further ado, our new President is Diego Madrigal […]
I just got home from a long night of UES socializing. I love the UES members. More than I love them, however, I love Margaret Thatcher, who has been hospitalized recently. I personally have very few commitments in this world but one of them is to maintain the flame of freedom that Thatcher helped ignite. […]
After a medium length hiatus, the Fascist Cuban has returned. I was on a fact finding trip to investigate the possibilities of a fascist takeover in Cuba… well by me. Anyways, soon my rambunctious and raucous postings will return about random things that perk my interest. You all can stop holding your […]
Ivy League Secedes, Part II: Oral Arguments
Published by December 7th, 2005 in Politics and Education. 6 CommentsToday the attorneys representing the law schools and the Pentagon clashed in oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court. This is one of Chief Justice Roberts’ first big cases. Apparently during oral arguments, the Justices made their tilt very clear, as they usually do by way of their questions. You can read how the […]
