Behavioral Economists

The more I hear about "behavioral economics" the more I like it. From what I can tell, the field basically replaces the highly problematic premise that individuals are rational actors with simple experimentation. It's like, er, making economics less a philosophy, and more a science. Here's a review of big-time guy Dan Ariely's recent book, "Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions" in the New Yorker. Also, I've heard Obama could do for behavioral economics what Reagan did for supply-siders. Not sure where I heard that but here's an article in the The New Republic about Obama and the field.

Sean Casey

The Bosox just signed Sean Casey, a decent 1B who could probably start on a couple teams but will likely be a role / bench player for the defending world champs. He is known around the league as "the Mayor," and considered the nicest guy in the majors by an un-fucking-believable margin.

wow

I know it's pretty easy to find wingunttery that's bizarre but this struck me as particularly special-- from the National Review, on Obama's "political origins" or uh, his parents (??):

And yet, all of my mixed race, black/white classmates throughout my youth, some of whom I am still in contact with, were the product of very culturally specific unions. They were always the offspring of a white mother, (in my circles, she was usually Jewish, but elsewhere not necessarily) and usually a highly educated black father. And how had these two come together at a time when it was neither natural nor easy for such relationships to flourish? Always through politics. No, not the young Republicans. Usually the Communist Youth League. Or maybe a different arm of the CPUSA. But, for a white woman to marry a black man in 1958, or 60, there was almost inevitably a connection to explicit Communist politics.

And later:

Time for some investigative journalism about the Obama family's background, now that his chances of being president have increased so much.

Oh my lord!

Open acccess fiat

Harvard has mandated that its faculty will publish only in open-access journals. This is kind of a big deal. Here's the NYT story and some more commentary at Open Access News. I gather that in most fields the open-access journals are also the most prestigious but this not at all the case in biology. People are fucking crazy about the journals. I know of faculty that won't support tenure offers to colleagues who haven't published in any of the big three, Nature, Cell, and Science. Most researchers obsess over getting their work into these publications. As a result, the big three are in a very different league- with citations figures usually 2-3 times higher than the lower orders. The thing is, if I were a post-doc with a hot story in a lab that made its name in the pages of Cell, and my fancy boss told me we couldn't publish there I'd be furious ('course now I'd give my pinky for any kind of fucking story- just a big bar and small bar man!!). But this is for the greater good. It will force more journals to open up and its likely other universities will follow. Journals shouldn't have high subscription fees anyway- their costs should be plummeting due to declines in printing, etc.

Manny

I am pretty sure Manny Ramirez is my favorite baseball player of all time:

He shouts, "Ohayo Gozaimasu" - Japanese for "good morning" - above the hip-hop music blaring in the Athletes' Performance weight room. He runs sprints and agility drills on the Arizona State football field and signals touchdowns. He fetches bottles of water for his workout mates, Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis and Minnesota Twins third baseman Nick Punto. He then does a lefty weight resistance exercise and announces he's going to bat lefthanded this year.

and a bit later:

Ramírez's uncle Rico accompanies him to every workout, and serves as an extra assistant. He's the only guy who knows how to stuff Manny's dreads back into his kerchief.

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