~marginalrevolution | Bookmarks (547)

Toranj 10861 Lindbrook Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90024 Via Jeff Holmes.  And a little space birdy tells me that the best sandwich in LA is Roma Market, in Pasadena. The post The best fesenjan I’ve had in years appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Wisdom. Not disagreeing with your points but ... by Jim JordanIn reply to greg. Agreed! Was Roma...

1. Would a time machine make you a great investor? (WSJ) 2. Trialogues! 3. Valentina Goncharova song.  And the subversive music of Soviet Ukraine (NYT). 4. Paul Baran.  And Noah on AJR.  And Dylan Matthews. 5. Wisdom from Wemby. 6. Prussia fact of the day. The post Thursday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Neurotic. Call it sloth. Or...

By the 1950s, the Royal Society was asking reviewers to respond to standardized questions, including whether a study contained “contributions to knowledge of sufficient scientific interest” and simply whether the society should publish it. These questions could prompt brief responses even to significant pieces of work. Chemist Dorothy Hodgkin wrote barely 50 words when asked to review […] The post The early history of peer review...

I am a big fan of Musa’s work, most of all his new book We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite.  As for the podcast, here is the video, audio, and transcript.  Here is the episode summary: Tyler and Musa explore the rise and fall of the “Great Awokening” and […] The post My Conversation with Musa al-Gharbi appeared...

Recorded in August in Europe, here is the link.  One hour, forty-five minutes, mostly Rick asking me questions about what he would like to hear about from the worlds of economics and politics.  We do have I think also another one about music coming up… The post Rick Rubin podcasts with me appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments1 Hour and 40 minutes? You...

1. Why didn’t the U.S. employment rate rise much at the end of WWII? 2. Chip Mellor, RIP. 3. Why kids should read obituaries. 4. WSJ reviews Henry Oliver’s  Second Act. 5. Poland is now a larger exporter than Russia. 6. Cargo airships are happening. The post Wednesday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to JWatts. To be clear, I...

By Rohit Krishnan: Life in India is a series of bilateral negotiations conducted a thousand times a day. And that drives the character of life here. Now, I am seeing the country properly after several years. And it’s a major change. Visible infrastructure has gotten much better. Roads are good, well maintained, and highways are excellent. […] The post “Life in India is a series...

That is the theme of my latest Bloomberg column, and here is one bit: One big change is that AI will enable individuals, or very small groups, to run large projects. By directing AIs, they will be able to create entire think tanks, research centers or businesses. The productivity of small groups of people who […] The post How should strong AI alter philanthropy?...

Here is a new essay by Nabeel Qureshi, excerpt: The combo of intellectual grandiosity and intense competitiveness was a perfect fit for me. It’s still hard to find today, in fact – many people have copied the ‘hardcore’ working culture and the ‘this is the Marines’ vibe, but few have the intellectual atmosphere, the sense […] The post Reflections on Palantir appeared first on...

1. How to improve educational outcomes in developing economies. 2. That was then, this is now: Russia to unveil new Stalin statue. 3. African Urban Lab launched in Zanzibar. 4. Trailer for new documentary on Vitalik. 5. Sam Enright splat. 6. Alice Evans on the new Laureates. The post Tuesday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to So Much For...

There is a slight glitch in the WordPress system, but your comments will appear eventually.  Apologies for any delays! The post Comment delays appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIs this related to the ongoing WordPress WP Engine fiasco?? by CWIn reply to EdR. I wish I could add substacks to my rss ... by MattWMr Lincoln, Do not – I repeat – Do...

Since pioneering the first corporate purchase agreements for renewable electricity over a decade ago, Google has played a pivotal role in accelerating clean energy solutions, including the next generation of advanced clean technologies. Today, we’re building on these efforts by signing the world’s first corporate agreement to purchase nuclear energy from multiple small modular reactors (SMRs) […] The post Google signs contract for small modular...

We analyze 6,400 letters of recommendation for more than 2,200 economics and finance Ph.D. graduates from 2018 to 2021. Letter text varies significantly by field of interest, with significantly less positive and shorter letters for Macroeconomics and Finance candidates. Letters for female and Black or Hispanic job candidates are weaker in some dimensions, while letters […] The post Letters of recommendation appeared first on...

Running a haunted house can be a risky—if not scary—business. The barrier to entry is high, the overhead costs can be massive, and the attractions have just one very vulnerable month to earn their money. Like many other small businesses, 60% of them don’t make it past their third year, according to haunted-house review company […] The post The economics of haunted houses appeared...

A very good Columbus Day thread. The post Kevin Bryan on the contributions of AJR appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Dismalist. Why ignore the City's take of world ... by rsmIn reply to Does he deserve a Nobel ?. What is a Nobel other ... by rsmIn reply to Acemoglu is no ace !. Why no mention of military ......

The Nobel prize goes to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson for their work on institutions, prosperity, and economic growth. Here is a key piece summarizing their work: Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth. This paper develops the empirical and theoretical case that differences in economic institutions are the fundamental cause of […] The post Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson Win Nobel...

Here is my earlier CWT with Acemoglu, and with Simon Johnson. We’ll have to try to get to James Robinson.  Congratulations to the winners! The post Conversations with the new Laureates appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Johnny. The Swedes and not the Norwegians choose ... by RicardoLinks to the MR comments on these conversations: ... by Joe In MorgantownThe amusing...

1. Drones over U.S. military bases (WSJ). 2. Eric Topol podcast with the excellent Patrick Hsu. 3. Matt Clancy on AI progress.  Excellent thread. The post Monday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         CommentsIn reply to Ricardo. When the US hit the Houthis on January ... by chaos in the hubIn reply to Sparky. @Lord Action Suez Canal cargo volume is ......

What has surprised you the most this year? The development of decentralized training for AI models, from DiLoCo and DiPaCo from Google DeepMind to Distro coming up from Nous Research. It completely changes the game in terms of how we ought to think about large models and what we can do to train them. This means pure compute thresholds are not […] The post What surprised you the most this...

Alas, I am at a day-long event tomorrow, and from an unfavorable time zone, so probably won’t have much to say about the new Nobel pick.  Alex will be here, however.  Apologies to you all! Here is my earlier economics Nobel podcast with Alex, maybe for this year I will predict Susan Athey for machine […] The post Tomorrow’s Nobel appeared first on Marginal...

1. Dresden orchestra conducted by three-armed robot. 2. How advanced was construction technology in the Stone Age? 3. New England liberal arts college for sale for $5.5 million. 4. How Avital uses Claude. 5. Tanner Greer on Dario Amodei.  A very good sequence. The post Sunday assorted links appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.         Comments> 1. Dresden orchestra conducted by three-armed robot. I ......

Elon Musk’s tweets about the presidential election and spreading falsehoods about Hurricane Helene are endangering his ability to launch rockets off California’s central coast. The California Coastal Commission on Thursday rejected the Air Force’s plan to give SpaceX permission to launch up to 50 rockets a year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Santa Barbara […] The post “California officials cite Elon Musk’s politics...

One of the most amazing facts to come out of the dockworker strike (now resolved, it seems): WSJ: Start with the astounding fact that there were 50,000 or so ILA strikers but only 25,000 or so port jobs. That’s right, only about half of the union’s members are obliged to show up to work each […] The post The Missing Dockworkers appeared first on...

One alternative approach, I’ve argued, would be to establish a framework to enable individuals and groups to acquire time-limited conditional legal property rights to plots of spaceland, on a Georgist-inspired market system (Lowe, 2022a, 2022b). On my approach, competitors would keep the full profit they made from the permissible use of their plots but competition […] The post How to allocate space rights? appeared...