EconTech

A consumer group has obtained the records of a firm that manages binding arbitration on behalf of companies, and it finds a pervasive bias in favor of corporations.
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You know the plot. Young, idealistic teacher goes to inner-city high school. Said idealistic teacher is shocked by students who don’t know the basics and who are too preoccupied with the burdens of violence, poverty and indifference to want to…
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Today is September 26th, Petrov Day, celebrated to honor the deed of Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov on September 26th, 1983. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, take a minute to not destroy the world. The story begins on September 1st, 1983,…
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Researchers have clarified the link between alcohol consumption and the risk of head and neck cancers, showing that people who stop drinking can significantly reduce their cancer risk.
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Researchers from the University of Warwick, and University College London, have found that lack of sleep can more than double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. However they have also found that point comes when too much sleep can also more than double the risk of death.
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Beginning early next year, drivers in six states will begin testing a new way to pay for roads and transit: Commuters will be charged for the miles they drive rather than paying taxes on gasoline purchased.GPS will make road pricing…
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Last Thursday there was a huge march in Jena, La., to protest the harsh and unequal treatment of six black students arrested in the beating of a white classmate. Students who hung nooses to warn blacks not to sit under a “white” tree were suspended for three days; on the other hand, the students accused [...]

Economists have a certain way of looking at the world, in which (to simplify quite a bit) people act rationally to maximize their utility. That sort of talk pushes physicists’ buttons, because maximizing functions is something we do all the time. I’m not deeply familiar with economics in any sense; everything I know about the [...]

Filed under: ipod hacks, misc hacks

Apparently the iPhone jack isn’t quite standard - it’s a bit recessed to the point that third parties are offering adapters for it. [John] offers this simple method for modding Etymotic’s fine ER6i headphones. (If only I could find mine. I haven’t seen them for 8 months.) I suggest using [...]

My friend, former colleague, and one-time co-author Shanta Devarajan, who is currently chief economist for South Asia at the World Bank, has started his own blog. It is called “End Poverty in South Asia.” And Paul Krugman has a new…
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There is a discussion at the Everything Seminar about everyone’s favorite topic, the axiom of choice. The axiom of choice has various pathological consequences, such as the Banach-Tarski paradox and the existence of a non-Lebesgue-measurable set. The problem, everyone notes, is that by its very nature constructions that depend on the axiom of [...]
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When President Bush first took office, it seemed unlikely that he would succeed in getting his proposed tax cuts enacted. The questionable nature of his installation in the White House seemed to leave him in a weak political position, while the Senate was evenly balanced between the parties. It was hard to see how a [...]

Internal MediaDefender e-mails leaked on BitTorrent reveal that the peer-to-peer poisoning company was providing information to the government as part of a secret project. The e-mails also provide new insight into the company’s MiiVi scandal.
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Here is the abstract from the new Roland Fryer and Steve Levitt paper:The Ku Klux Klan reached its heyday in the mid-1920s, claiming millions of members. In this paper, we analyze the 1920s Klan, those who joined it, and the…
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